Changes: Part Seven
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).
SUMMARY: Before they had a chance to figure out why Logan lied, the Seattle police arrive. Will Max and Alec escape almost certain arrest? M/A
FEEDBACK: Please send feedback of any kind (praise, flaming, constructive criticism, etc.) to
A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed and have patiently waited for me to update.
Alec collapsed in on himself suddenly. He clawed deep furrows in the cement floor tossing his head from side to side. I watched him fight to control his breathing. He methodically drew in a long breath through his nose, held if till I thought he would pass out then blew out through clenched teeth.
His searching eyes phased from red to orange to yellow yet it was clear he wasn't looking at anything specific. Grandall went into combat mode as soon as he recognized what Alec was doing. "He's imaging; seeing vibrations in his mind's eye. Something is coming our way."
"Not something, but a unit of someone(s). We have five minutes tops," Alec said haltingly.
Those someone(s) was getting closer. I could hear their footfalls now. Fear filled my belly like ice water. Grandall could pass for human, but Alec's back was a dead giveaway that he wasn't from Kansas and my injuries would be hard to explain.
In the blink of an eye, I was shoved into a large shipping crate. Alec was crammed in seconds later and the lid nailed shut.
"Jake is tucked safely away in a hidden chamber underneath this warehouse. The disc is with him. Watch over him until you spring me." Grandall's voice faded as if he was walking away.
NO! Tears closed my throat tight. I didn't know him well but I recognized a good soul when I saw one. Holding Alec up with one arm, I pounded against the wall of the crate with my free fist. "Don't do this!"
With a little effort, Alec used the crate for support and laid a hand on my fist to get me to stop. For half a second I fought him but he held fast and pulled me into a one-armed embrace. In desperate need of comfort I cheek rubbed his chest.
"Shh, baby, I know, I know." he whispered into my hair, regret heavy in his voice. "Quiet now!" They were here.
"FREEZE!" rang out and I cried harder. I could hear six sets of booted feet stomping along the catwalk I spotted above us earlier. "Hands were we can see them," that same voice commanded and clicking sounds of rounds being chambered turned my stomach.
"Is there problem officer?" Grandall boomed back. High frequency whining followed his harmless question. Laser sights, shit!
"You are under arrest."
Double shit!
The officer ran down a list of charges that included breaking and entering, willful destruction of government property and disturbing the peace.
More footsteps. Two more men reported in. "Perimeter secure. Sir! There is no sign of the other one."
Another man began to read Grandall his rights grunting in between phrases. In the middle of the right to an attorney he stopped and swore. "Sir we have a problem. The cuffs are too small."
If it wasn't such a bad situation, that would have been funny, but somehow, I knew their next move. The six men were no longer on the catwalk. They stopped a short distance to left where I last tagged Grandall to be. Electrostatic humming filled the silence of the next few moments. Yep. Taser rods.
Time seemed to drag out. Our combined body heat made the air stifling hot. We tried not to move but our wet clothes became more uncomfortable with the climbing temperature. Compounded scents of sweat, blood and saltwater hampered our breathing. If the brought in any land sharks, we were toast.
Just when I thought I couldn't stand it any longer, Grandall was taken away and we were left alone in the warehouse. One punch popped the lid off the crate. Alec took point and led me out into the open after a quick double check of the warehouse. Our eyes had shifted during our stay in the crate.
More and more our newfound abilities were becoming as automatic as breathing. It was a good thing too or else I would have never found the entrance to Jake's hiding place. Grandall's thermal signature lingered on a pile of shipping debris.
I swept the debris away and uncovered a trap door. The padlock looked ordinary but it was too strong to rip off, transgenic strength notwithstanding. I looked to Alec and he shrugged; he didn't have a key either.
Darn I knew I should have lifted that ankle pick set when I saw it at the pawnshop. My bra rubbed painfully again my wounded ribs and I had a sudden burst of inspiration. Two unsuccessful attempts later I had to ask Alec to help me take my bra off. My wrist wounds kept chafing against my shirt.
His face brightened as he reached under my shirt. Mischief swam amongst desire but the gravity of the situation never left his gaze. He didn't bother with the snaps. A single claw sliced through the strap and instantly I felt better. Gently I pushed him away, confident I could do the rest.
Lamenting the death of yet another piece of clothing, I hooked a claw into the seam at the bottom of each cup and ripped the under wire out. The ends were encased in plastic, which made them too thick to use as pick tools; I had to chew them off. Bending the pieces back and forth snapped them in half. Once the length was manageable, I inserted one end into the top of the keyhole and began to work in earnest.
This lock was no ordinary lock. It had a false step. If the tumbler was tripped the wrong way, it forced me to start over. Alec crouched on the other side of the door fingering the hinges. I was about to begin my third attempt at cracking the lock when the hinges screamed and the door was lifted the wrong way. It bent against the padlock and forced me to rock back onto my heels. If I didn't love him, I would have killed him then and there. No really I would have.
"Why the hell didn't you do that in the first place?" I yelled and tossed my dismembered bra at him.
"Because the view is much more interesting now and I needed something to help me focus. The sensory input of my plates was getting a bit much," he fake-pouted.
The mood lightened and I narrowed my eyes at him. Clever sonuvabitch. An errant smile broke through and ruined the chance of me scolding him further. He couldn't keep his eyes from lingering on my breasts. In a cold, wet white tank top, it looked like I was smuggling tic-tacs – poorly.
Stairs led down into a small room barely ten feet cubed. Jake slept soundly on a nest of blankets despite all the noise made by his guardian's arrest. His head was pillowed by an overstuffed backpack, probably his clothes.
Dark spots appeared before my eyes as if I had stared at the sun too long. Uh-oh, I must have lost more blood than I thought. Knots twisted in my stomach and bile crept up my throat. Alec didn't look any better. His tanned skin turned an odd shade of pale green and he slowly sunk to the ground at the bottom of the stairs. I joined him shortly, leaning slightly against his shoulder.
"Hold on a little longer, Max. Help me close the trap door first," he urged and grabbed the handle fastened to the underside of the door. Still feeling nauseous, I uncurled from my spot on the floor and added my weight to the door. Our combined deadweight bent the stubborn metal back into place.
We both needed a safe place to recuperate from our injuries and Jake's hidey-hole was just as good, if not better, that any. A broomstick bolted the door shut and we crawled over to the sleeping boy. I settled in the corner against the wall and peeled out of my clothes. Alec resealed my wounds and shed his wet jeans without so much as a lewd comment. It worried me at bit but if he felt has as bad as he looked, I couldn't blame him. I arranged his body so that he lay comfortably in my lap and sealed the edges of his plates.
"That has possibilities," he smiled into my belly already half asleep. Tell me about it, I thought remembering his breath on the edges of my gill flaps. He covered us with a blanket and snuggled in.
Jake stirred, his nose wrinkled in a classic scenting expression. He opened his ocean blue eyes cautiously and immediately turned his head towards us. "Granpa?" he asked sadly. Even though he had been asleep, Jake had known something was wrong. Huge tears fell silently down his cheeks.
Poor kid. First his mom goes missing. Then he loses the one person he thought he could trust. Now he was stuck with two nearly complete strangers; I would cry too. "It's aiight, Squirt. C'mere."
Blankets in tow, Jake crawled over to us. I nudged Alec over and rearranged our positions. The backpack was just within reach and I shoved it under Alec's head. I spooned up against him and rested my head in the hollow of his shoulder. Jake wrapped a blanket around his small frame and climbed in. His face pressed into my solar plexus and I held him while he cried.
My body grew heavy as it shut down to repair the damage done. Alec and Jake were sound asleep and I cursed my brain for keeping me awake. I felt like I was swimming in a stormy sea. Nothing made sense: Logan lying but to what end did he hope to accomplish by doing that? When would our mutating stop? What information did that disc hold and how could it help our situation? How were we going to spring Grandall?
Too many questions had me thinking in circles and every time I kept coming back to the same conclusion. We needed to pay Logan a visit and I cringed inwardly at that admission. Somehow I had to get him to help while preventing Alec from killing him.
Speaking of killing, that is exactly what OC is going to do to me. Not returning her pages was one thing. Showing up what will probably be days later is entirely something else. And Normal? I might as well just kiss my job goodbye. Besides, I had a new job description right now; Max, the transgenic teddy bear, I mused as Alec's arm wrapped tighter around my waist. Jake cuddled closer as well and the sweet oblivion of sleep finally fell upon me.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).
SUMMARY: Before they had a chance to figure out why Logan lied, the Seattle police arrive. Will Max and Alec escape almost certain arrest? M/A
FEEDBACK: Please send feedback of any kind (praise, flaming, constructive criticism, etc.) to
A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed and have patiently waited for me to update.
Alec collapsed in on himself suddenly. He clawed deep furrows in the cement floor tossing his head from side to side. I watched him fight to control his breathing. He methodically drew in a long breath through his nose, held if till I thought he would pass out then blew out through clenched teeth.
His searching eyes phased from red to orange to yellow yet it was clear he wasn't looking at anything specific. Grandall went into combat mode as soon as he recognized what Alec was doing. "He's imaging; seeing vibrations in his mind's eye. Something is coming our way."
"Not something, but a unit of someone(s). We have five minutes tops," Alec said haltingly.
Those someone(s) was getting closer. I could hear their footfalls now. Fear filled my belly like ice water. Grandall could pass for human, but Alec's back was a dead giveaway that he wasn't from Kansas and my injuries would be hard to explain.
In the blink of an eye, I was shoved into a large shipping crate. Alec was crammed in seconds later and the lid nailed shut.
"Jake is tucked safely away in a hidden chamber underneath this warehouse. The disc is with him. Watch over him until you spring me." Grandall's voice faded as if he was walking away.
NO! Tears closed my throat tight. I didn't know him well but I recognized a good soul when I saw one. Holding Alec up with one arm, I pounded against the wall of the crate with my free fist. "Don't do this!"
With a little effort, Alec used the crate for support and laid a hand on my fist to get me to stop. For half a second I fought him but he held fast and pulled me into a one-armed embrace. In desperate need of comfort I cheek rubbed his chest.
"Shh, baby, I know, I know." he whispered into my hair, regret heavy in his voice. "Quiet now!" They were here.
"FREEZE!" rang out and I cried harder. I could hear six sets of booted feet stomping along the catwalk I spotted above us earlier. "Hands were we can see them," that same voice commanded and clicking sounds of rounds being chambered turned my stomach.
"Is there problem officer?" Grandall boomed back. High frequency whining followed his harmless question. Laser sights, shit!
"You are under arrest."
Double shit!
The officer ran down a list of charges that included breaking and entering, willful destruction of government property and disturbing the peace.
More footsteps. Two more men reported in. "Perimeter secure. Sir! There is no sign of the other one."
Another man began to read Grandall his rights grunting in between phrases. In the middle of the right to an attorney he stopped and swore. "Sir we have a problem. The cuffs are too small."
If it wasn't such a bad situation, that would have been funny, but somehow, I knew their next move. The six men were no longer on the catwalk. They stopped a short distance to left where I last tagged Grandall to be. Electrostatic humming filled the silence of the next few moments. Yep. Taser rods.
Time seemed to drag out. Our combined body heat made the air stifling hot. We tried not to move but our wet clothes became more uncomfortable with the climbing temperature. Compounded scents of sweat, blood and saltwater hampered our breathing. If the brought in any land sharks, we were toast.
Just when I thought I couldn't stand it any longer, Grandall was taken away and we were left alone in the warehouse. One punch popped the lid off the crate. Alec took point and led me out into the open after a quick double check of the warehouse. Our eyes had shifted during our stay in the crate.
More and more our newfound abilities were becoming as automatic as breathing. It was a good thing too or else I would have never found the entrance to Jake's hiding place. Grandall's thermal signature lingered on a pile of shipping debris.
I swept the debris away and uncovered a trap door. The padlock looked ordinary but it was too strong to rip off, transgenic strength notwithstanding. I looked to Alec and he shrugged; he didn't have a key either.
Darn I knew I should have lifted that ankle pick set when I saw it at the pawnshop. My bra rubbed painfully again my wounded ribs and I had a sudden burst of inspiration. Two unsuccessful attempts later I had to ask Alec to help me take my bra off. My wrist wounds kept chafing against my shirt.
His face brightened as he reached under my shirt. Mischief swam amongst desire but the gravity of the situation never left his gaze. He didn't bother with the snaps. A single claw sliced through the strap and instantly I felt better. Gently I pushed him away, confident I could do the rest.
Lamenting the death of yet another piece of clothing, I hooked a claw into the seam at the bottom of each cup and ripped the under wire out. The ends were encased in plastic, which made them too thick to use as pick tools; I had to chew them off. Bending the pieces back and forth snapped them in half. Once the length was manageable, I inserted one end into the top of the keyhole and began to work in earnest.
This lock was no ordinary lock. It had a false step. If the tumbler was tripped the wrong way, it forced me to start over. Alec crouched on the other side of the door fingering the hinges. I was about to begin my third attempt at cracking the lock when the hinges screamed and the door was lifted the wrong way. It bent against the padlock and forced me to rock back onto my heels. If I didn't love him, I would have killed him then and there. No really I would have.
"Why the hell didn't you do that in the first place?" I yelled and tossed my dismembered bra at him.
"Because the view is much more interesting now and I needed something to help me focus. The sensory input of my plates was getting a bit much," he fake-pouted.
The mood lightened and I narrowed my eyes at him. Clever sonuvabitch. An errant smile broke through and ruined the chance of me scolding him further. He couldn't keep his eyes from lingering on my breasts. In a cold, wet white tank top, it looked like I was smuggling tic-tacs – poorly.
Stairs led down into a small room barely ten feet cubed. Jake slept soundly on a nest of blankets despite all the noise made by his guardian's arrest. His head was pillowed by an overstuffed backpack, probably his clothes.
Dark spots appeared before my eyes as if I had stared at the sun too long. Uh-oh, I must have lost more blood than I thought. Knots twisted in my stomach and bile crept up my throat. Alec didn't look any better. His tanned skin turned an odd shade of pale green and he slowly sunk to the ground at the bottom of the stairs. I joined him shortly, leaning slightly against his shoulder.
"Hold on a little longer, Max. Help me close the trap door first," he urged and grabbed the handle fastened to the underside of the door. Still feeling nauseous, I uncurled from my spot on the floor and added my weight to the door. Our combined deadweight bent the stubborn metal back into place.
We both needed a safe place to recuperate from our injuries and Jake's hidey-hole was just as good, if not better, that any. A broomstick bolted the door shut and we crawled over to the sleeping boy. I settled in the corner against the wall and peeled out of my clothes. Alec resealed my wounds and shed his wet jeans without so much as a lewd comment. It worried me at bit but if he felt has as bad as he looked, I couldn't blame him. I arranged his body so that he lay comfortably in my lap and sealed the edges of his plates.
"That has possibilities," he smiled into my belly already half asleep. Tell me about it, I thought remembering his breath on the edges of my gill flaps. He covered us with a blanket and snuggled in.
Jake stirred, his nose wrinkled in a classic scenting expression. He opened his ocean blue eyes cautiously and immediately turned his head towards us. "Granpa?" he asked sadly. Even though he had been asleep, Jake had known something was wrong. Huge tears fell silently down his cheeks.
Poor kid. First his mom goes missing. Then he loses the one person he thought he could trust. Now he was stuck with two nearly complete strangers; I would cry too. "It's aiight, Squirt. C'mere."
Blankets in tow, Jake crawled over to us. I nudged Alec over and rearranged our positions. The backpack was just within reach and I shoved it under Alec's head. I spooned up against him and rested my head in the hollow of his shoulder. Jake wrapped a blanket around his small frame and climbed in. His face pressed into my solar plexus and I held him while he cried.
My body grew heavy as it shut down to repair the damage done. Alec and Jake were sound asleep and I cursed my brain for keeping me awake. I felt like I was swimming in a stormy sea. Nothing made sense: Logan lying but to what end did he hope to accomplish by doing that? When would our mutating stop? What information did that disc hold and how could it help our situation? How were we going to spring Grandall?
Too many questions had me thinking in circles and every time I kept coming back to the same conclusion. We needed to pay Logan a visit and I cringed inwardly at that admission. Somehow I had to get him to help while preventing Alec from killing him.
Speaking of killing, that is exactly what OC is going to do to me. Not returning her pages was one thing. Showing up what will probably be days later is entirely something else. And Normal? I might as well just kiss my job goodbye. Besides, I had a new job description right now; Max, the transgenic teddy bear, I mused as Alec's arm wrapped tighter around my waist. Jake cuddled closer as well and the sweet oblivion of sleep finally fell upon me.