Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Alec, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Becky/X6-405, etc.).

Max blinked and yawned and smiled. My head's clear, so I guess my heat's over. She shifted a little and stifled a groan. What a heat it must have been! I'm hurting all over. I wish I could really remember it.

"Hey, there," Zack said sleepily.

"Good…morning," Max said as she noticed the sunlight coming in through the bedroom window. "What time is it?"

Zack lifted his head up from his pillow and looked at the alarm clock. "It's six-twenty-three in the morning. I'm really wondering what day is it."

"I don't know and I'm too lazy right now to find my cell phone and take a look," Max said. She looked at Zack's neck and lightly touched the mark that she had left there sometime during her heat. "I guess it's official now."

"Yeah," Zack said. He gently touched the mark that he had left on Max. "You and me, together forever."

"Isn't this the part where I'm supposed to wear a white gown and a veil?" Max said, smirking. They both laughed.

"I wish that I could remember exactly what happened over the last however many-odd hours," Zack said.

"Me too," Max said. "Everything kind of faded after I kissed you when you got back to the apartment and the others left. I sort of remember bits and pieces, but it's all blurry." She blushed. "I guess it doesn't matter." She sighed contentedly. "This is what really matters to me."

"I could just stay here with you forever," Zack said, kissing Max on her forehead and pulling her even closer to him.

"Me too," Max said. "The Familiars, the prophecy, and saving the world can go to hell right now. The only thing I want right now is to stay here with you and enjoy being together. That's it." She closed her eyes and rested her head on Zack's chest, but the quiet was interrupted by her cell phone ringing. Max groaned and disentangled herself from Zack's arms and reached over and picked up her cell phone from the nightstand. "I don't care who this is, I was enjoying the peace and quiet and just being with Zack and I will cause grievous bodily harm to whoever the fuck is calling."

"I guess your heat's over," Krit remarked.

"Yeah, it's over," Max said. "How long were Zack and I locked away from the rest of the world?"

"It's been almost thirty-seven hours since Alec said that Zack kicked him and Biggs and Brin and Sasha out of your apartment," Krit said.

"Wow, that's half the time my heat usually lasts," Max said.

"Listen, I called to let you know that we've rescheduled that meeting about Rob," Krit said. "It's going to be at ten this morning in the control room."

"Why is it going to be in the control room?" Max asked. "Who's going to be there?"

"You, me, Zack, the rest of our family, Alec, Biggs, Sasha, Jeff, his family that's here, Becky and her family, Dix, Luke, Mole, Mia, the members of Rob's unit that are here, every other commanding officer that's here, plus a few other random transgenics," Krit informed her. "It's going to be a lot of people and the conference room can't hold all of them."

"True," Max said. "Has Rob been behaving himself?"

"Yeah, Mia's suggestion that he play nice is still working," Krit said. "He's still generally an asshole to whoever's guarding him in his temporary cell, but he hasn't made any moves to try to get loose or anything like that."

"Good," Max said. "We'll get dressed and then we're going to head to the cafeteria to get some breakfast and then we'll find out what else is on our agenda for today. I'll see you at the meeting later."

"I'll see you then," Krit said.

Max disconnected and turned to Zack. "Are you hungry?"

"Yeah," Zack said. He sat up and got out of bed and started to get ready for the day while Max did the same. When they were done, they left the apartment and started to walk to the cafeteria.

"I guess you really did go into heat," Jondy's voice said from behind them while they were in the stairwell. "You are definitely not walking right, Maxie."

"Very funny," Max said, rolling her eyes. "How I'm walking is none of your business."

"Yeah, how she's walking could be the result of something else, though I don't believe that," Rena said as she walked up to the three of them. "There's also the fact that she's got her 'I-Just-Had-Mind-Blowing-Sex' grin on her face again, except that's even bigger. There's also the fact that Zack actually looks like he's in a good mood for once in his life."

"Which is either a sign of the apocalypse or he's gotten majorly laid," Jondy agreed.

"You two are going to drive me crazy one of these days," Zack muttered.

"You mean that we haven't driven you crazy already?" Rena said, pretending to be shocked.

"Play nice," Max said.

"If you insist," Jondy said.

"It won't last," Zack pointed out.

"Damn right it won't," Rena said proudly.

Zack thought for a moment. "Five seconds. You almost beat your personal best of seven seconds."

"Darn," Rena said sarcastically.

"Come on," Max said. "Let's just go down to the cafeteria and get something that's hopefully good to eat. We're probably going to have a long day ahead of us." She took Zack's hand and gave him a big kiss.

Zack returned the kiss and grinned down at Max. "Let's go."

TBC

Notes: Thank you so much again to angelofdarkness78, poptart, and hphotshot for their reviews and support! poptart, your question will be answered one way or another in the sequel that I'm planning on writing when this fic is finished. hphotshot, Lydecker is somewhere out there. In chapter 33b after Caroline (who along with Dennis will be reappearing in two or so chapters) confronted Lydecker, Kyle and Jeff took him out of the safehouse and to another location. Lydecker will probably appear in the planned sequel as well. Thank you all so much again!