Chapter Three

Numbers, numbers were all that were going through her head.

6 days since she'd last heard anything about Logan.

10 days since her twin stopped checking in.

20 days since her twin had arrived in Seattle.

56 days since Zack had died, since the last time she saw Logan.

57 days since Tinga died.

58 days since the day she fucked the stupid pizza delivery boy.

She kept counting, trying to piece together her life. The last time she heard one of Sketch's bad jokes, the last time Herbal preached to her. Forcing her mind to construct a timeframe to focus on instead of what was going on around her. She got up to 423 days since she dropped into Logan's life…

She didn't allow her mind to dwell, only briefly remember that gray shirt, those eyes looking down on her.

8 days before Logan, 431 days ago was the last time Theo had been up and ready to go for work, healthy as can be, each day that followed he'd gotten a little slower.

438 days she took Lil' Bit out for ice cream. Jacinda had told her it was only the third time he'd ever had ice cream. Her mind stopped and dwelled on the little boy, she couldn't force it past. The dark eyes that would brighten, as he'd call out her name when he'd see her. The way he used to hug her. They'd moved after Theo, in with her sister on the opposite side of town, she rode over with Herbal once to see them and only once. She couldn't look at them in the eye. Sure, she'd killed Sonrisa, but not in time to save Theo. She hadn't even tried even though Logan told her…

"Well that's it we're done."

Max forced her eyes downward to the middle-aged doctor. He was almost kind. He saw that she wasn't one of them, but she knew from her early attempts at begging, pleading, and bribing that he wouldn't help her in any real way.

He stood and walked away from her, "We got a nice number."

She was still lying there; she knew they'd wait for the local anesthesia to wear off before they escorted her back to her room, she let her eyes go back up to the lights. 439 or was it 40? Days since she slept with Darren in one last moment of insanity caused by heat. She remembered it had been 9 days before that she'd told him to 'fuckin hell.' That had been fun, especially compared to this.

The door opened and she knew who it was without looking and she stopped counting.

"How did our prize girl do?" Max could hear the smirk on Renfro's face.

"14 eggs" was the doctor's reply.

"Only 14?"

"14 is above average."

"By 2" Renfro shook her head, "We got 21 out of 568."

"3 of her eggs weren't viable at all and only 11 have fertilized, who knows how many will implant."

"Well I have a good feeling about 452. Your children will be the future of Manticore." She walked over and smiled coldly to Max.

-o-o-o-o-o-

She lay back on her cot, not feeling at all peachy. She was sore from the procedure the afternoon before and just weak in general from almost two months of this. All those times she'd told Logan she didn't need to be saved, those stupid she wasn't a damsel in distress statements, telling him she didn't need anyone that she was fine on her own? Yea, she realized she was wrong now.

He could come charging on a white horse and she wouldn't make one single joke, no attempts at proving herself stronger, hell she wouldn't even yell at him for risking his life to save hers.

What was going through his mind now?

Did he figure it was just some last ditch attempt by Manticore to figure out who he was? Did he still think she was dead?

She'd died in his arms, so she was guessing that was a yes. The memory wasn't very clear, he was blurry. Through her tears she had seen his.

She had just wanted to tell him she loved him.

He loved her. She remembered thinking that as he held her. He loved her...She had been so blind.

"10 eggs" Max shot up as the voice invaded her thoughts, her private memories that she would never allow to be touched.

"Not bad, 3 in 2 surrogates and 4 in another." The director informed Max, more than willing to share this information with her, after all anything to help crush the young girl. "This is actually much more cost effective, I've got to thank you for that. Each embryo was so expensive to create before that we would only implant one at time, the last thing we could risk were multiple births and destroying an embryo that cost so much was painful to authorize." Renfro's face disappeared from the small opening as she started to walk, "Just think about it in nine months Manticore could have 6 little."

"What do you want?" Max asked coldly cutting her off.

"Nothing you'll give." She started to walk away again, but then returned. "Oh I think I should mention there hasn't been an Eyes Only broadcast in 10 days now." A small chuckle emerged from her throat before she turned and walked away for real.

Max just continued sitting up, blankly staring at the door. That didn't mean anything…Please don't let it mean anything.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Apparently you're not as good as we thought." Renfro said walking into the small cell flanked by two guards.

Max simply continued about her crunches.

"Only one of our surrogates is pregnant."

"And what are the normal rates of success?" Max asked mid-crunch.

"35 percent." Renfro supplied the number. "Hopefully two implanted so it won't be such a waste. Who knows if all three implanted, maybe I'll just risk it. No matter though, next week you're starting back on the progesterone. You will help build me a new army 452. Your brother left enough swimmers for quite a few attempts."

Max continued about her crunches, still acting as if Renfro's words didn't effect her, she knew Renfro just wanted to get a rise out of her. "21 days Max." Renfro shared before she left the room.

Max knew what that meant, but kept moving. 21 days since an Eyes Only report. It had happened before, he didn't have a legman anymore, it was bound to be difficult to get enough to make a move on anyone.

"Oh and Max" Renfro's face appeared at her door again, "The surrogate was only implanted with XY embryos. Just think a little Zack." She used their names for reason, she used their names to remind her of the outside world, "Don't worry when we bring him here, I'll make sure you get to see him first. Maybe I'll get you a room overlooking the training grounds, you can watch as he goes through his morning routine."

It finally worked, Max froze mid crunch.

Thanks for reading! No one add up the numbers...I probably messed up, they got annoying.