A/N: Sorry about taking forever to update; I've had to do a lot of back-to-school shopping. I hope you like this chapter!
BTW, there has recently been a new rule that we're not allowed to reply to our reviewers, and if we do we might get punished, so I'm sorry that I won't be able to thank all of you guys for reviewing. But please keep doing so; I enjoy reading all your reviews and they inspire me to write more as well as give me ideas for upcoming chapters. Many of us authors on ffnet don't like this rule so we have made some sort of petition against it and once we get 200 signatures, we'll be able to win the privilege back. So if you want to be a part of this, tell me in your review and I'll e-mail you the e-mail. All you have to do is write down your pen name on ffnet and your e-mail, and then e-mail it to all your friends.
Please give me feedback! I love reading your thoughts. (And baby Jack loves new ideas for making mischief.) LOL
Jack sat on top of 5 fluffy pillows in one of Alec's chairs at a table, refusing to eat any food.
"What do you think's wrong with him?" Max asked from the doorway.
"I dunno. Is there such a thing as babies being self-conscious and going on diets?" Alec answered. Max glared at him and he raised his hands in a defensive gesture.
"What? How am I supposed to know?" he asked.
"Since he's your son I highly doubt he has low self-esteem issues," she said.
Alec cocked his head to the side. "True," he said. Max rolled her eyes.
"Well, he's got to eat something," Max said. "I don't understand why he wouldn't want to. All transgenics have pretty healthy appetites."
Jack stared at the jar of baby food in front of him with an evil glare, as if daring it to come anywhere near his mouth. He would not let something like food mess up his schemes.
His stomach grumbled and his resolve wavered.
"Don't you love to eat?" Max asked. "Why doesn't he?"
"He's a weird kid. Maybe while he was staying with Deck the food there was almost toxic or something and now he doesn't like to eat."
"Alec, you're such an idiot."
Jack's lip quivered. Then finally he gave up and stuck his spoon in the jar, and put it in his mouth. Max and Alec breathed a sigh of relief.
"What are we going to do today?" Alec asked.
"We?" Max said. "Uh uh. No way. I'll spend today with him and you can have tomorrow. There's no way the three of us are going anywhere together. It's bad enough having to stay here with you bugging me every minute."
"Aw, come on Maxie. You don't want Jack growing up having to go between parents, do you?" Alec said. "Besides, I thought you'd like to stay here with me. That way you'd be able to see me in a towel every morning."
"The sight almost makes me puke," she said, but with not much conviction in her voice. He looked really good this morning wrapped up in nothing but a blue towel. A blush crept up the side of her neck and she turned away but not before Alec saw her face redden.
"Penny for your thoughts Maxie?" he said with a grin.
"It's Max, not Maxie," she shot at him, using her embarrassment to fuel her annoyance. "Get used to it. I don't see why it's so hard for you to stop after three letters."
"Because Maxie's such a cuter name," he replied simply. "Don't you agree?"
"That you need to get a life? Yes," she said.
"If I didn't have one, wouldn't I be dead?" he asked, knowing it would annoy her further. He saw her clench her teeth and he grinned inwardly. He didn't know why, but he just loved irritating her.
She's cute when she's angry, he thought. The smile froze on his face at the disturbing thought and he contradicted the flyaway notion with a negative one.
But when she's angry, my body gets bruised, he thought. Somehow though, there wasn't any bitterness. It was so ritualistic that Alec didn't know what he would do if she didn't hit him all the time. It was a habit for him everyday that in some sick way had become endearing.
Alec, buddy, you're losing it.
The phone rang and it jostled him out of all his contemplations. He moved to the side table and pushed the button for speaker.
"Alec," he said.
"Hey Alec, is Max there?"
Alec's lips twitched and he heard Max stop in her tracks in the kitchen.
"Logan. Hey, how're you doing?" he asked.
"I actually had the strangest dream last night. It was so realistic though. I dreamed that you and Max showed up at my penthouse with this baby that was both of yours by mixing your DNA."
Alec was choking on silent laughter and he fought to keep himself under control.
"Uh, Logan, that wasn't a dream."
There was silence and for a moment Alec was afraid that the poor man had passed out again.
"This isn't funny Alec," Logan said finally.
"Tell me about it," he said. "Caring for a baby is no piece of cake. The kid's a pooping maniac and anorexic."
"Alec," Max hissed.
"Okay, just kidding about the anorexic part."
There was silence once more on the other end.
"Right, right," Logan said in a faraway voice. "I'll just – I'm just going to lie down now."
"Okay. You get lots of rest. You need to save the world, remember? Fight the power," Alec said.
He heard the sound of a dial tone and chuckled to himself. "Poor guy."
"Teasing him like that isn't nice Alec," Max said as she appeared beside him with Jack in her arms.
"Come on mommy, I was just having a little bit of fun," he said. He went over to a cupboard and pulled out some ham hocks.
"How about we drop by Joshua's?" he suggested. "I got these for him. You know, as an 'I'm sorry' gift for trying to kill him."
Max pouted playfully. "What about me?"
"Aren't I gift enough?" Alec asked. At the roll of her eyes, he shrugged on his leather jacket and helped her put on her own as she tried to keep a hold of Jack.
"You'll get yours later," he said with a suggestive wink and she shook her head.
"I'm not sure I want it anymore," she said. He took Jack from her and put his jacket on. Max almost laughed at the sight. Yesterday Alec had insisted they get Jack a little leather jacket as well, and to see the both of them looking identical in black leather jackets and khaki green cargo pants was hysterical.
My boys, she thought proudly. Her eyes widened and she turned around and opened the door.
Note to self. See a psychiatrist.
"Joshua?" Max called. "Big fella? Where are you?"
The three of them walked into the living room and Max spotted a map on a table in the middle of the room. She strode forward and studied it. She saw a sloppily drawn route that Joshua had obviously done leading to a big X in the middle of the map, right in the center of Seattle.
"Before you say anything, I didn't tell him about Terminal City," Alec said.
Max looked to the side of the map and saw a name, or at least what she thought was a name.
Kelpy, Joshua had written.
"I guess his friend Kelpy must have told him," Max said.
"Kelpy?" Alec repeated with both of his eyebrows raised. "I thought those names you gave to those poor X6s were bad, but this comes close."
"He can't go to Terminal City," Max said. "It's not safe there."
"Maybe it's better for him to be there with his own kind, Max," Alec said, trying to reason with her. "I mean, he's cooped up inside this place day and night. It might be better for him if he could walk around a little, you know?"
"No. He has to stay here. He's safer here, where I can keep track of him."
"Max, you've got to stop treating Joshua like a baby, or a pet. He needs interaction with more than just one or two people," Alec said.
"We've got to go see him. We've got to get him to come back," Max said.
Seeing that there was no way he could convince her that maybe Joshua going to Terminal City was a good thing, he sighed and followed her out the door.
The trio stepped through a tear in the fence surrounding Terminal City and walked only a few paces when they heard guns cocking and saw anomalies encircling them.
"This ain't exactly a family picnic spot," one of them said.
"Don't get too excited with those," Max said, eyeing the guns nervously. "We're X5s."
"X5s are two blocks down," he said.
"Yeah, but we're looking for a friend who's one of you," Alec said.
"You found him," Joshua said, coming out from behind them with another strange looking anomaly.
"Hey Big Fella," Max said. "Hi," she said to the other transgenic. She gasped when the shy-looking hybrid became almost invisible by blending into the fence.
"Kelpy," Joshua said, nodding to his friend. "He has chameleon in his cocktail."
"So we see," Alec said.
"You're not welcome here," a lizard-man said gruffly.
"Come on man," Alec said. "We're all transgenics here. So stop being so hostile."
"Aye – whatever," the lizard-man said.
"Come," Joshua said enthusiastically. Max and Alec followed him and Kelpy – whose body was constantly changing to fit in with the background – inside one of the buildings and Alec put Jack down on the floor.
"Pretty nice operation you got going here," he commented as both he and Max checked out the numerous TVs and screens. Neither of them noticed Jack crawling away.
"Joshua, you've got to come back," Max said. "It's not safe here."
"Joshua – Joshua with downstairs people," he said. "That's the plan."
"No. Joshua at Father's house. That's the plan," Max contradicted.
"Joshua stay here, Max. Joshua like being with downstairs people. Mole's teaching me how to use weapons."
"Joshua – " Max started but Joshua held up a hand to cut her off.
"No, Little Fella," he said. "Joshua stay here."
Max's shoulders slumped, defeated, and she muttered, "Fine."
"Where did you score all these nice TVs?" Alec asked, his eyes shining.
"Some were lying around this dump and some are from people who don't need 'em," a spud head-looking anomaly said. "Name's Dix by the way."
"Jesus, Mary and Joseph!"
Their heads turned to locate the source of the sound and they entered another room close by where they saw Jack crawling as fast as he could into another room with a cigar in his mouth.
"That evil thing stole my baby!" Mole yelled, chasing Jack. Max let out an exasperated moan and blurred after them, Alec hot on her heels. They reached a hallway but there was no Jack in sight.
"Where is that demon? He's going to regret he ever stole my precious cigar," Mole said.
"Calm down," Alec said, not wanting him to become too imaginative about what he would do to Jack once they found them.
"Jack!" Max called. "Jack, where are you?"
They heard a loud giggle and followed the sound, but Jack was nowhere in sight.
"This kid's better at escape and evade than you are," Alec remarked. "Jack? Come on kiddo, where are you? Why don't you give the man back his cigar? That stuff isn't healthy for you anyway. Ja-ack?"
They heard a shriek and someone scream, "I think I just had a baby!" They raced to another room and saw a transgenic with too much cat DNA staring under her chair.
"Do you know where he went?" Max asked.
"Into the hall," she said, looking shell-shocked.
They stumbled out of the room when they heard another screech.
"Give me back my bra!"
They saw Jack scurry out of a room with a red, lacy bra on top of his head and Max groaned.
"Figures he'd steal that. Like father like son," she said. "This is all your fault you know."
"Mine?" he said incredulously as they ran to catch him. "Why is it my fault?"
"Because he gets all the bad behaviour from you," she said.
"This coming from the woman who abuses me everyday," he retorted.
"I don't run around stealing women's bras," she shot back at him.
"Well Maxie, you never know," he said smirking.
"You two lovebirds should try marriage counseling after you get back my tobacco," Mole said as they continued running.
They skid around a corner as they saw Jack disappearing up ahead.
"This kid crawls fast," Mole said.
Jack ducked into a room without anyone seeing him and hid inside a cabinet until he heard his parents and the weird lizard guy pass. He had already chucked the cigar long ago; it had a foul taste. When he heard silence he opened the cabinet and spied some junk food on a counter. He crawled over quietly and reached up to steal a lollipop. His small fingers fumbled with the wrapper but he couldn't get it off.
"Hey kid, give me back my candy," an anomaly ordered. He reached for the lollipop but Jack bit his hand and he pulled it back with a howl.
"Did you hear that?" Max asked. Alec nodded and they doubled back until they stopped outside a room where they heard an interesting conversation.
"Give. Me back. My candy. Now," they heard. They stepped inside to see an anomaly cradling an arm and Jack trying to get the wrapper off of a lollipop.
"Jack, give the man back his candy please," Max said.
Jack shook his head and continued trying to rip off the wrapper.
"This scary thing bit me," the anomaly said.
"Where's my cigar?" Mole asked. Jack ignored him and continued his task.
"It's not here," Alec said. "Sorry."
Mole grunted and left, muttering curses under his breath.
The anomaly reached for his treat once again and Jack made a biting motion.
"Whoever said taking candy from a baby was easy is the stupidest person in the universe," Alec murmured.
The anomaly waved his uninjured hand.
"Forget it. I'm not risking another hand to get it back," he said. Shaking his head, he left as well.
Jack finally ripped off the wrapper and shoved the lolly in his mouth.
Jack saw his parents' disbelieving gazes and put on a grin that was so like his father's.
His grin was triumphant.
A/N: So, did you guys like this? Long chapter this time because I had lots of ideas. LOL Please review and give me feedback! Thank you to everyone who reviewed and I'm sorry once again that I won't be able to reply because of that stupid rule. (See A/N above.)
Thanks to everyone and please give me feedback!
BTW, anyone who loves MA, please check out "Love Can Be Found Anywhere, Even In Hell." I'm sure you'll enjoy it. :) Kisses, aod78