Braden/Bling sat unmoving on the couch, his head in his hands, his breath coming in raged gasps. Zack came out o his ravine of thought and put a hand on his shoulder. Bling jumped.
"Braden." Zack shook his head, "Uh, Bling, are you okay?"
Bling shook his head. "You guys amaze me. To have to grow up like that." He shook his head again, "It's awful and you were only kids."
"We didn't know any better." Zack shrugged.
"Christ." Bling hung his head.
"By the grace of the Blue Lady." Zack corrected Bling with a smirk. "I know."
Logan's phone rang and all eyes turned to the answering machine. "You've reached the number you dialed leave a message." *beep*
"Hannah it's Lucas pick up if you're there."
Hannah dove for the phone after Logan nodded his consent to her. "Lucas what's wrong?" Hannah sounded panicked.
"Nothing and everything." Lucas sighed.
"What's wrong with Jace?"
"Nothing."
"Then why are you worrying me?"
"You knew didn't you?" Lucas pushed.
"Knew what?"
"About Tinga ."
"Tinga ? No what are you talking about Lucas?"
Zack's head snapped up at the mention of his sisters name.
"She's an X5 who had a child already, almost five years ago now."
"There's data on this?" Hannah asked and turned to Zack. "You knew about this?"
"Yes." Zack sighed motioning for Hannah to give him the phone. "Let me talk to the kid." Hannah gave the phone to Zack. "Lucas?"
"Zack?" Lucas laughed. "I remember you."
Zack nodded and then realized that the boy couldn't see him. "Yeah. You were the only civilian that we ever had contact with."
"I know but I was a reserved military child. Any talk of life outside the fence was allowed not that I knew much about it then." He paused. "So what do you know about Tinga ?"
Zack sighed. "I guess the easiest thing to do would be to give you her number and let you and Jace talk to her Zack gave the boy Tinga 's number and then went to get off the phone. In the background he heard Jace .
"That's got to be some sort of breach of protocol to withhold information from the person who used to be your information officer." Zack and Lucas both laughed.
"Tell Jace I heard her and she's a brat." Zack laughed.
"I heard you Zack, don't be a jerk." Jace answered.
Hannah got back on the phone then to have Lucas update her on Jace 's condition which really hadn't changed since she had left. Zack listened in half heartedly. He cared about Jace's condition a great deal but he was too self-absorbed. He would have been depressed and confused if he had admitted to feeling anything about the situation at all. He could hardly believe that only three days earlier he had broken down and told Max that he was consumed by sentimentality. He had told her he loved her and then she'd fallen apart. He sure seemed to have a great effect on woman. It gave a whole new meaning to the term lady killer. Guilt. It was something new to Zack and he wasn't enjoying it at all. Zack sat and wallowed in guilt and self pity. Once the flood gates had been broken down that held back the feelings he had for Max everything else was allowed to flow as well. He had run the scenario over hundreds of times in his head and he had never seen it go this way, he never could have predicted Max's reaction. It was always the perfect fantasy in his mind. 'I love you Max.' Her eyes welled up with tears . 'I love you too Zack.' Then they left for Canada, left behind Manticore and Logan and everything else that stood in their way. He didn't expect her to be offended or hurt or frightened or ---. Zack's head snapped up and he looked around the room. Hannah was still on the phone, Logan was working on his computer doing god only knew what and Bling was looking out the window. None of them had moved or made the sound Zack had heard. That could only mean one thing. . .
Zack bolted off of the couch and sprinted down the hallway only to be met at the guestroom door by a confused looking Max. "Zack where am I?"
"In the officers quarters complex Maxie ." He lied.
"It's so different from the barracks the door isn't even locked." Max marveled.
"Officers and doctors get treated differently then we do because they're so weak. Where were you going?"
"I was looking for you Zack it's 1700 hours and it's an even numbered day so we're supposed to try and copulate again. Plus I needed to use the bathroom."
Zack missed a beat frozen by fear and confusion. "The bathroom is right over here Max." His voice rose as he said this. "I'll be waiting right outside."
The moment the bathroom door shut someone tapped Zack on the shoulder and he jumped, his nerves were shot. He turned and signaled a greeting to Hannah and for her to remain silent. A strange sound coming from behind the bathroom door distracted him for a moment, a sound no one else could hear, and a sound that he couldn't identify. He then explained that Max was awake and that they needed some time alone. Hannah nodded and signaled she was glad Max was okay and then she turned and returned to the main room. Max came out of the bathroom then the sound of the flushing toilet announcing her arrival before the door opened. There stood Max and Zack simply gapped at her. "Max what did you do?"
"Met with regulations. These doctors were letting my hair grow too long so I fixed it." Max tugged at Zack's spiky hair.
"No more then two to three inches."
Zack scoffed. Max had cut her own hair, this was going way too far. Her hair. Max's dark sea of ringlets. On the roof just days before he saw the wind whip Max's hair and she hugged herself close, then moved to his side for protection. Now all he could see was a young Max shorter then him with a freshly shaved head, deep drown eyes gazed up at him and a brief smile crossed her face as she reached up to stroke his head. He had swatted her away then but not before he returned the gesture of affection. Now this was a grown woman. A beautiful full figured woman who was no longer a little girl, stuck in her past. It was almost enough to make Zack want to cry. He covered up the emotion by reaching out to run his hand affectionately over her head.
Max smiled and playfully ducked out of the way returning the gesture. Max then stepped forward and took Zack's hand in her own. "We don't want to breach protocol soldier," she said with a coy smile. "We're already late." She led him by the hand back into the guestroom shutting and locking the door behind her from the inside.
Zack stood frozen by the door. He couldn't move. He didn't want it to be like this.
"Don't just stand there soldier, strip!" Max winked at him. "You know the routine."
Zack wanted more than anything to make love to Max but not like this. It further unnerved him when he looked up and saw that Max had taken those few seconds to strip down to her own undergarments. Zack's body responded to Max the way it should have but he couldn't bring himself to move or speak. Max took his hesitation as an open invitation. She stepped up to Zack and with little care and an X-5's speed she stripped him down to his black boxer briefs. He stood frozen like a rock with his body moving her warm, soft, slim yet strong and demanding hands. All he could think about was Max's hands running over his now bare skin.
Her breath was warm and moist her lips soft and subtle as they grazed his ear. "Even without protocol I still need you Zack."
Zack was flat on his back with Max on top of him before he realized what was happening. On top of all of Max's pressing problems she was now in heat! Or maybe she only thought she was...
"Max!" Zack's exclamation was one of surprise rather than anything else.
"Zack." She purred.
"No, Max we can't." Zack tried to push her away.
Max looked hurt. "Why not? This is perfect!"
Zack sighed. "That's the problem."
A look of fury in her eyes Max struck Zack full in the face and then kissed him passionately. Zack's eyes bulged and his lips burned and for a moment he couldn't have been happier no matter what the circumstances were. Above him Max suddenly stiffened and then her body went slack and she stiffened up just as quickly. Whit he bucking she screamed clutching the back of her head. She fled to the corner of the room and was sick.
Hannah, Logan, Bling; one of them or all of them rushed the locked door. Their screams of concern mixed with Max's ones of pain. Their banging on the door mixed with the writhing of Max's body against the floor. For a moment Zack was at a loss of what to do. Max clawed at the spike at the back of her neck. Zack grabbed her holding her hands down at her sides so that she could do no more damage to herself.
This was the scene Logan, Bling and Hannah burst in on. Logan of course had a set of keys to his own guestroom. The two soldiers and siblings were intertwined wearing only their undergarments. And Max had a look of severe pain on her face.
"Zack what are you doing?" Hannah asked.
"How dare you attack her at all, let alone in this state!" Logan raged. "Step away from her."
Zack stammered trying to explain himself yet he stepped away from Max. He moved almost halfway across the room. Max let another harsh scream slip past her tightly clenched teeth as she racked her nails around the site she couldn't get a handle on. Her eyes pleaded and she turned to Zack oblivious to anyone else in the room. "Zack, help me." She tripped and fell trying to get to Zack.
Zack caught Max in his arms and turned the same pleading gaze on Hannah.
"Be careful and go slowly." Hannah answered his unspoken plea and handed him a pair of tweezers.
Zack spun Max away from him and held her in one arm while using his free hand to grasp the spike with the tweezers. Slowly yet strongly as Max gazed with a daydreamers glare on the group in front of them, Zack gave a steady pull. Max's agonizing groan froze his hand and her labored breathing told Zack how much pain she really was in. Zack stopped and held his swooning sister up on her feet and thought about the probe. It was structured like a screw. He grasped the spike again and gave it a slight twist to the left. Max's body tensed and twitched but she showed him no signs of pain so Zack continued.
A few turns later Max squealed and pulled away from Zack's hands. She turned and stumbled and almost fell. "Logan." She managed to croak the word out. She deposited her falling body on to the floor her head resting in his lap. "I remember you." She mumbled.
Logan looked surprised. "You remember me, Max?"
"You are my prince. You take me away from the pain here. You helped me escape from my nurse and my brothers and sisters. You're always there on the bad nights."
Logan sighed. He had hoped that Max really had remembered him. "Yes my dear princess." He softly stroked her head.
With her head resting on Logan's knee Max began to sob and retch, but she was not sick, and she did cough up a little blood. "I don't want to die here."
Zack snuck up behind Max abandoning the clumsy tweezers. With his right hand her began to twist the probe to the left again. Logan kept on rubbing the peach-fuzz on Max's head and between the two hands Max couldn't tell the difference. She sighed content in her daydream saviors lap.
Zack got to a spot where the probe was almost half way out of Max's head where the probe would not move anymore. Max called out in pain again so Zack stopped and took a step back.
Max shot up dizzy with terror in her eyes she looked from Zack to Logan. "My only salvation is in a childhood daydream." She spat the words out bitterly and curled herself around Zack. "You're all ruining it. Get out, get out, GET OUT!
Bling Logan and Hannah scattered and Max turned to Zack pushing herself up against him. No sooner had she done so then she started to convulse violently. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. "Zack I want this all to end. Make them stop." Max sat down on the floor and curled up in a ball, hugging her knees.
"Max you need-"
Zack didn't get to finish his thought because Max slumped backwards letting her head fall and smacking it hard against the ground. Zack hadn't been able to stop her. He felt weak and slow. He scooped her up anyway and put her back into the bed. He righted the overturned chair and sat down with his head in his hands. He couldn't take much more of it but now even he couldn't bear to see Max turn into a nomalie or a head case like Locke or Ben. He would have to put up with the painfully slow pace at which her own body was rejecting the probe. He was also glad that he didn't have to deal with the breeding partner scenario and Max's presumed heat cycle all at the same time. He was worried about her. He was more worried that f she suddenly came back to herself that she would choose Logan over him.
He was trapped in shadows and fog just waiting for the next thing to happen. He didn't have control and Zack hated not being in control. There was nothing left for him to do but get dressed and watch over Max. He was tired of waiting yet he feared taking too drastic of an action where he might end up worsening Max's condition. Max's perspective on what might have happened if they didn't escape frightened him. She remembered too well all the lies they had told them would begin to become realities once the heat cycles had taken effect. Zack's ravine of thought was interrupted by what Max was doing. She was drilling herself in her sleep.
"There is no I in team. I stands for individual. Soldiers are not individuals. There are no individuals in a team."
Max tossed and turned and then started again.
"Know your enemy better then yourself ... Deception is a weapon ... Surprise is a tactical advantage..."
Max continued on and on about family, mission, team, duty, discipline, courage under fire, never going back for a downed man and other things. Zack eventually tuned her out and returned to thinking about other things. It was hard hearing all the old lessons and it got him to thinking about the others. Braden, Lila, Brin, Ben, Eva, Jack, Locke, Jondy, Zane, Krit, Tinga, Jace, Ash, Syl, Luca, Gia, Alex, Kala and ten others. Thoughts of the past and the present meshed together. Was there a Sketchy, Cindy, Logan or Bling?
Zack shook his head. He was drained. Along with the throbbing in his injured arm and ankle there was an aching in his heart and a storm of confusion swirling around his head. He covered Max with a blanket and rested his head on her stomach joining her in the land of slumber.