Zack woke up at least four hours after he had fallen asleep, he knew because his body was still a little tense but his mind felt as if the fog from his earlier drinking and Max's attack on him had permanently lifted. The sound of four comfortingly familiar voices snapped him from whatever veil of grogginess his nap had left him with, now instantly alert. The four distinct voices began to differentiate and he realized that Logan must have set up a conference call between Hannah, Jace, Lucas and Tinga. In the din behind the close conversation he could hear the sounds of Logan and Bling working on dinner.
"I told you I was fine." Jace's voice came across with an angry protest but she sounded extremely tired to Zack's well trained ear.
"I know and I trust you and Lucas, I just wish I was there." Hannah answered.
"I told you I could handle this." Lucas quipped.
"Max needed you more." Jace sighed.
"I could visit her if it would put you more at ease." Tinga offered. "I could always tell Charlie I had a family emergency."
"That would be great." Jace actually sounded excited.
Both Lucas and Hannah voiced they're opinions and agreed that it might be for the best.
"Zack's not going to like it." Jace spoke up and sighed passing on the warning to all involved.
"Big brother doesn't need to know." Tinga suppressed a laugh.
"Big brother knows best." Zack spoke up loudly from his place on the couch as he moved to stand behind Hannah. "And as long as you're both discrete and keep your guard up, it seems like a well thought out solution. At least until Hannah can return to Jace's care."
"Zack?" Both Tinga and Jace sounded relieved to hear his voice yet confused by his answer. It didn't seem very Zack like.
"I should have thought of it sooner actually." Zack was troubled by the yawn which escaped his lips betraying his weakness. "Keep Hannah and I posted and do not extend the visit longer then it is safe, or needed."
"Thank you Zack." Jace sounded grateful and relieved.
"You're the Best Zack." Tinga continued to finalize the plans with Lucas and Jace while Hannah disconnected from the call and returned to sit next to Zack who had taken his place on the couch again. 9;
"Are you alright soldier?" She said it with the kindest of smiles but it felt degrading and like mockery to Zack.
"I'm fine." Zack bit off his reply.
"I didn't tell you to report soldier, drop the bravado Zack. Are you okay?" Hannah pushed for an answer.
"I'm fine. Max is the one we should be worrying about." Zack's voice sounded worn and stressed but less harsh.
"Don't lie to me Michael." Hannah spoke up softly and Zack actually stiffened.
"Don't call me that. No one calls me that anymore, not for a very long time." Zack sounded almost sad. Hannah used to say that Zack reminded her of her son Michael. She had called Zack Mike when she had taken care of him for the first one and a half years that he was alive. Hannah had been Zack's sole watcher until the second set of X-5's that were to be added to his unit had survived. She had secretly called him Mike up until he was six and the youngest were three and all of the children had been moved to the barracks. That was a big part of the reason that Zack really secretly did like when Max chose to give them all names, but it was his rank and responsibility that made him need to protest the decision initially. Being called Mike by Hannah for so long was what lead him to use the alias of Michael Hannover for so many years once he was on the outside.
"But I can call you that Mike." Hannah teased him.
"Please don't. Not in front of anyone." Zack sighed. "I'm tired Hannah."
"That's a good start on how you are…" Hannah rested a hand on Zack's knee. "You look it."
"How is your son?" Zack asked relaxing a bit and leaning against Hannah.
"I have no one left besides you to call Mike now." Hannah sighed. Both her son and her husband had both been Michael's and Manticore had found a way to take them both away for her defying them and helping the X-5's. Hannah was silent with a far away look in her eye.
"I'm sorry Hannah." Zack spoke softly. "Have you looked in on Max tonight?"
"She was sleeping soundly earlier when I looked in on her, so were you then." Hannah grinned lightly, it looked almost forced.
"That's good." Zack nodded curtly and stifled another yawn. "I'm glad you came. It's good you were looking out for Jace too." Zack offered her a small grin of his own.
Hannah shifted so that Zack's head rested in her lap and she toyed absentmindedly with his hair. "I always cared for all of you."
"Thank you for that." Zack yawned, the stroking of his head lulling him back to sleep. Hannah had gone beyond just the job of watcher years ago.
Just then the door bell rang. Logan started out of the kitchen and froze for a moment catching Zack in yet another moment of weakness. He shook himself from the slight shock as the door bell sounded yet again. Earlier when Zack had napped was the first time Logan had seen the boy sleep since he had arrived here. Zack must have been exhausted even for an X-5. Logan sighed, for such a young man Zack had a big burden taking care of the twelve others if they were anything like Max. He moved to the door signaling Hannah who had begun to rise to stay where she was. Logan opened the door to see Original Cindy standing outside of it.
"Jam Pony pick up Mr. Cale." Original Cindy grinned playing cute but Logan wasn't in the mood for games.
"Here you are Cindy." Logan handed her the package with the probe inside of it. The he took the clipboard from her to sign so that he knew Max's girl would get paid for the run.
She shifted her weight leaning against the door jam. "Original Cindy can see Max's bro is whipped out, but how are you holding up?"
"As good as to be expected." Logan shrugged. "I appreciate everything you've done."
"Just get my boo back on her feet and back to her old wise crackin' self and we'll call it even." Original Cindy reached out and hugged Logan lightly and then turned on her heals and headed for the elevator. "Thanks for the over time Original Cindy'll get this to it's destination as quick as her legs can peddle if it'll help my boo."
Logan nodded. "Thank you Cynthia." He called out down the hallway as he shut the penthouse door.
At the sound of the door shutting which sounded very much like the door slamming to the on edge ear of the X-5, Zack bolted wide awake. He sat upright on the couch jostling Hannah. He was instantly alert cursing his weakness as of late.
"It's okay Zack." Hannah spoke up softly and tried to reassure Zack.
Not truly reassured Zack nodded wide eyed and sighed lightly. Something had been bothering him plaguing the back of his mind, all of this time and it had not originally been the probe. Zack pushed himself up to a real sitting position feet firmly set on the floor.
"Logan?" Zack ran his hands over his face and up through his hair before he raised blood shot eyes to look at the older man. The pick up that Original Cindy had just made jogged his memory.
"Yeah Zack?" Logan brought his chair to a stop on the opposite side of the coffee table facing Zack and Hannah.
"Do you still have that trigger?" Zack yawned and lifted a foot to roll his still painful ankle which popped loudly making Logan winch and Hannah jump.
"The what?" Logan raised and eyebrow.
"That mailing envelope." Zack sighed his mind clearing from the alcohol educed fog… wine was not good for strategic thinking. He wasn't even going to acknowledge the effect that bringing down the walls and divulging his feeling to Max had on his mind. "I want to get another look at the address on it."
Logan went over to one of his filling cabinets and pulled out the envelope tossing it to Zack. Emptied of the weight of the tape it barely made it halfway in-between them before fluttering to the floor.
Zack snatched the envelope from the floor. "Addressed to Don Lydecker from Deck Donaldson both residing at 3371 Uranium St. That's in the warehouse district near the waterfront isn't it?"
Logan thought for a second visualizing a map. "It sounds like it should be in the Terminal City limits, but yes I think it is out on the waterfront."
Hannah let out a small gasp at the sound of both names on the envelope. "What is that?"
Zack realized that both he and Logan were off of their game. They had told Hannah all about the probe but nothing about what had originally drove Max to force herself to forget.
"This," Zack thrust the envelope at Hannah, "along with some ill timed questioning about her barcode, confused Max and she forced herself to forget everything."
"Except her full barcode number." Hannah nodded. "She always had a problem with that in Psy. Ops."
"That started it. Then the probe and the fever compounded it all-" Logan started.
"And then you came to me." Hannah nodded. "What was in it?"
"A tape." Zack gave a curt answer.
"This." Logan said and at the same time started the tape for Hannah to see.
Hannah frowned chewing on her bottom lip watching the images fly by. "SO you just opened it?"
"No. I checked it first. It was safe. No chemical or pheromonal residue on it either." Zack hopped to his feet and began passing again.
"This is not good." Hannah said softly her frown deepening.
"I know. Seeing the tape didn't really seem to bother Max though." Zack bristled biting off his reply.
"Logan." Bling stuck his head out of from the kitchen. "When did you say the duck needed to be glazed?"
"I almost forgot." Logan jumped and made his way into the kitchen. He was making a small celebratory dinner of sorts over the stride they had made in getting Max back.
Zack leaned over and turned off the tape, Hannah had seen all she needed to see.
Hannah toyed with the envelope in her hand running a finger over the coarse writing. "He could have done this you know… it sort of looks like his scrawl."
"Lydecker's been here for a while now." Zack simply shook his head and ended up holding it in his hands again. "Lurking… there's a base in this state. Max refuses to leave even though there's a danger." He made a gesture to the kitchen. "It's where they took Brin."
"Brin?"
"Progeria ." Zack swore and shook his head. "She choose to go back there rather then die, but it all seems the same to me."
"Alive, you can still get her out."
"The Brin I knew is dead."
"Not dead, changed, different. Is Jace dead?" Hannah sat down again.
"You know damn well what I mean." Zack snapped. He turned his back on her and hopped up on the windowsill.
"Zack do you really want to do something about this?" Hannah rustled the envelope.
"Yes." Zack gave a curt answer and a curt nod of his head.
"You could be walking into a trap." Hannah sighed.
"Yes. One set for Max. And you don't need to tell me, it just slipped my mind for a moment." Zack snapped.
"Your heads not in the game. You shouldn't go alone."
"I'll be fine. I'm always fine." Zack pressed his head up against the glass watching the rain.
"Anyone else close by?"
Zack scoffed. "Locke is the closest."
"You were really going to let me drag Jace into all of this?"
"She's a soldier. She's had more training then any one of us."9;
"And what about baby Max?"
Zack banged his head against the glass almost loud enough to shatter it and he sighed ignoring the implications of that question. "Jondy and Zane are close enough. Jondy couldn't handle… this. Locke is to erratic and unpredictable. He never took orders well. Zane would work nicely. He's almost a day away by car." Zack spoke softly almost to himself before acknowledging what Hannah had really said. "I'll call him and I Should check in on Max."
Hannah sniffed the air. "It smells good. She is you can get her to eat something."
"Logan is a good cook." Zack nodded hoping from his perch on the window sill and heading down the hallway and into the guest room.
"Max?" Zack slowly opened the guestroom door.
Max had disconnected herself from all of Hannah's machines and had her forehead pressed against the glass of the window.
"Maxie." Zack's voice softened as he entered the room leaving the door ajar so that the sent of Logan's cooking could filter into the room. "Are you hungry?" It was a simple question and Zack really didn't know where else to start but he wanted to scoop her up into his arms and never let anything hurt her ever again.
Max shook her head no silently her back still turned to Zack but the smell reached her nose and her stomach growled betraying her. "A little." Her voice was horse and hallow devoid of any life or emotion.
"Logan whipped up one of his culinary master pieces, roast duck. Where he found a duck I don't even want to ask… but he thought you'd enjoy it." Zack laid a hand on her shoulder. "You should eat, try and build your strength back up."
Max nodded mutely. Zack got Max to come out and at least attempt to eat. She sat there silently while the others kept up a light lively banter designed to make her fell more comfortable. She picked at her food and ate a little but her eyes never lifted from her plate. She excused herself once they were done eating saying she was tired.
After she had gone back into the guest room Zack picked up the phone and dialed Zane's cell phone number. Zane didn't answer and Zack made a face hating having to leave him a voice mail. "Zane I have a situation and I need you to come back me up." Zack went on to tell him to come alone, tell no one and follow all of the usual precautions. He gave Zane directions to Logan's and ended the message by telling Zane, "It's important Zane. I need you here yesterday." Enforcing the urgency before he cut of the communication."