Summary – The bed has been made and it isn't always the maker that has to lie in it.
Disclaimer – I don't own Dark Angel. I'm merely borrowing it for a while; I'll return it fairly intact soon enough.
Notes – Please read and review.

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Three days later, Shauna was walking Theresa and Mali back to their rooms from one of their many doctors' visits to check on the health of the babies – soldiers. Shauna now kept reminding herself of that. Those had not been children she had seen, but soldiers. So these were not babies, waiting to be born, but soldiers.

They had almost reached the outer door into the corridor, which would ultimately lead to their rooms, when the shots rang out.

They were not the distant target practice shots, or the often heard – but never seen – hunting exercises, but close and loud. When one shot was followed by a spray of dirt only a few meters from where they were standing, Shauna was fairly sure they were being shot at. An attack? In less than a second she was already planning escape.

There was no cover in the immediate vicinity. Nowhere she could protect both of them. She had to get them inside and to their rooms.

"Run!" she yelled at both of them. Theresa, nearly eight months pregnant, glared for a second before taking off, Mali at three months was having an easier time. Shauna kept behind them, to provide what cover she could and trying to return fire, even though she could not actually see anyone.

At the door she swiped them in, her training preventing her from fumbling with her card. "Get to your rooms," she gasped, slamming the door behind them. Whatever was happening, without a key-card or some heavy duty explosives the secure rooms would be impossible to gain entrance to.

Once both were safely inside, Shauna remained outside the rooms of all five women, her gun drawn and ready. She did not have to wait long.

"Put it down, sweetheart."

Two men dressed in black had arrived. Shauna briefly wondered what the point was in wearing black during the day. Both men looked at her uncertainly. Because she was small and petite, they seemed unsure what to do about her and the grips on their guns relaxed slightly. That was their mistake.

Shauna made all her observations in a heartbeat, and then replied, "Now why would I want to do that?" Her words were deceptive, as she had not relaxed at all. By the time she had finished speaking, one was lying dead, a bullet in his brain, and the second shot through the shoulder, his gun kicked out his reach – they might need him alive after all.

Seconds later, the Manticore soldiers arrived and were lucky not to receive a few bullets themselves, as the young bodyguard rode out the adrenaline rush. However, Shauna was well trained and one of the first rules was that you kept the body count as low as possible. Too many bodies make it look like a messy job and every corpse was one that could be traced back to you. The less evidence the better.

Only then did she notice the sirens wailing and, in the distance, shouting and more gunfire. Her focus had so been on her job that she had tuned everything else out. If it wasn't an immediate threat then it wasn't her business.

The soldiers converged on the two men shouting orders to one another. Shauna checked on her charges, keeping her gun drawn as even though it was unlikely anyone could get to them, she wasn't about to take chances. Earlier, she would have laid money on the fact that it would be nearly impossible to get as far as they had. Shauna could have done it, as could many of the assassins that the Guild turned out, which lead to some interesting questions.

The Guild wouldn't have thought twice about being hired by two opposing groups against one another. However, the two she had brought down in the corridor were not trained at the Guild, nor were they apparently aware she was. Not shooting her on sight was just plain sloppy.

The surrogate mothers were shaken and confused by the shots and sirens and, she suspected, by the presence of her gun. Normally she kept it well hidden, so that they were probably only vaguely aware that she wore one. She offered no explanations; they did not need to know what was going on. If Lydecker wanted them to know, he would them tell them. Until then, it was not their business.

When she opened Mali's door though, she found the other woman curled around her stomach crying in pain.

Shit. Oh shit, was all she could think. She yelled to the nearest hovering soldier to get her a stretcher, he nodded and ran off, his eyes wide. He was fairly young she noticed in some small part of her mind that wasn't focused on Mali.

Shauna sat beside the other woman, her gun pointed at the door. Although the corridors were now filled with milling soldiers she kept herself alert, all her senses watching for danger. Outside the room the man she had shot had regained enough of his sense to start screaming in pain; she found it mildly distracting.

A stretcher arrived with a couple of the women's doctors. Mali was quickly loaded on to it and wheeled away. Shauna paused briefly, wondering if she should stay or follow. She ended up following, there were enough soldiers here for the time being and the doors to the rooms were locked, the others would be all right.

While the doctors fussed over Mali in the surgery room, saying things to one another, Shauna stood in the corner, facing the door, gun still out. The doctors do their job, and she did hers. She didn't pretend to know anything about what they were doing, and they knew nothing about hers. So when one of the doctors approached nervously and asked her to put the gun away, she just looked at him coldly and said, "If someone walks through that door intent on getting to her and they have a gun and I don't have mine, how the hell am I supposed to stop that person?" They left her alone after that.

That was, in fact, how Lydecker nearly got himself shot when he walked in through the door, with his own weapon drawn. She wondered what would have happened had she shot him, and briefly entertained that fun thought. A world without Lydecker. It had possibilities. However, on the other end of things she could relax now, if there were still trouble, Lydecker would not be here. The man was nothing if not good at what he did – and that was running this place. Though she remained watchful she relaxed her stance slightly. Watching a couple of the doctors do so as she did. It was almost enough to make her smile.

"How is she?" Lydecker demanded.

"She's been stabilised." One of the doctors answered.

"The child?" There was something in his tone that made Shauna look at him closely for a second. Could that be…concern? Not likely. Maybe concern that he might lose part of his precious project? He wouldn't be concerned about the actual welfare of mother or the child would he? No, definitely not.

"The child will survive," came the reply.

Lydecker nodded and turned to Shauna. "Block twelve has been locked down and guarded. The situation has been neutralized. You are to remain here." She wanted to argue, but as it was technically his call to make there was little she could say about it. Humph, technically. Yeah, you keep telling yourself that.

"The man you wounded is the only one we managed to take alive. The rest were either killed or escaped." Shauna was surprised he would voluntarily give up that information. "Well done." If she had been surprised before, she was shocked now. Praise. That was a new one. Besides, she was just doing her job. Still, I wonder what they wanted – the women?

As it did not appear likely that anyone was going to answer her question in the near future, Shauna remained where she was. Keeping guard.

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"Well, well, well. Aren't you just the hero of the day?" Christopher was stunned to find himself pinned to the wall and a gun to his head.

Shauna blinked and relaxed. She had been dozing on the couch when Chris and had startled her into reacting in attack-mode.

"Sorry," she mumbled, starting to pull away but he held her still so he could kiss her.

"No, I shouldn't have startled you like that," he replied as he let her move into the kitchenette to make them both coffee. "You are quite the hero, though. The guy you didn't kill – " she glanced at him but whatever had momentarily been in his tone was gone – "was part of a group that wants to, and I quote, 'free the prisoners of Manticore'. They were trying to rescue the women and children – what?" Shauna had snorted at the word children, but she shook her head and indicated that he should keep going. "Anyway, they managed to get almost all of the attackers – missed a couple apparently – but they were all killed.

"Lydecker, therefore, was quite pleased that you managed to get one of them alive. I don't think I've ever heard him say anything quite so complimentary about you. So, as I said, everyone is most impressed with you. Something similar happened with the X4 surrogates and they lost a couple, so you losing none helped your image."

"Oh, so I'm popular now am I? My dearest wish." Shauna shook her head. "I was just doing my job, Chris."

"And now you look like hell. What have you been doing all night?"

"Watching Mali. She's going to be okay." Christopher nodded, but he would know that.

Mali had woken once, but there had been a doctor nearby and she was being kept fairly well sedated. They were keeping an eye on her; when it was deemed safe she would be moved back with the other women.

Shauna, after nearly thirty-six hours, had been pulled off duty – probably a good idea, as she was so tired she had begun to see things. Back in her rooms she had collapsed on the couch, fully intending to move to her bed, but had never made it. Then Christopher arrived. So she had almost no idea what was going on, and as per usual no one had seen fit to inform her.

"When do you go back on duty tomorrow?"

"6:30am tomorrow and I think I'm going to be trailed by some X1 guards as well. Fun. More science-projects."

He smiled at her sarcasm. While he knew the X4s had upset her she seemed to have recovered from her shock. And she was definitely curious about the other X-series. "I'll go and leave you in peace to sleep then. Besides, I do have work you know."

Standing on tiptoe she leaned up to kiss him on the lips, savouring his taste, then pulling back before either of them could get to involved. Kissing him was a heady feeling, and by the expression on his face, she could tell he felt the same about her.

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"Where's Mali?" Theresa was anxious. She was, by unspoken agreement, the spokesperson for the surrogate mothers. She was here first, and so felt that within the group she had to look out for the others. It was her duty to make sure they were okay. If that meant pressing Shauna – who did not like to be pressed at anytime and looked even worse today – so be it.

There were, though, some places that even Theresa would not go. Asking about Manticore for instance. What they were actually contributing to. What they were giving up for money. A lot of money. There were some things that she was better off not knowing. However the welfare of the others was fair game.

Which brought her back to the fact that Shauna had still not answered her question. "Shauna?" she prompted.

"Hmm, oh, she's fine." Shauna looked at Theresa briefly, focusing slightly, then went back to watching. Today she seemed distracted, but watchful, like she was watching by rote, her mind somewhere else. Theresa wondered if she dared ask what happened the day before yesterday. She decided not to, there were two very serious looking guards following them. They were not the usual guards the women had and there was something…odd about them.

Theresa decided nonetheless she needed more information on Mali. "Fine? What do you mean by fine?"

"Stop worrying about her. She'll be back in a day or two. They just need to check a few things out."

"What happened? Why did we have to spend nearly two days in those rooms? Where were you? And why are those two following us?" Zara's tone was impatient. She had never been good at waiting, and Theresa was surprised that she had agreed to something that required as much waiting as this did. Zara also seemed to have little sense.

Asking about Manticore was dangerous. Proof in that were the two guards following them, who had murmured slightly at Zara's questions. They did not look happy, and would certainly pass anything suspicious back to the people in charge. Theresa shied away from meeting their gaze, every time they looked at her too closely it made her shiver. Her grandmother had always claimed that there was a sixth-sense in the family, and Theresa had to admit there were several situations where she had felt warned. This was one of those times.

When she glanced back at them, Shauna's expression became even more guarded. The presence of the two Manticore soldiers obviously did not make her happy. Then she sighed, "There was a security problem. It was dealt with. However, things are going to be a little tighter from now on."

Theresa liked the younger woman, despite Shauna's obvious coldness. And her job description. She had a sharp tongue, but seemed to be intelligent. She was here to keep them alive. While you had to assume that she was paid to do so, it was a nice thought. That she was also an assassin did bother Theresa. However, she was not here to kill anyone – unless she was protecting the mothers – made it a little better. Besides, Theresa was having a baby that would be a genetically engineered soldier and would grow up to kill people anyway, just so she could get some money. Theresa was not in the position to throw stones.

She longed for her freedom. To get outside the walls of Manticore. To go shopping, even just for groceries. To listen to music. To see someone who was not a scientist or a doctor or a soldier. In fact, Theresa never wanted to see a doctor again if she could avoid it. She wanted to go somewhere where she did not have to think about Manticore ever again.

Soon, she thought, very soon. You only have to hang on for another month or two.

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