Disclaimer: I am not making any profit out of this and am using it purely for amusement. The scenes are taken completely out of an episode of Dark Angel (which belongs to Fox, Cameron and Eglee), and most of the dialogue as well.
A/N: The parts that are mine are the "thoughts" behind the scenes and some additional dialogue. This is my version of Hello, Goodbye—one of my favorite DA episodes. It's a step into AU, but that's really what fanfics are, aren't they?
HELLO, GOODBYE
CHAPTER 1
Joshua scratched his head furiously. "Damn fleas." he mumbled. He had to resist the urge to sit on his ass and scratch behind his ears with his foot. He wasn't that much of a dog. But he and "Father's" house had been overrun by fleas in the last few days. He scratched some more, making small growling noises of satisfaction. Then he focused back on the task at hand. "Depress tab to activate and immediately leave area." he read out loud. Depress tab? He looked the can of Flea Bomb over and decided that he was supposed to press the button on the top.
He pressed it and waited.
Nothing happened.
He brought his face right over the can to make sure he had depressed the right tab, and all of a sudden a spray of toxic fumes hit him square in the face. "Aaargh!" he cried out in surprise. Then swatting at his face and scratching, he ran out of the room.
Max was in the library, standing on a chair as if that would keep her away from the fleas. She was scratching her leg, so it wasn't working. She had set up two more cans of Flea Bomb, one in the library, the other in the kitchen. She waited as Joshua came running from the basement.
Most people would have recoiled from seeing Joshua: it wasn't the 6'5 height, or the long scraggly hair, or the way that he talked. It was the fact that Joshua was a hybrid man-dog experiment from Manticore. They had left a little too much dog in his DNA cocktail, so he had a slightly rounded dog nose, a cleft mouth that revealed sharp canine teeth, and sort of thick leathery skin—like a dog without its fur. But what most people miss, and what Max had come to love about him, were his eyes. They were blue and kind, and very human. This time, those eyes were slightly panicked. The fleas had really started to get to him.
"Did you set it off?" Max called out, referring to the can in the basement.
"Yeah."
"Good, now let's do these other ones and get out of here before these little buggers eat us alive," she called out, gesturing to the one in the kitchen.
Joshua bounded over to the other can, "That's the plan!"
Positioning themselves in front of the cans, with their fingers poised over the tabs, Max called out instructions. "Okay, hold your breath. On three."
"One, two, three!" They simultaneously sucked in a huge breath and then depressed the tabs.
Two geysers of anti-flea fumes erupted from the cans. Max and Joshua ran for the door.
On the front porch, they paused to catch their breaths. "Thanks for bringing the bombs," said Joshua, as he situated himself amongst some of the old boxes on the porch.
"No problem. You're gonna have to stay out of there for a couple of hours." she replied.
"Yeah, stay out here with my little fella," Joshua said excitedly. If he had a tail, he would have wagged it furiously.
Max looked around guiltily. "Oh, ah…um…actually, I gotta bounce. I'm meeting Logan at Crash."
Joshua looked crestfallen. "Oh."
Max reached over and patted his lap. "I wish you could come, you know that." she said softly, trying to comfort him. She knew how terrible it must be for him to have to be stuck in this old house all day, hiding out, laying low, staying out of sight. Because people just wouldn't understand. They couldn't accept Joshua.
"Maybe tomorrow I can get some time off from work, and we can hang." she suggested.
Joshua had resumed to his scratching, and mumbled an, "Okay."
Max opened her backpack and pulled out a plastic bottle. "I got you some flea powder. Douse yourself with it before you get back in there, or else you'll be right back where you started."
Joshua took the small bottle from her. Max smiled at him and gathered her stuff to leave.
"Okay, good night." She said.
"Okay, bye."
Then he could hear the roar of her motorcycle, and she was gone.
He contemplated the flea powder in his hands. Then grunting, he managed to pry the lid open, and doused himself with it until he was white. Aaaah….the powder was soothing to the tiny little itches all over his body.
Little Fella was always good to him. He felt sad that he couldn't always be with her. But people weren't always as nice or kind as his Little Fella. They could be mean and cruel, and dangerous about things they couldn't understand. He understood that. Only too well. His brother, Isaac's grave was just in the backyard. He had been treated abominably by humans in Manticore. And when they were finally free, he had retaliated against the Sector Guards. But because of that, Isaac had become a killer, and ultimately a hunted animal. Joshua stopped his train of thought. People were always afraid of what they don't understand.
CHAPTER 2
Max parked her baby, a beautiful black Ninja motorcycle, and threaded her way into Crash. Crash was a popular hang-out spot for Max and her friends. They went there after work to drink beer, play pool, dance, and mostly go on about how things were at work, and bitch about the state that the world was in.
Tonight, Max had a date with Logan. She had requested some quality time with him, and figuring that she would need to actually have to pry him away from his precious computers if they met up at the Penthouse, she had asked him to meet her at Crash instead.
She spotted Logan immediately. He stood out like a sore thumb in the place. Crash was often full of loud young punks, most of them minimum-wage employees. But Logan Cale had been born a socialite. He had been born into some money, and that money his family had held onto after the Pulse. It wasn't until Eyes Only had exposed the corruption behind Cale Enterprises that Logan had joined the ranks of the impoverished. The fact that Logan himself was Eyes Only hadn't deterred him from cutting himself off from his main source of funding—one of the complexities about Logan, to be sure. But also one of the reasons why Max truly admired him.
Thus, sitting in the middle of Crash wearing a nice collared shirt, a pair of khakis, and his scholarly glasses, made him easy to pick out in the crowd. That, and the fact that Max would always be able to spot Logan's slightly ruffled blond hair and slightly scruffy, unshaven face. She smiled fondly at the thought.
But when she got closer, Max saw something that made her frown. Logan was busy scribbling away on a small piece of napkin. Working, no doubt.
"What'chu up to?" she asked, keeping her tone light and casual.
Logan looked up, and Max couldn't keep her ire. Oh, those blue eyes. Those sincere, honest, straightforward eyes that were the feature of every Eyes Only broadcast. He gave her one of his usual quizzical smiles. "Oh, just writing down some thoughts floating around in my head. Couldn't find any paper, so got a few napkins to write on." he replied.
Max sat across the tiny round table from Logan. Being careful not to touch him, she reached over for the pitcher of beer and poured herself a glass. "What thoughts?" she asked.
"I'd been thinking about Ames White and his breeding cult," he started, his voice low. Max frowned at him. How romantic. She was not happy with this turn in the conversation. "Here? You want to talk about that here?" she asked incredulously.
Logan glanced around furtively. Max couldn't help it. One side of her mouth lifted in a half-smile. Logan with his tousled hair, scruffy beard, glasses and unmistakable air of academia, looked so cute trying to be mysterious. Incongruous, but definitely cute.
"Well, in this place, no one's bound to notice." he replied. "Anyway, I keep wondering if there is a more tangible connection between his group and Manticore." he continued, determined to broach the subject.
Max sighed heavily. That was the thing about Logan. He was always so doggedly determined. Once he caught scent of something, he didn't let go until he'd found the source. It was one of the reasons why she admired him. But not tonight. It was exasperating tonight.
"Hey, let me see that scar that you got again," he said. He made a motion as if he was going to reach over and grab her hand. Max snatched her hand away lightning quick. Sometimes, the man was too absent-minded for his own good.
Several months ago, Max had escaped from Manticore for the second time. But unbeknownst to her, she had actually been allowed to escape, so that she would lead Manticore directly to Eyes Only. In this particular case, Logan Cale. She had been injected with a particular virus that was targeted specifically to Logan's DNA sequence. She had inadvertently given him the kiss of death. It was lucky that she had managed to retrieve the antidote and save his life. But any hope of ever touching Logan again had been erased. She was still the carrier for the Kill Logan Cale virus.
Max glared warningly at Logan. "Will you watch what you're doing?" She glowered at him, but pulled back her sleeve and took off her bike gloves anyway. "Why did you want to see this anyway?" she asked.
"Just to document what it looks like. With your rapid healing abilities, this scar is fading fast," he said, while making a small sketch of the scar. It was that of two snakes intertwined about a staff. Personally, Max thought it was a cool-looking scar—with the exception of it being intended to have killed her. It looked like strands of DNA intertwined together in two-dimensional form.
"It looks like a modified version of Caduceus' symbol," started Logan. "It's usually wrapped around the staff of Hermes. This scar is missing the wings that at the top of the scar that connects it to Hermes."
"Mmm-hmm," Max just smiled and nodded along. But she was quickly getting just a little bit irritated about the way the evening was taking a nosedive. She needed to lighten the mood. She pouted at Logan prettily, "You know, all work and no play makes Logan a dull, dull boy."
Logan just looked at her in consternation. She was sure he was about to make some brilliantly logical argument about how he couldn't spare the time to have fun because the world was in dire need of saving, when she caught a glimpse of Alec. It was strange how she seemed to have developed an Alec-dar, a little internal radar that blipped every time Alec was nearby.
In this case, he had just gotten to the bar and was now walking over to speak with Asha. Max felt a stab of irritation directed at the blonde, blue-eyed girl. She seemed to be everywhere. First, all over Logan. Now, all over Alec. Not that she had any claim over Alec, she reminded herself. But Asha was a nuisance nonetheless.
Max grabbed the pitcher of beer that was sitting between herself and Logan and poured the remainder of the liquid into their glasses. She stood up, "Be right back," she called hastily over her shoulder, and threaded her way through Crash towards Alec.