Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel. I'm just playing in the sandbox. Please don't smack me.

-----

1.

The girl had the hook-up. Seriously. If given enough time, she could find anything for very little money. She had friends of friends of friends in places Max didn't even know existed.

And if she couldn't find it on the black market, then she knew an alternative way of making do. Like if they ran out of toothpaste, not only did Kendra have a recipe for it, but she also had the ingredients on hand. How many people have peppermint oil just sitting around?

2.

Their senses of fashion were apples and oranges, and they were two completely different sizes—home girl was curvaceous; Max was more…slinky. It'd made doing laundry a hell of a lot easier than it was now. Max and Original Cindy wore the same size panties. It's pretty sad when Max had to write her name in her underwear to tell them apart.

3.

It was kind of nice having a friend who did other things. Max saw Original Cindy all day, every day, at work and at home. With Kendra, they'd done their own thing and then came home at night (usually). Max could tell her stories of the high jinks at Jam Pony and make her laugh because she hadn't been there when Sketchy spilled coffee on Normal's computer, which sent up sparks that set a nearby package on fire. The package which happened to have firecrackers inside, which then proceed to go off, one of them happening to land on Normal's shoe, setting the cuff of his pants on fire, so the dispatcher ended up doing this crazy one-legged dance around the room, swatting at the flames until Original Cindy blasted him with the fire extinguisher.

4.

Kendra had apparently been Max's only friend who liked men. (Not that they weren't still friends, but they hardly ever saw one another now that Max was so busy with Manticore stuff and Eyes Only work and Kendra was married to Mr. Multiples / Sector Cop and expecting a baby in February.)

Original Cindy liked women. Logan liked women. Sketchy and Herbal loved the shorties. Alec…well, Max wasn't even gonna go into what moved his furniture. Max just didn't have anyone she could dish to the way she had with Kendra. Love, Original Cindy was good for, and sex in the most general of terms, but the juicy details—nuh-uh, sista did not want to hear it. And Max missed that, occasionally.