CHOICES 20-"Identity"
AUTHOR: Mystic25
EMAIL: little_girl_island34@hotmail.com
SUMMARY: "Please, I need your help. You're the only one I remember ever giving a damn about us. He's stalking us, he follows us everywhere, he's gonna kill us-" Call made from a U.S. payphone at 8:00 am by a young woman named Sara Phillips
RATING: PG14
A/N: This twentieth chapter will bring back many old season one characters plus a few I invented in this series. Not giving it away. Ooh also there are a lot of plot twists, so look for those I want the moments to build. And rest assured in knowing that this will NOT be the last chapter. I don't know how long I will keep witting this, but I will most likely keep going until computers aren't around anymore or I have carpal tunnel so bad that my wrists fall off.
WARNING: This chapter contains images and scenes of domestic abuse. These pictures are not pretty, but they are sadly and terrifyingly true. If you or anyone you know are the victims of such crimes contact your local law enforcement agency immediately.
A/N#2: Release the balloons and streamers I made it to chapter twenty! And since I write these long chapters, they are, to quote a reviewer "each like a mini episode of DA". So I have written 20 DA episodes, wow. My story is as old as me. I have said it a lot, but I want to REALLY thank everyone whose ever read or seen or commented or praised or reviewed or given me traffic on my website about this series and made it what it is. And right now I will attempt list some of them by name: BTW: I'm sorry this took soooooo long to get up, I've been having a lot of problems lately and if they aren't going away anytime soon I might as well write to pass the time. Anywho onto the thanks:
Jess- (Northern Star) My girl, who always had something to say about my writing. Good bad or indifferent. Who gave me ideas and comments, and encouraged me when I had writiers block, and who cracks me up all the time at TBW.
Black Rose: Another sistah from TBW, whose also given me great ideas, and gave me fics to read while I was on a break from mine. (also the same thing for Jess, so she doesn't get upset)
Callie and Mel: The lovely mods of The Broken World. Who created a great site for me to meet more fans of DA, and see how much my "Choices" series is liked. And whose board helps give me ideas.
"The Broken World" a great multi-shipper board to meet fellow DA fans and talk about the show, or just whatever comes to mind. Could always count on the people there to make me laugh, or give me ideas on fics when I didn't have any.
Zaz: for everything she wrote about the series, and the constant insistence that I post the next chapter asap
"Dark Angel Archives" where I first posted this series. I don't know who runs it. But thanks to them I got exposure.
Fan fiction.net -a blessing and a curse. A site that's constantly being shut down, or messing up, but where I found an easier way to post stories
"Darkangelfan.com" for having episode transcripts so I can make my work sound more believable
"Kawasaki.com" for always being up when I needed to search it for motorcycle names...:)
BlackWolf he never reviewed this fic, but his stories gave me a lot of drive for creating a lot of my chapters.
Tab- for reviewing. And for being there, always, love ya my sistah
"Google.com" a great search engine for helping me find information on DA and just about anything else.
Every reviewer who's come out of the wood work to tell me that they like this series, but never got around to reviewing it until now. And every reviewer who hasn't been afraid to tell me that my grammar is off, or there's some stuff that doesn't sound right, who don't kiss me where I don't wanna be kissed.
To EVERY reviewer: It makes me feel-good-to know I wrote something that people look forward to reading.
*****
6:50 AM
SEATTLE
"Mommy, the door is knocking"
"Don't answer it Michael" Sara got out of bed in bare feet and only a tank top and her briefs.
The pounding got louder as she got into the small living room Michael ran to open it
"No no honey!" Sara whispered to him, calling him back to her with her hand motions. "Come here. Stay behind me" she pushed him behind her body.
The pounding on the door continued "Fuck it Sara I know you're in there!"
Sara crept closer, looking through the peephole at the raging form of the man outside. The one whose eyes looked like her son's, but she would never tell him that.
"You can't hide my kid from me forever!" the pounding grew louder and part of the door started to give way.
"Go get some clothes on honey" Sara ordered to her son "Hurry up and pack your back pack with the rest"
Sara pushed the green leather couch over in front of the door to block it. She then ran across the dirty floor to her own bedroom, pulling on a pair of jeans and shoving her feet into flip-flops. She hastily shoved handfuls of clothes into a duffel bag along with her wallet. She then ran to her son's room "Come on honey we've gotta go down the fire escape"
"Mommy I'm scared" Michael looked at her wildly
Sara didn't try to comfort him she just ushered him out to the living room and pulled back a table to where the fire escape window was
The door opened, but didn't open very wide because of the couch blocking it. Two eyes glowered at her "You bitch!"
"Go baby!" Sara yelled to Michael pushing him onto the landing of the stairs. The couch wouldn't hold him for long. She spied her keys on the table in front of the door. She climbed back in the apartment to grab them.
"Bitch!" a hand reached out and grabbed her hair and slammed it against the door.
"Mommy!"
"Run Michael!" Sara pushed the door shut again, slamming it on his hand. He screamed. She didn't try to lock it again just ran to the escape stairs and hurried down them.
He stuck his head out at her from the window "You fucking whore!"
Sara caught up with her son on the stairs, took his bag from him and threw it to the ground with hers. She picked him up and continued running.
Once she reached the bottom level she grabbed the bags and her son and ran to her car. Her flip-flops tore in the process, but she didn't notice it.
Her red twenty-year-old Altima sat against the building and she popped the trunk and threw her bags inside. "Get in and buckle up" Sara told Michael as she climbed in the driver's seat. She looked in her rear view mirror and saw him running towards her car. She cranked the ignition and floored it.
His car kept following her. It lurched forward and rammed into her, almost causing her to loose control.
"Hold on baby" Sara turned sharply into an alleyway, one that he didn't see so he couldn't follow her.
His tires screeched as he cursed and did a U'ey back to the spot.
Sara turned the car again onto another street to confuse him. She drove right through a sector stop, ignoring the cops yelling at her.
She continued driving for an hour, always looking back, but she didn't see him. She had lost him, for now.
*****
7:50 AM
Her car started giving out. She hadn't had it check recently. She slowed down next to a payphone on the side of the road, parking the car behind it. She unbuckled the car and opened the door to the backseat, undoing Michael's seat belt "Lie flat on your tummy, don't look out the windows okay?"
She closed the door and locked it running to the booth.
"Directory Assistance how can I help you?"
"Give me the number for a Max and Logan Cale"
"One moment please" "The number is 555-3285. Would you like me to dial it now?"
"Yes"
"It costs $1.00 to do so"
"It doesn't matter just make the call"
"One moment please"
*****
FOGGLE TOWERS
8:00 AM
"Yeah?" Max picked up the phone from the nightstand.
"Please, I need your help. You're the only one I remember ever giving a damn about us. He's stalking us, he follows us everywhere, he's gonna kill us-"
"Who is this?"
"It's Sara, Sara Phillips. I met you at the maternity ward two years ago, we shared a room. My boyfriend broke into my place this morning. He's trying to kill me-"
"Where are you?"
"At some payphone in the city. There's a garage across the street. Dell's Auto-"
"I know where that is. You and Michael stay there and I'll come get you"
"Please hurry" she hung up.
*****
THIRTY MINUTES LATER
Max cut off the engine to her Impala and climbed out of the driver's seat. She glanced around the street but didn't see any sign of Sara or her son. Movement from a red Altima caught her eye a few seconds later. She walked over to the car, and after peering through the windows saw the form of Sara laying flat in the back seat with her son under her arms.
Max tapped on the window with one hand. Sara looked up, seeing the face of the woman she hadn't seen for over two years, but it was a welcomed sight. She crawled over the seat and opened the door. Max backed up on the road, watching Sara push her son Michael ahead of her and then climb out herself and shut the door.
"Sara?" Max acknowledged the other woman by name "You okay?" Sara didn't know it, but she looked like she had been mauled by a bear. A long gash ran just below her hairline from the impact of her boyfriend slamming her into the door when she tried to get her keys. Blood from the gash had trickled down one side of her face, leaving a crimson track on her cheek. She also still bore the bruise on her collarbone from where he had gotten mad one day and threw her face first into the coffee table.
"Yeah" Sara's reply was shaky at best. She moved to pull a chunk of hair behind her ear and her hand brushed against the cut on her forehead. She hissed and pulled her hand back, seeing the blood for the first time "I didn't even know about that one" she managed a dry laugh. She saw the way Max was looking at her "It's not that bad, really. Can we just get going? Please, he's pissed, and he's gonna come looking here soon"
Max didn't say anything, but grabbed the bags from the trunk after Sara opened it. She reached into her own trunk, to the tool case in back, pulling out a wrench "Take out any ID papers and anything with you or Michael's name you got stashed in the car" Max knelt next to the license tag attached to the back of the car, and sliding the tag out from the car. She walked over with it to her Impala and threw it in the trunk along with the screwdriver and the bags.
"My daughter's car seat should be in back" Max opened the back door for Sara.
"He's use to riding without one" Sara buckled Michael in the car seat. She couldn't afford a toddler car seat, so after Michael outgrew his infant seat, she buckled him in with old cushions for him to sit on.
"Mommy where are we going?"
Sara fastened the harness to the car seat around Michael's body. "Someplace safe" she rubbed his face with her hand then shut the car door.
All through the drive back to the apartment Sara was quiet. She got the held she sought out, but she wasn't in the mood for conversation.
Max sensed it, and allowed her space.
When they reached the parking garage of Foggle Towers, Sara leaned closer out her window for a better look. "If this is just the parking garage I can't wait to see the rest"
Max smiled at the joke, pulling inside the concrete enclosure.
*****
"Come on in" Max held the door open for Sara, who was leading Michael by the hand. The other woman looked around the living room, at the over stuffed leather furniture sitting on the wood floor.
"Sit down" Max's voice was gentle to Sara, watching her sit with such exhaustion, but still with a caution, Michael climbing into her lap a few seconds later.
"Mommy you're bleeding" Michael crawled closer to Sara's face, reaching one hand to touch a rivulet blood that had dried to her cheek.
"It's okay baby" Sara reassured, touching the blood "It only hurts a little"
Max had disappeared for a few minutes, but soon came back into the living room this time with Logan in front of her.
"Here" Logan held out a wet cloth in front of Sara's face. His blue eyes looked at the younger woman with compassion.
Sara took the rag from him "Thanks" she held it to her face, holding Michael in her lap with the other hand.
"How long has this been going on?" Max sat on the edge of the sofa, on the arm, questioning the other woman, but gently. She had just been through shit, she didn't need an interrogation right now.
"He's always knocked me around if that's what you want to know" Sara informed "We dated during high school and he use to hit me back then too, bruises and scrapes, same as now."
"Has he ever-"
"No!" Sara cut in Logan's statement with a vengeance. "He never tried to mess me like that" She wasn't defending her ex boyfriend on purpose; it was just a reflexive act she had no control over. Even though she didn't want it to happen she had been with him long enough to develop an attachment to him. It wasn't an attachment of love anymore, but there was still a connection. One of two things that had a connection to him that she could never shake off. The other one was her son.
"That doesn't mean he won't" Max spoke out from her spot on the couch. "Guy who beats you up like this isn't exactly a man who knows how to control his urges"
"I know him Max" Sara's brown eyes locked on hers over the little boy she was holding "I'm not saying that the way he bangs me up isn't bad, or that I deserve it; but he wouldn't do that. In all the years we dated in high school and even after he NEVER tried to touch me when I didn't want it. Sure he'd throw things, hit me, but I never felt like I'd be violated by him."
"What about your son?" Logan asked, "You think it doesn't violate his sense of safety to watch his mother get kicked around by a man right in front of him?"
"I know you're trying to help Mr. Cale, but with all due respect you don't have the first clue what my life is like"
"You called us remember?" Max chimed in "Why would you do that if you didn't think we could help you?"
"I was scared. There was no time, I didn't know what to do"
"So you're just chalking this whole thing up to a big 'ol adrenaline rush from being scared? You're gonna just keep sitting around waiting for anotha time when he scare the heck outta you again before you do anything?" Max took up an argument
"It's my life Max" Sara went on the defensive
"It's not just yours anymore Sara. You have a son. First rule of motherhood, kids needs come above yours. He needs a safe environment, and a mother who isn't afraid to answer her own door."
"He's my baby" Sara looked down at Michael who was now asleep "I wouldn't do anything to hurt him." One hand stroked his brown hair "He's the only thing that's going right in my life"
"So do right FOR him" Logan looked at Sara with gentle eyes.
*****
"That damn bitch took my son!" the guy spat in the corner of the bar with a far-reaching launch, spitting out most of his beer at the same time. He checked his cheap gold wristwatch, watching the time even though he didn't care about it, it was just something to do.
The barkeep looked at him warily through hazel green eyes and black long hair that hung somewhat in his face "You gonna be able to drive home tonight man?"
"Mind your own damn business" was the patrons reply before he exited the room
*****
JAM PONY
6:15 AM
"I'm outta here" Max slammed her last package down on Normal's desk.
"Hold it missy" Normal as always wanted to rain on her parade "I need that time sheet or you're not getting out of here until pigs fly" he held out his hand, waiting to receive his prize.
"Yeah but you can't get off the ground" Max slapped the paper in his hand with that remark "My advice to you Normal, get a hobby"
"My advice is for you to leave Max before my new hobby is firing your smart mouth"
"Yes Sir" Max smiled at that, and turned around from the desk
"See ya later girl" Cindy called out behind her
"Meet up at Crash" Max agreed "After I go home and spend time with the kids"
"Aiight" Cindy smiled
Max left the building without incident, mounting her black Ninja. The revving of the engine echoed in the night air as she raised the kickstand and drove off.
The streetlights cast shadows on her face and glasses as she drove past them, several streetwalkers were already out on the curb working it. One of them whistled at Max when she passed, obviously pleased at what she saw "Work that baby girl"
Max slowed at an intersection she passed everyday, checking the traffic. The roads were clear and she pulled the bike out to cross. A rumble came in her ears and she turned at the last second to see a car speeding down what she thought was a clear path.
The driver knocked into the front of her bike sending the entire Ninja in a tailspin. She tried to regain control of it, but after several attempts the Ninja careened off the road and sideswiped into a wall, knocking her full force into the brick. She heard everything for a second before she passed out.
*****
Noises were barely audible now in her ears. She wasn't really awake, more like floating in and out of consciousness. She heard people talking, but none sounded near her.
"What the hell did she smoke?"
"Must've been good shit" some laughter
She thought she felt movement again, nearer this time. But she couldn't tell before she passed out again.
*****
FOGGLE TOWERS
"Yeah Cindy I'm sure everything's fine. Max is a big girl" Logan really didn't sound too convinced as he paced his living room talking to Cindy on the phone and watching his kids at the same time. "She must've gotten caught in traffic"
There was a knock on the front door
"It's open" Logan called out, watching the front door open and Lucia come in.
"Yeah-" Logan went back to his phone call "I'll call you if I hear anything" he hung up, looking towards Lucia.
"Shouldn't you two get going?" the older woman asked of Logan "Me and the little ones like our alone time" she smiled "Where's Max?"
"She's not here yet"
There was something in Logan's tone that worried Lucia "did she get off work already?"
"Over a half hour ago" Logan informed
"She must've gotten stuck in traffic" Lucia rationalized
"Did you?"
"I came from a different way Logan" Lucia informed, "It's more traffic the way Max goes. So I'm sure that's what happened"
"Then why don't I believe that?"
"She's you're wife honey. You're naturally gonna worry about her. I'm sure she's almost here by now." Lucia removed her coat "Why don't you go on to Crash and I'll tell Max you left when she gets here"
Logan still looked hesitant
"Go" Lucia ushered "I'll call you the second she comes in. It'll be fine"
*****
Sara panted, sitting in her car. She had very little physical strength and had no idea where the hell she managed to find some to lift and carry the 5'7 woman to her rusty box shaped Crown Victoria.
Her body slumped against the backseat, listless. There was blood on head and matted in her hair from where she had hit the brick wall head on.
She couldn't tell if anything was broken because she wasn't a doctor and the girl wore a heavy leather-riding jacket over her body.
She took a wad of paper towel from her ashtray and wiped down the unconsciousness woman's forehead. The paper towel was dirty from old stains but it was better then letting her bleed to death. She then realized that it was Max who was in the accident, and her heart skipped a few beats "Sweet Jesus" she touched Max's head "Max, Max can you hear me? It's Sara-"
She secured the paper to Max's forehead, or rather the blood congealed on it and stuck to her skin. She reached inside of her leather jacket looking for identification, and also slid the key to her Ninja inside her jacket. She couldn't take the bike with her, but it looked expensive and it would get stolen in a minute out alone on the streets. So She hauled it as far as she could behind an alleyway and covered it with old trash bags that would never be picked up, taking the key from the ignition.
The name "Max" sounded very familiar to her. Not just because they shared a hospital room two years ago, but because of something else. Suddenly it hit her, like a question she had finally been answered, by a answer man ramming into her with a freight train.
/FLASH: "Hey! You kids out here?" her father wandered around the house looking for the two girls. His eyes were enraged from having his game on TV suddenly go off, not even realizing a major terrorist action had just swept the entire Untied States.
She and Max hid behind the couch watching him search for them like he wanted to kill them.
She was crying, but she kept the tears silent, holding one finger to her lips to keep Max from saying anything
"Where the hell are you?"/
Sara blinked. What were the chances of this happening? She had not seen this girl in over ten years. She didn't think they would ever meet again. Max took the chance and left when she could. She so wanted to go with her, but by the time she realized Max was gone it was too late. Her dad really went cave man on her then. She still had the scars on her back neck and face from him knocking her around on the mirror in the bathroom.
For a long time she thought Max had abandoned her. She had never had any other sister, and she felt so betrayed by her leaving her alone with her abusive father. But all the years of rage disappeared now when she saw her lying there. Why should she blame her foster sister for escaping that terrible life and being happy? That's what she wanted herself; Max had just had courage to do it first.
Her face was so pretty now. When she had first come to live with them she strangely had shaved hair. It eventually grew to her shoulders and she wore it down all the time. Now her hair had grown out way past her collarbone, still colored a deep lustrous brown. Her eyelashes were long and thick and her lips had grown even more full then they had been as a kid, if that was even possible. She was beautiful, even with the blood on her forehead.
"Logan?" Max's head shifted, but she never opened her eyes.
She didn't say anything because she didn't know what to say. The name sounded so sweet on her lips, and trusting. She had only met Logan all of twice and she still envied Max for having a real relationship with a man who obviously loved her.
Sara dabbed at her forehead again with another napkin, still not saying anything. Max went still again, her head falling back in the same position.
She really needed a hospital, but Sara was afraid they'd ask too many questions that she couldn't answer right now, for her son's sake. She wouldn't be of any help to Max if something happened to her. And she wasn't about to just dump her in the ambulance bay. Logan didn't even know what had happened. The health care system was so bad now that it might be days before any medical staff contacted family members after an accident.
Sara put her hand in Max's jacket again, looking for anything with an address on it, because she didn't exactly have time to ask where Max lived yesterday during running away from her psycho boyfriend. She came up with something better, a wireless phone. She didn't know how to bring up the phone book memory so she just hit the redial button and hoped that it went through to someone Max knew and not some takeout place she had just called. She didn't even know the number of the penthouse, a pretty stupid move, considering her son was now sleeping there
*****
Lucia was busy reading a magazine, trying to look busy was the better word. She was worried about Max. She had only found out about her existence a year ago, but still felt a powerful connection to her daughter. Something didn't seem right. Max was never late in all the times she babysat for them. She never let on to her grandchildren how worried she was. They were like their mother, very perceptive and would pick up on even the slightest hint of it. She had been on the same ad for Pepsi for the last fifteen minutes.
The dog cocked her head at the sound of the phone ringing. Lucia looked up; the ringing was coming from the computer room. Thinking it might be Max she got up and went to answer the call.
"Max?"
"---"
"Hello?" Lucia asked after she didn't hear anyone say anything on the other end.
"You have to help her"
"Who is this?" Lucia's tone rose at that last remark. Help who?
"She got into an accident and she's bleeding a lot. Someone hit her bike-"
"Are you talking about Max?" Lucia knew it, but she had to ask "Where are you? Please tell me where you are"
"I can't take her to the hospital. He'll find me, and I can't help Max if I'm dead"
"Tell me where you are honey, please." Lucia was desperate "I'm Max's mother. I can help you"
*****
Sara went quiet /Mother, I wish I had had a real mother/ "The sign says Industry Way" she looked around to see if anyone had seen her bring Max into the car. "Tell me where you are and I'll come to you. She's already in my car."
"I think I should come down there-"
"NO!" She shouted into the phone "Please, you don't understand. I didn't hit her, it was someone else. I'm not trying to get out of medical bills. She's got a cut on her head, but she doesn't look too bad. Please tell me where you are and I'll drive there."
"Okay honey, but be careful, I don't know how badly she's been hurt. I'm at 363 Lyell Drive in Sector 5, the very top floor, penthouse."
*****
Lucia stood outside the hallway waiting, wringing her hands on the small gold crucifix that hung from a chain on her neck. She wanted to go down to the parking lot and wait but she couldn't leave the babies alone, including that little boy who was visiting them, and she didn't want to scare them by bringing them down, even though she was scared shitless herself.
She had called Logan at Crash, and heard him nearly drop his drink from what she told him. He was on his way back with Max's friend Cindy who didn't trust Logan to drive, but they weren't there yet.
Her eyes fell to footsteps, struggling footsteps coming down the hallway.
"Sweet mother of god" Lucia gasped under her breath when she saw the blonde haired girl almost falling to carry the weight of Max who was unconsciousness and bleeding.
Lucia ran to them and draped one of Max's arms around her shoulders "Bring her inside" with one hand she turned the knob and kicked the front door open.
Lucia and She laid Max on the long couch in the living room. Lucia immediately knelt down next to Max's still form
"Max sweetie, can you hear me?" she took note of the gash She said would be in her scalp. It was jagged and still filthy and leaking blood over a soaked bit of paper towel. "In the kitchen there are dish towels in that drawer by the fridge, wet one and bring it here."
Sara left obediently in a run to the kitchen. Lucia tried to fleck off the visible dust she could see coming from the wound. She was scared to remove Max's jacket because she couldn't tell if anything was broken and she could hurt her more by moving things.
Sara came back with rag and just stood watching as the older woman pressed it to Max's forehead.
Max shifted at the contact
"Max, Max sweetie can you hear me?"
"Logan-" Max said her husband's name again
"Logan's on his way baby I need you to stay awake. You got hit in the head and it could be worse if you go to sleep, stay awake okay?"
"Luc-" Max was about to say her name, but then stopped, and said something she hadn't ever said before "Mom-"
Lucia had to shove away the feelings and the shock that word brought to her and focus on Max "It's me honey, stay with me okay? You know how dangerous it can be to fall asleep with a head injury."
"Damn my head hurts" Max was still her under all the injury
"I know it does sweetie" Lucia gently reached out to stroke the hair above her injury. "But we'll take care of it okay-"
At that moment two little figures came into the living room, curious, then scared
"Mommy-" It was Lexi who spoke up first "Why is mommy asleep in day time nana?"
Lucia looked at the little girl, then at She "Take them into the nursery, they'll get scared if they see all this blood. It's the second door on the right in the hallway" she looked at her grandchildren fully "This lady's going to take you to the nursery okay? And I want you to stay there with her and color for a while." A pause "Kay?"
Sara really didn't know what to say. She never really figured kids into this equation, even though it was a perfectly natural step in marriage. She ushered the two little kids gently to the door with her hands, hoping that they wouldn't ask questions as to who she was. Thankfully the children were well behaved and walked ahead of She down the hallway to the nursery where Lexi slept. Michael was asleep in the guest room and as much as she wanted to check on him she did as she was told. She could tell if Michael was in any danger, she always had that sense.
Sara shut the door quietly before turning back to the two strangers who were brimming with a million questions and could ask them now out of sight of Lucia.
"Who are you?" Jess took the initiative and spoke first. His brown eyes looked inquiring, but also demanding, almost in interrogation as to what this stranger was doing in his home. "Why you in our house?"
"I'm somebody" She gave him the simplest answer "Me and my son are just here for a while"
"Did mommy get hurt?" Lexi talked next, but her tone was simply more scared then her brother's.
"Yeah she did" She didn't lie to them. She didn't know them well enough to find out if that sort of thing would work with them. "But she should be fine"
"How did happen?" Lexi spoke again
Sara didn't know if she should tell the gory details to such a young child, but the girl looked almost on the verge of tears and She knew what it felt like to be that little and not get a straight answer from an adult. "Do you know what a car is?"
Lexi and Jessie both shook their heads in affirmation
"Okay someone driving a car wasn't driving the way they should and they drove too fast down the road and hit your mommy on her motorcycle." Sara's voice was the same as it was when she talked to Michael, soothing, but also not treating a child like they were ignorant, there were actually very perceptive
"Did the motorcycle die?" Lexi asked
She shook her head, such was a question of a two-year-old girl. "No, it got a little banged up, but it didn't die."
"Is mommy gonna die?"
That question brought the reality back into the situation "Your mommy's strong" She comforted "She's been through a lot in her life before you two were born, and she won't let something like this lick her"
= = = =
"My god girl" Cindy saw Max before Logan as she came through the front door. She all but ran over to the couch where Max was still laying, almost deathly still, and it scared the shit out of Cindy. Max was not a still person.
Logan knelt down next to Max beside the couch, taking in all the dried blood he saw on her face and the beginning formation of blue bruises on her neck and collarbone from the contact point of her body with the wall.
Logan gingerly stroked one of Max's arms, not wanting to move it too much if there was a fracture there "Baby can you hear me?"
Max opened her eyes around the bruising in a half squinting gaze. "Logan?" her voice was hoarse
"It's me Max" Logan reassured, taking one of her hands "I'm here" her palms had road rash on them so he was careful not to irritate that. "Can you move your legs?" he turned to look down towards her torso. He let out a sigh of relief when she managed to get both legs to move enough so he could see it. "Wiggle your fingers for me sweetheart" he held out her hand, watching as she did it with each one, but when she came to her pinky finger on her right hand she couldn't do it. The digit was starting to swell and the unnatural angle it jutted out in made Logan suspect that it's broken.
"It almost worked" Max joked weakly.
Logan smiled a small smile at that, but Cindy didn't. She was still very worried about her friend. She still had remnants of a lot of blood on her body. She sucked in a breath along with Max when Logan raised her t-shirt over her torso to reveal a dark mass of blue and black bruises along her tummy and abs and a few blotches also along her ribcage.
"Baby I appreciate this-" Max gasped when Logan lightly touched a finger over her ribs to see if any were broken "But I'd like to have someone with a AMA license do the exam-" she was too sore to stroke his ego.
Logan was too worried about her to be upset at that "I'll call Bling" he got up from the couch, looking at Cindy and Lucia "Talk to her, make sure she stays awake"
"Great reason to miss work tomorrow huh?" Max said softly
This time Cindy smiled, although it was forced "I don't consider this a great reason sugah" she stroked a bit of Max's hair the same way Lucia had done before they arrived.
Max shifted her gaze to the older woman in the room "Where are the babies?"
"The woman who brought you here, she's with them in the nursery. She didn't seem shady or anything" Lucia comforted Max's gaze that wanted answers as to why a complete stranger was with her children "She drove you all the way here and carried you all the way up to the house. The kids should be fine with her. You need to worry about yourself right now hun" she leaned over and kissed the top of Max's head, whispering "thanks for calling me mom" in her ear before pulling away.
*****
ONE HOUR LATER
Bling tied off the bandage that held the splint on Max's pinky finger "It wasn't a compound break so it should heal fast" he lowered her hand down gently to the couch's surface "You do have a concussion Max," he looked at her "Not to mention three bruised ribs and bruised collarbone and various scrapes and smaller bruises over other parts of your body"
"You sure know how to put a girl at ease" even with her pain Max was forever a smart ass.
Bling wouldn't have it any other way. It would scare the pee out of him if she were quiet. He didn't quip back, but looked at her with a serious, steady gaze "You were lucky Max"
She picked up her injured hand gently, looking at the splint and feeling the swelling under it "No one told me luck would hurt like a bitch"
"Hey at least you can still feel the bitch" Bling answered, slightly humorous, but still concerned about her. She was a tough chick, but she still had gotten pretty banged up in the accident. She really needed a hospital, but the reality of that was it wasn't as easy as just coming through the ER. "You want anything else for the pain?" he only given her a local of lidocane in her finger to set the break, she didn't ask for anything else, the way she held herself though looked painful, and he didn't know if it was pride that was holding her back or past conditioning that she had to handle pain like a real soldier and not complain.
"Just aspirin" she answered "I don't want anything that makes me feel off" she lowered her hand back down by her side "Number one rule of pushing meds, it takes the edge off pain, but it makes your sense dead. As long as you hurt stuff's still workin'. All doped up your hand could fall off and you wouldn't even know it."
"At least let me give you a prescription pain pill" Bling advised "about 600 mg ibuprofen tablets. It doesn't do the healing process any good for you to be hurting all the time. Just take it slow, one at a time since you have a concussion, but it'll help."
"Thanks" her voice was sincere
Bling leaned over and kissed her forehead lightly "Not a problem girl" he pulled back to look at her "You up for having visitors?"
"Do I have a choice?" she came back
He smiled at that "I'll fill you're prescription" he stood up and walked over to a black bag sitting on the edge of the couch. Filling Max's prescription actually meant grabbing one of the many bottles of pain pills he kept on him. Pharmaceutical companies charged way to much for medicine now, so he just stocked up and gave people a free "prescription" Also he was a PT, and didn't have any medical to order meds. He just used aliases and filled the prescription claiming it was his or that it was for a friend.
Logan's form filled the spot Bling had just left "How ya doin'?" he sat down on the edge of the couch, reaching to take the hand without the splint on it.
"I've been better" she told him
He smiled for her benefit. She looked so-human, not like the super solider he thought in the beginning was indestructible. In many ways she was, but whenever she was sick or hurt the image was gone. She was just a woman who he loved, and hated to see in pain.
"Do you remember anything?" he asked
She didn't say anything for a moment or two, thinking "Not much. After I hit the building everything was so hazy. I don't even know how the hell I managed to get here"
"Lucia said there was a woman who called her and told her you were in an accident. She wanted to go down there herself, but this woman brought you here herself" Logan looked at her long and hard before continuing "Max it was Sara-" there was something in his tone that told him there was more too it then that.
"Where is she?" Max asked
"She's with the kids" Logan responded "Luc told her to watch them so she could watch you"
"Hey honey" Lucia, as if on cue came into the living room, a huge smile on her face at seeing Max awake and talking. Cindy followed right behind her with the same expression.
Lucia put her hand on Max's forehead and offered her a kiss "Glad you decided to join us again"
"It got boring where I was"
Lucia managed a small laugh, then said in all sincerity "You scared the shit outta me sweetie"
"Goes for me too" Cindy joined in next to Lucia "Had my first heart attack today girl. Some slime shit comes and puts my girl down, I about went to find their ass for a smack down, but my boo came first" she took in the wraps that Bling had done as well as the brushing itself. "Shit girl that fool laid you out hard"
Max shrugged, or shrugged as much as she could with how sore she was "Give it a few weeks, I'll bounce back. No fool ever laid me down completely."
"Amen girl" Cindy agreed "I got your back with Normal. Tell him all about it, and if fool bips his mouth off thinkin' I'm lyin' I'll drag his ass down here myself so be prepped for company tomorrow girl"
"I'll pretend I'm asleep" Max reassured. A strange face came into her line of sight. A woman standing there with blonde hair, pulled into a ponytail. She watched her standing in the hallway for a long time.
"Hey" Max called out to Sara "You the one who brought me back?"
Sara nodded, but didn't move from her spot "Yeah, I uh-you were hurt bad-"
"Thanks" Max interrupted, wanting to take away the girl's awkward moment. She still looked at the young woman, she looked so familiar, but she couldn't really place it. There was something about her face. She seemed to know her from somewhere else. "I know you"
Sara looked completely confused "Max if you don't remember we met at the same time our children were born-" Sara was trying to joke, but she was failing
"No-It's something else" Max cut in, she had a very weird sense about this "Not in the hospital-somewhere else-"
/FLASH: "This is my daughter" her father wasn't very loving when he said that, introducing his new foster child to his other child "She'll show you what you have to do"
Max stared at the girl with the blonde hair. She smiled at her, walking over to her.
"Hi, I'm glad you've come to live with us. I've never had a sister before"/
"You just look very familiar" Max went on, watching She with brown eyes
/FLASH: "Where are you two brats at?" She's father came pushing through the hallway towards She's room that she and Max shared. "I told you two to have dinner waiting when I came home!"
She stopped in her reading, terrified. She had been reading a new book she had checked out from the library and had totally lost track of time. It was six-thirty.
Before she or Max could even move the door to her room flew open and her father stood there enraged. He spied his daughter with a book and grabbed it from her "How many times do I have to tell you when to put dinner on the table you little bitch!" he grabbed her by the arm and slammed her to the floor.
Max didn't move at first, but then he started kicking She and she was scared that he was going to kill her. She grabbed at her stepfather's arm, trying to yank him off her.
He caught Max off guard and threw her against the wall. "You little shit!" he dropped She in a pile and focused his rage on Max "Don't you EVER lay a hand on me again!" he grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her up, slamming her hard into the wall and slapped her hard in the face.
Max and Lucyboth had bruises on their face from all the other times he had done this for one reason or another.
He had been drinking again; Max could smell the Bourbon on his breath. She had never done anything against him when he became violent against her and Lucy; she wanted so badly to fit in with these people and doing what she knew how to do would get her ratted back to the base.
Lucy didn't move on the floor, and her father released Max to turn back and kick Lucyagain "Get up you baby! You need to take a fuckin' punch better then that!"
Max watched him kick She again for all of two seconds, and before she realized what she was about to do she grabbed the 5'11 210 man's arm and threw him into the wall.
Before he could react she was on him, locking a hand around his throat and squeezing. But before she could do what she was about to, she heard one of the neighbors came through the door, calling out his name and hers. Max released his neck and jumped out the bedroom window
"Max!" Lucy watched her go, pulling herself to her feet/
Lucy didn't say a word, her eyes were very hard, almost misty as she remembered something.
Max turned back to Lucy with a look that said everything she couldn't. That she couldn't save her, she could only save herself./
"Lucy-" Max finally made the connection to who the woman was. She had not seen her in over ten years. She had grown up, but her eyes were what remained the same. Lucy and Sara were one in the same Sara WAS Lucy. They had the same eyes, same bone structure, she had changed her name to Sara- but her father, he wasn't named Michael. Sara said she had named her son after her dad. Lucy's bastard father had been named Peter
"You left me with him Max" Sara went on, lost in her memory "They didn't keep daddy in jail but over night. Then he came home and broke my arm and my nose. He said he had to keep me from running away like that bitch I should've told him to take in"
"Lucy -" Max tried to say something
"I'm Sara!" Sara was in a rage "SARA!" "My son is Michael. I told you I named him after daddy. Peter Michael Wallace. My Michael, my son, daddy can't hurt him if he has his name. NO ONE can hurt him if he has my father's name. No one hurts my father. No one hurt daddy right up till the day he died." Sara turned and left then, heading back into the guest room, slamming the door.
Her body sunk to the floor and she cried into her hands.
Michael had woken up, and looked at his mother crying. He simply got up off the bed, and like he had done so many times before crawled into her lap and hugged her tightly while she sobbed.
*****
8 AM
THE NEXT MORNING
Max's concussion caused her to fall asleep early on the couch. So after everyone had gone to their respective homes she didn't even feel Logan pick her up off the couch and place her in their bed, nor did she hear him allowing Sara a spot in their guest room to sleep for the night.
Sara put up a fight, she didn't belong with this family. Max and her had known each other so long ago that the ties were gone now. But Logan had insisted so much that she finally gave in and fell asleep a few hours after Max in her clothes on top of the bed, clinging to Michael like a lifeline.
Max's eyes opened, even though they didn't want too, to a knock at the front door. A knock from a caller who paid visits at eight freakin' o' clock in the morning.
Before she even had the chance to move Logan got up from his side of the bed, replacing the covers back over her body where they fell from his movement. "I got it"
She didn't say anything, but opened her eyes and lay there listening alone in their bed to who was here at this god-forsaken hour.
Logan walked into his living room in a black set of men's pajamas and his red robe, stepping over to his front door in bare feet, a little on alert because no one usually came by this early.
Opening his door revealed Cindy standing there looking highly upset, though it wasn't directed at him but rather at the person she had brought with her.
"I call it the way I see it" were Cindy's first words to Logan "Sorry for doin' this boy, but like I said there are those among us who don't believe his employees can get knocked around and hafta miss work" she stepped inside the penthouse, all but shooting Regan Ronald Normal who had followed her there like a bad disease.
"I have a business to maintain missy" Normal argued "And as such I can't have my employees taking off when ever the impulse strikes"
"Boy for the last time my girl got hit by a car" Cindy was getting really pissed. She had just spent a ride with him in her beat up car all the way up here. She wasn't in the mood. "That's 2,000 pounds of steel going at 65 miles an hour, do the freakin' math! She's didn't get killed but cars can still knock a person around if they hit them. And you're here tryin' to shake a sistah down because she didn't decide to limp down to work with broken bones?"
"So you say" Normal argued "I have about as much trust for you kids as I do for Bill Clinton, you all try to get out of work. I need to know if this is one of those times"
"One of those times for you to get your brain checked out for this whacked out idea" Cindy shot back
Max could hear everything through the bedroom door, and decided to make an appearance to finally get Normal to shut up about thinking she was just pretending to have been in an accident.
She didn't put on a fake dramatic show for Normal coming out into the living room; she didn't have too. Her entire body was sore; the adrenaline and shock of yesterday was a distant memory. She did her best to keep her composure and not looking for pity, but she still was limping badly from trying to walk and manage the pain of bruised ribs and a bruised collarbone at the same time.
Cindy looked surprised to see Max even up and around. But that was Max; she wouldn't sit still even if her legs were cut off at the knees. "Girl you should be lyin' down"
"I wanted a change of scenery," Max joked making her way slowly to the couch. She turned a look to Normal who was standing in front of her sofa "You mind movin' so I can sit before my legs give?"
Normal didn't move but two inches but the look on his face had changed dramatically when he saw how badly he had been proven wrong.
Max hissed under her breath when she sat in soft cushions of the sofa. Her muscles screamed at her for making them move so quickly after what had happened to them.
"How big of a car was it?" Normal had changed his tune dramatically
"I didn't get the chance to look" Max replied. She settled into the cushions and fixed him with a hard look that told him to bip it up his own ass "Did you want something else?" she wasn't in the mood to be scrutinized.
For once Normal didn't say anything "You need workers' leave?"
Max fixed him with almost a bedazzled gazed "We actually HAVE that?" she would've laughed if it didn't hurt so much.
"Four days"
"How about I quit now and get my spot filled with someone else who can't work?"
"Okay five" Normal haggled
Max held up her pinky, showing him the splint on it "This isn't on here for decoration"
"You need more then a broken finger-" he was interrupted when she lifted up her shirt, not to flash him, god no, but to show him the bruises on her torso and the taping on her ribs.
"Fine twelve days, but that's it" Normal fixed her with a glare, or tried too anyway. She actually looked hurt this one, and even HE couldn't argue with that. "Now I have to get back before another one of you kids goes out and busts up something else and puts me out of a job-"
"Mommy-" This was Jess who had come to stand beside Max "Why did he call you a kid?"
"We're all kids at heart baby," Max told him, roughing up his hair.
"Some more then others" Cindy returned, glancing at her and Max's boss. She walked over to him "C'mon time to bip bip bip and let my girl get her rest" she grabbed Normal by the arm. "Late boo." Cindy left out the door.
Max watched them go with a half asleep gaze. "Is Lu-" she stopped, in a correction she had just now understood, and was still trying to understand "SARA, still asleep?"
"She's been asleep since one" Logan answered, sharing a look with her. This was all new to him too. The woman he had met almost three years ago had been Max's foster sister, the same sister who had undergone the brutal treatment by her father with Max. And now it was happening again, with Sara's boyfriend, the father of her son; a cycle of abuse that was very hard to break.
"I should've left her there Logan" Max blinked, saying all of that before she finished opening her eyes. "She was only a kid-"
"So were you" Logan reminded
"But I was stronger then that" Max was arguing in full passion despite her injuries. "I left her because the "mission" had gotten too hot and look what happened. She left her father's house only to meet another man who was just like him, a world she can't get out of. It's not gonna stop cause she's still the little girl who watched her daddy beat her up and couldn't do a damn thing about it except take it."
"She left her boyfriend" Logan interjected "She's doing something about it now"
"Yeah cause he tried to kill her" Max looked at him with eyes that knew. "It was a basic survival instinct to protect her son, she doesn't care about her own life. If it wasn't for Michael-" Max could've continued with that sentence, and no doubt would've but Sara came out from the guest bedroom she had been sleeping in with her son at that moment. Her eyes were very emotionless, not cold or unfeeling, but more of a sad wary look. Such was a woman who had been through seven kinds of hell.
"How's Michael?" Max asked this so non-chalant that Logan looked at he like she had put her shirt on backwards.
"He's sleeping" emotionless was Sara down to a tee; she had years of practice. She could go from the rage she expressed yesterday to a poker face in the blink of an eye "We don't do much of that now a days" a dry laugh forced it's way to her throat, one void of any kind of humor. She walked so that the balls of her feet rattled the wooden boards of the floor and made them creek ever so slightly. "He hits me, I told you" she stopped in front of Max "Never really hard, only bruises and once a broken finger. But I don't let him touch Michael. He tries but I NEVER let him touch my son"
"Michael must know this" Logan said with a gentle firmness "He has too"
"I do the best I can ya know?" Sara laughed again, only this one was terribly sad and desolate a laugh caught in a place of only crying. "If I try and take Michael and run he'll come after us, he's done it before, more times then I can count." She took a breath, a short but significant one "He wants to kill me." Sara looked so calm for what she was saying, though tears were now pooling around her eyes "He wants Michael and knows I won't let him have him. I've filed a restraining order, changed our locks phone number, moved three times, had Michael different clothes to school then what he had in the car, worn wigs but it never works" this time her eyes were dead serious "I lied before. I do EVERYTHING I have to do to protect my son. If I piss him off-there won't be ANYONE to protect Michael."
"Does he sleep with you?" Logan asked, asked about Michael sleeping with Sara.
She nodded and his suspicions and fears were confirmed about what 'everything' meant for Sara protecting Michael from harm. "He never wakes up when it happens-"
"Sara-" Max had to say something, something about all this. About all the things that Lucy put up with as a girl, and what Sara, who use to be called "Lucy" puts up with now.
"I have to Maxie" she called her Maxie, like she used to do after her father left them bruised and scared locked in her room "He'll hurt Michael. I don't care what happens to me, it's only my body-
a tear hit the floor. "It's only my body. If I can protect Michael from ever having to face that I will." She started to leave, barely hearing Max's words which caught her at the end.
"You have to protect yourself for him" her eyes and Sara's were almost one in the same "You said it yourself."
Sara didn't reply and instead disappeared to the bedroom, not looking back. Michael was still asleep on the queen-sized bed in the guest room; his little body almost swamped in the blue green comforter. She crept quietly over to the bed, sitting on the edge, the mattress making a barely audible creaking noise from the weight of her body.
He looked so peaceful when he slept, so innocent. When her boyfriend Rodger would be there she would look at Michael's face, seeing it through the half-light of the Superman shaped night light she kept plugged in for him. With every thing he did to her she never took her eyes off of her son, it kept her grounded. It made her make it through the hell, looking at the reason she endured it all. It helped her pick up and go one, because Michael needed her and she had to survive-for him.
She touched his cheek, tracing the light soft skin delicately with one finger. He had Rodger's cheekbones, his color hair, but he had her eyes. That was the one thing she had wanted most when he was born. She loved her son, no matter the sadness and pains her conception partner brought to her life, but she didn't want to see Rodger's look in her child's gaze. Jerry's eyes were just like her daddy's, strong, but very demanding. Something she had painfully sought comfort in. She knew what to expect with men like them, knew what they would and wouldn't do, so she was prepared. Though she knew it really wasn't a comfort thing, but a terrible dependency. Michael's eyes were her eyes, strong, delicate, sad, scared. She could relate to so much in his young gaze. He was one of her only friends left, her child. It was heartbreaking for her to have her son carry such a burden as being his mother's only joy and friend in life, but after Max left she had no reason to hope until Michael came along.
She might have killed herself, might have just ended it all if she didn't find out she was carrying him. Seeing him in the hospital, alive, breathing; a creation from her own body had made up her mind to go on living for her son.
"Mommy?" it was a slight whisper, a delicate question in a half asleep state.
She stroked his umber brown hair "Right here baby, you can sleep a bit longer" she kissed him where his hair gave way into his forehead.
Her voice comforted him and he fell back asleep.
*****
3:20 PM
Logan set down the papers in his hand on the coffee table. He looked to the couch and one hand hovered over Max's body. The hand wandered in the air, following just above the curves of her form, finally settling on the skin of her forehead, stroking it gently as he had done many nights and had done on that first night of comforting her seizures on this same couch so long ago.
Unlike the first time, he did more then just touch her forehead, and leaned over to kiss her. Cause she was his wife after all, and any excuse to kiss her would be justified.
Her eyes opened, she was very perceptive this one, and she looked at him "Hey"
"Hey yourself" came the old adage "How are you feeling?"
"Sore" she was honest, blinking a few times to clear gunk from her eyes "Guess that's how you're suppose to feel when you get hit by a car" she shifted her body, sliding one leg off the couch with a wince, then the other one.
"Whoa where are you going?" Logan put a hand on her shoulder, trying to stop her "You need to take it easy baby"
"I gotta pee" Max informed him "So unless you're hiding a catheter behind you're back I can't do this any other way." She was now standing up completely and taking slow ginger steps down the hallway, walking like someone who had gone one on one with a heavy weight champion and lost.
"You could fall-" Logan supported her arm, trying to help her.
"I can pick myself up too" Max corrected. They were married, but she didn't want anyone to do something she could even remotely do herself. "I can also still walk"
"It's not about you being able to walk Max," her words echoed off his lips in his context. She had said this to him when he had that first failed attempt to use the exoskeleton on the anniversary of them first meeting.
"Stand outside the door if ya want too" Max finally agreed "You've seen me naked before baby but I gotta draw the line somewhere" she smiled to let him know she was kidding.
"How about you just fall against the door if you're in trouble?" Logan suggested, making a joke
She turned to him with a mock glare on her face "How about you kiss my ass?"
"Later sweetheart" his look wasn't phony.
He waited diligently outside the hallway bathroom like he said he would. A door opened further down the hallway and Sara entered again, this time holding Michael by the hand. She stopped a few inches behind Logan.
"Guess there's a line" she smiled at Michael, giving an indication as to what they were doing there.
Logan looked to the little boy, he had such blue eyes, like his own, but a slightly more muted robins' egg blue, he did have the look of his mother. He smiled to the child, who looked at him timidly, but without fear or even joy, without any emotion all together. His eyes were just expressionless, but then something glimmered in them, a look of childish wonder passed through them, and he smiled at the man.
Logan couldn't help but smile back at that genuine look of happiness on the child's face. A minute or two later Max came out of the bathroom, no worse for wear then when she had gone inside.
"See?" she looked towards her husband, with a look of jest in her eyes "Did it like a big girl and everything" her eyes caught sight of Sara and Michael, and she addressed the younger of the two "Need to get in here kiddo?"
Michael made no hesitation to nod at Max, which showed that he really had no fear with women, only with men, one man in particular.
Sara looked at Max, holding onto her son's hand tightly "How are you Maxie?"
Max took a moment to take stock of her body, and answered like she always did, honestly "I'll live" she offered a smile to Sara, who didn't smile back but the feeling was there. "You doin' okay Luc-Sara?" she caught herself on that remark, almost like a Freudian slip, almost. Sara didn't answer, and Max didn't expect her too. "Better get in there before you loose your down payment" she made a joke about what Michael might do if they didn't get in the bathroom in time.
Sara smiled at this "Yeah, why get kicked out of a good thing?" she disappeared after that remark with Michael and the bathroom door closed. She turned to Logan "Told ya all along I wouldn't fall. I can handle myself"
"I've always known that baby," Logan agreed. There was a pause there to fill space "So what do you want for breakfast?"
"Food" Max remarked flippantly
Logan looked at her "Ha ha. How about something to drink with that food?"
She shot him the same look "Guess it's okay to go nuts once in a while"
Max sat at the kitchen table, sipping from a coffee cup while Logan was in the kitchen cooking. She pretended to be interested in reading the Seattle newspaper in front of her. It made a very interesting picture of a nineteen fifty's American domestic house scene except for the man and woman being in opposite ends of the scope.
The sound of the eggs flipping over was the only noise that echoed in the room besides the rustling of the newspaper as Max turned the pages. Soon a plate of eggs and bacon was set in front of her eyes.
She looked down on it with satisfaction, almost like she was a child and had a received a new toy, almost, except it looked more like she had just gotten really good sex and was basking in the after glow of it all. She didn't say anything, but her killer smile was enough to get Logan to understand she appreciated it.
The two guest figures emerged from the hallway, with Michael being led by the hands of Sara, who despite everything was wearing a warm smile on her face if only to show Michael that sometimes people have to be brave in harsh moments.
"You guys hungry?" Logan held up the spatula he was holding in his right hand like a scepter, gesturing it towards the frying pan on the stove eye.
Sara didn't say anything, but Michael looked with longing eyes at the food being cooked, like the last meal he had received had only been poison and he had forgotten what real food tasted like.
Logan didn't say a word as he scoped up some more eggs into a white plate with the red stripe on the edge and handed it to the little boy, who took it in both hands to hold the weight of it with his small strength.
"Sit over here" Max patted the seat next to her gently to coax the child into coming over. She smiled non-threateningly, setting down her newspaper and looking at the boy with the same warm eyes she reserved for her own children. He walked slowly over to her, with very big eyes, grasping tightly to his plate.
Max took it from him with a careful hand to aid him in setting it on the table. She handed him a fork and gave him another motherly smile watching him start to shovel the scrambled eggs into his tiny mouth.
Her own children had finished breakfast long ago and were now at their respective places. Jess had begun to go to preschool, in the same place Case had gone, minus "Uncle Donald" trying to work his fucked up magic on her baby. Whatever he was, she still didn't trust him with her children, creator or not, no matter how much he had "changed" Lexi was on a play date, with interestingly enough Asha's five year old niece Suzette. Asha had completely forgotten about babysitting the child, mostly being wrapped up in herself and Zack so much so when her sister-in-law reminded her of it she just about hit the roof. It reminded Max of the time Logan had to baby sit once before they were married (note to readers: I'm talking about Bitsy's child, I know the timeline is off, but bare with it..just pretend...heehee) He had been a major wreck.
Max had suggested that Lexi come along to, basically keep Asha sane. The little girl easily made friends with the other child when Max had dropped her off at Asha's apartment and had coaxed the other girl into a fun game of make believe and coloring, leaving Asha somewhat befuddled but content that she wasn't going to loose her apartment and her sanity to a day of babysitting two little girls. Max had left the woman on the phone with her brother watching the two girls play "spy" around Asha's modestly decorated living room.
This had been going on for a few weeks now, the children being out of the house, so it was kind of a welcome change to have a little one in the house again, doing all the things their own kids did when they spent twenty four hours a day with them.
Michael finished his eggs in quick order and looked at the empty plate so longingly until Max pushed the remainder of her eggs onto his plate.
"Thank you" it was the first words he had spoken to Max since he had arrived at the penthouse yesterday, and even now with the four years of experience she had raising her own kids, it made her puddle just the same
Max put a hand out to smooth down his hair, gently at first to gauge his reaction on it. When he didn't pull away, she touched the brown hair with a smooth stroke, ignoring the pain it produced. "You're very welcome"
*****
SEATTLE
BOKER BAR
"Hey!" the man entered the dimly lit bar, though not with enough gusto to interrupt the football game that was blasting on the suspended TV overhead.
Not getting the reaction he wanted made him pissier and he picked up an empty Heineken bottle and threw it against the wooden wall to illustrate his own frustration.
A few patrons then turned upsettingingly away from the football on TV then to look at the idiot who dared interrupt their Pre-Pulse American past time.
A very heavy set pale white man stood up from one of the bar stools with an even more enraged look on his face the man who interrupted the game. "You got a problem prick? Cause we got a game going on" he walked to him in a way that threatened, like a wolf on the prowl.
The man held up a picture, pulling it out from his black jacket pocket and brandishing it out for the small gathering of random men to see. "You seen him?" he held up an image of a small child, smiling, a professional photograph taken a Christmas time with a fake tree background and a smiling cardboard cut out of Rudolph the Red Nosed Rein Deer. The boy looked to be about two in the photograph with a large smile showing all teeth and dressed in a red sweater and blue jeans.
"Cept he's older now, like four. His mom took him from me and I want to get him back"
The man who wanted to fight with him looked at the photograph for a few seconds, whether or not he was actually looking at it or just faking it, there was no indication, but he did a good show if it was just a fake. "No man. I don't spend time looking at kids. I'm not your old lady"
"I just want to know where my kid is man" he responded, tucking the picture back in his jacket, and blinked.
"Lady came by here a few days ago with a kid" The barkeep looked at him, now breaking his silence. "Young nice body,"
This got his attention "Was the kid a boy?"
"I told you man I didn't pay attention" the barkeep argued while he wiped his filthy counter with one a white rag that was more holes then cloth. "Cept to the woman, she had a damn hot package, all fitted out big knockers, brown hair"
"Where'd she go?"
"She never came inside man how the hell should I know?" the barkeep had stopped wiping the bar and just sat with the rag poised in his hand. "She was driving this red car, nice little sporty thing and the kid was with her, across at that corner market."
"I saw her" the fat white man spoke up "Hot chick is right. She was here yesterday, on a motorcycle and got sideswiped by some car, shame with a body like that" His beady brown eyes were almost black under a head of red/brown hair that was receding in the back under a white Florida Marlins baseball cap
"Was the boy with her?" the man was relentless
The guy with the baseball cap took a moment to think "No, she couldn't fit a kid on that bike. She got splattered pretty good though. The game came back on a few seconds after so I kinda lost interest, and then I turned and she was gone, some boxy car was driving off after that, mighta been her pimp"
"A red car?"
"Fuck man what are you a cop?" the guy took a long swig of his now warm iceless beer "I don't keep tabs on EVERYTHING" his beer mug slammed on the wooden bar with a gentle thump, moving around the water ring that was already there.
The other man blinked again "Look if any of you know anything, I'd come forward or I'd stop looking all googly eyed at me"
No one made a sound "Told you man, I don't know where she went" it was the voice of the barkeep who blinked too, a cruddy blink since he had so much gunk caught between his eyelids.
The man's face turned an even darker shade of red and he turned and stormed out of the bar then without a word. On his way down the alley he wandered off into an alleyway, and stumbled a bit, tripping on a couple of trash bags, but swearing as he hit something hard.
"Fuck it!" he picked himself off from where he had landed on his ass and looked over to what the hell had made him loose his balance. There was something hard, black and chrome lying under the large pile of trash and debris. He pulled the garbage away to reveal the tale end of a motorcycle sticking up through the plastic trash bags.
/"She was riding here yesterday on a motorcycle and got sideswiped by some car"/
A cynical smile came across his face as he pulled out a cellular phone and dialed a local number. The wind blew through his black hair as he waited for the call to connect "Yeah hi, I found a motorcycle abandoned in an alleyway and I'd like to have the owner fined for breaking Seattle Penal Rubbish code 23.92-" He laughed for a moment "No I'm not a cop, I just keep up with the law. Yeah-" one hand reached to scratch his head "It's just a hobby." He turned to look at the tag on the bike "The license number is 34-234B. Sure I'll hang on doll" he hummed to himself "Cay-sera-sera" of all things /"Cay-sera-sera-whatever-will-be-will-be-the-future-looks-bright-to-"/ "Yes? You say that there's NO record of a bike with this tag? That can't be if it's issued it HAS to belong to someone. It's some kind of sport's bike, a Ninja I think, and black- "he sighed this time, frustrated, and pissed off" I'll hang on "he muttered 'bitch' under his breath while he waited to fake sweet talk the woman again "There was a bike like matching this description confiscated by Sector Police before?" a smile was back "Who owned it? You have a last address?" the smile grew larger.
Rodger always like bikes, he had worked in a bike shop. That's how he knew so much, and how he had met that super fine bitch who had taken his son away from him. She had been a good hump from the start but she had always had a way to fuck his buttons. But that was all about to correct itself.
*****
SECTOR 10
Cindy sat on the couch in a maroon and black leopard printed top painting her toenails a deep purple. Her thoughts were so entranced into concentrating on the nails propped up on the coffee table that she barely missed the knock at the door. "Hold up" she picked up the remote beside her bottle of nail polish and turned down the TV to a dull muted sound.
The knocking grew louder
"I said hold up!" Cindy's voice was getting 'Ms. Thang and don't you uh-uh me' tone. She stood up and waddled with cotton and wet toenails to answer the front door.
Upon opening it the face of a man greeted her, a strange man, a creepy man.
"Look sugah whatever you're sellin' Original Cindy ain't buyin. So you can just take your Amway, Avon sellin' vaccume cleanin' trip somewhere else-'" she went to shut the door but the man pushed it in, hard
"Now hold up with that whack crap!" Cindy stated, making her presence known, holding the door tighter with one shoulder that was bare because she was wearing a purple tank top.
"Where is she?" the man knocked in the door all the way, making Cindy fly backwards and hit her butt hard on the floor, the cotton falling off her toenails and scattering around her bare feet like tiny little snow balls.
Cindy scrambled to her feet and grabbed the first thing that was handy to her, a serrated kitchen knife from off the counter, holding it out in front of her in a position of attack "Original Cindy's the only 'she' around here whacko and you better get the hell outta her house before SHE breaks your ass!"
"Where are you hiding the kid?"
Cindy was still confused "What kid? Freako I'm ain't got no seeds, I'm straight up lesbian and even if I was you'd never get a nasty ass hand on a child!" the knife blade lunged, missing, but keeping safety distance between this freak and herself.
"I know she got in that motorcycle accident bitch!" he came closer, but Cindy kept her distance with the knife, lunging again and this time hitting the flesh of the man's arm.
He flinched, but the action didn't really faze him, he was forever relentless in his fury. He grabbed Cindy and shoved her onto the counter. "I know she lived here-" he grabbed her by the neck about to choke her.
"Surprise!" a voice made the two people in the room turn and made the person who said it gasp.
In an action of complete shock Kendra dropped her hands, dropped her Dior knock off hand bag and screamed. Before she got the chance to get the words out Walter was in the room with a gun aimed on Cindy's attacker. He was in full riot gear, which made him look ridiculous for this basic low risk task.
Walter screamed like a true cop "Back away from her!" he fired a warning shot in the air.
The man flinched at the noise and released Cindy, only out of worry of being shot "Tell me where she is bitch!"
Walter grabbed the man by the arm, pulling him away from Cindy. He fought back like a bear, punching the sector cop in the stomach. Walter gasped, doubling down to his knees
"Oh god baby-" Kendra exclaimed, but really made no move do to anything. She was still kind of a wuss about things like this, a girlie girl.
Walter struck the man in the face. Blood gushed out of his nose and hit his uniform shirt, spattering it with crimson "That's enough!" Walter reached for his handcuffs, trying to pull them on the man, but being older then him he was overpowered and thrown to the floor, the handcuffs clattering around him like Cindy's cotton balls had done earlier.
"Where is she? That bitch has my kid! Her motorcycle was traced to your address you slut!" he slapped Cindy hard in the face, making her fall back again. This time she caught herself on the coffee table.
"Look calm down okay?" This time Kendra tried to do something besides play damsel in distress "We don't know about any kid. She doesn't know either-"
"I want my boy back. That bitch has my boy-" the man spied a piece of mail on Cindy's coffee table, something that read: "Max 363 Lyell" on the return address. He didn't say anything, but there was a change in his gaze, a dangerous change, one that was about to commit one of the seven deadly sins.
It suddenly dawned on Cindy what was happening, and she turned tail to run into her bedroom while the man was distracted with Kendra. She grabbed her phone off her bed and went into her closet dialing the auto dialer number one. It rang twice, three times-the bedroom door opened and Cindy went quiet, shrinking in the back of her closet, not making a sound. Her favorite red sling back dress brushed against her face and she had to keep from sneezing because it was made from cashmiere The closet door flew open a few seconds later, the idiot was an idiot, but he found her
"Leave me alone fool!" Cindy hit him in the head with the phone, which did stun him and clawed her way out of the closet, making sure to hang up the call so he couldn't find out where she was calling too.
This time he didn't go after her but ran out of the apartment. Kendra immediately raced over to Cindy, her eyes were wide, mascara running around the sides of her lids, making her look like a raccoon the prowl. And that would have been enough to be funny if the situation wasn't so damn serious"Oh god are you okay? What the hell was that?"
"Not now hun" Cindy grabbed her phone, pulling herself to her feet and dialed the number again.
Walter was still standing there, gun in the air, calling on his radio for backup. Cindy had a million and one questions for Kendra coming back but right now her mind was somewhere more important
This time someone picked up.
"Max" Cindy's voice was frantic, but hurrying along to get in her end of the conversation "Some whack boy was here, he's looking for your girl. Get her out of the house"
"How does he know where I live?" Max wanted to know
"I'd never give it away normally sugah, but freak ass boy just grabbed some mail and found his own 411"
"I'm on it" Max said, "You okay? Did he hurt you?"
"I've been better boo, but I'm worried about him hurtin' you, you're not exactly up to par."
"I've handled worse flat on my ass" Max assured her "I'd say bye, but this is not one of those moments" she disconnected the call, looking to Logan who was in the living room, paying attention to her talking on the phone. "Get them out and under lock down" she talked like a soldier to Logan about putting Sara and Michael in hiding. "The bedroom, lock them in, best we can do on short notice."
"Take them next door" Logan corrected, "Mrs. Moreno went to visit her daughter out of town and asked me to water her plants" he tossed Max the key, and she caught it in one hand.
"I'm not running" Sara stood beside Michael picking him up off the chair he had been sitting in.
"It's just next door" Max didn't pay attention to her remark "We gotta get you two outta here"
"No Maxie" Sara looked the other woman dead in the eye "Daddy never let me run away. He always told me to stay" her hand not clutching her son's was balled into a fist so tight that the nails were digging into it and making her whole palm red. "If he wants to kill me he'll eventually do it-" she put her face to her son, holding his head to hers with one fierce loving hand, then she looked at the boy with such love that there was none like it before or after on any human face, except for the Christian believers who saw the face of Jesus and it touched them.
Without a sound or another movement Sara kissed Michael as hard and deep and motherly as she could. "You know mommy loves you very much baby right?" she stroked his hair again
Michael just nodded at her, indifferent; he already knew she loved him.
"Okay" she kissed him again, a kiss Max read as something to remember her by, in case. She looked to Max with the look that only one mother to another could understand "Take him into that other apartment. If Rodger wants to find me, he'll find me here, but he's not getting my son"
Max picked up the boy from Sara's arms "Wanna go on a great adventure kiddo?" she headed the boy out of the room and out the door to the apartment of Mrs. Moreno. She had no sooner started limping inside the building and shut the door when the sound of the elevator on their floor opened, like it was a staged skit on some dramatic TV show about their lives.
Inside the apartment Logan opened the drawer to his computer desk and picked up his gun, unlocking the safety from it, again like it was staged and he was on a TV show. Like that could ever happen, TV about a woman who escaped from a secret government facility.
The door didn't open like a normal door it was busted open, and a dark haired man entered. He eyed the penthouse only briefly, before settling his eyes on the woman.
"Where is he skank?" Before he could lunge Logan aimed the gun at him "Unless you want this to end badly I suggest you turn around and leave"
"Naw this ain't gonna end badly prick" 'Rodger' Sara's boyfriend finally had a name "Cause Sara's gonna give me what's mine."
"You were never a father to him and now you want him?" Sara finally spoke out for herself, eyeing her ex warily and with frightened eyes. She looked like half feral wild cat have caged rabbit.
"Yeah I want him, he's half my kid bitch! You have no right to keep him from me!"
"What do you want with him Rodger?" Sara did her best to stand up for herself, trying to break the cycle that started a long time ago.
/FLASH: "What do you want with her daddy?" Lucy looked to her father who was trying to drag Max out of bed, who had been weakened by seizures that night.
Lucy's father grabbed the girl by her shirt and pulled her up "She needs to learn her place"/
"He needs a man to show him his place" at that moment Rodger's eyes and her father's eyes were exactly the same.
Someone tapped Rodger on the shoulder and he turned around in time to face Max's fist punching him in the face. Rodger reeled back and landed on the floor, blood dripping out of his noise "You didn't need a man to show you yours" she looked down at him on his ass.
Rodger jumped up and looked at her hatefully "You bitch!" he grabbed her by the shoulder and
Max reeled around and snatched his arm and threw him back down "You also wanna watch who you call a bitch"
Rodger kicked her legs out from under her and because of her weakened condition she fell, landing hard on the floor.
"I know whose the bitch!" he left her there pulling out gun of his own and going for Sara "Once you're gone, you can't tell me I can't have my son" he grabbed her by the neck and pointed the gun at her chest "What's mine is mine." His hands found the fly of her jeans "Though I wouldn't mind doin' ya one time before ya hafta take the train to another slam city" his hands reached out to grab her crotch, then he pointed the gun at it when she resisted "You don't want to share kids with me, I'll fix it so you can't have kids at all-" the gun when off, and in a flurry of activity Rodger was jumped on by Max and Sara was knocked out of the way, and both women were thrown to the floor, the off shot bullet had hit Sara in her thigh
Logan grabbed the gun before Rodger could, pointing it and his own at Rodger's face "Don't move!"
"Freeze!" everyone's timing seemed to be perfect because Kendra's cop boyfriend chose that moment to come in brandishing his gun and still in his riot gear "Get down you punk monkey! You're not getting the run on me this time! PUT YOUR HANDS UP!" Walter was very assertive; one of the reasons Kendra probably liked him.
With Rodger being handled by Walter Logan dropped his gun and knelt next to Max who to his horror, had started seizing again, after a year and a half of nothing
"Max!" he pulled her body off of Lucy, but Max protested, "She's bleeding hard from her femoral artery, she needs a doctor-" her hands were shaking but she held them onto Sara's bleeding calf. "She could loose too much blood-" the rest of the words were lost on her own shaking.
"You need meds-" Logan couldn't believe that he had just thrown out the expired bottle. Max hadn't had seizures in over a year.
"God Max-" Kendra was more worried now then happy at seeing her old friend "Man we could've met better"
Max turned her head towards Kendra's voice "Hey girl-you came back for the party-" her shaking happened again "I would've baked a cake or something"
"We don't have any more tryptophan-" Logan cut into the conversation. "Dammit, why did I through out that bottle-" all his scolding didn't do anything to lessen his worry as he watched his wife shake in his arms.
"Tinga" he suddenly remembered a vital part of information "She has some-"
"Yeah I need an ambulance to 363 Lyell, there's been a woman shot here-" Cindy seemed to be taking charge of the situation in the midst of this chaos and the sounds of Rodger being handcuffed. "Well tell them to hurry the hell up!" she hung up the phone and looked worridly to Max. "Take her Logan to her sistah, I'll stay here with Sara until the meds come rollin'"
Logan didn't say anything, the worry was still there. Max was shaking so bad that he had to pick her up in his arms and carry her out the door. It would be faster for him to drive there then for Tinga to come.
*****
"Tinga?"
"Logan?"
"Something's wrong. We need your tryp"
"What? Why?"
"Max is seizing"
"How long?"
"Ten minutes now. They haven't been letting up. God she's so cold-"
"I'll get it Logan-"
"I'm on my way over to your place"
"I'm waiting"
*****
"What do we have?" the medic dropped his kit beside Sara, looking at the wound in her leg, yet still asking what was the problem
"She got shot miracle worker" Cindy let him know straight out "Do your job and quit asking dumb questions!"
Another medic opened up the kit, looking at the bullet in Sara's thigh. The door to the apartment creaked open, revealing the face of Michael looking inside
"Mommy-" he called to Sara, but he still couldn't see her.
Sara was panting from the pain, but still looked to her son "Oh god-" a raspy breath "Please-" her eyes were pleading towards Cindy "Please don't let him see me, it'll scare him-"
"Mommy-" it was too late.
Cindy picked up the little boy who struggled against her "It's okay boo. Mommy will be okay-"
"Mommy!"
*****
"Max!" Charlie opened his front door with a gasp when he saw how pale his sister-in-law looked being carried in their apartment by Logan.
Tinga rushed forward, taking charge of the situation. She felt Max's pulse, wiping some sweat off her sister's brow in the process "Put her on the couch"
Tinga knelt down next to Max's shaking body, injecting a needle into her arm, liquid tryptophan, also taking in all the brusing around her body "Damn, what the hell happened to you baby sister?" the needle went in.
*****
"Start her on a IV drip, push 20 cc's of Demerol for pain" the medic stuck the IV in Sara's arm as she was being wheeled outside on the stretcher
Cindy held onto Michael, who had finally calmed down enough to let the woman hold him.
"Where's mommy going?" Michael looked wild eyed at the retreating form of his mother
"She'll be okay" Cindy rubbed Michael's back, talking soothing to him like he was her own son
*****
"You'll be okay Maxie" Tinga rubbed her sister's forehead with a wet rag, smoothing down her brown hair. She stuck a thermometer in Max's ear and after pulling it out observed the temperature for a moment, a long moment
Logan looked worried from his spot next to his wife on the black and red sofa. Extremely worried "What is it?"
Tinga looked from Max to Logan, and then back to Max. The two sisters shared a look "Temps 99.6" Tinga blinked "Are you on your time?"
Max gave a half nod, sharing something that only she and Tinga seemed to know about.
"On what?" Logan was way past antsy and was heading towards pissed "What the hell is going on?"
Tinga looked up to her brother in law "Her temps up slightly, her seizures are back. Her body is getting shocked with something it hasn't dealt with in a while. Her serration is low again because it's being redirected towards one place" Tinga's brown eyes locked on his, her long ponytail unwavering
"What the hell are you saying?" Logan wasn't anymore enlightened
"She's pregnant" Tinga finally came out and said it
*****
"Negative on the pregnancy" The RN looked at the test
"Good" the doctor looked over to Sara who was on the gurney "That means we don't have to go lenient on the drips for this procedure" he put his face right up to Sara "Ma'am we need to take you to the OR to repair the damage to your leg. Is there anyone you'd like me to call?" the doctor's brown hair was concealed in his cap.
Sara shook her head as best she could, looking up to the doctor with bleary pained eyes "My son, he's outside, please talk to him if I-"
"You'll be fine ma'am. The tear isn't that bad" the doctor sounded reassuring to her while the OR set up for the surgery.
*****
"You look about five weeks along Maxie. I don't see any tears in the sac or any dissattachements of the placenta from the uterus-"The whir of a sonogram machine was heard in Tinga's apartment and the face of Syl was right next to it. Being a midwife paid off very well. "Always seem to forget that Manticore moms always start loosing serration after the first month" Syl came over after Tinga called, pulling the sonogram machine, actually stealing it from the hospital where she worked for a few weeks to get her apartment. Syl had good timing as well, she also happened to be in Seattle at the moment Max needed a sonogram. It WOULD'VE made a very interesting TV show their lives.
Syl stopped the wand, showing a small image of the tiny embryo, which was just big enough to be picked up on the machine. "How do you feel?"
Max took a breath, looking at the image, asking with her eyes
"Baby looks fine Maxie" Syl reassured " Strong healthy heartbeat. No damage from the accident, thank god. It's you I'm worried about"
Max breathed then "I'm okay" she felt Logan take her hand and squeeze it
*****
"It's okay mommy" Michael looked at Sara who had just been admitted to a private room after a successful surgery.
Sara reached up with an IV hand to stroke Michael's head. She was still groggy from anesthesia, but seeing her son alive made her smile. Michael hugged her hard then and tears hit his hair as she hugged him. Only this time she felt so much relief that something was finally over.
*****
ONE WEEK LATER
SOUTH SIDE MARKET BUS STATION
"Will the baby have to have my room?" Jessie stood beside Max at the Southside train station where Sara stood with bags packed with Michael at her side. People rustled in and out of the busy mark
Max glanced down at her son. Ever since she told him he was going to have another sibling he'd been worrying about that. "No honey. You may have to double up with Lexi cause we just about ran out of room" she felt pretty good right now, healing up nicely, little bit of morning sickness was hitting her. And all this time she thought she had eaten her breakfast too fast.
"Mommy no!" Jess complained "Why'd you have a baby now anyway?"
"Ask daddy" Max made a joke of it, although Logan wasn't there to defend himself. Her eyes drifted upwards to Sara, who was on crutches but looking considerably better then the last time they met. Max handed her a small white envelope containing two tickets on the bus to go to Canada. It had all been arranged by Logan to send Sara there, to start over, give her and Michael a chance at a real life.
Both women just stared at each other with a unifying look, not knowing what to say, or really how to start.
"Call when you get there" it was Max who broke the silence with this remark, the wind blowing her hair slightly, making it dance across her face. She also looked considerably better then last week. She was Max, so that came naturally, and in her "condition" she was glowing.
Sara was speechless for long moments. There had been so much happening in such a short amount of time. She really had no idea what to say to the woman who had taken her and her son in.
"Maxie I-" she started to say something but was at a loss for words. Her lips trembled on a word that wouldn't escape her mouth, and in the next instant she locked her arms around Max in a deep hug.
/FLASH: Lucy looked to Max with big eyes as she hugged her "I've always wanted a sister" She could see her father looking at her the whole time, but she didn't care/
Max hugged her back just as strongly. She pulled back to look at Sara and Michael both "You're gonna be okay. You're informant at the U.S. line is Richard. He'll set you up with your place, sector passes, everything"
Sara looked back to Max again She watched everything through her blue eyes. "If the baby's a girl-"
"Lucy's my mom's name anyway so it'll be win win" Max answered what the woman was trying to say but couldn't. "She doesn't have any kids named after her"
"Sara" Sara corrected, she didn't want to be reminded of Lucy, of all the things Lucy had to go through. At least Sara was grown woman and could defend for herself. At least Sara had one man who would always love her.
"How about both?" Max struck a balance "Sara-Lucy Cale?"
This got Sara to smile "You're mom's Spanish right?" she didn't wait for an answer "How about Lucia Sara Cale instead? It sounds better, plus it'll make her happier" her voice was longing, she never had a mother, and never even got a chance to know hers like Max did. Her mom had gone a long time ago, somewhere where Daddy wouldn't tell her. She just hopped it was heaven.
Max smiled "Deal" there was a long second "Take care of yourself" she touched Sara's shoulder and backed away so she could board the bus.
Michael waved at her from the rickety bus window and Max had to wave back at a gesture so enthusiastic
The motor of the bus rolled over, coughed, and roared to life pulling out of the shabby station.
MAX: V.O. "Sometimes it's hard to figure out who you are and where you're going-" (she watches the bus leave)
(FADE OUT TO SHOT OF MAX ON SPACE NEEDLE ALONE AT NIGHT. SHE WALKS A FEW FEET AND SITS DOWN ON THE COLD METAL, STARING OUT INTO THE BROKEN CITY)
MAX V.O "I've always agonized over what happened to Lucy because I didn't want to save her. I only wanted to save myself-"
/FLASH: her father slaps Lucy to the ground and she cries. Max waits in the corner alone, silently for her turn/
MAX (V.O) "But in a way I guess I did save her-"
/FLASH: to scene at hospital where Max gave birth to Lexi. Sara is her roommate, looking over at her newborn son Michael sleeping in his little plastic "tray" Her eyes are so loving, the eyes of a mother/
MAX (V.O) "I owed her one anyway" (a pause as Max smiles, looking out into the sky) "Guess I'm gonna have to go through the ups and downs of hormonisms again. But it's not that bad. As long as I get my reward in the end" (her smile broadens) "Lucia Sara Cale. If he's a boy he's just gonna have to deal with that name, maybe Luke or something, cause I owe something to someone and we won't love him any less because of it. Kendra's back now so she'll want in on the name early so she can go buy monogrammed stuff, even though I still have a butt load of it from the other pregnancies"
(ANOTHER LONG PAUSE THEN) "Another baby, name after another sister. That is awesome"
*****
END
WHOOO!!!! I did it WHOOOO!!!!! Heehe...ya like my "Female Trouble" ending? I just thought of it...and I swear on everything that is holy and righteous this is the last kid the Cale's are having...I like big families but too many children just makes it hectic. I debated long and hard about doing this..and well my story so there...no I just thought...well I never had Lucia is there for Max like mothers do when their 'kids' are pregnant. And the bits about it being like a TV show..i've had so much worry over the last few days I need to unwind, and was soo fitting..cause lots of times TV shows are so conviently staged where everything fits perfectly and timing is never off. So why not make fun of it?
This took too damn long, I've been in a funk and sick...still sick but I gotta do something.
Let me know what ya think...and free cake if ya come to the celebration party.
Peace
mystic
AUTHOR: Mystic25
EMAIL: little_girl_island34@hotmail.com
SUMMARY: "Please, I need your help. You're the only one I remember ever giving a damn about us. He's stalking us, he follows us everywhere, he's gonna kill us-" Call made from a U.S. payphone at 8:00 am by a young woman named Sara Phillips
RATING: PG14
A/N: This twentieth chapter will bring back many old season one characters plus a few I invented in this series. Not giving it away. Ooh also there are a lot of plot twists, so look for those I want the moments to build. And rest assured in knowing that this will NOT be the last chapter. I don't know how long I will keep witting this, but I will most likely keep going until computers aren't around anymore or I have carpal tunnel so bad that my wrists fall off.
WARNING: This chapter contains images and scenes of domestic abuse. These pictures are not pretty, but they are sadly and terrifyingly true. If you or anyone you know are the victims of such crimes contact your local law enforcement agency immediately.
A/N#2: Release the balloons and streamers I made it to chapter twenty! And since I write these long chapters, they are, to quote a reviewer "each like a mini episode of DA". So I have written 20 DA episodes, wow. My story is as old as me. I have said it a lot, but I want to REALLY thank everyone whose ever read or seen or commented or praised or reviewed or given me traffic on my website about this series and made it what it is. And right now I will attempt list some of them by name: BTW: I'm sorry this took soooooo long to get up, I've been having a lot of problems lately and if they aren't going away anytime soon I might as well write to pass the time. Anywho onto the thanks:
Jess- (Northern Star) My girl, who always had something to say about my writing. Good bad or indifferent. Who gave me ideas and comments, and encouraged me when I had writiers block, and who cracks me up all the time at TBW.
Black Rose: Another sistah from TBW, whose also given me great ideas, and gave me fics to read while I was on a break from mine. (also the same thing for Jess, so she doesn't get upset)
Callie and Mel: The lovely mods of The Broken World. Who created a great site for me to meet more fans of DA, and see how much my "Choices" series is liked. And whose board helps give me ideas.
"The Broken World" a great multi-shipper board to meet fellow DA fans and talk about the show, or just whatever comes to mind. Could always count on the people there to make me laugh, or give me ideas on fics when I didn't have any.
Zaz: for everything she wrote about the series, and the constant insistence that I post the next chapter asap
"Dark Angel Archives" where I first posted this series. I don't know who runs it. But thanks to them I got exposure.
Fan fiction.net -a blessing and a curse. A site that's constantly being shut down, or messing up, but where I found an easier way to post stories
"Darkangelfan.com" for having episode transcripts so I can make my work sound more believable
"Kawasaki.com" for always being up when I needed to search it for motorcycle names...:)
BlackWolf he never reviewed this fic, but his stories gave me a lot of drive for creating a lot of my chapters.
Tab- for reviewing. And for being there, always, love ya my sistah
"Google.com" a great search engine for helping me find information on DA and just about anything else.
Every reviewer who's come out of the wood work to tell me that they like this series, but never got around to reviewing it until now. And every reviewer who hasn't been afraid to tell me that my grammar is off, or there's some stuff that doesn't sound right, who don't kiss me where I don't wanna be kissed.
To EVERY reviewer: It makes me feel-good-to know I wrote something that people look forward to reading.
*****
6:50 AM
SEATTLE
"Mommy, the door is knocking"
"Don't answer it Michael" Sara got out of bed in bare feet and only a tank top and her briefs.
The pounding got louder as she got into the small living room Michael ran to open it
"No no honey!" Sara whispered to him, calling him back to her with her hand motions. "Come here. Stay behind me" she pushed him behind her body.
The pounding on the door continued "Fuck it Sara I know you're in there!"
Sara crept closer, looking through the peephole at the raging form of the man outside. The one whose eyes looked like her son's, but she would never tell him that.
"You can't hide my kid from me forever!" the pounding grew louder and part of the door started to give way.
"Go get some clothes on honey" Sara ordered to her son "Hurry up and pack your back pack with the rest"
Sara pushed the green leather couch over in front of the door to block it. She then ran across the dirty floor to her own bedroom, pulling on a pair of jeans and shoving her feet into flip-flops. She hastily shoved handfuls of clothes into a duffel bag along with her wallet. She then ran to her son's room "Come on honey we've gotta go down the fire escape"
"Mommy I'm scared" Michael looked at her wildly
Sara didn't try to comfort him she just ushered him out to the living room and pulled back a table to where the fire escape window was
The door opened, but didn't open very wide because of the couch blocking it. Two eyes glowered at her "You bitch!"
"Go baby!" Sara yelled to Michael pushing him onto the landing of the stairs. The couch wouldn't hold him for long. She spied her keys on the table in front of the door. She climbed back in the apartment to grab them.
"Bitch!" a hand reached out and grabbed her hair and slammed it against the door.
"Mommy!"
"Run Michael!" Sara pushed the door shut again, slamming it on his hand. He screamed. She didn't try to lock it again just ran to the escape stairs and hurried down them.
He stuck his head out at her from the window "You fucking whore!"
Sara caught up with her son on the stairs, took his bag from him and threw it to the ground with hers. She picked him up and continued running.
Once she reached the bottom level she grabbed the bags and her son and ran to her car. Her flip-flops tore in the process, but she didn't notice it.
Her red twenty-year-old Altima sat against the building and she popped the trunk and threw her bags inside. "Get in and buckle up" Sara told Michael as she climbed in the driver's seat. She looked in her rear view mirror and saw him running towards her car. She cranked the ignition and floored it.
His car kept following her. It lurched forward and rammed into her, almost causing her to loose control.
"Hold on baby" Sara turned sharply into an alleyway, one that he didn't see so he couldn't follow her.
His tires screeched as he cursed and did a U'ey back to the spot.
Sara turned the car again onto another street to confuse him. She drove right through a sector stop, ignoring the cops yelling at her.
She continued driving for an hour, always looking back, but she didn't see him. She had lost him, for now.
*****
7:50 AM
Her car started giving out. She hadn't had it check recently. She slowed down next to a payphone on the side of the road, parking the car behind it. She unbuckled the car and opened the door to the backseat, undoing Michael's seat belt "Lie flat on your tummy, don't look out the windows okay?"
She closed the door and locked it running to the booth.
"Directory Assistance how can I help you?"
"Give me the number for a Max and Logan Cale"
"One moment please" "The number is 555-3285. Would you like me to dial it now?"
"Yes"
"It costs $1.00 to do so"
"It doesn't matter just make the call"
"One moment please"
*****
FOGGLE TOWERS
8:00 AM
"Yeah?" Max picked up the phone from the nightstand.
"Please, I need your help. You're the only one I remember ever giving a damn about us. He's stalking us, he follows us everywhere, he's gonna kill us-"
"Who is this?"
"It's Sara, Sara Phillips. I met you at the maternity ward two years ago, we shared a room. My boyfriend broke into my place this morning. He's trying to kill me-"
"Where are you?"
"At some payphone in the city. There's a garage across the street. Dell's Auto-"
"I know where that is. You and Michael stay there and I'll come get you"
"Please hurry" she hung up.
*****
THIRTY MINUTES LATER
Max cut off the engine to her Impala and climbed out of the driver's seat. She glanced around the street but didn't see any sign of Sara or her son. Movement from a red Altima caught her eye a few seconds later. She walked over to the car, and after peering through the windows saw the form of Sara laying flat in the back seat with her son under her arms.
Max tapped on the window with one hand. Sara looked up, seeing the face of the woman she hadn't seen for over two years, but it was a welcomed sight. She crawled over the seat and opened the door. Max backed up on the road, watching Sara push her son Michael ahead of her and then climb out herself and shut the door.
"Sara?" Max acknowledged the other woman by name "You okay?" Sara didn't know it, but she looked like she had been mauled by a bear. A long gash ran just below her hairline from the impact of her boyfriend slamming her into the door when she tried to get her keys. Blood from the gash had trickled down one side of her face, leaving a crimson track on her cheek. She also still bore the bruise on her collarbone from where he had gotten mad one day and threw her face first into the coffee table.
"Yeah" Sara's reply was shaky at best. She moved to pull a chunk of hair behind her ear and her hand brushed against the cut on her forehead. She hissed and pulled her hand back, seeing the blood for the first time "I didn't even know about that one" she managed a dry laugh. She saw the way Max was looking at her "It's not that bad, really. Can we just get going? Please, he's pissed, and he's gonna come looking here soon"
Max didn't say anything, but grabbed the bags from the trunk after Sara opened it. She reached into her own trunk, to the tool case in back, pulling out a wrench "Take out any ID papers and anything with you or Michael's name you got stashed in the car" Max knelt next to the license tag attached to the back of the car, and sliding the tag out from the car. She walked over with it to her Impala and threw it in the trunk along with the screwdriver and the bags.
"My daughter's car seat should be in back" Max opened the back door for Sara.
"He's use to riding without one" Sara buckled Michael in the car seat. She couldn't afford a toddler car seat, so after Michael outgrew his infant seat, she buckled him in with old cushions for him to sit on.
"Mommy where are we going?"
Sara fastened the harness to the car seat around Michael's body. "Someplace safe" she rubbed his face with her hand then shut the car door.
All through the drive back to the apartment Sara was quiet. She got the held she sought out, but she wasn't in the mood for conversation.
Max sensed it, and allowed her space.
When they reached the parking garage of Foggle Towers, Sara leaned closer out her window for a better look. "If this is just the parking garage I can't wait to see the rest"
Max smiled at the joke, pulling inside the concrete enclosure.
*****
"Come on in" Max held the door open for Sara, who was leading Michael by the hand. The other woman looked around the living room, at the over stuffed leather furniture sitting on the wood floor.
"Sit down" Max's voice was gentle to Sara, watching her sit with such exhaustion, but still with a caution, Michael climbing into her lap a few seconds later.
"Mommy you're bleeding" Michael crawled closer to Sara's face, reaching one hand to touch a rivulet blood that had dried to her cheek.
"It's okay baby" Sara reassured, touching the blood "It only hurts a little"
Max had disappeared for a few minutes, but soon came back into the living room this time with Logan in front of her.
"Here" Logan held out a wet cloth in front of Sara's face. His blue eyes looked at the younger woman with compassion.
Sara took the rag from him "Thanks" she held it to her face, holding Michael in her lap with the other hand.
"How long has this been going on?" Max sat on the edge of the sofa, on the arm, questioning the other woman, but gently. She had just been through shit, she didn't need an interrogation right now.
"He's always knocked me around if that's what you want to know" Sara informed "We dated during high school and he use to hit me back then too, bruises and scrapes, same as now."
"Has he ever-"
"No!" Sara cut in Logan's statement with a vengeance. "He never tried to mess me like that" She wasn't defending her ex boyfriend on purpose; it was just a reflexive act she had no control over. Even though she didn't want it to happen she had been with him long enough to develop an attachment to him. It wasn't an attachment of love anymore, but there was still a connection. One of two things that had a connection to him that she could never shake off. The other one was her son.
"That doesn't mean he won't" Max spoke out from her spot on the couch. "Guy who beats you up like this isn't exactly a man who knows how to control his urges"
"I know him Max" Sara's brown eyes locked on hers over the little boy she was holding "I'm not saying that the way he bangs me up isn't bad, or that I deserve it; but he wouldn't do that. In all the years we dated in high school and even after he NEVER tried to touch me when I didn't want it. Sure he'd throw things, hit me, but I never felt like I'd be violated by him."
"What about your son?" Logan asked, "You think it doesn't violate his sense of safety to watch his mother get kicked around by a man right in front of him?"
"I know you're trying to help Mr. Cale, but with all due respect you don't have the first clue what my life is like"
"You called us remember?" Max chimed in "Why would you do that if you didn't think we could help you?"
"I was scared. There was no time, I didn't know what to do"
"So you're just chalking this whole thing up to a big 'ol adrenaline rush from being scared? You're gonna just keep sitting around waiting for anotha time when he scare the heck outta you again before you do anything?" Max took up an argument
"It's my life Max" Sara went on the defensive
"It's not just yours anymore Sara. You have a son. First rule of motherhood, kids needs come above yours. He needs a safe environment, and a mother who isn't afraid to answer her own door."
"He's my baby" Sara looked down at Michael who was now asleep "I wouldn't do anything to hurt him." One hand stroked his brown hair "He's the only thing that's going right in my life"
"So do right FOR him" Logan looked at Sara with gentle eyes.
*****
"That damn bitch took my son!" the guy spat in the corner of the bar with a far-reaching launch, spitting out most of his beer at the same time. He checked his cheap gold wristwatch, watching the time even though he didn't care about it, it was just something to do.
The barkeep looked at him warily through hazel green eyes and black long hair that hung somewhat in his face "You gonna be able to drive home tonight man?"
"Mind your own damn business" was the patrons reply before he exited the room
*****
JAM PONY
6:15 AM
"I'm outta here" Max slammed her last package down on Normal's desk.
"Hold it missy" Normal as always wanted to rain on her parade "I need that time sheet or you're not getting out of here until pigs fly" he held out his hand, waiting to receive his prize.
"Yeah but you can't get off the ground" Max slapped the paper in his hand with that remark "My advice to you Normal, get a hobby"
"My advice is for you to leave Max before my new hobby is firing your smart mouth"
"Yes Sir" Max smiled at that, and turned around from the desk
"See ya later girl" Cindy called out behind her
"Meet up at Crash" Max agreed "After I go home and spend time with the kids"
"Aiight" Cindy smiled
Max left the building without incident, mounting her black Ninja. The revving of the engine echoed in the night air as she raised the kickstand and drove off.
The streetlights cast shadows on her face and glasses as she drove past them, several streetwalkers were already out on the curb working it. One of them whistled at Max when she passed, obviously pleased at what she saw "Work that baby girl"
Max slowed at an intersection she passed everyday, checking the traffic. The roads were clear and she pulled the bike out to cross. A rumble came in her ears and she turned at the last second to see a car speeding down what she thought was a clear path.
The driver knocked into the front of her bike sending the entire Ninja in a tailspin. She tried to regain control of it, but after several attempts the Ninja careened off the road and sideswiped into a wall, knocking her full force into the brick. She heard everything for a second before she passed out.
*****
Noises were barely audible now in her ears. She wasn't really awake, more like floating in and out of consciousness. She heard people talking, but none sounded near her.
"What the hell did she smoke?"
"Must've been good shit" some laughter
She thought she felt movement again, nearer this time. But she couldn't tell before she passed out again.
*****
FOGGLE TOWERS
"Yeah Cindy I'm sure everything's fine. Max is a big girl" Logan really didn't sound too convinced as he paced his living room talking to Cindy on the phone and watching his kids at the same time. "She must've gotten caught in traffic"
There was a knock on the front door
"It's open" Logan called out, watching the front door open and Lucia come in.
"Yeah-" Logan went back to his phone call "I'll call you if I hear anything" he hung up, looking towards Lucia.
"Shouldn't you two get going?" the older woman asked of Logan "Me and the little ones like our alone time" she smiled "Where's Max?"
"She's not here yet"
There was something in Logan's tone that worried Lucia "did she get off work already?"
"Over a half hour ago" Logan informed
"She must've gotten stuck in traffic" Lucia rationalized
"Did you?"
"I came from a different way Logan" Lucia informed, "It's more traffic the way Max goes. So I'm sure that's what happened"
"Then why don't I believe that?"
"She's you're wife honey. You're naturally gonna worry about her. I'm sure she's almost here by now." Lucia removed her coat "Why don't you go on to Crash and I'll tell Max you left when she gets here"
Logan still looked hesitant
"Go" Lucia ushered "I'll call you the second she comes in. It'll be fine"
*****
Sara panted, sitting in her car. She had very little physical strength and had no idea where the hell she managed to find some to lift and carry the 5'7 woman to her rusty box shaped Crown Victoria.
Her body slumped against the backseat, listless. There was blood on head and matted in her hair from where she had hit the brick wall head on.
She couldn't tell if anything was broken because she wasn't a doctor and the girl wore a heavy leather-riding jacket over her body.
She took a wad of paper towel from her ashtray and wiped down the unconsciousness woman's forehead. The paper towel was dirty from old stains but it was better then letting her bleed to death. She then realized that it was Max who was in the accident, and her heart skipped a few beats "Sweet Jesus" she touched Max's head "Max, Max can you hear me? It's Sara-"
She secured the paper to Max's forehead, or rather the blood congealed on it and stuck to her skin. She reached inside of her leather jacket looking for identification, and also slid the key to her Ninja inside her jacket. She couldn't take the bike with her, but it looked expensive and it would get stolen in a minute out alone on the streets. So She hauled it as far as she could behind an alleyway and covered it with old trash bags that would never be picked up, taking the key from the ignition.
The name "Max" sounded very familiar to her. Not just because they shared a hospital room two years ago, but because of something else. Suddenly it hit her, like a question she had finally been answered, by a answer man ramming into her with a freight train.
/FLASH: "Hey! You kids out here?" her father wandered around the house looking for the two girls. His eyes were enraged from having his game on TV suddenly go off, not even realizing a major terrorist action had just swept the entire Untied States.
She and Max hid behind the couch watching him search for them like he wanted to kill them.
She was crying, but she kept the tears silent, holding one finger to her lips to keep Max from saying anything
"Where the hell are you?"/
Sara blinked. What were the chances of this happening? She had not seen this girl in over ten years. She didn't think they would ever meet again. Max took the chance and left when she could. She so wanted to go with her, but by the time she realized Max was gone it was too late. Her dad really went cave man on her then. She still had the scars on her back neck and face from him knocking her around on the mirror in the bathroom.
For a long time she thought Max had abandoned her. She had never had any other sister, and she felt so betrayed by her leaving her alone with her abusive father. But all the years of rage disappeared now when she saw her lying there. Why should she blame her foster sister for escaping that terrible life and being happy? That's what she wanted herself; Max had just had courage to do it first.
Her face was so pretty now. When she had first come to live with them she strangely had shaved hair. It eventually grew to her shoulders and she wore it down all the time. Now her hair had grown out way past her collarbone, still colored a deep lustrous brown. Her eyelashes were long and thick and her lips had grown even more full then they had been as a kid, if that was even possible. She was beautiful, even with the blood on her forehead.
"Logan?" Max's head shifted, but she never opened her eyes.
She didn't say anything because she didn't know what to say. The name sounded so sweet on her lips, and trusting. She had only met Logan all of twice and she still envied Max for having a real relationship with a man who obviously loved her.
Sara dabbed at her forehead again with another napkin, still not saying anything. Max went still again, her head falling back in the same position.
She really needed a hospital, but Sara was afraid they'd ask too many questions that she couldn't answer right now, for her son's sake. She wouldn't be of any help to Max if something happened to her. And she wasn't about to just dump her in the ambulance bay. Logan didn't even know what had happened. The health care system was so bad now that it might be days before any medical staff contacted family members after an accident.
Sara put her hand in Max's jacket again, looking for anything with an address on it, because she didn't exactly have time to ask where Max lived yesterday during running away from her psycho boyfriend. She came up with something better, a wireless phone. She didn't know how to bring up the phone book memory so she just hit the redial button and hoped that it went through to someone Max knew and not some takeout place she had just called. She didn't even know the number of the penthouse, a pretty stupid move, considering her son was now sleeping there
*****
Lucia was busy reading a magazine, trying to look busy was the better word. She was worried about Max. She had only found out about her existence a year ago, but still felt a powerful connection to her daughter. Something didn't seem right. Max was never late in all the times she babysat for them. She never let on to her grandchildren how worried she was. They were like their mother, very perceptive and would pick up on even the slightest hint of it. She had been on the same ad for Pepsi for the last fifteen minutes.
The dog cocked her head at the sound of the phone ringing. Lucia looked up; the ringing was coming from the computer room. Thinking it might be Max she got up and went to answer the call.
"Max?"
"---"
"Hello?" Lucia asked after she didn't hear anyone say anything on the other end.
"You have to help her"
"Who is this?" Lucia's tone rose at that last remark. Help who?
"She got into an accident and she's bleeding a lot. Someone hit her bike-"
"Are you talking about Max?" Lucia knew it, but she had to ask "Where are you? Please tell me where you are"
"I can't take her to the hospital. He'll find me, and I can't help Max if I'm dead"
"Tell me where you are honey, please." Lucia was desperate "I'm Max's mother. I can help you"
*****
Sara went quiet /Mother, I wish I had had a real mother/ "The sign says Industry Way" she looked around to see if anyone had seen her bring Max into the car. "Tell me where you are and I'll come to you. She's already in my car."
"I think I should come down there-"
"NO!" She shouted into the phone "Please, you don't understand. I didn't hit her, it was someone else. I'm not trying to get out of medical bills. She's got a cut on her head, but she doesn't look too bad. Please tell me where you are and I'll drive there."
"Okay honey, but be careful, I don't know how badly she's been hurt. I'm at 363 Lyell Drive in Sector 5, the very top floor, penthouse."
*****
Lucia stood outside the hallway waiting, wringing her hands on the small gold crucifix that hung from a chain on her neck. She wanted to go down to the parking lot and wait but she couldn't leave the babies alone, including that little boy who was visiting them, and she didn't want to scare them by bringing them down, even though she was scared shitless herself.
She had called Logan at Crash, and heard him nearly drop his drink from what she told him. He was on his way back with Max's friend Cindy who didn't trust Logan to drive, but they weren't there yet.
Her eyes fell to footsteps, struggling footsteps coming down the hallway.
"Sweet mother of god" Lucia gasped under her breath when she saw the blonde haired girl almost falling to carry the weight of Max who was unconsciousness and bleeding.
Lucia ran to them and draped one of Max's arms around her shoulders "Bring her inside" with one hand she turned the knob and kicked the front door open.
Lucia and She laid Max on the long couch in the living room. Lucia immediately knelt down next to Max's still form
"Max sweetie, can you hear me?" she took note of the gash She said would be in her scalp. It was jagged and still filthy and leaking blood over a soaked bit of paper towel. "In the kitchen there are dish towels in that drawer by the fridge, wet one and bring it here."
Sara left obediently in a run to the kitchen. Lucia tried to fleck off the visible dust she could see coming from the wound. She was scared to remove Max's jacket because she couldn't tell if anything was broken and she could hurt her more by moving things.
Sara came back with rag and just stood watching as the older woman pressed it to Max's forehead.
Max shifted at the contact
"Max, Max sweetie can you hear me?"
"Logan-" Max said her husband's name again
"Logan's on his way baby I need you to stay awake. You got hit in the head and it could be worse if you go to sleep, stay awake okay?"
"Luc-" Max was about to say her name, but then stopped, and said something she hadn't ever said before "Mom-"
Lucia had to shove away the feelings and the shock that word brought to her and focus on Max "It's me honey, stay with me okay? You know how dangerous it can be to fall asleep with a head injury."
"Damn my head hurts" Max was still her under all the injury
"I know it does sweetie" Lucia gently reached out to stroke the hair above her injury. "But we'll take care of it okay-"
At that moment two little figures came into the living room, curious, then scared
"Mommy-" It was Lexi who spoke up first "Why is mommy asleep in day time nana?"
Lucia looked at the little girl, then at She "Take them into the nursery, they'll get scared if they see all this blood. It's the second door on the right in the hallway" she looked at her grandchildren fully "This lady's going to take you to the nursery okay? And I want you to stay there with her and color for a while." A pause "Kay?"
Sara really didn't know what to say. She never really figured kids into this equation, even though it was a perfectly natural step in marriage. She ushered the two little kids gently to the door with her hands, hoping that they wouldn't ask questions as to who she was. Thankfully the children were well behaved and walked ahead of She down the hallway to the nursery where Lexi slept. Michael was asleep in the guest room and as much as she wanted to check on him she did as she was told. She could tell if Michael was in any danger, she always had that sense.
Sara shut the door quietly before turning back to the two strangers who were brimming with a million questions and could ask them now out of sight of Lucia.
"Who are you?" Jess took the initiative and spoke first. His brown eyes looked inquiring, but also demanding, almost in interrogation as to what this stranger was doing in his home. "Why you in our house?"
"I'm somebody" She gave him the simplest answer "Me and my son are just here for a while"
"Did mommy get hurt?" Lexi talked next, but her tone was simply more scared then her brother's.
"Yeah she did" She didn't lie to them. She didn't know them well enough to find out if that sort of thing would work with them. "But she should be fine"
"How did happen?" Lexi spoke again
Sara didn't know if she should tell the gory details to such a young child, but the girl looked almost on the verge of tears and She knew what it felt like to be that little and not get a straight answer from an adult. "Do you know what a car is?"
Lexi and Jessie both shook their heads in affirmation
"Okay someone driving a car wasn't driving the way they should and they drove too fast down the road and hit your mommy on her motorcycle." Sara's voice was the same as it was when she talked to Michael, soothing, but also not treating a child like they were ignorant, there were actually very perceptive
"Did the motorcycle die?" Lexi asked
She shook her head, such was a question of a two-year-old girl. "No, it got a little banged up, but it didn't die."
"Is mommy gonna die?"
That question brought the reality back into the situation "Your mommy's strong" She comforted "She's been through a lot in her life before you two were born, and she won't let something like this lick her"
= = = =
"My god girl" Cindy saw Max before Logan as she came through the front door. She all but ran over to the couch where Max was still laying, almost deathly still, and it scared the shit out of Cindy. Max was not a still person.
Logan knelt down next to Max beside the couch, taking in all the dried blood he saw on her face and the beginning formation of blue bruises on her neck and collarbone from the contact point of her body with the wall.
Logan gingerly stroked one of Max's arms, not wanting to move it too much if there was a fracture there "Baby can you hear me?"
Max opened her eyes around the bruising in a half squinting gaze. "Logan?" her voice was hoarse
"It's me Max" Logan reassured, taking one of her hands "I'm here" her palms had road rash on them so he was careful not to irritate that. "Can you move your legs?" he turned to look down towards her torso. He let out a sigh of relief when she managed to get both legs to move enough so he could see it. "Wiggle your fingers for me sweetheart" he held out her hand, watching as she did it with each one, but when she came to her pinky finger on her right hand she couldn't do it. The digit was starting to swell and the unnatural angle it jutted out in made Logan suspect that it's broken.
"It almost worked" Max joked weakly.
Logan smiled a small smile at that, but Cindy didn't. She was still very worried about her friend. She still had remnants of a lot of blood on her body. She sucked in a breath along with Max when Logan raised her t-shirt over her torso to reveal a dark mass of blue and black bruises along her tummy and abs and a few blotches also along her ribcage.
"Baby I appreciate this-" Max gasped when Logan lightly touched a finger over her ribs to see if any were broken "But I'd like to have someone with a AMA license do the exam-" she was too sore to stroke his ego.
Logan was too worried about her to be upset at that "I'll call Bling" he got up from the couch, looking at Cindy and Lucia "Talk to her, make sure she stays awake"
"Great reason to miss work tomorrow huh?" Max said softly
This time Cindy smiled, although it was forced "I don't consider this a great reason sugah" she stroked a bit of Max's hair the same way Lucia had done before they arrived.
Max shifted her gaze to the older woman in the room "Where are the babies?"
"The woman who brought you here, she's with them in the nursery. She didn't seem shady or anything" Lucia comforted Max's gaze that wanted answers as to why a complete stranger was with her children "She drove you all the way here and carried you all the way up to the house. The kids should be fine with her. You need to worry about yourself right now hun" she leaned over and kissed the top of Max's head, whispering "thanks for calling me mom" in her ear before pulling away.
*****
ONE HOUR LATER
Bling tied off the bandage that held the splint on Max's pinky finger "It wasn't a compound break so it should heal fast" he lowered her hand down gently to the couch's surface "You do have a concussion Max," he looked at her "Not to mention three bruised ribs and bruised collarbone and various scrapes and smaller bruises over other parts of your body"
"You sure know how to put a girl at ease" even with her pain Max was forever a smart ass.
Bling wouldn't have it any other way. It would scare the pee out of him if she were quiet. He didn't quip back, but looked at her with a serious, steady gaze "You were lucky Max"
She picked up her injured hand gently, looking at the splint and feeling the swelling under it "No one told me luck would hurt like a bitch"
"Hey at least you can still feel the bitch" Bling answered, slightly humorous, but still concerned about her. She was a tough chick, but she still had gotten pretty banged up in the accident. She really needed a hospital, but the reality of that was it wasn't as easy as just coming through the ER. "You want anything else for the pain?" he only given her a local of lidocane in her finger to set the break, she didn't ask for anything else, the way she held herself though looked painful, and he didn't know if it was pride that was holding her back or past conditioning that she had to handle pain like a real soldier and not complain.
"Just aspirin" she answered "I don't want anything that makes me feel off" she lowered her hand back down by her side "Number one rule of pushing meds, it takes the edge off pain, but it makes your sense dead. As long as you hurt stuff's still workin'. All doped up your hand could fall off and you wouldn't even know it."
"At least let me give you a prescription pain pill" Bling advised "about 600 mg ibuprofen tablets. It doesn't do the healing process any good for you to be hurting all the time. Just take it slow, one at a time since you have a concussion, but it'll help."
"Thanks" her voice was sincere
Bling leaned over and kissed her forehead lightly "Not a problem girl" he pulled back to look at her "You up for having visitors?"
"Do I have a choice?" she came back
He smiled at that "I'll fill you're prescription" he stood up and walked over to a black bag sitting on the edge of the couch. Filling Max's prescription actually meant grabbing one of the many bottles of pain pills he kept on him. Pharmaceutical companies charged way to much for medicine now, so he just stocked up and gave people a free "prescription" Also he was a PT, and didn't have any medical to order meds. He just used aliases and filled the prescription claiming it was his or that it was for a friend.
Logan's form filled the spot Bling had just left "How ya doin'?" he sat down on the edge of the couch, reaching to take the hand without the splint on it.
"I've been better" she told him
He smiled for her benefit. She looked so-human, not like the super solider he thought in the beginning was indestructible. In many ways she was, but whenever she was sick or hurt the image was gone. She was just a woman who he loved, and hated to see in pain.
"Do you remember anything?" he asked
She didn't say anything for a moment or two, thinking "Not much. After I hit the building everything was so hazy. I don't even know how the hell I managed to get here"
"Lucia said there was a woman who called her and told her you were in an accident. She wanted to go down there herself, but this woman brought you here herself" Logan looked at her long and hard before continuing "Max it was Sara-" there was something in his tone that told him there was more too it then that.
"Where is she?" Max asked
"She's with the kids" Logan responded "Luc told her to watch them so she could watch you"
"Hey honey" Lucia, as if on cue came into the living room, a huge smile on her face at seeing Max awake and talking. Cindy followed right behind her with the same expression.
Lucia put her hand on Max's forehead and offered her a kiss "Glad you decided to join us again"
"It got boring where I was"
Lucia managed a small laugh, then said in all sincerity "You scared the shit outta me sweetie"
"Goes for me too" Cindy joined in next to Lucia "Had my first heart attack today girl. Some slime shit comes and puts my girl down, I about went to find their ass for a smack down, but my boo came first" she took in the wraps that Bling had done as well as the brushing itself. "Shit girl that fool laid you out hard"
Max shrugged, or shrugged as much as she could with how sore she was "Give it a few weeks, I'll bounce back. No fool ever laid me down completely."
"Amen girl" Cindy agreed "I got your back with Normal. Tell him all about it, and if fool bips his mouth off thinkin' I'm lyin' I'll drag his ass down here myself so be prepped for company tomorrow girl"
"I'll pretend I'm asleep" Max reassured. A strange face came into her line of sight. A woman standing there with blonde hair, pulled into a ponytail. She watched her standing in the hallway for a long time.
"Hey" Max called out to Sara "You the one who brought me back?"
Sara nodded, but didn't move from her spot "Yeah, I uh-you were hurt bad-"
"Thanks" Max interrupted, wanting to take away the girl's awkward moment. She still looked at the young woman, she looked so familiar, but she couldn't really place it. There was something about her face. She seemed to know her from somewhere else. "I know you"
Sara looked completely confused "Max if you don't remember we met at the same time our children were born-" Sara was trying to joke, but she was failing
"No-It's something else" Max cut in, she had a very weird sense about this "Not in the hospital-somewhere else-"
/FLASH: "This is my daughter" her father wasn't very loving when he said that, introducing his new foster child to his other child "She'll show you what you have to do"
Max stared at the girl with the blonde hair. She smiled at her, walking over to her.
"Hi, I'm glad you've come to live with us. I've never had a sister before"/
"You just look very familiar" Max went on, watching She with brown eyes
/FLASH: "Where are you two brats at?" She's father came pushing through the hallway towards She's room that she and Max shared. "I told you two to have dinner waiting when I came home!"
She stopped in her reading, terrified. She had been reading a new book she had checked out from the library and had totally lost track of time. It was six-thirty.
Before she or Max could even move the door to her room flew open and her father stood there enraged. He spied his daughter with a book and grabbed it from her "How many times do I have to tell you when to put dinner on the table you little bitch!" he grabbed her by the arm and slammed her to the floor.
Max didn't move at first, but then he started kicking She and she was scared that he was going to kill her. She grabbed at her stepfather's arm, trying to yank him off her.
He caught Max off guard and threw her against the wall. "You little shit!" he dropped She in a pile and focused his rage on Max "Don't you EVER lay a hand on me again!" he grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her up, slamming her hard into the wall and slapped her hard in the face.
Max and Lucyboth had bruises on their face from all the other times he had done this for one reason or another.
He had been drinking again; Max could smell the Bourbon on his breath. She had never done anything against him when he became violent against her and Lucy; she wanted so badly to fit in with these people and doing what she knew how to do would get her ratted back to the base.
Lucy didn't move on the floor, and her father released Max to turn back and kick Lucyagain "Get up you baby! You need to take a fuckin' punch better then that!"
Max watched him kick She again for all of two seconds, and before she realized what she was about to do she grabbed the 5'11 210 man's arm and threw him into the wall.
Before he could react she was on him, locking a hand around his throat and squeezing. But before she could do what she was about to, she heard one of the neighbors came through the door, calling out his name and hers. Max released his neck and jumped out the bedroom window
"Max!" Lucy watched her go, pulling herself to her feet/
Lucy didn't say a word, her eyes were very hard, almost misty as she remembered something.
Max turned back to Lucy with a look that said everything she couldn't. That she couldn't save her, she could only save herself./
"Lucy-" Max finally made the connection to who the woman was. She had not seen her in over ten years. She had grown up, but her eyes were what remained the same. Lucy and Sara were one in the same Sara WAS Lucy. They had the same eyes, same bone structure, she had changed her name to Sara- but her father, he wasn't named Michael. Sara said she had named her son after her dad. Lucy's bastard father had been named Peter
"You left me with him Max" Sara went on, lost in her memory "They didn't keep daddy in jail but over night. Then he came home and broke my arm and my nose. He said he had to keep me from running away like that bitch I should've told him to take in"
"Lucy -" Max tried to say something
"I'm Sara!" Sara was in a rage "SARA!" "My son is Michael. I told you I named him after daddy. Peter Michael Wallace. My Michael, my son, daddy can't hurt him if he has his name. NO ONE can hurt him if he has my father's name. No one hurts my father. No one hurt daddy right up till the day he died." Sara turned and left then, heading back into the guest room, slamming the door.
Her body sunk to the floor and she cried into her hands.
Michael had woken up, and looked at his mother crying. He simply got up off the bed, and like he had done so many times before crawled into her lap and hugged her tightly while she sobbed.
*****
8 AM
THE NEXT MORNING
Max's concussion caused her to fall asleep early on the couch. So after everyone had gone to their respective homes she didn't even feel Logan pick her up off the couch and place her in their bed, nor did she hear him allowing Sara a spot in their guest room to sleep for the night.
Sara put up a fight, she didn't belong with this family. Max and her had known each other so long ago that the ties were gone now. But Logan had insisted so much that she finally gave in and fell asleep a few hours after Max in her clothes on top of the bed, clinging to Michael like a lifeline.
Max's eyes opened, even though they didn't want too, to a knock at the front door. A knock from a caller who paid visits at eight freakin' o' clock in the morning.
Before she even had the chance to move Logan got up from his side of the bed, replacing the covers back over her body where they fell from his movement. "I got it"
She didn't say anything, but opened her eyes and lay there listening alone in their bed to who was here at this god-forsaken hour.
Logan walked into his living room in a black set of men's pajamas and his red robe, stepping over to his front door in bare feet, a little on alert because no one usually came by this early.
Opening his door revealed Cindy standing there looking highly upset, though it wasn't directed at him but rather at the person she had brought with her.
"I call it the way I see it" were Cindy's first words to Logan "Sorry for doin' this boy, but like I said there are those among us who don't believe his employees can get knocked around and hafta miss work" she stepped inside the penthouse, all but shooting Regan Ronald Normal who had followed her there like a bad disease.
"I have a business to maintain missy" Normal argued "And as such I can't have my employees taking off when ever the impulse strikes"
"Boy for the last time my girl got hit by a car" Cindy was getting really pissed. She had just spent a ride with him in her beat up car all the way up here. She wasn't in the mood. "That's 2,000 pounds of steel going at 65 miles an hour, do the freakin' math! She's didn't get killed but cars can still knock a person around if they hit them. And you're here tryin' to shake a sistah down because she didn't decide to limp down to work with broken bones?"
"So you say" Normal argued "I have about as much trust for you kids as I do for Bill Clinton, you all try to get out of work. I need to know if this is one of those times"
"One of those times for you to get your brain checked out for this whacked out idea" Cindy shot back
Max could hear everything through the bedroom door, and decided to make an appearance to finally get Normal to shut up about thinking she was just pretending to have been in an accident.
She didn't put on a fake dramatic show for Normal coming out into the living room; she didn't have too. Her entire body was sore; the adrenaline and shock of yesterday was a distant memory. She did her best to keep her composure and not looking for pity, but she still was limping badly from trying to walk and manage the pain of bruised ribs and a bruised collarbone at the same time.
Cindy looked surprised to see Max even up and around. But that was Max; she wouldn't sit still even if her legs were cut off at the knees. "Girl you should be lyin' down"
"I wanted a change of scenery," Max joked making her way slowly to the couch. She turned a look to Normal who was standing in front of her sofa "You mind movin' so I can sit before my legs give?"
Normal didn't move but two inches but the look on his face had changed dramatically when he saw how badly he had been proven wrong.
Max hissed under her breath when she sat in soft cushions of the sofa. Her muscles screamed at her for making them move so quickly after what had happened to them.
"How big of a car was it?" Normal had changed his tune dramatically
"I didn't get the chance to look" Max replied. She settled into the cushions and fixed him with a hard look that told him to bip it up his own ass "Did you want something else?" she wasn't in the mood to be scrutinized.
For once Normal didn't say anything "You need workers' leave?"
Max fixed him with almost a bedazzled gazed "We actually HAVE that?" she would've laughed if it didn't hurt so much.
"Four days"
"How about I quit now and get my spot filled with someone else who can't work?"
"Okay five" Normal haggled
Max held up her pinky, showing him the splint on it "This isn't on here for decoration"
"You need more then a broken finger-" he was interrupted when she lifted up her shirt, not to flash him, god no, but to show him the bruises on her torso and the taping on her ribs.
"Fine twelve days, but that's it" Normal fixed her with a glare, or tried too anyway. She actually looked hurt this one, and even HE couldn't argue with that. "Now I have to get back before another one of you kids goes out and busts up something else and puts me out of a job-"
"Mommy-" This was Jess who had come to stand beside Max "Why did he call you a kid?"
"We're all kids at heart baby," Max told him, roughing up his hair.
"Some more then others" Cindy returned, glancing at her and Max's boss. She walked over to him "C'mon time to bip bip bip and let my girl get her rest" she grabbed Normal by the arm. "Late boo." Cindy left out the door.
Max watched them go with a half asleep gaze. "Is Lu-" she stopped, in a correction she had just now understood, and was still trying to understand "SARA, still asleep?"
"She's been asleep since one" Logan answered, sharing a look with her. This was all new to him too. The woman he had met almost three years ago had been Max's foster sister, the same sister who had undergone the brutal treatment by her father with Max. And now it was happening again, with Sara's boyfriend, the father of her son; a cycle of abuse that was very hard to break.
"I should've left her there Logan" Max blinked, saying all of that before she finished opening her eyes. "She was only a kid-"
"So were you" Logan reminded
"But I was stronger then that" Max was arguing in full passion despite her injuries. "I left her because the "mission" had gotten too hot and look what happened. She left her father's house only to meet another man who was just like him, a world she can't get out of. It's not gonna stop cause she's still the little girl who watched her daddy beat her up and couldn't do a damn thing about it except take it."
"She left her boyfriend" Logan interjected "She's doing something about it now"
"Yeah cause he tried to kill her" Max looked at him with eyes that knew. "It was a basic survival instinct to protect her son, she doesn't care about her own life. If it wasn't for Michael-" Max could've continued with that sentence, and no doubt would've but Sara came out from the guest bedroom she had been sleeping in with her son at that moment. Her eyes were very emotionless, not cold or unfeeling, but more of a sad wary look. Such was a woman who had been through seven kinds of hell.
"How's Michael?" Max asked this so non-chalant that Logan looked at he like she had put her shirt on backwards.
"He's sleeping" emotionless was Sara down to a tee; she had years of practice. She could go from the rage she expressed yesterday to a poker face in the blink of an eye "We don't do much of that now a days" a dry laugh forced it's way to her throat, one void of any kind of humor. She walked so that the balls of her feet rattled the wooden boards of the floor and made them creek ever so slightly. "He hits me, I told you" she stopped in front of Max "Never really hard, only bruises and once a broken finger. But I don't let him touch Michael. He tries but I NEVER let him touch my son"
"Michael must know this" Logan said with a gentle firmness "He has too"
"I do the best I can ya know?" Sara laughed again, only this one was terribly sad and desolate a laugh caught in a place of only crying. "If I try and take Michael and run he'll come after us, he's done it before, more times then I can count." She took a breath, a short but significant one "He wants to kill me." Sara looked so calm for what she was saying, though tears were now pooling around her eyes "He wants Michael and knows I won't let him have him. I've filed a restraining order, changed our locks phone number, moved three times, had Michael different clothes to school then what he had in the car, worn wigs but it never works" this time her eyes were dead serious "I lied before. I do EVERYTHING I have to do to protect my son. If I piss him off-there won't be ANYONE to protect Michael."
"Does he sleep with you?" Logan asked, asked about Michael sleeping with Sara.
She nodded and his suspicions and fears were confirmed about what 'everything' meant for Sara protecting Michael from harm. "He never wakes up when it happens-"
"Sara-" Max had to say something, something about all this. About all the things that Lucy put up with as a girl, and what Sara, who use to be called "Lucy" puts up with now.
"I have to Maxie" she called her Maxie, like she used to do after her father left them bruised and scared locked in her room "He'll hurt Michael. I don't care what happens to me, it's only my body-
a tear hit the floor. "It's only my body. If I can protect Michael from ever having to face that I will." She started to leave, barely hearing Max's words which caught her at the end.
"You have to protect yourself for him" her eyes and Sara's were almost one in the same "You said it yourself."
Sara didn't reply and instead disappeared to the bedroom, not looking back. Michael was still asleep on the queen-sized bed in the guest room; his little body almost swamped in the blue green comforter. She crept quietly over to the bed, sitting on the edge, the mattress making a barely audible creaking noise from the weight of her body.
He looked so peaceful when he slept, so innocent. When her boyfriend Rodger would be there she would look at Michael's face, seeing it through the half-light of the Superman shaped night light she kept plugged in for him. With every thing he did to her she never took her eyes off of her son, it kept her grounded. It made her make it through the hell, looking at the reason she endured it all. It helped her pick up and go one, because Michael needed her and she had to survive-for him.
She touched his cheek, tracing the light soft skin delicately with one finger. He had Rodger's cheekbones, his color hair, but he had her eyes. That was the one thing she had wanted most when he was born. She loved her son, no matter the sadness and pains her conception partner brought to her life, but she didn't want to see Rodger's look in her child's gaze. Jerry's eyes were just like her daddy's, strong, but very demanding. Something she had painfully sought comfort in. She knew what to expect with men like them, knew what they would and wouldn't do, so she was prepared. Though she knew it really wasn't a comfort thing, but a terrible dependency. Michael's eyes were her eyes, strong, delicate, sad, scared. She could relate to so much in his young gaze. He was one of her only friends left, her child. It was heartbreaking for her to have her son carry such a burden as being his mother's only joy and friend in life, but after Max left she had no reason to hope until Michael came along.
She might have killed herself, might have just ended it all if she didn't find out she was carrying him. Seeing him in the hospital, alive, breathing; a creation from her own body had made up her mind to go on living for her son.
"Mommy?" it was a slight whisper, a delicate question in a half asleep state.
She stroked his umber brown hair "Right here baby, you can sleep a bit longer" she kissed him where his hair gave way into his forehead.
Her voice comforted him and he fell back asleep.
*****
3:20 PM
Logan set down the papers in his hand on the coffee table. He looked to the couch and one hand hovered over Max's body. The hand wandered in the air, following just above the curves of her form, finally settling on the skin of her forehead, stroking it gently as he had done many nights and had done on that first night of comforting her seizures on this same couch so long ago.
Unlike the first time, he did more then just touch her forehead, and leaned over to kiss her. Cause she was his wife after all, and any excuse to kiss her would be justified.
Her eyes opened, she was very perceptive this one, and she looked at him "Hey"
"Hey yourself" came the old adage "How are you feeling?"
"Sore" she was honest, blinking a few times to clear gunk from her eyes "Guess that's how you're suppose to feel when you get hit by a car" she shifted her body, sliding one leg off the couch with a wince, then the other one.
"Whoa where are you going?" Logan put a hand on her shoulder, trying to stop her "You need to take it easy baby"
"I gotta pee" Max informed him "So unless you're hiding a catheter behind you're back I can't do this any other way." She was now standing up completely and taking slow ginger steps down the hallway, walking like someone who had gone one on one with a heavy weight champion and lost.
"You could fall-" Logan supported her arm, trying to help her.
"I can pick myself up too" Max corrected. They were married, but she didn't want anyone to do something she could even remotely do herself. "I can also still walk"
"It's not about you being able to walk Max," her words echoed off his lips in his context. She had said this to him when he had that first failed attempt to use the exoskeleton on the anniversary of them first meeting.
"Stand outside the door if ya want too" Max finally agreed "You've seen me naked before baby but I gotta draw the line somewhere" she smiled to let him know she was kidding.
"How about you just fall against the door if you're in trouble?" Logan suggested, making a joke
She turned to him with a mock glare on her face "How about you kiss my ass?"
"Later sweetheart" his look wasn't phony.
He waited diligently outside the hallway bathroom like he said he would. A door opened further down the hallway and Sara entered again, this time holding Michael by the hand. She stopped a few inches behind Logan.
"Guess there's a line" she smiled at Michael, giving an indication as to what they were doing there.
Logan looked to the little boy, he had such blue eyes, like his own, but a slightly more muted robins' egg blue, he did have the look of his mother. He smiled to the child, who looked at him timidly, but without fear or even joy, without any emotion all together. His eyes were just expressionless, but then something glimmered in them, a look of childish wonder passed through them, and he smiled at the man.
Logan couldn't help but smile back at that genuine look of happiness on the child's face. A minute or two later Max came out of the bathroom, no worse for wear then when she had gone inside.
"See?" she looked towards her husband, with a look of jest in her eyes "Did it like a big girl and everything" her eyes caught sight of Sara and Michael, and she addressed the younger of the two "Need to get in here kiddo?"
Michael made no hesitation to nod at Max, which showed that he really had no fear with women, only with men, one man in particular.
Sara looked at Max, holding onto her son's hand tightly "How are you Maxie?"
Max took a moment to take stock of her body, and answered like she always did, honestly "I'll live" she offered a smile to Sara, who didn't smile back but the feeling was there. "You doin' okay Luc-Sara?" she caught herself on that remark, almost like a Freudian slip, almost. Sara didn't answer, and Max didn't expect her too. "Better get in there before you loose your down payment" she made a joke about what Michael might do if they didn't get in the bathroom in time.
Sara smiled at this "Yeah, why get kicked out of a good thing?" she disappeared after that remark with Michael and the bathroom door closed. She turned to Logan "Told ya all along I wouldn't fall. I can handle myself"
"I've always known that baby," Logan agreed. There was a pause there to fill space "So what do you want for breakfast?"
"Food" Max remarked flippantly
Logan looked at her "Ha ha. How about something to drink with that food?"
She shot him the same look "Guess it's okay to go nuts once in a while"
Max sat at the kitchen table, sipping from a coffee cup while Logan was in the kitchen cooking. She pretended to be interested in reading the Seattle newspaper in front of her. It made a very interesting picture of a nineteen fifty's American domestic house scene except for the man and woman being in opposite ends of the scope.
The sound of the eggs flipping over was the only noise that echoed in the room besides the rustling of the newspaper as Max turned the pages. Soon a plate of eggs and bacon was set in front of her eyes.
She looked down on it with satisfaction, almost like she was a child and had a received a new toy, almost, except it looked more like she had just gotten really good sex and was basking in the after glow of it all. She didn't say anything, but her killer smile was enough to get Logan to understand she appreciated it.
The two guest figures emerged from the hallway, with Michael being led by the hands of Sara, who despite everything was wearing a warm smile on her face if only to show Michael that sometimes people have to be brave in harsh moments.
"You guys hungry?" Logan held up the spatula he was holding in his right hand like a scepter, gesturing it towards the frying pan on the stove eye.
Sara didn't say anything, but Michael looked with longing eyes at the food being cooked, like the last meal he had received had only been poison and he had forgotten what real food tasted like.
Logan didn't say a word as he scoped up some more eggs into a white plate with the red stripe on the edge and handed it to the little boy, who took it in both hands to hold the weight of it with his small strength.
"Sit over here" Max patted the seat next to her gently to coax the child into coming over. She smiled non-threateningly, setting down her newspaper and looking at the boy with the same warm eyes she reserved for her own children. He walked slowly over to her, with very big eyes, grasping tightly to his plate.
Max took it from him with a careful hand to aid him in setting it on the table. She handed him a fork and gave him another motherly smile watching him start to shovel the scrambled eggs into his tiny mouth.
Her own children had finished breakfast long ago and were now at their respective places. Jess had begun to go to preschool, in the same place Case had gone, minus "Uncle Donald" trying to work his fucked up magic on her baby. Whatever he was, she still didn't trust him with her children, creator or not, no matter how much he had "changed" Lexi was on a play date, with interestingly enough Asha's five year old niece Suzette. Asha had completely forgotten about babysitting the child, mostly being wrapped up in herself and Zack so much so when her sister-in-law reminded her of it she just about hit the roof. It reminded Max of the time Logan had to baby sit once before they were married (note to readers: I'm talking about Bitsy's child, I know the timeline is off, but bare with it..just pretend...heehee) He had been a major wreck.
Max had suggested that Lexi come along to, basically keep Asha sane. The little girl easily made friends with the other child when Max had dropped her off at Asha's apartment and had coaxed the other girl into a fun game of make believe and coloring, leaving Asha somewhat befuddled but content that she wasn't going to loose her apartment and her sanity to a day of babysitting two little girls. Max had left the woman on the phone with her brother watching the two girls play "spy" around Asha's modestly decorated living room.
This had been going on for a few weeks now, the children being out of the house, so it was kind of a welcome change to have a little one in the house again, doing all the things their own kids did when they spent twenty four hours a day with them.
Michael finished his eggs in quick order and looked at the empty plate so longingly until Max pushed the remainder of her eggs onto his plate.
"Thank you" it was the first words he had spoken to Max since he had arrived at the penthouse yesterday, and even now with the four years of experience she had raising her own kids, it made her puddle just the same
Max put a hand out to smooth down his hair, gently at first to gauge his reaction on it. When he didn't pull away, she touched the brown hair with a smooth stroke, ignoring the pain it produced. "You're very welcome"
*****
SEATTLE
BOKER BAR
"Hey!" the man entered the dimly lit bar, though not with enough gusto to interrupt the football game that was blasting on the suspended TV overhead.
Not getting the reaction he wanted made him pissier and he picked up an empty Heineken bottle and threw it against the wooden wall to illustrate his own frustration.
A few patrons then turned upsettingingly away from the football on TV then to look at the idiot who dared interrupt their Pre-Pulse American past time.
A very heavy set pale white man stood up from one of the bar stools with an even more enraged look on his face the man who interrupted the game. "You got a problem prick? Cause we got a game going on" he walked to him in a way that threatened, like a wolf on the prowl.
The man held up a picture, pulling it out from his black jacket pocket and brandishing it out for the small gathering of random men to see. "You seen him?" he held up an image of a small child, smiling, a professional photograph taken a Christmas time with a fake tree background and a smiling cardboard cut out of Rudolph the Red Nosed Rein Deer. The boy looked to be about two in the photograph with a large smile showing all teeth and dressed in a red sweater and blue jeans.
"Cept he's older now, like four. His mom took him from me and I want to get him back"
The man who wanted to fight with him looked at the photograph for a few seconds, whether or not he was actually looking at it or just faking it, there was no indication, but he did a good show if it was just a fake. "No man. I don't spend time looking at kids. I'm not your old lady"
"I just want to know where my kid is man" he responded, tucking the picture back in his jacket, and blinked.
"Lady came by here a few days ago with a kid" The barkeep looked at him, now breaking his silence. "Young nice body,"
This got his attention "Was the kid a boy?"
"I told you man I didn't pay attention" the barkeep argued while he wiped his filthy counter with one a white rag that was more holes then cloth. "Cept to the woman, she had a damn hot package, all fitted out big knockers, brown hair"
"Where'd she go?"
"She never came inside man how the hell should I know?" the barkeep had stopped wiping the bar and just sat with the rag poised in his hand. "She was driving this red car, nice little sporty thing and the kid was with her, across at that corner market."
"I saw her" the fat white man spoke up "Hot chick is right. She was here yesterday, on a motorcycle and got sideswiped by some car, shame with a body like that" His beady brown eyes were almost black under a head of red/brown hair that was receding in the back under a white Florida Marlins baseball cap
"Was the boy with her?" the man was relentless
The guy with the baseball cap took a moment to think "No, she couldn't fit a kid on that bike. She got splattered pretty good though. The game came back on a few seconds after so I kinda lost interest, and then I turned and she was gone, some boxy car was driving off after that, mighta been her pimp"
"A red car?"
"Fuck man what are you a cop?" the guy took a long swig of his now warm iceless beer "I don't keep tabs on EVERYTHING" his beer mug slammed on the wooden bar with a gentle thump, moving around the water ring that was already there.
The other man blinked again "Look if any of you know anything, I'd come forward or I'd stop looking all googly eyed at me"
No one made a sound "Told you man, I don't know where she went" it was the voice of the barkeep who blinked too, a cruddy blink since he had so much gunk caught between his eyelids.
The man's face turned an even darker shade of red and he turned and stormed out of the bar then without a word. On his way down the alley he wandered off into an alleyway, and stumbled a bit, tripping on a couple of trash bags, but swearing as he hit something hard.
"Fuck it!" he picked himself off from where he had landed on his ass and looked over to what the hell had made him loose his balance. There was something hard, black and chrome lying under the large pile of trash and debris. He pulled the garbage away to reveal the tale end of a motorcycle sticking up through the plastic trash bags.
/"She was riding here yesterday on a motorcycle and got sideswiped by some car"/
A cynical smile came across his face as he pulled out a cellular phone and dialed a local number. The wind blew through his black hair as he waited for the call to connect "Yeah hi, I found a motorcycle abandoned in an alleyway and I'd like to have the owner fined for breaking Seattle Penal Rubbish code 23.92-" He laughed for a moment "No I'm not a cop, I just keep up with the law. Yeah-" one hand reached to scratch his head "It's just a hobby." He turned to look at the tag on the bike "The license number is 34-234B. Sure I'll hang on doll" he hummed to himself "Cay-sera-sera" of all things /"Cay-sera-sera-whatever-will-be-will-be-the-future-looks-bright-to-"/ "Yes? You say that there's NO record of a bike with this tag? That can't be if it's issued it HAS to belong to someone. It's some kind of sport's bike, a Ninja I think, and black- "he sighed this time, frustrated, and pissed off" I'll hang on "he muttered 'bitch' under his breath while he waited to fake sweet talk the woman again "There was a bike like matching this description confiscated by Sector Police before?" a smile was back "Who owned it? You have a last address?" the smile grew larger.
Rodger always like bikes, he had worked in a bike shop. That's how he knew so much, and how he had met that super fine bitch who had taken his son away from him. She had been a good hump from the start but she had always had a way to fuck his buttons. But that was all about to correct itself.
*****
SECTOR 10
Cindy sat on the couch in a maroon and black leopard printed top painting her toenails a deep purple. Her thoughts were so entranced into concentrating on the nails propped up on the coffee table that she barely missed the knock at the door. "Hold up" she picked up the remote beside her bottle of nail polish and turned down the TV to a dull muted sound.
The knocking grew louder
"I said hold up!" Cindy's voice was getting 'Ms. Thang and don't you uh-uh me' tone. She stood up and waddled with cotton and wet toenails to answer the front door.
Upon opening it the face of a man greeted her, a strange man, a creepy man.
"Look sugah whatever you're sellin' Original Cindy ain't buyin. So you can just take your Amway, Avon sellin' vaccume cleanin' trip somewhere else-'" she went to shut the door but the man pushed it in, hard
"Now hold up with that whack crap!" Cindy stated, making her presence known, holding the door tighter with one shoulder that was bare because she was wearing a purple tank top.
"Where is she?" the man knocked in the door all the way, making Cindy fly backwards and hit her butt hard on the floor, the cotton falling off her toenails and scattering around her bare feet like tiny little snow balls.
Cindy scrambled to her feet and grabbed the first thing that was handy to her, a serrated kitchen knife from off the counter, holding it out in front of her in a position of attack "Original Cindy's the only 'she' around here whacko and you better get the hell outta her house before SHE breaks your ass!"
"Where are you hiding the kid?"
Cindy was still confused "What kid? Freako I'm ain't got no seeds, I'm straight up lesbian and even if I was you'd never get a nasty ass hand on a child!" the knife blade lunged, missing, but keeping safety distance between this freak and herself.
"I know she got in that motorcycle accident bitch!" he came closer, but Cindy kept her distance with the knife, lunging again and this time hitting the flesh of the man's arm.
He flinched, but the action didn't really faze him, he was forever relentless in his fury. He grabbed Cindy and shoved her onto the counter. "I know she lived here-" he grabbed her by the neck about to choke her.
"Surprise!" a voice made the two people in the room turn and made the person who said it gasp.
In an action of complete shock Kendra dropped her hands, dropped her Dior knock off hand bag and screamed. Before she got the chance to get the words out Walter was in the room with a gun aimed on Cindy's attacker. He was in full riot gear, which made him look ridiculous for this basic low risk task.
Walter screamed like a true cop "Back away from her!" he fired a warning shot in the air.
The man flinched at the noise and released Cindy, only out of worry of being shot "Tell me where she is bitch!"
Walter grabbed the man by the arm, pulling him away from Cindy. He fought back like a bear, punching the sector cop in the stomach. Walter gasped, doubling down to his knees
"Oh god baby-" Kendra exclaimed, but really made no move do to anything. She was still kind of a wuss about things like this, a girlie girl.
Walter struck the man in the face. Blood gushed out of his nose and hit his uniform shirt, spattering it with crimson "That's enough!" Walter reached for his handcuffs, trying to pull them on the man, but being older then him he was overpowered and thrown to the floor, the handcuffs clattering around him like Cindy's cotton balls had done earlier.
"Where is she? That bitch has my kid! Her motorcycle was traced to your address you slut!" he slapped Cindy hard in the face, making her fall back again. This time she caught herself on the coffee table.
"Look calm down okay?" This time Kendra tried to do something besides play damsel in distress "We don't know about any kid. She doesn't know either-"
"I want my boy back. That bitch has my boy-" the man spied a piece of mail on Cindy's coffee table, something that read: "Max 363 Lyell" on the return address. He didn't say anything, but there was a change in his gaze, a dangerous change, one that was about to commit one of the seven deadly sins.
It suddenly dawned on Cindy what was happening, and she turned tail to run into her bedroom while the man was distracted with Kendra. She grabbed her phone off her bed and went into her closet dialing the auto dialer number one. It rang twice, three times-the bedroom door opened and Cindy went quiet, shrinking in the back of her closet, not making a sound. Her favorite red sling back dress brushed against her face and she had to keep from sneezing because it was made from cashmiere The closet door flew open a few seconds later, the idiot was an idiot, but he found her
"Leave me alone fool!" Cindy hit him in the head with the phone, which did stun him and clawed her way out of the closet, making sure to hang up the call so he couldn't find out where she was calling too.
This time he didn't go after her but ran out of the apartment. Kendra immediately raced over to Cindy, her eyes were wide, mascara running around the sides of her lids, making her look like a raccoon the prowl. And that would have been enough to be funny if the situation wasn't so damn serious"Oh god are you okay? What the hell was that?"
"Not now hun" Cindy grabbed her phone, pulling herself to her feet and dialed the number again.
Walter was still standing there, gun in the air, calling on his radio for backup. Cindy had a million and one questions for Kendra coming back but right now her mind was somewhere more important
This time someone picked up.
"Max" Cindy's voice was frantic, but hurrying along to get in her end of the conversation "Some whack boy was here, he's looking for your girl. Get her out of the house"
"How does he know where I live?" Max wanted to know
"I'd never give it away normally sugah, but freak ass boy just grabbed some mail and found his own 411"
"I'm on it" Max said, "You okay? Did he hurt you?"
"I've been better boo, but I'm worried about him hurtin' you, you're not exactly up to par."
"I've handled worse flat on my ass" Max assured her "I'd say bye, but this is not one of those moments" she disconnected the call, looking to Logan who was in the living room, paying attention to her talking on the phone. "Get them out and under lock down" she talked like a soldier to Logan about putting Sara and Michael in hiding. "The bedroom, lock them in, best we can do on short notice."
"Take them next door" Logan corrected, "Mrs. Moreno went to visit her daughter out of town and asked me to water her plants" he tossed Max the key, and she caught it in one hand.
"I'm not running" Sara stood beside Michael picking him up off the chair he had been sitting in.
"It's just next door" Max didn't pay attention to her remark "We gotta get you two outta here"
"No Maxie" Sara looked the other woman dead in the eye "Daddy never let me run away. He always told me to stay" her hand not clutching her son's was balled into a fist so tight that the nails were digging into it and making her whole palm red. "If he wants to kill me he'll eventually do it-" she put her face to her son, holding his head to hers with one fierce loving hand, then she looked at the boy with such love that there was none like it before or after on any human face, except for the Christian believers who saw the face of Jesus and it touched them.
Without a sound or another movement Sara kissed Michael as hard and deep and motherly as she could. "You know mommy loves you very much baby right?" she stroked his hair again
Michael just nodded at her, indifferent; he already knew she loved him.
"Okay" she kissed him again, a kiss Max read as something to remember her by, in case. She looked to Max with the look that only one mother to another could understand "Take him into that other apartment. If Rodger wants to find me, he'll find me here, but he's not getting my son"
Max picked up the boy from Sara's arms "Wanna go on a great adventure kiddo?" she headed the boy out of the room and out the door to the apartment of Mrs. Moreno. She had no sooner started limping inside the building and shut the door when the sound of the elevator on their floor opened, like it was a staged skit on some dramatic TV show about their lives.
Inside the apartment Logan opened the drawer to his computer desk and picked up his gun, unlocking the safety from it, again like it was staged and he was on a TV show. Like that could ever happen, TV about a woman who escaped from a secret government facility.
The door didn't open like a normal door it was busted open, and a dark haired man entered. He eyed the penthouse only briefly, before settling his eyes on the woman.
"Where is he skank?" Before he could lunge Logan aimed the gun at him "Unless you want this to end badly I suggest you turn around and leave"
"Naw this ain't gonna end badly prick" 'Rodger' Sara's boyfriend finally had a name "Cause Sara's gonna give me what's mine."
"You were never a father to him and now you want him?" Sara finally spoke out for herself, eyeing her ex warily and with frightened eyes. She looked like half feral wild cat have caged rabbit.
"Yeah I want him, he's half my kid bitch! You have no right to keep him from me!"
"What do you want with him Rodger?" Sara did her best to stand up for herself, trying to break the cycle that started a long time ago.
/FLASH: "What do you want with her daddy?" Lucy looked to her father who was trying to drag Max out of bed, who had been weakened by seizures that night.
Lucy's father grabbed the girl by her shirt and pulled her up "She needs to learn her place"/
"He needs a man to show him his place" at that moment Rodger's eyes and her father's eyes were exactly the same.
Someone tapped Rodger on the shoulder and he turned around in time to face Max's fist punching him in the face. Rodger reeled back and landed on the floor, blood dripping out of his noise "You didn't need a man to show you yours" she looked down at him on his ass.
Rodger jumped up and looked at her hatefully "You bitch!" he grabbed her by the shoulder and
Max reeled around and snatched his arm and threw him back down "You also wanna watch who you call a bitch"
Rodger kicked her legs out from under her and because of her weakened condition she fell, landing hard on the floor.
"I know whose the bitch!" he left her there pulling out gun of his own and going for Sara "Once you're gone, you can't tell me I can't have my son" he grabbed her by the neck and pointed the gun at her chest "What's mine is mine." His hands found the fly of her jeans "Though I wouldn't mind doin' ya one time before ya hafta take the train to another slam city" his hands reached out to grab her crotch, then he pointed the gun at it when she resisted "You don't want to share kids with me, I'll fix it so you can't have kids at all-" the gun when off, and in a flurry of activity Rodger was jumped on by Max and Sara was knocked out of the way, and both women were thrown to the floor, the off shot bullet had hit Sara in her thigh
Logan grabbed the gun before Rodger could, pointing it and his own at Rodger's face "Don't move!"
"Freeze!" everyone's timing seemed to be perfect because Kendra's cop boyfriend chose that moment to come in brandishing his gun and still in his riot gear "Get down you punk monkey! You're not getting the run on me this time! PUT YOUR HANDS UP!" Walter was very assertive; one of the reasons Kendra probably liked him.
With Rodger being handled by Walter Logan dropped his gun and knelt next to Max who to his horror, had started seizing again, after a year and a half of nothing
"Max!" he pulled her body off of Lucy, but Max protested, "She's bleeding hard from her femoral artery, she needs a doctor-" her hands were shaking but she held them onto Sara's bleeding calf. "She could loose too much blood-" the rest of the words were lost on her own shaking.
"You need meds-" Logan couldn't believe that he had just thrown out the expired bottle. Max hadn't had seizures in over a year.
"God Max-" Kendra was more worried now then happy at seeing her old friend "Man we could've met better"
Max turned her head towards Kendra's voice "Hey girl-you came back for the party-" her shaking happened again "I would've baked a cake or something"
"We don't have any more tryptophan-" Logan cut into the conversation. "Dammit, why did I through out that bottle-" all his scolding didn't do anything to lessen his worry as he watched his wife shake in his arms.
"Tinga" he suddenly remembered a vital part of information "She has some-"
"Yeah I need an ambulance to 363 Lyell, there's been a woman shot here-" Cindy seemed to be taking charge of the situation in the midst of this chaos and the sounds of Rodger being handcuffed. "Well tell them to hurry the hell up!" she hung up the phone and looked worridly to Max. "Take her Logan to her sistah, I'll stay here with Sara until the meds come rollin'"
Logan didn't say anything, the worry was still there. Max was shaking so bad that he had to pick her up in his arms and carry her out the door. It would be faster for him to drive there then for Tinga to come.
*****
"Tinga?"
"Logan?"
"Something's wrong. We need your tryp"
"What? Why?"
"Max is seizing"
"How long?"
"Ten minutes now. They haven't been letting up. God she's so cold-"
"I'll get it Logan-"
"I'm on my way over to your place"
"I'm waiting"
*****
"What do we have?" the medic dropped his kit beside Sara, looking at the wound in her leg, yet still asking what was the problem
"She got shot miracle worker" Cindy let him know straight out "Do your job and quit asking dumb questions!"
Another medic opened up the kit, looking at the bullet in Sara's thigh. The door to the apartment creaked open, revealing the face of Michael looking inside
"Mommy-" he called to Sara, but he still couldn't see her.
Sara was panting from the pain, but still looked to her son "Oh god-" a raspy breath "Please-" her eyes were pleading towards Cindy "Please don't let him see me, it'll scare him-"
"Mommy-" it was too late.
Cindy picked up the little boy who struggled against her "It's okay boo. Mommy will be okay-"
"Mommy!"
*****
"Max!" Charlie opened his front door with a gasp when he saw how pale his sister-in-law looked being carried in their apartment by Logan.
Tinga rushed forward, taking charge of the situation. She felt Max's pulse, wiping some sweat off her sister's brow in the process "Put her on the couch"
Tinga knelt down next to Max's shaking body, injecting a needle into her arm, liquid tryptophan, also taking in all the brusing around her body "Damn, what the hell happened to you baby sister?" the needle went in.
*****
"Start her on a IV drip, push 20 cc's of Demerol for pain" the medic stuck the IV in Sara's arm as she was being wheeled outside on the stretcher
Cindy held onto Michael, who had finally calmed down enough to let the woman hold him.
"Where's mommy going?" Michael looked wild eyed at the retreating form of his mother
"She'll be okay" Cindy rubbed Michael's back, talking soothing to him like he was her own son
*****
"You'll be okay Maxie" Tinga rubbed her sister's forehead with a wet rag, smoothing down her brown hair. She stuck a thermometer in Max's ear and after pulling it out observed the temperature for a moment, a long moment
Logan looked worried from his spot next to his wife on the black and red sofa. Extremely worried "What is it?"
Tinga looked from Max to Logan, and then back to Max. The two sisters shared a look "Temps 99.6" Tinga blinked "Are you on your time?"
Max gave a half nod, sharing something that only she and Tinga seemed to know about.
"On what?" Logan was way past antsy and was heading towards pissed "What the hell is going on?"
Tinga looked up to her brother in law "Her temps up slightly, her seizures are back. Her body is getting shocked with something it hasn't dealt with in a while. Her serration is low again because it's being redirected towards one place" Tinga's brown eyes locked on his, her long ponytail unwavering
"What the hell are you saying?" Logan wasn't anymore enlightened
"She's pregnant" Tinga finally came out and said it
*****
"Negative on the pregnancy" The RN looked at the test
"Good" the doctor looked over to Sara who was on the gurney "That means we don't have to go lenient on the drips for this procedure" he put his face right up to Sara "Ma'am we need to take you to the OR to repair the damage to your leg. Is there anyone you'd like me to call?" the doctor's brown hair was concealed in his cap.
Sara shook her head as best she could, looking up to the doctor with bleary pained eyes "My son, he's outside, please talk to him if I-"
"You'll be fine ma'am. The tear isn't that bad" the doctor sounded reassuring to her while the OR set up for the surgery.
*****
"You look about five weeks along Maxie. I don't see any tears in the sac or any dissattachements of the placenta from the uterus-"The whir of a sonogram machine was heard in Tinga's apartment and the face of Syl was right next to it. Being a midwife paid off very well. "Always seem to forget that Manticore moms always start loosing serration after the first month" Syl came over after Tinga called, pulling the sonogram machine, actually stealing it from the hospital where she worked for a few weeks to get her apartment. Syl had good timing as well, she also happened to be in Seattle at the moment Max needed a sonogram. It WOULD'VE made a very interesting TV show their lives.
Syl stopped the wand, showing a small image of the tiny embryo, which was just big enough to be picked up on the machine. "How do you feel?"
Max took a breath, looking at the image, asking with her eyes
"Baby looks fine Maxie" Syl reassured " Strong healthy heartbeat. No damage from the accident, thank god. It's you I'm worried about"
Max breathed then "I'm okay" she felt Logan take her hand and squeeze it
*****
"It's okay mommy" Michael looked at Sara who had just been admitted to a private room after a successful surgery.
Sara reached up with an IV hand to stroke Michael's head. She was still groggy from anesthesia, but seeing her son alive made her smile. Michael hugged her hard then and tears hit his hair as she hugged him. Only this time she felt so much relief that something was finally over.
*****
ONE WEEK LATER
SOUTH SIDE MARKET BUS STATION
"Will the baby have to have my room?" Jessie stood beside Max at the Southside train station where Sara stood with bags packed with Michael at her side. People rustled in and out of the busy mark
Max glanced down at her son. Ever since she told him he was going to have another sibling he'd been worrying about that. "No honey. You may have to double up with Lexi cause we just about ran out of room" she felt pretty good right now, healing up nicely, little bit of morning sickness was hitting her. And all this time she thought she had eaten her breakfast too fast.
"Mommy no!" Jess complained "Why'd you have a baby now anyway?"
"Ask daddy" Max made a joke of it, although Logan wasn't there to defend himself. Her eyes drifted upwards to Sara, who was on crutches but looking considerably better then the last time they met. Max handed her a small white envelope containing two tickets on the bus to go to Canada. It had all been arranged by Logan to send Sara there, to start over, give her and Michael a chance at a real life.
Both women just stared at each other with a unifying look, not knowing what to say, or really how to start.
"Call when you get there" it was Max who broke the silence with this remark, the wind blowing her hair slightly, making it dance across her face. She also looked considerably better then last week. She was Max, so that came naturally, and in her "condition" she was glowing.
Sara was speechless for long moments. There had been so much happening in such a short amount of time. She really had no idea what to say to the woman who had taken her and her son in.
"Maxie I-" she started to say something but was at a loss for words. Her lips trembled on a word that wouldn't escape her mouth, and in the next instant she locked her arms around Max in a deep hug.
/FLASH: Lucy looked to Max with big eyes as she hugged her "I've always wanted a sister" She could see her father looking at her the whole time, but she didn't care/
Max hugged her back just as strongly. She pulled back to look at Sara and Michael both "You're gonna be okay. You're informant at the U.S. line is Richard. He'll set you up with your place, sector passes, everything"
Sara looked back to Max again She watched everything through her blue eyes. "If the baby's a girl-"
"Lucy's my mom's name anyway so it'll be win win" Max answered what the woman was trying to say but couldn't. "She doesn't have any kids named after her"
"Sara" Sara corrected, she didn't want to be reminded of Lucy, of all the things Lucy had to go through. At least Sara was grown woman and could defend for herself. At least Sara had one man who would always love her.
"How about both?" Max struck a balance "Sara-Lucy Cale?"
This got Sara to smile "You're mom's Spanish right?" she didn't wait for an answer "How about Lucia Sara Cale instead? It sounds better, plus it'll make her happier" her voice was longing, she never had a mother, and never even got a chance to know hers like Max did. Her mom had gone a long time ago, somewhere where Daddy wouldn't tell her. She just hopped it was heaven.
Max smiled "Deal" there was a long second "Take care of yourself" she touched Sara's shoulder and backed away so she could board the bus.
Michael waved at her from the rickety bus window and Max had to wave back at a gesture so enthusiastic
The motor of the bus rolled over, coughed, and roared to life pulling out of the shabby station.
MAX: V.O. "Sometimes it's hard to figure out who you are and where you're going-" (she watches the bus leave)
(FADE OUT TO SHOT OF MAX ON SPACE NEEDLE ALONE AT NIGHT. SHE WALKS A FEW FEET AND SITS DOWN ON THE COLD METAL, STARING OUT INTO THE BROKEN CITY)
MAX V.O "I've always agonized over what happened to Lucy because I didn't want to save her. I only wanted to save myself-"
/FLASH: her father slaps Lucy to the ground and she cries. Max waits in the corner alone, silently for her turn/
MAX (V.O) "But in a way I guess I did save her-"
/FLASH: to scene at hospital where Max gave birth to Lexi. Sara is her roommate, looking over at her newborn son Michael sleeping in his little plastic "tray" Her eyes are so loving, the eyes of a mother/
MAX (V.O) "I owed her one anyway" (a pause as Max smiles, looking out into the sky) "Guess I'm gonna have to go through the ups and downs of hormonisms again. But it's not that bad. As long as I get my reward in the end" (her smile broadens) "Lucia Sara Cale. If he's a boy he's just gonna have to deal with that name, maybe Luke or something, cause I owe something to someone and we won't love him any less because of it. Kendra's back now so she'll want in on the name early so she can go buy monogrammed stuff, even though I still have a butt load of it from the other pregnancies"
(ANOTHER LONG PAUSE THEN) "Another baby, name after another sister. That is awesome"
*****
END
WHOOO!!!! I did it WHOOOO!!!!! Heehe...ya like my "Female Trouble" ending? I just thought of it...and I swear on everything that is holy and righteous this is the last kid the Cale's are having...I like big families but too many children just makes it hectic. I debated long and hard about doing this..and well my story so there...no I just thought...well I never had Lucia is there for Max like mothers do when their 'kids' are pregnant. And the bits about it being like a TV show..i've had so much worry over the last few days I need to unwind, and was soo fitting..cause lots of times TV shows are so conviently staged where everything fits perfectly and timing is never off. So why not make fun of it?
This took too damn long, I've been in a funk and sick...still sick but I gotta do something.
Let me know what ya think...and free cake if ya come to the celebration party.
Peace
mystic