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A/N: I am so sorry I haven't updated in FOREVER!!! Forgive me! I'll update more consistently from now on. Thank you, everyone, for your awesome reviews, I appreciate every one I get.

Ex Multus Familia: Part 2

Chapter 19

Everett had just stopped at the sewer entrance when he heard a voice behind him. "Everett? Dude, did you just…" Everett turned around to see Rick, a black-haired twenty-year-old with glasses. He was rather young to be in Jones' main crowd, but he was supposed to be brilliant. Obviously he was doing something right since Jones had kept him around since before Telic was formed, according to the rumors.

Aww, crap. He could see from the kid's wide eyes that he had seen Everett blur. Everett really didn't want to do what he was about to; he almost liked the kid. But he couldn't risk a discovery, and he didn't have time to find out just how much the kid had seen. It was too bad he wasn't psy-ops.

"Wow, I never, I didn't…" The kid almost looked excited and didn't even back away as Everett walked towards him.

"Sorry, Rick." Everett looked away as he snapped the kid's neck. A clean death. He could give him that much. Everett really hoped that the kid hadn't been about to say anything about how cool transgenics were or how excited he was to meet one. It would be just Everett's luck that the person who spotted him would be the one person out of Jones' group to actually not hate transgenics. Maybe the kid was just looking for a job…

He couldn't afford to allow himself to speculate. It would make him feel guilty. Everett stashed the body in an open doorway and shoved some loose debris around it so it would like the kid could have possibly tripped and snapped his own neck. He stepped out again and wiped the dust off his hands.

Everett checked around once to make sure no one was watching, then quickly climbed into the sewer. He reverted to Mantciore training, doing what he'd always done when he had to push an unpleasant mission from his mind.

Count, breathe. It was what he'd had to do, nothing more, nothing less. Breathe. Moment of remorse. Breathe. There, he'd given time to feel sorry for the boy. Now it was time to move on.

He blurred again, quickly moving through the sewer's familiar passageways. He almost knew these better than the streets above; these were just so much safer and easier for a transgenic to follow than having to go through Sector police and risk needing to use a transgenic's particular abilities against a rough crowd.

It wasn't long before he was climbing up out of the sewer entrance that was closest to the infirmary. Even after blurring almost the whole way there, he was still barely breathing hard. It was good to know that he hadn't gotten out of shape yet. Most importantly, it was good to know he could be there for his mate, and she wouldn't need to know that it had caused him any trouble at all to be there so quickly.

He was spotted as soon as he was in the infirmary. Robin, Sidda, and Alec were all in the waiting room; they'd probably all brought her when she went into labor. Seth was somewhere working in the infirmary at this very moment, in all likelihood.

"Everett!' Sidda stood up and waved him over.

"Is she okay?" Everett asked, looking around anxiously, out of habit. He was checking for any signs of something going wrong in the infirmary. But none of the passing doctors seemed particularly troubled, and Alec, Sidda and Robin's heartbeats were all relatively normal.

"Of course she is," Robin said, smiling at him.

Alec jerked his head toward one of the side hallways. "We can take you to her. We were just waiting for you to show up."

Everett followed them, only half paying attention to whatever they were talking about. He wasn't trying to be rude, he just couldn't help it. This was his and Mona's first baby, and they had no idea yet how easy or difficult Mona's labor would be. Even though he wasn't near her yet, his whole concentration was focused on her.

He was so relieved when he saw her, awake and surrounded by competent doctors. "Mona, how are you?" he asked.

Mona broke into a smile as soon as she saw him and reached out her hand. He took it and moved to her side as one of the doctors made way for him.

"I'm fine enough, despite the fact that this huge baby of yours has decided to take its sweet time coming out of me," she said with a laugh. "I blame it on the baby waiting for you to get here."

"My baby and my fault," Everett said, shaking his head. He chuckled with relief though, glad he had made it there before anything had really happened.

"Better sit down," Mona said, nodding to a chair near Everett. "According to the doctors, we have a long wait ahead of us unless the baby suddenly decides to speed up."

Outside the delivery room, Sidda gave a theatrical sigh and looked Alec up and down. "Why do you have to be so damn tall?" she asked. "Mona thinks she has problems with her baby; I've gotta deliver the baby of a six foot and one inch giant."

"I thought you weren't going to actually have to go through labor," Robin said.

Alec rolled his eyes and hugged Sidda close. "No, she isn't. She just likes to complain all the time about the fact that she's even having a baby."

"Well, I might actually get to experience labor if I wasn't carrying around the child of a giant," she grumbled. But she smiled up at Alec, letting him know that she was really only teasing him. He wasn't much fun when he was being all angsty and guilty over getting her pregnant, so she tried not to contribute to the guilty feelings too much.

"Hey, can't help my height much. Blame it on Manticore," Alec said.

"Manticore is such a convenient scapegoat," Sidda agreed. She glanced at the window again, where they could now see Mona gripping Everett's hand as she cried out. Watching Mona go through all the pain and trouble of labor made Sidda feel slightly queasy. It had been so very different when Robin had been giving birth to Taylor and Sidda had thought she was a long, long way off from ever having a child. Now this was hitting way too close to home.

"So, um, are we supposed to stay?" Sidda asked. It didn't seem like Mona would really notice whether they were there or not.

"Do you feel like fainting?" Alec asked, looking down at her with worry.

Sidda pushed his shoulder. "Don't be such a worry-wort. I'm fine. I was just asking. I don't know the proper etiquette for stuff like this." She really didn't want to stay and watch, but if that's what they were supposed to do as friends, well, then she supposed she would.

Robin shrugged. "I'm not sure. I guess we should stick around, I mean, isn't that normal? Being here for them and everything?"

Alec smirked. "That's not exactly something we went over in Manticore. Unless you had course in that?"

Robin nudged him. "Oh, hush. I'm just going off of what I read in those books." Realizing something, she glanced at the other two X5s. "Which I'm pretty sure neither of you have read yet."

Alec glanced down at Sidda, and she shrugged. "We still have about three months," she said, grinning at Robin, "And I did have courses in speed-reading."

"I looked at the pictures," Alec said.

"I don't even know why I try sometimes," Robin said, shaking her head. Really, they could both be so hard-headed…

Behind them, someone closed the blinds to the delivery room while Mona gave another muffled cry. Sidda rolled her shoulders, uncomfortable. If it hurt enough for an X5 to cry out like that, it must have been some kind of pain. Yet Sidda would have rather gone through that than the surgery she was facing.

"We could at least go down the waiting room," Robin said, "It might be a while."

"Sounds good," Sidda said, dragging on Alec's arm. She didn't have any problems with heading down there instead of lurking outside of the delivery room. Alec wrapped his arm around her as they walked.

"We can go back home, if you'd like," he said, squeezing her waist.

She grinned up at him. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were the nervous one."

"It's not like I exactly have a particular fondness for hospitals," he said. Sidda laughed and rested her head for a moment against his arm.

When they reached the waiting room, Alec let out an amused whistle and turned toward Robin. "They let you loose in here, didn't they?"

"I don't like how you make that sound like a bad thing," Robin said, smiling as she sat down in one of the plush chairs. It was true, she had decorated this room as well, and she had fitted it out for maximum comfort. Since there was only one waiting room in the infirmary for people just waiting for news about a friend or loved one, she had tried to make that room as relaxing as possible. It was mostly in green and blue tones, mimicking a calm ocean. The furniture in here all matched the rest of the décor and the couch and chairs were extra comfy.

"Reminds me of the Outer Banks," Sidda said. She settled down on the couch and curled into Alec as he sat down beside of her.

"Good, then there's no need to go back there," Alec said, "At least not without me."

"Yeah, you shouldn't ditch all of us for solo beach vacations," Robin teased. She leaned further back into the chair, letting its coziness remind her of just how late it was at night. Taylor had been left with Syl back at the apartment so Seth and Robin could go with Mona to the infirmary, so Robin wouldn't have to worry about the baby waking up tonight.

"How long do you think it'll take?" Sidda asked. Remembering back to when Taylor had been born, she was gonna guess that it was going to be a long night.

"I'm not sure," Robin said, curling around a pillow. It would have been nice if Seth could have been here, but he was making rounds in the hospital. He had been logging more hours there now that he wasn't going on missions as much; his medical abilities now far surpassed that of a normal field-med, thanks to the extra hours and reading up on medical material. "It'll at least be a few more hours. We could probably catch a nap, especially since Mona's handling this well." And she wouldn't exactly notice any of them anyway, since Everett was there and they were now in a completely different room.

"A cat nap doesn't sound half-bad," Sidda said.

Alec smirked and pulled her into his arms as they both stretch out on the couch. "You always want to cat nap now."

"Shh," Sidda said, resting her head on his arm, "Or I'll make you go sleep in the hall."

"Yeah, right," he said, and Robin chuckled. Soon enough, all three transgenics had drifted off, catching sleep when they could, just like Manticore had taught them.

Alec stood in the middle of the intersection of two hallways. Something important was happening right now, what was it? He was supposed to be somewhere. Looking around, he tried to get his bearings, but every time he turned his head, the halls seemed to switch on him. The place sort of looked like the infirmary…and he had a reason for being here. He just couldn't remember what it was. And there was a high-pitched sound breaking his concentration, a thin, eerie and continuous wail. He rubbed at his right ear, wondering if his ears were ringing.

Where was Sidda? He lifted his head. There was a trace of her scent amid the hospital smells. He needed to find her. The infirmary was quiet. Way too quiet. Where was everyone? Where was Sidda? She wouldn't like being here alone…why were they there?

He started walking, not really sure where he was going, but he followed Sidda's scent. The hallways passed by and sometimes they seemed Manticore blue, other times white, like the infirmary in T.C. The doors were all closed, and some had X's over them. Alec didn't know what that meant, and he didn't have time to stop and look. He needed to find Sidda.

As he went farther into the hallway, a new smell seeped out from under the doorways. Fresh, metallic, electric, warm. Blood. The hallway smelt of blood, and the blood scents were all familiar. Robin, Seth, Max, Mona, Krit, Syl, Everett, Joshua… He could smell all of them, all in the most potent form of their blood. And coating it all was Sidda's scent.

Alec started running. The sound of bare feet slapping the floor and the high-pitched electronic wail filled his ears. A glance down at his clothes told him he was dressed in Manticore medical scrubs, primed for experimentation. The infirmary halls melted completely into Manticore blues and shadows.

The hallway ended suddenly in the doorway of the waiting room at the infirmary. Sidda wasn't there, but Alec saw Robin's blond-haired head peeking over the back of the couch, still bowed in sleep. Alec hurried forward to ask her where Sidda was, but when he reached out to touch her, her head lolled to the side, exposing the black-stained hole in her chest, right over her heart. Robin's blood scent flooded Alec's senses, and he frantically tried to find her pulse even though he knew it wouldn't be there.

"Help!" he roared, not wanting to leave her to go find someone, "Somebody, help!" As he knelt beside her, he glimpsed a second body, one that had been hidden by the chair. Seth. The other X5's face was contorted with rage and horror, and the back of his head was bleeding, a red pool from the gunshot wound soaking into the carpet that Robin had picked out. Alec choked out Seth's name, but it was too late for him. He was gone, just like his mate, and there was nothing Alec could do.

Alec stumbled backward, his hands red with Robin's blood. What had happened here? Why? What had Seth and Robin ever done to anyone? Why hadn't anyone stopped them? And where was Sidda?

That thought got him up and moving again, even when he just wanted to stop. He had to find her, protect her from whatever had killed their friends. Running out of the room, he took in a deep breath, trying to catch her scent again. It taunted him, catching his nose and then flitting away. Fists clenched, he pounded off down the hallway, following Sidda's scent again.

The high-pitched squeal grew louder as he closed in, and out of the corners of his eyes, he realized that the walls were warping again, changing from the infirmary to Manticore. The double doors of an operating room stood in front of him, and he walked through them…literally. Even as he stretched his hands out to shove the doors open, he passed straight through them, like a ghost. For a moment he just stood there, disoriented, until he looked up.

The high-pitched noise was now a scream, a constant, inescapable electronic scream that was piercing his ears. Sidda's smell was strong here, but he couldn't feel her like he usually did. It was as if her presence was somehow missing… He looked around the room, wondering where he was. It looked exactly like an operating room back in Manticore.

In the corner, there was a pair of doctors hovering over a small bundle, something wrapped in light blue cloth. It was completely still, but Alec had a horrified feeling that he knew what it was. He willed his body to charge that way, to rip into both of the doctors, but he was frozen. Something turned his head toward the center of the room, to where the surgical lights were trained on an operating table. There was only one person standing beside the table, a scalpel glinting in one hand while the other was deep in the body of whoever was on that table. Dark blond hair against a too pale face. On one side of the table, a monitor showed multiple flat lines. A small frame, much shorter than the table that had been designed to fit all types.

"No…please…"

The man beside the table didn't look at Alec, but he pulled his hand out of the body, holding something small and dark, the size of Sidda's clenched fist. He finally looked at Alec, a grin on his face below hazel eyes.

"Your fault," 494 told Alec, Sidda's blood covering his Manticore-issue outfit. He smirked before his face went dark. "It's all your fault."

"No…"

"Yes, it is. Don't lie to yourself." His body double chuckled and shook his head. "You can't. You'll still know you killed her. Live with it."

"NO!" Alec forced himself forward, overcoming whatever was holding him back as he charged at his body double, ready to rip out his own throat. His own laughter resounded in his ears as his body double disappeared seconds before he touched him.

Grabbing the empty air, Alec stopped and whirled back towards his mate, reaching for her, shaking his head. "God, Sidda, no, come on, please? No…" He reached for her, and just as his fingers brushed her face, she shattered, her body exploding into a thousand pieces. "SIDDA! NO!"

And all of the sudden he was back in the infirmary, and Sidda's body was whole, in his arms. She was facing him, staring at him with concern. Was she staring? Or were her eyes sightless, already dead?

Alec grabbed her face between his hands and felt the soft skin of her cheek, rubbed his thumb across her lips. Watched as her eyelashes moved up and down. And only when he realized that her chest was moving, breathing, did he notice that she was speaking urgently to him.

"Alec, Alec." Her hands were gripping his arms. "Alec, love, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

Alec felt like he'd just run a marathon. He nodded his head, unable to speak just yet. He looked around the waiting room. Normal activity, normal people. There was Robin, watching him with a worried look in her eyes. Some doctor was standing at the edge of the seating area as if he was unsure whether to intervene or not.

"It was a nightmare," he breathed. He felt giddy with relief, and he smiled wearily at Sidda. "I knew that."

Sidda sagged against him. "Oh my gosh, Alec, don't you ever do that to me again! That was one heck of a nightmare…I hope you don't have them too often."

"Was I saying anything?" he asked, suddenly feeling slightly embarrassed. He glanced over at where the doctor had been standing; he was gone now, apparently having decided that Alec was ok.

"It was more like screaming…" Robin mumbled.

Sidda giggled slightly. "Yeah, it kind of was." She turned over and looked at him. "Very intelligible too, surprisingly."

"What was I…err…"

"Sidda! No!" Robin echoed dramatically. She laughed as Sidda rolled her eyes at her.

"Yeah, it was something like that," Sidda admitted. "And you were pleading with someone right before that. That's when I began to notice that you were talking in your sleep." She kissed him gently and then trace the line of his jaw before saying, in a quieter voice, "What was it about?

Alec looked away, out the window. Why were nightmares always so much easier to remember than dreams? He wished that he could truthfully tell her that he'd already forgotten most of it.

He looked back at her and sat up a bit, pulling her closer into him. She didn't resist at all, only rested her chin on his forearm and trained him with a steady gaze. "You going to analyze my nightmare?" Alec asked playfully, stalling for time. He twisted a loose strand of her hair around her fingers. It felt so wonderfully solid.

"Depends how easy it is to interpret," she said, smiling up at him. She was hoping that him joking around was a sign that the nightmare hadn't been that awful. "If it was about me running away, well, then I'll know you haven't gotten over that fear yet."

"Nah, I'm past that, those nightmares stopped a week ago." He winked at her. Those nightmares had really stopped the moment he had found her. He'd known at that point that she wasn't going to get a chance to run as far away from him again. He simply wouldn't let it happen, and secure in his resolve, he hadn't really been afraid. Worried during the day, maybe, but not so deeply afraid that he had nightmares about it.

Sidda poked him in the chest. "Stop changing the subject."

"Hey, you were the one that changed it."

Sidda growled warningly, and he smirked at her and kissed her on the lips, and then the throat, where he could feel the vibrations from her growling. So alive…

"I dreamed that everyone was dead," he said honestly.

"Well, you probably share that one with half the transgenics here," she teased.

Alec shook his head and glanced at Robin, who was buried in a book again. "First I found Robin and Seth's bodies…" Apparently Robin wasn't as engrossed in her book as he thought. She glanced up at him, her expression half-amused and half-horrified.

"What happened to us?" she asked.

"Not sure, you'd been dead for a bit," Alec said, shrugging. He remembered the angry and afraid look on Seth's face. "But I'm pretty sure you died before Seth did."

"Poor Seth," Sidda said sympathetically. She rested her elbows on Alec's chest, and grinned as he half-scowled at her for digging her sharp bones into his chest. "So let me guess, you found me next."

"Yeah. They were cutting you up, like a failed experiment back at Manticore…" His throat closed up as he remembered who had been digging into Sidda. Could he tell her that part? What would she think of him if she knew that Alec had dreamed of himself killing her?

Sidda tapped her chin, her eyes unfocusing for a moment like she was deeply considering a very serious question. "Hmm, that's sort of strange, really, since Manticore isn't a huge concern anymore."

"I know…" His gaze slid away from Sidda, and her eyebrows rose.

"There's more, isn't there?"

"You're always in intuitive mode at the worst of times," he grumbled. She smirked, but didn't say anything, determinedly waiting for his answer. She wasn't going to allow him a chance to distract her with conversation about another topic.

"I saw… a man. He was pulling some small, dark thing out of your body. I think it was your heart. And when he turned around…" Alec swallowed, the sound seeming to echo strangely. "It was 494. Me."

"That's all?" Sidda stared at him a moment. "That scared you?"

"Well, it was more the fact that it was me that scared me," Alec responded defensively, "And scared isn't the right word. Let's go with freaked." Freaked was a more manly term anyways.

Sidda sighed and shook her head. "So you're worried that you have a secret desire to hurt me or something?" she asked. At Alec's guilty look she smiled and kissed his cheek. "You're such an idiot. I know you would never do that, even if you don't."

"Maybe it was your twin, that Ben kid," Robin said. She'd given up on her book and had listened to him finishing the rest of his story; with transgenic hearing, there really had been no point to even pretending not to be listening in on the conversation. "And maybe it was just fears over what will happen to Sidda because you got her pregnant."

Sidda mouthed 'thank you' at Robin and then nodded at Alec. "See? Robin is good at interpreting dreams or nightmares, whatever. You're fine. You just express fears in weird ways." She chuckled and sat back. "Remind me to never accuse you of making life difficult for me again, oh giant one."

Alec frowned, trying to decide if Robin was right, or if she was just saying it to make him feel better. He knew that it hadn't been Ben, but the other part… well, it would be nice to think that that was all it was. "I am sorry about being so tall,' he said. "Maybe you'll get lucky though and it'll be a shorty like you."

"Hey!" Sidda gave him a playful swat on the shoulder. "Just because you had a nightmare doesn't mean you get to say whatever you want."

"But it might make me feel better…"

"Oh, is that so?" Sidda was half amused, half disbelieving at his audacity to use his nightmare to any advantage he could. "You're incorrigible."