Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel so don't sue me. Thanks. :-)

A/N: Thanks for all the awesome reviews! Again, I know this is late, but it's been a tough year. Sorry about all the delays.

Ex Multus Familia: Part 2

Chapter 20

Everett and Mona named their 6 pound, 4 ounces daughter Lisa. She had fuzzy dark hair, just like her father, and came into the world screaming bloody murder. Everett had joked that she was going to be a singer one day with lungs like that. Now, however, the three-week-old baby was sleeping quietly in her mother's arms while a majority of Terminal City's population sat around the TVs in HQ, trying to come to a decision regarding what to do about the stubborn rioters at TC's not-so-formidable gates.

"Let's just blast 'em," Jaz suggested. The vibrant, violent X6 flopped back on the couch and threw a glare over at their leader. "Come on, Max, let's just show 'em we won't take this anymore."

Max frowned at the girl. "I don't think killing a bunch of Ordinaries is going to help our situation."

"No, but it'd be damn satisfying," Mole said, making a few of the nearby transgenics snicker.

Max rubbed her temples, wishing that this situation wasn't happening. "I don't care how much you'd enjoy it, forget it. I'm not explaining to the Feds that we killed Ordinaries just to get a high."

"That's not the only reason," an X5 declared, "They're setting our guard house on fire."

"That would be a bit of a problem," Sidda muttered sarcastically to Robin. They were sitting at a table in the middle of the crowd; Sidda had been at HQ when news of the attack had broken, and Robin had found her there. Seth and Alec were with the small team of transgenics who were monitoring the situation at the front gates.

"We can't let them keep going like this, Fearless Leader," Mole said, feeding off of the general bad mood of the group. "They're going to start thinking they can do whatever they feel like."

Max scowled at him. "I said stay until we get different information. We're not going to go slaughter Ordinaries, even if they do hate us. It makes us no better than them."

"You'd think the government would have done a better job of fending them off," Robin said, "Since they're supposedly guarding us and everything." She shoved a long strand of blond hair out of her face and glanced at the TV. The humans had subdued the guards since they had somehow discovered that the guards weren't allowed to shoot anything human, and they had made a bonfire out of the guardhouse.

"Are you insinuating that the government wouldn't plunge the country into a state of mourning if we all died?" Sidda said. She gave a mock gasp and put her hand to her heart, overdramatic. "I'm shocked. Floored, really."

Robin tossed a piece of balled-up paper at her friend. "Oh, shut up. You're not funny."

Sidda grinned and shook her head, her expression becoming serious. "Mole's right, though. If we let them do whatever they want, it'll only get worse." She waved her hand through the air. "It's that whole give an inch, they go a lot farther. It's some old saying."

Robin nodded. "I think I know what you're talking about, and yeah, I agree. But Max…she doesn't exactly think the same way the rest of us do."

Sidda poked at some of the papers on the desk. "Sometimes I wonder if leaving Manticore when she did was really the best thing…" she said it quietly, but Max probably wouldn't have heard it anyway since everyone near her was talking to her, and many of those people were shouting.

"I don't think we'll ever know," Robin replied, "But at least she didn't have to go through some of the stuff we had to."

"Yeah, I wouldn't wish that on anyone," Sidda said.

"Okay, look, they haven't hurt any of our people yet," Max said, holding up her hands for silence. She only got them to quiet down to a quiet mutter and grumble, but that was better than everyone shouting at her. "They didn't even hurt the gate guards."

"That's because they're human!" announced one of the transhumans, a big, bear-like NADU unit. "They might hesitate to hurt the X-series, but what do you think they're going to do to us transhumans?"

"String us up, gut us?" Mole suggested as possible options. He bit down on his cigar and leaned in close to Max. "And that's if they're being nice."

Max shoved his shoulder, forcing him away. "Look, if it gets any worse, I'll get the team at the gates to handle it. They have more than enough people to subdue the Ordinaries, so everyone just calm the hell down!" Emitting an aura of don't-touch-me, Max stormed through the crowd of transgenics that separated in front of her.

Sidda let out a low whistle. "Well, that went swimmingly."

"Hopefully the humans will just have their protest and leave," Robin said, glancing at the TV. They were burning Xs now in front of the gate, like they had when the transgenics had first fled into Terminal City. It seemed that Telic had taken up the practice.

"Yeah, I don't want Alec fighting either," Sidda said, picking up on what Robin was really worried about. Seth was out there, and Robin didn't like it. "Not that he can't handle himself against Ordinaries, but these guys are nuts."

"I think they have suicide-missions-are-us stamped onto them," Syl said as she slid into the chair beside Robin. She grinned across the table at Sidda. "What, little momma, you haven't fainted from all the stress yet?"

Sidda rolled her eyes at Syl, used to the ribbing by now. "Shut your face, Syl. I tried to get on the team as a sniper, but they wouldn't let me go."

Krit ruffled Sidda's short blond hair as he took the seat next to her. "That's because no one wants you conking out while you're operating dangerous machinery."

"Dude, I haven't fainted in like two weeks," Sidda complained, shoving his hand away. She grabbed a couple newspapers from the table and handed them to Krit. "Here, read up on how much people hate you."

Robin glanced down at the papers in front of her. The headline on one of them asked in bold type: TRANSGENICS: CHILDREN OF THE APOCALYPSE? She snorted and pushed it away from her. Some of these were just ridiculous.

"Hey, look, we're now aliens," Krit said, sliding one of the papers over into the middle of the table. There was a picture of a green tattooed neck with ALIENS = TRANSGENICS plastered over the picture. Robin rubbed her forehead.

"They do know that's not really a legit barcode, right?" she asked, shaking her head at the random lines on the person's neck.

"I'm more amused that they think we're all green," Krit said, grinning.

Syl shoved the paper even farther away, back toward Robin "It's funny, really. The papers paint us as awful aliens when really, what terrifies people the most is that we look exactly like them."

"You'd think they'd get by now that we really are basically human, even if we have a few odd genetic traits," Sidda said. She arched her back and shifted a bit; it was a whole lot harder to get comfortable these days now that the Bean-baby bump had become a baby ball.

"Just a few?" Robin gave her friend an amused glance.

"Well, it's a very tiny percentage," Sidda retorted. Really, she didn't see what all the fuss was about. The crazy Familiars weren't any closer to regular humans than transgenics were; they'd just taken longer to get to the stage of development that they were at.

Suddenly Sidda's phone rang, and they all went silent as she picked it up. "Alec," she said simply before flipping it open. The other three exchanged glances; that could only mean some kind of news from the gate.

They waited while Sidda spoke to him. "Mhhm. Yeah. Really? Crap, that's… oh, ok. No. Yeah, they're not happy. Okay…. Let us know if you need anything. Bye."

"So what's the news from the front?" Krit asked, open curious. Every now and then, it was convenient that most transgenic guys had no sense whatsoever of decorum.

"Well, Telic isn't being cooperative," Sidda said, shaking her head and smiling. The rest of them immediately relaxed; the news couldn't be that bad if she was smiling. "They've been trying to attack some of the transgenic team but have been extremely unsuccessful, of course. " She looked at Robin. "Alec wanted to let us know that he and Seth were fine, and everyone else as well, just in case the human media try to spin it another way. Apparently several camera crews are outside the gate."

"See, if we had our own TV show to show our point of view…"

"No, Krit," Syl said at the same time Sidda shot him a death glare. "You really should just drop that one."

"I'm hoping that one day you all will see sense," Krit muttered dejectedly. He scratched at the wooden table with his index finger. He always managed to look so pitiful when he was unhappy.

"Yeah, I kinda doubt that," Sidda said. She stopped and turned to stare at Robin as a ringing sound came from Robin's backpack, which had been slung across the back of her chair.

Robin looked confused. "Is that Seth calling? Why would he…" She reached for her backpack and missed seeing Sidda's face drain of color. In Sidda's mind, Alec or Seth would only need to call again so soon if something drastic had happened. And if Seth was calling instead of Alec…

Krit and Syl both jumped forward to steady Sidda as she swayed slightly at the table. Robin answered her phone and finally turned to look at Sidda. Her eyes widened, and she murmured quickly into the phone, "Hold on."

"Sidda," she said, moving her mouth away from the phone. "It's not about Alec, Seth is trying to tell me something about Taylor."

"Oh." Sidda sagged back against the chair and then shot a glare at Syl and Krit. "I'm fine," she snapped. They shared a bemused glance and then sat down, though they kept their eyes on Sidda.

"I can't take much more of this," Sidda said as Robin concentrated on the phone again. She looked at Syl and Krit. "I think I'll be less stressed if I'm somewhere where I can see Alec rather than waiting it out here, around a bunch of stressed and unhappy people."

"Hey, I'm a very happy person," Krit said, picking up the paper again. "I love reading about these Manticore aliens that I have yet to meet…" He stared at the picture of the green neck. "Y'know, maybe they were thinking of Mole when they had this picture made up…"

Syl snorted. "And every now and then, you remind me of why I mated with you." Her smile was almost a fond one, without any sense of sarcasm behind it.

"To entertain you, of course. I knew that." He grinned and leaned back in his chair. "Good thing it's so effortless for me."

"Mhmmm…"

Robin slammed her phone down on the table, startling the rest of them out of their conversation.

"Robin?" Sidda asked, carefully eyeing her friend. Wide eyes, thin, tight, mouth, every muscle tense. Not good. Something was still wrong.

Robin looked down at the table, her gaze focused on her phone. Finally she looked up again. "Taylor… the daycare called Seth; they didn't realize he was out with the team at the gate. Those tattoos that showed up on Crystal showed up on Taylor." She started drumming her fingers on the phone, clearly agitated and unsure what to do.

"Well, nothing's happened to Crystal, has it?" Syl asked gently.

Robin shook her head, her mouth still tight and shut.

"Well, hey, at least you'll probably have advance warning if these tattoos affect the babies in anyway," Sidda said, trying to put a cheerful light on it. She knew that even if they didn't do anything, the tattoos still freaked Robin out. Robin hated the idea that Manticore was still affecting them, even branding their children.

"I'm… I'm gonna go, if you guys don't mind," Robin said anxiously. She was already standing up, reaching to grab her bag and put her phone in it. "I just want to visit the daycare, see Taylor for a little bit. I need to see that she's okay myself."

Sidda nodded, her thoughts quickly flying and forming plans even as she spoke. "I'll walk with you," she said. She nodded at Syl and Krit. "I was just telling them I couldn't stand to be here much longer. It's driving me crazy." She felt slightly guilty about using her friend this way, but Robin would understand. And it wasn't like Sidda was really planning on putting herself anywhere where she or the baby could get hurt. Sidda really didn't feel like freaking Alec out right now, when his mind needed to be on the job and not her.

But Sidda also needed to not freak out right now, and the best way to do that was to make sure she knew exactly what was going on at the gate. And maybe even be there with a gun just in case something should happen.

"Ok, we'll see you later then," Syl said. She gave Robin a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand. "And don't worry, Taylor will be fine."

"Thanks," Robin said.

She and Sidda left, and as soon as they were mouth the door, Robin turned to look at her, eyebrows raised and a smile warring with a frown for domination on her face. "So where are you actually going?" she asked. Really, Sidda could be as predictable as a bullet shot by a regular human sometimes, not to mention that she was usually as set on her course as the aforementioned object.

"With you, part of the way," Sidda answered quite truthfully. Robin looked back at her, unamused and not at all satisfied. Sidda sighed and shoved her hair back from her face. "Come on, Robin, I'm not going anywhere dangerous. Just…closer."

Robin's eyes narrowed and started walking, heading toward the day care. "You're not supposed to go any closer to the gate than this. None of us are."

"Robin!" Sidda crossed her arms. "I'm taking a gun with me, and I'll be on a rooftop. No one's going to see me."

"If you fire that gun, you'll be noticed," Robin replied, tossing a disapproving look at Sidda. Sometimes she just didn't think, or that's how it seemed to Robin. "Come on, this is just ridiculous. You'll only have people worrying about you. And Alec will shoot me when he figures out I let you go." Robin threw her hands into the air. "Do you hear me? He will. Shoot me."

"Not if he doesn't know I was there," Sidda said, smiling sweetly at her best friend, "Besides, you already said I could go."

"What? I did not," Robin declared.

Sidda grinned at her. "Yes, you did. You said 'when'. Not 'if'. Implying that he's going to find out that you let me go, which you will."

"That's not even…that doesn't count," Robin said, frowning. She stopped as they came to the front door of the day care center. "Sidda, I don't think you should go."

"I'll be careful," Sidda said, smiling at her, "And I'll bring a big gun." She glanced at the building then looked back at Robin. "Taylor will be fine, don't worry about her."

Robin smiled softly, trying to keep the worry off her face. "I know, I know. But then again…"

"I don't think Sandeman put anything bad in the kids," Sidda said. She gave Robin a brief side hug and struck off, heading towards where they both knew was a weapons cache. Robin briefly put her hand to her head, wishing her life was simpler.

Going inside the building, Robin was immediately set upon by a couple of X9s. There weren't many of them since most of the X9 series had died when Manticore had burned down. Now three-years-old, Masie and Trix were a couple of the dozen or so X9s who had survived, and both of the little girls adored Robin.

"Robin, Robin!" Masie exclaimed, dragging on Robin's arm and pulling her inside, "Is Seth fightin' the bad guys?"

"Robin, come look at what I drew," Trix said, grinning up at Robin with her plump baby face that was framed by black curls. Back in Manticore, Trix probably would have been told to wipe that smile off her face, but Robin could only smile half-heartedly back.

"Give me a few minutes, all right, Trix?" she said, ruffling the girl's curls before turning to Masie, "And yep, Seth's fighting, but hopefully it won't be too bad."

"Seth can kill 'em all, no worrying," Masie said, giving a serious little nod.

Robin smiled. Of course Seth could, he was Superman in these girls' eyes. Whenever they saw him, tey would scramble all over him, using him as a jungle gym while they tugged at his arms, dragged at his legs and jumped on his stomach. Logan said it reminded him of Animal Planet episodes he had seen back before the Pulse where the lion cubs harassed the pride leader until he lashed out at them, but Robin had never seen Animal Planet and Seth never lashed out at the girls, so she couldn't really see the connection.

"Robin!" a female voice called out, and Robin looked up to see Elaine coming toward her, a baby on her hip while an X8 trailed behind her, a sullen look on his young, dark face. Elaine was the X6 in charge of the daycare; one of the older x6s, she had a way with children and most of them seemed to obey her. Since most of the X5s were employed elsewhere, and she had wanted the job, she had been given a trial run and then unanimously, she had been given control over the operation. She handled volunteers easily, putting them to work wherever she needed them. She smiled at Robin as she gave the X8 buy a gentle shove out of the way. "I bet you're wondering about Taylor."

Robin nodded; there was no reason to pretend she wasn't. "Where is she?"

"In the back, napping," Elaine said, motioning for Robin to follow. They wandered through the first few rooms, past a few volunteers playing with infants and a few X8s and X9s sprinkled in between. Elaine led her to a back room with a few cribs in it, and then over to the white crib with the pink bunny mobile over it. Taylor was sleeping there, on her stomach with her shirt off.

"Oh, baby," Robin said, putting her hand to her mouth before reaching out and touching the space between Taylor's shoulder blades. There was a series of black marks, a little more intricate than Crystal's, but Robin still doubted that it was more than one word. The marks were delicate and thin, but still, seeing them on her baby was unnerving. A few tears threatened the corners of her eyes, but she brushed them away quickly.

She felt Elaine's hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. Marie said they're harmless, right? That's what Gem said."

Robin nodded, but that knowledge wasn't doing much to assuage her worries. She wished Seth was there, so she could talk to him about this. There wasn't really anything he could do, but just having him there would make her feel a little better. Sighing, she ran her fingers over Taylor's back. He'd be here soon enough, right after this crisis was over.

Damn it. These humans were stubborn. Even after being bombarded with tear gas, they were hanging around the edges of Terminal City, screaming about the transgenic abomination. Alec leaned back against the wall, shaking his head.

"All right, I'm getting bored," he said, rolling his eyes over at Seth.

The other transgenic sighed and rubbed his hand behind his head. "You're not the only one. I don't think anyone likes waiting here like this."

"What, did Serge's taking potshots at the trashcan give you the hint or was it Opal taking her shoes off and starting a game of solitaire?" He nodded his head over at the dark-haired female X5 who was currently close to winning her first game.

Seth scowled and rested his head against the wall. "I think it's all sort of ridiculous, but we have our orders. No shooting the humans unless they breach the fence and make an actual attack."

"Yeah, I know," Alec said. He rubbed his face and looked back out of the alley. "But shit, if they don't get a move on, I'm making coffee and inviting them over for hostile negotiations." Outside, the Telic members were still protesting in front of the fence, their shouts and screams echoing into Terminal City. The smell of smoke was heavy, but the rain cloud that was hanging low over the city promised to wash the scent away. Alec was about to say something about the storm to Seth when he noticed movement on a room opposite of where their team was sitting.

"Hey, was Max sending in any snipers?" he asked, glancing at Seth.

Seth shook his head. "No, it's just us ten. Why?"

Alec nodded to the far rooftop. "Someone's decided to join the party." He lifted his gun so he could look through the scope, zooming his vision in even closer. He almost dropped the weapons when he caught a good glimpse of who it was. "Shit."

"Alec, you okay?" Seth asked, his eyebrows raising.

"No," Alec growled, snatching his cell phone out of his pocket. He could tell Seth wanted answers so he jabbed his gun at the person on the wall again while the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded.

"…nothing?" Sidda answered, though he could tell it wasn't nothing. He knew for a fact that it wasn't nothing. Nothing would have been sitting in their apartment, calmly waiting, maybe reading a book to the baby or something. Not sitting on the damned rooftop with a sniper rifle trained on the Telic protestors!

"Don't give me that, Sidda, I can freakin' see you!" he snapped.

Seth whipped his head toward Alec. "You're not serious."

Alec gave a curt nod, knowing that if he opened his mouth again, he would probably start cursing.

"Don't yell at me," she replied, "I was worried!"

"That doesn't mean you get to come down here," he growled, "Go home. Now."

"Alec, you don't understand—"

"No, I don't!" he snapped, cutting her off, "I can't believe you sometimes. And don't draw attention to yourself, don't fire that—"

The sound of gun shots cut him off, and he raised his head to see Telic members surging the gate, guns in everyone's hands. A gun ricocheted off the bricks over his head, sending a puff of brick powder into the air. The other end of the line on his cell went dead. Cursing, Alec looked up to the rooftop to see Sidda leveling her gun at the first people in line, and then there were four rapid shots. Four people fell to the ground, grabbing their legs; one was screaming, holding her shattered kneecap.

"Sidda!" he growled out. He wished he could yell at her, but he didn't want to attract attention to her position. Still, if he could see her… it was highly possible that a human with a set of binoculars could see her as well.

He didn't have time to spare watching her though if he was going to help her. Besides, staring at her might lead to someone else looking that way, and maybe firing simply in the off-chance that someone was actually up there. No, he would do his job and take care of any of the humans that went through that gate. And any that might have figured out where those four shots had come from.

He pulled out his gun and crouched a bit so that more of his body was behind one of the concrete barriers that his team had constructed. At the moment, the crowd of humans was stopped behind those that had been wounded; they seemed unsure now whether or not to continue in the face of such deadly accuracy.

But the crowd farther back hadn't seen what happened, and they were still pushing forward. In a moment the people at the front would either have to go to the side or move forward, which meant that eventually the wounded would get trampled. And then their deaths would be blamed on the transgenics.

Alec cursed. "Seth, we have to get those four out of there or their deaths will be on us!" And then Max would kill them. No, maybe torture them first. Skin them alive.

"I know," Seth grunted as he shot back down. He'd been trying to stand up, but had been forced back by the bullets that the crazy crowd kept firing. "But they'll freak if we try to approach them. I don't' think we can get there without being killed."

Alec glanced at Sidda; he could still see her, which he supposed was a good thing. She wasn't down yet. But she wouldn't be able to cover them, not with this many people with guns in the crowd.

"Wait, look." Tank, a transhuman who looked like he'd been crossed with some sort of weird gray, armored animal, grabbed his arm. "Everett's there."

"Well, I guess he got to the other side then," Alec said with relief. No one had wanted to ask Everett to get involved so soon after his daughter had been born, but honestly this was the sort of thing where Everett would come in handy. He was known and trusted by the humans, and he would be able to get through.

And he was. Everett was shoving his way to the front with another guy in tow, and as soon as they got near the wounded they started dragging them off to the side. The other guy winced a bit as they screamed or fought with him, but Everett was steady and determine din his work. Like all transgenics, he'd been though worse than the general unhappiness of a wounded man.

Everett had been just in time. The crowd broke, and the whole team of transgenics at the gate were occupied with keeping the flow blocked.

Ok, so Everett and his now team of three were taking care of the wounded, but someone had to get those gates closed again. And a lock put on it, since a simple latch didn't seem to hold up to pressure very well.

"Seth… the gates…"

"I was just thinking about that," Seth said. "If we approach them from the side and swing them shut from the hinge, they may not even notice us. " He nodded his head to Sidda's rooftop. "If she's so determined not go, she could cover us just in case someone takes it into their head to stop us."

Alec nodded and pulled out his phone.

"I'm not going to leave; I was useful, I…" She started as soon as she picked up the phone.

"If we get these gates shut again, will you leave then?" Alec asked. He was practically on the verge of begging now. "I just can't help but worry about you up there, Sidda. Your reflexes aren't as fast when you're pregnant. And you know that. I don't want to have to worry about you behind me at the same time I worry about these guys in front."

Sidda was quiet for a moment. "Alec, I can take care of myself.

"I know, I…" he sighed. He didn't have time for this. They needed to close the gate. Physical barriers worked wonders against human resolve. "Look, Seth and I need you to cover us while we try to get the gates closed."

"And I shouldn't be worrying about you at all?" Sidda asked. He could practically hear the amusement in her voice.

Alec chuckled. "Not if you're covering us." He knew how hard it was on her to not be in the thick of things. He would be glad when this baby was born, if for no other reason than that it would probably make Sidda happier. She would be able to do things again, and Alec wouldn't have to worry about slow reflexes or her fainting in the middle of a fight.

"All right, get going, I've got you," Sidda said. The phone clicked and he put his own back in his jacket pocket. Though it was hard not to fall into their usual bantering mode of conversation, they knew better than to drag a conversation on too long when there were more important things to be done.

Alec gave Seth a curt nod. "She's got it. I take left, you take right?"

Seth stood up a bit to survey the situation. It wasn't too good at the moment. There were a lot of men wounded in the knees; the team had taken their cue from Sidda. This way no one could get accused of killing. But the crowd was still pressing forward, and being blocked had caused them to spread out a bit wider. It meant that there would be several frustrated people to the side of the gate who would be looking for someone to shoot at.

"Sounds good," he said, ducking back down again. "Go behind the building over there before approaching the gate… it will mean a little less time that Sidda has to worry about spotting anyone gunning for you."

They both set off, and the half-crazy plan of action actually worked fairly well. Any time Alec noticed someone gunning for him, he made a signal with his hand. A moment later, the man would drop, or his fingers would fly off, and he wouldn't be holding a gun anymore.

When Alec was around the building, he was relieved to see that Seth had made it intact as well. He wasn't sure that he could face Robin if something happened to Seth now.

They both sprinted for the gates, and there was a furious exchange of fire as both their team and Sidda tried to cover them, and the humans tried to kill them. Alec grimaced and twisted as much as he could while pulling the gate shut; he had a feeling that if Sidda hadn't been so busy covering them , she would've been laughing at this ridiculous twisty-dance thing.

He winced as several bullets grazed his thigh, and one his arm. And then one went by his hip… that was going to hurt for a little while. Damn, but he was going to take a break from assignments like these after this…

The two gates met and automatically latched together. It was too bad Everett couldn't get a proper lock on it without blowing his cover. But Everett seemed busy anyways, arguing with a group of men over to the side. Probably trying to persuade them that the mob thing wasn't such a good idea… now that so many were wounded, it actually would make sense if the stupid humans called the whole plan off.

Alec and Seth sprinted back behind their building shields, and the sound of the fighting immediately quieted. Alec sighed and ran his hand through his hair before stopping to assess the damage he'd taken. All minor wounds, nothing that would cause too much trouble, and certainly nothing he needed to worry about until the current trouble was over. Sometimes there were definite perks to being a transgenic.

Alec moved around the corner of the building, now on the side that faced the rest of TC. He looked up at Sidda's building just to check on her; he had a feeling that after this he wouldn't be able to persuade her to stay away from a rough assignment no matter what. Especially if she went through the whole thing without fainting.

He frowned as he stared at the building. He couldn't see her. He waited for a sign of movement, a shadow or a glint of light further back, but there was nothing. Great. Alec's heart started to speed up involuntarily, adrenaline seizing control of his body and filling it with an overwhelming take-action-now need.

"Seth!"

"Are you hurt?" Seth asked, already looking him over for any sign of injuries.

"No, no," Alec waved his hand, brushing away Seth's concern. "I can't see Sidda…I'm gonna go check…"

Seth nodded. "Of course." He glanced back towards the gate, where things finally seemed to be calming down. There were less and less people; now that the crowd realized that some of them had been shot, they were losing their courage. "We'll be fine here."

Alec was off. He threw open the door to the building and took the steps two at a time, for a few seconds, then shifted to a blur. It was easier on his panic-filled system. He shoved open the door to the roof and then almost groaned. Sidda was there all right, but she was laying on the roof. And from the rather awkward position she was in, he was fairly sure she hadn't just gotten tired and decided to take a nap.

He hurried over to her and knelt down. There was blood staining the concrete right around her left shoulder, and when he looked closer, he could see a darker pool of blood right near the edge.

First thing first… he checked the pulse. Good and solid. That was a relief. Her breathing seemed fairly even, even if there was a ragged edge to it every now and then. So perhaps she had just fainted?

"Sidda," Alec sighed and pulled out the bandage roll that he'd stuck in there after Seth had insisted he carry one. He'd have to thank him for that later. He checked for any other injuries, but the shoulder seemed to be the only one. So she was probably fine…

Alec cleaned some of the blood away with the edge of his t-shirt and then quickly wrapped the bandage around Sidda's shoulder once he was able to tell where the actual wound was. Just a graze, unless he's somehow forgotten every bit of field med training they'd given him at Manticore.

"You can wake up now," Alec said, smiling as he brushed back her hair from her face. But she didn't move. "Well, fine then, stay unconscious," he said, sliding his hands under her. His Sidda was always so stubborn, even when she wasn't awake. He lifted her up and started down the stairs.

Well at least he'd have a reason to ask her to stay away from the dangerous stuff now.