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Ex Multus Familia

Chapter 3

Word of the attack at the east wall had spread throughout the city, and there were transgenics, almost all holding weapons, everywhere on their way to the infirmary. Robin had never seen so many different kinds of transgenics in the same place, and there were so many of them. It was sort of hard to imagine a city like this surviving, but somehow they were making do.

The infirmary was in the bottom floor of some old hospital building close to what Seth pointed out as the command center. Robin wasn't so sure of Seth yet. She didn't know what to make of the father of her child. He seemed nice, but then, lots of people seemed nice and turned out to be not so kind; she knew that from experience. She would have to wait and see about him.

A tall, ruddy-haired transgenic with appraising but warm eyes was waiting for them at the door. "I'm guessing our first patient is the young lady in your arms, Alec?"

"Good guess," Alec said. The transgenic nodded and led them inside. Robin was surprised at how well they had cleaned this building, but then again, it was an infirmary. Places like this had to be clean.

The tiles were clean and shining beneath electric lights powered by generators. People in scrubs were walking in and out of various rooms that surrounded the central area, and the whole place smelled of antiseptic. The sterile smell brought back unwelcomed memories of Manticore labs for Robin; she remembered all too vividly people in white lab coats leaning over her, saws, needles, and scalpels in their hands. Sometimes they knocked her out, sometimes they didn't. Robin shook her head and tried to ignore the smell.

With a couple more medics following them, the transgenic doctor hurried them into the nearest room but halted Robin and Seth. "Seth, if you don't mind, could you take a look at Ms.…"

"Robin, the baby's name is Taylor, and her name's Sidda, and I'd really like to stay with her," Robin said, peering over his shoulder into the room. Someone motioned for Alec to put Sidda down on the table, and he set her down gently and backed away.

The transgenic doctor nodded. "I understand, but I think we'll work better in a less crowded room. Seth will take care of you, and I promise to help Sidda as much as I can." He turned around and started to walk back into the room.

"Can't anyone besides him look at us?" she asked, her eyes flashing to Seth. He looked hurt, but it also seemed like he understood.

"I think everyone else is busy," the doctor said, "Sorry, but Seth will have to do." With that, he turned around and walked into the room, closing the door behind him.

Seth and Robin stared at each other for a silent moment, unsure of what to do. Taylor let out a small wail, and that seemed to get them both moving. Seth nodded down a hallway. "There should be an open room down there. I can look you both over there."

"We're fine, she's just hungry and sleepy," Robin said, rocking Taylor, "It's been a long day."

"The bruises on you don't really scream okay to me," Seth said, pointing at her arms. Purple bruises from the fight she had gotten into earlier were starting to show up.

Robin let out a sigh. "Fine, but no blood work, understand?"

"Sounds good to me."

Seth led her to an empty room with a bassinet. She gave it a questioning look, and he shrugged. "This is usually where X5 moms stay after they give birth. The bassinet was Max's touch. She likes stealing difficult things."

"I'm glad for her habits, then," Robin said. She laid Taylor down in the bassinet and hummed a couple bars of a lullaby. The baby was drowsy and it didn't take much for her to fall asleep. She drifted off quickly, but Robin knew she would be awake soon and hungry.

"That doctor…"

"His name is Gray, like the text book, Gray's Anatomy," said Seth. He patted the bed, and she sat down on the corner of it. He shined a flashlight in her eyes, and she followed it without orders. Manticore had trained her well as a child.

"Is he a good doctor?"

"If you're wondering if Sidda's going to be okay, then yes, she will be," Seth said. He flicked off the flashlight and put it back in the drawer he had gotten it from. He took her wrist in his and measured her pulse, watching the clock on the wall. "He's a good guy, too. Calm in emergency situations, and he's good with patients even if he isn't good with everyone else."

"So, she'll be okay with him?" Robin asked. Seth looked up at her and nodded.

"She'll be perfectly fine. Besides, Gray will probably have Alec stay to donate blood, so if Gray did do something, which he never would, Sidda will be fine," Seth said.

"Good," Robin said. There was silence for a few moments as Seth went about checking her vitals.

"Mmm. You guys seem well-supplied around here," Robin said, trying to take her mind off of worrying about her friend. "I noticed a lot of equipment when we came in. You've been busy." Seth smiled as he took her blood pressure.

"Yeah, medical supplies were the first things we stocked up on," he said. The blood pressure cuff hissed as he let the air back out of it. "We've got the essentials and then a lot of neonatal equipment. We're still trying to get the X-ray machine to work again."

"Wait, why do you have neonatal equipment?" she asked, her curiosity rising.

"There were a lot of pregnant X5s when we first started, and there still are quite a few," he said. "And now there's some pregnant X6s because of heat." A faint embarrassed blush colored his cheeks, and Robin looked away. Maybe he had taken up with some of the other women when they were in heat. And that wouldn't bother her because he wasn't attached to her. He was just Taylor's father, he probably didn't even want a kid.

Robin brushed her fingers across her forehead, and Seth saw dried blood around a shallow cut. He had noticed it while they were walking back, but what with them trying to get back to command without getting shot, he hadn't had time to say anything about it.

"Here, let me take a look at that," Seth said, reaching out toward Robin's forehead. She batted his hand away and frowned at him.

"It's all right, I can barely feel it," she said. Knowing that she was an X5, he knew that the cut was not a big deal, but she could almost be ignoring the pain.

"It's stopped bleeding, but you should at least let me clean it up," he said. He picked up a cloth and ran it under some cold water from the sink in the corner. Picking up a first aid kit, he walked back toward her. She leaned away from him as he approached.

"Give me the stuff, and I'll clean it." She held out her hand for the cloth, but he pulled it out of her reach.

"Are you trained in field med-care?" he asked.

"Not really, but I'm perfectly capable-"

"Well I am trained, so let me help you," he said, interrupting her. She closed her mouth and frowned at him but didn't move away as he came toward her with the cloth again. He dabbed at the small wound, gently washing away the blood. Her nearness made it hard to breathe, and he didn't know why. He hadn't seen her in at least nine months, and it wasn't like they had been truly romantically connected at Manticore.

"So…" Robin said. She splayed her hands out on the table and looked at him, blue meeting blue. "Are you still calling yourself X5-139, or are you going by what that doctor called you, Seth?"

She had remembered his designation. Had she thought about him since that night? "I'm Seth nowadays," he said, "Max named me after one of her brothers."

"That's sort of an honor, isn't it?" Robin said.

"I consider it one," Seth said, a soft smile on his face. Max had said that he reminded her after Seth, one of her self-sacrificing brothers, and she thought that he would like the name. He had.

"It doesn't need stitches," Seth said as he set down the cloth, "You should be fine with a band-aid."

"I told you it wasn't serious," Robin said, brushing her long hair back over her shoulders. Her scent wafted through the air, and Seth paused, struck by how just the smell of her effected him. Maybe there was more to this breeding program thing than he had thought.

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Sidda didn't want Alec to put her down, but she couldn't imagine begging for him not to either. She was injured, and she needed medical assistance, but she didn't feel like she needed to be here. She blinked and cringed as the doctor walked over and pulled the large medical light over her, his eyes glancing at the exposed wound in her leg. One of the medics, the woman with the dark hair in a strict ponytail, had already cut the bandage away.

"Hello, I'm Gray," said the doctor. He voice was deep and soothing, but Sidda felt hot panic rising in her. One medic, a rather handsome X5 male, was hooking her up to a vitals monitor that seemed to be working too fast while the woman snipped the rest of her pants leg away. "Do you know where you are?"

"Somewhere I really don't need to be," Sidda said, trying to push away from the table. His strong hand fell on her shoulder, and there was sympathy in his dark brown eyes.

"We're not going to hurt you, I promise," he said. "We just want to make you better."

"Yeah, I've heard that before, back at Manticore," Sidda said, "They always said that. Right before they hurt you."

"This isn't Manticore," Gray said, taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "We won't hurt you."

"And if this was Manticore, the facilities would be a hell of a lot better," Alec put in from where he was standing in the corner. Sidda gave a faint chuckle, and Gray noticed.

"Alec, if you could stick around, I think we'll need you for a blood transfusion," Gray said, his eyes looking over at the young man. Alec nodded and pulled off his jacket, tossing it on a metal stool.

"Anything for a pretty girl," he said, smirking over at Sidda. She rolled her eyes and looked up at the ceiling.

"Don't try that with me," she said, "I'm a flirt, so I've seen enough of your kind."

"And what's my kind?" he asked, eyebrows raising.

She looked over at him. She knew he was keeping her distracted, and she was grateful for it. "Mmm, sorta cute, confident, snarky boy usually equals a womanizer. And don't start humming that awful pre-Pulse song."

"Sorta cute? And a womanizer?" Alec asked, smirking to himself. "We just met, and you're calling me a womanizer? Strong words, shortie."

"Yeah, well, I can sorta tell—ah!" Sidda jerked and forced herself not to scream as Gray prodded the wound. "Was that really necessary?" she muttered as she recovered from the shock of pain. She ran a hand down her thigh, trying to encourage the muscles in her legs to calm themselves and unclench.

"Sorry," Gray said, smiling apologetically, "I was just trying to determine the exact nature-"

"Gunshot," she said, "Isn't that all you need to know?"

"It's a start, yes," Gray was fiddling around with something out of her range of sight, and a moment later he turned around holding a very large needle. "We'll clean it of course, but we need to give your body some help fighting off any bacteria since the wound's been there a while." He lowered the needle toward Sidda, and she visibly blanched.

"Is that really necessary?" If Alec hadn't been standing to the side of the table, she probably would have fallen off from her rapid scoot away from the doctor.

"This may or may not comfort you, but it's no worse than anything they gave us at Manticore," Gray said firmly, taking her arm in a strong grip. Sidda glared at him and bit her lip as the needle entered her skin. She'd always hated needles; she thought when she left Manticore that it would be a long time before she had to see them again.

"If you wouldn't go and get shot, you wouldn't have to deal with them," Alec said teasingly, as if reading her mind. Then again, Sidda's body language was probably giving her away.

"Yeah, well, tell that to Taylor. I'm sure she'd appreciate that sort of mindset," Sidda wasn't sure how much of that Alec understood; her teeth were still gritted together from the pain.

"What is it with female X5s and their need to be self-sacrificing?" Alec asked Gray as he sat down in a nearby chair. Gray started readying Alec for the transfusion. Sidda sighed audibly at the thought of more needles entering her body. A blood transfusion was one of the worst since it meant a needle in her body for an extended period of time, sending a foreign liquid into her system.

Sidda closed her eyes as the technician cleaned up her wound in preparation for the removal of the bullet. The antiseptic stung slightly, but Sidda knew it was nothing compared to what would come when Gray started digging around in her leg. Sidda heard Gray move to her side, and she mentally prepared herself. It wasn't too bad as long as she isolated the injury, mentally pushed it away. She'd already been doing that ever since she'd been hit. She was surprised and appreciative to feel a warm hand cover hers. She knew instinctively that it was Alec's. Somehow she hadn't expected such a caring gesture to come from the snarky X5.

Minutes passed, and finally Gray removed the irritating bullet. The sting of antiseptic was back, but this time it was welcomed as the mark of the end of the surgery.

'Okay, now for the stitches…" Sidda sighed. It was turning into a long day.

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"Is Sidda ok?" Robin asked as she sat down in the chair across from the desk Max was perched on. She had recognized Max without anyone telling Robin who she was. Robin had had to memorize Max's face over and over again as one of the traitors who had left Manticore. Although all those left behind at Manticore had suffered for it, Robin had privately applauded the twelve escapees. She would've done the same as them, given the opportunity.

"I don't know yet, I just got in," Max said. She tossed a random knickknack from hand to hand. "But I'm sure she'll be fine. I hear she's under Gray's care. He's one of our best."

"Good," Robin said, though she didn't relax much. She was fairly confident that Sidda would be fine since it had only been a leg wound, but she wouldn't be satisfied until she saw Sidda for herself.

Max was staring at Robin curiously, and Robin shifted a bit. "Um, Seth said I needed to see you for housing?"

"Oh, yes," Max blinked as if coming out of some sort of daydream. "Sorry. I was just admiring the kid. Quiet little thing," she said, smiling gently at Taylor.

Robin warmed to Max immediately. "Oh yes, she's wonderfully behaved for her age. Plus she's happy to have finally been fed," Robin chuckled a little as Taylor left out a soft, contented little snoring sound.

"Do you mind if I ask who the father is?" Max asked as she moved the blanket back a little so that she could stroke Taylor's soft, downy hair.

"Well…" Robin hesitated.

"Oh, if you don't want to say, that's fine," Max said hurriedly, but Robin shook her head.

"Not, it's ok. Just please don't well anyone else." She kissed Taylor's forehead. "Her father and I were breeding partners back at Manticore, so it wasn't exactly a love match or anything. I'd rather him not know. I don't want him to feel responsible for something he couldn't help."

"I understand," Max said softly. She held her hands out. "May I?"

Robin smiled. "Of course." She carefully placed Taylor in Max's arms and hovered as Max brought her closer to her chest, making cooing noises at the baby.

"The father is Seth," Robin said softly. Max looked up at her, startled, but before she said anything the door to their left swung open.

"Hey. Max." A man with glasses and a rather messy-looking appearance walked in, "I hear there was some sort of mess at the east wall," he said. He stopped and stared at the bundle in Max's arms, "What's that?"

Max rolled her eyes, "Logan, this is Robin," she said, nodding toward her, "and this here is Taylor, Robin's baby." She smiled adoringly at the little girl.

"Oh, sorry," Logan said, shaking hands with Robin, "I didn't see you in the shadows there."

"That's all right," Robin said as Logan moved around her to the other side of the desk.

"So I gather you're one of the new troublemakers?" Logan winked at her as Max shot him a glare.

Robin laughed. "Well, yes, I suppose you could call me that. We didn't intend to start any trouble. Getting over here was just a little harder than we anticipated."

"Totally understood," the man said, typing away at a keyboard. "Getting in and out of Terminal City isn't easy for anyone these days. We've had to be very sneaky about entering and leaving."

"We really do need to do something about that," Max said, carefully handing the baby back to Robin. "Transgenics trying to get into the city shouldn't have to run a gauntlet."

"Well, if I could just tell Seattle to lay off, I would," Logan said, looking up at Max, "But unfortunately, I don't seem to have that much power at the moment. So in the meantime we have to stick to our plans for negotiations with the federal government."

Max sighed and looked at Robin with feigned exasperation. "He insists on doing everything the proper way, the diplomatic way. All I want to do is go kick some government ass." Max grinned at Logan and he shook his head. This difference of opinion between them was obviously so old that it had turned into a joke.

"Was Max supposed to be helping you with something?" Logan asked, looking pointedly at Robin. Max threw the knickknack she'd been holding at him and then grinned as he ducked to avoid the object. It caught him in the shoulder. "Ow," he said, rubbing his shoulder. "Hey, I was just trying to do your job."

"I think I'll take care of that," Max said, turning back to Robin. "Now. Housing. Do you mind living in an apartment with Sidda? We're sort of short on rooms."

"That'd be fine, and I'm sure Sidda would be ok with it too," Robin said, "We shared a place in Hoquiam too."

"Great!" Max said. She turned to Logan and gave him an innocent smile, "Logan, could you enter them into the system please? And give them space on Oak Street?"

"I thought you were doing all that," Logan said, but he was already typing away.

"Yeah, well, you're the computer whiz. Plus I don't want to leave my nasty germs all over your keyboard." There was a moment of tense silence as the two looked at each other. Logan finally nodded and gave Max a slight smile.

"Ok," he said, talking as he typed. "You're going to live in… 215 Oak Street. 3rd floor, apartment 321. Two bedrooms, one bath, kitchen/ living room combo. Sound good?"

"Perfect," Robin said, "Taylor can sleep in my room."

Just then the door opened, and Sidda limped in, glaring at Alec as he held the door for her.

"Sidda!" Robin exclaimed. She ran to her friend and threw one arm around her in a hug as she held Taylor with the other arm. "We just got an apartment!" she said excitedly.

"That's great," Sidda smiled at her friend, "Does that mean we can get out of here?" Sidda glanced behind her at Alec, than looked at Max and Logan. "No offense to anyone, but I'm sort of tired."

"Of course, right?" Max looked at Logan to see if he needed anymore information from the two.

"If I could just get your basic information, Sidda…" Logan started. At Sidda's suspicious look, he hurried to explain. "I keep a lookout in the media for anything mentioning you guys, using a keyword search based on your profiles. It helps to keep those living in Terminal City a little under the radar." He paused, and then added as an afterthought. "Oh, I'm Logan by the way. I sort of take care of…wireless security around here."

"Okay," Sidda said, deciding to trust him. She recognized Max like Robin, and she could tell that the X5 was close to this Logan person. And Robin seemed to trust the two of them; she'd probably already given them her info.

Sidda and Logan quickly filled in the necessary data while the others talked in low voices, and then finally Sidda was given permission to leave.

"Someone will come by tomorrow to help you get acquainted with Terminal City," Max promised as they left.

"And I'll make sure you guys get home," Alec said, before Max could volunteer anyone else. He smiled at Sidda. "I live on the first floor of your building anyway." He looked at Max. "Mind if I borrow the car? That way Sidda won't have to walk."

"That's fine, but what about your motorcycle?" Max asked, "Do you want someone else to bring it by later tonight?"

"No, that's fine, I'll just get it tomorrow. Walking won't take that long," Alec said.

"Or I can just walk, if that's the case," Sidda started, but Robin, Alec, and Max quickly cut her off.

"No, you can't."

Sidda huffed, "Well then. I guess I'm outnumbered."

"I guess you are," Robin said brightly. If it had just been the two of them, Robin was pretty sure that Sidda would have insisted on walking if she thought driving would inconvenience anyone else.

Max tossed Alec the key, and he smiled at the two women. "All right, let's get out of here."

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Gray put his bloodied instruments into a metal bin for washing and sterilization. The infirmary was running low on all supplies so they couldn't throw anything away, not even already used instruments.

He rubbed his ruddy scruff of a beard and walked out of emergency room two and into the main reception area. Tonight had been a relatively quiet night until that gunshot victim had been brought in. Trying to convince her to just stay the night for observation had been impossible, and she had marched out, well, limped out, with a smirking Alec by her side.

He shook his head. All X5s were the same: headstrong, stubborn, and completely illogical when it came to their own health. Maybe it was some kind of design defect.

Gray moved toward where Kelly and Jericho were taking to Sensibility, the woman who helped him keep this place running, behind the reception desk. All of their records were kept up here in a file drawer; they were trying to get a computer, but the recovery teams, AKA groups of cat burglars, had not brought one back yet. Gray would have to make sure that was at the top of the list for the next run.

Sensibility, or Sibil for short, gave him a tired smile and raised her mug of coffee in a joking salute. The poor girl had been working for two days straight now with only a couple short naps to keep her going. Extra strong shark DNA, a touch of a nocturnal raccoon, and possibly some Florence Nightingale in her make-up made her one of the best medics in Terminal City. Sibil always said that the dark circles around her eyes came from the raccoon DNA, but Gray thought she could do with some more sleep.

"How are we doing?" he asked. He grabbed his coffee mug, the bright green one that said, "I'm the Boss, So Deal With It," a gag gift from Sibil, and poured in some highly caffeinated, expensive brand, very stolen coffee.

"We're almost out of latex gloves," Kelly said. She shoved some wisps of escaped black hair back behind her ears. "Actually, we're almost out of a lot of stuff."

"Except bleeding people," Jericho said. He took a long gulp from his coffee. Smacking his lips, he set his mug down and grinned at the others. "They just keep coming."

"And leaving," Gray said, frowning, "without even being properly examined."

"Oh, she'll be fine, they always are," Jericho said, "Us X5s are hardy."

"But not invincible," Kelly said, frowning at him. She was an X6, and she always hated it when it was implied that X5s were better than the other series or Nomalies. Just because X5s had been the last group that Sandeman had personally engineered didn't mean anything, at least not to her. "You guys are still vulnerable. Especially since you're dependant on tryptophan…"

"A glass of milk or a pill handles that," Jericho said, rolling his light brown eyes. "And that's only the 09ers nowadays."

"Still, it's a deficiency."

Gray sighed and looked at Sibil. He knew she didn't exactly approve of this series fight either. Neither of them, both being specially-designed medics, usually entered into the X-series fights. Sibil winked at him, and he couldn't help but smile back. She was always the eye of the storm; chaos could be all around her, but she was perfectly calm.

"All right, that's enough," she said, putting her mug down on the counter. "The next shift doesn't show up for another half-hour, and we have work to do. There's still a recovering transhuman in Room 7, and someone needs to check on Isolde and her baby."

"Isn't Tristan with them?" Kelly said, but she was already moving toward the back hallway. "And why exactly did they choose old literature names?"

"No idea, but it's better than something boring, like Kelly," Jericho said. Kelly scowled and raised a fist to him, but he blurred laughingly into emergency room 1.

"It's hard to believe they were ever super-soldiers," Sibil said, shaking her head.

Gray smiled at her. "I think it's a good thing. It shows they've moved on."

"Or regressed," Sibil said, but the smile on her face was good-natured. "I have to say, I like them better this way."

"Me too," Gray said as Kelly snuck into the room after Jericho, "Me too."