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

A/N: Dude…*wide eyes* I've never had that many reviews on one chapter EVER! I wanna send out a huge thank you to sango32510, Alexa, Tessa, Sandra, x5 416, Dark girl, Lea, Sara, Anna, DA fan, Girly, 452max, Resse, Kay, DEANNA, Winchester girl, and Alec's No.1 fan!!! You guys are AMAZING!!

Ex Multus Familia

Chapter 12

Robin quickly decided that she had a hate-love relationship with the Portland Airport. Yes, she had to say that the combination of so many cultures in one place was intriguing, and she could sit here for hours and eavesdrop on all sorts of conversations, but there were some definite downsides to the place. Security, especially if you were going overseas, was almost as bad as going through Manticore Psy-Ops.

Seth and Robin had never been out of the country except through Manticore, and then you went on military aircraft that didn't require you to supply three kinds of identification and take your shoes off. What the hell was the shoe thing? Syl and Krit had tried to warn them about the stringent, ridiculous policies of the airport security, but it still shocked Robin when they almost strip-searched Krit because he "had a weird look about him."

"I thought I was good with the name Christopher," Krit muttered as they walked from security, all of them holding their shoes in their hands. Seth was doing a great job of managing Taylor, his carry-on, and his shoes.

Syl smirked at him. "Well, Chris, you could do better. It would've been worse if you had gone with something like Mohammed."

"Just because I've got dark skin doesn't mean I'm a Muslim," Krit said, tossing a glare back over his shoulder like any disgruntled passenger would. "Besides, they're prejudiced, and it's wrong."

"At least they're not trying to kill you," Robin said, almost laughing at the irony. A little harassment was a lot better than how people usually treated them.

"It's still not right," Krit said with a sigh.

"Do tell me when you're done trying to fight The Man, will you?" Syl said. She swung her shoes back and forth as she walked.

"Of course, babe," Krit said, giving her sarcastically sweet smile. Syl returned it with a grin that looked particularly vicious. Behind their backs, Seth and Robin shared exasperated looks. The relationship between the 09ers was natural yet so odd. They didn't exactly claim to be brother and sister anymore, but they certainly acted like it. But then again, everyone knew they were lovers. Their relationship had more levels than Robin could count, and she had a feeling that she would become familiar with a lot of those levels on this extended trip.

The group stopped at the first row of chairs they came to and put their shoes back on. While Seth put on his shoes, Syl swept Taylor up into her arms, cooing at the baby. When Robin had first met Syl, she had been afraid to let the often violent 09er hold her child. She was even more shocked to find out that Syl loved kids; she spent a lot of her time with the X8s and X9s in T.C. and helped the other X5 women with their newborns. When Syl was around a kid, her aggressive, spontaneous exterior seemed to melt away, revealing an oddly gushy side of Syl exposed.

Syl tickled Taylor's side and tugged gently at the baby's onesie. "My niece is the cutest thing in the world, mhmm," she said to Taylor, keeping her voice soft but not babyish.

The story that the group had come up with during their three days back at T.C. was that Syl and Robin were sisters and they were traveling to South Africa to visit their ailing mother with their spouses and Robin's baby. It was a semi-cliché story but one that would hold up to examination.

"What about our other niece?" Krit asked, frowning at her. "Is my brother's little girl not good enough for you?"

"Melonia is cross-eyed, and her name reminds me of skin cancer," Syl retorted, "So of course my sister's daughter is cuter. Taylor's completely, entirely adorable."

It seemed to Robin that Syl and Krit were going to have way too much fun creating their character profiles. Since they had entered the building, they had invented and bickered over at least ten different relatives. Robin was just glad that X5s had such good memories; otherwise they would never remember all of those people. Except perhaps Uncle Rico who thought he was in Vietnam fighting the Nazis. That guy was sort of original, and Robin couldn't stop imagining a Mexican man in a Hawaiian shirt chasing Germans down in the foxholes of Vietnam. It made her giggle every time.

After they put their shoes back on, they stood up, and Robin took Taylor from Syl. The baby smiled up at her, and Robin's heart turned into warm, gooey mush. Taylor had just started really smiling a couple days ago, big, bright smiles that made her look so much like her mother, or so Seth had said. Sidda was going to be upset that she didn't see this. Of course by the time Sidda was around again, who knew what Taylor would be doing.

"What's wrong?" Seth asked as he moved to her side. It was strange how he could already tell when she was upset, even when she was hiding it.

"I was just thinking about Sidda," Robin said, shifting Taylor so the baby wouldn't bump against the straps of her backpack. "I mean, I haven't been apart from her since…the school burned down." She looked up at him and attempted a smile.

Seth smiled back at her and gave her a brief, comforting hug. "You'll get to talk to her soon, at least. Just give it a week, and you'll probably be on the phone so much we'll never get this done."

Robin gasped and stepped away from him. "I wouldn't do that, this is way more important than a phone call."

"Depends on the phone call," Syl said, smirking back at her, "And who it's from."

"I bet it's from your mom," Krit said sarcastically, putting to use an old joke that had been run through the mud by now.

"Just when I didn't think it was possible for you to be any dumber," Syl said. She shot him a glare that he didn't even acknowledge.

Seth grabbed his carry-on and seized the moment. "Come on, let's go find our terminal."

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"I hate how early airports make you arrive," Robin grumbled. It was such a hassle when you had a baby to take care of.

"If only we were sure they wouldn't mess with flight times," Seth said.

"Hey, anyone want anything to eat?" Syl asked. She had just dumped her carry-on at Krit's feet. They had had to get up early to make their 7AM flight and consequently had to buy breakfast.

"I wouldn't mind a bagel," Robin said.

Seth nodded. "Same's good for me. Thanks."

"I know what you want, you don't have to tell me," Syl said, looking over her shoulder at Krit.

Krit threw his hands up. "What if I wanted something different today?"

Syl rolled her eyes. "You are a creature of habit. I think you'll be fine."

It took a while for Syl to return with breakfast; she grumbled a lot about lines and outrageous prices when she returned. They thanked her for her forbearance, though Krit kept insisting that he was only eating what she had chosen for him because he was hungry, not because it was what he wanted. He stopped complaining when Syl punched his gut and told him he could throw it back up if he didn't want it. By the time they were done eating the plane was about ready for boarding.

"I hope you're prepared to spend a very, very long time as a pillow," Syl informed Krit as they stood in line for boarding. She beamed at him and threaded her arm through his. "'Cause I checked. You get to sit next to me the whooooole way."

"Wonderful," Krit said, "I'm glad you don't drool in your sleep." Seth and Robin looked at each other and grinned as they both had the same thought. They'd compared tickets earlier and found that they were sitting a few rows back from Krit and Syl. As fun as Krit and Syl were, it was nice that they would be able to spend the trip in relative peace. Unless Taylor decided she didn't like planes, of course.

"Actually," Syl said, "Planes do something weird to me." She looked at Krit innocently. "I drool buckets and buckets."

"Yeah right," Krit said as Syl passed him to hand her ticket to the lady at the gate. He turned and looked at Seth and Robin, and his eyes were wide with concern. "That's not possible, right? She just made that up?"

"I don't know," Robin said, smiling as she moved past him, "Maybe she didn't."

Seth just shook his head quietly at Krit to answer his question; he couldn't let the poor guy suffer. Seth would be terrified too if a threat of buckets of drool was hanging over him. Luckily he was a medic, and Robin would never be able to pull something like that on him.

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Sidda tilted her head back against the seat and shifted her weight a little more. It was hard to sleep in the truck; she just wasn't tired enough for it even though she and Alec had been driving non-stop since they left Seattle. Sidda sighed, wishing they had gotten a truck with a full cab. Oh well, that was what happened when you rushed and did things last minute.

Alec had noticed her shifting. "Hey, Sidda, if you're awake, can you look at that map? I think we're getting near to the town where this guy is supposed to be."

Seth pulled the map out of the glove compartment and glanced at it. "Yup. We should be there by nightfall." She glanced at the clock. "Want to stop and grab some food from a gas station? We could probably top the tank off anyway."

"We don't need to stop," Alec said, glancing at the fuel gage.

Sidda rolled her eyes. "You just want to win the bet."

"Yeah, I do. Going as a couple is so much better than me going as a transvestite. That's way too complicated."

"I like things complicated." Sidda grinned and leaned back in the seat. "It makes life more interesting."

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure that I've got enough interesting things going on in my life," Alec said, glancing at her. "Things never really seem to stay boring for very long when you get a bunch of transgenics in one place."

"Hmm, I suppose I could see that," Sidda said, "But if life back in Terminal City was so fascinating, why did you want to come on this trip?"

"Oh, look, a gas station," Alec said, "Didn't you want some food?"

"You're so obvious it's just sad," Sidda said.

Alec pulled into the gas station. There was no small amount of complaining as they unfolded themselves from the truck cab and stepped out onto the broken pavement. They had been in the truck for way too long, usually with Alec driving while Sidda slept or read aloud the documents Logan had given them.

They were taking Highway 12 down through Montana and into South Dakota. It was taking them straight to a little town called Catesburg, which was outside of the bigger city of Aberdeen. Supposedly William Barker, a former Manticore geneticist who had worked in the DNA division of the labs, was living in a farm outside the town. It was more likely that he had left since his information had been relatively easy to track down, but it couldn't hurt checking and possibly saving them a trip overseas.

Their other target/objective was a geneticist named Matthew Hayden, who had, according to Logan, hightailed it to Europe after Manticore burned to the ground. There were only a few recent mentions of him, but it seemed that he couldn't keep his fingers out of the DNA cookie jar. Logan had found out that he was working on a "top secret" project with renowned Italian biologist Carlina De Luca in a small lab in Venice. Logan wasn't able to figure out what the project was, but he was thinking that it had something to do with the manipulation of human DNA, a perfect job for an ex-Manticore scientist as long as he kept his head down.

Sidda looked around, her hands on her hips. The greasy little gas station was in the middle of No Where, Montana; they hadn't seen a house for miles. Space was all around them, grass stretching in every direction with nothing to stop it. This much open space was almost too much for Sidda who had grown up in whatever wooded area Manticore had decided to base itself in that year.

The windows of the little gas station from were broken and boarded up with salvaged planks of wood. Pieces of trash littered the pavement that probably hadn't been replaced since it was put down in the 1930s. The weirdest thing was that no one was manning the station, and there were no lines at the gas tanks. At all.

"Nice job picking the creepy, haunted gas station, Alec," Sidda said as she walked around to the other side of the truck. "Are you sure the extra container is empty?"

"Yeah, we used the last of it when we came into Montana. And it's creepy, yeah, but not haunted." Alec glanced up at the building as he unscrewed the gas cap. "Gramps in there is definitely alive. And packing."

"Shotgun?" Sidda asked with a smile, as if Alec had said something funny instead of dangerous.

"Yep. Looks like he knows how to use it too." He straightened up, grinned and pulled her to him, wrapping her in a hug. Her breath caught, and she pressed her hands against his chest, hoping he had an explanation.

"What are you doing?" she hissed through teeth gritted in a smile.

"Play along so he doesn't shoot us," Alec replied, nestling his cheek against her hair, "He'll be less likely to kill us if he thinks we're in love. Humans are all about some lovin'."

"Yeah, well, don't get fresh with me," she warned with a sweet tone. Her heart beat faster as he gave her a tight squeeze.

Alec laughed and let her pull away. "Ah, okay, I'll remember that hugs are a no-no with the shortie."

"Oh, shut up," Sidda said, rolling her eyes, "I'm perfectly fine with hugs. Just maybe not from you." She looked past him at the gas station. "We should probably go ask him if we can have some gas now."

"I don't know if we're a convincing couple yet," Alec said, but he didn't touch her. When she glared up at him, he held up his hands. "Fine, let's go. Maybe he won't shoot us."

"If he does, I'll tell them you weren't that bad of a traveling companion," she said as they walked toward the gas station. She had to take extra steps just to keep up with his normal stride; she would hate to think of how fast she would have to blur to keep up when he was running. At least she was marginally speedy.

"Wait, wait, why am I dying?" Alec said, putting his hands in his pockets. "And I'm a good traveling buddy?"

"Someone has to die tragically, obviously, if he shoots us," Sidda said with a wink. She reached the door and opened it, her fingers lingering on the brass handle. "And so far…you could be a worse partner."

"I'm taking that as a compliment," he said, smirking as he grabbed the door to let her go in first.

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Dalton was sure that his body was starting to solidify in this cramped, distorted position. His head was pressed up against the wheel well, and his hands were folded underneath his head to try to cushion it from the metal. His left foot was tucked in-between the empty gas and the side of the truck and the over was resting on top of Alec's suitcase.

He knew one thing. He was never going to spend a night in a freezing cold truck bed ever again if he could help it. Manticore should have gone over the proper way of stowing away in trucks…

When he heard Alec and Sidda get out of the truck, he had an almost uncontrollable urge to jump out of the back of the truck, declare that X6s were sooo much smarter than X5s and lord it over them that they hadn't discovered him yet. When he was stopped because his legs were asleep, he rethought his rash decision and decided to stay hidden for a little while longer. He held completely still, not moving a muscle, as they talked beside the truck.

Then again, being in contact with other people would be nice, too. He could hear them, of course, since X6 hearing allowed him eavesdrop easily on their conversation, but he couldn't say anything or join in on their bantering.

He waited until they had walked into the store before moving. They thought they had cramps? They didn't know what a cramp. His entire body ached as he carefully moved around, shifting so he could lay on his other side.

Dalton was torn. Getting out of the bed of the truck seemed dangerous, and they might spot him. However, there were many pressing needs that he had to take care of. He was desperately in need of a bathroom, and his stomach was probably going to start eating other parts of his body if he didn't feed it soon.

Dalton shifted himself slowly so that his eyes were just above the level of the back window. He peered through the truck at the store. He was lucky. At the angle they had parked, and as long as he was careful, the only way they would see him was if they were standing right at the door. Dalton evaluated the time he had and decided to take care of the most pressing matters first. He scooted carefully through the junk Alec had piled in the back on the truck and then slithered out from under the tarp. Yet again, he was glad Alec had decided to protect everything from possible rain; if it hadn't been for the tarp there was no way he could've stayed hidden this long.

Dalton made it to the back of the truck and surveyed the space behind the vehicle. It figured they would stop in a place without woods. Well, at least there were some large bushy-looking things and a few scraggly trees not far from the truck. They would have to do. If he kept the truck between him in the store…it was risky, but now that he had started moving around the call of his bladder was urgent.

He jumped out and ran. Or stumbled. His muscles weren't exactly cooperating with him yet. But he made it to the bush without anyone yelling at him.

"Thank you, thank you, Sidda," he whispered fervently. Once he revealed himself he would be sure to let her know what a lifesaver she had been, finally getting Alec to stop. Not that they hadn't stopped before. But this was the first time in a while that both of them had actually left the truck.

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"Hello, sir, we were wondering if you had some gas," Alec asked, trying to keep his smile polite. Sidda had told him a few days ago that he had a habit of annoying people because it always seemed like he was sort of making fun of them. Which was true, but it was probably best not to irritate the old man. Who knew what a crazy old guy with a gun could do in the few seconds it might take Alec to disarm him.

The old man eyed them suspiciously, eyes squinted behind his glasses as he tried to make them out in the dim light of the store. His face was full of old-age wrinkles, and it didn't look like many of the lines had come from laughing. The store seemed to match him; dusty and rather bare, as if the man hadn't bothered to restock in ages.

Sidda could barely make out anything through the windows, they were so dirty. She suppressed the urge to sneeze and concentrated on looking sweet and harmless for the old man. Life had been so much easier when transgenics could actually defend themselves without worrying about the consequences of looking unnaturally strong.

"You aren't from around here," the old guy said. He crossed his arms, letting them see the rifle that was clearly placed on the counter in front of him. "Not many folks come out this way. Not much to see here."

Sidda wrapped her arm through Alec's and pasted a bashful smile on her face. "You're right sir, we've never been up this way before. But my father's brother lives up this way, and he's been sick for a few months. My father asked me to come see him."

"And of course I couldn't let my wife go by herself," Alec said, beaming down at Sidda and blocking the man's view of her at the same time. Alec winked at Sidda, and she narrowed her eyes at him, but when Alec turned back they both had perfectly happy and innocent looks on their faces.

"Well, that's the proper way of things," the man said, relaxing a bit. "No woman should ever have to travel alone," he said, turning around to look at his list of what was in stock.

Sidda rolled her eyes, and Alec smirked. They definitely had to travel as a couple in Italy. This was way too much fun.

"All right, I've got a tank out back," the old man said. He placed his hand on the gun again in warning. "You've got money to pay for it? It's fifteen dollars a gallon."

Sidda bit her lip as if considering their budget and then nodded. "We could take about twenty gallons, couldn't we, hunny?" Her nails dug into Alec's arm on the last word.

"Ow," he hissed. He looked at the man. "Yeah, that'll be the last of it, but twenty gallons should be enough. We'll stop at a bank or something when we get to your uncle's, darling." All they needed was for it to get around that an out-of-town couple was carrying around loads of cash. Every broke man for miles would be on their tail then, and they didn't have time to deal with that.

"Well, come on then." The old man slouched off his stool and grabbed his gun before leading them out the door. They went around to the back of the building where a rusty tank with an old-fashioned fuel hose was waiting. "Hold on, we got to go get our gas cans," Alec said. The man nodded and leaned against the side of the tank to wait for them.

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"Ohshit, ohshit, ohshit," Dalton hissed as Sidda, Alec, and some old wrinkly guy walked out of the gas station. They paused by the door, and Dalton heard Alec say something about going to get gas cans.

Muttering a few more curses, Dalton zipped up his pants and dove behind one of the few trees, crouching down low in the scruffy patch of bushes. He sent a silent prayer to whoever was up there to make sure they didn't spot him or leave without him. He couldn't imagine how much it would suck to get stuck here. Especially since he didn't even know where here was.

He held perfectly still as Alec and Sidda walked past his hiding spot, whispering heatedly back and forth.

"Fifteen bucks a gallon?!" Alec snapped, "Is he crazy, that's more than we've ever pay in Seattle."

"I guess he doesn't get much business, cupcake," Sidda replied.

Cupcake? She sounded sarcastic, but still, Alec the cupcake? Dalton wanted to lift his head to peek at them, but he knew they would spot him.

"That doesn't mean he has to gouge us, sugar bunny."

"Okay, no, that's just too much," Sidda said, "I'm totally not a sugar bunny."

"Oh, and I'm a cupcake?"

"Maybe a stale one," she teased.

Dalton willed them to walk faster or even blur to the truck, but they were taking their time about getting there. A plan was forming in his head about how to get back in the truck. When they went out back again, he would make a break for the truck and hurl himself into the bed, hoping that they didn't spot him. He'd be shielded by the station for the most of his run, and it was unlikely that they would see him. He had to get back in the truck before they left.

Tuning back in to their conversation, he tried to figure out how close they were to going back around the building.

"Both us don't have to go deal the nutcase," Alec was saying, "You can stay here, if you want."

Dalton's heart started pounding. Oh, don't, Sidda, go please? If she stayed with the truck, he'd never get back in without them seeing him.

"I don't think anyone's going to try to steal our stuff out here," Sidda said, "I might as well go with you."

There was clanking noises as someone pulled one of the big gas tanks from the back of the truck. "All right, I get it," Alec said, "You're too attached to me to let me out of your sight."

"You wish," Sidda replied, "I'm just looking out for my own boredom. Maybe you'll screw up somehow in the next fifteen or so minutes, and I don't want to miss that."

"Uh-huh."

"Just come on."

They walked past Dalton's hideout and back around the building. The minute they were out of sight, Dalton leapt up, propelling himself ten feet forward from a crouch. A couple seconds of silent blurring got him into the truck bed, and a moment later he was back under the tarp, jammed up under the back window, as far away from the tailgate as he could get. They would have to put the gas tank back, and he didn't want his foot sticking out or anything. Ugh, he hoped they were getting to wherever they were going soon. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep up this contortionist bit.