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

A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out the story, please drop me a review! I love them and tend to write more when I get reviews. :-) Thank you to nattylovesu, sango32510, and 452max for reviewing the last chapter!!

Ex Multus Familia

Chapter 16

Sunlight streamed through the 15th story balcony window and played across Seth's face. His internal clock, designed to switch over automatically to any time zone, told him that it was around six in the morning. He was aware of the time, and he was aware of the warm body pressed against his, fitting perfectly against his chest.

Listening to Robin steady breathing, still asleep, he couldn't help the slow, sloppy smile that came to his face as he ran his fingers down her soft arm. She was beautiful and strong, the mother of his child, and all his; he knew that now with more certainty than he ever had before.

She stirred beneath his arm and gave a contented morning sigh. Tightening his grip, he pulled her closer, not wanting to let her go just yet.

"Mmm," Robin said, snuggling back against him, "Good morning."

Seth pressed his face against her rumpled hair. "Good morning. How are you?"

Robin giggled and pressed her head into the pillow. "A lot better, thank you." Truthfully, she felt incredibly pleased and happy with herself. And it amused her to no end that Seth couldn't stop playing medic even after a night like that. How was she…if he could see the grin on her face, he would know exactly how she was.

She rolled over so she could look at him, enjoy the sight of his handsome face. His eyes were so incredibly blue, an indescribable color. Brown hair, fluffy and messy, fell across his forehead and begged to be pushed to the side. His early-twenties face still clung to adolescence but there was nothing childish about the look in his eyes as he watched her, his eyes drinking her in.

Someone started slamming their fists against their door, and neither of them thought it was room service. "Hey, lovebirds, open the door!"

"She has a knack for interrupting these sorts of moments," Robin grumbled as she looked at Seth.

"It's Syl. Distraction is her skill," Seth said, rolling his eyes, "It's sort of what she was created for."

There was another round of knocking, and Syl's voice barreled through the door again. "Taylor's hungry and force feeding her formula didn't go so well last night."

Robin sat up, pulling the sheets around her. "Oh, my gosh, Taylor! I didn't forget, but I just didn't think about her being hungry." A red blush covered and burned at Robin's cheeks. "I'm a horrible mother."

Seth laughed as he sat up. He brushed the long gold locks back from Robin's face and kissed her blushing cheek. "You're not a horrible mother, you're fantastic."

"I almost let our baby starve," Robin moaned, "That sort of qualifies me for the completely horrid mother award." she jumped out of bed, pulling the sheets with her. Seth laughed and pulled the blanket up around his waist and lay back, just enjoying the sight of her running around with nothing but a sheet on.

"I'm stealing your shirt," Robin said, pulling his button-up off of the chair. Seth's eyebrows rose. That was even sexier than the sheet.

"Coming, coming!" she yelled, running to the door, "Hey baby, momma's gonna feed you."

"Awesome. Baby and Syl are both very happy," came Syl's voice as Robin opened the door. "Oh, I see somebody had a fun time. I'm glad my babysitting was of some use to you guys." Seth could just imagine Robin blushing again.

"Um, yeah, thanks." Yup, her voice definitely sounded embarrassed. "Seth and I have to get ready still… want to meet up in the lobby in an hour?"

"Sure. See you in a bit." The door closed and Robin came back toward the bed, cooing softly to a grumpy Taylor. Seth opened his arms up, and Robin settled against his side in preparation for feeding.

Seth chuckled as he caught sight of Taylor's face. Her normally calm and cheerful expression had been replaced with a pouting, disapproving one. She was obviously very, very unhappy that her mom had left her with other people for a whole night.

"We're going to have fun when you do finally make the changeover to formula and other baby food."

"I know," Robin groaned, "she is such a picky eater."

Seth kissed Robin on the forehead and then got out of bed. He had some stuff to get together before they all met up. He was ready to get a hold of a phone too. He wanted to know what other information Logan might have on the super soldiers all over the place. Logan had mentioned them briefly, but he hadn't indicated that there were as many of them as Seth had seen roaming Cape Town. Logan's information was usually pretty good, so that meant that something had to have changed in the last week or so. Seth wondered if it had anything to do with Sandeman's death.

-----------------------------

Two Days Later…

"Ok, so we've got three locations left." Seth sighed in frustration and stared at the map. He really hoped they turned something up today. They hadn't yet managed to find anything particularly useful. Logan wasn't even sure what was going on with the super soldiers; he'd given Seth all the information he could, but he couldn't figure out why they were all over Cape Town all of the sudden. Logan guessed it had something to do with Sandeman and so had warned the team to be very careful when scouting out the locations. Taking extra precautions had made their mission slightly harder.

"Krit and I will take this one," Syl said, glancing at Krit to make sure he was ok with her choice.

Krit shrugged. "As good a place as any." He looked at Seth, who was, after all, the tactician in their group. "What do you think?"

Seth studied the map for a moment then nodded. "I think that's actually a good choice. But be careful. I don't like how it's in the warehouse district and with good connections to the sea and rail lines." Seth pointed. "There's a concrete strip here too that's probably good for landing helicopters."

"So you think this might be it?" Syl asked, studying the location more closely.

Seth nodded. "Quite possibly. But I wanted to check the safer locations first. If he'd been in the houses, that would've meant he was just living a normal life."

"But now you think he might be involved with something government or military," Robin said softly.

"About the same thing here," Krit said with a laugh. Not that it wasn't in most places around the world. Heck, look at Manticore. A project that created super-soldiers, sponsored by the government. It made sense that Sandeman would have been pulled into the South African government. With his past history, he wouldn't have really had a choice. Especially if South Africa was trying to fight off the African Union; super soldiers were just too useful.

"I think we should check out this place, Seth." Robin pointed at a location not far from the area in the warehouse district. "It's possible they were allowed to have a home outside of where he worked. This location would make sense from a security standpoint. Maybe there's still some useful stuff there."

Seth studied the map for a moment. "I think you're right." He gave Robin a warm, approving smile, and she gave him a glowing one right back. This last week had been very, very good for their relationship.

Krit started to pack up the map and secure all the equipment in the room; they always had to be careful in case someone broke in while they were gone.

"Do you think I should leave Taylor at the hotel daycare or take her with me?" Robin asked Seth. The house was probably less dangerous than the building in the warehouse district, but it could still be unsafe. On the flip side, if someone got wind of the fact that they were snooping around, leaving Taylor could be just as dangerous as taking her.

Seth thought for a moment. "I'd say leaving her today is ok. But after this, I wouldn't. If the #5 location turns out to be what I think it is, we won't want to leave anything lying around. We don't want to risk them catching us."

Robin nodded and looked at Syl. "If you can, call us and let us know if you think you've been spotted at the warehouse. Seth and I will try to hurry back here and clear everything out and get Taylor."

"And you two do the same if something happens at the house." She smiled at Robin. "But I wouldn't worry. We're all professionals, and today's just a scouting day. It should all be fine."

Robin knew she had to push worry for Taylor out of her mind. She couldn't be distracted while scouting; if she slipped up and got Taylor into danger she would only have herself to blame.

"Come on, Krit," Syl said, watching impatiently as he finished shutting everything down, "We picked one of the farthest locations. We've got quite a ways to go."

"I know, I know," Krit said. He looked over his shoulder at Seth and Robin, "You two go on ahead, don't wait up for us."

Syl came and sat on the edge of the table while the other two left to go deliver Taylor to the nursery. As much as Robin hated parting with her baby daughter, the nursery had been a lifesaver for the team. Things would have just been a lot more complicated if they'd had to tote Taylor everywhere.

"I'm actually sort of hoping the military is holing up there," Syl said, playing with the coffee and tea packets. "I'm sort of ready to see some action."

"Me too," Krit admitted. As good as he was at snooping, he had been created to be a soldier. He didn't like sitting around and watching things all the time.

When Krit was finally finished the two of them left and caught a bus that stopped right at the edge of the tourist district that was closest to the warehouses. From there they walked, just to be on the safe side. Tourists trying to take a bus into the warehouse area would have just been too noticeable; it wasn't exactly a common hot spot.

"Well, it's definitely not much to look at," Krit said when they got there. It looked just like all the other warehouses around it. Very plain, not many windows, definitely no place a normal person would hang around. And actually, sort of hard to spy on. It was right out in the open in the middle of a big patch of concrete.

"It's perfect," Syl said, a huge smile on her face.

"You and your attraction to danger," Krit said, shaking his head. But he grinned at her, loving how alive she looked at the moment. She always seemed happiest when she had a difficult challenge ahead of her.

"What can I say? I like the adrenaline rush."

"You could get an adrenaline rush off of other things," Krit said.

"Like what?"

"I dunno. Bungee jumping? Cliff diving? Roller derby?"

"I've already done all that."

"And you've also already broken into a military genetic research facility," Krit retorted, but he grinned at her. Sometimes there was just no arguing with Syl. She'd have her way, no matter what he said or suggested.

"Yeah, but I've never broken into a South African military genetic research facility," she said, winking at him. "That makes all of difference."

They walked around the perimeter, trying to make it look like they belonged there. No one else was around, and Krit could see security cameras on top of the fence that blocked the public from the warehouses. He flicked his eyes toward them, and Syl nodded. She had seen them too. Beyond the fence, there wasn't much activity. A few trucks drove in through the gates, a few more trucks drove out.

It was possible that this was a seldom used warehouse, but it was even more likely that there were underground tunnels leading into and out of the place. Every soldier-specified nerve in Syl's body told her that this was the place they had been looking for; this place had a connection to Sandeman.

Krit and Syl wandered around to a side alley that was out of the range of the cameras and leaned against the wall next to each other. Syl played with the red scarf tied around her wrist and glanced out toward the alley entrance.

"That's our place," said Syl. She didn't want to say too much just in case the alley was somehow bugged, but she needed to talk to Krit and figure out their plan of action.

"Yeah, but we don't know much about it," Krit replied. "I don't like being around here out in the day or anything."

Syl grinned at him, childish in her delight of danger. "But what's the fun in that?"

"I personally think that not getting killed is pretty cool," Krit said, making a face at her. "Some people don't like reporters snooping around their place." Their disguise while roaming around in a pair was that Syl was a reporter and Krit was her photographer; they were from Australia, and officially they were doing a study on South African culture, but their investigative studies often led them to strange places. Like this trek into the underbelly of South African shipping…

"They won't kill us," Syl said, "We'll only ask a few questions and then leave."

Krit shook his head. "I don't know…I don't think it's a good idea."

"You're just paranoid." She tugged on his shirt sleeve, pulling him toward the front of the alley. Her voice floated up to him in a quiet hiss. "I just want to get a look at their security at the gate. We'll come back tonight."

"I still don't like it," Krit said. He was always the more responsible of the two, the one who knew when to say enough was enough. "That could be really dangerous if it is the place."

"We won't stay long, worry-wart. Promise."

"Fine, but if I say we go, we go."

"Got it, oh great and fearless leader."

Krit let Syl lead the way to the gate where all the trucks were entering and exiting the facility. With her usual self-possessed determination, she marched up to the guard house. Immediately, two men came out of the guard house, muscles bulging like someone had stuffed cannonballs under their skin. Both of them were holding AK47s with expert grips. Syl stared in appreciation of both types of guns until one of the guards grabbed her shoulder and pushed her backwards into Krit.

"Hey," she exclaimed in a heavy Aussie accent, "You haven't even asked what I want yet."

"You're unauthorized to be here," said the guard. He and his partner pulled the guns up to their shoulders and leveled them at her and Krit. Immediately Krit tensed, wondering if he would have time to pull Syl out of the way if they decided to fire those things.

"We gave you time to leave," the guard said. Krit had an idea that these guys were a couple of the Red soldiers that Max had mentioned. He tried to stay calm as he looked at the two machine guns that could decimate him and Syl in a matter of seconds. "If you leave now, perhaps we will not kill you." The guard's finger grazed the trigger, and hard eyes glared at the two transgenics.

"But all we want-"

A gunshot cracked through the air, and Syl stumbled backwards, her hands on her left thigh. Krit caught her and pulled her back, fury clouding his eyes while his mind torn in a war between ration and anger. He wanted to kick the guns out of their hands and murder them right there, but Max had told them that the Red series could be a lot stronger than the X5s. Together, he and Syl probably wouldn't dent one of them. And if he showed off his powers here, they'd know that transgenics were in the area. Syl's hand caught his, and she shook her head, recognizing the same rational that he did for once. For show, she cried out and stared wide-eyed at the two super-soldiers.

"Go. There will be no more warning," said the second guard, Krit's head in the sights of his gun.

Krit nodded. "We're going." He picked up Syl, who probably didn't want to be carried but needed to be, and walked away at a painfully slow pace.

"Well…that was fun," Syl said, leaning her head against the crook of his neck. Krit sighed and clung to her lithe, small body, wishing he could stop her from doing stupid things like getting herself shot. But she was Syl and she would always put herself in dangerous situations while he would be there as her conscience and, if she wanted him to be, her protector.

--------------------------------------

"Aw, come on, guys, this isn't fair."

Alec rolled his eyes at Dalton and continued dialing Max's cell phone number. After having spent the last two days on the road in the cramped cab of the little truck, the trio had finally arrived at the Philadelphia International Airport. Their first order of business had been to find out when the first flights to Venice and Portland were heading out.

As luck would have it, the flight to Italy was leaving in four hours. The flight to Portland did not leave until next week. Dalton was adamant that he wouldn't stick around to get on the flight back to the West, and both Alec and Sidda were nervous about leaving him in Philadelphia by himself for that long.

"We're not going to tell Gem why you're not going back to Seattle," Alec said, leaning against the pay phone stall as the call went through the lines. "That's your own personal verbal bitch-slap waiting to happen."

"But she'll take it better if you tell her," Dalton said, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

Sidda smirked at him. "Hmm, I don't think so. I really think she'll like getting the chance to talk to you personally."

"And I'm going to enjoy listening to it," Alec said. The phone started ringing, and Max picked up after a few moments.

"Max here."

"Hey, Max," Alec said, "It's your favorite smart ass." Dalton started to step away, but Alec reached out and snatched him by the collar of his oversized jacket, hauling him back toward the phone. "We've got Gem's missing mutt."

He heard her clutch the phone tighter and press it harder against her ear, as if she couldn't believe what he had just said. "What the hell, Alec, is Dalton with you? Did you take him with you?" She was angry, furious even, but there was relief in her voice.

"Not on purpose," Alec said. "He sort of tagged along in the back of the truck, under the tarp." He gave Dalton a shake before letting him go again. "Problem is, Skippy here is going to have to stay on for the whole ride now."

"Why?" Max growled, "He's not qualified."

"I am, too," Dalton grumbled, glaring at the phone. With their enhanced hearing, all of the transgenics could hear both sides of the conversation.

Max took a deep breath. "Dalton. Gem's been going crazy, and we've been leading search parties night and day for the past three days. We thought you were dead. You are in so much trouble."

Dalton's face paled, and he stared at the phone. Max sounded like she was going to rip him a new one, stuff it with gangrene and let him die a slow, horrible death. "I just wanted to help out," he said in a small voice.

"You sort of did the opposite," Sidda said, reiterating a point she and Alec had made about a thousand times over during the ride to the airport when Dalton had been trapped between the two of them with nowhere to go. It had been a long, tedious ride.

"Dalton wants to talk to Gem about just why he can't come home," Alec said, grinning at the kid. Dalton's face grew even whiter, and he shook his head.

"I think that's a great idea," said Max, "She's in the next room, give me a minute."

"We can wait," Alec said. He thrust the phone at Dalton. "Have fun."

Dalton gulped and stared at the phone as if it was going to suddenly come alive and clobber him on the head. He didn't even have a chance to put the phone to his ear anyway.

"Dalton? Are you there?! I can't believe you ran away, Max told me! Dalton! What do you have to say?"

Dalton decided that the best course of action was to keep the phone away from his ear so that Gem's voice didn't burst his eardrum.

He hesitated and gave Alec and Sidda one last pleading look. Neither of them relented. Instead, both were wearing very similar smirking expressions.

"Dalton? Are you there?"

"Yes, Gem," Dalton muttered.

"He's there all right." Dalton could hear Max in the background.

"I left a note…" Dalton started, shoving his hand into his pocket. He froze as he felt crinkled paper with his fingertips. Crap. He had forgotten the leaving part.

"What note? I didn't see a note." Gem's voice was dangerously cold and measured.

"Um, well, I think I forgot to leave it…" Dalton said. "I was kind of rushed when I hopped in the truck, so a few things might've slipped my mind."

"Oh, yes, just a few things," Gem said sarcastically. "Like, perhaps you weren't even supposed to be on this mission in the first place?" Her voice rose a little bit at the end as she struggled to keep control.

"Well, maybe I wasn't, but I had to prove to you guys somehow that I could do more than what you were giving me," Dalton said defensively. "If I never got the chance to show you, how would you guys know what I can do? I promise I'll be helpful, Gem."

Dalton could hear Gem sigh on the other end of the line. "Dalton, we have a lot of experienced people here. You were slowly being given harder assignments just the same way you would've been at Manticore."

Dalton knew that was logical, but he also knew that the assignments he'd been getting were a heck of a lot safer then what the X5s had gotten at Manticore. Maybe that was just because there weren't any truly exciting assignments. But he'd found one that promised to be good, and he wasn't giving it up. He KNEW he could be useful.

"Well, then this is just the next level up," Dalton said stubbornly. "I'll go with them to Italy, do whatever they ask me to, and not get in the way. Come on, Gem."

"No." Gem said firmly. "Alec and Sidda can handle this perfectly fine. You need to get on that plane that's coming home."

"No." Dalton was just as firm. "They can't make me go home. If Sidda and Alec don't let me come, I'll just stay here."

"Dalton, I can't believe you. Are you serious? This mission was not planned to include you, you may be jeopardizing it. You don't even know anything about it."

"Sidda and Alec can tell me." Dalton was glad that Gem couldn't see the looks on Sidda and Alec's faces. He hoped they would tell him. It would mean an awful lot of eavesdropping otherwise.

"Let me talk to Sidda," Gem said. Dalton was relieved; perhaps this meant Gem was giving in. He turned to Sidda.

"She wants to talk to you," he said, grinning at her. Sidda couldn't make him do the explaining now. Sidda gave him a dark look before grabbing the phone from him.

Dalton had a feeling that at this point Gem wanted to make sure for herself that there was no possible way that Sidda and Alec could ensure that Dalton could go home. And Dalton was right; as soon as Sidda got the phone Gem began grilling her on all possible modes of transportation.

Dalton was very grateful for the fact that they were in a time crunch; they didn't know who might have been watching the house in South Dakota, so they were trying to hurry and leave the U.S. before they were found. Dalton also found it sort of amusing that Sidda didn't mention that they'd already bought Dalton's airplane ticket. They just hadn't had time to wait around and debate; they couldn't risk the tickets being sold.

"Yes, Gem, we thought about the train, but we don't have time to get there and put him on it and then get back in time to make our flight," Sidda was saying. Alec gave her a sympathetic look and then raised his eyebrows at Dalton.

"You ever heard of hazing before?" Alec asked Dalton.

Dalton shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Where they torture new members of a group or something, right?"

Alec grinned. "Exactly." He nodded his head at Sidda, who was winding the phone cord around her finger, showing how much Gem's slightly accusing questions were stressing her out. Sidda noticed them watching her, and she gave Dalton a burning glare.

"I'd expect some of that in Italy." Alec said. "I don't think Sidda will be in the mood to treat you nicely."

Dalton grimaced. He thought Alec was probably right.

------------------------------------------

"Headache?" Max gave a grateful sigh as two strong hands firmly massaged her shoulders. She bowed her head to allow the hands more access to her tense muscles.

"Careful," she murmured.

"I'm wearing the gloves," Logan replied.

"How are the teams doing?" she asked. They were constantly on her mind now. The cure for that stupid virus actually seemed in their grasp for once. She knew she and Logan shouldn't be getting so hopeful, but everything seemed to actually be working out. Maybe luck wouldn't be against her for once.

"They're all working on it as much as possible. Amazon thinks they've found their guy, but they're going to tail him to make sure. Italy's on their way over, so they haven't had a chance to find anything yet."

Max laughed, "And Gem's going to be furious and upset until they get back."

"Well, yeah. I'd tried to keep her busy as much as possible."

"And the South Africa team?" Max asked quietly.

Logan's hands stilled on her shoulders and then his hands moved away. Max looked up as he moved around so that he could look at her. "They think they might have found the location where Sandeman's wife is."

Max's heart double-timed it for a few seconds. "Are they sure?"

"No, they're doing some surveillance to look further into it. But Seth is pretty confident about the location."

Max looked down, focusing on the speckles that patterned the plastic folding table. "I wonder if what we need will be there, with her."

"I sure hope so." Logan moved his hand so that it rested on hers. He curled his fingers in gentle reassurance and she squeezed his hand back lightly. It would be wonderful to feel bare skin again, not just leather and plastic and other fabric barriers. Just Logan.

"How are negotiations with the government going?" Logan asked, releasing her hand.

"Good as can be expected." Max leaned back in her chair. "They're tying us up in all the little details, but I think they want us too badly too let us go. They're annoyed they'll have to pay us when we used to do their drudge work for free, but still, we're the best they got."

Logan nodded, "You know Max, between contracts with the government and the artworks we've been selling, Terminal City will actually start earning money."

"It'll be nice to buy some decent stuff for the place."

"What about that farm you were looking at?"

"I've been afraid to mention it; I don't want them to say no," she said.

It hadn't taken long for Max to realize that Terminal City just wasn't going to cut it for the transgenics. They needed more space, and they needed to be able to get out. She'd thought about how when Zack went to the farm, she'd wished for such an uncomplicated life. When she'd mentioned it to Logan, he had asked her why not. He'd pulled up some for sale pages, and he and Max had taken a day off to go look at several farms. They'd found a perfect one right outside of Seattle. It already had a large farmhouse and a huge stable. It could be a perfect retreat. But it would definitely cost money and labor: there was a lot of fixing-up needed.

"You don't have to necessarily come right out with it," Logan suggested. "Starting talking to people about it casually. Get them used to thinking about the idea. Then formally propose it."

"I knew I kept you around for something," Max said, grinning at him. He was good at coming up with solutions she hadn't even thought of. She tended to things a little more straightforwardly than he did.

"Always happy to help."