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A/N: Thank you, 452max, sango32510, nattylovesu, Marcus Sylenus, Sandra, Winchester girl, Unknown x5, Alexa, Deanna and Allie for reviewing! Love you all!!

Ex Multus Familia

Chapter 25

Max wanted nothing more than to reach up and massage her temples, but she didn't want to show weakness in front of the suits. This meeting was giving her a massive headache. Across the table from her, the feds and the military personnel that the White House had sent were sitting still while their spokesman, Agent Johnson from Homeland Security, went over the last few details that they had been debating for the past few weeks.

"…mandatory registry of all transgenics until further notice, Terminal City passes for each of those registered. After the six month grace period, any unregistered transgenics come under the jurisdiction of the U.S. government. All transgenics found without proper identification after the six month grace period, whether registered or not, will be brought directly to a government facility. Terminal City governing personnel will be notified of all transgenics in federal custody…"

Max's hands tightened into fists. This was a part of the agreement that she hadn't liked. Even with the six month grace period, it was unlikely that they would be able to locate and fill out all the paperwork for the transgenics who had not come to Terminal City. And if someone got caught without an I.D…

"A farm will be rewarded for the use of transgenics…"

Much better part of the agreement. The farm was a definite fixer-upper, but it would give the transgenics something to do, and everyone was ready to get out of the city. They were always asking her if they could leave yet, though luckily some wanted to stay in the city and keep working on its up-keep. The plan was to always have at least half the population in Terminal City. Maybe they would start some sort of lottery to see who could go to the farm.

Someone knocked on the door. Max raised her head, curious. She had told everyone not to disturb the meeting basically on the point of death.

The door opened, revealing Everett. The male transgenic nodded to the suits and then looked at Max. "Sorry, Max, but you might want to come see this."

"Right now?" Max asked, her eyebrow raising.

Everett nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

Max turned to the suits. "It seems like something has come up. I shouldn't be gone long." She looked over at Logan, Mole, Seth and Rhiannon who were also at the meeting and on the transgenics' side. "You can carry on without me."

"We'll wait for you," Agent Johnson said, looking slightly peeved.

Max hurried out of the room and closed the door behind her. "What is it?" she demanded.

"Can't tell you," Everett responded. Now that they were away from the feds, he relaxed, an easy-going grin lighting his face. Well, he was happy about something.

Max gave him a dead-pan stare. "It was important enough to pull me out of the last meeting with the suits. Now what is it?"

He smiled at her. "Our Italian friends are home."

"They are?" Max asked eagerly. She glanced back at the door to the conference room, duty warring with need.

Everett laughed at the dilemma so clearly written on Max's face. "They're right in the main room of HQ. You could probably pop in there to say hi to them real quick, then be back here in no time."

Max nodded and blurred toward the main room before Everett was able to get another word in. With the Italian geneticist…well, they hopefully had everyone now. As soon as they got Marie settled in, maybe…just maybe they could start finding the cure.

"Sidda, Alec!" Max had never been so happy to see that arrogant boy in her life. She actually hugged him before turning to Sidda to give her a hug as well.

"Where's Dalton?" she asked, alarmed at his absence. Gem would kill her if anything had happened to him. In fact, she'd probably kill Alec and Sidda too.

"Don't worry, Gem's already gotten a hold of him," Sidda said.

Alec rolled his eyes. "She's been stalking us since we got back from Italy, calling us every hour or so."

Sidda looked at him and laughed. "At least our phone batteries ran out halfway here."

"I don't know about 'at least'…she was pretty furious when we got here and hadn't returned any calls for several hours."

"Yeah, well, she took it out on Dalton. And I do not feel sorry for that kid," Sidda said grimly. Alec nodded in agreement.

Max watched the casual interplay between the two of them, the way they kept looking at each other and joking with each other and whatnot. Max hadn't ever seen Alec looking so relaxed and open. Max thought about Robin and Seth, and suddenly wondered if something had happened between Alec and Sidda. Maybe going on missions brought people together. Whatever it was, if it made Alec less of an ass, Max was all for it.

"So...umm…" Max looked around, trying to see if there was a random scientists walking around anywhere. "Hayden?"

"Is in protective custody already," Sidda said. She grimaced. "Sorry, Max, but we were only too happy to get rid of that guy."

Alec snorted at Max's confused look. "I know you think I'm a jerk sometimes, but that guy makes me look like your best friend next to him. He's been nothing but a pain since we got him."

"What happened?" Max asked.

"Well, first he had a tracker on him back in Italy," Alec said.

"Then he made a phone call from the plane. He was supposed to be using the bathroom and he told some random passenger that his phone didn't work," Sidda said.

"We didn't stop him early enough, so we had some fun when we arrived," Alec said, glaring to the right. Max assumed that Hayden had left through the doorway over there.

"And then on the way here, everywhere we stopped he was trying to escape, or grab a phone or something," Sidda added.

"Yeah, keep him away from phones," Alec said, "For some reason he seems to think coming to Terminal City is a death sentence for him."

"Well, I suppose he knows that we aren't particularly fond of his sort here," Max said, "Except when we need them."

"Well, he better hope that he remains useful," Alec said, "because the day he doesn't…"

"Payback time!" Sidda said happily.

Max smiled at them. "Well, I better get back to the meeting we're in with the government…I don't know if you two heard, but we're about ready to close the deal. We won't be targeted by the government anymore, and, oddly enough, they threw in a farm."

"A farm?" Sidda asked, surprised. "Like in the country?"

"Like in the country," Max said happily. "Ask Robin and Seth, they'll fill you in on the details. They've both already been out to see it. But I gotta run, catch you later!"

Sidda and Alec stared as Max ran back down the hallway to where the meeting was. "Wow," Sidda said, looking at Alec. "A farm."

"That's not random at all." He rolled his eyes, and Sidda punched him playfully in the side.

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"Is it going to kill you to sit down for two minutes?" Seth asked. He was sitting on the couch in Robin and Sidda's apartment with Taylor in his lap. The half-dressed baby was giggling as her father played with her, tickling her bare stomach. Robin, however, hadn't been able to relax the entire day. She was too busy straightening the apartment, putting things in order, airing out Sidda's unused bedroom. She didn't even know why she was doing it; she had just woken up with the urge to clean the whole apartment. And it was sort of driving Seth crazy.

She put down the rag she had been using to get the grime off the stove top and looked at Seth, a sheepish smile on her face. "Sorry, Seth. I don't really know why I'm like this today."

"It's okay," Seth said, "I was just worried you were going to scrub a hole into the stove." His easy grin had her smiling back at him.

"The stove's pretty hardy, thank you," she said as she walked out from the kitchen and into the living area. "A couple of highly skilled, brilliant X5s picked it up last week."

Seth cocked a teasing eyebrow. "Did they drag it through the sewers because the uniforms at the gate would've stopped their U-Haul but someone just had to have a brand new stove?"

"Mmhmm," Robin said, grinning at him.

"Were they wearing all black?"

"Of course not," she said, sitting down beside him on the couch, "Wouldn't want to call attention to themselves, walking around in cat suits." She nestled herself into his side. "Did I tell you thank you for that?"

"Next time you want a stove, I think I'll just make you one," Seth said. He kissed her cheek. "It'll be easier."

Robin laughed and reached over to take Taylor from him, shifting the baby to the crook of her arm. Taylor cooed and grabbed for Robin's long hair. "You know, I was thinking about getting a dishwasher."

"Robin—"

A knock on the door made both of them look up. Robin glanced at Seth. She hadn't been expecting anyone, but with the suits here today and people getting ready to go out to the farm to start renovations, it could have been anyone.

"Come in!" Robin called, but at the same time the door opened.

"I can't believe you knocked on your own door," Alec said, shaking his head as he walked into the apartment as if he and Sidda had just been gone a couple hours instead of a month. He had a backpack slung over one shoulder and that cocky smirk on his face. Italy obviously hadn't humbled him in any way. He grinned at Robin and Seth and then nodded toward the fridge. "Hey, you guys stocked on food? I've been craving corn dogs like you wouldn't believe."

"You are a corn dog," Sidda exclaimed as she came in after him. Wrinkled blue jeans, scuffed boots, a tired but relaxed look on her face. "And how am I supposed to know what Robin and Seth are doing in here while I'm gone?" She put her backpack down by the door, looked around the spotless apartment before tossing a smile at Robin and Seth. "I guess you're just playing house."

Robin was off the couch and hugging her friend in a matter of seconds. "Why didn't you call? You could've called, Sidda, I would've made dinner, Seth got me a stove!" Neither of them gushed about how much they missed the other; it was understood.

"We would've called, but the phone died, and that was actually a good thing," Sidda said. She gasped as she looked down at Taylor. "She's so big, what've you been feeding her? Hey, pretty baby…" She took Taylor from Robin and cradled her close. "Look at you, Miss Priss, you're even more adorable."

Alec glanced over at Seth over the top of the fridge door that he had opened in search of food. "Are they done with the talking-so-fast-I-can't-understand phase yet?"

Seth swayed his head toward the two women and then looked back at Alec. "Yeah, I think they've moved on to look-at-the-cute-baby stage of the welcome home ceremony."

"I like that one better. Less screaming," Alec said. He closed the fridge door with his elbow as he resurfaced with a jar of grape jelly and a loaf of bread. Putting it on the counter-top, he turned around and started searching purposefully through the cabinets.

"Peanut butter is above the stove," Sidda said as she sat down on the love seat, still holding Taylor. She smirked over at Alec, and the grin he threw back at her seemed to have a lot more layers than just playfulness, or so Robin thought. She lifted her eyebrows at Sidda in question.

"I memorized where you put the peanut butter, no big deal," she said, ignoring what Robin was really asking, and as retaliation, she flicked her eyes at Seth. "So, do I need to move out and give you guys some more space?"

"No, no, you're fine," Robin said, a blush creeping into her cheeks.

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"Who's the man, who's the man!?" Gem rolled her eyes as Dalton pranced around holding up a case of beer. Gem hadn't liked the idea of Dalton going with Alec to get alcohol, but as Max had pointed out, she couldn't keep Dalton at her side anymore. Dalton had learned a lot of independence going off to Italy, and he would be only too ready to go off again if he felt cooped up.

But Gem just wasn't ready to let him go quite yet.

Alec shook his head at Gem, long-suffering on his face, as he set a good number of the cases on the table.

"Oh, you know you love having him as your tagalong," Gem teased the X5.

Alec glanced at the young X6 who was surrounded by a small group of his friends. Some were questioning him about Italy, others were throwing him slightly jealous looks.

"We need to come up with more for them to do. Being told they're free and then being stuck here…"

Gem sighed. "I know. Max and I are hoping that the hard work at the farm will at least distract them for a month or two. And then we can send them on some of the easier missions the government gives us."

"Good idea." Alec grinned and handed Gem a beer. "Lighten up, it's party time, Gem. Things are lookin' up for us."

"Yes, and you're over here chatting like an old man." Sidda grinned at Alec and tugged playfully on his free hand. "Logan's about to play some music, come on, I want to dance." She gave Gem an apologetic look. "If you don't mind, of course."

"Not at all," Gem smiled. "In fact, dancing sounds like a very good idea." Music was already starting to blast out over the speakers, though Gem wasn't sure the song would stay the same for long. Max and Logan seemed to be having an argument about what types of songs would be best for the party.

Sidda pulled Alec onto the dance floor and then stole his beer and took a swig before handing it back to him. "Thanks."

Alec chuckled and put his free hand on her waist, pulling her close to him. "Like I had much of a choice."

"Glad to see you're starting to understand how life works around here," Sidda said. She gave him a mischievous smile and pulled him even closer as they continued to move to the music. "But it's not all bad, is it?' she asked innocently.

Alec grinned. "No, definitely not."

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

"Goodness, I'm glad they set up a daycare," Robin said, entering through the doorway. Seth's hand was clasped around hers, and he gave her an easy smile. "Yeah, as good a kid as Taylor is, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have been happy about the loud music."

They both glanced up as the song changed to a new one right in the middle of it, and they shared knowing looks. Max and Logan probably disputing over song choice.

"Hey look, Alec and Sidda are already dancing," Robin said, waving to her friends. She turned and gave Seth a suggestive look.

"I don't know if I even remember how to dance…"

"Oh, come on. You're part cat. It won't take you long to get into the rhythm of the song." And it didn't. Robin shivered with delight as Seth's powerful arms wrapped around her. She splayed one hand against his well-muscled chest, enjoying the way she could feel him picking up the rhythm of the music.

Sidda and Alec maneuvered their way across the dance floor to get to Robin and Seth.

"What'd you do with Taylor?" Sidda asked, eyebrows raised. It was unusual to see Robin without the child.

"We put her in the daycare," Robin said.

"After I promised her we'd check in on Taylor every hour," Seth teased Robin. Robin blushed and hid her face against Seth's shoulder as Sidda laughed.

"I have a right to be paranoid," she said in a muffled voice. "Things happen to transgenics."

"Yes, love, especially in Terminal City," Seth said.

Robin glared up at him. "You never know what could happen."

"Yeah, Seth," Sidda said with a grin, "Some vile, evil person could sneak all the way in here, grab just Taylor, and run away with her to use for their vile purposes." Alec spun Sidda away as Robin tried to playfully hit her friend.

"I'll get you back later," Robin called after her. Sidda just smirked and turned her attention back to Alec.

Up above, Logan watched the dancers below. Max was leaning very close as she debated with him about music choices. Logan shifted uncomfortably, feeling the heat between him and Max. Soon…maybe soon he would be able to dance with her without thinking about every step, worrying if they were standing too close or if her hair might brush his skin.

"I think we have a chance this time," Max said suddenly. Logan looked up at her, wondering if she was reading his mind.

"A chance?"

Max smiled and looked at the dancers as well. "Of fixing this. Getting rid of the virus. Making things…well, as normal as they can be."

"That's all you ever wanted, isn't it? Logan asked. "A normal life."

Max chuckled and looked down at her hands. "For a while, yeah. But who was I kidding? People like us… we don't get normal lives." She grinned at Logan. "That includes you, in case you think I was only talking about transgenics. Though if you didn't insist on always being so noble…"

"What can I say? I like to put myself and deadly situations."

"Yeah, hanging around in a biohazard wasteland with government experiments? Yeah, I'd say so."

Logan reached out and curled his gloved fingers around her own gloved hand. "It's worth it."

Max smiled at him and then pulled upward on his hand. "Come on, leave the music. Let's go have some fun. Celebrate a truce with the government."

"It's just a truce," he reminded her.

Max gave him an exasperated look. "Logan."

"I know, I know." He stood up.

"I promise I won't get too close during the fast dances if you're worried," Max said, "As long as you dance with me during the slow ones."

Logan squeezed her hand. "That's all I wanted."