DEATH AND LIFE

Seattle

January 2041

Everyone was a bit overwhelmed by this new or rather previously unspoken truth. Jade was still wrapped in towels in the back of the pickup and everything else hadn't arrived properly yet.

Dix and Luke had found a nice place for Jade without having to leave TC. So everyone, including Ben, could now take part in the funeral.

Mole drove the car slowly through TC and more and more people came from everywhere. There was a long funeral procession and everyone walked quietly behind them with their eyes downcast to accompany Jade on her last journey.

Luke and Dix had chosen a hill at the far end of TC to which the funeral procession now climbed in silence.

Once at the top, Mole and Joshua carefully placed Jade in the carefully prepared grave and everyone gathered around them in a large circle.

Nika took the initiative and said a few words. She told how Jade came to their shared apartment. They had taken her out of a state welfare apartment where she had been placed after she had been with foster parents for a long time but had nowhere to stay for long. She was left in front of the children's and youth welfare center, as were four other babies that day. It was the second time this year that babies had been dumped. Six months earlier there had been four more. So the system had to take care of 9 foundlings in a very short space of time and that made long-term accommodation more difficult so that things were actually always quite chaotic and changeable.

Nika said that she had run away quite early and that later, little by little, she had brought all of the people who had also been abandoned into her shared apartment. Jade was one of those who was able to create an atmosphere of security in the shared apartment. She always took care of order, hot food and the good manners of the group. She could be quite strict when it came to behaving politely and respectfully and she always reprimanded in a motherly tone when things at the table weren't the way she thought they should be.

"Thanks to her, we have not become a wild, uncouth horde," Nika concluded her speech with a grin and a nod of thanks towards the grave.

Everyone even laughed a little as they thought about how each of them had already received a reprimand from her when their behavior didn't meet her high standards.

They all took one more step towards the grave and each said goodbye to her in their own way.

Afterwards everyone went back into the hall of the operations center and dragged together tables and chairs, benches and all sorts of other seating. A funeral and a birthday party at the same time.

A big meal was prepared and everyone sat together in the hall in the early afternoon.

Seth was sitting there with Ben and Nika, Max and Alec and, somewhat lost in thought, he was staring at the crowd of this somewhat bizarre transgenic community when someone from behind put his hand on his shoulder and supported him. Gray had woken up, he had missed the funeral service, but in the meantime he had regained his strength and was now able to stand up again on his own. Seth stood up and hugged Gray. For the first time since the two found each other, Seth went on the offensive in public. He kissed Gray, passionately and long, in front of everyone in the middle of the hall and suddenly the hall became silent. Everyone looked at the two.

"I love you Gray! Happy Birthday!"

He had said it loud and clear and everyone had taken it in in the silence of the moment, as a sign that despite all the misfortune there is also happiness.

"That was the best gift you could have given me."

Gray sat down next to Seth and the entire hall erupted in cheers. They were happy, cheered, cheers were given to the two of them and even Boaz, who was initially not enthusiastic about this relationship, nodded to the two of them and thus expressed his approval.

The two sat there for a long time, holding hands and just looking at each other.

Out of the corner of his eye, Seth suddenly noticed that Nika and Ben had wandered off to the other end of the hall and were having a somewhat heated conversation. Unfortunately, despite his extremely good hearing, it was not possible to understand what the two of them were saying due to the babble of voices. Nika turned around and ran out of the hall, Ben came back to them at the table, a little upset.

"Is the house blessing going wrong?"

Seth didn't mean to sound so flippant, but he didn't know how to put it better.

Ben just shrugged his shoulders and took Seth's beer away and downed it in one gulp.

"Are you crazy, you're not nearly old enough to drink alcohol. Especially not at this speed!"

Alec had gone too far out of his depth with this announcement.

"Are you now letting the super father hang out when you didn't even have the balls to admit your fatherhood to yourself?"

With this verbal low blow, Ben got up full of anger and left the hall the same way Nika had left earlier. Seth wasn't comfortable letting his brother run off in this state but he was done with drama for the day so he sat back down next to Gray and hoped Ben would calm himself down. In complete contrast to Alec, who was really hit by the last sentence. Alec was right after Ben, out and about to confront him. He saw another shadow and it looked like he underestimated Ben because he couldn't catch him. Instead, he found Nika crying on the roof of the shed across the hall. She sat on the small gable and hid her face as he approached.

"You don't have to act like you're the strongest person in the world. Everyone has a few minutes when things aren't going well. Even a father as great as me."

Nika heard the ironic undertone when Alec said "great father" and she turned to him.

"You were a better father than many other men. At least you tried."

"I was a coward and should have explained to everyone much earlier what was going on."

"At least you wanted to do it and followed your son's path from the beginning and didn't just run away like other cowards."

Alec looked at her questioningly. Was this about her own parents or something else. She was upset and so hurt at the same time. Alec sat down next to her and took her in his arms. She rested her head on his shoulder and he felt like a real parent for the first time in his life. Nika was actually strong, independent and wilder than many boys and now she seemed like a little girl who just needed someone to lean on. Still, Alec couldn't quite stay in the adult role and so he asked somewhat awkwardly and without a thought for the impending reaction.

"What's wrong with Ben and you? Trouble in paradise?"

Nika jumped up and almost knocked him off the gable.

"You men are all the same, sensitivity is a foreign word to you."

She then jumped off the roof, skillfully rolled down and disappeared in the next second. Alec was still hanging a little askew on the gable and couldn't get up quickly enough to follow her in time, so he let her go for now. It wasn't even entirely unpleasant for him because he wasn't designed to deal with spontaneous emotional outbursts. Instead, he went to look for Ben in order to get information about this dilemma.

However, the first person he met was Max and, as always, she immediately noticed that he had a louse on his liver. However, he was not prepared for Max to pull him in and kiss him passionately. He immediately gave himself completely to her and realized too late that she was radiating extreme heat. He paused and tried to escape her for a moment.

"Max, wait, you're not yourself."

"Alec just because the cat in me comes through doesn't mean I can't control myself if I wanted to. Just shut up."

As usual, she brushed aside his doubts and he complied with the instructions by pushing her against the wall and now fully engaging in her passion. The world blurred around them and they were alone in the world for that brief moment until someone stepped out of the darkness.

"Great, now I'm not only going to be a father but I'm also going to have another brother or something," Ben uttered this sentence sarcastically and at the same time with a large portion of frustration before he turned around and also in the direction in which Nika had previously run away. disappeared.

Max and Alec were shocked and at first scattered like teenagers who had been caught by their parents. Then they looked at each other and, as if with one voice, asked each other:

"Father? Brother?"

Did you understand that correctly? They looked around and tried to see if they could still catch Ben. Unfortunately there was no trace of him left and Alec had no idea where Nika might have gone.

"What are we going to do now?"

Alec looked at Max confused. He couldn't cope with this kind of confusion, he felt insecure and he usually covered up his insecurity with a cool demeanor or his somewhat sarcastic humor. At the moment he was so caught off guard that he was unable to do either. Max, however, caught himself surprisingly quickly.

"Let's give them both some space. We'll only get involved again when the initial excitement has calmed down a bit."

With these words she grabbed Alec by the collar of his shirt and kissed him again before taking him by the hand and pulling him behind her. They barely made it to the upstairs room before they were passionately attacking each other. Alec threw Max onto the bed and threw his shirt to the floor when he was struck by one of those moments in which the images of Max's captivity flashed before his eyes like a flash. He hesitated again. Max looked at him demandingly and didn't understand why Alec suddenly had that expression on his face again. Shame and fear. She remembered that he had described exactly such a situation when he talked about the captivity. She leaned towards him.

"Don't worry, I see your doubts, I'm completely sane and I already told you last time that I forgive you."

"I myself but not Max, I should have protected you from that because I'm not an adulterer, I was just so afraid of being found out. I can't do it now."

With that he grabbed his shirt and stormed out of the room. His excitement was still written on his face when he met Seth and Gray. The two had already looked for them and also Ben and Nika and were quite surprised to find Alec half-dressed up here.

"Hey Alec, where is everyone, the party is in full swing downstairs. But it looks like you had a private party up here."

Gray looked at Alec challenging but got no answer and Seth could only look after Alec confused without saying anything else. They were on the way to the room because the two of them were looking for a little peace and togetherness. But when they opened the door they were amazed at what they saw there. It was immediately clear to both of them what was going on and Seth spontaneously sat down next to Max and said:

"Mum, is this serious?"

Max was surprised at how childishly Seth asked it, but she was also relieved not to have to deal with a reaction like Ben's again.

"I don't know yet, at the moment I can only say for myself that's how it feels."

What she didn't tell him, however, was that she was angry because Alec had promised something and once again couldn't keep it. Was he still the teaser who made promises to get what he wanted.

Seth looked at her with satisfaction.

"Ben wasn't so happy when he saw us down on the corner earlier. Shit, we should have looked for him right away. Let's search together."

"He's calming down again, come down with us and we'll wait for him and Alec too."

"If you two keep me company, that's a nice idea."

Max was happy with a little distraction at the moment.

The three of them went back down into the hall together and sat down with the others. The mood quickly improved and they hoped the others would join them soon.