After Life -- Chapter 9: Insomniac

[parallax23]

Chapter 9: Insomniac

 

“Max, what’re you doing?” asked Jondy.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Max shot back.

Jondy took in the sight of her sister hopping off the counter with the pliers aimed at her abdomen.  She had heard pregnancy hormones made women do crazy things, but this hadn’t been on the list in her head.

“Umm… Is there an answer that won’t result in those pliers being used on me?”

Max scowled at her sister and tossed the pliers onto the coffee table.  Her jeans were still unbuttoned. Heck, the zipper wouldn’t even go up over the bulge of her stomach.  The sad part was that they were the largest pair of pants she owned, and they weren’t even hers.  She’d just found them in the drawer of the vanity that came with the apartment when she moved in.

She hadn’t anticipated the rapid weight gain occurring so quickly after returning home.  A couple of things still fit, but most of her clothes were either stretched out or just plain couldn’t go on anymore.  It pissed her off to no end, because she didn’t like feeling fat even though she knew it wasn’t really that.  Stupid Alec and his stupid DNA combining with hers.  Oh, he should’ve been the one trying to climb into a pair of jeans that belonged to god knew who from god only knew when, not her.  She made a mental note to spill something on his favorite jacket the next time she saw him.  It wasn’t fair. 

“Nothing fits anymore!” whined Max, dropping herself onto the couch.

“Yeah.  I think it’s ’cause all your clothes were made to fit one person, not two,” Jondy pointed out.  She sat down beside her sister.  “And hate to point out the obvious, but you’re only gonna get bigger and bigger until you pop.  Literally.”

Max glared at her.  “Really?  I wouldn’t’ve guessed.  And thanks for that lovely visual.  Some caring sister you are.”

“Maxie.”  Jondy let out a sigh.  “You’ve been home two weeks, acting like… I don’t know, like nothing’s changed.  And you still haven’t told anyone besides me that you’re going on maternity leave.  Zack and the others are gonna be pissed that you’ve been hiding this from them.  It’s not like they’re not gonna find out soon.”

The truth was that Jondy had no idea how to help her sister through this mess.  Also she wasn’t stupid enough to throw out the A-word this early in the game.  She was used to being on her own until Zane had found her.  Maybe one of the others could help Max, who she could see was being torn inside out by the whole situation.  Jondy hated feeling helpless, so she filled the void with sarcasm.  It was the only thing she knew how to do.  Emotions weren’t really her thing, and she’d spent a lifetime trying to keep the drama to a minimum.  Of course, that apparently wasn’t Max’s policy.

“Maybe because I liked my crappy life the way it was to a certain extent, and I’d like to enjoy the last of it without everyone reminding me of the current predicament I’m in?”

The news had been hard enough to handle when she thought Logan was the father.  The thought of being in charge of someone’s entire existence was terrifying.  It wasn’t the same as running Terminal City or baby-sitting Alec.  At least she momentarily had peace of mind knowing that stable, capable and responsible Logan would be there with her to help.  Now it was someone she’d been playing psychological badminton with for the last two years.  Someone she wasn’t sure she wanted, but couldn’t imagine her life without.  Even if he was making it miserable. 

Things with Alec were always complicated.  There had been quiet moments she couldn’t imagine sharing with anyone but him.  Other times she suppressed the urge to grab him and choke the living daylights out of him.  More than anything, she hated having to evaluate her relationship with him because it made absolutely no sense.  Or maybe it made perfect sense, which would be far scarier.

Jondy rolled her eyes.  “And this has nothing to do with Alec’s new groupie?”

It was Max’s turn to roll her eyes.  Then she got off the couch and walked to the counter that divided the tiny kitchen and the living room. 

“Hardly.  It has everything to do with none of my pants fitting, and then having to tell everyone on the face of planet earth that the reason my pants don’t fit is because I just really had to get some one night for the rest of my life.”

She went into the cupboard and pulled out two cans of soda.  The pants were still bothering her.  The tightness was starting to cut off circulation to her legs.  Oh, Alec was so going to pay for this.  His favorite jacket would do a permanent disappearing act.  “Ugh, can’t one store be open at this hour so I could get a new pair of sweats or something?”

“It’s three in the morning.  I thought we liked having the night all to ourselves,” Jondy said, taking the soda from Max as she sat back down.  “Like to go out riding our bikes on the open highway… I’d like to kick your ass one last time.  You know, before you can’t reach the handles anymore.”

“Keep dreaming, big sis.  I could kick your ass, handles or not,” Max said, smiling smugly.

“Really?  Because I thought you were saving the ass kicking for Kaia.”

Max shot her an evil glare.  If Jondy wasn’t her sister, Max wasn’t sure what she’d do to her for all the things she said without thinking.  And damn it, if Jondy didn’t know that she would’ve kept her thoughts to herself.

Kaia was not Max’s favorite topic of conversation to say the least.  Even before the whole Jam Pony thing, Kaia had been one of the hold-outs on Oak Street that refused to band together with the other transgenics.  She thought that the Xs were better and had no business dealing with the deformed transhumans.  It wasn’t until they were all barricaded in together did she relent some, because even she wasn’t that stupid to think that she could survive on her own.  Then when the Xs were able to come out, she had gotten used to her transhuman brethren and didn’t want to leave them.  Even if she still looked down on them.  But she and Max had no reason to be around each other, so it didn’t bother either enough to make an issue of it.

Now, Kaia would come by Command to see Alec.  The girl walked around like she owned the place, knowing damn well that this was Max’s yard.  She was at his apartment all the time and Max had to bump into her.  At first Max had tried to be civil, but Kaia had made some off handed comment about Max having a fat ass and walked away unharmed only because it’d be another squall with Alec.  If she and Alec fought, Kaia would be standing there giving Max grief from the sidelines.  It was that point that Zack would jump into protective big brother mode and threaten to hand Kaia her ass if she spoke to their leader and his sister that way.

To say it had been shocking to discover that Alec had moved on to Kaia in Max’s absence wasn’t something unheard around TC.  It wasn’t that he hadn’t been dating the entire time there, but why her?  Max couldn’t stand her.  Alec didn’t even have an answer for it.  Everyone else pretended they didn’t know what was going on, then they would remember something that had to be done that very moment and run out of Command.

Max accused Alec of waiting until she was gone to start dating Kaia behind her back.  Alec shot back that he didn’t even think she was coming back to TC after she went off with Logan and had no right to tell him how to lead his life.  That little argument had resulted in them not talking for a week, which drove everyone around TC, especially Zack who was their go between, insane.  Eventually they worked their way back to mild civility before the others threatened a political coup.  Mole mumbled something about Alec getting laid was always got somebody in trouble these days, then grinned wickedly.  Joshua had told him to mind his own business and that Alec getting laid was always getting someone in trouble.

The only good thing that came out of it was that Alec had stopped trying to be her friend.  He stopped asking about Logan, about why she was back, and when she planned on leaving again.  And she didn’t have to be civil to Kaia for his sake either.

“Like I care about that skank,” Max said.

Jondy laughed.  “Yeah, that girl should come with a punch card.  Tenth ride free.”

“Exactly Alec’s type,” Max said as a matter of fact.  Exactly the reason why he and she would never work out.  She wasn’t the type he needed in his life except to save his sorry ass.  “I feel like going for a walk.  Enjoy the night the way normal people can’t.  Maybe harass a few drunks.”

“Still pissed about the no alcohol thing?”

“Ya think?”

“Oh well, I like pissed off Max.  She’s more fun.  Let’s go.”

Max grinned.  “First, we need to find me a pair of pants.”

“At three in the morning?”

“Isn’t that half the fun?”

______________________________________________________________________________

That was how they ended up at the community clothes bin.

Since the transgenics didn’t have much, they had put together all the unwanted clothes in the basement of Command for others to take.  It was stuff that had been found abandoned around the sector or things that had been outgrown or someone just didn’t feel like wearing them anymore. 

It had been one of Logan’s ideas.  Max would never forget it as she looked at the various boxes of clothes labeled by size.  Sometimes it was the little things that reminded her of him, and she wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere and die for being such an evil bitch to him. 

Still she was surprised how easily she had made peace with losing Logan.  Maybe it was all that practice from the virus.  Maybe because she wasn’t alone when left him, she was surrounded by the people she loved the most.  Original Cindy was the only person who knew what happened besides Jondy, but they couldn’t see each other much.  They would see her through this.

How would she feel if she lost Alec?

Where’d that thought come from?  She couldn’t lose Alec.  Even when she told him to get out of her life, he only reappeared a couple of weeks later to permanently set up shop.  No, he wasn’t allowed to go anywhere.  He was one of the few constants in her life.

“Do my eyes deceive me, or is our eminent leader at the clothes bin picking out her next outfit?”  Mole asked as he walked in behind him, cigar at its usual corner of his mouth.  “Oh how the mighty have fallen.”

Max rolled her eyes.  “Shut up, Mole.  Jondy and I are up to no good and needed something from down here.”

She went over to the box with the sizes she wanted and began to sort through it looking for something semi-decent.  She didn’t have time for him.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” he replied, but didn’t move from his spot to look through the clothes.  No, he was looking at Max.

“So what’re you doing down here?” asked Jondy.  “Checking out the latest fall fashions?  I hear that moisturizing is in this season.”

Mole eyed her evilly.  If she wasn’t Max and Zack’s sister, he probably would have shot her at least once by now.  Stupid Xs, they never did know when to shut up.  But for some reason his attention turned to Max.  There was something off about the girl these days.  He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but his eyes caught it.  He had worked with her for two years.  It wasn’t just the usual post-Logan break-up snappiness.  It was the way she moved, the way she reacted to things.

Then he saw the pair of pants she pulled out of a bin.  A size much larger than he’d ever seen any X series girl wear, skinny little bitches.  Yeah, then there was the whole getting a bit chunkier thing.  She had looked half starved until lately.  Now she looked like she was packing on the pounds.  It was probably from eating all that Ordinary’s cooking and Mole had just now realized it.

“Well, someone’s been having too many Twinkies, haven’t we?”

Max turned and stared at him.  Did he really have to go there?  Oh, he was so asking for it now.  Especially when the real reason was… well, Max hadn’t come up with the adjective she liked for the situation just yet. 

Jondy was sure that Max would make Mole into a pair of new maternity pants for that comment.  She decided to say something before Max could.  “Did you just call a woman fat?  Heck, you just called Max fat.  Someone is definitely looking to be the next fall fashion sensation.”

Not her best work, but it served its purpose.

“Don’t you ever shut up?” Mole demanded, suddenly wondering if this was the reason why Renfro loved decommissioning Xs so much.  Just to get them to shut up.

“Don’t you ever wonder if you smell like some cowboy’s roadkill dinner after smoking all of those cigars?”

Mole shifted his rifle.  Now that was on par with telling a woman that she was packing on the pounds, if not worse because it send a six foot raging lizard man after you.  Then again if you were an X5, this was just an everyday ritual to get the blood flowing.  “Why I oughta –”

“You oughta take a bath.  I’m starting to get that whiff of roadkill.  Come on Jondy,” Max said and grabbed her sister by the arm before Mole could examine Max more closely or get a better aim at Jondy.

Max ground her teeth in frustration.  It looked like keeping this under the radar was not going to work for much longer.  A faint feeling of déjà vu came over her.  Like she was supposed to be wearing a weird frock with a scarlet letter painted on her chest.  No wait, that was the pre-Pulse Demi Moore movie she and Jondy had watched the other night.  But it seemed so similar, pregnant by the wrong man, the whole town of lunatics watching.  Oh, this wasn’t going to end well, was it?

“Oh, and Mole, for the record – it wasn’t the Twinkies.”

______________________________________________________________________________

“Alec?”

Alec looked up from the documents he had been caught red-handed with in Max’s office.

“Zack,” he said disinterestedly and picked out a couple of pages from a file and put it back on her desk.

“What the hell are you doing here in Max’s office at three in the morning?”

“Max and I aren’t speaking, remember?  Well, if we do speak it’s in the form of incoherent yelling.  Anyway, needed these and didn’t want to ask,” Alec told him, keeping his cool tone.  “What you’re doing at work at this hour is a better question.  Seriously, you 09ers are such workaholics, Manticore should’ve been heaven for ya.”

Zack stared him down.  “I’m on nightshift, jackass.  Give me a reason not to kick your ass for sneaking in here, then not hand you over to Max right after.”

“Oh, so we’re back to this again,” Alec said, walking toward him.  “Was there an 09er memo to revert to pre-Siege behavior toward Alec?”

“What are you talking about?  We never got along.”  Then realization hit Zack like a ton of bricks.  How could he be so stupid?  “This is about Max?”

Alec tried to go out the doorway, but the bulky X5 blocked his way.  He would’ve kicked him in the crotch and made a run for it, except Zack was stronger and knew where he was seventy percent of the time.

“Why?  You want to talk about the major bitch fits she’s been having at me since she got back?  Or the fact that I’m done with her crap and just want to get my job done in peace?  Yeah, let’s have a chick moment about that.”

Zack didn’t budge.  He crossed his arms in front of him, determination etched in him.  Alec may not have been his favorite person, but still even he had to admit that Max was behaving strangely.  Not really bitchier but more distant, which in Alec’s book was the same thing when it came to her.  After discovering the whole sex incident had been heat related, Zack promptly kept his comments to himself.  Especially since Max and Alec had seemed to like acting like it didn’t happen. 

He wasn’t sure what had happened between them since then, aside from the whole Kaia thing.  Of course, Zack assumed that Kaia was just the only woman left that Alec hadn’t slept with in Terminal City.  And she was hot, even if she and Max didn’t get along.

Max was probably down about Logan at first, and maybe a bit upset to have it rubbed in her face that someone else was in a relationship when her hurt was still fresh.  That was a week ago.  Zack was going to get to the bottom of it, because Logan Cale was the kind of guy it took a week to get over, tops.

“You’re acting weird too.”

Alec let out a sigh.  “I’m leaving, okay?  Haven’t felt useful around here in a while, and I really want my world to be more than a abandoned toxic dump, all right?  I was going to tell Max when she got back.  Now it’s all screwed up and I don’t want to leave things like this.  But I’ve been trying to organize things for the next chump to take this gig.”

Of all the things Zack thought he would say, that wasn’t on the list.  It also rose to the number one spot of things he wished he didn’t know.  Damn, he really hated the nightshift.

“I’d appreciate it if you kept this to yourself.  I haven’t told anyone else yet.  Kaia’s been extra clingy lately and I was hoping to ditch her discretely, if you catch my drift.  I don’t do clingy, because then they start expecting stuff and you know that never ends well.  Then there’s Max.  I have a feeling when I tell her it’ll be another fight, and I’d rather not leave like that.”

Zack nodded.  “I’ll see what I can do for you.”

“Wow.  So eager to get rid of me you pull the nice guy card?  Should I be glad or terrified?” 

“How about both?"