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 All that usual disclaimer crappiness. We know I don’t own it. My bank balance certainly shows that.
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Two Transgenics and a Baby
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She groaned as she heard the incessant drill of her side table, it’s sudden ability to ring waking her from one of her rare moments of slumber. Rolling on her back, she took a deep breath, allowing her senses to take focus. Her brain switching into gear, she shot up suddenly and reached over to the side table, realising it was her cell phone ringing and not said table.
She didn’t bother checking the screen for any pre-warning as to who in may be, she just flipped the phone open and took the call.
“Yeah?”
The was no response to her not so welcoming greeting, which of course, pissed her off no end.
“Hello?” Still silent. “Look whoever this is, you woke me up from a rar-”
“Max?” The voice on the other line sounded desperate, possibly winded or even pained.
“Alec?”
“Yeah.”
She groaned once more. It was one thing to be woken up at - she looked at the clock - 6am in the morning. But to be woken up by Alec at 6am in the morning…
“What have you gotten yourself into now?” Max sounded like a whining child and she felt like slipping onto her back and kicking her legs feverously. She wanted more sleep!
“Uh, I need your help Max.” Alec’s voice remained desperate.
“Yeah well, what’s new hot shot?! What did you do this time? Where are you?”
Max moved to the side of the bed and reached for her black pants that rested on the floor.
“I’m at my place and I-”
“Oh no!” Max threw her pants back to the floor. “I’m not helping you out with that situation again. You only get to use the jealous girlfriend card once buddy. I’m not walking in to see some skanky two bit whore running out of your place butt naked again. If you don’t want to wake up next to them in the morning…at least take them to a cheap hotel.”
“It’s nothing like that Max. Please! Come over, I really need your help.”
Max paused for a moment. “You haven’t been watching There’s Something About Mary again have you? Because I told you, it can get caught in the zipper!”
“Max, stop being such a bitch and come over.”
Alec had that ‘don’t mess with me’ tone in his voice and one thing Max had at least learnt from him, was to take it seriously.
“Okay. I’ll be over in ten.”
***************************
He obviously heard her stomping down the hall to his apartment, because just as she raised her hand to knock, the door swung open. As Max stepped inside, she watched Alec’s back as he walked away from her, as though he was almost hiding something.
“I told you, you don’t have to knock Max.” He was talking quietly.
“Yeah well, polite circles and all that.”
“Since when have you been polite?”
“Would you like me to leave?”
“No!”
She heard the noise before she saw were it was coming from, what it was coming from. Max caught her breath in shock.
“Where did you get that Alec?”
“It’s not a that Max. It’s a baby! And what, you thought I went down to the corner store and asked for a kid to go?! She was left at my door this morning with this.”
Alec stepped forward, the baby cradled awkwardly in one arm, his other hand reaching the piece of paper out to Max. She snatched it from him and read it out loud.
“You left something behind you barstad. She’s yours now.” Max raised an eyebrow to him, “Oh yeah, it’s one of yours.”
Alec gave her a scared, quizzical look. Max turned the note towards him, “Look how she spelt bastard. B-A-R-S-T-A-D. Sounds about the IQ of what you pick up.”
Max couldn’t help herself, she giggled.
“This isn’t funny Max. It’s a baby! And it‘s not mine!”
“How do you know that? Have you even been, oh god, I can’t believe I’m going to ask this. The sex, has it been safe?”
“God Max, do you think I’m stupid?” She raised a single eyebrow at him and he returned it with a sigh and look of disappointment. “Of course it was safe, but there’s more to why this baby can’t be mine!”
“Even if it doesn’t have a barcode Alec, it’s still possible.”
“No. It’s not!” Alec’s voice was loud and almost shrill, causing the baby to cry louder. He looked down at it and tried to bounce it in his arms, pleading with her to stop.
“God Alec, you’re such a typical bloody male! You can’t take responsibility for your own actions!”
“Max, this baby is what? About two months old, three tops? There is no way it can be mine.”
Max folded her hands in front of herself and twisted a toe to the side, all while sending Alec a disbelieving glare. “You do know that there is a whole nine month process before the baby is born right? You’re not trying to tell me that you, Golden Boy, haven’t gotten any for like twelve months.”
Alec stared at her silently, then turned his back on her, continuing to bounce the child in his arms, her screams muffling slightly.
Max scoffed before continuing to ram her foot down her throat. “As if Alec! That means you haven’t since…” She broke off as she calculated the dates in her mind. When the answer came she looked up at him with an intake of breath and the only thing she could say was ‘oh’. She turned from him and paced the room a little, guilt running through her veins. Alec hadn’t had any form of sexual contact with a female since…Max had the sudden urge to cry. He loved the Berrisford girl more than she had thought possible.
“What are we going to do?” She asked softly from across the room.
Alec turned to her as he stared into the crying babies face. “I don’t know, that’s why I called you.”
“Maybe I should call-”
“No!” Alec looked at her with determination in his eyes. “You’re not calling Logan!”
“That’s good, because I wasn’t going to. Logan’s no good with kids, I’ve seem him in action. There’s no off switch.”
Max rolled her eyes at the thought and Alec caught it. He of course hid the smirk that moved across his face by looking down at the baby, as it continued to cry. “I’ve kind of noticed.”
“I’ll called OC, she’s good with this kind of stuff. Is that okay?” Alec nodded yes to her as he shushed the baby. “And I’ll go and try to get some milk or something. Perhaps the baby is hungry? Was there anything else left with her? A bag? A name?”
Alec shook his head. “No, she was just lying in a blanket outside with the note.” He stared into the babies face, and brushed a hand over it’s forehead. “How could a mother just leave a baby like that?”
Max was taken back by the softness of the gesture and the question that followed. There was so much to the man that stood before her, that she had never taken the time to see. Or perhaps he had never given her the time? Max moved next to Alec, her shoulder brushing up to his arm as she took in the babies gorgeous features. The baby quietened a little, but it’s cries still continued. Max put a hand to Alec’s shoulder.
“I’ll get Cindy to come over. We’ll work this out Alec.”
Max stood for a moment longer, then pulled out her phone and moved to towards the doorway. Alec heard her conversing with Original Cindy on the other line as he continued to quieten the baby down. He felt like such a sap, but he couldn’t help by smile at this littler person in his arms, even as it screamed and wailed. They were never allowed any sort of contact like this at Manticore, not even with small animals and this was…this was a little human.
“Alec?”
“Yeah?” He spoke without looking up.
“Cindy’s going to be about forty minutes, okay? I’m going to go and try to pick up some baby formula.”
“Okay Max.”
“Cindy said the baby may need changing, so you might want to try that.”
“Okay.” Alec stared contently at the little scrunched up face in front of him. Max’s words finally hitting him. “Huh? What? Change her?”
But Max was gone.
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“Right…okay Alec, you can do this. You were a soldier. You were a leader. Heck you were an assassin. This should be a walk in the oh god! That is disgusting!”
He held a hand to his nose as the smell wafted throughout the room.
“You’re so small! How can you smell that bad? Not even Joshua smells that bad!” Alec removed the dirty nappy from underneath the baby and grabbed a cloth to clean her. “Suddenly I’m wishing we had Baby Care 101 back at Manticore.”
He looked at the dirty cloth, his face scrunched, and threw it to the floor. What was he supposed to do now? There were no other nappies for him to use and all he had was…no, he couldn’t do it. It would be ruined! But he couldn’t just leave the poor thing cold and naked.
“Fine! But I want you to know little one, this is my favourite towel and I get it specially washed to stay nice and soft! I hope you appreciate it!”
He careful wrapped the blue fabric around the child’s body and was amazed when she suddenly stopped crying. He smiled, the baby had taste. Alec picked her up gently and started to rock her slightly in his arms. Thank god he had seen enough TV shows to know how to at least comfort a child. At least he hoped he was doing it right.
There was a quiet knock at the door and Alec waited for a moment, then it came again, this time slightly louder. Afraid the noise would wake the baby, he moved quickly, yet carefully to answer.
The girl who stood before him looked scared and a little confused as well. She shuffled nervously from side to side as a laughing smile moved across her face. “I uh, I…I left something here by mistake this morning and I uh…”
The girl was cut off when she saw the baby in his arms, asleep. She laughed slightly, a little hysterically. “I see you uh you’re not the daddy, which you would know because we never ah, I got the wrong floor. Oops!” The girl shrugged and laughed in the same manner once more, tears starting to well in her eyes.
Alec stood in silence, staring at this stranger before him. She looked down at her daughter and then back to Alec, tears now streaming down her face.
“I want her back.”
Alec sighed quietly and moved aside, allowing the girl to enter his apartment.
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Max turned the doorknob slowly and carefully pushed it open. There was no baby’s cries coming from within and if she was asleep, she wanted to be sure not to wake her.
“Alec?” She scanned the main room, but didn’t see him anyway. “Alec? Are you here?”
“Yeah Max, I’m in here.”
She turned toward the bathroom, the door was shut and steam was rising from underneath the door.
“What are you doing? I got the stuff, where’s the baby?”
“I’m just cleaning up, you can come in.”
Max looked once more at the steam rising from underneath the door, flashes returning from the last time he walked out of a steaming bathroom. She jumped suddenly as the bathroom door opened, her eyes a little disappointed with what she saw inside.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to save this.”
He held his blue towel in the air, a dirty mark staining one side. Max was a little confused.
“Uh Alec? Where’s the baby?”
“She’s gone.”
“She’s gone?”
“Yeah. The mother came back.”
“And you let her take her? She left a child on your doorstep!”
“Don’t worry about it Max, she’ll be ok. We had a nice long talk about how fun it isn’t to grow up without any parents.”
He gave her a sideward glance and knew it registered.
“And she’s got my number, incase she needs anything. Not that I’d know what to do, but you know.”
Max smiled, “You enjoyed playing the father didn’t you.”
“Pfft. I’ll pass on that thanks. Suddenly glad that dating was forbidden at Manticore.” Alec gave up on the towel and threw it on the floor. He gave Max a quick smile as he walked passed her and out of the bathroom. “And that you chose to kick me across the room.”
Max smiled as she turned towards him once more, her body leaning against the door frame.
“I know, could you imagine us with one of those?”
There was an uncomfortable silence before Alec turned to her. “Can you imagine an us?”
She looked up at him with an intake of breath and the only thing she could say was ‘uh’.
THE END!!!
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