When Angels Call, Angels Come

Chapter 2

Dark Angel

MAX

"You okay!?" Max shouts. Gem tapped on Max's shoulder about three hours through the drive. And based on the sounds that were coming out of her mouth, they'd be covered in whatever she had for breakfast this morning if she didn't stop when she did.

"Fine!" Gem calls, spitting out the last of the bile. "It's been a while since I've been on a trip this long. On a motorcycle, no less." She takes a few more deep breaths as she walks back towards the bike, determining whether or not her stomach will turn on her again. Once her stomach calms enough, she nods and climbs back on the bike.

"You sure you're still up for this?"

"Yes." she says stubbornly. Gem can practically feel Max's stare from the back of her head and she's briefly tempted to part the hair there to see if she actually had an extra pair of eyes. "I'm fine, Max, really."

Max sighs and starts the bike back up. She's worried for the young mother. Max had once heard somewhere how connected a mother and her child were; and that's just in the realm of Ordinaries. Imagine how connected a transgenic mother would be to her young. Max's stomach wants to turn at the separation anxiety that Gem must be feeling. Stop it. She tells herself. You did not force her to come along. Gem volunteered and she promised that if anything were to go wrong she would run the other way.

Well, not exactly. And if she's being honest with herself, she knows that Gem will probably try to fight- that is, if anything comes up.

And with Max's luck: something will most definitely come up.

Feeling the dot of anxiety swelling inside her, Max pushes the accelerator further, letting the roar in her ears drown out all of her thoughts.

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GEM

Gem misses her baby. She misses Dalton, too, though the thirteen-year-old can be annoying, but the two of them are her family, and Libby is still so young...

No, she chants in her head. If you don't take time off now, you'll never take time off. The best way to do this is a mission. You're good with missions; you've been going on missions your whole life. Plus, if you never go out you'll just be a burden. DON'T be a burden.

She's done her best to find material on raising children - Dalton even brought back a few books whenever he went on supply runs. She read that the earliest time that a child can be separated from their mother is at six months as that is about when their sense of individuality - the sense that they are separate from their mothers - begins to form.

With her and Libby's dad being X5s, Libby has cat DNA - meaning Gem could probably have started leaving her alone at around 14 weeks. But Libby is for the most part human and - as they discovered at her birth - she doesn't have a barcode. They don't really know what other attributes could go along with that. Will she have their speed, strength, or stamina? Their senses? Intelligence? They're questions that only time will tell.

The other X5 mothers - most being outcomes of the breeding program - don't have to worry about this. For whatever reason, all of the other babies were born with barcodes, their designations being the sum of whatever their parents' are. So why wasn't her little Liberty? Is it something in Gem's DNA? Or in her 'breeding partner''s?

Gem can feel herself scowling at the term that created her baby. That term that forced her to-

No, she stops herself. Don't even think about it. STOP thinking about it. You'll only upset yourself and you can't afford to do that right now. She moves her hand from around Max's waist to move a piece of her hair that caught in her mouth from the wind.