Max sat on the couch with her legs crossed under her, studying the chessboard closely. Logan sat on the opposite side, resting his chin on his hands, elbows on his knees. They had moved one of the armchairs out of the way to allow him the space to draw near to the coffee table. "You gonna move or what?" he asked.
She picked up a piece and moved it. "Check."
Logan sighed. "Guess that's one more to you."
"What, you giving up?" Max asked as he straightened and started packing the chess pieces back into the box.
"Three games to one is enough of a beating for my ego for today." He looked up from packing up the board as the phone began to ring in the kitchen.
"Well, while you nurse your ego, I'll go and answer the phone," she laughed, uncurling herself.
Logan watched her go, admiring the jauntiness of her gait, the way she swung her hips as she walked. He continued to pack up the chess set, listening with half an ear to Max's conversation as he did, trying to figure out who was at the other end of the phone line.
"Sure...okay...yeah, if that's what you want to do." Max giggled. "Well, you always did bring out the beat in him, boo."
Logan looked at Max and mouthed the question, "Original Cindy?"
She nodded back to him.
He finished packing up the chess set, then went out on the rear porch to check on the weather again. The rain was definitely easing; in fact, had slowed to a light drizzle. He looked at the dartboard, still hanging where he and Bennett had left it two days before, with the final projectile protruding, and decided to pack that away as well. As he came back inside, he heard Eva starting to stir and went into the bedroom. He awkwardly reached up into the bassinette and picked her up.
"Oh-oh. Somebody needs changing," he said, reaching for the pack of disposable diapers on the floor. He lay her on his lap for a moment as he crossed to the bed in order to change her diaper. Vaguely, he could hear Max still talking on the phone. Original Cindy was still her best friend and confidante. Logan, in return, appreciated Cindy's forthright honesty and up-front manner, taking seriously her threat that she would "put the smack-down" on his ass if he so much as harmed one hair on Max's head. Cindy still occupied the apartment on Waverly, but, along with the majority of the old gang from Crash, had given up her job with Jam Pony. She was now employed as a beautician, a job that seemed to suit her.
Logan busied himself with changing the diaper as Max chatted with her friend.
When Max hung up the phone, she wandered into the bedroom doorway, and propped herself against the frame, one hand on her hip.
"How's Original Cindy doing?"
"She's good."
She came into the room and flopped on the bed, stretched, then rolled onto her side, resting her head on her hand to watch what he was doing.
"You gonna give me a hand here?" he asked as Eva tried to wriggle out of his grasp.
"You seem to be doing just fine without me," she smiled.
He looked over his glasses at her, re-buttoning Eva's jumpsuit by touch as he did. Eva rolled over onto her tummy, facing her mother, pushing herself up with her arms. Logan looked at his daughter fondly and patted her well-padded behind. "I do believe you are going to be crawling soon, young lady." He reversed away from the bed and went to dispose of the diaper and wash his hands. When he returned, Max was still stretched out on the bed and Eva was still doing baby push-ups.
"Is this rain ever gonna let up?" Max asked, rolling onto her tummy.
"Supposed to be better tomorrow," Logan responded. "Cabin fever?"
"Yeah, you could say that," she gave a wry smile.
"Well..." Logan pondered a moment. "We could go into town for a while. I could kick your ass at pool." He winked at her, then not waiting for a reply, rolled out into the living room. "Ben! Jonas!" he called up to the loft.
"Yeah!" came a reply, then the two pairs of sock-clad feet came into view. The boys peered down at him.
"What's up, dad?" asked Ben.
"Get your shoes. We're going out."
"Where're we going?" asked Jonas.
"Into town."
*~*~*~*
Logan parked the mud-spattered Aztek outside the bar. While he waited for Max to bring his chair around, the two boys tumbled out of the back seat and made a quick beeline for the sidewalk, where they waited under the awning. While Logan transferred, Max settled Eva in the stroller and joined them there. Once they were ready, Max led the way into the bar and, while they waited for the pool table to be free, they occupied a row of stools at the bar. Logan smoothly transferred up onto the end stool, nodding to the barman. He ordered sodas for the two boys and beer for himself and Max, and settled to watch the game at the table, between two of the locals.
"So, you in town for long, this time?" the barman asked, cleaning the area in front of Logan and Max.
"Just for the week."
"Ah."
"Good to see you, anyway, Brett," Logan smiled over his beer.
The two men at the table put their cues back on the racks and came up to the bar. One of them banged his fist on the counter-top for attention. Brett automatically handed them beers and continued wiping the bar.
"You boys finished with the table?" Max asked.
"Sure, go ahead," replied the shorter of the two.
Max racked the balls while Logan transferred. Ben and Jonas got down, and pushed the stroller across into the corner by the table. Max looked at Logan coyly, "Okay, boys, who's gonna partner me?"
"I will, Mom," replied Ben, selecting a cue.
"Guess that means you and me, Jonas." Logan was comparing cues. He handed one to Jonas, keeping the last one for himself.
"Sure, Uncle Logan."
Max hung the triangular rack back on its hook and looked at Logan slyly. "Mind if I break?" she asked, leaning over the table to position the cue ball.
"Go ahead," he gestured, smiling.
There was a clatter as she broke open the packed balls, leaning forward over the table to present Logan with a view of her ass. He backed up slightly, taking a wicked delight in the view. Max sank a couple of balls before miscuing. Jonas was next. Max leaned back against the bar, sipping her beer, as Jonas took aim. They all had made frequent use of Bennett's pool table, and as a consequence, the two boys were quite good for their respective ages, although Ben had a slight edge. Logan, who had been something of a hustler in his youth, was still an excellent player, and Max could seldom best him. He regularly frustrated Alec, as well, who didn't take kindly to being beaten by a guy in a wheelchair. If the lack of elevation caused by his seated position was a hindrance, he seldom gave any sign. Jonas sank two balls before caroming one off the side of the table. Ben did likewise. Then it was up to Logan to clean up the rest, which he did with style. Logan gave a satisfied smile as the last ball dropped into the end pocket, then, to Max's great amusement, jumped as a gnarled hand came down on his shoulder.
"Still hustling pool, I see," came Jack's voice from behind him.
"Old habits die hard. You know that," Logan replied, turning to face his friend.
"I sure do. Come over when you're done here."
"We will."
Jack grabbed the bottle he'd come for and headed out the door.
"Okay, Max, rack 'em again." Logan backed up to the bar and took a swig of his beer, casting a glance at the rednecks in the corner, who seemed to be setting up an arm-wrestling contest.
"Yeah, and this time, you break!" Max flashed him a cheeky grin.
"Think it'll make a difference, do you?"
"I know it won't," she responded. "Just playing fair."
They swapped partners, with Max taking Jonas and Logan partnering Ben. Once again, Logan's superior ability showed, and he finished the game by cleaning up the table. By this time, the two boys were eyeing the arm-wrestlers with great interest, and there was a growing group of onlookers, each anxious to take their turn.
Max bought them all more drinks, which she took to one of the small tables, rather than the bar. She pulled Eva's stroller close. Max examined the two combatants in the corner closely. Both looked like laborers – weather-beaten, fit men in their late twenties or early thirties. She gave Logan a speculative look. He was nearly 46 but, other than the flecks of gray in his hair, looked ten years younger. Fifteen years in a wheelchair had given his upper body definition. He had a slim, athletic build, but was deceptively strong, a fact which was further hidden by the baggy sweater he was wearing.
Logan caught her looking at him and smiled uncertainly, not sure what she was thinking. The two boys stared at the contest in the corner unashamedly, then decided to have a go for themselves, making use of a corner of the square table at which they were sitting. Max jumped as Ben slammed Jonas' hand to the table. Jonas had forgotten how much stronger Ben was, and for his part, Ben just didn't know his own strength. Jonas wrung and shook his hand ruefully.
"Hey, that wasn't fair. I wasn't ready," he protested.
Ben just laughed.
"Ben, that wasn't nice," warned his mother.
"I'm sorry, Jonas. I forgot." Ben looked contrite. "Hope I didn't hurt you."
"Um...Uncle Logan?" Jonas looked up at his uncle.
Logan turned his green eyes on Jonas. "Yes, Jonas?"
"Why don't you have a go?"
"Me?"
"Yes, Logan, why don't you?" asked Max.
"Well, it's not really my thing."
"Logan, you spent half your time in college hustling pool. Don't tell me you didn't engage in other time-wasting pursuits as well."
Logan gave her a withering look, and responded by snapping the brakes on the wheelchair and rolling over to the game. He watched as the stockier member of the pair from the pool table went through a couple of opponents without difficulty, the small stack of cash beside him gradually growing. When the next fist was banged down on the table, Logan propelled himself forward.
"Yeah?" the guy raised an eyebrow in enquiry.
"Is this exclusive or can anyone join in?" Logan asked.
"Be my guest." He gestured to the space opposite, looking Logan up and down, obviously deciding he was a total sucker. Logan placed a bill on the pile.
The other man positioned his arm while Logan pulled the chair out of the way and drew in close to the table, locked the brakes with a snap, and linked hands with him, carefully settling his elbow in position for maximum stability and leverage. Logan's opponent had obviously underestimated him, as his expression changed from smug to grim. Logan's eyes fixed his with a glittering, intense stare. The man was strong, but so was Logan, and in the end, it was Logan's greater stamina that made the difference as he slowly wore his opponent down.
Max was on her guard as the banter around them died off. She left her position at the table and drew near the group in the corner. For a moment, she regretted urging Logan to do this, remembering another bar in another time and place, where the end result of a friendly game of pool had been a pissed-off Logan dumped on his ass on the floor, and her wielding a pool cue like a quarter-staff against a group of local bad guys.
Logan eventually touched his opponent's knuckles to the table and released his grip. Both of them smiled.
"Oh, man, did I underestimate you!" the younger man said, rubbing his hand.
"That's the thing," Logan responded, flexing his own hand. "Using a wheelchair builds upper body strength."
"Will Johnson," the younger man said, offering his hand.
"Logan Cale."
"Cale? Ah...your family owns that cabin out by the lake."
"Yes, yes we do."
"I wondered what that ramp was for when I built it. Now, I guess I know."
"Yeah," said Max. "I got sick of picking the splinters out of his ass every time we stayed here." Max put a proprietary hand on Logan's shoulder.
"My wife, Max." Logan introduced her. "You're the carpenter?"
"Have Wood Will Travel, that's me."
"Nice name," Max replied. "Logan, I think we should get going."
Logan unlocked the brakes and started to back up.
"What about this?" Will gestured to the pile of money on the table.
Logan looked at the bundle and hesitated. "Drinks are on me for tonight. Later." He nodded and made his departure.
"Come on, boys," called Max. "We're going. Bring your sister, Ben."
They headed out the door and out onto the street. Max waited until they were a short way up the street before she started to laugh. The rain had stopped and there was even an insipid evening sun peeking through the clouds. Logan stopped and half turned to look at her as she cackled and crowed.
"What is so funny?" he demanded.
"Sorry...just relieved," she gasped. "I was just suddenly reminded of what happened the first time some redneck in a bar ogled my ass in your presence."
"Ah...different redneck, different bar."
"No, different you." The two boys exchanged looks – not knowing what the adults were talking about. Max caught the look and decided to explain. "He took offense at some guy who said I had a nice ass and ended up dumped on the floor. He forgot I don't need defending," she winked at them.
"Well, thank you for totally embarrassing me."
"Oooh, still touchy about it?"
"No," he said, shortly, pushing off again and almost rolling right past Jack's shop. Max, more alert than Logan, stopped and knocked loudly on the locked door. "And what do you mean by different me?"
"You may not realize it, Logan, but you've changed since then. Back in Cape Haven...well...you were real pissy that weekend. You weren't facing up to your feelings. Weren't being honest with yourself or me. I kinda had hoped we'd hook up that weekend."
"So you've said to me before...I really don't know what I hoped would happen that weekend."
"Well, at least that's honest," she grinned and banged on the door again. "Yo, Jack! Rose! You gonna let us in?"
"Coming, Max," came Jack's voice. "Just had to find my keys." There was a rattle, and the door opened with a creak. "Come on in and make yourselves at home."
Jack conducted them through the shop into the dwelling beyond. Rose greeted them at the kitchen door, giving both boys a hug and sending them into the living room to watch TV (something they were without at the cabin). "Now, you will stay and eat with us, won't you. I made plenty."
Logan inhaled, catching the aroma of roast and vegetables. "Not even wild horses could drag us away."
Max's response was warm. "Of course, we'll stay. Couldn't miss one of your special Sunday roasts."
Logan smiled with pleasure, anticipating an evening of good food and congeniality with his old friends.
Chapter 12: Goodnight Sweetheart
After a pleasant evening spent in the company of Jack and Rose, they eventually drove back to the cabin some time after midnight. The clouds had completely disappeared, blown away by a steady breeze. Jonas and Ben were yawning in the back seat, ready for sleep. With the promise of a fine day to come, they had said they wanted to make use of the good weather by taking the bikes out early.
Once they were inside, the two boys went straight to bed, leaving Max and Logan to putter about for a while before doing likewise. Eva hadn't even stirred as Max carried her from the car to the bassinette. Max reflected that Logan might have been right about the effect of country air – she found that she always slept more at the cabin than anywhere else.
Logan soon followed Max into the bedroom, and stripped to his boxers in preparation for bed. Max had changed and was wearing the red bathrobe again. Logan made a mental note to buy another red bathrobe because it was starting to look threadbare. While he transferred into bed, Max went into the kitchen, and came back carrying a glass of milk.
"You okay?" he asked, in quiet concern at the change of routine.
"Logan, I haven't had a seizure since my last stay at Manticore, way back when. You know that. I just felt like a glass of milk," she said, drinking it down quickly as she sat on the side of the bed. She handed him the glass to put on the bedside table, shed the bathrobe, and slipped into bed beside him. Logan pulled her close, her head neatly fitting under his chin, and heard the rustle of sheets as she settled herself comfortably, molding herself against his body. "Night," he said softly.
The last thing he remembered, she grabbed his arm and pulled it across her body in a loose embrace. "Night," she murmured in reply.
When Logan awoke, it was still dark. Max had left the bed, obviously some time before, because the sheets were cool to the touch. He rolled onto his back and looked at the clock, which read 4:00 am. He lay for a while, staring at the shadows on the ceiling. Eventually, he gave up trying to sleep for the time being. He propped himself up on one elbow, looked across the room, and saw that the bassinette was empty. He assumed that was the reason for Max's absence. He transferred and pulled on a t-shirt. Max wasn't in the living room, although the lights were on, but he noticed that the old, wooden, rocking chair from the far corner of the room was gone. Opening the back door, he heard a quiet, "Hey, you."
"Hey, yourself," he replied, rolling out the door. "What're you doing out here?"
"Night was too good to waste on sleep," she smiled, the filtered light from inside reflecting off her teeth as she turned her head to talk to him. She had placed the rocker at an angle, but close enough to the porch railing that she could rest her feet on the bars. She was rocking the chair back and forth as she fed Eva.
"I didn't hear you get up."
"That goes without saying. It's called paternal deafness. Marianne tells me that most men suffer from it." There was a hint of amused sarcasm in her voice.
"Remind me to thank her for that."
Logan caught the flash of Max's smile again. She sighed. "It's lovely out here tonight."
"I know." He looked at her curiously. "One of the reasons we came, remember?"
Max gazed out at the lake, shining black in the distance. There was a loud plop as a fish jumped.
"That sounds like dinner," she quipped.
"Hardly. Wanna finish the boat first – see if she's seaworthy." He joined her in staring out over the water.
"Ow!" Max's sudden, outraged yelp startled him out of his reverie. "That was naughty, miss." She sat the baby up on her lap.
"What?"
"She bit me."
"Ouch."
"Kid may not have any teeth, but it still hurts."
It was Logan's turn to smile. Eva held out her hands to her father, demanding that he take her, and she gave a gummy smile. He took her from Max and sat her on his lap, leaning her back against him, with one hand wrapped protectively around her middle. Max stood and walked into the kitchen, returning a moment later with a bottle of water, from which she took a long drink. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Logan gave a stifled yawn.
"Hey, why don't you go back to bed?"
"Only if you go, too."
She gestured at the wide-awake child on his lap. "She might have something to say about that."
"Max, there's room in the bed for three, and she might be more inclined to sleep if there's less intellectual stimulation." Logan grinned at the irony of that statement. It was hard to imagine a less stimulating scene. The night was totally peaceful, with barely a breeze and not even much in the way of animal noises.
"Yeah, right." Max rolled her eyes slightly.
A few minutes later, all three of them were snuggled up in the bed together. Eva was lying on her back between her two protective parents, kicking her feet and the summer-weight quilt in the air, and chomping down on one small fist. She gripped her father's finger with the other.
Max ran her hand down the side of Logan's face, feeling the smooth skin of his temples, then the stubble of his two-day growth of beard, ending at the point of his chin. She gave him a luminous smile.
"Penny for them?" Logan asked.
"Counting my blessings," she responded.
Logan pondered that for a moment. “Do you ever stop thinking about her?” Logan's eyes bored into her, glittering black orbs in the dim light.
“Who?”
“She’d be almost twelve by now...”
Max sighed. “I know...” She blinked, close to tears, thinking of the baby they lost so long ago, the baby that should never have been. The baby that her screwed up immunity wouldn't let them keep. How much her life had changed since those grim days in early 2022. “But we have this little girl, now...”
“Yup. Children – family – home – number one on the list of blessings."
"That's for sure. Family and home are number one with me," Max smiled. "Never thought I'd ever say that."
"Max, your family was always number one, why else did you spend all that time looking for your siblings?"
"Look what it got me."
"Well...some families are trouble. You know that."
"Yeah…but some are more trouble than others," she grinned.
"And which family are you referring to here?" Logan raised an eyebrow at her.
"Both of 'em, but mostly mine, I guess. They've both tried to kill us, but mine has also tried to mangle us, take us prisoner...and just plain get us and themselves into trouble."
"Well, that's true." He looked down at Eva, who had finally let go of his finger. Her eyes were closed in sleep, the long lashes casting shadows over her cheeks. "Well, look at that. What did I say about lack of stimulation?" He smiled down at the sleeping baby.
Max quietly snorted through her nose. "Mr Know-it-all. Well, come on, little girl, let's put you in your own bed so your mama and papa can get some rest." She was always cautious about sleeping with babies, having heard from Aveta several horror stories of sleeping parents accidentally rolling on their children and smothering them. Logan tented the bedclothes with his arm so she could gather the baby up. She padded across the room and deposited Eva in the bassinette, staying there until she was sure Eva wasn't going to stir. Then she came back to the bed, dropping the bathrobe at its foot in passing. She curled up with Logan again, melding their two bodies together.
"'Night," Logan murmured softly in her ear for the second time that night.
"'Night," she replied, staring into the darkness.
Chapter 13: Off the beaten track
Max was first up, as usual, and, feeling disinclined to wait for Logan, she took the wakeful Eva and headed into the kitchen. The two boys, already dressed, made their appearance downstairs a few minutes later.
Ben gave his mom a hug and helped himself to the cereal.
"How come you two are up so early?" she asked.
"We were awake," replied Jonas, standing over the toaster.
Max looked out the window at the clear, blue sky, and nodded. "Okay. Be careful on the bikes."
"Always, Mom." Ben looked up at her over the cereal bowl.
The two boys zoomed off twenty minutes later, one of them carrying a pack with their lunches.
After Ben and Jonas left, Max sat quietly in a chair for a while, idly stirring the remnants of her coffee, and staring out the door. Eva, already fed, was in the bouncer chewing on a rattle. Coming out of her reverie, Max drank the rest of the coffee in the cup, picked up the baby and headed into the bathroom.
A few minutes later, Logan entered the bathroom to find her on her knees, leaning over the bathtub, bathing Eva, who was protesting mightily at having her face washed.
"Morning, ladies," Logan said, leaning forward to fish around in the cabinet for his shaving gear. He had planned on showering first, but since the cabin's shower was over the bathtub, and the bathtub was in use, he decided to reverse the order of business.
"Morning, sleepyhead," responded Max, lowering Eva, supported by one hand, onto her back in the shallow water of the bath to wash her hair.
"Did I hear the sound of motorbikes earlier?"
"You did."
"Okay..." Logan worked the soap into a lather with the shaving brush and proceeded to apply it to his face. He shaved quickly and efficiently, and then waited as Max lifted Eva out of the bath, wrapped her in a fluffy towel and, holding the baby against her shoulder, pulled the plug. She got to her feet in an elegant, sinuous movement as the water drained. Finally, she set the plasticbath seat, which had originally belonged to Logan's arthritic grandmother, back into place one-handed, making sure it was secure. "Thanks."
"Service with a smile," she replied with a slightly distracted air. "Friendly, courteous, and kind. That's me."
"Well, let's not go overboard," he grinned.
Max swatted his shoulder in passing and left him to shower. When Logan wheeled into the bedroom after his shower, Max had Eva dressed and sitting on her lap. She sat on the edge of the bed running a comb through the baby's downy hair. She sniffed the air. "Mmm, you smell nice."
"Thanks. You eaten?"
"Just had some coffee."
"Ah...then I think a special breakfast is in order."
"Sounds good to me."
*~*~*~
After they had eaten Logan's special omelette for breakfast, they spent the morning working on the boat together, finishing off the work that Max and Ben had started before the weekend. By the end of the morning, the small rowboat had been completely covered on the outside in primer and, if all went well, would be ready for a new coat of red paint the next day. The inside of the boat would do for now – it was generally left upside down, so the interior wasn't exposed to the weather.
The rain of the previous few days, coupled with a few hours of sunshine, had made the weather humid. Logan was quite glad to take a break in the middle of the day for some lunch and a cool drink. Max was seldom bothered by even the most extreme climatic conditions. He envied her lack of concern as he scratched his head, which was itchy from wearing a baseball cap. Max cleaned the paintbrushes and cleaned up outside, while Logan put together sandwiches and drinks for them to eat out on the porch.
Eva had happily played and rolled on a rug beside them all morning. She had been quite happy to be left to her own devices as long as her parents were in view.
They sat together on the porch to eat, taking advantage of the shade and a slight afternoon breeze coming from the lake. Max, sitting in the rocker again, munched her sandwiches while she nursed Eva, legs crossed at the ankles, her feet resting on the top bar of the railing. The former cat-burglar immersed herself in her role as earth mother – Bast in yet another of her multi-tasking guises.
The serenity of the familiar scene kept them quiet. The view over the water to the not-so-distant mountain was spectacular. Max happily fixed her eyes on the distant peaks and absent-mindedly rocked the chair.
Logan was inside cleaning the lunch plates when Max's acute hearing picked up the distant sound of a lone trail bike approaching at speed. She perceptibly straightened and tuned her ears to the fast-approaching bike, scanning for a sighting. She was already on her feet when Ben, on the trail bike, hurtled around the side of the cabin and came to a skidding halt in front of her, his face white.
"Mom, Jonas fell over the edge!" The panic was near the surface in Ben's voice.
"Ben, is he okay?"
"He hurt his ankle. He can't get back up and I couldn’t reach him."
"Logan!" Max called urgently.
"I'm here Max." Logan was already out the door.
"Did you hear?"
He nodded curtly and rolled straight down the ramp, pivoting neatly at the bottom to end up beside the passenger door of the silver Aztek, Bessie's replacement, facetiously christened "Bessietoo" by Max.
He opened the door and reached into the glove compartment, extracting a small tracking device. Max had followed him to the car, Eva held on her hip. Logan turned his head and looked at his wife. "Put her in the car," he said, shutting the door. "You go with Ben, I'll track you and follow as closely as I can."
Max nodded and strapped the baby into the baby seat in the back. She opened the hatch and grabbed the length of rope and the small medical kit, which were always there, while Logan checked the batteries on the tracker. Logan handed her the device and she put both of them into the back pack from the back of the car, which she slung over her shoulders, then climbed on the back of Ben's trailbike.
"Be careful, both of you," Logan cautioned.
"Always." She flashed a grim smile, and Ben peeled the bike out in a spray of pebbles.
Logan went back inside for the laptop and his carkeys and quickly transferred into the car. He hooked up the laptop to the accessory socket and booted it up, immediately logging into the tracker program. He set the open computer as securely as possible on the seat beside him, started the engine, cast a quick glance over his shoulder at the baby, and drove off in the same direction as Ben and Max, following their trail as closely as he could on the rough 4WD tracks.
*~*~*~*~
Ben drove the bike along a winding trail through a sparsely forested area, heading ever upward. He knew the way well, having been there many times with both Max and Jonas, although Max hadn't been there since she and Logan had last visited the cabin. Ben had come with Marianne and Bennett the previous year, when, with Max pregnant with Eva, she and Logan had chosen to stay in Seattle.
At last, they reached the top of the hill, where the woods opened up onto a bare knoll. The top looked safe enough, but Max knew that at the far side was a terraced area with a sharp drop-off and that the surface was badly eroded with crumbling, pebbly edges. She could see the other bike on its stand near the drop.
Max cautiously approached the edge, noting the marks on the lip where Jonas had slipped and fallen. "Jonas!" she called.
"I'm here!"
"Are you okay for now?"
"Yeah, I think so. I hurt my ankle when I fell."
"We're gonna get you. Just be patient."
"Okay!"
Max looked around her, considering her options. The ground was clear and the nearest tree was on the far side of the clearing. There was nothing to which she could conveniently secure a rope: not a rock, not a stump, not anything. She dropped the backpack on the ground, considering the two trail bikes, but dismissing them as being too light. That was when she heard the metallic chink from the pack. Rummaging in the bottom, she came up with two metal tent pegs, remnants of a long-ago camping trip. That gave her the idea. She banged the tent pegs into the ground using a rock, and threaded and knotted the rope through them, testing it carefully for security.
"Ben, I need you here!" She tied the nylon rope around herself. "I'm going down to Jonas. I need you to watch and if you see either of these coming loose, tell me immediately."
"Okay."
She tested the pegs again, leaning back and pushing with all her strength, and satisfied they should hold, started over the edge. Ben crouched by the "pitons", doing as he was asked.
"Everything okay up there?" Max was halfway down and had Jonas in sight.
"Fine, mom."
She let herself lightly down to the ledge beside Jonas. He was sitting with his back against the cliff-face on a wide ledge, looking shaken but otherwise intact.
"Hey, you. Let's see about getting you out of here."
Jonas gave her a watery smile.
Max turned, admiring the view. High places held no fear for her.
"Don't let this turn you off climbing," she smiled.
"Sure. Gonna take up mountain-climbing tomorrow."
She gave a snorting laugh, and crouched beside him. "Let me see that ankle."
Jonas obligingly pulled up the leg of his jeans. Max felt around the joint and gently manipulated his foot, eliciting a wince.
"You're lucky. I think it's just sprained." Max looked up, hearing the sound of a car engine.
"Dad's here!" shouted Ben.
"Okay! We need him to come over as close as he can. It'll be easier if he can pull us up."
"Okay, Mom."
There were some noises from above. "Max, are you okay down there? I'm untying the rope." Logan's voice sounded from above.
"We're fine!"
Max undid the rope from herself and started to tie both herself and Jonas together in a rough safety harness, more for Jonas's peace of mind than anything else.
"Max! We're just about ready up here."
"Okay, Logan. Get Ben to spot you. Slowly!"
Max picked up Jonas, holding him in her arms, ready to be hauled up. The car started with a roar and she felt the slack in the rope taken up and the pull as they were dragged up the cliff-face. She fended them off the wall as best she could with her feet, hearing Ben's voice as he called instructions to his father. At last, they made it over the lip onto solid ground again.
Logan waited while Max untied the rope from herself and Jonas, then drove back to where he had left the wheelchair, not having bothered to break it down again after tying the rope to the back of the car. Ben left his mother for a moment to push the chair closer and allow his father to transfer then went back to her and Jonas, hovering anxiously. Logan untied the rope and coiled it up again. Max had Jonas's shoe and sock off and was checking his ankle again.
"What's the verdict, doctor?"
"Think it's just a sprain."
"Okay. We'd better get him back to the cabin so we can ice it."
"Yeah. Open the door of the car. Jonas, can you stand and lean on me, or do you want to be carried?"
Jonas gave her a dirty look. "I can walk."
"Good." Max helped him to his feet. Jonas put an arm over both her and Ben's shoulders and limped to the car, settling himself on the back seat with the injured leg resting on the seat, as much as possible with the baby seat there. Eva was complaining at being left on her own for so long, but Max gave her some attention and she soon calmed down.
Logan was in the car, ready to go. Max leaned through the window to speak to him. "We'll see you at the cabin." She kissed him firmly on the lips, then backed away so he could drive off. Logan smiled, nodded, and started the Aztek, heading back the way he had come.
Max watched him drive off then turned to Ben. "Okay, young man, I want to know how this happened." She looked at him sternly.
"Mom, he just got too close to the edge." There was a faint whining tone to Ben's voice, that pricked at Max's radar.
"Really?"
"Yeah, well..." Ben's face scrunched up a bit.
Max raised her eyebrows in disbelief.
"Well, actually, we both were too close."
"Uh huh. I thought so. Well...can't say I haven't gone close to the edge a time or two, myself. I hope you've learned something from this."
"Yes, mom." Ben sounded chastened and subdued. He had had a severe fright.
Max walked back to Jonas's bike, grabbing Ben's backpack as she went, and pushed it off its stand. "Race ya back?"
Ben's face lit up, and he mounted his own bike. They roared off down the track together.
Chapter 14: Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig
Logan was first back to the cabin, due to his head start. Jonas had been quiet and tense all the way back, gritting his teeth at every bump. "You okay back there?" Logan had asked his nephew several times.
Logan pulled up close to the ramp, transferred into the wheelchair, and backed up to the rear door, which he opened in order to talk to his nephew. "How are we gonna do this?" he asked Jonas. "I could carry you in..."
Jonas gave him a dirty look. "I can walk, Uncle Logan."
"Not on that ankle, you can't," Logan responded automatically. "Here, get on my lap. No one can see you."
"But what if..."
"There's no one else here. Now, look, Jonas, you need to stay off that foot. I mean it."
Jonas shrugged, conceding defeat, and slid off the seat, gasping in pain as he accidentally put his left foot on the ground. He cautiously sat on Logan's lap, for the first time since he was a toddler, and allowed his uncle to give him a ride into the house. Logan was surprised as how heavy the boy was, guessing that he weighed as much as, if not more than, Max. He settled Jonas on the sofa and wheeled into the kitchen to find something cold – settling on a bag of frozen peas, which he wrapped in a dishtowel. He handed the cold pack to Jonas and went back out for Eva, just as Max and Ben roared into the yard.
Max parked the bike and came over to Logan, who was unstrapping Eva from the baby seat. She leaned over Logan, plucked the baby from his grasp, and plopped down onto his lap. Ben gave them a quick glance and went straight into the cabin.
"Well, that was fun," she commented, eyes shining and hair windswept. "How's the young man?"
"He'll live."
Max smiled and gazed deep into his eyes. Her eyes, behind the sunglasses, gleamed brightly and her face glowed. Logan held both Max and Eva in a loose embrace, then being unable to resist the invitation in Max's eyes, kissed her deeply. Finally, he broke away. "Up," he said, patting Max's butt affectionately. "You gotta patient to see to."
"Field Med 101. Did that at Manticore." She grinned wickedly, tweaked his nose, stood, and walked off into the cabin with the baby. She gave a quick flick of her hair as she went, leaving Logan wondering what had just happened. He collected the computer from the front seat and followed her in more slowly.
Max was sitting on the coffee table talking to both boys when Logan came into the living room. She had Jonas' foot elevated on some cushions and was issuing instructions to them both with regard to the icepack. Logan listened with half an ear as he packed the computer away again. Toward the end of the discussion, he came into the living room and drew near.
"Helluva way to spend a holiday, Jonas. Did it myself when I was about your age," Logan said.
Jonas turned an enquiring glance on his uncle.
"Jonas, I wasn't always in a wheelchair."
"I know, I just forgot."
"Yeah." Logan paused for a moment. "Anybody hungry? Coz I sure am."
He turned and headed for the kitchen. Max followed him a few minutes later. She automatically started chopping the onion he'd placed on the counter, while he rummaged in the cupboard for a frying pan. "Should we call Marianne?" Logan asked.
"She's gonna call tonight, anyway," replied Max.
"Okay...kids..." Logan sighed.
"Were you and Bennett any better?"
"No...well...yes...no, probably not," Logan grinned, thinking about some past escapades. "It's the parents' curse, ya know."
"What?"
"Having kids who act just like you do."
"What does that mean?"
"Something my mom used to say. 'When you grow up, I hope you have children who act just like you do.' It works."
Max smiled. "Wouldn't know."
*~*~*~
When Marianne rang some time after dinner, Max took the call and explained what had happened, before taking the handset of the cordless phone into the living room so Jonas could talk to his mother without moving from the sofa. Jonas, judging by his silence and the occasional rolling eyes, was at the wrong end of a long lecture on personal safety.
*~*~*~
The rest of the week passed in a blur. Jonas insisted on hobbling around the next day. They got the boat launched, and Logan and the boys spent some hours fishing on the lake. One afternoon, Max and Logan left the boys with Eva and took a solo row, which ended up with them both freezing cold and wet, when Max managed to overturn the little vessel. They both laughed hysterically all the way back to the shore.
It was a shame to have to pack up and go home on Saturday, but with the rest of the summer stretching ahead of them, there would surely be more opportunities to get away.
"I really would like to know," said Max, dumping the last bag into the back of the car, "why it is that the stuff always takes up more space when you go home. I mean – it’s the same stuff, right?"
"Yeah, I think it expands in the country air," Logan smiled.
Logan transferred into the car and waited while Max stowed his wheelchair before he drove around the front of the cabin so she could hook up the trailer with the two trailbikes. She walked through the cabin, chasing the boys out, locking windows and doors. Eva was already in the car.
Twenty minutes later, they were on their way home, once again, struggling to drive through the weekend traffic. The checkpoints were no more, but between the badly degraded roads and Saturday markets, it seemed to take hours to get across town to drop off Jonas and the bike trailer, and then travel back to Sector 9 and home.
The vacation was great, but it was still good to unlock the door to the Penthouse and come home. Logan was itching to power up the computers and see what the informant net held for him, but he had made a promise to Max several years before, which he had mostly kept, that whenever they came back from a vacation, the informant net would wait until the next day – even if that meant one minute after midnight.
After unpacking his bag, Logan started on some domestic chores. He threw a load of dirty clothes in the washing machine and did an inventory of the kitchen cupboards – writing a shopping list for the following day. Max, after hassling Ben into doing his own unpacking, left Eva on the living room rug, where Logan could just see both her and Ben from the kitchen. Ben was lying on the rug next to her watching TV. Max went back down to the basement, returning with a trolley borrowed from the doorman, and a large crate inscribed A-504.1, which she took straight through to the bedroom. Logan looked up curiously as she passed through with the squeaky trolley. He left the shopping list on one of the counters and followed her into the bedroom.
"You're not wasting any time," he said quietly.
"Might as well strike while the iron is hot," she responded. "You're okay with this?"
"Yeah. I doubt if it'd be any good to me now, even if I could fix it." Logan grimaced slightly at the painful truth.
"Ya never could dance worth a damn in this thing anyway," Max grinned, trying to lighten the mood. "Kept stepping on my toes. It's a wonder I don't have feet like Donald Duck."
"Gee, thanks. And here I thought you loved me for my moves on the dance floor."
"You're welcome." She started to lift the mannekin bodily to put it in the box.
"Hold up a bit." Logan stopped her with his hand, seeing something in the crate. He leaned down and picked up a yellowing scrap of paper, reading:
"SORRY IT'S ALL BUSTED UP,
BUT IF YOU CAN FIX IT,
WHO KNOWS? MIGHT HELP YOU
GET FROM HERE TO THERE."
"Whatcha got there?"
"Note from an old friend," he said, folding the piece of paper and sliding it under his leg, for want of a convenient pocket.
"Outta the way now, bozo. Gonna put this thing where it belongs."
Logan raised an eyebrow.
"In the darkest corner of that locker that I can find."
Logan had no response to that, so he turned and wheeled back to the kitchen, while Max rolled the trolley out the door. Once Max was gone, he quickly went to his office and put the note in the filing cabinet, out of sight. He looked at the bank of computers for a moment, then backed out, firmly shutting the door, determined to keep his word to Max.
He joined Ben in front of the TV in the living room. Eva was on the floor beside her brother, gradually rolling toward the edge of the rug. Even without crawling, she was getting quite mobile, and her dark eyes missed nothing. Right now, those dark eyes were focused on her father, demanding to be picked up. Ben turned his attention away from the screen for a moment. He automatically picked up the baby and handed her to his father, then rolled back on to his tummy, feet in the air, chin on his hands, and resumed watching.
Logan held Eva in such a way that she more or less stood while he held her, pushing her feet against his legs, doing deep knee bends. She happily bobbed up and down for a few minutes, babbling as she danced. Max came back and joined them, sitting on the back of the couch – a habit she had fostered since one of her first visits to the apartment way back in 2019. It was a new, although similar, couch – brown leather with a soft, padded back.
"Mission accomplished?" Logan asked over his shoulder.
"Would I be here if it wasn't?"
"Just asking."
"Would you mind if I went over to Joshua's for a bit?"
"No…why would I mind?"
"Well, he hasn't seen madam for a while and, well, you know how much he loves babies…"
"Oh, you're asking if I mind you taking the car?"
"Yes."
"Go ahead. Ben, you want to go, too?"
"Yeh, sure. Elfie might be there," he said.
"Gonna be back in time for dinner?"
"Got anything special planned?"
"Not yet, but I might go out for a bit – see what I can get at the supermarket."
Max looked at her watch. "Don't leave it too long."
"Have fun."
"Always." She dropped a kiss on top of his head, and gathered up Eva. Ben stood and followed her as she detoured to collect the baby bag, then went out the door. Like most kids, Ben had neglected to turn off the TV. Logan did it for him, pondering what to make for dinner. Coming to a decision, he turned and headed out the door.
The drive across town to Joshua's house didn't take Max long. The big transgenic was watching for them through the window of the dwelling which, while appearing decrepit from the outside, had been gradually repaired and refitted on the inside. Joshua had made it his home since his escape from Manticore, except for the several months he had spent as a resident of Terminal City. Joshua had made a life for himself as a painter, scratching a living doing murals on office buildings and schools, or doing whatever work for whomever would pay him. Gem and Elfie had lived in the house with him for a long time, only moving out when Elfie started school. The nearest school was quite some distance from Joshua's house and from the detective agency, Sublime PI, which she and Alec still ran. Gem and Elfie had moved closer to Sublime and to the school down the road from there. Elfie was now an attractive teenager, fair like her mother. Gem and Elfie still spent a lot of time with Joshua, as did Max.
Joshua opened the door and invited them in, giving Max a big hug.
"How you doin', big fella?" she asked.
"Good. How you doin', little fella?"
"Really good."
"You have a good time at the cabin?"
"Yeah, we did."
Joshua gravely shook Ben's hand. "How you doin', littler fella?"
"I'm good, too, Uncle Joshua," Ben replied. "Is Elfie here?"
"No, not yet. She will be soon," he said, looking out the door curiously. "Where's Logan?" Logan only occasionally came to Joshua's house as he objected to the tendency Max and Joshua had to haul him up the front steps bodily, chair and all, rather than wait for him to haul himself up on his hands and butt.
"He didn't come today, big fella. I wanted you all to myself."
Joshua grinned and gave a snorting laugh. "I want you all to myself, too."
*~*~*~
Logan wheeled himself two blocks down the road to the little supermarket and spent some time choosing a few items to throw into a spur-of-the-moment-culinary miracle. He selected some anemic-looking vegetables and various other items to add to the chicken pieces he'd pulled from the freezer. He also picked up what appeared to be a homemade apple pie for dessert.
As he pushed himself back into the apartment an hour or so later, he could hear the phone ringing. However, by the time he got to the dining room, the ringing had stopped. There was no message, so he shrugged and started on dinner.
The phone rang again as Logan was filling a pot with water to boil rice. He quickly shut off the faucet and went to answer it.
"Hello," he said.
"Hey," came the familiar voice of Original Cindy. "Max there?"
"No, Cindy, she went over to Joshua's. Try her cell phone."
"Na, it's okay, I'll catch her later. Just wanted to make sure ya got back."
"All right. I'll let her know you called."
"You do that, hot boy."
Logan grinned at Cindy's pet name for him. "Later, then."
Logan turned to go back to the kitchen, but pulled up abruptly when the phone started ringing again.
"Hello."
"Is that Logan Cale?" came a male voice, which seemed somehow familiar to Logan.
"Yes," he replied cautiously.
"Logan – how long has it been? It's Campbell...Campbell Emerson."
"Campbell?" Logan searched his memory for a moment. "It must be twenty years. To what do I owe the honor of this call? How'd you get my number?"
"I'm in Seattle – thought I'd look you up – catch up on old times."
"It's been a long time, Campbell."
"Hey, it's been a busy twenty years. What can I say? Listen, I'd really like to see you."
Logan sighed. "Okay," he replied cautiously. "What did you have in mind?"
"You free this evening? No romantic entanglements...other engagements? Thought we could meet somewhere for drinks."
Logan grinned to himself. "Why don't you come here?"
"You still living in the same place?"
"Yeah, why?"
"No reason."
"Campbell, spill it."
"It's just that I heard you had some trouble a while back and had to move out, but I may have gotten it wrong."
"Campbell – don't believe everything you hear. "
"I don't."
"I'm still in the same place. See you around...eight."
"Okay, see you then."
Logan smiled as he ended the call, thinking it could be an interesting evening. He had met Campbell at school, and while they had hung out in some of the same circles, they had never been especially close. However, if Campbell wanted to renew contact, then Logan was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt – or maybe it was just simple curiosity. Either way, Logan wanted to find out if there was a reason the guy wanted to see him.
By the time his family walked in the front door an hour later, Logan had dinner prepared, the table set, and had even had time to shower.
Max strode in, sniffing the air appreciatively. "Mmmmm, that smells good."
"What, no 'hello, how are you'?"
"Uh-uh. Feed me. This is one hungry X5."
"Go sit. It's all ready. Ben, come and give me a hand." He turned away, then stopped. "By the way, Original Cindy called."
"I'll call her back later. Right now, I'm the famine victim and I need to eat."
*~*~*~
Logan, as always, had been fascinated by the amazing position into which Max had twisted herself to sit at the dinner table, with one leg bent under her, Eva perched on her leg, loosely held by her left arm. The gymnastics that she had been forced to do as a child – one of the few things she had enjoyed – still paid dividends in later life: she was incredibly flexible. As soon as she had finished eating, Max called Original Cindy, which was Logan's signal to clear the table.
While Max chatted with OC, Logan and Ben stacked the dishwasher and started the apple pie warming in the oven. The dishwasher was the one change that Max had insisted upon in Logan's pristine kitchen.
"I ain't no galley slave," she'd responded when he asked why. "I'm all for shared labor, but the you-cook-I-clean thing is for the birds."
With a baby on the way, it had been a no-brainer, and now he wondered why he hadn't had one installed in the first place. Once the kitchen was more or less tidy, he sent Ben off to do whatever he wanted and went to join Max in the living room. She had settled into her favorite corner of the sofa with her legs curled up beside her, Eva at her breast.
"You…haven't asked after Joshua."
"I was about to. How is Joshua?"
"He's just been given a big commission," she said, smiling happily.
"Really?" Logan raised his eyebrows curiously.
"Yeah, some company called Cale Industries wants him to do a mural for their new office downtown."
Logan smiled, pleased.
"Did you have anything to do with that?"
"Well – I might have said something to Bennett about getting someone in to jazz the place up a bit. Can only stand so much of that institutional beige, you know."
Their eyes met and they both smiled. Logan's attention was dragged away by the ringing of the doorbell. "You expecting someone?" Max asked, curiously.
"That would be yes."
She raised an eyebrow mischievously. "Wow. Better go let 'em in before they run away," she said. She adjusted her top to cover herself a bit better, not wanting to expose too much flesh to Logan's guest, not even while feeding a baby. She recalled, with a bit of a grin, reading an article about women in previous centuries who had to use a handkerchief or scarf to cover themselves when they fed their babies. Such modesty was now all but unheard of. All the same, she covered herself a bit better, not wanting to shock Logan's guest or embarrass Logan.
Logan spun around and went to answer the door. Campbell had his hand poised to push the button to ring the bell again when it magically opened away from him and he was left staring into space.
"Logan?" he asked, surprised at having to look down.
"Campbell, come on in," Logan responded, backing out of the way, but also seeing his former school friend's obvious shock.
"What the..."
"Hell happened?" Logan finished for him. "I was shot. It was a long time ago."
"I'm sorry – I didn't know."
"That's obvious," Logan exhaled sharply. "Don't just stand there, Campbell, I won't bite. Come through. I have someone I'd like you to meet."
Logan led Campbell through the apartment. The place hadn't really changed much – Logan had had the damage done early in the previous decade by an over-enthusiastic Ames White and his NSA team repaired, and there were alterations made because of his injury and his growing family. However, all in all, there were few changes from when Logan had first bought the place in his early twenties.
Max looked up as the two men entered the living room. She took in their guest at a glance, seeing a short, heavy-set guy with one shoe that squeaked on the floorboards, contrasting sharply to the near silent humming of Logan's wheels. He had a pleasant, if pudgy face, pallid from being indoors, and wore wire framed, round glasses. His hair, obviously once dark brown, but now mostly gray, was a slightly receding frizzy mess. It all combined to give him a mad-professor type look.
"Max, this is my old friend Campbell Emerson," said Logan. "Campbell, this is Max."
Max looked at Campbell curiously. "Hey, Campbell."
"Campbell and I went to school together," Logan continued by way of introduction.
"Oh," Max's eyes became huge with surprise. "Okay."
"Hello, Max, was it?" Campbell was obviously impressed. He hadn't taken his eyes off Max for an instant.
"So, you knew Logan at school?"
"Yes, and he always had the most beautiful girls chasing him."
Max grinned, unable to imagine Logan as a schoolboy, but definitely able to imagine him being chased by girls.
"I guess nothing has changed," Campbell added. "Excuse me, Max, but why do I get the feeling I've seen your face somewhere before?"
"Ah, you've found out my guilty secret," she said, grinning wickedly. "I was Playmate of the Month in October 2021," she quipped.
To Logan, the thought of Max doing a magazine spread was just too funny, although she was certainly his playmate of choice.
"Cam, what are you doing here in Seattle?" asked Logan, gesturing for him to sit.
"I'm...here for a conference of sorts – just company business really."
"Logan," Max admonished, "Aren't you going to offer your friend a drink?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm forgetting my manners," Logan responded. "What can I get you?"
Campbell still stared at Max, who was starting to feel a bit self-conscious about it. She looked down at Eva, who had stopped nursing and had fallen asleep. Max took the opportunity to flee the room for a few minutes, putting the baby to bed. She poked a head around Ben's door and saw him engrossed in a video game. Before returning to the living room, she turned off the oven in which the apple pie was still heating.
Logan had fetched the whisky bottle and was pouring both himself and Campbell a drink. Max could never understand what men saw in whisky, preferring to stick to beer or wine. She noticed that Logan hadn't bothered with his best whisky, which he saved for very special visitors, although even his second best was of a better quality than the rotgut served at Crash.
"Max is your wife?" Campbell was saying.
"Yes, why?"
"I still think I know her face from somewhere."
Logan immediately changed the subject. "What sort of conference brings you to Seattle?"
Campbell paused for a moment. "Implant technology."
Logan froze, the glass halfway to his mouth. In his experience, implants brought nothing but pain and grief. "What sort of implants?" He set the glass carefully back on the coffee table, staring at Campbell, daring him to look away.
Campbell squirmed nervously in his seat, puzzled at the intensity of Logan's expression, then gulped down his drink in one swallow. The sudden heat of the liquor burned his throat, causing him to cough. He cleared his throat before he spoke. "The...er...the sort that...causes people with spinal nerve damage to walk again."
Logan looked down at his hands for a moment, took a deep breath and looked up. "Why did you call me? Sorry, Campbell, but I'm not in the market for any snake oil." Logan's anger and frustration were palpable.
Max, who had been listening from the dining room doorway, quietly walked up behind Logan and rested a hand on his shoulder. She felt the tension in his shoulder muscles.
"Logan," Campbell said, "I'm sorry. I really didn't know." Campbell looked so apologetic that Max would have laughed under other circumstances. "I don't know anyone here – not any more. I was feeling lonely and...I just wanted to look up an old friend."
Logan's look softened and he said quietly. "This technology – how come I haven't heard about it? Does it really work?"
"It's new – experimental. We've had good results on lab animals." Campbell paused. "Logan, how long ago were you injured?"
"Fifteen years."
"Then it wouldn't help you, in any case," he stated firmly. "It's too late. The astrocytes will have done their job and the glial scarring would prevent any link up."
Max, kneading Logan's shoulder with her hand, felt him relax as he nodded in reply. "Just for a moment..."
"I understand. Hope can be an awful thing. The thing is, this device is still very much in its experimental phase. We haven't tried it on a human yet. There have been good results in the lab, but it only works with recent injuries."
Max leaned down to Logan's ear and whispered, "I don't need feet like Donald Duck," which made him smile.
Campbell's brain kicked up a notch, and he exclaimed, "I got it! I know who you are!"
"Well, don’t spread it 'round," she snapped.
"You're that transgenic from Terminal City. Max, yeah, that was her name!"
"Awwww, you've gone and guessed my secret."
Campbell looked at her with new respect. "You're sort of a hero to my daughter," he said.
"Yeah?" Max raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah, she has a big poster of you on the wall of her room. You know, the one with the hoverdrone that says 'Girls Kick Ass'? Wait till I tell her..."
"Cam," Logan said firmly. "I'd rather you didn't do that. Max is really trying to stay under the radar – you know, have a normal life."
"Oh, oh sure," Campbell replied, embarrassed. "All the same, you're my daughter's big hero..."
Max shrugged. "He's right, Campbell. I spent my whole life craving something like normality. Now that I have it, I want to keep it. Anyone for apple pie?" she smiled.
Chapter 16: In the still of the night…
"I like your friend," Max commented, brushing her hair as she stood in front of the bathroom mirror.
Logan, lying in bed with a book propped up in front of him, replied, "Yeah, he's okay. He always hung around the fringes – trying to be popular – but never really succeeding. Too shy. His family owns the company, you know."
"Didn't figure he was broke."
"He hasn't followed in dad's footsteps though, was more into science than business."
"Mmm-hmmm."
"Don't know how he'll do delivering that paper at the conference, even if it is just a company conference," Logan mused. "But…with a subject he knows well…who can say?"
"So – you gonna take him up on his offer? Trip back to your old school…could be fun."
"Maybe."
Max snorted. "Hmph. Logan, you're supposed to be a journalist. Don't you have any curiosity about the people you knew in school?" Max put the brush down on the vanity unit and stood in the doorway for a moment, before entering the bedroom.
"Sure – but I’m not sure I want to pursue it."
"High school reunion – that's supposed to be a big deal, isn't it. I mean – not that I'd really know…but…"
Logan looked at the expression on her face. She wasn't going to let this go. "I'll think about it, 'kay."
She smiled.
"Now, come to bed," he said. He shut his book and put it and his glasses on the bedside table, then turned out the light. "'Coz there is another kind of reunion I'd like to have, and it doesn't involve a lot of boring people I knew back when getting maudlin over a bowl of spiked punch."
Max, grinning broadly, was more than happy to oblige.
~*~*~*
Max woke when she heard Eva's first whimper, surprised to find Logan's place beside her vacant. She pulled on a robe and efficiently changed the baby's diaper, before padding out to the living room. As she suspected, Logan was staring out the windows at a distant thunderstorm. Lightning ripped across the sky, and she could hear the faint rumblings of distant thunder.
"Hey, whassup?"
He glanced at her briefly, then turned back to the window, his expression sad but thoughtful. "Couldn't sleep."
She turned the nearer of the two armchairs so it faced the window and dragged it closer to him, then settled herself and Eva comfortably. Max picked up Logan's hand from where it rested on the wheel of the chair, weaving her fingers between his, and squeezed gently. She let both of their hands settle on the arm of her chair. Logan gave a fleeting smile and sighed.
"Hey."
Logan looked at her again, questioningly this time.
"Thanks."
"For what?"
"For giving me a normal life."
"Our life is normal?"
"Well...close to..."
"Okay...so, there's this paraplegic guy, an anonymous cyber-journalist who broadcasts his message by hacking into the cable network, and his wife is an ex-Manticore X5, who escaped a facility in Gillette, Wyoming in '09, and who once swallowed a bottle of something labeled 'Tattoos from Within'...and this is normal? Normal compared to what?"
"No, what I mean is...home, family, friends – that kind of normal. I never had a stable base in my life until I met you...and even then it took a while."
"Oh, okay. No problem." Logan sat a bit straighter, rolling his shoulders slightly to ease the kinks.
"But you know something...we probably wouldn't be together at all if it weren't for that..." words failed her, "Bruno Anselmo."
"I don't know about that. I'm a persistent guy."
"Yeah, you're pesky like that," she teased. "What I'm trying to say, and not succeeding very well, is that it really...really doesn't matter to me – never did, never will...but..."
"Uh-oh, here it comes," Logan smiled.
"Logan, remember how you were? The arrogant rich kid – knew he could have any girl he wanted? Ring any bells?"
He blushed. "I remember."
"There is no way I would have had anything to do with that person."
"Why?"
"Because he was dangerous to both himself and others. He was too prepared to put the lives of others on the line and not think about the consequences for them. And, to be honest, I didn't...like him very much."
"Oh, okay, duly noted."
"That's not to say I wasn't attracted to him. I still am. Pheromones are a powerful thing," she grinned.
He responded with a crooked smile of his own.
"In a funny kinda way, I guess I need to thank Bruno. Without his actions, I probably wouldn't be here...in this room...right now."
"I won't ever forgive him. He got what he deserved." Logan clenched his jaw.
"Even if it meant that none of the last fifteen years ever happened?"
Logan continued to stare out the window. "I guess there're some aspects of the last fifteen years that...maybe...haven't been so bad, after all." He gave a quick, grim smile. "All the same, it's been a high price to pay."
She squeezed his hand reassuringly.
"I still have those dreams sometimes," Logan said quietly.
"Which dreams?" she asked.
"Where I'm walking...running...dancing on my own two feet. Doesn't happen very often...but when it does..."
She nodded her understanding. "Campbell brought it all crashing back."
"Yeah."
"Logan, I wouldn't change my life for the world. I have everyone who really matters to me here, in this place – most of them in this apartment. And if Bruno hadn't been the nice guy he was, I would have kept moving, not stayed in Seattle."
"What about your brothers and sisters?"
"I care about them...but they don't need me the way my family or OC, or Joshua do. Now, don't get me wrong about all of this. I didn't stay because of pity or anything like that," she said, catching the look on his face. "It was more a case of getting my eyes off myself and seeing what was really happening around me, and that one person really could make a difference – even if it was just a small one. And, to be honest, I blamed myself for what happened to you. Now," she said, standing up, "let's go back to bed. It's been a long day, and a longer night."
Logan nodded, releasing his brakes. They were quiet for the time it took to travel to the bedroom, Max holding the sleeping baby across her body.
"You shouldn't blame yourself, you know," Logan said finally, preparing to transfer to the bed. "It was almost inevitable that something would happen to me sooner or later."
Max looked at him over her shoulder. She was in the corner settling Eva back to sleep.
"Max, truth be told, back when we first met…other than my 'mission', I didn't have a helluva lot to live for." Logan, sitting on the bed, grimaced slightly and rubbed the back of his neck. The tension of the day, including a drive through traffic halfway across Seattle, and the disturbing night were catching up with him.
"Well, I hope that's changed," she smiled.
"It has."
Max knelt behind him on the bed, stripped Logan of his t-shirt, and started to massage, digging deep into the muscles of his shoulders and neck. He soon relaxed, leaning back into her.
"It has," he replied.
"Lie down," she ordered, scooting out of the way. Logan obliged, blinking up at her owlishly. She started working on him, beginning with the range of movement exercises originally done by Bling in another lifetime. Max had added to these some work on pressure points, and while Logan couldn't feel what she was doing, they did work on a psychological level – he found them extremely relaxing. Having worked through the stretches, she gestured for him to roll over. She straddled his body and started to work some more magic on his shoulders, neck, and back. Eventually, as his tension eased, his eyes started to droop and he fell asleep. Max, eyes gleaming, reached across to turn off the lamp, then sat cross-legged on the bed, watching him sleep.
Chapter 17: Another Pleasant Seattle Sunday
By 9.00 am on Sunday morning, Logan had had the computers fired up for a couple of hours. Max left him to his own devices and dealt with the regular morning routine on her own, at one point wordlessly placing a cup of coffee and some toast on the desk. Logan nibbled the toast absent-mindedly as he scrolled through Informant Net updates, checking the status of current investigations and following up on e-mail traffic. The coffee cooled in the cup, and he was surprised when he took a sip to find it was almost stone cold. He looked at his watch, amazed at how quickly the time had passed. With a sigh, he shut down the system and rolled out to the dining room, where Max was folding laundry.
"Time to go," he said, shortly.
"Good morning to you, too, sunshine," responded Max, looking up from the T-shirt she was folding. "And go where?"
"Markets – food – X5 famine victims. Ring any bells?"
"Oh, that. Well, that's definitely an offer too good to refuse," she responded. "Give me a minute."
Logan automatically started folding laundry as well.
"I'm sure the clothes breed in the laundry basket," Max sighed, eyeing the neat piles on the table.
"One of the great mysteries of life," Logan replied, matching up the last pair of socks. "And isn't it funny how the smallest member of the family creates the most laundry."
"Yeah, but then nobody ever said babies were clean." She looked over toward the living room, where she could see the lower half of Ben, who was lying on the floor watching TV, his bare feet waving in the air. Eva was on the floor beside him. "Ben, get some shoes on if you're coming with us."
Ben pouted and stood up. As he walked past his parents, Max handed him a pile of laundry. "Put 'em away, please, mister. I don't want to walk in your room later and find 'em on the floor."
"Awww, Mom."
"Uh-uh, wrong answer, kiddo."
"Yes, Mom."
"That's better."
Logan grinned at the exchange. Thinking back, it was hard to believe the Max he first met could be so submersed in her role as a mother.
"If you're lucky, we might have time to drop by Sublime and see if Elfie's around, since we missed her yesterday."
Logan nodded his agreement. "Gotta job for Alec by the way."
"Um, Logan, it's Sunday. Alec probably won't be there." Max rolled her eyes and disappeared into the bedroom with a bundle of laundry. She came back out with the baby bag slung over her shoulder. "Ben, hurry up!" she called, scooping Eva up from the floor.
"I'm ready, Mom," Ben said, appearing behind her.
"Okay," Logan backed up to the side table, and grabbed his keys and phone. "Let's go."
~*~*~*
Wandering among the market stalls was a pleasant diversion. They knew a number of the vendors well from repeat visits over many years, and exchanges of news and chit-chat occurred as a natural consequence as Max and Logan haggled over prices. The markets flourished in the recovering economy. Twenty-five years of depression had made its mark, but the stall-holders had survived and many made a reasonable living by selling good quality produce, most of which was better than anything found in the convenience stores and under-stocked supermarkets, at a reasonable price.
Max barrelled through the growing crowds using the stroller like a snowplow to clear a path. Logan and Ben followed in her wake as best they could. Speed in all things, thought Logan, arms and shoulders pumping. Eventually, Ben exchanged looks with his father and they both gave up. Max would come looking for them when she was ready. Having made most of his purchases, Logan headed for a juice stand, where he and Ben occupied one of the small folding tables and sipped on fruit juice, while they waited for Max.
Logan dumped the two sacks of groceries he had been carrying in his lap on the spare chair beside him and leaned back comfortably. Ben immediately started a conversation about baseball. Ben was a enthusiastic player and Logan had been roped into coaching Ben's fledgling team some two years before. Logan had always been, and still was, a keen sportsman. He still played wheelchair basketball for the team he had joined at Bling's insistence many years before. Coaching baseball was an extension of this love of sport.
It took Max a little while to realize that she and Eva were on their own. She eventually slowed and started backtracking. When she found them at the juice stand, she dumped the two sacks on the ground and sat in the chair.
“What happened to you two?”
“I left the…jet thrusters at home today. Besides, some guy threatened to put the smack-down on my ass if I ran over his toes again.” Logan winked at Ben.
Max looked pointedly at Ben, who immediately assumed an air of injured innocence.
“I can see we’re gonna have to keep you away from Auntie OC. You’re starting to sound just like her,” she laughed.
“No, not me,” replied Ben. “Aiight?”
Max grinned and adjusted Ben’s baseball cap over his eyes. “Whatever…”
*~*~*~
Logan parked Bessietoo half a block from the entrance to Sublime PI & Laundromat. The doors were open and a couple of customers could be seen, some moving about within, some seated on plastic chairs reading ancient magazines while they waited for the cycle to finish. Gem had one of the clothes dryers pulled out from the wall with its back removed. She sat cross-legged on the floor, a screwdriver clenched in her teeth and a dirt spot on her nose, tinkering with the inner workings.
“Hey, whassup, boo?” Max asked, crouching beside her, Eva balanced on her knee.
“Oh, hey, Max. Damn belt keeps coming off. Trying to adjust it. Mechanical repairs of this sort are definitely not in my skill-set, and Alec is worse than useless…”
Max looked up, seeing Logan coming in. She had come ahead with the children while Logan parked the car. “Logan, girl needs a fix-it man here.”
“Do I look like a dryer repairman?” he asked.
“No, but you’re the next best…” Max grinned.
Logan sighed, eyeing the laundromat customers. He watched curiously as Ben immediately gravitated to the table in the far corner of the place, where Elfie sat chewing a pen as she concentrated on a page of word puzzles. He really didn't feel like crawling around on the floor in front of a bunch of strangers. “Can you get that thing up on the table for me?”
"Logan, this is an industrial dryer – it weighs a ton!" Gem protested, unwilling to reveal her and Max's enhanced strength to a roomful of witnesses.
Logan set his jaw stubbornly, ready to argue, but, in the end, realizing that no one except Max and Gem was watching and that neither of them would budge, he conceded defeat. He locked his brakes and proceeded to transfer to the floor. Max, trying not to laugh at his grumpy expression, wordlessly handed him his seat cushion. Gem handed him the screwdriver, then she and Max beat a hasty retreat to the office, all the while trying not to laugh. Logan glared angrily into the workings of the dryer for a moment, before starting to tinker with the mechanism.
~*~*~*
Gem immediately went into the washroom to wash her hands then started the coffee maker. She held her hands out to take Eva then sat behind the desk and made a fuss over the baby for a moment. Max seated herself in the better of the two visitors' chairs.
"So, did you have a nice vacation?"
"Yeah, it was good to get away." Max smiled. A few days in the sun had her skin glowing with health, and contrasted sharply with the fair-skinned Gem. "Got much on the books right now? You know I'm always available to help."
Gem looked at her curiously. "Getting itchy feet?"
"No, not really…just…you know."
"Actually, no, I don't. You got a good man, nice home, family. Be a shame to waste it." The coffee machine gurgled, and she stood, handing Eva back to Max over the desktop.
Max grinned at her, then looked at Eva who was grunting and straining. "Uh-oh. Better hold your nose."
Gem grinned back. "Now that is something I don't miss."
"Yeah," replied Max, pulling a face. She carefully lay Eva on the desktop and held her with one hand while she groped in the bag for a diaper. Gem busied herself with pouring coffee for them both. "Is Alec likely to come in today?" Max asked.
Gem muffled a laugh. "Hardly. Haven't laid eyes on him since Friday morning. Why?"
"Logan has a job for him."
"Ah…I'll let him know. Anything I could help with?"
Max shrugged. "No idea. Let Logan deal."
"Deal with what?" Logan asked, rolling through the door.
"Alec."
He nodded, then looked at his hands, covered in grime from the back of the dryer. He sized up the washroom doorway, but quickly realized he'd never squeeze through. Instead, he reached for the container of baby-wipes. "Dryer's fixed for now. Needs a new belt. The old one is done for."
"I know, but they're hard to get – too old."
"I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks, Logan." Gem smiled, dimpling prettily.
"What – you have a contact in dryer repairs?" Max asked cheekily.
"No, but I do have one in home hardware," he replied, looking at his watch. "Max, we should be going. I have work to do."
"But we only just got here!" she protested.
"Max!"
"You go. We can walk home."
Logan sighed heavily and thought for a minute. "All right. Call me when you're ready and I'll come get you."
"Deal," she smiled.
"Later, Max, Gem." Logan turned and left them, saying a quick goodbye to Ben and Elfie on his way out the door.
Logan's first job when he returned home was to put away the shopping. He then checked the answering machine for messages and went into the computer room. He picked up where he had left off that morning with the Informant Net. It had been an amazingly hectic few days since he had last checked his mailbox, and there was a lot of reading to do on the current major investigation It involved the regular disappearance of important medical supplies – a recurrent theme in a depressed, although recovering, economy.
Late in the afternoon, on a whim, he switched over to a new line of research. First, he entered the name Campbell Emerson and came up with a detailed personal record - schooling, qualifications, family, some published papers. Next, he did some general research on Emerson Biotech, Inc. The company had started up in the late eighties and had several research facilities pursuing different lines. These were spread over different, quite widespread, states, which was one reason the company hadn't gone under following the Pulse. Something to be said for decentralizing operations after all, he thought.
Logan's final move was to hack into the records of the research section of Emerson Biotech, where Campbell Emerson was head of the department.
*~*~*~
Max spent a pleasant few hours with Gem, before deciding to walk with the two children from Sublime, which was near 4th Street, to her old crib on Waverly. Eva had the best of the trip, held firmly on her mother's hip. When they arrived at the apartment block, as was more often the case than not, the elevator was out, so they hiked up to the seventh floor. Original Cindy greeted them at the door with a broad smile.
The apartment was much improved from the old days. While the electricity, still hijacked from the power grid, was intermittent, there was now a fully functional stove to supplement the gas hotplates. The walls were properly plastered and painted in colourful murals by Joshua as a gift to his friend, Original Cindy. There was even a life-sized Xena, copied from the poster she had once hung in her bedroom, taking pride of place on the living room wall. Joshua had plastered the walls to her bedroom and she had installed two antique doors on the bedrooms, rescued by her and a friend from a garbage dumpster, and carted home for them by Logan, who had driven past them on the street and taken pity on the two heavily laden women.
Ben, after giving Cindy a hug, immediately flopped on the floor in front of the television and started scanning channels, while Max and her friend sat on the sofa behind him.
"Where's Hotboy?" Original Cindy asked, rummaging in her make-up bag.
Max rolled her eyes, "Working, where else. Probably just as well – the elevator is out."
"Give the man his due," Cindy responded. "He ain't no slacker, and he did just give you a nice vacation."
"Hey, have I complained?"
"No, but you were going to," she replied with a knowing look. "Gimme your paw." Original Cindy grabbed Max's free hand. "Do I have to say it again, girl? Whatchu been doing with these? Chopping trees? How many times I gotta tell you? Men notice."
"Now lemme think," Max said, in mock-seriousness. "There's scaling cliffs, fixing boats, painting said boats...did I mention scaling cliffs?"
"Business as usual," OC grinned. "Now hold still or I'll have to put the smack-down on you," she said severely, starting to work on Max's nails.
*~*~*~
Logan persevered with his hack into Emerson Biotech for a couple of hours, until he tracked down Campbell's research. He discovered that Campbell's implant technology was a further development on an old theme – a continuation of some British research from the late twentieth century, which had been given up as a dead end. Emerson was working on miniaturizing the original implant device and coupling it with cell regeneration techniques, using this method to helping to stimulate the cells into regrowth. There had been extensive studies done with rats. Logan shuddered at the thought, and wondered what the animal rights activists of the past would have thought of scientists deliberately severing the spinal cords of rats in order to do experimental research.
There had been encouraging results, with varying degrees of returned function to the rats' lower limbs. All the same...Logan paused in his reading, and ran his hands along his thighs, feeling the fabric of his jeans run under his fingers and palms, the warmth of the limbs. Even after fifteen years, he still hoped for a miracle, still worried that Max would tire of him and go looking for more – an able-bodied lover, someone who could keep up when she raced through the markets like a whirlwind, someone with functioning legs, who could dance the night away, then make love til dawn. Well, he thought, grinning to himself, Maybe not the 'make love til dawn' bit.
Logan shook himself mentally and started reading again. Campbell had been right about one thing. The sooner this treatment started, the better the outcome. The longer the rats were left untreated, the less function returned. It was an interesting, but pointless, line of investigation for him – it was fifteen years too late.
Again, Logan gave himself a mental shake and closed the file, preparing to shut down the system. It was getting close to the time he expected Max to call, and a growling stomach reminded him that he should be starting on dinner. He was reversing out of the computer room when the doorbell rang, startling him. Shutting the door firmly on the computers, he went to answer the door. The building supervisor, Manuel Sanchez, stood there, holding an envelope.
"This was left for you downstairs. Thought I'd save you some trouble and bring it up," he said, handing Logan the envelope, then standing in the doorway, wiping his hands on dirty overalls.
Logan looked at him, startled, unused to such service from the shiftless, lazy man. "Thanks, Manuel."
Manuel waited a moment, before turning to go. Logan started to close the door, wondering if Manuel had expected a tip. He wouldn't get one. The man already extorted enough out of the building occupants for the odd jobs he did for them. Logan looked curiously at the envelope, then seeing the return address embossed in the corner, gave a quick chuckle. It wasn't often that mail came hand-delivered from the most exclusive school in Seattle. Obviously Manuel had been impressed.
Logan slid a finger under the flap and opened the envelope, which contained an invitation to the annual reunion, due to take place the following weekend. Campbell hadn't wasted any time. The venue made him whistle through his teeth, and he wondered who had made the booking. Logan left the envelope on the dinner table before starting his preparations for dinner.
*~*~*~
Max admired her completed fingernails, blowing on the polish to try to hurry up the drying process. "You sure guys notice this stuff?"
"Yeah, boo, I know they do. Else why would these high society types come back week after week?" Cindy hugged Eva close, rubbing her cheek on the baby's soft fair hair.
"Just that Logan never says anything."
"He wouldn't, boo. Not the type. But believe me, he notices and cares." Cindy smiled. "You two got fifteen years behind you now...and I ain't never seen a guy so in love after all that time."
Max smiled shyly. "Ya think so?"
"I know, sugah," Cindy responded, grinning mischievously. "He ain't never looked at no other woman since you came along. Remember that first time at Crash…him swaggering in all male and arrogant?"
Ben turned his head slightly, listening in with half an ear.
"Yeah, I remember."
"Damn if he saw anyone else in the room."
"Well, he had reasons."
"Yeah, right. Saw what he wanted and went right for it, ya ask me."
*~*~*~
Logan, waiting for Max to call, transferred up onto one of the high kitchen chairs to prepare a casserole for dinner. He reflected idly that maybe it was about time he got one of the counters lowered to his level. Max had vetoed the suggestion every time he'd made it, but then she wasn't the one picking carrot peelings off her pants when she couldn't be bothered using one of the chairs. He suspected Max's reasons were purely from her desire to watch him in transfer, and he hadn't resisted. He was still living in hope for a miracle. That aside, though, it was only a kitchen counter and could always be raised again if that miracle ever happened.
The phone started ringing as he chopped the vegetables. He reached for it automatically with his right hand, preoccupied with his thoughts. "Hello."
"Logan."
"Oh, hey, Max," he said, his features softening into a smile.
"Can you come and get us? We're at Original Cindy's."
"Oh, okay. About fifteen minutes?"
"Sure…and Logan…the elevator isn't working here."
"I'll call you from downstairs."
"Okay. Later…"
"Bye, Max."
Logan quickly finished what he was doing and tossed all the ingredients into the dish, wiped his hands on a dishtowel and transferred to the wheelchair. He placed the food in the oven on low heat, grabbed his phone, and rolled out the door, locking it behind him. When the elevator arrived, he entered and pressed the button for the garage. It slowly started to descend. There was a fizzling noise, and the elevator jerked slightly, the lights flickered, went out, then a single, dim bulb came on. Logan tried the button for the parking lot again, but the elevator remained stationery.
"Damn!" He slid down the panel for the emergency phone, only to find that, not only was it broken, the whole thing had been ripped out. The phone was completely missing. "Damn!" he said again and tried the button for the penthouse level, with the same result - nothing. He waited a few minutes, all the while scanning the elevator's ID plate for emergency phone numbers, but not even finding a maker's name, hoping that it would be a brief power outage, before giving up and pulling out his cell phone to call Max.
"Hey," he said, when she answered.
"Hey, what's up? You outside already?"
"Hardly. I'm stuck in the elevator at home. Power just went out here."
"Really? It's fine here. What about the auxiliary motor?"
"I got lights and nothing else. I'm stuck, Max."
"Have you tried to go up again?"
"Yes, Max."
"What about that idiot, Manuel?"
"Don't have his number – do you?"
"Well, no." She considered briefly. "Hold on, we'll be there soon."
"You sure? You could stay there. I can wait."
"Logan, you want to be stuck there all night?"
"No, not really."
"Well shut up. I'm on my way."
"Thanks, Max."
"You're welcome, sir."
Max looked at Cindy, who had been listening in on the conversation, called Ben and headed out the door, Eva, once again, firmly held on her hip. “Seems like one way or ‘nother we’re getting plenty of exercise today,” was her parting shot to Cindy.
Max kept up a steady pace across town, with Ben easily keeping up. On arrival at Fogle Towers, Max found that Manuel’s cubicle in the garage was vacant and locked – she peered through the dirty glass, seeing a shambles of old soda and beer bottles and greasy lunch wrappers, mixed in with tools and paperwork. Really! she thought. The man is a total slob.
Max handed Eva to Ben and pulled out her phone. “Logan, we’re downstairs.”
“You made good time,” he responded.
“How far up are you?”
“Not sure, the buttons aren’t lit.”
Max zoomed in on the elevator indicator board at the rear of the garage. “The indicator board isn’t working here, either. Nothing showing.”
“Hmm…well…if it helps…I’d say maybe around 23 or 24?”
“Hmmm,” she replied, looking thoughtfully at the beautifully manicured nails of her right hand. “Hang on.” She handed the phone to Ben, eyed the height of Manuel’s cubicle with her eyes, took a quick glance around to see that no one was watching, and lightly vaulted over the top, landing with a thud on the desk.
Logan, hearing the noise, said, “Max, what are you doing?”
Ben replied, “It’s okay, Dad. She’s just borrowing some stuff from Manuel’s office.”
Max opened the door from the inside and came out carrying a small crowbar. She took the phone from Ben. “On our way up,” she said, and snapped the phone shut.
Max opened the locked door on the fire stairs with a credit card and started up. When she thought they were getting close to where Logan thought he might be, she ducked out of the stairs on every level and clanged the elevator door with the crowbar, hoping for a response. At level 23, Logan heard the noise from below and called out, “Next one up, I think!” She tapped twice in acknowledgment. The next thing Logan knew, the doors slowly slid open and he was looking at a pair of shoes and some brown ankles, slightly above head level. He looked up at her and smiled as she leaned against the doorframe, folded her arms and said cheekily, “What the hell are you doing down there?”
Logan laughed. “Not a whole lot.”
Bracing herself against the doorframe, she reached down with her hand. Logan grabbed hold with both of his and she easily pulled him up. He sat on the edge, legs dangling, while she jumped into the elevator car and lifted out the wheelchair.
“Thanks,” he said, reaching into the back pocket of the chair for a pair of bike gloves, thinking that if he was going to have to crawl up the fire stairs to get back to the penthouse, he need not inflict more damage on himself than was absolutely necessary.
Max pushed the chair out of the way and lifted herself back out of the elevator. “I’ll take this,” she said, glancing down at the chair, “and see you upstairs.”
“Okay…”
Max knew Logan would neither want her help to get up the stairs nor would he want her to watch him crawl his way up on his hands and butt. She turned Ben, who was holding Eva, around with a firm hand on the shoulder and pushed him in the direction of the stairs. Then she picked up Manuel’s crowbar and shoved it into the wheelchair pocket before pushing the chair in the direction of the stairs and disappearing from sight, leaving Logan to follow at his own speed.
Max was sitting on the dinner table, looking at the invitation to the reunion when Logan eventually rolled into the apartment. She looked at him pointedly. "You are going, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I guess so, but only if you go too," he smiled. "It says 'and partner'..."
"Hey, this is the opportunity of a lifetime," she quipped. "Of course I'll come. Ain't no other way I'll get a meal at the Eclipse."
"What, Chez Cale not good enough for you any more?"
"Nope. I'm moving up-market. Chez Guevara good enough for you?"
Logan jokingly pulled a face. "I guess."
"'Cause it looks like that's what you'll be getting tonight. Power's still out."
"Damn...and I had something in the oven too," he deadpanned. "By the way, thanks for coming to the rescue."
"No problem." Max slid off the table. "Didn't think you'd really fancy spending a night in the elevator, not considering the alternative." She grinned wickedly, dropping the invitation into his lap.
"Remember Bennett's wedding?" he asked.
"How could I forget," she replied, her mind immediately returning to the night – Normal held captive by the art thief, Duvalier, and his henchmen; Logan messing up the speech; Original Cindy and his ex-girlfriend, Daphne – the whole fiasco.
"Need I say it again?"
"Not my peeps? This is news? And this matters how? I am going, Logan, not for them, but for you and me. If these peeps are anything like your family...well...Jonas and Margo, really...they'll think you the class failure. I know you aren't."
"Hell, they'll know that when I roll in the door."
Max raised a curious eyebrow at him.
"Paraplegic guy with the most beautiful girl in the room. Must be doing something right, right?"
She flicked him a saucy grin. "It's also pure selfishness on my part. Want to see you in a tux again." She winked, walking off toward the kitchen. "And by the way," she paused and half-turned, hand on her hip. "Didn't you always have the most beautiful girl in the room?"
"I've got the most beautiful girl in the world, now," he said quietly.
She frowned slightly. "That was sappy, but I kinda like it."
*~*~*~
Max moved around the apartment lighting candles as Logan set the table for a jointly prepared salad dinner. The power was still out – the casserole waited in the fridge for the return of electricity to Sector 9. Looking out, all the adjoining apartment blocks were in darkness as well, only lit by the occasional pinpoint of light from a candle, hurricane lamp, or gas lantern. Farther away, lights shone in the distance, but nothing nearby.
"Nothing like a candlelit supper for four, is there?"
Logan looked up at her. "I thought we were past all this. Guess I was wrong."
She shrugged and went to pick up Eva from the living room floor. Ben had earlier asked for batteries for his Gameboy, but he'd been out of luck. When he started to complain, Logan had pointed at the bookcase, so that's what he was doing – lying on the sofa, reading a book by the light tall candle.
After dinner, at Max's suggestion, Logan dug out a "primitive board game". He possessed an old, but complete, Monopoly set that had originally belonged to his parents or grandparents – he wasn't sure which. The fake money, board, and various cards were now yellowed with age and slightly fragile, but still usable.
With the power still out, in some ways it was like being at the cabin still – no TV, no distracting noise other than what they made themselves.
Ben managed to surprise both his parents in the game of Monopoly, which he had never played before. Although, Max thought, maybe we shouldn't be too surprised – in between his share of my screwy genetics and the time he spends with Bennett and Marianne, maybe a little bit of that Cale Commercial Killer Instinct has rubbed off. Ben gleefully bankrupted both his parents, and ended up being sent to bed glowing with happiness at his victory.
After she'd tucked Ben into bed, Max wandered around the apartment, with Eva on her hip, snuffing out most of the candles while Logan packed up the game. She left just a solitary candle burning on the coffee table.
"Long time since we had a blackout," Max commented, gesturing for Logan to transfer to the sofa.
"Yeah, been awhile."
Max smiled to herself, watching him move, the tight-fitting T-shirt he wore emphasizingthe ripple of muscles. Having a cat's eyesight could be a real blessing in a blackout. Logan looked up at her curiously, sensing a change in mood, and caught a glimpse of the upturned corners of her mouth. "What?"
"Nothing." Max delicately sat next to him and curled up, leaning into him comfortably. She held the baby close with one hand. Logan wrapped his arm around her and took one of Eva's tiny hands in his. With his other hand, he held Max's free hand, gently rubbing the smooth nail polish on her thumb with his finger. Max's eyes flickered wide open for a second, and she looked round at him, then snuggled closer, thinking, Original Cindy was right. He really does notice.
Alec showed up the following morning, full of attitude. He walked into the penthouse without knocking and seated himself on one of the kitchen counters, near where Logan was pouring coffee. Logan was thankful for the fact that the power had come on during the night, although both he and Max had been woken when the bedroom light came on without warning. He looked forward to his morning caffeine fix. He could cope with instant coffee, but no power, meant no kettle.
Logan, accustomed to Alec’s peripatetic comings and goings, ignored the rudeness of the unannounced visit and, without a word, poured an extra cup of coffee.
"Hey, Logan. You know the elevator's out?"
"This is news?"
Alec raised an eyebrow at him.
"Never mind." Even after the power had come back, the elevator stubbornly refused to budge. Logan had put it down to a mechanical failure caused by, or coinciding with, the blackout.
Alec shrugged. "No need to get pissy. It's not my fault."
"I know."
"What'd you wanna see me about?"
"Gotta job for you."
"Who do I have to kill?"
Logan looked at Alec blankly.
"That was a joke."
"I know. The answer is no one – at least, not just yet.” Logan gave a wry grin. “Just need you to do some recon and maybe a bit of tailing. Need you to track the path of some medical supplies."
Alec nodded.
"See what happens, who comes, who goes, where the supplies go. That kinda thing."
"No sweat. When and where?"
Logan handed Alec both cups of coffee, abruptly turned and wheeled through the apartment in the direction of the computer room. Alec shrugged and followed. The apartment was deserted except for the two men. Max and the two children had gone out earlier, leaving the stranded Logan to his own devices. He brought the file up on the computer and gave Alec a guided tour of what he was expecting to happen. Alec took note of the finer details and promised to get back to Logan ASAP.
By Wednesday, with the elevator still not working, Logan was becoming restless. He loved the penthouse, which had been his home for nearly twenty years, but when he literally couldn't leave the building, it became a prison. Max came and went as she pleased, performing various errands sometimes with and sometimes without children, sometimes on foot, sometimes taking the car. It was all one to her.
Alec followed up on the task Logan had set him to, fruitlessly following several truckloads of supplies to their ultimate destination. He also performed some B&E on the warehouse where the goods were stored, to no avail.
All in all, it was a totally frustrating week.
Early Wednesday afternoon, Max went out on her own to meet up with Original Cindy for a short shopping expedition uptown. She’d already been out once that day to drop Ben at Bennett and Marianne’s for the day.
"Going to beat up on your credit card," she said, smilingly, when Logan asked where she was going. He had phoned through his acceptance to the reunion on Monday, but was now beginning to wonder if the elevator would be repaired in time for him to go. He also needed to get his pants let down, because, as Max had rightly pointed out, in a seated position they were way too short.
Logan had also called Campbell to let him know he would be there. He still wavered in his decision from one moment to the next. One part of him wanted to be there, to cover the event, to write a short piece for the school paper; the other part wanted to run and hide from the roomful of Uncle Jonases he was anticipating seeing. He had little in common with most of those people, other than money.
It was a great to hear the familiar ping of the elevator doors opening when Max returned. She came in bouncing with good cheer and announced, "The elevator's working, woo hoo!"
"About time!" Logan called back.
"I assume you're going to take advantage?" she asked, following the sound of his voice to the living room, where he was lying on the rug with Eva, playing peek-a-boo.
"Sounds like a plan to me. So tell me about what you bought," he prompted, pushing up into a sitting position, then realized that she wasn't carrying any packages.
"Uh-uh. Not telling."
"It's a secret?"
"Yup. Big secret. Top secret, Eyes Only rating," she smiled.
"Okay…well…that being the case, I won't ask any further questions."
She smiled in response. “Now, I think you should get off the floor and go get those pants fixed while the elevator is functioning.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
It was a relief to climb into the car and drive out to the street. He had gotten a lot of work done during his enforced stay at home, but the walls had steadily closed in. He visited the tailor and arranged to have the pants altered and to be collected the next day, collected the dryer belts he had managed to order for Gem from his hardware contact, and stopped in at Sublime to drop them off and to see if Alec had anything to report. After that, he turned the car for home.
*~*~*~
On the night of the reunion, Max primped in front of the mirror one last time, Original Cindy examining her critically, makeup bag in her hand.
She walked out to Logan, who was impatiently waiting for her. Logancouldn't help but smile in appreciation as she came into view. The top secret, Eyes Only-rated dress had stayed that way from Wednesday. Original Cindy hadn't revealed anything either, when she had called earlier in the day and Logan had answered. He had pumped her for information, but she had refused to say a word.
Max stopped and twirled for him, a vision in jade green, revealing a large expanse of café-au-lait-colored skin on her back, and one shapely leg, where the side of the dress was split almost to her left hip. The dress was startling in its simplicity: a sheer satin sheath with shoestring straps and a plunging neckline. It looked like it had been made for her. Her only adornments consisted of the locket that had belonged to Logan's mother, a pair of simple gold stud earrings, and a simple diamond solitaire engagement ring paired with her wedding ring. Original Cindy had done her hair in a loose tangle on top of her head, with lots of wisps hanging down, and the makeup gave a soft look to her eyes.
"Wow."
"That all you can say?"
"Do I need to say more?" Logan asked innocently.
Max smiled broadly. "You look nice, too." Logan’s shirtfront shone dazzling white, in sharp contrast to the black jacket and bow tie. She quickly glanced at his feet, trying to make sure he wasn't wearing gym socks.
"Run along, children," chided Cindy, grinning at Logan's reaction. "Go play." She turned away to put the makeup bag back with her other gear in what would eventually be Eva's room. Max stifled another smile as she heard her friend muttering under her breath something about "men and dogs".
The heels of Max's sandals clicked on the wooden floor as she turned and gave Original Cindy a big wink before heading for the door.
*~*~*~
Logan pulled the Aztek smoothly up to the entrance of the Eclipse and put it into park. While Max got out and walked around to the other side, he assembled the wheelchair. She watched him transfer, then handed him his jacket, which he hadn't worn in the car. He was straightening out his jacket when the valet approached to take the battered SUV for parking, where it would surely be the thorn among the roses.
Max looked at the valet sharply. "You know what you're doing there?"
"I can drive anything," he said, snootily and climbed into the driver's seat – and just sat there, confused at the set-up. He looked at the hand controls, a stunned expression on his face, mouth gaping. He poked the hand lever once, distastefully, like it was a dead body. Then he sat there, hands hovering, unsure what to do.
Logan smothered a smile, seeing him try the disabled foot pedals once. Finally, Max put the poor fellow out of his misery by reaching past Logan and flicking the switch to empower the pedals. As the embarrassed valet drove off with the car, Max lightly clouted Logan in the back of the head. "Naughty boy." Max was quite capable of driving the car either way, but she was fully aware of how strange the hand controls had been at first.
"Sorry, Mom," he grinned at her.
"Come on, let's get this bitch over with."
They entered the building side-by-side and paused at the entrance to the restaurant. Logan pondered momentarily, The worst part of attending a large function is always entering a crowded room – I always feel like every eye is on me. They could hear the murmur of voices and distant music. Logan stayed still for so long that eventually Max prodded him between the shoulder blades to encourage him to move forward through the doorway and into the room.
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