Flying Without Wings
Disclaimer: Dark Angel belongs to James Cameron, Charles Eglee, Fox or whoever. Not me. Don't make any money from this, I'm just enjoying where it takes me.
A/N: Okay everbody, this is safe to read because it's been betaed. Thanks to Kasman (can I say 'as usual'?) for that.
I started this fic a long time ago while "shredding" PRODIGY, looking for answers that would fill the gaps. Here is my approach. Hope you like it.
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In a hotel room in the Steinlitz…Logan hadn't breathed since the flight from the roof had started. Even when he'd seen Max and felt her grip around him, he had still not dared to take a breath. Now they were lying on a soft bed, thousands of shards from the broken window around them, but both of them alive.
Air returned to his lungs, the tension evoked by the sure-to-come death released and he looked at her. Max. She'd jumped right after him and had saved his life, and now she was lying next to him on this hotel bed.
"You okay?" he asked.
"You all right?" she asked the same moment, wondering what had made him exchange himself for the hostages.
Max came up until she sat on her right leg while Logan pushed himself up on his elbows.
"What are you doing here?" Max asked, or rather yelled, thumping her hand against his shoulder.
"I was going to ask you the same question. I went to a lot of trouble to get you released," Logan told her, never doubting that he had done the right thing.
"What were you thinking, exchanging yourself for us!"
Logan seemed to have a problem understanding what she was saying. People had been held hostage and he'd come to help. No more, no less. But why was Max yelling at him?
"You should be thanking me," he told her.
Her answer came immediately, together with wild gestures. "Thanking you?"
Then they again yelled at each other simultaneously:
"You'd be thrown off the roof if it wasn't for me!" Max said.
"You'd be with those morons if it wasn't for me!" Logan tried to explain himself.
Too many emotions involved. That's what Max thought in that second. After all, what had really happened? Logan had come to save the hostages, something she should have known he'd do, and she'd stayed to save him, so she backpedaled. "Forget it."
"Never mind," Logan replied.
Max started to get up, trying to leave the bed she'd been sitting on with Logan next to her, but he used his end of the rope which was still tied around her waist and pulled her back down on top of him. They looked at each other, their faces only inches apart, before they started speaking again.
"I should go save the kid," Max stated.
"Just go save the kid," Logan agreed, speaking at the exact same time again.
Max released the knot of the rope and went out through the door of the room, leaving Logan alone on the bed.
He pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked around, grinning at the weird conversation he'd just had with Max.
It was a good quality standard hotel room they had landed in. It reminded him of the many hotels he'd stayed in before the Pulse, and maybe that was what was special about it. This whole hotel looked like the Pulse had never happened. He sighed when he saw the shards of glass on the bed. "Great," he muttered. "My hands and my butt will be full of glass before anybody saves me."
Carefully, he shoved away most of the glass before pulling himself up the bed until his back leaned against the headboard. He then reached for the cellphone , but his hand didn't find it. Grimacing he remembered Darius' taking it from him. Sighing he looked around and saw the hotel phone on the bed stand. He picked up the handset and punched in "0". When he got a dial tone he dialed the number of Bling's cellphone. It was answered only a second later.
"Yeah?"
"Bling? It's me."
"Logan! Thank God. Where are you?"
"Still in the hotel room - we flew in through the window. Don't tell me you missed it."
"No, I didn't. Even though I was pretty sure I was dreaming."
"No dream, I'm afraid. Can you come here and help me out? My wheelchair is still on the roof."
"No, it's not," Bling replied.
"It's not? So, where is it?"
"Down here. The guys threw it after you the second you and Max disappeared through that window."
Logan sighed. "Please tell me that's not true."
"It is. I'm afraid there's not too much left of it."
"Great." Logan rolled his eyes, looking up at the ceiling. "Any idea how to get me out of this?"
"Not yet, but I'll figure something out. The building's still blocked anyway, so give me some time. Which room are you in?"
Logan looked around sighing. "No idea." Then he looked at the phone. "Ah, this might help. The extension of the room is 436, so I guess that's the number."
"It's worth a try. Don't go away."
"Ha ha," Logan laughed sarcastically. "Very funny, Bling."
"Where's Max, by the way?"
"Hopefully saving the kid. So, you're coming?"
"As soon as possible. See you."
"Yeah, see you."
Logan put the handset back on the cradle and sighed again - stuck in a hotel room, but alive, thanks to Max. Max. He smiled thinking about their spin in the park only a few days earlier. They'd both been so wet by the time they returned to his apartment, but he'd really felt good. Having a friend like Max made him feel good.
His thoughts kept spinning around while he waited for Bling to rescue him. He then thought about the kid and that Jude would need a place to stay once Max had saved him. Reaching for the phone again he called in a few favors and continued waiting. He was again lost in his thoughts when the door to the hotel room suddenly opened and Max came in. Max!
"Hey," she said.
"Hey," he answered and then asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Met Bling outside looking for your wheelchair. We decided that I'm the better lock picker, so I came back to get you out of here."
Logan frowned. Having Bling carry him out of this hotel would have been embarrassing enough, but Max?
"Did you find Jude?" he asked, trying to change the topic.
She saw the look on his face and knew immediately what he was thinking. She smiled and answered his question. "Yeah, left him outside with Matt Sung." Then she disappeared through the door and came back a minute later with a huge clunky wheelchair. "Bling organized it. Looks like this is really a classy hotel, 'cause it provides wheelchairs and everything. Had to promise not to remove it from the hotel though. But I thought that once you're in your car we could figure something out."
Logan smiled relieved. "Yeah, I guess."
Max placed the wheelchair next to the bed and watched as Logan set the brakes and transferred. "Need help?" she asked softly, but Logan shook his head.
"I'm fine," he said, placing his feet on the footrests. He released the brakes and turned the chair, ready to follow Max out. "Geez, I'd forgotten how heavy those hospital chairs are," he cursed and made Max smile. "And the armrests get in your way."
"Want me to push you?" she asked, grinning.
"Never!" he gave back, grinning too.
Max continued grinning and teased, "So you let Darius push you around, but I'm not allowed to?"
"I didn't exactly 'let' him. It wasn't like he gave me a choice."
They reached the elevator and entered. Max stood behind Logan and suddenly reached with her hand into his collar.
Logan turned his head around, not knowing if to enjoy the feeling of her hand on his neck or if to be too surprised to do so. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Glass," she said simply, picking another piece out of his jacket.
"Don't remind me about it," he sighed. "I don't wanna know how much of it ended up in my backside."
In Max's head a picture popped up: Logan lying on his tummy, his bare butt presented to the world to have someone remove the shards of glass. She thought about offering her help, but then blushed and bit on her lip, trying not to laugh.
"Guess we're lucky they had this wheelchair, huh? I'd have had to carry you otherwise," she told him smiling.
"Yeah, guess so." Logan answered, ignoring her teasing comment. He'd seen the blush and wondered about it, but didn't say anything until they reached the ground floor. Together they left the hotel through the lobby and saw Bling, who had parked Logan's Aztek directly across from the door.
"Yo! Bling!" Max shouted.
"Max, Logan! Hey! Ready to leave?" he asked from the driver's seat, leaning over to the open window on the passenger's side.
Both nodded and Logan started to transfer to the passenger's seat. When he'd settled in the passenger seat, he turned his head and saw the remains of his wheelchair in the back of the car. He cursed silently but Bling heard him nonetheless.
"Just imagine how you'd have looked like if some girl hadn't jumped right after you," he said, starting the engine.
To Max he shouted, "We're going over to Matt Sung collect Jude and take him with us. You're going to get him out?"
Max nodded, took the wheelchair back inside and walked over to Matt Sung, who was still sitting in the trailer. Jude was lying asleep across a couple of chairs that had been placed next to each other. "Hey," Max said quietly and gestured towards Jude, "Is he okay?"
Matt nodded. "Yeah, he simply fell asleep. Poor kid." He then asked, "What's going to happen to him? Logan's friend told me not to call the youth welfare office."
"He sure doesn't deserve to end up in an orphanage," Max agreed. "Logan's going to take care of him. He'll find him a good home, I'm sure. And I guess the police aren't really interested in having him stay here."
Matt nodded. "You're right." He went over to the boy and carefully carried him out. Max followed him and opened the rear hatch of the car. Matt placed the boy in the back, lying him on the back of the seat which had been pushed flat, next to Logan's wheelchair, and closed the hatch before walking up to Logan.
"You'd better get the kid out of here."
Logan thanked him, "Thanks for sticking your neck out on this, Matt."
Matt answered, "This way, at least, he won't end up in an orphanage", before walking away.
Logan looked at Max and added to his earlier comment, "Or in Lydecker's hands."
"Take care of my boy," Max said softly.
"He'll be okay," Logan promised.
Matt Sung shouted to the police, "These folks are free to go," and Bling drove off.
Logan leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes, only to open them again when Bling asked, "Where are we going? The safe house?"
"Yeah, the safe house. We're going to meet a friend there. She's going to stay with Jude for the night and make sure he's going to meet his new family tomorrow."
Bling shot Logan a look and smiled.
"What?" Logan asked, having seen the smile in the corner of his eye.
"I just saw you sitting on that bed in the hotel room. Instead of being relieved to be alive you started making phone calls to save the kid. Sometimes you just amaze me."
Logan was surprised, usually Bling wasn't big on compliments, but he met his smile and said, "You're not going to be too amazed when you're the one to check my butt for glass."
"You know, you're pretty lucky that Max jumped after you, don't you?"
"Yeah, I know."
Silence followed his words and neither of them spoke again until they reached the safe house.
Logan stayed in the car and let Bling handle everything, only waving a short hello to his contact.
They then continued their trip back to Fogle Towers and Bling finally brought up the inevitable.
He pointed behind him and said, "You won't be able to use the wheelchair."
"Yeah, I know."
"I know a guy, Teddy, who owns a shop for bike repairs. He can fix the wheelchair, but maybe not tonight."
"And that means…?"
"Since you never bought a spare…"
"Bling!" Logan asked. "You're not telling me that I'll be crawling on the floor for the rest of the night, because I never bought a second chair, are you?"
"What I'm telling you is that I'll fetch you office chair once we're at Fogle Towers. It's not pretty, but me pushing you around in an office chair is surely better than being carried around or crawling on the floor."
"I can order a new wheelchair tonight, but that'll take a few days, won't it?"
"Yeah, it usually does. Once you're back home I'll take this one to Teddy, maybe he can make a rough-and-ready repair for the time being."
"Thanks, Bling."
Finally Bling parked the car in the garage and went up to get the office chair. Logan stayed in the car, glaring at the damaged wheelchair in the back. "If I had known that the day was going to end like this, I'd have stayed in bed," he murmured, before he heard a voice.
"Mr. Cale, hello! What are you doing here?"
He looked up and saw Lucas, the 16 year old caretaker's assistant, who had obviously been ordered to sweep the garage.
"Hello, Lucas. I'm waiting for Bling. He should be here any minute."
"Can I help you?"
Logan was pretty sure that Lucas was only trying to be friendly, but right now he just wanted him out of the garage and out of sight when Bling returned with the office chair. "No, thanks, I'm fine. Have you checked the lights in Mrs. Moreno's floor? I'm pretty sure she said something about one of the bulbs being blown."
"No, sir, I haven't. But I'll check it out right away."
Logan watched him leave and sighed.
It took Bling only about five minutes to return with his office chair, but to Logan it felt like a lifetime. Being unable to leave the car and dependent on Bling like this was humiliating, and he'd experienced it once too often today.
Without saying a word, Logan transferred from the car to the office chair while Bling held it still and then tried to keep his legs from dangling on the floor so that Bling could push him to the elevator.
A few minutes later, he found himself back in his apartment, stuck again, but this time in front of his computers, because Bling had gone to get his wheelchair repaired.
It was then that Max entered. "Hey."
"Hey yourself," Logan replied and turned to face her. He then nodded towards the screen and said, "Ordering myself a new wheelchair. Looking for one with the jet thrusters."
A smile crossed Max's face and she said, "Thanks for bailing the gals out of there today... Myself included. "
"Right back at you. Taking a header off that building was above and beyond the call."
Again Max smiled. "Just looking out for my meal ticket," she said. "How many guys can cook and save the world?"? "
The End