No One Left Behind
"That is some sick view you've got there," Cindy remarked, looking at the partially illuminated city from Logan's crib. "And thanks for inviting me."
"Yea," he replied absently.
"Do you need any help?" Cindy offered, turning to see Logan making final additions to something that looked like red velvet and another pot that smelled of wine and cinnamon.
" 'Bout done. Thanks," Logan answered, glancing towards the door for about the 20th time.
"Look, my girl's gonna be here. Quit worrying. You know her, always on her own time, but she says she'll show, she'll show."
"Unless something happens."
Cindy took a seat at the table set with flowers and a green tablecloth. "Alright. Original Cindy knows when something ain't straight. What aren't you telling me?"
Logan looked at her. "She was working." He started to get annoyed, "Insisted she'd be fine and to have dinner ready. Any concerns of mine were ignored."
Cindy frowned for a moment. "Okay. So she got hung up on something. I'm sure she's on her way," she paused a moment before continuing longingly, "and then we can stop being tantalized by that amazing smell and have dinner."
Logan shook his head. "Dinner never works out. Don't know why I thought…" He was interrupted by the phone ringing.
Cindy heard him answer, "Zack. What's…? On my way."
Logan turned to Cindy, "We need to go."
"You know how Max is about her extended family," Logan explained to Cindy as they zoomed down almost abandoned streets. "About two weeks ago, she came across one of her sisters, Brin, only to have to give her back to Lydecker and the place they tried so hard to escape."
"What. Why?"
"Some sickness that only the people at Manticore claimed to be able to cure. But, more importantly, Max recently came across some information on where Brin was and that she was doing better. Tonight, she'd contacted a couple of her other brothers and sisters to help get Brin out. Something went wrong."
They had just pulled up to a dark building complex with security lights and fence in the back, but there was no one immediately in sight. It had a feel of being too quiet.
"Max!" Cindy cried out suddenly, going to get out of the car. Max was unconscious on the ground a feet in front of them.
"Wait," Logan stopped her, looking around as he stopped the car. "Why isn't anyone here?"
Almost as in answer, there was a distant gunshot. A minute later, another shot rang out closer and was followed by someone running around the corner to Max, looking over his shoulder.
Logan turned quickly to Cindy. "Stay here." He opened his door, getting out as quickly as he could. "Zack! What happened?"
"No one's coming," Zack stated. He knelt by Max, looking her over as Logan began to do the same. There were some scrapes on her face and a trickle of blood from a single spot in her neck. "Max, come on, wake up!"
When she didn't respond, Logan asked, "How bad an idea is a hospital?"
"Not great. What about that place of yours?"
Logan nodded, "I have some stuff, but it's not ideal."
"Let's try it. Let me get her." Zack picked up Max and Logan called, "Cindy, get the door."
Quickly, Cindy got out and opened the back door. "Is she gonna be alright?"
Zack only replied, "We need to get out of here."
Even noticing Zack's own torn jacket and minor cuts, Logan didn't ask questions as he started the car.
Back at Logan's, Zack carried Max inside and laid her on the same table where he had once been patched up.
Cindy took off Max's jacket, revealing two singe marks on the side of the shirt she had on underneath.
"We were cornered. Jondy…got pulled off and taken inside. I shot the guy who had her, but another was there to take his place. Max came in, tried to be a hero and got hit by a stunner. Then, Lydecker shot her up with something before I could do anything. I managed to take out the guy who stunned her, too; but, then they came after me. Krit got out fine. I told him to go and wait until he heard from me."
"Lydecker left Max alone?" Logan questioned.
"Stubborn pain in the ass, but not always the brightest. Guess he figured on her being out for awhile. If so, he was right on that account."
"I thought Max was best at escape and evade?" Logan asked.
Zack grimaced. "She stayed behind to give everyone else a chance. As you might imagine, we didn't know as much as we thought we did. Stupid, really. Leidecker may not be the brightest, but he knows how to keep things safe. This was almost going too easily." Zack paused.
Meanwhile, Cindy had grabbed some towels and took to cleaning up Max's cuts.
Looking down at Max, Zack continued, "Knowing her, she was probably trying to repay me a favor, too, for last time."
Logan glanced down. "Yeah, that sounds like her. Max, come on, wake up."
Another few minutes passed before Cindy implored, "Aren't we going to do something?!"
Logan answered her, "My guess is this is due to whatever was in that syringe. To reverse that, she needs fluids I don't have. Zack, she should be up by now. This isn't going to work here."
Zack nodded, picking her Max up, "We'll need a story…" He paused, looking at Logan. "It might be best if we said I was her boyfriend, since I was there."
Logan took a breath and nodded, "And we can say I'm her father. Right now, anything just to get her back on her feet."
Cindy, Zack, and Logan were waiting around Max's bedside at the hospital. When they had gotten there just a few minutes ago, a nurse had come in, given Max a bed, gotten her in a gown and had said the doctor would be with them in just a minute.
For once, true to word, the doctor was in just a few brief minutes later. "Hello, I'm Dr. Nemar. Can someone tell me what happened here to…Max?"
Zack spoke up, "I'm her boyfriend, Zack. We were meeting up with some old rivals to clear the air, but turns out that's not what they really had in mind."
Dr. Nemar nodded and she turned to Cindy and Max, "And what about you two?"
"I'm her father," Logan said, barely concealing his unhappiness with the statement, "and that's Cindy, her best friend."
"Ok. Zack, but, you were there?" Dr. Nemar asked.
"Yes. I called them after."
"Alright. Cindy, I'm going to have you step out for a bit." Dr. Nemar nodded then turned to Max, speaking to Zack, "I'm going to start with a full exam."
Zack spoke up, "I already did that."
Dr. Nemar looked at him as if to say something, but Zack cut her off. "I was in the army. They taught us what to look for. There's nothing you can't see."
The doctor considered him for a moment and looked back over at Max, examining her in a glance. "Alright. So just the face scrapes and this puncture mark on the side of her neck….she use drugs?"
Logan looked to say something, but Zack stopped him, "No. The guys we met up with shot her up with something before I could stop them."
Dr. Nemar looked at Zack for a moment before turning to the nurse that had come in and said, "Alright. Her blood pressure's low, which could have been caused by the injection. We'll give her some fluids to bring it back up and hopefully that'll wake her back up. But, we'll draw some blood to be sure nothing else is in her system. Any medical history I should know about?"
Zack looked at Logan, slightly anxious. Logan regarded him and said, "No significant medical history. Could we wait on the blood and see if this works? We're really opposed to any type of tests. We only came here because we had no other choice."
Dr. Nemar rasied her eyebrows, but replied, "You understand that if we don't run a blood screen and miss, say, a poison that was injected, she could die."
"It's not a poison. They weren't looking to kill her," Zack stated.
"Oh," Dr. Nemar responded dubiously.
"We understand the risk," Logan appeased.
"Fine," the doctor replied shortly. "But, for now, really only one of you should be back here."
Zack and Logan shared a glance before Logan offered, "I'll go update Cindy."
Zack gave a brief, grateful smile and nodded. "I'll let you know if anything changes."
"I know," Logan replied, looking back at Max before exiting.
A half hour later, Zack was holding Max's hand, looking at the monitor and shaking his head. "Come on, Max. You can do this."
The doctor came back in. "Zack? I know her father said you guys didn't want it, but if this was going to work, it should have. We…"
"Zack?" Max suddenly asked, weakly and slowly opening her eyes, almost immediately followed by alarm, "Where am I?"
"It's ok, Max. You're in the hospital. I'm sorry. We had no choice," Zack answered.
"Max? I'm Dr. Nemar. You gave us a scare. How are you feeling?"
"Um. Okay. A little tired, maybe."
"That's to be expected. I want to keep you for a bit, make sure everything's good. But, if it is, I think you can go, okay?" She turned to Zack, "You can call them back if you want."
Zack nodded, telling Max, "I'll be right back," before stepping
Outside in the waiting area, Cindy stood up, "Did I just hear Max? Is she okay?"
"She's up."
Max was waiting when they came back. "Logan." She smiled and then turned to her girl. "Cindy, what are you doing here?"
"What do you think, girl? Are you alright?"
"I think so," Max answered and turned to Logan, "I guess I missed dinner again, huh?"
"You just get some rest," he replied.
Zack turned to her then, annoyed. "That was pretty stupid what you did back there, Max."
Cindy defended, "Hey, lay off."
She was ignored, except by Max. "It's alright, Cindy. Maybe it was a bit, Zack. But, what about 'no one gets left behind?' I couldn't just abandon you."
"I told you I had it under control," he rebuked, but his tone was gentler.
"Alright," Logan stepped in, "You two can talk strategy later. Cindy's right. Max should rest."
"Girl, look at your face," Cindy sighed and said lightly, "Don't you worry about a thing. I'll just march up to those guys and one look at Original Cindy hot and ticked off and they'll give me anything I want."
Max laughed, but was still sincere in saying, "Glad to know my girl's got my back, too."