Disclaimer: Not mine, wish it were but it's not.

Running Far

"Will you marry me?" Max stared at the man. They had been dating for three years and he was proposing. She thought of Logan. He hadn't proposed after, what was it, two years and her heart broke just thinking about it. That was why she left wasn't it? She had never thought of herself as the marring type, hell, she didn't even want to get married until she had fallen for Logan. She stared in disbelief at the man who was not Logan, kneeling before her doing the one thing Logan never did. She didn't know what to do.

"I…" she stammered. She cursed herself for her weakness.

"Please say yes…" he said. He sounded so full of hope but she knew he was so full of shit. She did not love this man. He had been her rebound, not that he knew of course. She thought of Logan and her heart hurt so much. She did not know what to do but she wanted the pain to end.

"Okay," the words were out and there was no going beck. She did not love this man but maybe, she thought, just maybe, she would learn to maybe she could be happy with him, just maybe. She knew she was just trying to convince herself but she had too, she had seen him cheat on her with four different women (May, June, July, and August) and she briefly thought of running, just as she had then but she couldn't. She wanted to see this one through. She had promised herself that she would go straight and Logan would have been proud.

He was ecstatic and she was surprised. He pulled out a giant ring and slipped it on to her ring finger. It. Was. Gorgeous. Max gasped at the size and weight and momentarily thought 'I could fence this for at least 100,000 dollars on the Black Market, if not more, no, bad Max'. Why, oh why couldn't it be Logan slipping that ring on to her finger. She hadn't even realized he had been talking.

"… and then we could have the honeymoon in the Bahamas," Oh gods, he was planning the wedding already, she groaned inwardly but pretended to listen until the craziest thought occurred to her.

"Lets have the wedding soon" she blurted.

"Soon? Has in how soon?"

"As soon as possible. How long will it take you to prepare the wedding?"

"Another 6 months?"

"Sooner."

"3 months?" He was trying so hard to please her and she had no idea what she was doing.

"Sooner? For me."

"at least give me two months…"

"Okay, two months" oh shit, what am I getting myself into. She was in way over her head but then again, he could protect her. Not from any physical danger, she could handle that. No, from her emotions, she needed him to protect her from her emotions.

She had gotten away from Seattle and New York was as good a place as any to get away, far away. It was all the way on the other side of the country and it was crowded and it was crowded, and easy to disappear in. She stared out the window at the bright city lights.

He hurried off to do… whatever, she didn't care much. As soon as he left she picked up the phone and hesitated. The she dialed Alec's number, he answered on the 3rd ring and she could sense someone was there.

"Hello?" came his gruff voice.

"Hey Alec, it's me," she answered.

"Oh, hey, Chip…" he replied casually.

"He's there isn't he?"

"Yea, I'm a little busy but I can talk for a sec."

"How… how is he?"

"It's going good, there's still a slight ruff-patch in the system but its being looked into."

"And Cindy?"

"Yea that's good."

"Listen, can you call me back when he leaves?"

"Sure, I'll get back to you on those paintings as soon as I'm free."

"Thanks Alec."

"No problem."

She hung up the phone and wiped the tear off her face. After she left, Alec had hunted, she still didn't know how but he had become her link to Seattle and he had given her his word not to tell Logan. O.C. was the only other person who knew where she was… or why she had left. The door of the study opened and a small figure ran into the room and yelled: "MOMMY!"

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