A/N: This is a short story in answer to a Cape Haven Group writer's challenge. The challenge was that the story had to be set in season one, Max and Logan go camping, and true to season one – non shippy.

Special thanks as always to Alaidh for the beta. I have to admit I've tweaked this chapter a little more since Alaidh gave it to me – therefore, any mistakes should be contributed to me!

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CHAPTER ONE

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"Two more sets with that weight oughtta do it," Bling told Logan as he grabbed one of the lighter weights Logan had been using and replaced it on the stand.

"Boy, just two? Hope you're not goin' soft on me," Logan queried sarcastically as he gritted his teeth and bent his elbow upward, pulling the weight toward his shoulder with a controlled movement.

Bling grinned a little at the grumbling undertone. "Thought you were the one who came to me and said you needed more strength in your arms."

"That was before I found out how much hard work it was gonna be," grunted Logan as his thoughts went back to the conversation he'd had with Bling in the car as they drove home from the Steinlitz ten days ago.

He'd been given quite an amount of time to contemplate life, the universe and everything after Max had left him stranded on the bed strewn with broken glass from the shattered window. Initially, he'd simply stared after her for some time once the door had closed behind her shapely figure, feeling kind of numb.

Had that just really happened? he wondered blankly as his mind tried to catch up with the wild events of the last few minutes. Had he really just been dumped off the roof of Seattle's finest hotel only to look up and see Max as some sort of avenging angel swooping down to rescue him?

On second thought, make that an avenging, decidedly pissed off angel, he amended, as he remembered how out-and-out furious she'd been with him. He was still vaguely aware of the spot where she'd thumped him. Some hero, Logan, he thought wryly. You go in there to rescue her and end up being rescued yourself.

Now that's what I'd call whack, he muttered, using one of Max's expressions with feeling.

As the enormity of what had almost eventuated hit him, he let himself fall back limply amongst the glass fragments and exhaled a very long, thoughtful whoosh of relief. He hadn't enjoyed the feeling of helplessness as they'd pushed him towards the parapet, but he certainly hadn't been about to beg. He'd figured it wouldn't do much good, anyway. His only attempt at postponing the inevitable had earned himself a painful blow to the hand.

Weird the things that come to mind at a time like that. What happened to the 'life flashing before your eyes' scenario? Instead, clear as a bell, he'd seen in his mind an admittedly tipsy Val giggling as she watched him towel himself dry after a swim. She'd accused him of having skinny arms - like chicken legs, she'd laughed, warming to her theme. His masculine ego had taken it quite badly at the time as he remembered.

This had been the first time he'd put himself in actual physical danger since Bruno Anselmo's handiwork and while in hindsight he was pleased with the way he'd faced it – at least the loss of the use of his legs hadn't resulted in a loss of bravado - he found the circumstance had left him with a sobering thought; as he lay on the bed, the stark realization hit him just how important his arms were to him now, not merely for day-to-day living. He wouldn't say he actively sought out danger as Eyes Only, but it was definitely included in the job description.

Guess I either need a faster chair or stronger arms, was his final conclusion.

So it was, with the enthusiasm of one newly converted, he'd broached the subject with Bling in the car that night once they'd dropped Jude off.

"Bling. I need to build up my arms more."

This was a new, but not unwelcome change for Bling - prior to that his only obsession had been the work on his legs.

Now, ten days later, Logan's grumbling brought a wry twisted smile to the even-tempered therapist's face.

"I was wondering how long it would be before your ardour cooled a little," Bling remarked, entirely unsurprised to find his employer wavering a little.

Logan's attitude to the necessary leg and arm reps had, at the start, been all impatience and eagerness to see progress. Over the last few weeks, though, Bling had seen his enthusiasm slip and the reps now appeared to be either tolerated or, on grumpy days, viewed as a necessary evil that robbed him of precious minutes that could have been used on Eyes Only pursuits.

Logan threw him a dark look then continued to count each repetition under his breath.

Bling merely grinned again as he looked towards the living room windows. It took more than a black look from Logan to throw him.

"Nearly night out already," he remarked, as he flicked a switch to add some extra light to the rapidly darkening apartment.

For a moment, Bling stood in front of Logan, muscular arms bent, hands resting on a lean waist as he watched Logan strain with the weight. Logan's jaw muscles were clenched and beads of perspiration dotted his face, but it was obvious to Bling that his thoughts were miles away. So what else was new?

"D'you think I've got skinny arms?" Logan asked his trainer abruptly.

Bling smiled a little at the question from left field. "Well, they're beginning t'get somewhere," he answered diplomatically. "I don't think I'd say skinny…exactly. They've still got a way to go of course," he enlarged tactfully before counting down the last few reps of Logan's set. "Okay, you're done. Rest up a bit."

Bling took the weight from him and placed it back in its stand while Logan grabbed the white towel at his side and ran it across his face. His arms burned and felt a little numb with strain from the taxing workout.

"I could do with some tea. You up for some?" Bling offered.

Logan considered the offer and about ten other matters that were clamouring for precedence in his mind as he alternately flexed each arm while maintaining his balance with the other.

"Tonight'd be good," Bling hinted humorously.

"Sorry. Tea sounds fine," Logan replied, still sounding a little distracted.

He was in the process of one-handedly slipping his glasses back on when his front door opened and a now increasingly familiar visitor to his apartment stepped in unannounced.

She didn't approach with one of her usual sassy comments - instead Logan looked up to find her unusually preoccupied. She held an envelope in one hand, and her other hand held a slip of paper that she was intently perusing.

Logan's eyes narrowed slightly as he watched her. Something in her attitude told him the content of the note was not good news.

"How whack is that!" Max finally muttered, looking across at him with a puzzled expression. "When I came in, your security guy downstairs handed me this." As she spoke she held out the note for Logan to take.

Frowning slightly, Logan put his towel down and took the sheet of paper. The terse message read: Dawn. Murchison Woods. Saturday. Zack.

"He's not exactly the chatty type, is he?" Logan remarked with raised brows. "Any idea what it means?"

"Guess he wants to meet," she shrugged.

"That bit I got. It's the why I'm interested in."

"Well, I'll find that out when I see him," she told him in a decisive, matter-of-fact manner.

"How can you be sure this is even from Zack?" Logan passed her back the note before he edged his way to end of the table.

"On accountta him being the only one who knows I hang out here. Do you know this Murchison Woods?"

Logan hesitated a moment before answering. "It's up in the mountains, north east of here. As I remember it was the site of a homestead owned by the Murchison family. The whole family perished in a fire back in the 1920s."

Max grimaced a little. "Shoulda known you'd know a depressing story like that."

Logan acknowledged her interruption with a mildly aggrieved glance before he continued. "If I recall, the remaining relatives bequeathed the farm to the state as it bordered state forest anyway."

"Can you find it on a map for me?"

Logan looked at Max thoughtfully. She had that 'I've got my mind made up and there's nothing you can do to stop me' look on her face. He came to a quick decision.

"You know, Zack's timing isn't the best," he remarked as he leant down and eased himself into his chair.

Max's perfectly shaped brows rose in mute enquiry.

"Well, by the time you leave Seattle, even if you wait until the last minute before the curfew starts, you're gonna end up getting there sometime about 2 AM."

"So?" The fact didn't appear to concern her.

Logan took his time as he placed his feet on the footrest and put on his watch, considering his words carefully.

"Way I see it, that means you're gonna have at least a good four hours to fill in until dawn, maybe more."

Not waiting for her answer, Logan pressed on. "I know it doesn't bother you a whole lot, but it's gonna be pretty cold up there at night this time of year."

Max nodded the tiniest bit. He had a point. The thought of a long wait in the cold didn't hold a great allure for her, but her agile brain was already formulating another plan. "Gives me a good excuse for a little trail blazing," she ad-libbed glibly.

"Four hours of trail blazing? You run out of gas up there and you'll be unlikely to find a place to fill up."

Logan had her attention now. She glowered a little. "Damn."

Suddenly the expressive dark eyes turned full onto Logan. "You got a plan?" she asked suspiciously.

Logan fought back a sudden feeling of self-consciousness.

"Why don't we use my car?" he suggested, risking a quick glance in her direction.

"You wanna sit around in your car for four hours?" She sounded decidedly sceptical.

"No," Logan informed her almost pedantically, "we use my camping gear. Then at least you'll have some shelter while you wait."

He braced himself for one of her witticisms.

"You wanna leave all this and go camping out in the woods in the middle of nowhere on a freezing cold night with me?" Max asked incredulously, waving an expressive hand about his luxurious apartment.

"Well, it'll only be for one night. Right?"

"Riiight," she agreed cautiously.

"Gives me a good excuse to break out my camping gear. The stuff's probably rotting in a cupboard somewhere." He smiled temptingly at her.

"Right," she agreed again, this time in accord as a slow smile made the corners of her mouth turn up.

Logan pressed on while he held the upper hand. "So, why don't you go home and get the stuff you'll need, and I'll get Bling t'help me pack the car."

"Okay," agreed Max, still feeling a little surprised by this turn of events. She looked at her watch. "I should be back in about an hour," she told Logan as she headed back to the door she'd so recently entered. As she put her hand on the doorknob, she suddenly turned back to him. "Are you sure about this?"

"Sure," he nodded, hoping he sounded upbeat.

She returned his answer with a quick grin and in the next instant was out the door.

"Murchison Woods," murmured a voice behind Logan, as soon as the door closed. "Isn't that the place where…?"

"That's the one," Logan agreed dryly, cutting him off before he could say more. As if to signify that that part of the conversation was closed, he swung his chair around and headed towards the large closet near his kitchen. "You remember where we put my camping gear?"

"I woulda thought you would've tried to talk her outta going," Bling commented as he watched Logan open the closet door and peer inside.

"Well, Max isn't exactly the type of girl you try to talk outta doing things, unless you feel like wasting some good breath. Did you put my camp stove on that shelf up there?" he added, rolling back a little to see up high.

Bling gave Logan a long look, but finally stepped forward, albeit with a dissatisfied air. Max wasn't the only one around here who you could waste good breath on, he thought dryly as he set to. He soon had a pile of equipment laid out on one of the kitchen counters.

"We left the tent in your storage cupboard in the basement," Bling remarked as Logan checked the gear on the counter.

"Right," Logan agreed a little absently as he tried to think of anything else that could be missing. "This look like all of it to you?"

"You know if all this stuff still works?" Bling asked instead. "Seems like it'd be a good idea if we checked through some o' this. Doesn't look like it's been used in a while," he added with a shrewd glance at Logan.

"It's been a little while," Logan agreed, not willing to admit he couldn't remember the last time he'd had it all out as he watched Bling connect the stove to the small gas cylinder. His work as Eyes Only hardly left him time for camping holidays even before the chair.

"Well, your stove's okay," Bling told him as a ring of flame erupted on the cook top. "Let me check the lantern."

Logan watched a little tensely while Bling methodically checked through it all. Now that he had Max agreeing to his plan, he didn't want to find out that what he'd remembered as pristine camping equipment was in fact broken down and useless.

"Looks like you're good to go," Bling finally announced. "If you wanna grab what food you'll need, I'll load this stuff and the tent into the car for you."

Feeling decidedly grateful that Bling was on hand to accomplish a task that would have taken him considerably longer to accomplish if he'd been by himself, Logan headed to the kitchen.

You just told Max you'd go camping with her.

Logan's eyes scanned his well-stocked cupboards as he considered what items he'd need to take with him for a short trip and then contemplated what to put them in.

You've only given yourself an hour to get ready.

A large cooler was wedged beneath the bottom shelf of a small closet in his kitchen. Logan set his brakes, then reached down to pull it out with his right hand, but it was an awkward task to perform without the ability to brace his legs. With a curse he realized yet again how many functions of his body he had taken for granted.

Frowning, he noticed the vague feeling of unease that had been hovering at the back of his mind ever since Max had left had begun to make its presence felt more keenly.

By the time Bling returned, he'd dragged the cooler out and filled it with various food items.

"You just about done with this?" Bling asked, picking the lid of the cooler up in readiness to put it on.

Logan tried to think quickly. He couldn't believe how strange, almost foreign the whole idea of camping suddenly seemed to him. He wondered what he'd been thinking.

"You don't wanna take too much stuff with you."

"I know that," Logan replied, a little too quickly.

Bling simply raised an eyebrow with something like amusement. "No need to bite."

With something like an understanding gleam in his eye, Bling watched expectantly as

Logan studied the tin of baked beans he held in his hand as if he were studying the label on a fine pre-pulse wine.

"Okay, it's been a while since I've done something like this," Logan admitted with a rush.

"And now you're wishing you'd taken the time to do those off-road treks I wanted you to try, insteada insisting that you had too much work to do."

Logan drew a deep breath. "Something like that," he muttered uncomfortably as he tossed the can of baked beans into the cooler.

Assuming Logan was finished loading the cooler, Bling put the lid on it and lifted it effortlessly onto one of the kitchen counters.

"Well, seeing as how you're in a rush, I guess I can give you my edited version."

"Which is?" prompted Logan, looking anything but grateful.

"Don't get too hot, don't get too cold, and try at all times to enjoy yourself."

"That's it?" queried Logan doubtfully.

"And it's gonna be dirty work so make sure you've got some gloves with you," he added as an afterthought.

Perceiving that Logan was far from relieved or comforted by his concise but sage advice, he added, "You're a smart guy, Logan. Just use your common sense. You're gonna find the going a bit difficult in that chair – it's not exactly an off-road model and I don't have the time to make any alterations for you."

"Right," Logan agreed, trying to sound philosophical about it all.

Bling grinned at him. "Sometimes it doesn't hurt to be thrown in the deep end. Just take it easy – don't overdo it on the rough ground – it can be damned hard on your shoulders."

"Right," echoed Logan once more, still sounding a little unconvinced as he unconsciously echoed Max's words earlier.

"Besides, you'll have Max with you. You may just hafta swallow your pride a few times and ask her for a little help."

The dark look he threw Bling that time told his trainer what he thought of that suggestion.

"It's what people normally do when they go camping together," Bling pointed out to him dryly. "Helping each other is considered to be the fun part of it."

Bling chuckled as he lifted the cooler to take it down to the car. "You didn't have any problem asking me to do this stuff for you – but then again, I guess I'm not a certain, beautiful dark-haired girl."

Logan swung around abruptly at his trainer's words. "I'm gonna go get changed and pack my bag,"

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Max wasted no time in quickly putting a few items of clothing in a bag and grabbing some toiletries.

She'd been more than a little grateful to find that Kendra was out for the evening. It would save her a lot of complicated fabricated explanations. She'd been rehearsing what she would say to Kendra on her ride back to the apartment: He's just a friend, Kendra… He's just keeping me company… It's not like it means anything

Max's thoughts brought her up short all of a sudden. She realised she'd been more concerned about explaining why she was going up into the woods with Logan rather than the reason she was going there in the first place.

So just why am I going up there with Logan? she wondered.

Her first instinct had been to say a very definite 'no'.

Her second instinct had been to say a very definite 'no'.

Her third instinct had been that 'no' would probably be the safer way to go…

Since when did I not listen to my first instinct?

Max shrugged a little as she pulled a blue sweater out of her drawer. She realised that she'd done the tough solo act for a lot of years now – and truth be told, it just wasn't all that much fun.

Not like it was when you had someone to share with…and his car would be warm…and he had a tent…and he cooks better than me…and…he's kinda nice to be around…somehow…when he's not grumpy.

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To be continued