The Great Escape
Chapter 1
Flashbacks
"Logan, we've been on the phone three hours, are you sure Gibbs isn't going to get mad?" Max asked sitting at her desk. She was looking at a picture of them from the last temporary cure which was right before he left for Washington. It was the shortest one: one hour. Chris was on short notice at that point. Max felt bad for riding him all the time but, she'd been engaged for six years but, she didn't want to get married and then not get to kiss Logan at the alter or have a freaking honeymoon with him.
"Max, don't worry. Right now I'm the only one here except for Duckey and Abby and they are in their areas far away." Logan aka Tony Dinozzo said waiting at his desk for a call from Gibbs and staring at the same picture he knew Max was staring at. He'd done this to make an out for himself after White found him out. He faked his death and got himself a new identity. Moved away and was trying to find a cure, he knew his sister's friend Chris was working on it but, he wanted another opinion. He just had to find the courage to ask Abby to do it for him.
"So, I was thinking about coming to D.C. at least for a couple days."
"Oh really?" Logan asked and he could tell Max was smiling and blushing.
"Chris said he's really close. He said something along temporary lines is definitely in order within the next few days." Max said still looking at the picture. It was the same day they left Terminal City. She hugged Logan goodbye and they lingered for a few seconds, and he kissed the top of her forehead, and Original Cindy got the shot. She knew Cindy did it to make them both feel better about not being closer.
Max closed her eyes and she was at Crash.
"Me and Logan are none of your business." She said to Alec as she was waiting for another pitcher of beer. Max closed her eyes for a second and felt Logan's presence behind her. She turned to face him and Alec got up and walked off.
"Max" Logan started to say and then trailed off.
"I gotta blaze." She said and he grabbed her arm. Max instantly jerked back, staring at Logan's face starting to cover with hives. Alec reached for his phone and called the paramedics.
Max stood there right by his side watching him die. She walked them outside and got on the ambulance sitting right there as Logan's pulse and heartbeat dropped fast. They got to the hospital and Dr. Shankar met them at the door. She stopped Max at the door way to the Trauma room and sat her down.
Three Hours Later:
Max and Original Cindy sat in the waiting room waiting for word on Logan's condition. "Max, I need to speak with you." Beverly said to her and she went to the doorway of Logan's room.
"Please don't let him die." Max said with a tear falling down her face.
"The transfusion is taking it's time to work but, its working. I need to know how Logan got infected." She asked Max.
Max turned her head away and wiped the tears off her face before she answered. "When I was at Manticore, they knew I had a relationship with 'Eyes Only' and they figured he was my boyfriend. They got a strand of Logan's hair off my jacket and Logan's DNA off my lips from the night I was shot in the woods. They wanted me to kill him so they injected me with a virus genetically targeted to Logan's DNA to kill him if we come into any contact at all." As the words left Max's mouth she began to cry again. She heard something and turned back and saw Logan's eyes move and she ran out to Original Cindy and sat there in the chair crying.
"Max, you there?" He asked and she jumped out of her dream.
"Yeah, just a flashback." She said letting a tear fall.
"What was it?" He asked her.
"The second time you got infected. It scared the hell out of me." She said and wiped the tear off. She knew he heard her.
"Max, don't cry. I'm fine. I will be fine. I just want this whole thing to end." He said and he looked up to find Kate, McGee, and Gibbs hovering over his desk. "Hey, I have to go." He said to her not making eye contact with any of them.
"I love you." She said and he smiled.
"Love you too. I'll see you soon. I promise." He said and hung the phone up.
"We're in love now are we?" Kate asked. He knew he was getting some shit for this one.
"What?" He asked her. "I can't be in love?" He asked her and she smiled.
"It's funny, I just thought Tony only cared about Tony." She said and he walked off to the elevator and pressed the down button.
He paced in front of the elevator waiting for it to open. When it finally did he got inside and pressed the lobby button. He hit the wall as the door closed. Then he saw a hand come through the crack. "Mind if I join you?" Gibbs asked getting inside.
The ride to the lobby was quiet. Logan got off the elevator and walked outside to the nearest wall and slammed his fist into it. He was about to do it again until Gibbs grabbed his fist. "What is going on?" He demanded to know.
"I'm not in the mood to talk." He said in a cold voice.
"You need to talk to someone otherwise when you go back inside Kate is going to be al over you and you'll be right back out here doing this." Gibbs said and his phone went off. "I traced your last call and it was three hours, ten minutes, and twelve seconds, and it was from Los Angeles. So who do you know in the city of lost angels?" Gibbs asked as he sat down on the bench.
"Her name is Max." Logan said and sat down beside his boss. "We've been engaged for six years, ten weeks, four days, twenty hours, seven minutes and four seconds, exactly." He said and Gibbs just stared at him.
"Are you being serious?" He said with an astonished look on his face.
"Yeah, we met seven years ago right before I got shot and paralyzed." He said and Gibbs just stared at him.
"Paralyzed?" He asked and Logan just shied away. He took a minute to answer.
"Max saved me from being in a wheelchair the rest of my life. I've been in love with her seven years ever since we met there's just one problem." He said trailing off.
"What's that?" Gibbs asked curiously.
"We can't touch."
"How is that?"
"She was injected with a pathological virus targeted for my DNA and if we touch, she kills me." Logan said to him, "Oh yeah, my real name is Logan Cale." He said and Gibbs just looked at him.
"Logan Cale died in the siege of Terminal City."
"No, I faked my death. Made up a new identity and left my old lie except for Max. We talk in some form every day."
"So, you just take it when Kate makes cracks about you not having a love life, or a life period?" Gibbs asked him.
"I have to. I don't want to expose Max and get her killed and myself along with her. But, as soon as I get word this virus is gone and she is cured I'm going home back to my old life." As Logan said this Gibbs just looked at him and then looked at the ground.
"Tony, you do what you have to do. But, in the meantime don't hit anymore things that aren't a punching bag." Gibbs said and the two men walked inside the NCIS building and to the elevator and Logan went down to Abby's lab hoping to get some answers and a cure.
Max's Office
As Max hung the phone up she felt someone hovering over her, and she looked up. To her dismay it was Alec and Sketchy. "What are you two still doing here?" She asked getting up and turning towards Chris's office.
"We heard you on the phone. You have to go and see him. You have to Max." Alec said and her eyes caught the gaze of some very familiar faces.
"Rafer, Eric, Darrin, Kendra, Herbal, Bling, what the hell are you guys doing here?" She asked going to give Kendra and Bling a hug. Sketchy followed behind her to give one to Herbal.
"Before Anna left on sabbatical she hired us, we just transferred in from Seattle but, she failed to mention who our new boss is." Kendra said as Max finished giving Herbal a hug.
"I'm your new boss. Before Anna left she put me in charge. I guess you guys are gonna have to get used to taking orders from me." Max and Kendra just looked at her.
"This is Alec; he's a family friend of mine. Original Cindy is around here somewhere and find a desk. I'll go through the major stuff at tomorrow's briefing." Logan said and walked towards Chris's office.
"Max," Bling called after her and she turned around. "Where is Logan?"
"Logan got made and vacated Seattle. He was killed in the government's siege of Terminal City." Max said and walked off. As she rounded the corner to Chris's office she felt a tear on the verge of falling. 'He told me to say that. Remember that ring's going to have company soon.' She told herself and walked into Chris's office. "We got anything new?" She asked as Chris was running some numbers.
"The best I got you is one week. That's the longest I have right now. Do you want it?" He asked and Max got a huge smile on her face.
"Let's do it." She said and she rolled her sleeve up and Chris injected the temporary cure into her. As Max was rolling her sleeve down Kendra, Asha, and Bling walked into the office. "How strong is the hold?" Max asked him.
"It's strong. The virus isn't penetrating through it. You have seven days Max, don't take advantage of it. Use it wisely." Chris said and she turned to see the three of them with a confusing look on their faces.
"If this is as close as you can get to the cure, can you manufacture enough of this were I just inject myself every week?"
"Max, that's gonna be your worst case scenario. I'm going to kill this virus thing one way or another you just gotta give me a little more time." He said and she walked through the three of them and they followed her.
"Max, I asked Alec about the picture of you and Logan. It was taken after Terminal City, where is he?" Asha asked Max looking directly into her eyes.
"White traced one of the 'Eyes Only' hacks back to Logan. He deleted the files, and got the hell outta his penthouse before Whites men trashed it, and blew it up. Anna made it seem like everything and everyone in Terminal City was dead, that means me, Logan, Cindy, Sketchy, and Alec. Logan moved to D.C. and he has a new name and he works for the NCIS."
"Wait a minute for three years the SW1 was told by Logan they were doing favors for Eyes Only, and that was Logan?" Asha asked.
"Yep, the only reason I knew is because I broke into Logan's penthouse to steal something and I caught one of his hacks. I've been helping ever since." Max said to them and she walked to her desk. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed Logan's number.
NCIS Building
"Abby, I need your help." Logan said and she turned to face him. He turned his head and saw Kate and McGee walk through the door.
"Sure Tony, what can I do for you?" She asked.
He pulled a sample of Max's blood out of his pocket. "I need you to take a look at this blood sample."
"What's wrong with it?"
"It contains a pathological virus tailored to someone's specific DNA and I need you to neutralize the virus." He explained.
"Whose blood is it? And Who is the virus targeted to?" Kate said in a demanding tone.
"If you must know, my fiancés blood and the virus is targeted for me. It's a very long and complicated story. Can you do it Abby?" He asked her.
"Give me seven days, and I'll have a full answer for you. But, I have to ask how did this happen?" She said and Kate and McGee moved in closer.
"It happened about seven years ago. She was shot and took hostage. The people who held her captive didn't like me. When she got away we found out about the virus. They wanted me dead. That's the story." He said and he felt his phone vibrate. He pulled it out and saw Max's face pop up on the screen. "Hello?" He asked into the phone.
"It's me. I need you to take a week off of work?" She asked him. He heard her walking around.
"What's going on?"
"Chris got us seven days. We have seven days to spend together and you won't die. I'm booking myself the next flight there."
"Max, are you sure?" He asked her and Kate, Abby and McGee leaned in closer to hear the conversation.
"Yeah, remember last time when you and me had the twelve hour window and I said I didn't want to waste it on a quickie?" She asked him.
Logan closed his eyes and remembered that night.
"If there was such thing as a temporary cure, how long would it last?" He asked her and she reached for something in her coat.
"Ten hours and fifty minutes." She said.
"So we can touch and nothing will happen?" He asked looking into Max's brown eyes.
"I don't know about nothing but, you won't die." She said to him. "But, we have to think about this. I mean ten hours seems like a long time but, it's really not and when it's over it's over and we'll be right back where we started."
"It'll have to be long enough." He said getting up.
"I was hoping you'd say that." She said standing up and walking towards him. He held his hand out for her and she took it. He took his free hand and felt her hair and he leaned into kiss her. "I can't believe I'm gonna go all girly on you but, I don't wanna waste this on a quickie. I want this to be perfect." She said.
"How about a perfect quickie?" He asked her.
"Logan, you there?" She asked him.
"Yeah, I was just thinking. I remember what I said." He answered her. He knew she had a grin on her face that matched the goofy one he had right now.
"I don't know about a quickie but, it will be perfect." She said and he closed his eyes and remembered when time was up.
"I knew this would happen." Max said sitting down in the back seat as the day approached in the sky.
"How long do we have?" He asked her.
"Two minutes." She said to him.
"We had to take the chance. We had to. I keep thinking about the night we took down Manticore, the night I thought I'd lost you I came home and just sat on my couch. I sat there for days. We spent a year dancing around each other afraid to actually admit how we felt. If I had that time back I'd do it so differently." He said and as he finished the beeper went off. He kissed her just to remember her touch. He knew it'd be the last one for a while. Logan got up out of the car. "I love you Max." He said and walked off not giving her a chance to reply.
"What time are you getting in?" He asked her.
"I'm not telling, just get that time off. I don't want to waste it with you at work." She said to him. "Love you."
"Love you too." He replied before the line went dead.
"Who was that?" Kate asked and Logan walked out of the room and he got into the elevator. As soon as the doors opened he walked up to Gibbs desk.
"I need the next seven days off." Logan said.
"Tony, what the hell is going on?" He asked.
"Max is on her way here. She found a cure but, there's a catch."
"What's the catch?"
"It last's for seven days. We have a week, and I'm not wasting it."
"Alright, finish up the paperwork from the last case and you're on medical leave for the next seven days." Gibbs said and he returned to his desk. Logan sat at his desk trying to finish up the paperwork.
As Logan sat at his desk he got very impatient and normally he was a really patient guy but, tonight he wasn't up for it. He checked the clock every ten minutes. His left leg was shaking because he was nervous. "What is wrong with you?" McGee asked him from his desk.
"I'm fine, just trying to finish up this paperwork." He said and he pulled out his phone and checked his last call, it was from Max and that was three hours ago. Logan knew it only took two hours and forty-five minutes to get here is she was flying on an agency plane, and she knew she was. He stood up from his desk going to get a cup of coffee and he heard the elevator doors open.
Logan turned to see if it was Max. And, it was. Max caught direct eye contact with him and walked right up to him. Logan wrapped his arms around Max and captured her lips with his own. He hands snaked around his neck as the kiss went from a normal kiss to a kiss filled with passion, lust, and desire that he been pent up for almost seven years. Kate got off the elevator and saw the scene and walked over to Gibbs desk.
"McGee get your jaw off the floor," She said and saw Gibbs, "you to Jethro." Kate said.
"You have no right to call me by my first name." He stated and she slapped them both upside the head and grabbed her purse.