Disclaimer: As usual – not mine, wish they were *sigh*. Same goes for anything from VS3.
A/N: Thanks to catherder for the beta.
Chapter 14: Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety JigLogan was first back to the cabin, due to his head start.. Jonas had been quiet and tense all the way back, gritting his teeth at every bump. "You okay back there?" Logan had asked his nephew several times.
Logan pulled up close to the ramp, transferred into the wheelchair, and backed up to the rear door, which he opened in order to talk to his nephew. "How are we gonna do this?" he asked Jonas. "I could carry you in..."
Jonas gave him a dirty look. "I can walk, Uncle Logan."
"Not on that ankle, you can't," Logan responded automatically. "Here, get on my lap. No one can see you."
"But what if..."
"There's no one else here. Now, look, Jonas, you need to stay off that foot. I mean it."
Jonas shrugged, conceding defeat, and slid off the seat, gasping in pain as he accidentally put his left foot on the ground. He cautiously sat on Logan's lap, for the first time since he was a toddler, and allowed his uncle to give him a ride into the house. Logan was surprised as how heavy the boy was, guessing that he weighed as much as, if not more than, Max. He settled Jonas on the sofa and wheeled into the kitchen to find something cold – settling on a bag of frozen peas, which he wrapped in a dishtowel. He handed the cold pack to Jonas and went back out for Eva, just as Max and Ben roared into the yard.
Max parked the bike and came over to Logan, who was unstrapping Eva from the baby seat. She leaned over Logan, plucked the baby from his grasp, and plopped down onto his lap. Ben gave them a quick glance and went straight into the cabin.
"Well, that was fun," she commented, eyes shining and hair windswept. "How's the young man?"
"He'll live."
Max smiled and gazed deep into his eyes. Her eyes, behind the sunglasses, gleamed brightly and her face glowed. Logan held both Max and Eva in a loose embrace, then being unable to resist the invitation in Max's eyes, kissed her deeply. Finally, he broke away. "Up," he said, patting Max's butt affectionately. "You gotta patient to see to."
"Field Med 101. Did that at Manticore." She grinned wickedly, tweaked his nose, stood, and walked off into the cabin with the baby. She gave a quick flick of her hair as she went, leaving Logan wondering what had just happened. He collected the computer from the front seat and followed her in more slowly.
Max was sitting on the coffee table talking to both boys when Logan came into the living room. She had Jonas' foot elevated on some cushions and was issuing instructions to them both with regard to the icepack. Logan listened with half an ear as he packed the computer away again. Toward the end of the discussion, he came into the living room and drew near.
"Helluva way to spend a holiday, Jonas. Did it myself when I was about your age," Logan said.
Jonas turned an enquiring glance on his uncle.
"Jonas, I wasn't always in a wheelchair."
"I know, I just forgot."
"Yeah." Logan paused for a moment. "Anybody hungry? Coz I sure am."
He turned and headed for the kitchen. Max followed him a few minutes later. She automatically started chopping the onion he'd placed on the counter, while he rummaged in the cupboard for a frying pan. "Should we call Marianne?" Logan asked.
"She's gonna call tonight, anyway," replied Max.
"Okay...kids..." Logan sighed.
"Were you and Bennett any better?"
"No...well...yes...no, probably not," Logan grinned, thinking about some past escapades. "It's the parents' curse, ya know."
"What?"
"Having kids who act just like you do."
"What does that mean?"
"Something my mom used to say. 'When you grow up, I hope you have children who act just like you do.' It works."
Max smiled. "Wouldn't know."
*~*~*~
When Marianne rang some time after dinner, Max took the call and explained what had happened, before taking the handset of the cordless phone into the living room so Jonas could talk to his mother without moving from the sofa. Jonas, judging by his silence and the occasional rolling eyes, was at the wrong end of a long lecture on personal safety.
*~*~*~
The rest of the week passed in a blur. Jonas insisted on hobbling around the next day. They got the boat launched, and Logan and the boys spent some hours fishing on the lake. One afternoon, Max and Logan left the boys with Eva and took a solo row, which ended up with them both freezing cold and wet, when Max managed to overturn the little vessel. They both laughed hysterically all the way back to the shore.
It was a shame to have to pack up and go home on Saturday, but with the rest of the summer stretching ahead of them, there would surely be more opportunities to get away.
"I really would like to know," said Max, dumping the last bag into the back of the car, "why it is that the stuff always takes up more space when you go home. I mean – it's the same stuff, right?"
"Yeah, I think it expands in the country air," Logan smiled.
Logan transferred into the car and waited while Max stowed his wheelchair before he drove around the front of the cabin so she could hook up the trailer with the two trailbikes. She walked through the cabin, chasing the boys out, locking windows and doors. Eva was already in the car.
Twenty minutes later, they were on their way home, once again, struggling to drive through the weekend traffic. The checkpoints were no more, but between the badly degraded roads and Saturday markets, it seemed to take hours to get across town to drop off Jonas and the bike trailer, and then travel back to Sector 9 and home.
The vacation was great, but it was still good to unlock the door to the Penthouse and come home. Logan was itching to power up the computers and see what the informant net held for him, but he had made a promise to Max several years before, which he had mostly kept, that whenever they came back from a vacation, the informant net would wait until the next day – even if that meant one minute after midnight.
After unpacking his bag, Logan started on some domestic chores. He threw a load of dirty clothes in the washing machine and did an inventory of the kitchen cupboards – writing a shopping list for the following day. Max, after hassling Ben into doing his own unpacking, left Eva on the living room rug, where Logan could just see both her and Ben from the kitchen. Ben was lying on the rug next to her watching TV. Max went back down to the basement, returning with a trolley borrowed from the doorman, and a large crate inscribed A-504.1, which she took straight through to the bedroom. Logan looked up curiously as she passed through with the squeaky trolley. He left the shopping list on one of the counters and followed her into the bedroom.
"You're not wasting any time," he said quietly.
"Might as well strike while the iron is hot," she responded. "You're okay with this?"
"Yeah. I doubt if it'd be any good to me now, even if I could fix it." Logan grimaced slightly at the painful truth.
"Ya never could dance worth a damn in this thing anyway," Max grinned, trying to lighten the mood. "Kept stepping on my toes. It's a wonder I don't have feet like Donald Duck."
"Gee, thanks. And here I thought you loved me for my moves on the dance floor."
"You're welcome." She started to lift the mannekin bodily to put it in the box.
"Hold up a bit." Logan stopped her with his hand, seeing something in the crate. He leaned down and picked up a yellowing scrap of paper, reading:
"SORRY IT'S ALL BUSTED UP,
BUT IF YOU CAN FIX IT,
WHO KNOWS? MIGHT HELP YOUGET FROM HERE TO THERE."
"Whatcha got there?"
"Note from an old friend," he said, folding the piece of paper and sliding it under his leg, for want of a convenient pocket.
"Outta the way now, bozo. Gonna put this thing where it belongs."
Logan raised an eyebrow.
"In the darkest corner of that locker that I can find."
Logan had no response to that, so he turned and wheeled back to the kitchen, while Max rolled the trolley out the door. Once Max was gone, he quickly went to his office and put the note in the filing cabinet, out of sight. He looked at the bank of computers for a moment, then backed out, firmly shutting the door, determined to keep his word to Max.
He joined Ben in front of the TV in the living room. Eva was on the floor beside her brother, gradually rolling toward the edge of the rug. Even without crawling, she was getting quite mobile, and her dark eyes missed nothing. Right now, those dark eyes were focused on her father, demanding to be picked up. Ben turned his attention away from the screen for a moment. He automatically picked up the baby and handed her to his father, then rolled back on to his tummy, feet in the air, chin on his hands, and resumed watching.
Logan held Eva in such a way that she more or less stood while he held her, pushing her feet against his legs, doing deep knee bends. She happily bobbed up and down for a few minutes, babbling as she danced. Max came back and joined them, sitting on the back of the couch – a habit she had fostered since one of her first visits to the apartment way back in 2019. It was a new, although similar, couch – brown leather with a soft, padded back.
"Mission accomplished?" Logan asked over his shoulder.
"Would I be here if it wasn't?"
"Just asking."
"Would you mind if I went over to Joshua's for a bit?"
"No…why would I mind?"
"Well, he hasn't seen madam for a while and, well, you know how much he loves babies…"
"Oh, you're asking if I mind you taking the car?"
"Yes."
"Go ahead. Ben, you want to go, too?"
"Yeh, sure. Elfie might be there," he said.
"Gonna be back in time for dinner?"
"Got anything special planned?"
"Not yet, but I might go out for a bit – see what I can get at the supermarket."
Max looked at her watch. "Don't leave it too long."
"Have fun."
"Always." She dropped a kiss on top of his head, and gathered up Eva. Ben stood and followed her as she detoured to collect the baby bag, then went out the door. Like most kids, Ben had neglected to turn off the TV. Logan did it for him, pondering what to make for dinner. Coming to a decision, he turned and headed out the door.