Author's Note: WOW, so so so sorry for the like 4 month break between updates. I just finished my first quarter in college and it's been really hard to find time to write with college-y things all over. But now I'm on break and so hopefully you guys haven't forgotten about my story. Please leave a review, let me know what you think, and I'll try to update quicker. Anyway, on with the story!

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Alec walked around Seattle pretending to not have a care in the world. He nodded respectfully to any elderly woman and smiled charmingly at any young lady who passed his way. He basically ignored the males on the street. He eyed a black sedan parked on the opposite side of the street and saw a camera-like device in the driver's hands. It was the thermal scanner the CD Kris gave them described. Alec whistled happily and strutted right past the car, wishing they would scan his body to find nothing out of order.

That was exactly what happened.

Alec couldn't help but grin madly as he realized no agent was going after him. It had been a month since Kris swept into T.C. with the answer to Bigg's death. Since then, Luke had devised a type of vest that was lined with frozen gelatin that cooled an X-transgenetic's body temperature from the normal 101 degrees Fahrenheit to the typical 98.6 degrees. The gelatin, unfortunately, did melt and so the vests only lasted a few hours before having to be refroze. But it was a few hours of freedom that they would not have had otherwise.

All X-transgenetics wore these vests, which looked completely normal and no more had been caught, causing the media to question whether or not there were anymore left. The government officials could not come right out and say that there were more X-5 transgenetics because it made them look inept since they had not caught more. They could not say there were no more X-5's because Senator McKinley knew very well that there were more. So, the government could not comment and the media began focusing on other stories, quickly losing interest in a story that had no more excitement, no more lynching. Sales of the shirts with Joshua's picture on it plummeted. The only thing that kept the "transgenetic situation" on the minds of Americans was the capture of a "freaky" looking transgenetic two weeks ago. His appearance was very similar to Mole's. But news got old fast.

So Alec walked arrogantly passed the car, wearing the gelatin vest over his beige sweater and black jeans, pretending that everything was great. In truth, he was absolutely miserable. He had not spoken nor seen Kris for the entire month and he pined for her. Yes, Alec, the Golden Boy, the arrogant, chauvinistic, damn sexy transgenetic that he was...was pining for his girlfriend. He wanted to feel her breath on his neck as he hugged her, he wanted to taste the chocolate sorbet on her lips as they kissed, and he wanted to hear her tease him endlessly as her eyes glowed with laughter and love. But he could not have what he wanted.

He passed her apartment occasionally and remembered all the times he invaded it to be met with a roll of her eyes and a small smile. He completely took those things for granted then. He thought he loved her a lot when she was next to him in bed, but he realized that he loved her even more when she was proverbially miles away. That shit about absence making the heart grow fonder was completely true.

He wondered what she was doing right then. It was about six in the evening on a gloomy Friday, so she was probably leaving Jam Pony and heading over to The Crash with Sketchy and O.C. for some ginger ale. Then again, was she even going to The Crash still? How had her life changed?

So many times he wanted to find her and tell her again how sorry he was for hurting her, for betraying her trust. He had no idea how he could fix it, but the image of her hurt face as she shouted at him at T.C. haunted him. That along with the memories of happier times drove him crazy occasionally.

She had been willing to sleep with a complete stranger to forget about him, that was how much he had hurt her. He was thankful that she didn't, but it only made him feel even more guilty for what he did. He didn't know how much time she would need before she would talk to him.

Alec sighed as he walked, his arrogant persona crumbling as he continued to think of Kris. He turned the corner to walk down an alley.

"Alec," a voice called to him, breaking his train of thought.

"Cece," he said, suspiciously. Since the day Kris came to T.C., Cece had avoided Alec and had quit Jam Pony upon Max's request. So, Alec was a bit suspicious that Cece was now talking to him in an alley after a month of evasion.

"I just want you to know that I had to do this," she replied cryptically.

Alec furrowed his eyebrows. "What are you talking about, Cece?"

Before she replied, Alec felt a dozen stun guns on him. He didn't even have a chance to fight before blacking out.

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She faced his door and debated with herself about whether or not she should knock. She hadn't spoken to him since that night over a month ago when she said she was with Alec. Despite Kris telling her that she should talk to him, she couldn't gather the courage to do so. Bravery wasn't something she lacked in most situations, but she lacked it terribly when it came to him.

She continued to stare at the door. Before she would just barge in without knocking, raid his refrigerator, and give him a thorough kiss when he acted annoyed about her antics. But that was before…before she screwed up.

She knocked.

The door opened a few moments later to reveal a mildly disheveled man.

"Max," he said, surprised. He hadn't seen her in a month.

"Hi, Logan. Can I…"

"Yeah, come in," he said, leaving the door open as he returned to his computer. "Would you like something to drink?"

"No, um, I'm fine." She appraised him as inconspicuously as she could. He looked more ragged, more worn. He hadn't shaved for probably four days and bags drooped below his eyes that his glasses couldn't hide. He seemed a bit skinnier too and Max wished she could cook him some chicken to eat.

"Can I help you with something?" Logan asked, unable to hide the annoyance and hurt in his voice.

Max focused on his eyes. "Yeah. Kris met this guy and he's a hacker. She saw that he had info on all these government secrets and classified stuff, so he must be pretty good. I was wondering if you could go over there and ask him for info regarding The Familiars under the cover of working for Eyes Only. Maybe he could find something. Also, anything about Senator McKinley because he's the ass that's been pushing the transgenetic thing so hard even though no X-5's have been caught recently. Maybe with the intel that the hacker can find and the stuff Lydecker left behind and all the other little pieces we have, we can get a better understanding as to what these cult guys are and how they work. I've been saving up my money from Jam Pony and so I can pay for the hacker, I was just wondering if you could help me," Max explained quickly, looking down afterwards. She knew she was asking a lot of him.

He thought about it for a while and then asked, "How does Kris know him?"

"She met him at The Crash and went back to his place," Max said.

Logan's eyes bulged momentarily. That seemed completely unlike the Kris they knew. "I see," he said quietly. He guessed the knowledge of Alec and Max together had affected her more than she had let on when he had seen her this past month. "Will her involvement with him be a problem?"

"What?" Max looked at him quizzically. Then she understood. "No, they aren't involved. She left before they got, um...involved. She just burned a CD with all this info regarding what the government is doing with the trangenetics and how they are catching the X-5's. But she never saw him again. She remembered his address and she told me about his work."

"Ah, yeah, that sounds more like Kris," Logan said, pushing his glasses on his nose. "I'll see if he'll help," he added.

Max smiled. "Thanks, Logan," she said, taking an envelope out of her back pocket. "Here's all the money I have. I'll go back to T.C. and see if Alec has anymore if the hacker is expensive."

Logan visibly winced at the mention of Alec as he took the money. "How, how is he anyway?" he asked.

"Oh, uh, he's alright. We're all working really hard. The vests really help out," Max stammered uncharacteristically.

Logan knew about vests from Kris who knew about them from Max. Kris was rather smug when she told him about it, though she wouldn't explain why. Now he understood that the vests stemmed from the information T.C. acquired through the CD Kris gave them.

"That's good. You two are okay?" He didn't know why he subjected himself to the torture of knowing about Max and Alec, but curiosity got the best of him.

"We aren't together," she confessed, holding her breath to watch his reaction.

His eyes lit up momentarily, much like they used to when he saw Max. "When did this happen?"

Max looked down again, knowing she would have to tell him everything. "Logan, I…I lied. Alec and I…we were never together. I wanted you to hate me so much that you would stop loving me because it's so dangerous to be around me, around any of us, and I…I didn't want you to get hurt or die because of me," Max croaked out on the verge of tears.

Logan looked at Max in complete disbelief. This whole time, he had been miserable because she lied. He was relieved, but angry. "How could you do that to me?" he asked fiercely.

"I just wanted you to be safe," she replied.

"You didn't even give me a choice to be with you! You tell me that you're with Alec and completely break me and now you tell me that it's a compete lie? I've been living in hell this past month, Max! Memories of us haunt me when I'm awake and then I dream about you only to wake up to an empty bed and the knowledge that I wasn't good enough for you to stay with me. And now you tell me that you subjected me to all that grief for my safety? I've been in danger a lot, Max, my job make me one of the most wanted people in America! And yet you took it upon yourself to protect me with a lie that hurt more than I imagine any bodily harm could," Logan shouted angrily.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly as she back away from him shaking her head. "I just wanted you to hate me, please hate me."

He walked towards her, gripping her wrist firmly. His other hand combed through her hair as she began tearing. She wiped them away furiously, but tears kept falling as she felt his fingers in her hair and the pressure on her wrist. She missed him so much.

"I hated you," Logan said quietly, his voice thick with emotion. "I hated you so much. I hated Alec. But then it went away, and I tried to hate you still. I was angry with you, but I couldn't hate you anymore. I hated myself because I thought I wasn't enough."

"No…you're it Logan, but it's so dangerous out there," she said, trying to get out of his grasp without hurting him. But he wouldn't let go. "Let go, I don't want you to get hurt," Max said assertively.

He held her tighter. "Break my wrist if you want to leave," he dared, looking straight into her eyes. Now that he knew she still wanted him, he wasn't going to let her go again.

She stared at him somewhat surprised, not saying anything.

"You don't get it, do you? You're the first person I would get hurt for. You can't just get rid of me because you're scared," Logan said, his voice sounding hollow and scratchy.

"Logan, if something happened to you…"

"It's my choice. Just like if something happened to you, it would be your choice," he stated.

She struggled half-heartedly, but her resolve soon left her and she stopped fighting against him. There were too many bad things to fight against; it was stupid to fight against something so...good.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

Logan took the hand that was on her wrist and wrapped it around her waist. "I forgive you." He leaned down and kissed the tears off her cheeks tenderly. "Just don't ever lie to me again," he added, a small smile on his face.

Max smiled too. "Deal," she whispered between soft kisses.

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Kris slid into the warm bath and let out a sigh. It took her way too long to boil all that water on the stove. She was completely exhausted after another endless day at Jam Pony. She had been covering Max's shift again and though she loved her friend, she was ready to slap her for not doing her own work. Not that Kris blamed her. Max was needed at T.C. and the money from the Jam Pony job helped with supplies that the transgenetics couldn't steal. Nonetheless, Kris was so tired.

But the fatigue distracted her from the pain. She knew now that Cece had seduced Alec, and she talked to Max who had explained how hard it is to resist pheromones. She didn't know how to proceed from there. She still loved Alec; she worked this hard in the hopes that her small contribution would make his freedom from hiding sooner.

What got her so frustrated was that she had already forgiven him for sleeping with Cece. She expected to be bitter for a lot longer than a month, but instead, she felt hurt. Also, now she wasn't sure if she could trust him like she had. He interacted with female X-5's daily and did that mean that whenever one was in heat he would jump her and that was just something Kris would have to accept? No, she accepted a lot of things about him: the weird sleeping (or lack of sleeping) habits, the mood swings, the inner demons that plagued his mind occasionally, but she could not accept him sleeping with other women because the animalistic part of him was horny. That was where she drew the line.

But was there even a line to draw anymore? Where did she stand in his life? He could have moved on in the past month for all she knew, though her inner voice said that he did no such thing. Though it wouldn't be uncharacteristic of him to get over her so quickly, Kris hoped to think that she was different than the other women he dated. She selfishly hoped that he was as miserable as she was.

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"Can I help you?" the dark haired, green-eyed man asked as he partially opened the door to look at Logan.

"Are you Hayden?" Logan asked.

The man behind the door looked at Logan suspiciously. "Who wants to know?" he asked.

"My name is Logan Cale. I work for Eyes Only. I have a intel job for you, if you're interested."

"How did you get my address?"

"I never give out my sources," Logan replied, a polite smile on his face.

"I'm Hayden. Come in," Hayden said, opening the door for Logan to enter.

Logan appraised the apartment. It wasn't terribly impressive, but then again it didn't get much better than Logan's place.

"So how can I help you Mr. Cale?" Hayden asked.

"Do you think you can find information on an underground cult called the Familiars?" Logan asked.

Hayden crossed his arms and thought about it. "I don't know anything about them, but I'm sure I could find something."

"I don't need something, I need everything," Logan replied.

Hayden arched an eyebrow. "Anything else, Mr. Cale?"

"Senator McKinley. I want every bit of dirt on that guy you can find."

"That should be easy," Hayden replied arrogantly.

"When could you have this info for me?"

"Well, I'm not working on anything pressing right now, so I'd say you can check back with me in three days. I should have all there is to find by then."

"You're fast," Logan commented.

Hayden shook his head. "No, I'm just good at what I do."

"How much do you charge?" Logan asked.

Hayden smirked. "You say this is for Eyes Only?" he asked.

"Yes."

"This one's on me."

Logan looked at him quizzically. "I don't understand."

"I really admire your work, Mr. Cale," Hayden replied.

"This isn't for me, it's for Eyes Only," Logan insisted.

"I really admire your work, Mr. Cale," Hayden repeated.

Logan's eyes bulged ever so slightly in shock. How could he know?

Hayden laughed. "Like I said, I'm good at what I do. Don't worry, I'll never tell a soul," he said, smiling.

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Author's Note: Was the Logan/Max love thing alright? I love their characters, they have such a great dynamic. Anyway, please review. Thanks a lot!