Babyangel: no more Embedded and Oblivious, you're like one of two who read that story and I think my other review might have been a pity one. Thank you for reading though.

Chapter 36

Life on the Outside

"Hey Logan" Max called out walking into his house with Original Cindy.

No response.

"Logan?"

"I don't think he's here boo."

"What time is it?" She asked not bothering to look through her own bag for her cell.

Cindy looked down at her beeper, "11:57...We're early. Boy probably realized he forgot something."

Max frowned, that didn't make any sense, everyone was bringing something and it wasn't like Logan to run out when he knew a house full of people were coming. She shook her head, she'd give him ten minutes before she over thought this.

Original Cindy shrugged off the backpack she'd been wearing, packed with their contribution to 'the first week of work is over' barbeque. "I'm gonna go drop this in the kitchen."

Max frowned as she walked into the living room and flopped on the couch, sure everyone else's week was over, after a whole three days of working (the benefits of only moving out on a Tuesday). Hers however wasn't. She frowned once more thinking of that tiny little skirt that was her weekend attire and even worse she had been on last night and was on again tonight because she was the new girl. If she hadn't cleared so much dough last night, she would have quit on the spot, Eyes Only and Logan be damned.

"Yo Logan" Zen called out opening the door. "Hey OC" he nodded seeing her on her way back from the kitchen.

"Hey Cyn" Vida said walking in behind Zen. Logan's former housemate had been found a new place of residence courtesy of Logan because as much as Logan liked Vida, he wasn't living with a couple.

"Hey guys, Max is in the living room."

Just then Max walked over to the doorway, "Do you guys know where Logan is?"

"He's not here?" Zen asked confused, "I just talked to him like 30-40 minutes ago."

Another frown passed Max's face.

"Hey guys" Gem smiled walking in through the still open door carrying Ronnie, Dalton next to her, his arms full of food.

"Hey" they all called out in unison.

Gem looked around, "Where's Logan?"

"That seems to be the question of the day." Original Cindy spoke, "Maybe he's mad that ya'll decided to throw a party at his joint without asking him."

"Hey I helped build that bbq." Zen defended.

"Trust me Logan's use to having his privacy invaded." Max said with a tilt of her head, that definitely wasn't the reason.

They all turned as they heard a car approach out front. They all piled onto the porch to see Logan getting out of his car and Alec's bike pulling up behind it.

Logan's eyes connected with Max's over the car as he went to open to back door to get Cale out, he briefly closed them and shook his head.

She frowned and headed down the stairs suddenly seeing the reason for Logan's frown, there were bags, pillows and blankets in his car, on the front seat rested the large tv from Alec's apartment.

"Haha, she kicked you out" Max said passing by Alec on her way to Cale.

"You know" Alec said with a shake of his head, "All the time you girls talk about us being dogs, scum, pigs…" his mind searched for more

"Neanderthals?" Logan supplied, it had been Asha's parting shot. "Hey" he said to Max as he stepped to the side to let her get the already unfastened Cale out since he wasn't wearing gloves yet.

"Hey yourself" she said to him and then turned down to Cale, "Hey buddy" she smiled

"Mama" the little looked up, smiled and extended his arms to be lifted, more than pleased to see her face again after almost 20 hours.

Alec ignored their hellos and continued on, "Ugh Neanderthal, me of all people a Neanderthal!" he said controlling himself enough to not reveal his Manticore roots to any neighbors that might overhear.

Max bit her tongue, definitely not the time to piss him off further.

"But you know what?" He looked at Max, "You woman are all INSANE!"

"Alec, you were living together for less than four days." Max said wondering what the hell could have driven him to this and the brown stains she saw streaking his arms, and what was that, flour in his hair? She looked at the white streaks on the side of his head and wondered how much there must have been to start off since he hadn't wore a helmet over.

"Like I said, you're all insane." he said lifting his tv into his arms and starting to head up the stairs, glaring at everyone awaiting them on the porch. Max followed with Cale and Logan lifted a few of the bags, Zen chuckled slightly as he and Vida made their way down to help.

"Alec, what the hell happened?" Max asked as she passed Cindy, who was like everyone else trying to stifle her laughter.

"I have no idea!" he said looking up at her as he put the tv on the living room floor. "None" he said raising his hands. "I thought things were good."

"That means the boy had sex." Original Cindy supplied.

"Yes, yes we did" "Alec said nodding at her, "and that was good too." damn freakin females!

"Uh Dalton, why don't you go drop off the food in the kitchen and see if one of the guys will play some ball with you." Gem said ever aware of her younger companion.

"Okay so you and Asha finally get it on, then what?" Cindy said returning to the topic.

"What do you mean then what? Everything was fine, it was normal. 2 days and everything's fine, until this morning and…" He shook his head.

"Come on Alec, you've got to have some idea" Max said

"Everything was fine."

"No Alec obviously it wasn't."

"This is all your fault" Alec said glaring at Logan walking up behind them.

Logan just looked confused, "I just drove across town to go pick your stuff up."

"She's your friend and everything was fine until we were getting ready to come here. Ugh" Alec groaned and took off to go get more of his things. That was his freakin apartment.

The women all turned to Logan waiting to see if he'd supply any answers, "I have no idea, I got there and there was brownie mix all the way out to the living room. Asha was making just about as much sense as he was."

Max's face fell, "Aww damn they were making brownies…What the hell did that boy do?"

Max smiled taking a bite of her hot dog looking around the backyard. A few more people had shown up, they'd even invited Sketchy. Looking around you wouldn't be able to tell the world they lived in. It just looked like one of those family barbeques they had on old reruns. Cindy manning the grill at the moment, a job that was being passed along; Alec sitting on a law chair drinking a beer, talking to Cassia as if this morning had never happened. Gem was chillin in the plastic pool they'd refused to leave behind at TC, Ronnie sitting up while being supported by her mother. Sketch with his long scrawny not as white as they normally were legs stretched across the pool floating something across the water trying to win over Cale's affection after scaring him earlier making a not so funny face. Logan was talking something Eyes Only over in the house with Zen. She frowned it was a shame Joshua couldn't be here, but he wasn't ready and neither were the neighbors.
Max made her way inside of the house with the sleeping toddler in her arms, a half an hour past his naptime. She made her way in through the kitchen past the booster seat attached to one of the chairs and the cabinets that now required thought to open. Past the living room, which had toys off in the corner and a black streak on the wall from where Cale had gotten a hold of a marker. She made her way up the stairs, not bothering to unhook the safety gate she stepped over it and walked down to the room across from Logan's, which he was in right now talking on the phone away from anyone being able to overhear.

She walked into Logan Cale's concession to a kid's room, the walls hadn't changed to some bright primary color, a toddler sized wooden bed had replaced the full-sized mattress she had slept on a few weeks back. A toy box sat in the corner, though she was pretty sure most of the toys were on the floor in front of it. The sheets were dinosaur print, as was the throw rug in front of the toy box, and a very friendly looking blue dino was the nightlight plugged in by the door.

Cale's presence in short was pretty well evident in the house. Less though than in her own apartment, where toys and clothes and sippy cups, which had been under control in Terminal City had managed to overrun their apartment. Original Cindy said it was just a settling period, Max hoped she was right because crawling on the floor trying to find where Cale had lost his binky as he was crying for it, wasn't something she looked forward to doing until she broke him of the habit.

Still holding him, she pulled back the dinosaur print sheet before lowering him to the bed and tucking him in, placing a kiss on the top of his head before stepping back. She didn't want to leave the room yet though, she had been in Cale withdrawal since coming out into the real world again, she hadn't realized how used she was to spending so much time with him, even when he wasn't with her, knowing he was just a short walk away…Not to mention going to sleep without hearing his tiny little breaths. She'd almost riden to Logan's last night after work because she hadn't slept the Wednesday before without him. She walked forward again and squatted down to brush back his hair, though it was already neat. She was pretty sure that she missed him more than she missed being around Logan constantly, she'd at least been used to that in the past. Logan had been right, there was no way she would have been able to walk away from Cale.

She could feel Logan watching them from the doorway, she turned and smiled.

He smiled back then walked into the room and started picking up the toys that had been left out in an attempt to get to Alec's and back before everyone showed up. "Everyone looks like they're having fun."

"Have you been watching from a window?" Max teased, he'd been in and out of the house the entire time.

"I was outside for at least an hour." he defended himself, Eyes Only wasn't totally taking over his life again.

"Uh huh" she smiled some more, "It looks like one of those family sitcoms out there. Makes you wanna say White who?"

Logan chuckled, "Fraid not Max, I actually think I might have made some progress on that."

"Is that what you've been doing all day?"

He looked guilty for a moment, "Actually no, Zen and I were discussing some other matters. But I've got a mom who lost her oldest son to the initiation process and her youngest son is up in a few months."

Max wondered why she was surprised, she'd known Logan had been following a few leads regarding the familiars, but none of them had been panning out, "You sure you can get her to talk?"

He nodded, "Doesn't seem like a setup and she seems ready….But, I guess we'll find out in a few hours when Alec goes to pick her up."

Max forced her face to show no outward signs of rejection, Zen and Alec had become his go to men, all she was doing was getting dirt on a few scummy guys. "You know, I could"

He shook his head, "You've got work, it should be fine, don't want you getting fired on your third day. Think Original Cindy can watch Cale though? I'll drop him off before I head to the safe house? I don't know what time I'll be getting back here and taking him all the way to Terminal City..." He didn't want to have to leave Cale alone in Terminal City at night even if he was with Joshua or go pick him up in the middle of the night when he got back.

Max's mood raised a little with the thought of at least coming home to Cale, "Yea, she said earlier she was just crashin tonight…Too much sun or something. So how are we sure this isn't a set up?"

Logan sighed, years of meeting informants told him this would be fine, but with the familiars… "I guess we'll find out pretty soon." He saw the look of concern pass her face, "It'll be fine Max. Alec knows if he sees anything out of the ordinary when picking her up to abort. Should go fine, hopefully we'll finally figure out what the hell it is we're up against."

"That would be a nice change."

There was a loud bang outside, followed by group laughter, "Come on" he said with a nod of his head to the door, "Let's get back out there before they bring the cops here."

She looked back to Cale, "What about"

"The baby monitor is downstairs on the desk, we'll grab it before we head out."