Family 7

FAMILY (7)

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters 'cept Logan's family... so ask me if you want to use them in a story. The rest of the characters belong to James Cameron and Charles Eglee and the writers at FOX

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I woke up the next morning lying on the bathroom floor with Logan's arms wrapped around me. I saw the broken glass on the floor and realized what must have happened. Quietly, I unwrapped myself and started picking up the glass. The loss of warmth must have woken Logan up, he must have been watching me for awhile before I noticed.

"Morning." He whispered gruffly

"Hey." I said trying to not to look at him.

"How you feeling?" He asks as he pulls himself up to a more comfortable position.

"Good. Sorry about last night."

"No need. So you did you have a good time with Max?"

God, I love Logan, I thought. He is the only person in the world who would know not to harbor on my seizures, who would know that I hate talking about them and don't want to. "Yeah. I really like her. I am glad that you two found each other. Ironic isn't it?"

"What?"

"That you are the savior to two manticore children."

"I'm not your savior."

I turn to look at him as he says this. I try to figure out if he honestly thinks that he is not my savior or if he is just being modest. He is the thing that made me human, he is what destroyed the soldier part of me that Lydecker tried to ingrain in my being. But Logan was the savior who helped in my resurrection. He was helping Max too, whether he will admit it or not, she needs him. So instead of dealing with this I decide to move on with the morning. "So what is the plan for the day?"

"Well I thought that maybe we could after lunch, take a walk around the city."

"What are we doing before lunch?"

"I have a doctor's appointment that I need to go to and I thought that maybe you could come with me."

"Okay and then you take me out to eat for lunch?"

"Sounds like a plan." He smiled. But then awkwardly looked around for his wheelchair. Probably trying to figure out how to gracefully get into it. So I being the intuitive person that I am roll the chair next to him and lock the breaks. Logan Cale hates to look weak. So as he gets into his chair, I go make the coffee.

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The doctor's appointment led to nothing new. Basically they were all still baffled by his brief stint of walking and the consistency of his feeling. They said it was almost as if his spin was slowly regenerating. The pluropotents in the beginning rejuvenated and replenished his spinal injury allowing him to walk again miraculously for a little while, before they started to settle down and actually get to work on regenerating the cells. A kind of adrenaline rush of the body, you might say.

So now they are all desperately trying to figure out how to harness those cells and help them to regenerate accurately. But the problem for Logan is that it is going to take time for the cells to reform and we all know that Logan has the patience of a pea. So of course this whole appointment was about trying to help the process speed up. I already offered to donate some more blood, maybe there was something in mine that would help or alter this whole process. But Logan had refused, he said that he wanted every part of my body to be intact for the next pregnancy, as if blood doesn't regenerate. But I think he was just trying to tell me gently that he didn't want one more thing for him to feel guilty about if anything went wrong. Logan was worried about me whether he will admit or not. I think the seizure last night really scared him.

So we talk a little at lunch about it, but he manages to keep everything shallow. There is one thing that I have learned about him through the years, if he doesn't want to talk about it he won't. So most of the conversation revolved around the new government that was taking office and his personal beliefs about their legality. After lunch, we walk by Max's work. I know it's Max's because I did some snooping and found out that she worked at bike messenger place called "Jam Pony." Anyway...

"Max works here, right?" I ask.

"Yeah." Logan answered suspiciously. He knew I was up to something.

"So, why don't we go in and see if she is around?" I say as I walk into the building leaving Logan no choice but to follow. I go up to the front desk and am about to ask the head guy,

"Hey Anna, you looking for Max?" Cindy asks as she slams her locker closed.

"Yeah."

"She should be back anytime. Hey Logan, how you doing?" Cindy smiled.

"Good and you?" Logan answered smiling back. I swear that was a look of relief on his face.

"Good."

"Anna you should swing by Crash tonight and tell us some more about the boy here."

"Sounds like a plan." I smile and Logan gives me an evil eye. He is about to lay into me, when Max comes barreling in.

"So the creep in 407 Lake says that he ain't taking no packages for Mr. Jones who also resides at the residence. The guy told me to come back later and since the package requires a signature. I figure not my problem." She says as she hands the package back to the head guy. Completely oblivious to the fact that we are there. When she finally turns she notices the three of us starring at her.

"What?" She whines.

"Nothing." Cindy laughs and shakes her head.

"What are you two doing here?" Max asks.

"We came to drop by and see if you want a coffee or something?" I ask.

"Max can't she has a run." The head guys barks.

"Can't. Sorry, rain check."

"Sure, how about Crash tonight?" I know that this is going to annoy Logan, but I'm the guest and I want to go to Crash.

"Sounds good. Logan you in."

"Sorry ladies but I have work to do." Logan cops out again. So apparently that talk that the two of them had didn't seem to get through very far to his thick skull.

"What work?" I ask and as if on cue his phone rings and Logan does a frantic search to find it. I step about five feet away and motion for Max to follow. I then pull the phone out of my boots and answer it. "Hello. Who? No I'm sorry you must have the wrong number." I then hang up. Max gives me an eye, she knows that I am about to get killed.

Logan has a look of pure murder in his eyes. "Give me the phone." He commands.

"They'll call back." I sweetly say.

"The phone." He yells louder.

"Not until you agree to come with me and Max to the Crash tonight?"

"And Zach." Max added.

I looked at her curiously and then back at Logan. "So are you going to join the merry little gang, Loggie?" I pouted knowing that he would agree if only to find out why Zach was still around and I have to admit I was a bit curious also.

"Deal. Now give me my phone." Logan gave in.

"No, not until I am sure that you are actually coming with us."

"I promise that I will come tonight. Phone, please." Logan was now becoming annoyed with me.

"Do we trust him Max?" I turned to Max. "Excuse us for a moment." We then moved farther away from Logan and turned our backs. "He is getting pissed."

"You could say that." She laughed quietly.

"Should we give it back to him?"

"Probably or else he may go into some kind of shock from the detachment. " We both laughed at that and quickly turned are heads to look at Logan who was now starting to get very annoyed.

"Okay, so you come with us tonight and no excuses?" I yell back at him.

"No excuses."

"Then, I guess Max and I can trust that you will keep your word. So here is your phone." I tossed him back the phone, which he caught. "But in case you don't, just remember we know where you live."

"Threat noted." Logan answered a bit irritated.

"Okay, so 9:00 the Crash. And we will now let you get back to work." I smile as Logan rolls out. "I think he's mad."

"I think your right." Max smiled.

"So I guess I should follow him and suck up."

"Probably."

"Why do guys have such sensitive egos?"

"Go." Max laughed at my last statement and I waved as I ran out of the building. Logan was waiting at the corner for me.

"I don't like you two double teaming me." He fumed.

"Are you really angry?" I sincerely doubted that he could actually be that angry at me for teasing him.

"I just don't like you two coming at me."

"Okay. Your feelings are noted and it won't happen again. I will always side with you and I will make sure that from now on Max and I are on opposite sides of every issue." I wanted to make sure that he understood how retarded he was really sounding.

"Good."

"Good." We walked back to his apartment in silence. He really was mad at me. As soon as we got back to his place he went into his office and I went to the kitchen. Bling was putting away some groceries that he had just bought.

"You guys have a good time?" Bling asked.

"It was fine, but he was moody."

"That's new." He teased. "So what did the doctor say?"

"That it is going to take time."

"Agh."

"Which probably has a lot to do with his moodiness. That and the fact that Max and I ganged up on him today." I add.

"Maybe it was that." Bling adds with a smile. He too knows Logan a little too well.

"I should probably go talk to him." I say as I grab an apple and head towards Logan's office. I hear him typing away at his computer.

"So I wonder why Zach is still around?"

"I don't know." He answers while he stares at his monitor. I hate it when he talks to me like that.

"Yes, you do. When I came what were they arguing about?"

"Lydecker found Tinga and brought her back. Zach thinks that he is getting closer to all of them. He also had some other run ins with somebody else hunting him, except these people were shoot to kill. He wants Max to leave, again. My guess is he is staying so that he can convince her."

"What do you mean shoot to kill?" Zach doesn't like to hang around, I know that and Logan knows that, so whatever his reasons they must be good.

"I mean it looks like they have gotten tired of Lydecker not being able to capture you all and decided that you are too high of a liability alive."

"Wouldn't want our genetic make-up getting in the wrong hands."

"Exactly."

"What if this is all trap? You told me that Zach had been brought back in and then escaped. How do we know that he isn't setting Max up?"

"Max doesn't think so and believe me I have had the argument with her."

"Zach doesn't have to know that it's a trap for their to be one. All Lydecker has to do is get close enough to us all and watch us jump."

"You think he knows about everyone and is just waiting for them to make their next move?"

"Might be. You said that Zach had a contact number that everyone could reach him on, except Max, right? So all Lydecker needs to get is that number and he is set."

"How could he get that number?"

"Simple, he knows Zach. Everything that Zach knows Lydecker taught him. All Lydecker needs to do is get into Zach's head and find the numbers."

"Simple." Logan laughs.

"No seriously, it's simple. We all remember things in certain ways and the codes that we choose are based on those memories. Okay here is an example, make up a phone number. Now write it down." Logan turned his back and wrote the numbers. "Okay there is probably a 28 in there, a 212, then a 76, a 4 and a 23. So it's probably a New York number, 212-428-2376. How close?"

Logan looked up at me amazed. "Fairly close, except there was no 4."

"A 9 then?"

"Yeah. Okay go through that with me."

"212 - New York City's area code farthest major city in the US from here. 28 because that's how many years your parents would be married for. 76 because 1776 was when the Declaration was signed. 23 because that is my birthday. And 4 because there are four members in your family."

"That's good, but where did the nine come from?"

"Agh, you've none Max for nine months."

"Wait so you are saying that even when we pick random numbers, subconsciously there is a pattern and all Lydecker has to do is figure out the pattern."

"Exactly and he had the perfect opportunity to do it when he had Zach. Specifically because Zach was overly cautious about giving anything up. He wouldn't have been thinking too worry about his thought patterns."

"So you think this is a trap?"

"Maybe or maybe this is all crap and Zach simply wants Max to get out of Seattle. Which is the primary reason that I don't want them to know about me. The more people who know, the greater the chance I will get caught. The reason Max had been doing so well for such a long time was because nobody knew. The second she wanted to find us, then the red flag went up waiving "I'm here." Nobody knows anything about me because nobody else knows but me and I'm not looking. Got it."

"But I know and Sol knows."

"But they aren't looking for two normal guys. They are looking for 19 something freaks who have these amazing abilities like being able to beat up three guys at once."

"So you're saying by Max wanting to find you all, she got them looking for her."

"Exactly."

"Interesting."

"So... are you still mad at me?"

"No." He answered simply.

"Are you upset about the doctor's visit?"

"No."

"Liar." I tease him. I know that he is upset, he doesn't need to say it because it's written all over his face.

"No I am not mad about the appointment. Just disappointed."

"I know. Life sucks." I laugh trying to lighten his mood. "So what should we have for dinner tonight?"

"You know that there is one thing I can be sure of when you are around."

"And what is that..."

"I never get bored and you never let me wallow in my own self pity."

"Good, because self-pity isn't very sexy on you."

"Its not?"

"No." I answer semi growling the answer to him. "Besides you have to find a way to make sure that Max does not leave."

"Do I?"

"Yes."

"Why?" Logan knows the answer he just doesn't want to admit it,

"Because you don't want her to."

"True."

"Because you love her."

"What is up with everyone? Why does everyone think that?"

"Because, dear boy, it is completely and underlie the truth. However you may deny it, anyone who sees you together, knows that you are completely in love with her and she is with you. Why else hasn't she left yet?"

"Because of her friends."

"And..."

"And..."

"You. She hasn't left because of you. Don't try to deny it, you know its the truth. So now let's get something to eat."

"Okay."

"So tonight, no flirting, deal."

"No flirting with you." Logan whines.

"Yes, you can not flirt with me tonight. The only woman you flirt with is Max."

"You're no fun."

I stuck my tongue out at him. Tonight, I wanted them to have a good time together. If Max was thinking about leaving, I wanted Logan to remind her exactly why she can't leave. Trusting our jumping instincts is not what is going to keep us safe. The idea is to hide and do nothing that would focus anyone's attention. But it did worry me about this new technique of hunting rather than trapping. The one thing, none of us are strong enough to defend is a bullet in the right place. It is easy to avoid capture, but it is more difficult to avoid a moving bullet. And to tell the truth I am not to thrilled that Zach is still around. From all that Logan has told me about him, he may have more personal reasons than just survival. Which kind of grosses me out, but at the same time does make some kind of warped sense. I mean Zach is a soldier and what other kind of woman is going to understand that kind of personality better than a Manticore female. Plus if Zach fell hard for someone he would have a hard time fighting his need to protect them, and protecting one of us is a little easier than protecting an ordinary female.