Max decided not to call Logan.
She went to his Penthouse instead. She wanted to see him, so she wasn't about to let IT change anything of their lives. 'The goal is to not have
too much changes, right? Change is bad, very bad.' She was trying to convice herself...Too much maybe. 'So I go in, and talk to him as any other
day, and if he wants to say something about IT, I just tell him IT was a mistake! Right...a mistake.' She stoped in front of the front door, her
arm up to her head, ready to knock, but not doing so. 'You're a soldier Max, feelings aren't suppose to be in your genetic code.' She hold her
breath, ready to win the battle. She knocked and opened the door. Logan was in the living room, he raised his head and looked up at Max. She could
see the surprise in his face, because she's usually never there at this hour of the morning. He smiled at her. Her heart just twist and she felt
herself melting. 'I can't do this...I'm not strong enough! Not strong? Isn't that crap or what?!...I guess I'm human after all!'

" Hey." He said to her, his eyes stuck on her.

"Hello." She replied. 'Stop staring at me like that! Am I blushing?'

Logan didn't really know what to do, again. Yesterday he'd make the mistake of letting her go...He studied Max's face and came to the conclusion
that she didn't close an eye all night. 'Neither did I.'

"Where's my girl?" Max asked, trying to break the ice. She looked around and did not see Sophie.

"She's taking a bath with Bling." He saw Max's subtle smile on the corner of her lip. "Well, I meant he's giving HER a bath."
He laughed nervously.

" Oh!, I understood the first time." Anxiety pumped up in her veins, she cough nervously, looking everywhere but at Logan. 'Kill me
now!'

"Look Max." Logan began to say, suddenly being more confident. "About yesterday." He stoped talking, swallowed, and bit his
cheeks from inside his mouth. "I think that we should..."

"Stay friends?" Max cut him up front, her heart was pumping two hundred miles an hour, scared as hell, and not about to let him say it at
her place, so she did. Logan's face got blank.

" Exactly, friends." He said back. 'NO!Not at all...that wasn't what I was about to say!, he shouted in his head, I meant to say: take
it one day at a time...Not FRIENDS?...For the love of Mike, kill me now!...Don't you see the rope tied around my throat?' He tried not to let
his feelings being transparent to Max.

" Good. I'm glad you think it too." She made an approval sign with her head. The inspiration she just took was so hard, it was like she
had razor blades in her throat. 'GLAD? Crap!...I'm not glad at all!'

Logan thought the breath she just took was for relief. 'Couldn't you be just a little bit more discreet? Just push me over the balcony for god's
sake!'

Bling got out with Sophie in his arms. Max took her from him, happy to occupy herself with anything, just to ease the pain she had just seen in
Logan's face.

" I'll go clean up the bathroom. This little girl makes a lot of mess in a tub!" While walking back to the bathroom, he glanced at Logan
and Max. 'What's with the two of them...they look like somebody died.'

" Hello Boo!" Sophie was very pretty in her blue dress. "Humm, you smell good!" Max kissed her on the forehead.
"Aunty Max has the whole day off with you!" She sat on the right side of the cough, and looked up at Logan.

"She'll miss you." He said to Max.

"Me too." Sophie took a lock of Max's hair in her hand and studied it. "Looks very interresting Boo?" She smiled while a
tear fell on her cheek.

Logan regained self composure and rolled his chair near them. He stoped aside of Max. He looked at her and wiped away the tear from her face with
his right hand, which he lay there on her cheek, and not for a single solitary second did his eyes left her sight. Max closed her eyes and
pressed her cheek in his palm, leaning her head a little toward him. She suddenly stared at him, and he understood everything. He made a slight
smile at Max, and he felt his eyes starting to get watery. He swallowed his pride for once in his life.

" Who are we kidding Max?" He paused a moment, clearing his voice. "Friends?" He managed a smile. "It's already too
late for that." Sophie became agitated and Max put her on the floor.

" I know...but what if..?" She started to say to Logan, but she got stoped by his kiss. He gently pressed his lips over hers, taking the
time to taste them, since the overwelmed feeling and hurry of a first kiss was done. Max answered back, taking her arms around his neck, in a way that Logan
coudn'd go very far without her, and They just kissed each other with great sensuousness.

Bling got out of the bathroom and froze when he saw them. 'Finaly.' He couldn't help but look. 'Good God!' He hurried back to the room he was
just in, before they could feel his presence. 'With that heat, I couldn't stay frozen forever...' He laughed at himself.

Logan broke the kiss first and took Max in his arms. They stood like this for I don't know how long, it seemed eternity.

"Don't you think I wasn't up all night too, asking myself tons of 'what ifs' ? Don't you think I don't know this could change everything?
But it's too late now Max." He took her face in his hands and looked at her. "We can't just act like nothing happened? We already care too
much. So YES, it could interfere in our judgement, but what can we honestly do about it now?" He looked so sincere.

"Logan." Max began to say. "I've lost a lot of dear people in my life." She tried to get the right words out of her mouth.
"And not that before it didn't matter or anything, but now the missions we do are appearing to me in a very different perspective."

" I know. Getting you hurt or wathever is the last thing I want, and not to overrule Lydecker."

" Yeah, I never know when he could just step in my face." You know I could get caught, and bring back at Manticore...

" There's a lot of possibilities Max, and I'm aware of their existance. But we can't cut ourselves from the outside world. We will deal
with what comes when it will come, OK?" He smiled at Max, hiding the fact that he was scared to death to loose her one day.

" Sure, we managed so far, right?" Max saw hope in front of her.

"Exactly. Aren't we just the best team!" He smiled back at her.

" We are." They heard noises.

Bling came out of the bathroom.
"...Ahem...I'll leave you two love birds for a while, I have to go somewhere..." And he got out s fast as he came out.

They both looked at the closed door and burst into laughs.


MEANWHILE...
Lydecker was reading the informations he just got from his computer. Hesmiled.

"You'll be mine Max..."