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Finally, someone reviewed chapter five! But, did you mean Unthinkable, let's organize a witch hunt against this author!, or Unthinkable, but hallelujah it's an A.U. story!, what?
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Max clung to Zack as they (once again) headed for the border. Her thoughts, of course, were on the baby growing inside of her. She'd grabbed a book on babies before they left, so she knew the person she was mentally talking to didn't have ears yet. Man, this kid was going to be lucky to get out of her alive, let alone grow up with her, and eventually live by itself. Zack just didn't figure into the whole picture, not that she didn't want him there, but it wasn't where she thought he would be. Circumstances change, she told herself sternly. That sounded a little too Manticorian to her. Shit happens. Better.

Four Days Later, Chicago

Max lay dozing on her bed in the tiny apartment Zack had found. They weren't staying here, but Max felt like she was trapped. Logan didn't want her, she'd left Seattle (even if she was there she would have to quit her job, she couldn't deliver packages for atleast ten months), and she was stuck with Zack for awhile. She loved her brother, but he wasn't someone she wanted to live with. She started to play a farmiliar game with herself: If We Had Been Normal Kids. Max smiled at the thought of flying wedgies and hair pulling and pillow fights. Of course, if Lydecker and Renfro were our parents, we'd probably be serial killers by now. But they weren't normal kids. She couldn't run forever, that wouldn't be fair to her baby. She could give it up for adoption and stay hidden forever. But her heart ached so badly when she wondered where her own mother was now. She could wait until after the baby was born and give it to Logan, run. But again, it would be worse. Max felt like she was running out of options. She could always (and she had to swallow to even think it) try to love Zack as she loved... Tell her kid he was the father, and if he left, he had problems. Do you really think you could do that to yourself, to your baby. Cause eventually it won't be a baby anymore, and it will want answers. You won't want to lie forever, like you were lied to. Logan has to know this kid, if nothing else, half those chromosomes are his.
She started to cry. Zack came in.

Max? Are you all right? he asked. He didn't want to be mean, she was pregnant.
She looked up at him and tried to smile. But it faltered through the tears, and she buried her face in her hands.

Zack stood uneasily. Max had punched him the last time she was upset. Her doctor said it was a normal hormone imbalance, but Zack knew she was depressed. Max seemed to live for the phone ringing. She had two moods pertaining to it: happy to hear Logan's voice, or sad not hear Logan's voice. Happy didn't last very long. He hated not knowing what to do. Oh no, you know what to do, that stupid maniacal voice whispered in his ear. It was killing him to see her this way, but it would kill her eventually. Pretty soon, she would hit the glass ceiling. Zack was worried about the baby. He didn't like that it was even coming into being, but he couldn't stop it, and it was his nephew or neice. Would Max hurt the baby? No, he had decided. Because she would see it as hurting Logan. But would she hurt herself? See it as getting out of the way of her baby's life? Zack was very, very afraid of the answer.

Max stopped crying abruptly. She lifted her head.
Zack asked. Timidly?
What the hell am I going to do, Zack? All I wanted was to be reasonably normal, and I was so close. Normal girls have told me that you know you've met the perfect guy when you don't want to run off and dress up for him. I never felt like I should in the first place. But Logan made me feel like I shoud be a better person. You know, be cheerful when he's sad, stuff like that. But he didn't want me for the most frickin' legitimate reason possible: he didn't like me for me.
It really scared him. Not her words. But Max was so calm, like she was reading from someone else's life. He wanted her, no, he wanted her happy and safe, but he couldn't...

Zack knelt down in front of her.
No, Max. That's not true. He absolutley loves you.