Chapter Thirty - Insanity At Its Finest
Zack stood inside, pretending not to be uncomfortable in his tuxedo, pretending not to wish he was at home with Paige, pretending he wasn't completely sick of all the lonely women who were hitting on him. He glanced down at the watch Jace had given him for his last birthday, and realized that it was Max was three minutes off schedule, and that was two minutes and forty five seconds more than Zack was comfortable with. So you could easily chalk that up on the long list of things that Zack was quickly growing sick of.
And when he saw Logan burst through the front door, he was fairly sure that everything had gone to hell in a hand-basket.
Zack walked past the short blonde woman who had been boring him to death and intercepted Logan right before he reached the stairs.
"What in the hell are you doing here?" Zack asked in an undertone, trying to keep attention off of them, unsuccessfully. The mystery man from the paper this morning had burst into a formal party wearing jeans and a tee shirt, carrying a gun, running like a bat out of hell. People had no choice but to take notice.
Logan ripped his arm free of Zack's grasp. "Julia is Delaney's daughter." He whispered harshly. Zack dropped his arm, thoroughly shocked. Logan rushed up, taking the steps three at a time. "Where is she?" He asked.
"She hasn't come out of Delaney's office yet. I was just going to go check what was wrong now." Zack said weakly, still shocked that one of their most trusted friends had betrayed them.
Logan tore off, taking the steps three at a time, ran down the hallway, then stopped outside of the door to the office. Taking a deep breath, he brought raised his gun, then burst through the door.
The first thing he saw was Rodney Delaney sitting at his desk, gun pointed at the door and at him. Then he saw Julia standing in the middle of the room. He saw a trail of dark red fabric, and after one long moment, he didn't recognize the crumpled form to be Max.
"Hello Mr. Cale. Nice to see you again." Delaney said as he rose from his chair, keeping his gun trained on Logan.
"What the hell did you do to her?" Logan asked taking another step into the room.
"Oh, she's fine. At least she is for now. My daughter here injected a strong sedative into her neck. That was what, Julia, ten minutes ago?" Delaney skirted the desk as he looked at his daughter questioningly. Julia glanced down at her wristwatch. "Twelve minutes to be exact."
"Oh how time flies when your having fun." Delaney said with a laugh.
"What the hell do you think you are going to get away with? You are at a crowded party, and in about five minutes this room is going to crawling with genetically enhanced killing machines that aren't going to take to kindly to you fucking with their sister."
"Well, I already thought of that. So this is how we are going to start things off." He swung his gun over and fired, hitting Julia squarely in the forehead. Her limp body fell backwards, smashing into a coffee table.
Then Delaney pulled his gun back to Logan. "If I'd shoot my own daughter in the head, you know I wont hesitate to put a bullet into you." His voice had lost the creepy playfulness and was replaced by an icy exactness.
"I told you not to come back. I told you to stay the hell away."
"Well, opps, that seemed to have slipped my mind."
"You don't want to be witty with me, Cale. You made a huge mistake coming back here. You should have stayed dead. You even more to loose then than you did now. Back then you weren't even involved with Miss Guevera. Now all the newspapers are talking about her new boyfriend. You broke your promise, and now you have to pay."
"Do you really think that you can get through me, and the eight trained killers that are by now right outside the door, and get out of here in one piece?"
"Well, those are some bad odds in my case aren't they? Well, I have a gun pointed at you, and you have one pointed at me, this is like a Mexican stand off. But I know your to chicken shit to use it. So what do you say I change the odds a bit more. What do you say I let you love, but I shoot Miss Guevara instead? Sure, I'll be dead, but you'll live the rest of your life know that if you wouldn't have came back she'd be alive."
Delaney swung the gun so he pointed it at Max's unconscious form.
Logan pulled the trigger without blinking. Delaney jerked back as red bloomed on his shirt. His gun dropped limply from his fingers as he dropped to his knees. Logan walked calmly over to him as he fell to the floor. Logan grabbed him by the lapels and pulled him up off the floor. He brought his face close to Delaney's. "Listen, because I am only saying this once. You took five years away from me. You're not going to take another second. After I walk out of this room, I am never going to give you another thought. I hope you have a nice long stay in hell." Logan dropped him back to the floor.
Zack, Krit, and Jondie burst into the room, shocked at what they saw. Rodney Delaney was laying dead on the floor, Julia was dead, her body near the door with a gunshot wound to the head, and Logan was kneeling next to Max's lifeless form.
Logan slipped his arm under Max's head, supporting her neck in the crook of his elbow. He lightly tapped her face with his hand.
"Come one Max, come on, don't leave me." He whispered.
The other X-5s began to move around them, a flurry of motion and sound. Jondie picked up the phone and dialed the police to report a murder/suicide of Rodney and Julia Delaney. Zack pulled out his cell phone and called Tinga, telling her to get all the X-5's back to Max's ASAP. Krit went around the room, gathering all evidence that anyone had been there other than Julia and her father. Krit timed them, telling them when time was up. Max still hadn't regained conciseness so Logan put an arm under her knees and gathered her into his arms.
They moved silently into the hall, taking the back exit into the parking lot. Zack took the keys to Max car and drove it off as Logan laid Max across the back seat of the car and Krit and Jondie piled into the front seats. They pulled out of the parking lot as four police cruisers swung in front of the house, lights and sirens on full.
They made it to the hospital in record time, Logan hopping out of the car with Max still in his arms. He moved quickly into the admitting desk where a nurse who had spotted him coming in the door, ran up with a gurney.
"She was given some sort of poison, I don't know what." The nurse nodded as she doctors ran up and began working over Max's unmoving body. Krit ran up to the gurney and they both moved with them as the nurses and doctors started moving down the hallway. "She is a genetically enhanced prototype." Krit rattled off. "If she needs blood or anything like that you need to come to me or my sister who is coming in now. She has been taking monthly betaseraton injections to control a neurological condition." They both dropped back as the doctors pushed through a door and a nurse held them back saying they couldn't go any farther.
Two hours later, all eleven X-5s were sitting in the waiting room, along with Original Cindy, Sketchy, Herbal, Paige, and several of Max's unidentified friends. Logan sat apart from them all, isolated. He had his elbows on his knees, face in his hands.
A nurse dressed in a stark white uniform walked into the room. Zack jumped to his feet and walked over. "We are waiting on word about Max Guevera."
"Are you family?"
"Yes." All of the X-5s, and Cindy, answered at the same time.
The nurse lifted a brow. "Miss Guevera is now resting comfortably."
"Can we see her?"
"Not all of you can go in there, but I am willing to let one of you stay with her till she wakes up."
Zack was about to walk in, but then he saw Logan who still hadn't looked up at all. He turned and walked over to him, "Cale," Logan looked up. "Go in their and be with her."
Logan weakly stood on shaky legs. He slowly walked towards the nurse. "Tell my boo I said 'hi'." Cindy shouted after him.
Logan walked down the hallway with the nurse. "Hello, I am Anna, I have been working on Max since she has gotten in here. She had a toxin introduced into her blood stream, and we were able to kill it with basic antibiotics. She hasn't woken up yet, but that is to be expected, her body is, in a way, recuperating from the poison."
Logan nodded weakly. "Your not family are you?" Logan shook his head.
"Well this is what I am going to do. It is a general rule that you should only have five minutes with her, but I am going to pretend that I don't know your in there." Anna said as they stopped outside of the closed door of Max's room. "Thank you." He said gratefully, his voice rusty.
He walked into the room slowly to where Max lay, pale and asleep, in the hospital bed. He pulled a chair up next to the bed and sat down, taking Max's limp hand into his. He pressed it against his cheek, studying her face for signs of life. He laid his cheek on her chest and closed his eyes, fighting back tears. He's managed to stay in control even as Delaney pointed the pistol at Max, but seeing her laying in the hospital bed was too much for him to handle.
After about forty-five minutes, Max's eyes fluttered open, blinking at the harsh lights that had invaded her quiet oblivion. She felt a weight on her chest and looked down to find Logan's head resting on her, his eyes closed, his face ashen, deeply asleep.
She lifted an arm, which ended up being a harder task then she thought, and ran it through Logan's messy hair.
His eyes flew open, and he sat up slowly. Before he said a word, Max spoke. "Your not going to say 'I told you so'are you?"
Logan tentatively smiled. "Only if you promise never to do anything that stupid again."
"Now why would I do that? If I never did anything stupid, then there would be absolutely no entertainment in our lives."
Logan smiled, tears filling his eyes again. "You scared the hell out of me."
"I love you." Max said in way of an appolgy.
"I love you too. I am sorry I got all bitchy at you before you left."
"Well, I am sorry I got all bitchy at you for getting bitchy at me. If I would have listened, I wouldn't be here now."
They sat there in silence, hands clenched together. "Do you think Eyes-Only could use another informant?"
"No. But she could use a partner." Max answered softly.
Logan smiled softly as he kissed her hand. "You know." He said conversationally. "We're going to have to get married you know."
Max closed her eyes as a peace ran over her. "That is truly the most half-assed proposal I have ever heard in my life."
"And I wouldn't love you if you couldn't lay there and laugh in my face because of it." Logan said with a small grin.
"How does next Sunday sound to you?" Max asked, toying with Logan's fingers.
"Too far away. Saturday." He replied.
"Agreed."
"If there is one thing I can say it is that I am never going to lead a boring life."
"Absolutely Not. I would never allow it."
Zack stood inside, pretending not to be uncomfortable in his tuxedo, pretending not to wish he was at home with Paige, pretending he wasn't completely sick of all the lonely women who were hitting on him. He glanced down at the watch Jace had given him for his last birthday, and realized that it was Max was three minutes off schedule, and that was two minutes and forty five seconds more than Zack was comfortable with. So you could easily chalk that up on the long list of things that Zack was quickly growing sick of.
And when he saw Logan burst through the front door, he was fairly sure that everything had gone to hell in a hand-basket.
Zack walked past the short blonde woman who had been boring him to death and intercepted Logan right before he reached the stairs.
"What in the hell are you doing here?" Zack asked in an undertone, trying to keep attention off of them, unsuccessfully. The mystery man from the paper this morning had burst into a formal party wearing jeans and a tee shirt, carrying a gun, running like a bat out of hell. People had no choice but to take notice.
Logan ripped his arm free of Zack's grasp. "Julia is Delaney's daughter." He whispered harshly. Zack dropped his arm, thoroughly shocked. Logan rushed up, taking the steps three at a time. "Where is she?" He asked.
"She hasn't come out of Delaney's office yet. I was just going to go check what was wrong now." Zack said weakly, still shocked that one of their most trusted friends had betrayed them.
Logan tore off, taking the steps three at a time, ran down the hallway, then stopped outside of the door to the office. Taking a deep breath, he brought raised his gun, then burst through the door.
The first thing he saw was Rodney Delaney sitting at his desk, gun pointed at the door and at him. Then he saw Julia standing in the middle of the room. He saw a trail of dark red fabric, and after one long moment, he didn't recognize the crumpled form to be Max.
"Hello Mr. Cale. Nice to see you again." Delaney said as he rose from his chair, keeping his gun trained on Logan.
"What the hell did you do to her?" Logan asked taking another step into the room.
"Oh, she's fine. At least she is for now. My daughter here injected a strong sedative into her neck. That was what, Julia, ten minutes ago?" Delaney skirted the desk as he looked at his daughter questioningly. Julia glanced down at her wristwatch. "Twelve minutes to be exact."
"Oh how time flies when your having fun." Delaney said with a laugh.
"What the hell do you think you are going to get away with? You are at a crowded party, and in about five minutes this room is going to crawling with genetically enhanced killing machines that aren't going to take to kindly to you fucking with their sister."
"Well, I already thought of that. So this is how we are going to start things off." He swung his gun over and fired, hitting Julia squarely in the forehead. Her limp body fell backwards, smashing into a coffee table.
Then Delaney pulled his gun back to Logan. "If I'd shoot my own daughter in the head, you know I wont hesitate to put a bullet into you." His voice had lost the creepy playfulness and was replaced by an icy exactness.
"I told you not to come back. I told you to stay the hell away."
"Well, opps, that seemed to have slipped my mind."
"You don't want to be witty with me, Cale. You made a huge mistake coming back here. You should have stayed dead. You even more to loose then than you did now. Back then you weren't even involved with Miss Guevera. Now all the newspapers are talking about her new boyfriend. You broke your promise, and now you have to pay."
"Do you really think that you can get through me, and the eight trained killers that are by now right outside the door, and get out of here in one piece?"
"Well, those are some bad odds in my case aren't they? Well, I have a gun pointed at you, and you have one pointed at me, this is like a Mexican stand off. But I know your to chicken shit to use it. So what do you say I change the odds a bit more. What do you say I let you love, but I shoot Miss Guevara instead? Sure, I'll be dead, but you'll live the rest of your life know that if you wouldn't have came back she'd be alive."
Delaney swung the gun so he pointed it at Max's unconscious form.
Logan pulled the trigger without blinking. Delaney jerked back as red bloomed on his shirt. His gun dropped limply from his fingers as he dropped to his knees. Logan walked calmly over to him as he fell to the floor. Logan grabbed him by the lapels and pulled him up off the floor. He brought his face close to Delaney's. "Listen, because I am only saying this once. You took five years away from me. You're not going to take another second. After I walk out of this room, I am never going to give you another thought. I hope you have a nice long stay in hell." Logan dropped him back to the floor.
Zack, Krit, and Jondie burst into the room, shocked at what they saw. Rodney Delaney was laying dead on the floor, Julia was dead, her body near the door with a gunshot wound to the head, and Logan was kneeling next to Max's lifeless form.
Logan slipped his arm under Max's head, supporting her neck in the crook of his elbow. He lightly tapped her face with his hand.
"Come one Max, come on, don't leave me." He whispered.
The other X-5s began to move around them, a flurry of motion and sound. Jondie picked up the phone and dialed the police to report a murder/suicide of Rodney and Julia Delaney. Zack pulled out his cell phone and called Tinga, telling her to get all the X-5's back to Max's ASAP. Krit went around the room, gathering all evidence that anyone had been there other than Julia and her father. Krit timed them, telling them when time was up. Max still hadn't regained conciseness so Logan put an arm under her knees and gathered her into his arms.
They moved silently into the hall, taking the back exit into the parking lot. Zack took the keys to Max car and drove it off as Logan laid Max across the back seat of the car and Krit and Jondie piled into the front seats. They pulled out of the parking lot as four police cruisers swung in front of the house, lights and sirens on full.
They made it to the hospital in record time, Logan hopping out of the car with Max still in his arms. He moved quickly into the admitting desk where a nurse who had spotted him coming in the door, ran up with a gurney.
"She was given some sort of poison, I don't know what." The nurse nodded as she doctors ran up and began working over Max's unmoving body. Krit ran up to the gurney and they both moved with them as the nurses and doctors started moving down the hallway. "She is a genetically enhanced prototype." Krit rattled off. "If she needs blood or anything like that you need to come to me or my sister who is coming in now. She has been taking monthly betaseraton injections to control a neurological condition." They both dropped back as the doctors pushed through a door and a nurse held them back saying they couldn't go any farther.
Two hours later, all eleven X-5s were sitting in the waiting room, along with Original Cindy, Sketchy, Herbal, Paige, and several of Max's unidentified friends. Logan sat apart from them all, isolated. He had his elbows on his knees, face in his hands.
A nurse dressed in a stark white uniform walked into the room. Zack jumped to his feet and walked over. "We are waiting on word about Max Guevera."
"Are you family?"
"Yes." All of the X-5s, and Cindy, answered at the same time.
The nurse lifted a brow. "Miss Guevera is now resting comfortably."
"Can we see her?"
"Not all of you can go in there, but I am willing to let one of you stay with her till she wakes up."
Zack was about to walk in, but then he saw Logan who still hadn't looked up at all. He turned and walked over to him, "Cale," Logan looked up. "Go in their and be with her."
Logan weakly stood on shaky legs. He slowly walked towards the nurse. "Tell my boo I said 'hi'." Cindy shouted after him.
Logan walked down the hallway with the nurse. "Hello, I am Anna, I have been working on Max since she has gotten in here. She had a toxin introduced into her blood stream, and we were able to kill it with basic antibiotics. She hasn't woken up yet, but that is to be expected, her body is, in a way, recuperating from the poison."
Logan nodded weakly. "Your not family are you?" Logan shook his head.
"Well this is what I am going to do. It is a general rule that you should only have five minutes with her, but I am going to pretend that I don't know your in there." Anna said as they stopped outside of the closed door of Max's room. "Thank you." He said gratefully, his voice rusty.
He walked into the room slowly to where Max lay, pale and asleep, in the hospital bed. He pulled a chair up next to the bed and sat down, taking Max's limp hand into his. He pressed it against his cheek, studying her face for signs of life. He laid his cheek on her chest and closed his eyes, fighting back tears. He's managed to stay in control even as Delaney pointed the pistol at Max, but seeing her laying in the hospital bed was too much for him to handle.
After about forty-five minutes, Max's eyes fluttered open, blinking at the harsh lights that had invaded her quiet oblivion. She felt a weight on her chest and looked down to find Logan's head resting on her, his eyes closed, his face ashen, deeply asleep.
She lifted an arm, which ended up being a harder task then she thought, and ran it through Logan's messy hair.
His eyes flew open, and he sat up slowly. Before he said a word, Max spoke. "Your not going to say 'I told you so'are you?"
Logan tentatively smiled. "Only if you promise never to do anything that stupid again."
"Now why would I do that? If I never did anything stupid, then there would be absolutely no entertainment in our lives."
Logan smiled, tears filling his eyes again. "You scared the hell out of me."
"I love you." Max said in way of an appolgy.
"I love you too. I am sorry I got all bitchy at you before you left."
"Well, I am sorry I got all bitchy at you for getting bitchy at me. If I would have listened, I wouldn't be here now."
They sat there in silence, hands clenched together. "Do you think Eyes-Only could use another informant?"
"No. But she could use a partner." Max answered softly.
Logan smiled softly as he kissed her hand. "You know." He said conversationally. "We're going to have to get married you know."
Max closed her eyes as a peace ran over her. "That is truly the most half-assed proposal I have ever heard in my life."
"And I wouldn't love you if you couldn't lay there and laugh in my face because of it." Logan said with a small grin.
"How does next Sunday sound to you?" Max asked, toying with Logan's fingers.
"Too far away. Saturday." He replied.
"Agreed."
"If there is one thing I can say it is that I am never going to lead a boring life."
"Absolutely Not. I would never allow it."