Disclaimer: Don't own them; don't make any money from them; just like to play with them!
Logan woke up to find himself in one of the cabin's bedrooms, lying in bed with several blankets thrown over him. His clothes were on a chair in easy reach and his wheelchair was waiting next to the bed. Blinking to clear the sleep from his eyes he remembered the events of the night before. In the cold morning light they seemed like a dream especially in light of his waking in the bed and not on the rug in front of the fireplace. Shrugging he managed to get himself dressed and out of bed into his chair. Judging by the light it was still early but he was anxious to get moving.
He rolled into the main room of the cabin where he found Max curled up on one of the couches contemplating the dead fire. When he entered she looked up, expression unreadable. Sitting on the table was a plate with the remains of their S'mores from the night before and two empty wineglasses.
"Morning." he tried casually deciding to let her set the tone. She smiled at him and rose from the couch, stretching in a way that reminded him of a cat.
"Morning. I'm starving. Any chance of breakfast around this place? I made some coffee but that's the extent of my culinary skills." At her words he realized that he had been smelling the coffee for several moments now and could definitely use a cup.
"Pour me some coffee and I'm your willing slave." he teased heading for the kitchen, Max following. While she prepared his coffee for him he rummaged in the pantry looking for something he could do for breakfast.
"No eggs, no milk, no butter but there's some bread left and some oil and cinnamon. How does cinnamon toast sound?"
"Logan you're a marvel, I thought I was going to have to eat stale bread with no butter."
Strolling over and handing him a mug of steaming coffee she briefly reached down and lightly touched his shoulder. In his turn he let his hands linger over hers for a moment as he took the mug from her. Both were silent as he prepared the food and they hungrily ate it.
Finished, Logan looked up at Max, considering his next move.
"So Max about last night…" he began but she quickly cut him off.
"Logan I had a beautiful dream last night. I hope you did too. But that was last night.
I have to forget about dreams in the day – they could get me and you killed." her voice was serious and her eyes pleading as she looked into his.
"Max, I'll respect your feelings for now; I agreed last night. But I give you fair warning that I'm not satisfied with the occasional 'dream'. I want more than that and I intend to get it. My patience isn't endless." His eyes were intense with emotion as he
gave her his answer and she felt an answering spark leap inside of her.
She opened her mouth to go on when they were interrupted by Logan's cel phone ringing.
"Cale, here." he answered and she strained her enhanced hearing to pick up the other side of the conversation. Smiling he gestured her over and held the phone from his ear so she could easily hear Bling's voice on the other end.
"What's up Man? I got a call from some dude this morning, strange sounding voice, and he told me you were out of town and not to go over to your place until I heard from you.
Everything okay with you and Max?"
Logan grinned at his inclusion of Max and gave her a look with raised eyebrows while she shrugged and rolled her eyes.
"It's all good Bling. Just had to take care of some business out of town. I'll give you a call when I'm back. By the way if you notice anyone or anything strange going on around you give me a call. There's some stuff going down. I don't think you're involved but watch your back."
"Thanks, boss man. By the way I don't know if you heard but another honcho from Cale Industries got whacked last night. Same deal as your uncle. Name was Gil something. You watch your back; you too Max."
"Thanks Bling, we'll be careful" Logan broke the connection frowning. "Gil was killed the same way as my uncle. Doesn't make sense, he had control of the technology."
"Makes sense if he sold it to someone else and that someone else wanted to get rid of everyone who might know about it. Logan, can you get a list of Cale Industries employees? Might be interesting to see if there have been any other unexplained deaths in the last few days." Logan was already on his way to the other room where he had left his laptop the night before. Setting it up he quickly connected to his main system and was soon lost in his work. Max roamed the cabin, picking up and cleaning the dirty dishes from the night before and from breakfast, as he worked. Finally he grunted in satisfaction and called her over.
"Bingo. In the last three days four Cale industries employees have suddenly become deceased. And, interesting fact, all of them worked for the R&D division on one particular project."
"Can you tell what the project was?" she asked.
"Not from this database but I'd bet it had something to do with hoverdrone guidance systems." She nodded in agreement.
"So who do you think the black hats are, Logan?"
"What governmental covert agency would love to get their hands on this kind of technology and wouldn't hesitate to kill to erase all traces of it?"
"Manticore."
"That's my guess." he agreed. "So in addition to a radio tracking device in your neck and
a trace on Eyes Only they now have hoverdrone stealth killer technology."
"The party gets to be more and more fun." she agreed.
"I better call Sebastian to find out what progress he's made on the transmitter. I also want to see if he can dig anything out of the Manticore database relating to the hoverdrone technology." Max nodded and waited as he made the connection. Logan spoke briefly to Sebastian and then hung up his phone.
"He's making progress and thinks he'll have something by tomorrow for the implant. He's going to hack back into Manticore and let us know if he finds anything. He's also going to set up something that should get Lydecker off the back of Eyes Only."
"So now what?" Max asked.
"So now we go get some food. I've about exhausted my culinary miracles on the supplies here. There's a little town up the road, very isolated and shy of strangers. They know me but won't talk to easily to anyone unknown showing up and asking questions." He grabbed his leather jacket and threw it over his shoulders heading to the door, Max following.
Several hours later they returned to the cabin, the car filled with bags of food and supplies. Max carried them in while Logan arranged the food in the cabinets. Finishing he turned to her with a smile.
"If you bring in some more firewood for the stove, I'll get something going for dinner."
She smiled back and headed for the back door. "Deal I can't refuse." They worked in comfortable harmony, Max bringing in the wood and starting up the stove, while Logan prepared the food. Placing the last of his pots on the stove to simmer he pushed back.
"Nothing to do now but wait for it to cook. Why don't you get some wine and we can
relax in the other room for a while." Max complied bringing the clean glasses they had used the night before and pulling a bottle of wine from the sideboard as Logan transferred from chair to couch. Stiff from being in his chair all day and missing his daily physical therapy with Bling he groaned slightly in the process.
Alarmed Max was at his side. "Logan are you okay?"
"It's just that I'm used to my workout and Bling's massage afterwards. I'll be okay."
"We don't have workout equipment here but why don't you let me try to work out some of the kinks for you?" she suggested.
"If you're sure you don't mind."
"I wouldn't offer if I did. Pull off your shirt and lay on your stomach and let me see what I can do." Grateful for her offer he complied and she helped him roll onto his stomach. Glad he was on his stomach facing away from her she stared for a moment at the expanse of his naked back. His shoulders had broadened from the intense upper body workout regime Bling had him on and from there his back tapered in a V down to his slim waist. She could see his new muscles under the smooth skin, which was marred only by the beginnings of an ugly scar starting just above the waist of his pants. Caught in the moment she remembered the feel of his back under her hands the night before and felt a shiver go through her body.
"Max? You still there? It's a little chilly without a shirt."
"Sorry Logan." she quickly began to knead his back, finding the knots and working tosmooth them out. He slowly relaxed as he felt his tension ease under her strong hands. In no time he was drifting away, lost in thoughts of the night before and how those same hands had felt on his body then.
"Logan. Logan wake up. I think the food's ready." Max's words brought him back to reality. She was sitting on the couch next to his hip and her hands were resting lightly on his back. He rolled himself over to his side and as she started to rise caught her hand pulling her back down next to him.
"We still have some time. Don't go." Caught in the look he was giving her she remained seated next to him. She was intensely aware of his bare chest and wanted nothing more than to run her fingers lightly over it. As if reading her mind Logan lifted her hand and placed it over his heart. She felt his pulse, steady at first, give a quick leap and then begin to accelerate. Her own heart seemed to jump in conjunction and she felt her breathing quicken. For long moments they sat there not moving simply staring into each other's eyes. Max could feel the force of Logan's will beating at her, urging her on.
Slowly, she leaned into him and placed her lips on his in a light kiss. He returned it, not pressuring but promising pleasure and more if she continued. She understood his message perfectly. He wouldn't push or force, the choice was hers, but he was going to do whatever he could to influence her decision. Lifting her lips from his, she smiled at him.
"I'm starved. If you want me to continue your physical therapy for you you'll have to feed me first." Her words promised more to come and he nodded, satisfied with his progress.
Dinner was a hearty beef stew, thick and filling, accompanied by fresh crusty rolls and butter. Afterwards they lingered over coffee and a dessert of fresh baked apple pie from the small town's bakery that Max had been unable to resist when she had seen it in the shop window. Finally they were finished and Max quickly cleared the table leaving the dishes to soak in hot water.
Logan returned to the main room where he kindled the fire he had laid earlier. Once satisfied that it was well under way he booted up his laptop and checked for emails. Sebastian had sent one and opening it and reading he was frowning when Max came into the room.
"What is it Logan?" she was quick to pick up on his mood.
"Not good news. It seems that Manticore is involved with the hoverdrones from what Sebastian has been able to find out. It also seems that there's another player in Manticore besides Lydecker. Sebastian can't quite get what 's going on but it doesn't sound good."
"What about the implant?"
"He wants me to call in the morning. He thinks he's got it licked but he'll know for sure by then. We'll have to go back to Seattle for him to fix it though."
"So?"
"It's a risk. They may be tracking it now, just waiting for you to come into range. You could be walking into a trap."
"What choice do I have? If I leave it in eventually they'll get close enough to me to find me. I have to get it disabled." Logan nodded unhappily, also thinking of Sebastian's words about the implant's effect on Max's seizures. There really was no choice but he didn't like it. Not only would Max be in danger but he didn't want to put Sebastian in harms way.
"Nothing we can do tonight. Maybe Sebastian will have some more concrete data in the morning so we won't be going in blind." He shut down the laptop and disconnected it for the night, not wanting to leave anything open that could lead to a possible trace of their location. So far his firewalls were not reporting any attempts to breach them but he preferred to take no chances.
"Want me to finish up your physical therapy now?" Max interrupted his thoughts and he glanced up startled.
"My back feels great." he replied "You have the magic touch, even better than Bling but don't tell him I said so."
"What about your legs? Doesn't he usually work on those too?" she questioned. Logan hesitated a moment.
"Well yes but I wasn't sure you would want to. I mean it might not be a good idea for you to…" he trailed off hesitant to go further.
"Logan, what are you trying to say?" she asked impatiently. "I offered to work on your legs for you. What's the issue?"
"The issue is that I made a promise to you last night. I'm only human, Max. Before was hard enough for me I'm about at the end of my resistance." His eyes searched hers to see if she understood his meaning. Max felt a tremor of anticipation shoot through her and slowly she smiled at him.
"Logan, look outside the windows. It's night again."
"And that means?"
"It means that it's all good. We can let ourselves dream, at least for tonight."
He looked at her intently giving her time to change her mind. Max steadfastly returned his look then turned and walked towards the bedroom. Looking back over her shoulder she teasingly called out to him as he sat there caught off guard.
"Do you prefer the floor? I thought the bed would be easier on your back."
Logan laughed at her words suddenly lighthearted. "Then let it be the bed by all means."
TBC…