Disclaimer: You know the routine...don't own...blah blah...not mine..blah blah..no money being made...blah blah. This is just a way for me to waste time at work. Plus, if I owned Logan/Michael Weatherly, he would be a too busy modeling nude for me and he wouldn't be have time to film Dark Angel.

Spoilers: Post "Rising" but before "The Kidz Are Aiight" Will contain spoilers from Pollo Loco and Hit A Sista Back in upcoming chapters.

A/N: I am sooo sorry I haven't updated this in like a month. I took over a new role at my job and I haven't been able to sit down and write without being interrupted or coming up with anything that wasn't pure crap. Oh, another thing, I am not a doctor/scientist or even anything remotely like that. In fact, I failed Biology in high school- so, if some of this doesn't make sense, I'm sorry. This is for pure entertainment purposes!

By the way, this chapter might be total mule puke because I am sort of time crunched at work, but I desperately wanted to update my story!

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The Enemy Within

Chapter 5
No Other Way

"Lydecker," the throaty voice on the other end answered. Max cringed at the sound and fought down the fear that was threatening to rise in her throat.

"I want to make a deal with you." Max began without greeting, her voice flat and emotionless. She glanced down at Logan and clenched her teeth. She had to go through with this. She wasn't going to let him die. She couldn't live with it if the blood she had given him would ultimately lead to his death.

"Max?" Lydecker questioned, sounding shocked to hear her.

"Yes. Listen, I have the man from Dr. Carr's office. You would be interested in him. I gave him two transplants in the past couple of months. He was paraplegic at one point. My first transfusion helped him regain feeling and little movement. My second one helped him begin walking again."

"This does interest me, Max." Lydecker said. "Why are you calling me about it? Ahh, he's having problems, isn't he?" His voice lowered, became almost soft and nurturing. "I can help him. You know that, don't you?"

"Yes. I want you to look at him." Max looked up and realized that Bling had pulled off the road. He was staring back at her, a bleak expression on his face. They both knew what was coming. They both understood exactly what Max was going to have to give up in order to save Logan's life.

"Well, Max. I think I can do that. Believe it or not, I am not the Devil's incarnate." Lydecker's voice was friendly, and she could even hear a smile in it over the phone. He knew he had the upper hand, and he was going to manipulate it. But even then, there was no hiding the cold steel underlying his mild manner.

"I'll with hold judgment on that." Max replied sarcastically. She was growing impatient. "What do you say, Deck? You gonna help him, or not?"

"Of course, Max. Of course. There is just one thing, though. If I'm gonna do
you this little favor, I expect one in return."

"I never assumed you wouldn't." she said, her voice flat. It was coming, and she was prepared.

"Then you know what I'm going to say. I expect that you are willing to turn yourself in then?"

"I am." She answered. "I will contact you in twenty minutes with the meeting location. You will be there an hour after I give you the information. Just you, a couple of guards, and some medics that can help Cale. I will be there with him, and no one else. I will come unarmed. Expect my call." With that, she hung up the phone, and her fate was sealed.

"Max," Logan's gruff, shaky voice called. She looked down at him. Her best friend, her confidant, the only person she had ever truly allowed herself to get close to, lay so helpless and vulnerable in her lap. His usually bright cerulean eyes were now bleak and tired. He had already mentally given up, she could see it. But she, a superhuman, transgenic, hodgepodge of a girl could fight for the both of them; she would fight for the both of them.

"You can't do this, you are not going back there." Logan attempted to sound strong and commanding, but his weakening body betrayed him, and he had started to shake even harder as he was speaking, his voice breaking up by the racking of his body.

"Logan, there is no other alternative that I can think of right now. You need to see a doctor-a Manticore doctor-quickly. You are not going to change my mind."

"Logan, she's right." Bling piped up from the front. "You need a doctor, and fast. I'll get you both back, don't you worry about it. I promise." Even Bling was starting to choke up. His eyes had become glassy from the tears that were forming, but the look on his face was one of sheer determination. Logan believed him. Bling would get them out somehow.

He turned his attention back to Max, and framed her face with his hands. He locked his gaze with hers and looked at her intensely, as if he was memorizing every minute detail about her. "Max," he began brokenly "I would rather die than to see you go back to Manticore."

"Logan" Max whispered, and briefly closed her eyes to stop the tears that were once again threatening to fall. She was trying so hard not to break, but couldn't help cracking a little. "I would rather go back to Manticore than to see you die. I can live in Manticore. I don't think I could live without you." She opened her eyes, and in them all of her emotions reflected there for him to see-confusion, pain, despair, worry, and something else, Logan couldn't quite put his finger on. Something that made him hope he made it through this alive, so he could find out what it was. Something that made him think there could be a future for Max and him after all. She had only been this open with him once before, and that was when Max thought she was leaving Seattle -and Logan- for good to hide from Lydecker. That look had followed with a fervent kiss driven by the fear that that would be the last time they would see each other, and the unspoken passion that had delicately built between them in the preceding months.

"Max-" Logan began, but was cut off by the press of her fingers on his lips.

"Not now, Logan. I have to call him back. But this will work out, I promise."

She stayed focused on Logan while she dialed. They both seemed unable to break eye contact, as if they knew they would not see one another for a long, long time-if ever again. Even as Lydecker answered on the other end, and Max arranged for the meeting, they were trapped in there own thoughts-thoughts that were shared with the other by nothing less than a stare.
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Bling drove them toward their destination. He was to drop them off a half mile from the set meeting point, and Max would take Logan the rest of the way. After the drop off, Bling was to leave immediately, and follow the instructions Max had given him as soon as he returned.

During the drive, no one uttered a word, but the tension in the car was thick. Logan's shakes were getting worse as time went on, and as they progressed, Max became even more assured she was doing the right thing. She held Logan's hand in hers, and they both clung tightly, afraid to let the other go. They gazed fixedly at one another, almost afraid to look away. They were willing each other on, giving each other comfort and strength. Strength they knew they would both desperately need in what was sure to be desolate and trying days ahead of them.

Logan loved her. He was now sure he did. He wanted to tell her how he felt before they parted. She had saved him, in so many ways. It was almost ironic-now, when he was so weak physically-even weaker than he was in the wheelchair, he finally found the strength emotionally to tell her what he had been so damn scared of before.

Finally, Logan broke the silence. "Max, I lo-" Once again, he was cut off by her; unable to finish something that had eluded him for months.

"Not yet." Max interrupted. "Give me something to look forward to for the next time I see you again. And I will see you again. Don't doubt that. This isn't goodbye."

"Okay," Logan said thickly. "Next time,"

"Yeah, next time," she said, and squeezed his hand tighter.

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Lydecker was waiting for them in the deserted warehouse that had been agreed on. After this, they would all board a helicopter for the journey back to Wyoming. The medical personnel that Max had requested immediately began working on Logan, setting him on a stretcher and hooking an IV up to his arm. He looked so pale and so sick lying there. He had fallen back asleep as she had brought him here, wheeling him in the chair he dreaded so much. She watched as he was put into the one of two SUV's that had been waiting inside the building for them, careful to keep her face devoid of emotion.

"You disappoint me, Max." Lydecker greeted her in a patronizing manner, not being fooled for a minute by her blank expression. Her actions alone proved just how much this Cale man meant to her.

"How will you ever find it in your heart to forgive me?" She asked. "Oh, wait-you don't have a heart. I almost forgot." Lydecker's goons circled around her and quickly shackled her in foot and handcuffs. She gave them both a menacing stare, but made no attempt to escape.

"Such a smart mouth you have, Max. We'll have to take care of that, and teach you respect. You will learn again."

"Maybe I don't want to be an A+ student," she retorted.

"You will be, once I'm done with you. If you give me any trouble, don't think I won't kill him. I will. I promise you that." With that remark, Lydecker began leading Max to the other black SUV, and the long return back to Manticore.