~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter
2 - Journey
Logan stirred some cream into his coffee as he regarded the
man who sat across from him. Davis
hadn't changed much at all, as far as Logan could tell. He was still eagerly pursuing his Hollywood
dream, and by the number of films, shows and plays he had under his belt, his
dream had become a reality. He hadn't
changed very much physically, either, except for a few stands of premature gray
hair at his temples. And for the
prodigious amounts of coffee he's now able to drink, Logan silently amended
as Davis poured himself another cup.
"Fantastic stuff, Cale, you're going to have to tell me where
you managed to score this." Davis took
a large, appreciative swallow of the steaming black liquid.
"Black market," Logan replied smoothly.
Davis choked. "Are you
kidding me? Mr. Boy Scout himself,
Logan Cale, involved in black marketeering? Good Lord, the times have certainly changed, haven't they?" he shook his
head in amazement. "Well, the least I
can do is threaten to expose you to the proper authorities, not that there are
many left these days."
Logan's eyes danced in humor. "Blackmail and extortion?"
"Self-defense," Davis replied dryly. "You've never had to drink the coffee down in Hollywood."
"Done." Logan
chuckled. "Speaking of Hollywood,
how're Kelli and the kids?"
"Kelli is perfect, as ever, and is still trying to figure out
how I managed to talk her into marrying me. Meghan is five now and Ryan will be all of three years old next
month. The pair of them are miniature
terrors. I kept telling Kel that we
should've just gotten a dog. At least
it's legal to put a dog in a kennel for a week and go on vacation, but noooo,
she had to go and procreate." Davis
rolled his eyes and took another swig of coffee. "Damn, I miss them."
"Glad to hear that they're all doing ok." Logan took a sip of his coffee and
smiled. "So tell me, how did you manage
to be the producer of a play based on my story?"
"I guess I just pissed somebody off," Davis shrugged as Logan
laughed. "Seriously, Gideon sent me the
play about half a year ago, then promptly lost himself in Europe. My assistant accidentally sent it to one of
the directors I was working with at the time, along with a whole score of other
plays, and it was just luck of the draw that your story was the one he decided
he wanted to do. I hadn't even read the
damn thing, and here this director is, tossing ideas for staging and casting at
me like I knew what the hell he was actually talking about." Davis briefly rubbed his temples and
sighed. "I read the play, then picked
up a copy of the book and read that. The director is nuts. It's
supposed to be a dramatic love story, and he's turning it into a
slapstick. I need you, Cale. One of the quirks this director has is a
tendency to kiss major ass and to hold book authors in high esteem. Ok, so that's two tendencies, but if I bring
in the author of the original story, I'll get two for the price of one. Besides, you look like you could use a vacation."
Logan sighed deeply, absently tracing one finger along the
grain of the table. He's right, I do
need a vacation, he thought to himself. But Vancouver in March isn't really my first choice of vacation
spots. Still, curled up on a couch with
Max in front of a roaring fire doesn't sound bad at all. Hell, I've got the couch and fireplace here,
but I sincerely doubt that I could get Max to sit still long enough to curl up
in front of it with me. Maybe getting
us out of Seattle for a while has some possibilities after all. Logan looked up from his musings and
regarded his friend with a steady stare. "Ok, I'll do it." He held up a
hand to forestall Davis' shout of triumph. "On a few conditions. One, I
don't go up there as Logan Cale, I go up there as Cale Anson. Two, Max comes with me."
Davis grinned. "Not a
problem, on either count. I figured
that you'd want your lady up there with you. The nights get colder in Vancouver than they do here, you know." He wagged his eyebrows at Logan
suggestively.
For a moment, Logan seriously wondered if Davis had somehow
tapped into his thoughts. Dismissing
the notion as absurd, Logan shook his head and spouted off his well-used denial. "It's not like that. We don't have that kind of a relationship."
Davis snorted. "Why
the hell not? You two looked pretty
into each other last night."
"It's…. complicated."
"Do you love her?"
"What?"
"You heard me. Do.
You. Love. Her. I'm not speaking
Swahili, am I? I certainly hope not,
because I never learned it." Logan
stared down into his coffee and didn't reply. "Logan. Logan!" Davis reached across the table and smacked
Logan upside the head.
"What was that for?"
"Cause you're an idiot, that's why." Davis sighed heavily and changed the subject. "Ok, drop that. So when can I expect Cale Anson and Max to arrive in Vancouver?"
"Nicole."
"What?"
"Nicole, not Max."
"Did I hit you too hard in the head?" Davis asked.
"No, you didn't hit me too hard in the head," Logan
mimicked. "Max will go up as Nicole, my
assistant."
"Nicole Anson?" Davis smirked.
"Nicole Williams," Logan shot back. "How long will you need us ..uh, me up there?"
"Just until opening
night in a couple of weeks."
"Can the production company afford two rooms for two weeks?"
Logan asked.
Knowing perfectly well that the production company could
afford an entire hotel of rooms for a month, Davis shook his head in
negation. "Mmmmm… they're more likely
to go for one of the little multi-room cabins located near the site. That way you can meet with the rest of the
crew as needed," came the reply. "You
and Max, excuse me, Nicole, will have to share." He managed to keep the amusement out of his face, his expression
completely neutral, as he waited for Logan's response.
Logan's eyes narrowed in suspicion, but he nodded his
acceptance. "Ok, we'll be there."
*******
"Two weeks? Logan, I
can't get away for two weeks." Max
paced back and forth across the floor of Logan's living room. "Normal has a fit when I'm gone for a single
day, how in the world am I going to get him to let me go for two weeks?"
Logan sighed in frustration. "How long do you think you would be able to get away?"
"A week, at the most. Normal was so thankful that we saved him from defenestration that he
graciously gave us each a week of vacation. Not paid, of course, but he did say that he wouldn't fire us. In his eyes, I guess that's payment
enough." Max collapsed on the couch and
looked back up at Logan.
"I guess a week will have to do," he replied. "I'll fly up on Monday, then pick you up at
the airport that Friday night. We'll
stay through the week, then fly back down together the following Sunday."
Max nodded. "Yeah,
that'll work." She looked up at him
with a mock glare on her face. "You'd
better not hook up with some wannabe starlet during the week and leave me
stranded at the cold, empty airport, either."
"Ahhhh, I'm wounded. How could you think so little of me?" he teased her. His eyes twinkled with humor as he grinned
down at her. "I'll call you while I'm
there."
"Every night?"
"Every night."
She nodded at him. "Ok. But you better not forget,
or I'll kick your ass."
"I promise."
*******
"I'm going to kick his ass," Max fumed.
"Calm down, girl," Original Cindy sipped her beer. "The boy has called you every night this
week. He's probably just working late
or something."
"He's there as an artistic advisor. There's nothing to work late on." Max glared at her beer angrily, as if it could offer some insight
into the male psyche, then stood up and began to pace. Why am I acting like this? Max wondered. I'm not due to go into heat for at least
another month. Damn that Logan! How can he do this to me from over 200 miles
away?
Kendra's knowing smirk interrupted Max's train of
thought. "Sexual frustration. Happens to me all the time."
Max turned around to look at her friend, incredulous. "Excuse me?"
"Sexual frustration. Logan's out of town and all your sexual energy is building up because
you don't have a release for it."
"Logan and I -" The ringing of the phone cut Max off mid-sentence. She started to dive for the receiver, then
visibly composed herself. Casually, she
walked over picked up the receiver. "Hello?" she asked, her demure tone at complete odds with her mood prior
to the ringing of the phone. Original
Cindy and Kendra collapsed on to the couch in a fit of laughter. Max glared at them.
"Ahhhh, amour," Kendra sighed.
"You said it, homegirl," Original Cindy agreed.
"Max, you there?" Logan's voice came over the phone.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm here. 'Sup?" Max tried to act
nonchalant, as if she hadn't been furious at Logan only moments before.
"Snowstorm," was the reply. "All the cells are down, and I only managed to get a land line by
driving down to Delta."
A delighted smile slowly spread across Max's face. "You didn't drive over 40 miles in a
snowstorm just to call me, did you?" she asked softly.
Logan's voice was quiet. "I promised, Max." He paused,
listening to the silence coming from the other end of the line. "You didn't think I was going to call, did
you?"
Max shrugged. "No big
dealio. I just figured you were working
late or something."
"Right." Logan sighed,
guessing that Max had probably been spitting nails. "Remind me to kick your ass when you get up here tomorrow night,"
he mock growled at her.
"Oh, you could try," Max teased.
Logan smiled into his receiver, knowing that he had cheered
her up. "Might be fun. Listen, I have to go. I have to get back on the road if I don't
want to get snowed in to Delta tonight. See you tomorrow, Max."
"Yeah, see you tomorrow." Smiling to herself, Max hung up the phone carefully. As far as she was concerned, tomorrow night
wasn't going to arrive nearly quick enough.
*******
The airplane ride was completely uneventful and mercifully
short. The plane had barely gained
altitude before it started on it's decent into Vancouver International
Airport. Max looked at her passport and
checkpoint papers again. Nicole
Williams, Personal Assistant to Cale Anson. Identification, passport… He even managed to scrounge up a library card
and a well-used credit card. Logan
certainly doesn't cut corners. Max
smiled in amusement as she leaned back into the soft seat. First class accommodations, too. I'm sure it's all part of our cover story,
but a girl could really get used to treatment like this, Logan Cale. No, not Logan Cale. Just Cale. Gotta get used to calling him by his last
name, she reminded herself. Max
peered out the window as the plane began its approach to the runway. Instead of the gentle touchdown she was
expecting, the bounced along the runway a few times before finally settling
down.
"Thank you, Captain Kangaroo," the man sitting next to Max
muttered under his breath.
"Excuse me?" Max asked.
The man motioned carelessly towards the cockpit. "I'd bet money that the pilot used to be a
damn squiddy. A wingwiper will take his
time and coast in for a landing, but squiddies will land a plane like they're
trying to catch the three-wire. Ask
him, if you don't believe me. I'd bet
money on it."
Max chuckled to herself and looked back out the window as the
plane began to taxi to the terminal. In
no time at all, the passengers were given the all clear to gather their bags
and begin debarking. Max smiled her
thanks as her aisle mate handed down her small bag, then motioned for her to go
ahead of him. As she exited the plane,
she heard the man ask the pilot what branch of the military he served. She grinned to herself when the pilot
proudly stated that he was Retired Navy. Glad I didn't take the bet, she thought to herself. Her amusement quickly turned to anticipation
as she thought of the man who was waiting for her on the other side of the
gangway. Calm down, Max. You can't go rushing into his arms like a
girl with her first crush. It's not
like that. Even if it were, you are
here as his assistant, not as his girlfriend. The internal lecture continued as she started towards the
terminal door. The internal lecture droned
on in her head as she scanned the crowd for his face. The internal lecture came to a screeching halt as his gorgeous
blue eyes captured hers from across the room. Slowly, as if they were the only people in the entire airport, they
walked towards each other. Absently,
she noticed that he didn't lean on his cane as heavily as he used to. That was a good sign. She saw him mouth her name, a brilliant
smile lighting up his face, as he stopped in front of her. They stood in silence, lost in each others
eyes for an eternity of heartbeats.
"Nicole. I trust you
had a good flight?" Logan finally asked. Desperately, he fought the urge to pull her into his arms. Instead, he reached out and caught one of
her hands tenderly between his own. Hidden from casual view, he caressed her palm with his thumb.
It took Max a moment to remember that she was supposed to be
Nicole. "Oh, yes, thank you. It was good," she replied with a smile. Max felt her knees start to go weak from
Logan's simple caress. She closed her
eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart.
Davis, standing a few feet away from the couple, shook his
head and sighed. "Damn. I wish I could've gotten that on film," he
muttered to himself. He cleared his
throat loudly, catching their attention. "Hey, take it down a notch or five, guys. No one's going to believe that you two just work together if they
see you making googly-eyes like that." He smiled as Max blushed prettily and Logan industrially studied the
ground at his feet. "Come on. Let's get your bags, Ms. Williams, then we
can get back to the site." Without
another word, Davis turned around and started for the baggage claim area.
Logan looked down at Max, smiled, and offered his arm. "Shall we, Nicole?"
Max nodded and hooked her arm around Logan's. "Why, thank you, Cale." They grinned at each other, then casually
sauntered through the terminal after Davis's retreating form.
*******
Bags collected, the three of them made their way out to Davis'
waiting car. As if she had ridden
around in limos all her life, Max smiled and nodded absently to the driver as
he opened the door and ushered her inside. Max shook her head silently at all the opulence and wealth displayed
before her, absently wondering if the car would be a better fence as a whole or
broken down into it's material components.
"Sorry for picking you up in this broken down heap, Ms.
Williams," Davis' voice broke into her thoughts.
The surprise must have been evident on her face, because Logan
laughed. "Pay him no mind, Nicole. He's milking the production company for all
it's worth."
Davis snorted. "They
stick me in Vancouver in winter. Damn
straight that I'm making my life as easy as possible while I'm here."
Max smiled at them
both. It was good to see Logan so at
ease as he joked with his friend. She
hadn't realized how much of a vacation he had actually needed until now. Determined to catch up on what he had been
doing for the past week, she turned in her seat to face him. "So, how have things been going? Is the director putting all your 'artistic
advice' to good use?"
Logan rolled his eyes. "Davis wasn't kidding when he said that his director was making a farce
out of the whole play. There were a lot
of mis-interpretations and mis-understandings that had to be cleared up, from
an overall standpoint, but the basics were still there."
"Yeah, right," Davis sarcastically agreed. "The whole thing looked more like 'Robocop'
does 'The Sound of Music' than your play," he finished.
"'Robocop' does 'The Sound of Music'?"
Logan chuckled. "A
pre-pulse movie and a pre-pulse play turned movie, both done long before any of
us were born," he explained.
"Ahhh, no culture in the youth of today," Davis lamented. "Didn't you ever spend Saturday afternoons
watching really old movies when you were a kid?" he asked Max.
"No, my Saturday afternoons were usually spent learning
theories of entropy states and the general thermodynamics of plasmas as applied
to closed systems," she immediately replied. A thoughtful look crossed her face as she tilted her head to one
side. "Either that, or target
practice."
Davis blinked at her, his expression blank. Logan quickly turned to look out the window,
hiding his smile. "Uhh, yeah," Davis
finally said into the silence. He
favored Max with an puzzled glance and cleared his throat. "Well, did you get a chance to read the
play?" At Max's nod, he grunted. "Good, good. So, tell me, what is your interpretation of the whole thing."
"Well, the lead character is a man named Michael MacArren. He's a military genetics doctor who has written several papers on his theories of DNA sequencing. The play starts with him getting transferred to a base in Arizona, where he thinks he is being sent to further his research. When he gets there, he finds out that his theories have already been applied to half a dozen human subjects in the hopes of making a better soldier. He quickly is made to understand that his options have become severely limited now that he has been let in on the government's little secret. His job is to find out why the test subjects are "burning out", for want of a better description. He starts to work with Jessica, who was one of the first soldiers to be created. As they spend more and more time together, Michael realizes that there is something more important that his work and Jessica realizes that she is capable of being something other than a soldier. Just as they come to recognize that they love each other, Michael receives his transfer orders. He becomes suspicious about how quickly he is ushered off of the base and finds out that his orders were generated because the government plans to shut down the current project and start again somewhere else. He also finds out that Jessica and the others have been scheduled for termination via lethal injection." Max paused and took a sip of the water Logan had handed her earlier.
"He sneaks back onto the base and manages to free the test subjects, but not before Jessica and some of the others receive a partial dose of the lethal serum. He administers the antidote to all of them, but they are unable to walk without help. Michael leads them back out the way he came in and just as they reach the fence, the escape is discovered. Michael and the others split up, and Michael finds an tannery to hide in. Just as a search party starts to close in, Jessica goes into arrest. He can't do CPR on her, because the guards will hear him, so instead he just holds her as she dies in his arms. When the search party finally passes, Michael contemplates taking his own life because he has just lost his love. He kisses her goodbye and-" Max broke off and looked out the window. "Are we here?" she asked.
Davis looked out the window and nodded at her. "Yep. This is it. This is where you
and Cale will be staying. It's about 5
minutes from the theatre site, and should have everything you need for another
week's stay. If there's something you
want that isn't already supplied, all you have to do is call the main office
and it'll be delivered within a few hours, right to your front door."
The limo rolled to a stop in front of a wide porch. As Logan gallantly helped her out of the
car, Max looked up at him. "Where we'll
be staying?" she whispered fiercely.
Logan smiled at her soothingly. "The cabin has three bedrooms, an office and a meeting room. Davis and other production members are
staying with their assistants in cabins just like this one. Everything is very above the board, so don't
worry."
Max flashed him an unreadable look as she allowed him to
escort her up the steps. The driver had
already taken her bags in and deposited them in her room by the time she and
Logan had reached the door. Davis
grinned to himself as he watched the pair, knowing that such a romantic setting
was going to add to the electricity that already sparked between them.
"We'll see you at 9:30 tomorrow morning," he smiled. "Sleep well." Oh, yes, this was going to be an interesting week.
~*~*~*~*~*~
