Chapter 12

AN: There are many events that I am going to keep from the pilot, many things I would still like to happen.  The Sophy and Lauren incident is one of them.  So bear with me.  I promise things will head off from the pilot as soon as I get that incident taken care of.

Logan Cale found himself unable to move or speak. Max had taken him completely by surprise, she wasn't supposed to play that way, it was against all of the rules.  Muttering some nonsense about what time he needed her, he tried to gather his thoughts.  He had so many things he needed to talk to her about.  Mainly her comment on his show, if she was a threat he needed to do something about it.

Who was he kidding?  Wasn't it incredibly obvious by now that she was a threat?  Just not a threat in the way that he had first pictured her as.  She was a flawless fountain of beauty, grace, and her conversational skills didn't seem to be lacking either.  He had to get a hold of himself though; he needed to be thinking with his head.

Still she did come from Manticore, and there had to be a good reason she was out.  Logan didn't find it likely that she had escaped but if she had then she probably had some pests on her butt looking for her.  Maybe he could use that as a bribe to get her to stay and help him. 

Before he could formulate any of the questions he needed to ask her however, she was gone.  Going back to his room he flopped back on his bed face first, hitting his head on something hard.  Pulling back the sheets Logan located the object, Bast.  Making his way to the kitchen for some ice to put on his eye, which was now starting to swell, he bumped into Peter.

"Told you she was nothing but trouble." He remarked.

"Shut up Peter."

"Your late." An irate Logan Cale greeted Max as she walked in his apartment a half hour late for their appointment.

"I do have work you know.  What happened to your eye?" Max asked trying not to laugh at his black eye.

"You!" he barked, walking away from her and down the hall.  Max followed confused.

"I did that?" she asked in amusement.  She didn't remember slugging him in the face, although she knew she had wanted to.  Maybe last night wasn't such a bust after all.

"Bast." He said simply.  Max couldn't conceal her laughter any longer.  "It's not funny." He clarified for her.

"Actually its hilarious.  How?…never mind." Max tried to be serious but his look of annoyance started her laughing again.

"Are you finished?" he asked trying to convey the importance of her shutting up and listening to him with the serious nature of his tone.  Max mock saluted him and he rolled his eyes.  This was going to be fun after all.  Logan Cale, loaded, saves the world on a daily basis, but a statue manages to get the best of him.

"I'd like you to meet Sophy and Lauren." Logan said ushering Max into the room.

After a brief introduction the team was on the road and headed to the transfer point, riding in silence the whole way. 

Neither Max nor Logan had a problem with the silence each was busy in their respective minds collecting and organizing the data they'd accumulated over the past few days.  While Logan brooded over the mission, Max however had her mind elsewhere.

Manticore.  They wanted Eyes Only dead, they wanted what he knew, and they wanted her to get that for them.  Max still wrestled with the idea.  Eyes Only she could eliminate, Logan Cale on the other hand…well the jury was still out.  Before the Bast incident of this morning she had seriously contemplated it.  Formed a plan to get close to him, fabricated an escape story and a reason to stick around, she'd even come up with multiple backup plans, but after she'd walked in on him in his angered state, which she had to admit was more then a little cute, she didn't know if she could continue with the plan.  But then there Zack's and Lydecker's words and training were.

She didn't have a choice and she was stalling longer then she needed to.  After the transfer she'd use the escape story to get close then she'd watch Eyes Only go down.  She had a mission and she couldn't afford to fail it.  Screw Logan Cale. 

Glancing over at him, she noticed he was deep in thought.  His eyes scrunched closed and his glasses slipping farther down his nose, fingers massaging his temples.  Reaching out she pushed his glasses up and his eyes shot open in surprise.  Smiling she wondered if maybe the backup girlfriend plan wouldn't be better.

Arriving at the transfer point Logan tossed some quick directions out and they started to implement the plan.  It was almost successful when out of nowhere a barrage of gunfire showered down on them.  Lauren made it safely across and Max grabbed Sophy trying to hurry her along when her eye caught hold of a sniper aiming at Logan.  Giving Sophy one last push, she dived at Logan pushing him out of the way and taking a bullet in the back.  Searing pain shot through her then stopped as her world became black.

Logan pushed Max's body off of him and checked for a pulse.  Finding one he promptly left her side to help a frightened Sophy the rest of the way into safety.  He didn't make it.  A man grabbed her threw her in a car and rode off, the gunfire stopped and the scene took on an eerie quiet.

"Sophy!!" Lauren cried Logan was about to run over to the grieving woman when her remembered Max.  Running over to her side, Logan flipped Max onto her stomach so he could get a good look at her back.  It didn't look good.  He turned to look for Peter but found his comrade only a few feet away clearly dead.  Doing the only thing he could do, he scooped up Max and loaded her in the car.  Lauren was being taken care of by his contact so he got in the car and drove Max back to his place picking up a "friend" at the hospital on the way.

"Logan this is insane.  You can't take her back to your place.  She needs proper medical attention.  She's been shot." Sam argued with Logan on the way home.  Sam was Logan's doctor and he had been for as long as Logan could remember.  Occasionally he'd offer his medical expertise for Eyes Only because of this Logan had a virtual hospital stored in his apartment.

"Sam just help me get her upstairs."

Max woke up and registered three things.  Her back was killing her.  She was in Logan's bed.  And her shirt seemed to be missing.  She was lying on her stomach with a sheet draped over her flesh, reaching behind her she felt where the bullet had entered, precariously close to her spine; she'd been lucky, Logan would have been handicapped.

"Your awake." Logan offered quietly.

"Yeah so lets have a party…where is my shirt?" Max asked clearly annoyed.

"In the trash.  Here have one of mine." He said tossing a t-shirt at the half naked beauty covering herself with a sheet on his bed.  "I'll leave so you can change." He forced out. Leaving was the last thing he wanted to do.

"Why bother you've already seen everything I'm sure." She spit out clearly not to happy about that fact.  Logan only wished it were true.  Sam had sent him out of the room almost as soon has he'd deposited her on the bed.

"Actually your virtue is safe." He offered as he closed the door behind him.  Max wondered if what he said was true as she sat up and pulled the shirt on making sure not to move too quickly.  Each move brought pain slashing through her back and she found that the effort of putting the shirt on had caused muscles in her back to start spasming.  She could kill Cale for being so damned attractive, sweet, and smart.  If he hadn't been she wouldn't be in his bed wearing his t-shirt. 

There was a knock on the door and Max gritted her teeth in pain from her spasming muscles forcing a "come in" through her clenched teeth.

"Lie down. You shouldn't be up." Sam ordered and Max was quick to comply, she noticed that when she was flat on her stomach the pain in her back subsided a little, not much but enough so that she could talk.

"I hope you have a good excuse for why I won't be at work." She intoned angrily at Logan.

"Told him you were shot, but that you'd be back in no time." Logan replied.

"Yeah?" she asked as Sam pulled her shirt up to check on her back.  Max grimaced at the spasm that sped through her back as he poked her.

"He wanted to know if you were on a run."  Max smiled then quickly let out a gasp as Sam found another painful spot. Logan swallowed a lump in his throat; it could have been him lying on that bed.  It should have been.

"You doing that on purpose?" Max demanded.  Sam ignored her comment and instead turned to Logan gesturing for him to step outside with him.

"Hey I'm a big girl, talk in here." Max ordered as the two men started out the door.

"Alright then.  You're going to have to stay here for a while.  Logan you're going to have to take care of her.  I'll make a list of things you'll need to know and I'll teach you some muscle relaxing tricks.  You're going to have to keep that wound clean or it will get infected.  I'll stop by everyday to check up on how things are, but if anything starts to go wrong she's coming into the hospital." Sam ordered.  Logan nodded in agreement and Max let out a frustrated noise.  Great she was going to be stuck here with him for who knows how long.  She should have let him take that bullet.