A moment later, there was a knock at the door. "C'min," Mom called, straining to lift her head.

Bling poked his head in. "There's someone here to see you, Mrs. Guevara."

Mom paused before answering, unsure of who would know that she would be in the hospital. "Let them in, I guess."

He nodded curtly, then closed the door behind him. Mom ran her fingers through her hair. "Who in the world…?"

Dad snorted. "I've got a pretty good guess as to who it'll be."

"Zack," Mom hissed. Just then, the door to her room reopened and in stepped Logan. His hair was matted and mussed as if he hadn't even bothered to comb it that morning, while his eyes were sunk into their sockets, ringed with black circles. I had never seen him look so awful.

He glanced around the room before his eyes landed on Mom lying in the bed. Immediately, he flew towards her and wrapped her up in his arms. "Oh, God, Max…you're alive," he whispered as they embraced.

Dad, after he got over the shock of seeing Logan up and walking, gave another of his angry snorts, causing only me to look up at him. "My guess was right." Then, he turned sharply on his heels and strode out the door, face clenched tightly to prevent any lingering emotions from escaping. Now that he and Logan had seen each other, Dad had to retain his "upright and strong soldier look". Letting Logan know that he had cried over Mom would be worse than death for Dad.

I watched Dad leave, then directed my attention to Mom and Logan. He was sitting on her bed, by her hips, while leaning over and kissing her and crying all the while. She, too, was pitiful looking. They were both sobbing and kissing and hugging.

"How'd you find me?" she asked him.

"Bling called me…I thought you were dead, Max…and gone forever…" This brought on another fresh round of tears. I rolled my eyes. Adults.

"Hey Mom?" I asked. "Mom?" When she didn't respond to my callings, I shrugged. "Look, I'm gonna be outside if you need me-ok? Great."
With that, I got up from my chair and followed Dad out the door. Even though I didn't agree with Dad's gruffness towards Logan, I certainly wasn't going to sit there and watch Mom and Logan play smoochy face for hours.

I found Dad waiting down an adjoining wing as he sat in one of the stiff hospital chairs. One of his long legs was tucked underneath the chair while the other was lying out in front of him as if he meant to trip some unknowing hospital staff person. He was literally sprawled in the chair, but was looking straight up at the ceiling while he sat there.

Sitting down next to him, I looked up at the ceiling with him. "Find anything interesting?"

He gave a snort of disgust, which was starting to become a rather annoying habit of his and looked directly at me. "Let me guess, they were sobbing and making out like the end of the world had happened."

"Your guesses are rather accurate today-aren't they?"
"I can only try."

"Do you really hate Logan that much?" I asked Dad after a moment of silence.

"Hate's a rather strong word."

"Well, do you?"

"They have a tiled ceiling," Dad replied, looking back upwards.

"Don't change the subject."

"Reminds me of the ceiling back at Manticore."

"Speaking of Manticore…" I began, then sighed and waited until he made eye contact with me.

"What?"

"Dad, we need to have a talk. About that lady, who she was, and what the hell happened to a man named Donald Lydecker."