Shadows of the Past

Shadows of the Past

Chapter 4: Facing Reality

~Don't own 'em, I just play around with their crazy little lives.

~PG-13ish

~Once again I'm really sorry for how long it's taken me to update but a friend of mine from High School just died so you can imagine I've been a little side tracked. But here you go, chapter 4.

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           Max woke up again late the next evening and sluggishly climbed into the shower, hoping that the hot water would clear her head. Oh God, that was a bad one. Max thought still feeling the after effects of her seizures. I just hope that was it for a while. I don't know if I can take another one like that.

***

           Logan was sitting in a chair staring out into nowhere when he heard the shower come on.  She's up and around. That's a good thing. I was starting to get really worried. I haven't seen anything like that since….Mom. And that is one incident I would rather not relive.  Logan shook his head to clear it of the disturbing memories. I just hope that was it for a very, very long time. He sighed, running a hand through his already messy hair. I don't know if I can take another night like that. With that thought Logan reverted back to the position he had been in for the past 10 hours; elbows on his knees, head in his hands, and his eyes closed in a silent prayer, begging for Max to be all right.

***

           A few minutes later, Max slowly walked out of her room, staying close to the wall incase she needed it's support. Catching the movement out of the corner, Logan stood to help Max the last few feet to the sofa and gently sat her down.

           "How you feeling?" Logan asked sitting back down in his chair with concern written all over his face.

           "Better. Weak, but better. It's been a long time since I've been this wiped afterwards. I'm not used to it anymore." Max ran a hand through her wet hair. "I don't like it." she with a slight smile on her lips.

           "Neither do I. You scared the hell outta me last night. I thought I was going to lose you." He said intently, never letting his eyes leave hers.

           "Yeah," Max sighed her eyes dropping to the floor, "I'm really sorry about that. If had had more of a warning I could have done something…I can only imagine what was going through your head. I mean I've only been here for a few days and…"

           "Max, it's ok. It's not as if you can control when the seizures will hit."

           "But, you didn't have to stay with me all night like you did.  Logan, you don't know what that means to me. Noah is the only one who ever stayed with me like that." Max said through increasingly glassy eyes.

           "What else could I do? You were scared Max. And since Noah couldn't be here I thought I should fill in. Plus, I didn't want to leave you."

           "You mentioned him in your sleep" he added seeing Max's quizzical expression.

           "Oh."

           "You miss him don't you?" Logan asked leaning forward on his knees.

           "Yeah. He's the only one I have to talk to about all of this." Max said sadly blinking back tears.

           "Have left?"

           "Yeah…" Max pulled her legs up to chest and hugged her knees. Logan sat by and waited quietly for her to continue.

           "I didn't have many friends in school-for obvious reasons." Max chuckled bitterly. "Kids are cruel, it's a fact of life in school. Let me tell you, all the geeks and fat kids loved me 'cause I got all the bullies and jerks off their back. I was a bigger target and more fun. Noah did his best to protect me from all the jokes, pranks, looks and rumors but he could only do so much. I gave up a long time ago on caring about what people thought of me or even tried to do. But it always bothered Noah. I look nothing like my parents so it was obvious that I was adopted. One day this group of guys wouldn't leave me alone and I was about ready to kick 'em. There were about 8 of them and they had me pinned against my locker. I knew that I could take them if I had to, but I didn't want any unnecessary attention to myself. I was starting to run out of options when I saw one of the guys fall backward. This girl, who had a mouth on her, broke through the crowd and stood in front of me, and to put it nicely- she told them to back the hell off. Noah came running down the hall not long after when he heard about the guys getting ready to do something to me. What hat something was I still don't know. That girl was Cindy. She was never at a loss for words, that's for sure."

           "After that day the three of us were inseparable. Wherever one was you could probably find the other two nearby. Noah was grateful for Cindy looking out for me and I was grateful for a real friend. She loved me for me freakish abilities and all. Cindy was the best friend I ever had. When Noah graduated a year ahead of us I needed Cindy more than ever. I had never done anything with out him and now he was gone, out in the real world. Cindy continued to make all the jerks feel worse than they would have made me feel if they started with me." Max laughed lightly remembering the looks on their faces after a run-in with Cindy.

           "About a month before graduation I decided to tell Cindy everything about me. The fact that I was different wasn't a secret. Everyone knew about the tattoo, my lack of a past, and the photographic memory. Cindy was my best friend; she needed to know it all. Noah didn't like the idea but he did understand why I wanted to do it and he stood behind me as always. So the three of us got together at my house one night and I told her everything; about the super strength, telescopic vision, cat-like reflexes, flexibility and odd cycles, my need for little to no sleep, my fear of the military, the weird hair cut, the training-everything she didn't already know. I explained how I didn't really know who I was. Noah told her about how they found me and how I acted when I was first brought home. We told Cindy everything that we knew. She just sat there staring off into nowhere for almost 5 minutes. I was so scared that she would hate me or be totally disgusted. But she gave me this huge hug and said to me, "Maxie, you are my Boo. You always will be, memory or no memory, super girl or no super girl. I love you girl.""

           "I had never been so relieved in my life. She was my best friend no matter what. That night changed everything, now Cindy knew it all. Even my parents didn't know everything, and they still don't. From then on I didn't feel so lost without Noah at school cause my girl had my back and there were no more secrets. Before we knew it, Cindy had to leave for school in a week. We had one more girl's night that ended up lasting for 24 hours. We swore that we'd stay in touch and that we'd still tell each other everything. I walked halfway home with her that night, neither one of us wanting to admit that it was all over. After a 10-minute hug and 'see you laters' we finally walked back to our homes. "Hey Boo! Watch out for that secret government agency! They might want your specialized DAN ass back!" she called over her shoulder. That had become an inside joke between us. It was the strangest thing we could possibly think of when it came to my past. It was twisted but we found it funny. "You know it Boo!" I shouted back laughing. Maybe 2 minutes later I heard a gun shot coming from where I had just been. I don't remember ever moving so fast. By the time I got to the site of the shot I saw a black jeep driving away and my best friend dying on the ground." Max paused staring out into the night where she could see the whole event playing out in the sky.

           "I held her in my arms while she died. She told me to be careful because there are some nasty guys with guns who have it in for me. She died a few minutes later. That's what got me started on this whole find my past thing. Now that I've found it… Those Manticore scumbags killed my best friend because they thought that she knew too much. I've got to stop them Logan, before they hurt someone else."

           "My God Max, I'm sorry." Logan said kneeling down at her feet and wiping away the tears unknowingly streaming down her face.

           "It's not your fault." Max said not pulling away.

           "It's not yours either. How could you have possibly known about these monsters and what they're capable of? It's not your fault they killed Cindy Max. You have to stop blaming yourself." Logan said holding her Max's face in his hands.

           "But if I never told her…"

           "Things might be exactly the same. Max, you couldn't do anything to stop it. And if you want to stop these guys you have to stop feeling guilty, because they'll just use it against you. Ok?"

           "I miss her so much. She was my other half." Max said as fresh tears spilled over onto her cheeks.

           "Everything is going to work out okay. I promise you that." Max nodded silently in agreement as Logan enveloped her in a hug. When Max's tears finally dried Logan moved up onto the sofa facing Max.

           "Do you want some coffee? Or hot cocoa?" Logan offered hoping to lighten the mood.

           "No thanks. I'm fine."

           "Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Logan asked putting his elbow on the back of the sofa and resting his head on his hand.

           "Nope. Ask away. I'm sure you have a million of them." Max smiled weakly.

           "Only a few. But, what was it like when you discovered you were 'special'?" Logan said choosing his words carefully.

           "Ummmm well, the abilities were always sort of a given. I always knew that they were there and I always knew how to use them. I just didn't know why. That's probably why it was so easy to censor my parents' knowledge about what I was."

           "Why didn't you tell them everything?"

           "To protect them I guess, or to protect myself. As soon as they took me home I knew that I didn't want to lose them. So I decided to only tell them what could be explained away, like the photographic memory, they saw the tattoo and I can't exactly hide the seizures as you can see. I didn't want to scare them away. I didn't want to be alone anymore. These people wanted me because the saw something in me that no one did before- a little kid that just need love. Now I just don't want them to worry about me."

           "That's understandable Max."

           "I guess. But, enough about me. Let's talk about you."  Max said excitedly and shifted her weight so she was facing Logan.

           "Okay," Logan laughed, "What do you want to know?"

           "What's the deal with Eyes Only?"

           "My brother; Alex, was forced into some criminal activities by a low life mob boss who threatened his family. Alex did everything he was asked to down to the very last detail, but they killed my brother, his wife and his three baby girls anyway. As a journalist, I couldn't let that go unnoticed. As a brother I wanted vengeance. So Eyes Only was born."

           "What happened to the mob boss?" Max asked quietly.

           "He was killed by his own men because they thought they were being replaced. The men eventually turned on each other."

           "So you got your vengeance."

            "I guess you could say that. Afterwards, I knew I didn't want other people to suffer like my brother and his family; I couldn't just be a spectator anymore. I had to get in the game and make a difference in this screwed up world of ours. I like to think that I am, but sometimes I'm not so sure." Logan said slightly shaking his head.

           "You are making a difference Logan, one life at a time. That's all that one person can do." Max said putting her hand on his.

           "Then why doesn't seem like I'm doing anything? Every time I take down one guy five more pop up."  Logan lifted his eyes to meet Max's.

           "Because you see so much pain in the world and you can't do anything on a mass scale. But look around you Logan; you've done the impossible for me. You found my non-existent past. No one else could have done it." Logan simply smiled at Max unsure of how to respond to her statement.

           "Well aren't we the pair." Max said with a laugh after a few minutes of silence. 

           "Yeah I guess we are." Logan laughed pulling Max towards him so she fell forward onto his chest. Max instantly tensed due to the contact between them. Oh my God! What do I do, what do I do? I didn't come here for this. This wasn't supposed to happen. Logan wrapped his arms around her hoping to calm her down. But this isn't the worst place in the world to be. Actually it's kindda nice. Max let out a deep breath she didn't know she was holding in and settled in on her side next to Logan. She buried her head in the crook of his neck and casually draped her arm across Logan's chest. Logan put one arm around Max's waist.

           "Comfortable?" Logan chuckled.

           "Yes actually. Thank You." Just go with it. Stop over thinking everything and go with your gut for once. It's never let you down before.

           "What do you say we call Noah tomorrow and have lunch. That way you get to see him for a little while."

           "Are you serious?!" Max squealed pushing herself up on her elbow to see Logan's face.

           "Yeah." He laughed at her excitement. Max lay back down with a huge smile on her face.

           "Thank you Logan." Max gave him a quick hug. "Thank you."

"Don't worry about it."

"Why am I so tired?" Max asked as she slowly drifted off a few minutes later.

           "You've had a rough couple of days. Just try and get some rest, you're gonna need it." He whispered into her hair.

           "Good night Logan." Max murmured.

           "Good night Max." Logan said gently brushing away dark strands of hair from her face.

           "Sweet dreams." She added a moment later.

           "Sweet dreams." Logan smiled as he kissed the top of her head. Logan watched Max sleep for a half hour grateful for the opportunity to watch her.

           How did this happen? I know I didn't plan this. But here I am just the same with Max asleep in my arms. She's the most incredible, smart, compassionate, strong and beautiful woman in the world. I took a chance and trusted her for reasons I don't know and it turns out that it was more of a risk for her to even ask for help. I don't think that I could handle it if I let her down. When she was crying, I would have done anything to make her smile. She was tearing my heart out. All I want is to protect her from all the garbage she was forced to deal with. I wish I could make this whole Manticore thing go away so she could have the happy normal life she deserves.

           Logan kissed Max's head again unable to resist the urge. Oh God, I think I'm falling for her, and falling hard. Logan pulled his hand from behind his head and wrapped his arm around the angel I his arms and sighed as he closed his eyes. Oh yeah I've fallen hard.

~OK, there you go people! Chapter 4. As I said I'm sorry for the time between updates but it's a little crazy here in college. I don't get all that much time to write. But I do it for you! Teehee. So if you want me to write faster or tell me my story sucks review or email me. I'd love to hear from you.  luvvbug101@hotmail.com  Thanks guys!  Luv-ya, ~~Amanda~~