One Catch
Winking Tiger • Mblab6@aol.com
Author's Notes: You guys actually care; at least a few. Thank you! Keep up the reviews, and letting me know you readers exist, and you'll still get more. This has been a great opportunity to test out my writing, and I'd love to be able to continue with it.
My Muse has been taken hostage, in the possession of some unknown persons, and there's some serious threat of it never being returned. Therefore, in some form of duty, I'm giving this chapter-with much pushing, pulling, prodding, and general force. Don't expect more for a while, I'm just trying to avoid writing something forced and having it come out bad, unless of course I get some reviews-they always help.
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Fox's. But I do own Arlyn, and the O'Briens.
Chapter 7
"Ar, you know how I told you abou-"
"Max? The thing with you and Max?"
"Yeah, that, the thing that's with Max and me. You think that you could-"
"Work on it?"
"Yeah man. I know it's a lot, but you think you can try?"
"You're asking me, Logan, if I'd help you out? Did you really need to ask? Of course."
"Thanks, you've no idea, you have no idea what it means to me. Just workin' on it for me, that's a lot, thanks. I've tried everyone I can get a hold of. But they all hang up, I can't get anyone, no one lasts. This damn thing, everytime-"
"No problem. I'll get ta working on it, as soon as you can-"
"I'll send you everything we've gotten. If things weren't, if they weren't the way they are, I'd be able to give you more Ar. But, well, I can't. Think you can deal with that?"
"Sure, do my best."
"Thanks Ar, again. And if you need anything, I'll get it to you."
"Of course, I'll talk to you later. Maybe if you get off the line, I can get to work on some research and planning."
"I think I can handle that. I'm just … over a steady offer. I'll leave ya then. Talk to you, later Ar."
"Bye! Take care."
Should I have said anything? I mean, I'm not his protector, or his savior. But was there any duty there to him, to tell him? I really don't know. It'd be betrayal. One way or the other, that's what it'd be. So, if I shouldn't say anything, how come I'm feeling bad about keeping quiet?
God, she's right here. The woman he's doing all he can to get back, even though she ran from him. I barley know her, and after years I just heard from him.
"Kye?"
"Oh"
"No, Kye, it's okay. No, stay right there. You just stay where you are, and just listen, kay? All I want you to do is listen. I'm not mad at you, I just want to tell you something."
"Ufh hay." Of course, a mumbled response, her heads in my chest! I'll take that as an "okay".
"Max, everything you've told me, I've got some idea about everything. And, what if I told you-"
Nope, I can't tell her, not everything. Fine, what then? Just tell her the basics, how he's still the guy she loves, or at least loved. That he's trying, and that he still cares. Sure, that sounds good.
"Max, Logan, he's a good guy. If you cared so much about him, he had to be the best of the best, that's all that you'd take-nothing less. You've gotta understand that he still cares about you. I'm sure he was scared, loosing you-again. But he's not mad, how could anyone be mad at you? Him being upset at you shouldn't be a worry in your mind."
"You really think so?"
"I do. And if I didn't, I wouldn't have told you that."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
And then there was utter silence. Maybe I'd said something wrong, maybe he had. But in reality, it was more like, nothing else can or should be said. And that was just for me, I'd gotten to the point, I think.
"I do" Her voice's so soft, I can barley hear her.
"Do? Do what?" Was I supposed to have heard that? Or was it more like, rationalizing out loud?
"I do want to go back, back to him. I just don't know, how."
"Well, I may be able to help with that, insight into the male mind, if you want."
"Who made you so smart? How come I couldn't be?"
"Ha ha ha. Knowledge's got a price, think you want some more on your head? Especially that fact, that to gain such knowledge on one's own, you've got to be male."
"No, I think you're right, I'll just listen oh great one."
"Tell me why you left. I know you've told me a lot, but there's gotta be something you've left out, that you haven't said, the real why."
"Not only knowledgeable, but you can read minds too!"
"Yeah, didn't you know, comes in handy. I can read minds, know all the knowledge there is to know, and do all that standing on one leg, hanging off a bridge, reciting some Shakespeare."
"Shut up! Just let me talk here. Kay?" Administered with a nice swift hit to the head, maybe I deserved it.
"Fine. Start the mouth moving, work those vocal cords."
"When I was back there, there was one thing, that I kept away from them. With all their training, all that crap, of the things I kept from them, there was one thing that kept me going. He'd said we had all the time in the world, and that he'd know who I really was. He had faith in me when I didn't. And when everything happened, and I burnt it down, I had to go to him. I needed some more of his strength and faith. I was made a soldier, but if I could give up all my learning and have his kind of faith and strength…"
"And then?"
"And then the virus. Dammit, he cared and kept going. And now this virus, it was hard enough before I couldn't even touch him without him croaking on me."
"But you guys overcame that, didn't you?"
"I just don't know. Before, whatever had been there, that we'd denied, I just didn't talk about it. I didn't want to, admit it, and get ride of its glimmer. There was something special about it all, something secret and hidden from others, and even yourself. And then, before I really got to know where we were with each other, I was taken from him. I can only imagine what went through him, holding me as everything happened and …" She waves a hand at the and. Guess I can figure what that and is. "And then I was back there. He was this really strong rock, he helped to keep going, whatever it was that I was going to.
"Can you imagine being terrified of something that's haunted you, chased you, and taken you back all your life? That's what happened. And then somehow I was gone from there, and everything was just really different. There'd been one thing I'd counted on to give me strength and keep me up-remind me who I was and what I was doing there. And then I lost that too.
"There'd been just a faint taste, like one of Logan's amazing creations and just getting one bite and there's a whole dish just waiting for me. Once there'd been enough to entice me, draw me in, want more-to see how much better things could get, it's taken.
"I don't know what it's like, there weren't exactly classes Manticore offered. But I've got this feeling, that this is it-or as close to it as I'll get. We're both too stubborn to not get what we want. And for a very long time, he was all I wanted. And I've been led to believe, by little blue birds on a window sill, that he was the same."
"Ah." That's it. I've been thinking about that for a while. I've figured out what the answer is. My smile must've given me away. "The fear of failure. You're afraid, of rejection, of doing something wrong. You're afraid."
"No! No, I'm not afraid, not of Logan."
"Not Logan, you're not afraid of him. You're afraid of everything that goes along with Logan, emotion wise."
"I don't know."
"That's what it is. You may not realize it, but that's it."
"I just don't know Colom. That's about the most truthful and accurate answer I can give, to anything, right now."
"This may be a little much. I'm going to leave ya Kye. I'll talk to you later, that okay?"
"Uh, yeah, sure." Yep, just what I thought -- so much for not doing the daze.
"And while you're in that daze of yours you're not only in right now but will be in when you do go, mind you're step there."
Right decision. Right decision, of course. That went rather well, didn't it? Here's hoping that he takes it with such … that I can keep enough restraint to leave something for him to find out once the line's dead.
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