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Thanks for reading so far... And please tell me what you think.. It's getting shippier!
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Chapter 3: The Day before Christmas
"Parker" read the name at the apartment door. She pressed the ring button and stood back. A woman opened the door, no doubt it had to be Logan's grandmother. The same blue eyes.
"Hallo?" she asked, but when Max answered, "Hello!" She knew who she was talking to.
"You must be Max! Come in! Glad you finally made it."
"Thanks!"
She followed her in and had to learn, "I'm afraid Logan took the train and is out for a walk at the shore. You wanna wait here or go there and look for him?"
"I got a rental car so I could go there if you'd show me where to go exactly."
"No problem. Just wait a moment, I'll get a map."
She disappeared through one of the doors and called "Steven!" A few moments later she came back with a man and a map.
"Max, hey! I'm Steven, Logan's grandfather!"
Max looked at the elderly man. He was still handsome for his age and he looked as if he had seen a lot in his life. But it seemed as if this had just made him wise, not bitter.
"Nice to meet you!"
He showed her the way, handed her the map and she went back to the car. About twenty minutes journey she had been told.
She parked the car on the parking lot and went to the sea. The air smelled salty, much more intensive than in Seattle. She could see the sea bridge of which the Parkers had spoken and went in the direction.
Logan looked over the sea. I was cold and windy. And lonely. Well, who was out so short time before Christmas eve. He felt watched and looked around. A woman was coming to the bridge and to him. Too far away to see more, but she reminded him of Max. Okay, every dark haired woman reminded him of Max. Every slim woman and well, every woman who was running around.
With a sigh he looked back over the water and breathed deeply. She had made her decision. They were just friends. Even if his heart told him he wanted nothing more than Max to appear right in front of him. She was his family. Much more than all his other relatives. But now the ocean separated him not from his grandparents but from Max. Why couldn't she just come to him, say "hey" and smile one of her million watt smiles? So sad he looked over the sea, then decided it was time to go back if he wanted to have coffee with his grandparents and go to church with them.
He turned his wheelchair around and before he realized what he saw there, a "Hey" and a smile made his thoughts come true. His feelings hadn't betrayed him this time. It had been Max. They stared at each other, then Max kneed down and embraced him. He answered the hug and pulled her tight. She suddenly realized what she had done. You can't pretend she just ran into him. You can't run into somebody who's in a wheelchair and hug him. Not when kneeling on the cold floor. They opened the embrace and looked at each other.
"Sorry, Ma'am, but you look exactly like a dear friend of mine!" Logan grinned, while Max was standing up. She smiled back and thought once again how easy you could get lost in his eyes.
"Somebody told me this stuff about a real European Christmas so I wondered what it was like and came here. Till now it's mostly cold."
"I just wanted to go home, but now..."
"Going back is fine. I guess, this bridge will still be here tomorrow."
He nodded. "Yes, I guess it will. Already met my grandparents, didn't you?"
"They were really nice and told me where to find you. Glad you didn't go jogging at the beach. Would've been much harder to find you then."
He grimaced and followed her to the parking lot. Nobody said anything but the looks they shared said more than they'd ever been able to say. Now they were ready for Christmas.
"Are you tired?" Logan asked when they came to the car.
She shook her head. "No. I slept a little in the plane. And you know I don't sleep much, so it's fine. Maybe I've even got a jet lag 'cause I feel so awake."
He smiled. Not so strange. He still couldn't sleep at night. "So what's going to happen when we come to your grandparent's place?"
"My granny baked a chocolate cake, I guess and after having eaten that one, we'll go to church. Having finished that, we'll give about half of the presents, 'cause we never could decide when to give the presents. Christmas eve or the next morning. So we split. We're going to eat a Christmas goose and we'll sit next to the lightened Christmas tree and listen to Christmas songs and talk a little about what happened last year and what we think is going to happen next year."
Logan suddenly became excited like a little child and Max didn't want to bring him back to earth, but she had some questions. "So I guess they don't know about you being an underground cyber journalist? What's the story then? And what did you tell them about me?"
"The story is I work as a free journalist, specialized on internet researches."
"Okay, that's not so wrong."
"You're a bike messenger. If you don't use your powers in front of them or wear your hair tight up, everything will be fine. Is this your car?" he asked and as Max nodded and opened the door he pulled himself into it. She watched him put his wheelchair behind him and sat down on the drivers seat.
Slowly she started to drive back every once in a while looking at the guy next to her. Logan did the same. She was really here. He hadn't believed this to happen after their last discussion. He wondered how she had come here and suddenly realized that someone must have made a long distance call.
She parked the car in front of the house and when he changed to his chair Max came to him, carrying her bag. She followed him to the apartment and he opened the door.
"Grandpa? Granny? We're back!" he called and when his grandmother answered, they followed the voice to the kitchen.
She stood there and was cooking coffee. "So you finally found each other?"
"Yeah, Max found me....And you've got to explain me some things!" he added whispering, but his grandmother laughed and gave him the cake.
"Take this one to the living room and show Max where she can sleep. Daniel's bed is made."
Logan nodded and placed the cake in his lap.
"Can I help you?" asked Max but Sarah shook his head.
"No, just let Logan show you where you are going to stay."
Logan disappeared in what had to be the living room and came back only a second later. She followed him when he led her to the end of the aisle where there were two rooms. "My grandparents once said that no matter where they are going to live, my Mom and her brother would always have a place to stay with them. So I stay in my Mom's room and this one is Uncle Daniel's. He lives in Australia and doesn't come here often."
Max looked into Logan's room. Everything was tidy as she was used to. Logan was always so tidy. Daniel's room was untouched, just the bed was made and for a second she thought about laying down for a few minutes. But then she just threw her bag into it and stepped to the window.
"I can't believe that we're still on the same planet. This is so peaceful here!"
Logan smiled back from the door where he was waiting. "I told you this was a different world. No Pulse, not more crime than usual. Happy people waiting to get their presents." Then he smiled: "And their chocolate cakes. Let's get it. And this world won't be broken in the morning."
She smiled and thought of the day he had said this to her. Following him to the living room she felt uncredible safe and happy.
Steven was just lighting the candles. "Hey Max, hey Logan! Sit down, we'll start right away!"
Max took place on the couch and Logan stopped next to her. "This is so nice!" he said.
Max grinned, "It's not that we aren't used to candles. But we use them more during brown-outs."
Sarah who just came in with the coffee, looked at them, but didn't say anything. Logan knew exactly what this look meant. She wanted him to stay here. But he ignored it. Steven gave cake and coffee to everyone.
"Does anyone want to have cream? Sarah, darling?"
Logan's grandmother looked up and nodded. "Yes please. So Max, how was your flight?"
Max felt like she had changed body with someone else. Someone who was very lucky. This was so perfect. A perfect family, a perfect cake and such a loving atmosphere. She didn't know why Logan hadn't grown up with his grandparents, but there had to be some other reason than that they wouldn't have wished to do so. They loved him. Suddenly she became aware of the fact that she knew nothing about Logan's childhood. She didn't know why his parents died and when.
But back to the question. "Fine, thanks. Very calm. I was able to sleep a little when I had changed planes in Atlanta. I had a little problem with the car-rental at the airport here, but they were finally able to find my reservation."
"How long are you going to stay?" Logan asked and Max smiled, "There's a nice plane going back to Seattle on new year's day."
Logan tried to hide his smile, but he couldn't. Max would see it anyway. A whole week with Max in this whole world. This was the best present he could get. He looked at his granny but she pretended to know about nothing.
They had coffee and ate the cake while Max had to undergo all those questions friends have to undergo, and already the first question made her struggle. "So Max, where did you meet Logan?"
She couldn't tell this nice old lady and her husband that she broke into Logan's apartment to steal. So she said, "My job brought me near him."
That wasn't wrong. If she hadn't delivered the package to the building next to Logan's she would never have seen his statue. "What to you do for your living?"
"I'm a bike messenger."
This was easier territory. Okay, they were now thinking she had delivered something to him, but hey, who cared. Her whole existence was a lie.
After having finished coffee they got ready for church. When Logan had changed clothes he went to his grandparent's sleeping room where Sarah was just putting on some make up.
"Hey granny!"
"Hey, Logan. You clean up nice!"
"Thanks. So do you. But you shouldn't have called her."
"Why not? You look much happier now."
"But this already is so complicated. And being here together just doesn't make it easier!"
She turned around and looked at him: "What's so complicated? She seems to be a very nice girl. And the way she looks at you makes me feel that she's not angry about being here."
The way she looked at him? "But we don't have that kind of relationship. We don't look at each other all dreamy eyed and forget about the rest of the world."
His granny smiled, "No, of course not!" she said ironically.
"Gee, Granny, there's no way of talking seriously to you about that!"
"Don't be so shy, Logan. That's not you. It's Christmas, the holiday of love. Let's be nice to each other."
"Okay, you're right. Are you going to tell Grandpa not to sing so loud in church?"
They grinned at each other: "Tell them to hurry up, we have to leave in a few minutes!"
"I will."
He went back to his room and got himself a pullover, then he started looking for his grandfather. He found him back in the living room, already dressed for church. "Granny told me we'd have to leave in a few minutes!"
"I'm ready!" he murmured and continued reading his newspaper.
Carefully he knocked at Max' door and when she answered "Come in", he opened and wheeled in.
She looked gorgeous. Instead of her leather pants she was wearing a simple black dress that made her look much more feminine. She must have looked at him, too, because she said, "Wow! I like how people dress up on holidays! You look great!"
"So do you! We have to leave in a few minutes. We'll walk to church, so put on a warm jacket."
"I will. Even though I'm going to freeze my ass off in this dress."
Logan smiled back at her: "That's why I told you! You'll come?"
She nodded and he wheeled back to the door, when she asked: "Logan?"
"Huh?"
"Are your grandparents very religious? 'Cause they go to church and stuff? I've never really been to church except this time when Ben .." She looked at the floor, a little shy.
Logan suddenly realized how strange this all had to be for her. Christmas wasn't something that would have been celebrated at Manticore. So he stayed serious, even though he couldn't stand her cute look. "Not really. It's just kind of tradition to go there on Christmas eve. If you enjoyed Bennett's wedding, you might like this one too."
"Okay. So let's go."
A/N: I know, it's unfair, but I've written more - even though I'm not going to post it until anybody tells me I should. It's just so embarrassing to post anything nobody reads...
Thanks for reading so far... And please tell me what you think.. It's getting shippier!
**************************
Chapter 3: The Day before Christmas
"Parker" read the name at the apartment door. She pressed the ring button and stood back. A woman opened the door, no doubt it had to be Logan's grandmother. The same blue eyes.
"Hallo?" she asked, but when Max answered, "Hello!" She knew who she was talking to.
"You must be Max! Come in! Glad you finally made it."
"Thanks!"
She followed her in and had to learn, "I'm afraid Logan took the train and is out for a walk at the shore. You wanna wait here or go there and look for him?"
"I got a rental car so I could go there if you'd show me where to go exactly."
"No problem. Just wait a moment, I'll get a map."
She disappeared through one of the doors and called "Steven!" A few moments later she came back with a man and a map.
"Max, hey! I'm Steven, Logan's grandfather!"
Max looked at the elderly man. He was still handsome for his age and he looked as if he had seen a lot in his life. But it seemed as if this had just made him wise, not bitter.
"Nice to meet you!"
He showed her the way, handed her the map and she went back to the car. About twenty minutes journey she had been told.
She parked the car on the parking lot and went to the sea. The air smelled salty, much more intensive than in Seattle. She could see the sea bridge of which the Parkers had spoken and went in the direction.
Logan looked over the sea. I was cold and windy. And lonely. Well, who was out so short time before Christmas eve. He felt watched and looked around. A woman was coming to the bridge and to him. Too far away to see more, but she reminded him of Max. Okay, every dark haired woman reminded him of Max. Every slim woman and well, every woman who was running around.
With a sigh he looked back over the water and breathed deeply. She had made her decision. They were just friends. Even if his heart told him he wanted nothing more than Max to appear right in front of him. She was his family. Much more than all his other relatives. But now the ocean separated him not from his grandparents but from Max. Why couldn't she just come to him, say "hey" and smile one of her million watt smiles? So sad he looked over the sea, then decided it was time to go back if he wanted to have coffee with his grandparents and go to church with them.
He turned his wheelchair around and before he realized what he saw there, a "Hey" and a smile made his thoughts come true. His feelings hadn't betrayed him this time. It had been Max. They stared at each other, then Max kneed down and embraced him. He answered the hug and pulled her tight. She suddenly realized what she had done. You can't pretend she just ran into him. You can't run into somebody who's in a wheelchair and hug him. Not when kneeling on the cold floor. They opened the embrace and looked at each other.
"Sorry, Ma'am, but you look exactly like a dear friend of mine!" Logan grinned, while Max was standing up. She smiled back and thought once again how easy you could get lost in his eyes.
"Somebody told me this stuff about a real European Christmas so I wondered what it was like and came here. Till now it's mostly cold."
"I just wanted to go home, but now..."
"Going back is fine. I guess, this bridge will still be here tomorrow."
He nodded. "Yes, I guess it will. Already met my grandparents, didn't you?"
"They were really nice and told me where to find you. Glad you didn't go jogging at the beach. Would've been much harder to find you then."
He grimaced and followed her to the parking lot. Nobody said anything but the looks they shared said more than they'd ever been able to say. Now they were ready for Christmas.
"Are you tired?" Logan asked when they came to the car.
She shook her head. "No. I slept a little in the plane. And you know I don't sleep much, so it's fine. Maybe I've even got a jet lag 'cause I feel so awake."
He smiled. Not so strange. He still couldn't sleep at night. "So what's going to happen when we come to your grandparent's place?"
"My granny baked a chocolate cake, I guess and after having eaten that one, we'll go to church. Having finished that, we'll give about half of the presents, 'cause we never could decide when to give the presents. Christmas eve or the next morning. So we split. We're going to eat a Christmas goose and we'll sit next to the lightened Christmas tree and listen to Christmas songs and talk a little about what happened last year and what we think is going to happen next year."
Logan suddenly became excited like a little child and Max didn't want to bring him back to earth, but she had some questions. "So I guess they don't know about you being an underground cyber journalist? What's the story then? And what did you tell them about me?"
"The story is I work as a free journalist, specialized on internet researches."
"Okay, that's not so wrong."
"You're a bike messenger. If you don't use your powers in front of them or wear your hair tight up, everything will be fine. Is this your car?" he asked and as Max nodded and opened the door he pulled himself into it. She watched him put his wheelchair behind him and sat down on the drivers seat.
Slowly she started to drive back every once in a while looking at the guy next to her. Logan did the same. She was really here. He hadn't believed this to happen after their last discussion. He wondered how she had come here and suddenly realized that someone must have made a long distance call.
She parked the car in front of the house and when he changed to his chair Max came to him, carrying her bag. She followed him to the apartment and he opened the door.
"Grandpa? Granny? We're back!" he called and when his grandmother answered, they followed the voice to the kitchen.
She stood there and was cooking coffee. "So you finally found each other?"
"Yeah, Max found me....And you've got to explain me some things!" he added whispering, but his grandmother laughed and gave him the cake.
"Take this one to the living room and show Max where she can sleep. Daniel's bed is made."
Logan nodded and placed the cake in his lap.
"Can I help you?" asked Max but Sarah shook his head.
"No, just let Logan show you where you are going to stay."
Logan disappeared in what had to be the living room and came back only a second later. She followed him when he led her to the end of the aisle where there were two rooms. "My grandparents once said that no matter where they are going to live, my Mom and her brother would always have a place to stay with them. So I stay in my Mom's room and this one is Uncle Daniel's. He lives in Australia and doesn't come here often."
Max looked into Logan's room. Everything was tidy as she was used to. Logan was always so tidy. Daniel's room was untouched, just the bed was made and for a second she thought about laying down for a few minutes. But then she just threw her bag into it and stepped to the window.
"I can't believe that we're still on the same planet. This is so peaceful here!"
Logan smiled back from the door where he was waiting. "I told you this was a different world. No Pulse, not more crime than usual. Happy people waiting to get their presents." Then he smiled: "And their chocolate cakes. Let's get it. And this world won't be broken in the morning."
She smiled and thought of the day he had said this to her. Following him to the living room she felt uncredible safe and happy.
Steven was just lighting the candles. "Hey Max, hey Logan! Sit down, we'll start right away!"
Max took place on the couch and Logan stopped next to her. "This is so nice!" he said.
Max grinned, "It's not that we aren't used to candles. But we use them more during brown-outs."
Sarah who just came in with the coffee, looked at them, but didn't say anything. Logan knew exactly what this look meant. She wanted him to stay here. But he ignored it. Steven gave cake and coffee to everyone.
"Does anyone want to have cream? Sarah, darling?"
Logan's grandmother looked up and nodded. "Yes please. So Max, how was your flight?"
Max felt like she had changed body with someone else. Someone who was very lucky. This was so perfect. A perfect family, a perfect cake and such a loving atmosphere. She didn't know why Logan hadn't grown up with his grandparents, but there had to be some other reason than that they wouldn't have wished to do so. They loved him. Suddenly she became aware of the fact that she knew nothing about Logan's childhood. She didn't know why his parents died and when.
But back to the question. "Fine, thanks. Very calm. I was able to sleep a little when I had changed planes in Atlanta. I had a little problem with the car-rental at the airport here, but they were finally able to find my reservation."
"How long are you going to stay?" Logan asked and Max smiled, "There's a nice plane going back to Seattle on new year's day."
Logan tried to hide his smile, but he couldn't. Max would see it anyway. A whole week with Max in this whole world. This was the best present he could get. He looked at his granny but she pretended to know about nothing.
They had coffee and ate the cake while Max had to undergo all those questions friends have to undergo, and already the first question made her struggle. "So Max, where did you meet Logan?"
She couldn't tell this nice old lady and her husband that she broke into Logan's apartment to steal. So she said, "My job brought me near him."
That wasn't wrong. If she hadn't delivered the package to the building next to Logan's she would never have seen his statue. "What to you do for your living?"
"I'm a bike messenger."
This was easier territory. Okay, they were now thinking she had delivered something to him, but hey, who cared. Her whole existence was a lie.
After having finished coffee they got ready for church. When Logan had changed clothes he went to his grandparent's sleeping room where Sarah was just putting on some make up.
"Hey granny!"
"Hey, Logan. You clean up nice!"
"Thanks. So do you. But you shouldn't have called her."
"Why not? You look much happier now."
"But this already is so complicated. And being here together just doesn't make it easier!"
She turned around and looked at him: "What's so complicated? She seems to be a very nice girl. And the way she looks at you makes me feel that she's not angry about being here."
The way she looked at him? "But we don't have that kind of relationship. We don't look at each other all dreamy eyed and forget about the rest of the world."
His granny smiled, "No, of course not!" she said ironically.
"Gee, Granny, there's no way of talking seriously to you about that!"
"Don't be so shy, Logan. That's not you. It's Christmas, the holiday of love. Let's be nice to each other."
"Okay, you're right. Are you going to tell Grandpa not to sing so loud in church?"
They grinned at each other: "Tell them to hurry up, we have to leave in a few minutes!"
"I will."
He went back to his room and got himself a pullover, then he started looking for his grandfather. He found him back in the living room, already dressed for church. "Granny told me we'd have to leave in a few minutes!"
"I'm ready!" he murmured and continued reading his newspaper.
Carefully he knocked at Max' door and when she answered "Come in", he opened and wheeled in.
She looked gorgeous. Instead of her leather pants she was wearing a simple black dress that made her look much more feminine. She must have looked at him, too, because she said, "Wow! I like how people dress up on holidays! You look great!"
"So do you! We have to leave in a few minutes. We'll walk to church, so put on a warm jacket."
"I will. Even though I'm going to freeze my ass off in this dress."
Logan smiled back at her: "That's why I told you! You'll come?"
She nodded and he wheeled back to the door, when she asked: "Logan?"
"Huh?"
"Are your grandparents very religious? 'Cause they go to church and stuff? I've never really been to church except this time when Ben .." She looked at the floor, a little shy.
Logan suddenly realized how strange this all had to be for her. Christmas wasn't something that would have been celebrated at Manticore. So he stayed serious, even though he couldn't stand her cute look. "Not really. It's just kind of tradition to go there on Christmas eve. If you enjoyed Bennett's wedding, you might like this one too."
"Okay. So let's go."
A/N: I know, it's unfair, but I've written more - even though I'm not going to post it until anybody tells me I should. It's just so embarrassing to post anything nobody reads...