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I still can't believe how many people are reading this. You guys really encourage me to go on writing. So here's a new chapter. Thanks to willow for beta-ing. You all know how much she writes and posts herself, so I feel really honored that she's doing it. You should be happy too, 'cause she eliminates most of my strange phrasing.
The song quoted is "Crazy for this Girl" from Evan and Jaron. Sorry, but I kept listening the same CD over and over again. So - here's chapter 12. Please be nice and review.
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Chapter 14: Going Home
When he woke up in the middle of the night, a smile was plastered on Logan's face.
Max was still lying as close to him as humanly possible. Her head was resting on his shoulder, her hand placed on his chest. His smile widened when he realized that they were still both completely naked.
He had had sex. Not in the traditional way, with the emphasis on the actual intercourse, but definitely sex. They had come home late, 'cause there had been no chance of finding a cab, so they had walked home. His grandparents had left them a note that they would be staying at a friend's overnight and so they had been alone in the apartment. And had had sex. And it had been the best sex in his life. That's at least what he was thinking right now and he wondered why.
Max hadn't been the first woman he slept with; obviously, since he had been married. But thinking about it he hit upon two reasons: The first one was that - despite what he had been told by Sam, Bling and some other guys from the wheelchair basketball team - he hadn't believed he'd ever have sex again. He'd been ashamed, embarrassed and insecure, and couldn't believe that somebody wanted to be intimate with him now. Now that he was only... No, he had to stop himself from thinking that thought over and over again. He'd been able to push all those thoughts aside only a few hours ago, so he should be able to do it again right now. Max had made clear that she loved him and didn't care.
And that was the second reason. Max loved him and he loved her. Well, actually, he wasn't sure. He felt as if he'd never been with anybody where the love was mutual. Valerie had definitely loved alcohol more than he, and now that he knew Max and knew what he felt for her, he wasn't sure if he had ever loved Val either. And that was the woman he had been married to. So there was no need to even consider former girlfriends.
He was happy that he'd finally been brave enough to take the first step tonight, and looking at Max sleeping in his arms and looking at her wonderful smile, he knew she'd experienced it, too. The perfect moment.
His thoughts were interrupted when Max slowly opened her eyes and murmured, "This is my usual wake-up time, but I didn't think it was yours."
"You sound a little too sleepy to actually get up, but if you want to... I'll miss you, though."
She nodded, "Yeah, me too. You're the best pillow I ever had."
"Oh, thanks. You're a nice blanket, too."
Max grinned. "What I wanted to ask you when we came back but somehow forgot...Who are you and what did you do to Logan?"
He laughed, wrapped his arms around her, and placed a little kiss on the top of her head. "You know, when our dance was interrupted yesterday and you kicked Jason's ass all the way off the dance floor, I realized that we'll never have a traditional relationship. The old gender roles just don't work with us. I can't kick ass and don't imagine you'll be doing much of the cooking."
"We'd starve. But as long as you do the cooking I'm fine with kicking ass. Happy you came to that conclusion."
"Me too, believe me. Took me long enough."
Max nodded and played with the soft hair on Logan's chest. Unconsciously she started to hum the song they had been dancing to. Logan stopped her by whispering, "That's exactly what came to my mind when we got back tonight."
"Huh?" Max was confused.
He started to whisper the lyrics, "Right now, face to face, all my fears pushed aside and right now, I'm ready to..."
He stopped and Max knew why. She knew what was coming next and knew what he was afraid of. Too much too soon. But not tonight. Gazing at him, she remembered what she had been thinking about lifetime commitments at midnight and continued, "...spend the rest of my life with you?"
Logan hesitated, then nodded slowly. "Yeah," he answered, while the only thought in his mind was 'Please don't run away, please don't run away.' If it hadn't been so dark he would have known that he had nothing to worry about, but as it was dark he felt like a brick was rolling of his heart when her soft lips met his. "Me too", he heard her whisper, their lips never breaking the contact.
Laying her head back down on his shoulder, Max suddenly felt the need to tell him something she had tried to hide from him the entire time she'd known him.
"Logan?"
"Yeah?"
"You promise not to freak out when you hear what I've got to tell you?"
Logan sighed, "That sounds like a 'Logan-I've-got-bad-news-for-you' speeches."
"I don't know. Depends on you, I guess."
"I can at least promise I won't run. Literally," he said with a sarcastic grin.
Max decided to ignore his comment and explained, "See, I go through these phases."
Logan didn't get it. "Phases?"
"Because of my feline DNA. You know...cats? Mating cycles?"
Logan had never particularly enjoyed hearing Max's Manticore news-of-the-week, but this really took him off guard. "So you...wow..."
It took a moment for the news to sink in, then he wondered why she had told him. "And now you're telling me this because...?" Then a thought came into his mind. "Are you trying to tell me that tonight only happened because of your mating cycles? That in the morning you're gonna pretend nothing has happened?" he asked.
When she looked at him with her dark, sad eyes, he really felt like freaking out.
Max shook her head, "No. The exact opposite. I'm not in heat - that's what I call it - and to be honest, this is the first time I've had sex without being in heat. Logan, I'm trying to tell you...I never thought it could be like this."
It felt as though a giant weight had been lifted from his heart. A single tear fell from her eye when she saw his shocked expression. He reached out and wept it away. "I never thought it could either. And I'm sure I can live with your heat as long as you choose me as your partner during these mating cycles."
The sadness in her eyes disappeared and a smile spread across her face. "I think I can live with that."
Logan pulled her up and close for a deep kiss.
"I love you, Max," he said honestly.
"I love you too, Logan."
* * * When Max woke up the next time and checked Logan's alarm
clock, it was almost the time they had actually planned to get up. She switched
off the alarm before it could go off, and carefully, so as not to wake Logan,
left the bed.
When she returned from the bathroom she heard Logan's grandparents preparing breakfast and smiled. They had come only to make breakfast and say goodbye. She'd miss them back in Seattle.
She sat down on the bed next to Logan. He murmured something she couldn't understand.
"Hey, sleepyhead. Time to get up," she told him softly before trying to kiss him awake.
Still disoriented, he wrapped his arms around her and opened his eyes. "I preferred you wearing no clothes," he stated with a yawn.
Max smiled, "You kind of proved that last night. But it's time to get up. Your grandparents are already home."
"Okay, I'll get up. We don't want to miss the flight, do we?"
"Nope."
When Logan sat up and moved to the edge of the bed, he was all of a sudden embarrassed at his nakedness. Of course he had been naked all night, but that had been at night. When it had been dark.
Looking up, he found Max smiling at him, and her smile told him that she knew exactly what he was thinking. "I like the way you look," she told him. "Liked it last night and like it now." When Logan looked a little confused, she said, "Excellent night-vision, remember?"
No chance to be embarrassed with Max around, Logan thought and answered, "Yeah, I remember. But what I don't remember is why my chair is so far away from the bed."
Max giggled, "I remember exactly. Want me to fill you in?"
"As much as I'd love you to, I can't get rid of the feeling that it won't help me with getting up."
Pushing the chair towards the bed so he could transfer she agreed, smiling. "You're probably right."
Breakfast was over too soon and then it was time for Max and Logan to leave for the airport. They got their luggage from their rooms and started to say their good-byes, but Steven shook his head.
"No need to say that now. We'll come with you to the airport."
Max smiled. They were so nice. But Logan said, "No, you don't have to do that. We can go in Max's car. Have to give it back anyway."
"We know. But we can give it back here, too, so no problem. We wondered if we could find a nice flight to Seattle. Around spring or summer."
Logan smiled and shrugged. "Your choice."
They didn't talk much in the car. Max stared out of the window, trying to memorize everything so she could always think back to the days here. She had never felt more safe and happy. But it's back to reality, she thought as they arrived at the airport.
The check-in was done soon -- not many people wanted to go to Seattle these days -- so they had enough time to have coffee and finally say good-bye.
Max found herself being hugged by Steven as he whispered in her ear, "Stay as you are, Max. And make Logan happy. Take care of him."
She smiled and answered, "I will."
Sarah and Logan had a similar exchange. "Bye, Logan. Take care of yourself and take care of Max. We'll come for a visit this year and we want to see you happy together."
Logan nodded. "Understood, ma'am. Bye, Granny. And thanks so much for getting Max here." Sarah just smiled and turned to Max.
"Max! It was so nice to meet you. You promise me you'll take care of Logan, okay?"
"Yeah, I promise. Thanks so much for everything, Sarah. This has been the best week of my life."
"There'll be plenty more." Sarah smiled kindly.
Max nodded. "Thanks to you."
She turned around when she felt something bumping against her leg. Logan's footrest. He looked up to her and asked, "Ready to go? Our flight is already boarding."
"Yeah, I'm ready."
They all waved for a last time as Max and Logan went to the gate and Max realized she had never felt so bad about leaving something behind. Logan stopped and took her hand, when he noticed that she really seemed to be unhappy. "Hey, Angel. We can come back next Christmas. Don't look so sad, please."
"Sorry. Yeah, I know we can come back. And I'd love to. But right now we have to face reality and get on that plane."
"Yeah. And don't tell me you're not looking forward to telling Cindy and Kendra everything."
Max couldn't stand Logan's cute look and thinking of her best friends she finally smiled. "I can't wait to hear their 'told-you-sos'."
"So we better take this flight. I have no idea when there'll be another one."
They found out they shouldn't have worried about being late, as they ended up being right on time. Logan realized once more how nice everyone at the airport was as they arranged for him to get on the plane.
When they were finally seated and the plane was ready to take off, Logan put his arm around Max and pulled her close. She looked up and said sadly, "It's really over."
"Yeah. But I'm happy you're here with me and I can take you home with me."
"You make me sound like a pet," Max chuckled.
Logan smiled. "I wish you were. You'd always stay at home with me, I'd feed you every once in a while..."
"Oh, you're so nice, Logan."
"I know." He grinned back at her.
When the plane started, Max looked at Logan and asked, "Why are you not afraid of flying when you're so afraid of heights?"
"Just don't look out of the window, that's the clue."
"We've got to work on that."
"We've got to work on a lot of things, don't we?"
"What do you mean?" Max asked surprised. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Just wondering about the last few days. Looking back on it, is there anything you would have done differently?"
"Logan, this week hast been the best in my entire life. I don't regret a thing. I regret I didn't accept your invitation in the first place and I regret we had to dance around each other for so long, but during the last week there's been nothing I would have done differently." She hesitated. "Except maybe..."
Logan looked at her, horror showing in his expression. "Except?"
"Except our walk on the beach. I should have known it wouldn't work. But I wanted to try." She smiled at him and his expression softened. Max asked, "What about you? Everything's okay with you?"
He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her tightly to him. "More than okay. Just wanted to be sure."
"You can be sure," she said and looked up at him, then leaned her head against his shoulder.
Together they watched the old movies that were shown. Logan fell asleep after the second one, but Max, who wasn't very familiar with Hollywood's films of the previous century, continued watching.
The flight seemed to be much shorter than going in the other direction, and before they had a chance to get bored, they were back in Seattle. While they were waiting for the other passengers to leave the plane and for the stewardess to get the wheelchair, Max looked out of the window and sighed. "Back to real life. Look, sector police everywhere. As if somebody would come here to steal anything."
"I think they're watching out for illegal imports."
"Yeah, probably you're right. I really didn't miss them," she said, thinking about the differences between life there and in Europe. She really hadn't missed hiding from the police and hover drones over there.
It took them some time to get through customs, but eventually they managed and went to the parking lot.
I still can't believe how many people are reading this. You guys really encourage me to go on writing. So here's a new chapter. Thanks to willow for beta-ing. You all know how much she writes and posts herself, so I feel really honored that she's doing it. You should be happy too, 'cause she eliminates most of my strange phrasing.
The song quoted is "Crazy for this Girl" from Evan and Jaron. Sorry, but I kept listening the same CD over and over again. So - here's chapter 12. Please be nice and review.
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Chapter 14: Going Home
When he woke up in the middle of the night, a smile was plastered on Logan's face.
Max was still lying as close to him as humanly possible. Her head was resting on his shoulder, her hand placed on his chest. His smile widened when he realized that they were still both completely naked.
He had had sex. Not in the traditional way, with the emphasis on the actual intercourse, but definitely sex. They had come home late, 'cause there had been no chance of finding a cab, so they had walked home. His grandparents had left them a note that they would be staying at a friend's overnight and so they had been alone in the apartment. And had had sex. And it had been the best sex in his life. That's at least what he was thinking right now and he wondered why.
Max hadn't been the first woman he slept with; obviously, since he had been married. But thinking about it he hit upon two reasons: The first one was that - despite what he had been told by Sam, Bling and some other guys from the wheelchair basketball team - he hadn't believed he'd ever have sex again. He'd been ashamed, embarrassed and insecure, and couldn't believe that somebody wanted to be intimate with him now. Now that he was only... No, he had to stop himself from thinking that thought over and over again. He'd been able to push all those thoughts aside only a few hours ago, so he should be able to do it again right now. Max had made clear that she loved him and didn't care.
And that was the second reason. Max loved him and he loved her. Well, actually, he wasn't sure. He felt as if he'd never been with anybody where the love was mutual. Valerie had definitely loved alcohol more than he, and now that he knew Max and knew what he felt for her, he wasn't sure if he had ever loved Val either. And that was the woman he had been married to. So there was no need to even consider former girlfriends.
He was happy that he'd finally been brave enough to take the first step tonight, and looking at Max sleeping in his arms and looking at her wonderful smile, he knew she'd experienced it, too. The perfect moment.
His thoughts were interrupted when Max slowly opened her eyes and murmured, "This is my usual wake-up time, but I didn't think it was yours."
"You sound a little too sleepy to actually get up, but if you want to... I'll miss you, though."
She nodded, "Yeah, me too. You're the best pillow I ever had."
"Oh, thanks. You're a nice blanket, too."
Max grinned. "What I wanted to ask you when we came back but somehow forgot...Who are you and what did you do to Logan?"
He laughed, wrapped his arms around her, and placed a little kiss on the top of her head. "You know, when our dance was interrupted yesterday and you kicked Jason's ass all the way off the dance floor, I realized that we'll never have a traditional relationship. The old gender roles just don't work with us. I can't kick ass and don't imagine you'll be doing much of the cooking."
"We'd starve. But as long as you do the cooking I'm fine with kicking ass. Happy you came to that conclusion."
"Me too, believe me. Took me long enough."
Max nodded and played with the soft hair on Logan's chest. Unconsciously she started to hum the song they had been dancing to. Logan stopped her by whispering, "That's exactly what came to my mind when we got back tonight."
"Huh?" Max was confused.
He started to whisper the lyrics, "Right now, face to face, all my fears pushed aside and right now, I'm ready to..."
He stopped and Max knew why. She knew what was coming next and knew what he was afraid of. Too much too soon. But not tonight. Gazing at him, she remembered what she had been thinking about lifetime commitments at midnight and continued, "...spend the rest of my life with you?"
Logan hesitated, then nodded slowly. "Yeah," he answered, while the only thought in his mind was 'Please don't run away, please don't run away.' If it hadn't been so dark he would have known that he had nothing to worry about, but as it was dark he felt like a brick was rolling of his heart when her soft lips met his. "Me too", he heard her whisper, their lips never breaking the contact.
Laying her head back down on his shoulder, Max suddenly felt the need to tell him something she had tried to hide from him the entire time she'd known him.
"Logan?"
"Yeah?"
"You promise not to freak out when you hear what I've got to tell you?"
Logan sighed, "That sounds like a 'Logan-I've-got-bad-news-for-you' speeches."
"I don't know. Depends on you, I guess."
"I can at least promise I won't run. Literally," he said with a sarcastic grin.
Max decided to ignore his comment and explained, "See, I go through these phases."
Logan didn't get it. "Phases?"
"Because of my feline DNA. You know...cats? Mating cycles?"
Logan had never particularly enjoyed hearing Max's Manticore news-of-the-week, but this really took him off guard. "So you...wow..."
It took a moment for the news to sink in, then he wondered why she had told him. "And now you're telling me this because...?" Then a thought came into his mind. "Are you trying to tell me that tonight only happened because of your mating cycles? That in the morning you're gonna pretend nothing has happened?" he asked.
When she looked at him with her dark, sad eyes, he really felt like freaking out.
Max shook her head, "No. The exact opposite. I'm not in heat - that's what I call it - and to be honest, this is the first time I've had sex without being in heat. Logan, I'm trying to tell you...I never thought it could be like this."
It felt as though a giant weight had been lifted from his heart. A single tear fell from her eye when she saw his shocked expression. He reached out and wept it away. "I never thought it could either. And I'm sure I can live with your heat as long as you choose me as your partner during these mating cycles."
The sadness in her eyes disappeared and a smile spread across her face. "I think I can live with that."
Logan pulled her up and close for a deep kiss.
"I love you, Max," he said honestly.
"I love you too, Logan."
When she returned from the bathroom she heard Logan's grandparents preparing breakfast and smiled. They had come only to make breakfast and say goodbye. She'd miss them back in Seattle.
She sat down on the bed next to Logan. He murmured something she couldn't understand.
"Hey, sleepyhead. Time to get up," she told him softly before trying to kiss him awake.
Still disoriented, he wrapped his arms around her and opened his eyes. "I preferred you wearing no clothes," he stated with a yawn.
Max smiled, "You kind of proved that last night. But it's time to get up. Your grandparents are already home."
"Okay, I'll get up. We don't want to miss the flight, do we?"
"Nope."
When Logan sat up and moved to the edge of the bed, he was all of a sudden embarrassed at his nakedness. Of course he had been naked all night, but that had been at night. When it had been dark.
Looking up, he found Max smiling at him, and her smile told him that she knew exactly what he was thinking. "I like the way you look," she told him. "Liked it last night and like it now." When Logan looked a little confused, she said, "Excellent night-vision, remember?"
No chance to be embarrassed with Max around, Logan thought and answered, "Yeah, I remember. But what I don't remember is why my chair is so far away from the bed."
Max giggled, "I remember exactly. Want me to fill you in?"
"As much as I'd love you to, I can't get rid of the feeling that it won't help me with getting up."
Pushing the chair towards the bed so he could transfer she agreed, smiling. "You're probably right."
Breakfast was over too soon and then it was time for Max and Logan to leave for the airport. They got their luggage from their rooms and started to say their good-byes, but Steven shook his head.
"No need to say that now. We'll come with you to the airport."
Max smiled. They were so nice. But Logan said, "No, you don't have to do that. We can go in Max's car. Have to give it back anyway."
"We know. But we can give it back here, too, so no problem. We wondered if we could find a nice flight to Seattle. Around spring or summer."
Logan smiled and shrugged. "Your choice."
They didn't talk much in the car. Max stared out of the window, trying to memorize everything so she could always think back to the days here. She had never felt more safe and happy. But it's back to reality, she thought as they arrived at the airport.
The check-in was done soon -- not many people wanted to go to Seattle these days -- so they had enough time to have coffee and finally say good-bye.
Max found herself being hugged by Steven as he whispered in her ear, "Stay as you are, Max. And make Logan happy. Take care of him."
She smiled and answered, "I will."
Sarah and Logan had a similar exchange. "Bye, Logan. Take care of yourself and take care of Max. We'll come for a visit this year and we want to see you happy together."
Logan nodded. "Understood, ma'am. Bye, Granny. And thanks so much for getting Max here." Sarah just smiled and turned to Max.
"Max! It was so nice to meet you. You promise me you'll take care of Logan, okay?"
"Yeah, I promise. Thanks so much for everything, Sarah. This has been the best week of my life."
"There'll be plenty more." Sarah smiled kindly.
Max nodded. "Thanks to you."
She turned around when she felt something bumping against her leg. Logan's footrest. He looked up to her and asked, "Ready to go? Our flight is already boarding."
"Yeah, I'm ready."
They all waved for a last time as Max and Logan went to the gate and Max realized she had never felt so bad about leaving something behind. Logan stopped and took her hand, when he noticed that she really seemed to be unhappy. "Hey, Angel. We can come back next Christmas. Don't look so sad, please."
"Sorry. Yeah, I know we can come back. And I'd love to. But right now we have to face reality and get on that plane."
"Yeah. And don't tell me you're not looking forward to telling Cindy and Kendra everything."
Max couldn't stand Logan's cute look and thinking of her best friends she finally smiled. "I can't wait to hear their 'told-you-sos'."
"So we better take this flight. I have no idea when there'll be another one."
They found out they shouldn't have worried about being late, as they ended up being right on time. Logan realized once more how nice everyone at the airport was as they arranged for him to get on the plane.
When they were finally seated and the plane was ready to take off, Logan put his arm around Max and pulled her close. She looked up and said sadly, "It's really over."
"Yeah. But I'm happy you're here with me and I can take you home with me."
"You make me sound like a pet," Max chuckled.
Logan smiled. "I wish you were. You'd always stay at home with me, I'd feed you every once in a while..."
"Oh, you're so nice, Logan."
"I know." He grinned back at her.
When the plane started, Max looked at Logan and asked, "Why are you not afraid of flying when you're so afraid of heights?"
"Just don't look out of the window, that's the clue."
"We've got to work on that."
"We've got to work on a lot of things, don't we?"
"What do you mean?" Max asked surprised. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Just wondering about the last few days. Looking back on it, is there anything you would have done differently?"
"Logan, this week hast been the best in my entire life. I don't regret a thing. I regret I didn't accept your invitation in the first place and I regret we had to dance around each other for so long, but during the last week there's been nothing I would have done differently." She hesitated. "Except maybe..."
Logan looked at her, horror showing in his expression. "Except?"
"Except our walk on the beach. I should have known it wouldn't work. But I wanted to try." She smiled at him and his expression softened. Max asked, "What about you? Everything's okay with you?"
He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her tightly to him. "More than okay. Just wanted to be sure."
"You can be sure," she said and looked up at him, then leaned her head against his shoulder.
Together they watched the old movies that were shown. Logan fell asleep after the second one, but Max, who wasn't very familiar with Hollywood's films of the previous century, continued watching.
The flight seemed to be much shorter than going in the other direction, and before they had a chance to get bored, they were back in Seattle. While they were waiting for the other passengers to leave the plane and for the stewardess to get the wheelchair, Max looked out of the window and sighed. "Back to real life. Look, sector police everywhere. As if somebody would come here to steal anything."
"I think they're watching out for illegal imports."
"Yeah, probably you're right. I really didn't miss them," she said, thinking about the differences between life there and in Europe. She really hadn't missed hiding from the police and hover drones over there.
It took them some time to get through customs, but eventually they managed and went to the parking lot.