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Anybody still there? I'm sorry it took me so long to finish this story but here it is: the final chapter. I never planned on such a long story like this (it's long for me, I don't compare myself to all these novel writers out there:-) ) and I'm sorry I didn't have more time to write.
But everybody who's a little confused: I filled in Chapter 11 and 12 so the original chapters 11 and 12 are now 13 and 14. Blame a fan for it, she offered the input to do so.
Special thanks to willow for spending her time on my phrasing. She told me it's getting better but I don't believe a word. You all should be happy you don't have to read the alpha version.
Enjoy the last chapter!
**************************
Chapter 15: Real Life
"You're not gonna tell me you left your baby here, are you?" Logan asked with a surprised look on his face.
Max shook her head. "No way. Just followed you 'cause I thought you might drive me home?" she asked with her cutest smile.
"I think that could be arranged." Logan smiled back and stopped behind his Aztek to lift his suitcase in the trunk. Max started to help him, but one sharp look made her back off. Slowly she went around the car and got in, waiting for Logan to transfer into the driver's seat.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Max. I just like to do things by myself, okay? I know you're stronger but I can do it, too."
"I know. I never doubted that. Sorry.... I think we've still got a lot to learn, don't we?"
His lips curved into a smile again. "Definitely."
Going through sector checkpoints, rotten streets and dirty ghettos, Logan finally stopped in front of Max's apartment. "I told you the world would still be broken this year," he sighed and Max nodded.
"Turns out you're right again."
She got out of the car, took her bag from the trunk and went around to the driver's side, where Logan had opened the window.
"Bye, Logan."
"Bye, Max. See you later?"
"I don't know." She answered without really thinking about it. "I think I'm gonna catch up with Original Cindy, maybe have a few beers at Crash. Wanna join us?"
"No, I don't think so. I'll call you, okay?"
"Yeah. Bye!" Max kissed him on the cheek and turned away slowly walking to the entrance. When she looked back before she went in, she saw that the car had already left. Shrugging she went up the stairs.
"Anybody home?" she shouted and had to put her hands on her ears when Original Cindy came out of her room and started screaming.
"Max! Happy New Year!" She hugged her friend warmly.
Max smiled. "Happy New Year, O.C.!"
"Where'd you come from? Where have you been? You only left this note saying something about a real European Christmas I didn't understand. Where have you been?" she repeated and Max's smile widened. She knew she'd have to tell Cindy eventually, so why not now?
"I've been with Logan. We've been visiting his grandparents in Europe."
"Europe? With Logan? You're kidding?!"
"Nope."
Cindy looked at Max and nodded. "No, you're not kidding. You better sit down and tell me everything."
Max laughed and followed Cindy to the couch in the living room.
"Logan had invited me to celebrate Christmas with him weeks ago but I told him I couldn't, so he left alone. He must have been in a bad mood, because his grandma called and asked me to come. I couldn't say no this time, so I took off for the airport instead. I got there on Christmas Eve, and we had a very nice evening. Went to church, had a delicious dinner and gave each other presents. It was so fantastic. But that night I started having seizures, you know, I was shaking and trembling and Logan stayed in my bed that night. The next day we did some sightseeing and were late for coffee with some friends of his grandparents or whatever. They were horrible and were obviously having problems with Logan in the chair so we went out for a walk to spend as little time with them as possible. We went to a café not far away and met some Americans which were very nice. But they trapped us and made us kiss under the mistletoe."
Cindy whistled. "That's nice."
"Yeah, but of course we pretended as if nothing had happened. At least for the next hour or so. But then we built a snowman and when we were finished, Logan started a snow fight. He had already won, but I hit him hard and he fell out of the chair. Nothing happened but when I went over to see if he was okay, we kissed again."
"So you finally figured it out. Max, it took you so long..."
"...and even longer. Nothing was clear."
"A night in one bed, two kisses and you still were pretending nothing had happened?"
"Yeah, we still did. But I couldn't sleep that night and went back to the living room to watch the wonderful Christmas tree and think a little about everything and eventually Logan showed up. Told me later that he had been in the kitchen, talking to his grandfather. But there he was, coming to the living room, sitting down next to me and telling me...well...telling me that he loved me."
"Who would have guessed? Logan loves you. Max, I still can't believe that he had to tell you for you to realize. Didn't I tell you so? Didn't I tell you that you two were in love?"
"Yeah, yeah, you told me. But that's the way it happened. He had to tell me. I had figured out that I loved him, but I don't know if that would have been enough. Maybe if I had never told him, we'd still be dancing around each other. But after that it was simply great. We've been together all the time, even went to a cousin's cabin on an island for a few days. It was really hard to say good-bye, everything's just been perfect."
When she was finished she couldn't hide her smile from Cindy.
"You're really happy," she stated without it being a question.
Max nodded. "More than happy. I'm just really glad I followed him."
Cindy grinned. "Didn't I tell you so? Didn't I tell you to go to Logan and be honest, tell him what you feel? But you kept telling me that 'we're not like that' BS!"
Max laughed, "Yeah, I know you told me so, but I don't care. I've never met a better man than him. You simply can't imagine how cute he's been all the time. Europe was wonderful because of the fact that the Pulse never happened, but we could have gone just anywhere and it would have been just as wonderful just because of Logan."
Cindy smiled at the love showing on Max's face. "That's good to hear. Logan's a good guy."
"The best."
"You're gonna go to his place tonight?"
"Nah, I thought we could meet the others at Crash, see who's got the worst hangover from last night."
"My bet's on Sketchy."
"I'm not gonna bet against that."
The girls kept talking and chatting about Europe and Cindy told Max about the latest events back in Seattle, about Normal's New Year's campaign, which meant more hot runs than ever before, and about the new girl she'd met at Crash a few days ago.
Logan drove home silently, thinking about Max. He could understand that she wanted to catch up with Cindy and that she wanted to have some beers at Crash, but he didn't get why that meant not seeing her tonight.
He didn't like to go to Crash on crowded evenings - and this would be one - but he even considered changing his attitude before his pride told him to stop thinking like that. He wasn't going to run after her. If she wanted to see him, she'd call.
He struggled a little with his suitcase in the elevator, but finally he reached his penthouse and sighed. It was a good feeling to come home, but his apartment had never felt so empty. Switching on all of the lights he booted up his computer and put his clothes in the washing machine.
Max enjoyed being at Crash, talking with the Jam Pony gang and playing some pool. She even enjoyed the band that was playing as it was actually better than the usual wanna-be-rockers that were hired usually.
But one thing was bothering her. Why didn't Logan call her? She checked her beeper again and again but even after midnight there was no call from him.
She waved good-bye to everybody and went outside to go home but was stopped by Original Cindy before she could start her bike.
"Where are you going?"
"Home," Max answered.
"You musta checked that beeper at least a thousand times. Was Logan supposed to call?"
Max shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe."
Cindy arched an eyebrow. "Maybe? What happened?"
"I don't know. When he drove me home he asked if we'd meet tonight and I told him that I wanted to talk to you and maybe go to Crash. I asked him to come but he didn't want to join us. He said he'd call but obviously didn't."
"And now you're going home? Max, you must be kidding me! Your boy wanted to spend the evening with you and you bailed. And you're still expecting him to call? One thing you've got to learn about the three-legged-gender is that you better never ever hurt their pride. I bet he's at home waiting for you to call because he's too proud to pick up his phone and call you."
Max looked at her, surprised. "How do you know so much about men?"
"This isn't really a guy thing. It's just human nature. Call him, Max."
Max thought for a moment about what Cindy had said. Yeah, maybe it was just human nature. Why didn't she simply call him? Just because she was too proud. She felt like she had before she'd gone to Europe. Before they'd been honest with each other.
It was exactly the same thing, they wouldn't get any further and would both be unhappy if one of them didn't forget about his pride and just talk. The last time it had been Logan, with a little help from Steven, so Max sighed and decided that today it was her turn.
"I'll go see him. Don't wait up for me," she told Cindy before riding away. Cindy smiled. She had always known that Max and Logan belonged together, had known since the day he came to Jam Pony when she had been in prison. She was happy that her best friend had finally seen what had been so obvious and was happy that she and Logan were finally together, but she also knew that with two people as stubborn as those two were, this wasn't the first misunderstanding they'd had, and it wouldn't be the last.
Turning to go back into Crash she shrugged. Max might need a push in the right direction every now and then, but Cindy had seen the love in her eyes when she talked about Logan. No need to worry too much, she thought to herself. Those two will make it.
Max drove through the dark Seattle streets, stopping only when she reached Logan's apartment. When she entered she thought at first that he must be asleep, since there weren't any lights on, but when she moved silently to his bedroom, she found him in bed, writing something in a book.
She stopped and leaned against the door, watching him for a moment before he became aware of her presence. Putting the book on the nightstand he said, "I thought you were at Crash."
She nodded. "I was. But remember? I told you I never wanted to sleep alone again and I thought maybe you'd let me join you."
Logan's face, which had had a skeptical expression when he first saw her, softened, and a smile crept up his cheeks to his eyes.
"You know you're always welcome. In this apartment and especially in this bed." He smiled at her. "Get over here."
She smiled back at him and walked over to the bed where he was sitting. He pulled her down next to him and wrapped his arms around her before he kissed her and said, "I'm glad you're here."
"Me too." She looked him into the deep blue eyes and asked, "Why didn't you call me and ask me to come over?"
He answered her questioning look and said, "Because you didn't ask me to. Because you didn't tell me you wanted to see me tonight."
Max placed her head on Logan's chest and giggled a little.
"What's so funny?" he wanted to know.
"Cindy told me that would be the reason. Sorry, Logan, I simply didn't think about it."
"Forget about it, Max. You're here, I'm happy and actually pretty tired."
"Let me just go to the bathroom and I'll be back."
He nodded and watched her throw her jacket on a chair and walk to the bathroom.
When she came back a few minutes later, she threw her pullover on the same chair where her jacket was lying. Logan, who had switched off the main light so that the bedroom was only enlightened by the small lamp on the nightstand, told Max, "You can wear one of my T-shirts, if you want to."
Max bit on her lower lip to stop the smile and continued to undress slowly. After the pullover, her pants joined the clothes on the chair, then came her socks and the shirt she'd worn under the pullover. Logan gulped when she unhooked her bra and pulled off her panties. Staring at her, completely naked, he continued his previous offer, "Well, only if you really want to."
His wide smile told her more than his words that he didn't want her to wear anything, so she walked up next to the bed and when he lifted the blanket, she slipped under it, cuddling close to him.
"You're wearing too much clothing," she told him, and started to pull off his shirt and his boxer-briefs.
When both were completely naked, Logan grabbed Max's tiny waist and pulled her on top of him where he held her tight and whispered in her ear, "I love you Max."
"I love you too."
When Max woke up in the very early hours of the next morning, she was still lying in front of Logan, spooning with him. Without turning around she inhaled his scent and was satisfied just to be so close to him.
Lying there and thinking about the events of the last several days and what might come out of it, she eventually remembered the book Logan had been writing in, when she had found him in his bedroom. Carefully, so not to wake him, she took the book from the nightstand. Didn't know he was writing a diary, she thought to herself and curiously decided: I'll just have a small glance at what he was writing before I came in. She knew it wasn't a nice thing to do, but she couldn't resist.
Opening the last page she just caught a few words...Forever eyes...dark...my angel. Smiling, she put the book back and moved closer to Logan.
THE END
A/N: Okay, you did it. It's finished. If you liked the story, you might wanna check out "Surprises", it's a little sequel.
Anybody still there? I'm sorry it took me so long to finish this story but here it is: the final chapter. I never planned on such a long story like this (it's long for me, I don't compare myself to all these novel writers out there:-) ) and I'm sorry I didn't have more time to write.
But everybody who's a little confused: I filled in Chapter 11 and 12 so the original chapters 11 and 12 are now 13 and 14. Blame a fan for it, she offered the input to do so.
Special thanks to willow for spending her time on my phrasing. She told me it's getting better but I don't believe a word. You all should be happy you don't have to read the alpha version.
Enjoy the last chapter!
**************************
Chapter 15: Real Life
"You're not gonna tell me you left your baby here, are you?" Logan asked with a surprised look on his face.
Max shook her head. "No way. Just followed you 'cause I thought you might drive me home?" she asked with her cutest smile.
"I think that could be arranged." Logan smiled back and stopped behind his Aztek to lift his suitcase in the trunk. Max started to help him, but one sharp look made her back off. Slowly she went around the car and got in, waiting for Logan to transfer into the driver's seat.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Max. I just like to do things by myself, okay? I know you're stronger but I can do it, too."
"I know. I never doubted that. Sorry.... I think we've still got a lot to learn, don't we?"
His lips curved into a smile again. "Definitely."
Going through sector checkpoints, rotten streets and dirty ghettos, Logan finally stopped in front of Max's apartment. "I told you the world would still be broken this year," he sighed and Max nodded.
"Turns out you're right again."
She got out of the car, took her bag from the trunk and went around to the driver's side, where Logan had opened the window.
"Bye, Logan."
"Bye, Max. See you later?"
"I don't know." She answered without really thinking about it. "I think I'm gonna catch up with Original Cindy, maybe have a few beers at Crash. Wanna join us?"
"No, I don't think so. I'll call you, okay?"
"Yeah. Bye!" Max kissed him on the cheek and turned away slowly walking to the entrance. When she looked back before she went in, she saw that the car had already left. Shrugging she went up the stairs.
"Anybody home?" she shouted and had to put her hands on her ears when Original Cindy came out of her room and started screaming.
"Max! Happy New Year!" She hugged her friend warmly.
Max smiled. "Happy New Year, O.C.!"
"Where'd you come from? Where have you been? You only left this note saying something about a real European Christmas I didn't understand. Where have you been?" she repeated and Max's smile widened. She knew she'd have to tell Cindy eventually, so why not now?
"I've been with Logan. We've been visiting his grandparents in Europe."
"Europe? With Logan? You're kidding?!"
"Nope."
Cindy looked at Max and nodded. "No, you're not kidding. You better sit down and tell me everything."
Max laughed and followed Cindy to the couch in the living room.
"Logan had invited me to celebrate Christmas with him weeks ago but I told him I couldn't, so he left alone. He must have been in a bad mood, because his grandma called and asked me to come. I couldn't say no this time, so I took off for the airport instead. I got there on Christmas Eve, and we had a very nice evening. Went to church, had a delicious dinner and gave each other presents. It was so fantastic. But that night I started having seizures, you know, I was shaking and trembling and Logan stayed in my bed that night. The next day we did some sightseeing and were late for coffee with some friends of his grandparents or whatever. They were horrible and were obviously having problems with Logan in the chair so we went out for a walk to spend as little time with them as possible. We went to a café not far away and met some Americans which were very nice. But they trapped us and made us kiss under the mistletoe."
Cindy whistled. "That's nice."
"Yeah, but of course we pretended as if nothing had happened. At least for the next hour or so. But then we built a snowman and when we were finished, Logan started a snow fight. He had already won, but I hit him hard and he fell out of the chair. Nothing happened but when I went over to see if he was okay, we kissed again."
"So you finally figured it out. Max, it took you so long..."
"...and even longer. Nothing was clear."
"A night in one bed, two kisses and you still were pretending nothing had happened?"
"Yeah, we still did. But I couldn't sleep that night and went back to the living room to watch the wonderful Christmas tree and think a little about everything and eventually Logan showed up. Told me later that he had been in the kitchen, talking to his grandfather. But there he was, coming to the living room, sitting down next to me and telling me...well...telling me that he loved me."
"Who would have guessed? Logan loves you. Max, I still can't believe that he had to tell you for you to realize. Didn't I tell you so? Didn't I tell you that you two were in love?"
"Yeah, yeah, you told me. But that's the way it happened. He had to tell me. I had figured out that I loved him, but I don't know if that would have been enough. Maybe if I had never told him, we'd still be dancing around each other. But after that it was simply great. We've been together all the time, even went to a cousin's cabin on an island for a few days. It was really hard to say good-bye, everything's just been perfect."
When she was finished she couldn't hide her smile from Cindy.
"You're really happy," she stated without it being a question.
Max nodded. "More than happy. I'm just really glad I followed him."
Cindy grinned. "Didn't I tell you so? Didn't I tell you to go to Logan and be honest, tell him what you feel? But you kept telling me that 'we're not like that' BS!"
Max laughed, "Yeah, I know you told me so, but I don't care. I've never met a better man than him. You simply can't imagine how cute he's been all the time. Europe was wonderful because of the fact that the Pulse never happened, but we could have gone just anywhere and it would have been just as wonderful just because of Logan."
Cindy smiled at the love showing on Max's face. "That's good to hear. Logan's a good guy."
"The best."
"You're gonna go to his place tonight?"
"Nah, I thought we could meet the others at Crash, see who's got the worst hangover from last night."
"My bet's on Sketchy."
"I'm not gonna bet against that."
The girls kept talking and chatting about Europe and Cindy told Max about the latest events back in Seattle, about Normal's New Year's campaign, which meant more hot runs than ever before, and about the new girl she'd met at Crash a few days ago.
Logan drove home silently, thinking about Max. He could understand that she wanted to catch up with Cindy and that she wanted to have some beers at Crash, but he didn't get why that meant not seeing her tonight.
He didn't like to go to Crash on crowded evenings - and this would be one - but he even considered changing his attitude before his pride told him to stop thinking like that. He wasn't going to run after her. If she wanted to see him, she'd call.
He struggled a little with his suitcase in the elevator, but finally he reached his penthouse and sighed. It was a good feeling to come home, but his apartment had never felt so empty. Switching on all of the lights he booted up his computer and put his clothes in the washing machine.
Max enjoyed being at Crash, talking with the Jam Pony gang and playing some pool. She even enjoyed the band that was playing as it was actually better than the usual wanna-be-rockers that were hired usually.
But one thing was bothering her. Why didn't Logan call her? She checked her beeper again and again but even after midnight there was no call from him.
She waved good-bye to everybody and went outside to go home but was stopped by Original Cindy before she could start her bike.
"Where are you going?"
"Home," Max answered.
"You musta checked that beeper at least a thousand times. Was Logan supposed to call?"
Max shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe."
Cindy arched an eyebrow. "Maybe? What happened?"
"I don't know. When he drove me home he asked if we'd meet tonight and I told him that I wanted to talk to you and maybe go to Crash. I asked him to come but he didn't want to join us. He said he'd call but obviously didn't."
"And now you're going home? Max, you must be kidding me! Your boy wanted to spend the evening with you and you bailed. And you're still expecting him to call? One thing you've got to learn about the three-legged-gender is that you better never ever hurt their pride. I bet he's at home waiting for you to call because he's too proud to pick up his phone and call you."
Max looked at her, surprised. "How do you know so much about men?"
"This isn't really a guy thing. It's just human nature. Call him, Max."
Max thought for a moment about what Cindy had said. Yeah, maybe it was just human nature. Why didn't she simply call him? Just because she was too proud. She felt like she had before she'd gone to Europe. Before they'd been honest with each other.
It was exactly the same thing, they wouldn't get any further and would both be unhappy if one of them didn't forget about his pride and just talk. The last time it had been Logan, with a little help from Steven, so Max sighed and decided that today it was her turn.
"I'll go see him. Don't wait up for me," she told Cindy before riding away. Cindy smiled. She had always known that Max and Logan belonged together, had known since the day he came to Jam Pony when she had been in prison. She was happy that her best friend had finally seen what had been so obvious and was happy that she and Logan were finally together, but she also knew that with two people as stubborn as those two were, this wasn't the first misunderstanding they'd had, and it wouldn't be the last.
Turning to go back into Crash she shrugged. Max might need a push in the right direction every now and then, but Cindy had seen the love in her eyes when she talked about Logan. No need to worry too much, she thought to herself. Those two will make it.
Max drove through the dark Seattle streets, stopping only when she reached Logan's apartment. When she entered she thought at first that he must be asleep, since there weren't any lights on, but when she moved silently to his bedroom, she found him in bed, writing something in a book.
She stopped and leaned against the door, watching him for a moment before he became aware of her presence. Putting the book on the nightstand he said, "I thought you were at Crash."
She nodded. "I was. But remember? I told you I never wanted to sleep alone again and I thought maybe you'd let me join you."
Logan's face, which had had a skeptical expression when he first saw her, softened, and a smile crept up his cheeks to his eyes.
"You know you're always welcome. In this apartment and especially in this bed." He smiled at her. "Get over here."
She smiled back at him and walked over to the bed where he was sitting. He pulled her down next to him and wrapped his arms around her before he kissed her and said, "I'm glad you're here."
"Me too." She looked him into the deep blue eyes and asked, "Why didn't you call me and ask me to come over?"
He answered her questioning look and said, "Because you didn't ask me to. Because you didn't tell me you wanted to see me tonight."
Max placed her head on Logan's chest and giggled a little.
"What's so funny?" he wanted to know.
"Cindy told me that would be the reason. Sorry, Logan, I simply didn't think about it."
"Forget about it, Max. You're here, I'm happy and actually pretty tired."
"Let me just go to the bathroom and I'll be back."
He nodded and watched her throw her jacket on a chair and walk to the bathroom.
When she came back a few minutes later, she threw her pullover on the same chair where her jacket was lying. Logan, who had switched off the main light so that the bedroom was only enlightened by the small lamp on the nightstand, told Max, "You can wear one of my T-shirts, if you want to."
Max bit on her lower lip to stop the smile and continued to undress slowly. After the pullover, her pants joined the clothes on the chair, then came her socks and the shirt she'd worn under the pullover. Logan gulped when she unhooked her bra and pulled off her panties. Staring at her, completely naked, he continued his previous offer, "Well, only if you really want to."
His wide smile told her more than his words that he didn't want her to wear anything, so she walked up next to the bed and when he lifted the blanket, she slipped under it, cuddling close to him.
"You're wearing too much clothing," she told him, and started to pull off his shirt and his boxer-briefs.
When both were completely naked, Logan grabbed Max's tiny waist and pulled her on top of him where he held her tight and whispered in her ear, "I love you Max."
"I love you too."
When Max woke up in the very early hours of the next morning, she was still lying in front of Logan, spooning with him. Without turning around she inhaled his scent and was satisfied just to be so close to him.
Lying there and thinking about the events of the last several days and what might come out of it, she eventually remembered the book Logan had been writing in, when she had found him in his bedroom. Carefully, so not to wake him, she took the book from the nightstand. Didn't know he was writing a diary, she thought to herself and curiously decided: I'll just have a small glance at what he was writing before I came in. She knew it wasn't a nice thing to do, but she couldn't resist.
Opening the last page she just caught a few words...Forever eyes...dark...my angel. Smiling, she put the book back and moved closer to Logan.
THE END
A/N: Okay, you did it. It's finished. If you liked the story, you might wanna check out "Surprises", it's a little sequel.