Hey there, me again. These installments will be coming fairly rapidly seems how the whole story has already been written… and just needs a bit of editing to pass the new standards! I hope that this will tide you over until I get my head together about B&P's next chapter!

Darwin

Chapter One: Ghosts of the Past

Once Logan and Max cleaned up they both returned to bed as their latent weariness overwhelmed them. It was several hours later when Max woke up with a start. She blinked heavily, trying to remember what had wakened her, for the life of her she could not recall what had been so frightening. Slowly she sat up looking around her having momentarily forgotten where she was. She couldn't help but smile as she realized she was home. She looked down next to her finding Logan still sleeping flat on his back with his arms over his head.

She slowly took the sight of him in. His hair was graying out, it was more peppered than she remembered it being. It was cropped short in the back and longer on top standing up at every angle always looking as if he had just gotten out of bed. His face seemed thinner but he still sported the same scruffy beard also starting to pepper at the corners of his mouth, she couldn't remember him ever wearing it different in all the time that she had known him.

Max looked slowly over the features of his body. She wasn't kidding when she said that he was in shape, he had more definition than she remembered in him. He had always had a nice body, but not nearly as well defined as it was now. His arms were always muscular but now they were cut, so were his chest and his stomach. Her gaze continued down smiling in amusement at the tangle of covers that barely covered him, he must have been hot for his left leg was exposed to the open air. Her smile faded away as something on his leg grabbed her attention. There on his left thigh was an ugly scar that was about four inches in diameter, it was roughly circular, the skin looked thick and smooth. She reached over slowly running light fingers over the scar tissue, wondering for a moment what had happened.

Logan stirred slightly mumbling something incomprehensible in his sleep, she looked at his face then back at the scar. Her breath caught in her throat as the memory surfaced the alley… four years ago he had been shot in the leg during their escape attempt. Just before, she swallowed, just before she herself had been taken. Her brows furrowed as she looked back at it again, but why did it look so bad?

She had her own scars from that night, three neat bullet wounds in her back, but hers were not nearly so large or ugly as this. Manticore had done an outstanding job patching her back together… all so they could get her child, a child that they had hoped would have been just like Tinga's. Max the transgenic brood-mare, she winced inwardly at the part of her that actually felt glad that she had miscarried and kept Manticore from having another experiment to work on. A pang hit her then, regret, loss, anger, they all melded together until she was shaking.

She focused her eyes on him yet again, wanting to wake, tell him, to release the pain in her soul, and tell him all the horror she had lived in the last four years. That same part of her that had been glad for the miscarriage blamed Logan for not trying to find her sooner. She frowned at that thought and it slipped away quickly, he had thought her dead, her body taken by Manticore for genetic research and development. There had been no one to tell him that she had recovered only to be a prisoner for four years. It was the same for her, she thought he had been killed, one more witness to an illicit Manticore mission, and expendable.

She looked unfocused at the wall across the way, wondering silently how she had managed to last as long as she did when she had nothing to live for. She snorted, knowing the answer to that question even before it had run through her head, she was born and bred to be a survivor… Damn it to hell. But it was over, at least for the moment.

She looked down at his scarred leg yet again and ran a hand back over it thinking, "What happened to you after I was gone?"

Max looked back at Logan's face as his mutterings grew louder and he began thrashing in his sleep. He was nearly panting he was breathing so heavy and he had broken out into a sweat. She was about to wake him, worried about the violence of his motions. But before she knew what had happened he had bolted upright almost doubling over, "HUAH!" Burst from his lips sounding like a cross between frightened grunt and a scream.

Logan's left hand clenched over hers and painfully was pressing her hand into the scarred flesh on his leg. He wasn't looking at her at first staring across the room his chest heaving, there was pain on his face. Logan leaned further forward his forehead nearly touching the sheets, and there he remained for long moments with no movement except the heavy shaking of his body. Max actually thought she heard a sob escape his lips. He slowly straightened to a sitting position and raised a shaky hand covering his tightly closed eyes as he tried to take a deep breath. After a moment he settled and she convinced herself that she had imagined that supposed emotional weakness. Slowly his hand moved again as he raised it to run through his hair.

Max was unable to hold back her pain anymore the pressure of his grip had increased on her fingers until she thought that they were about to snap. She'd forgotten just how strong he was now, and it reminded her of how extraordinary he was, just like her. She let out a small cry of pain, and Logan's previously unfocused gaze was suddenly on her as if he hadn't realized she was there. His confused face looked at her and then down at her hand, "Jesus," he said quickly releasing her hand. She drew her hand back quickly rubbing them to return circulation to them, "Are you alright?"

Max could only nod, "Are you alright?" She asked, concern and fright bleeding through into her voice.

He looked away from her suddenly swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and standing up. The sheets fell into a rumpled heap on the floor at his feet. He moved quickly to the bathroom, and Max watched the pronounced limp in his step from that damaged leg, something she had not noticed before now. He disappeared quickly not answering her question or offering her an explanation. Max stared after him for long moments then shook her head deciding she was not going to let this one go. There was something that she was missing and she wanted the details. She moved out of the bed more slowly following his path to the lavatory. She stopped at the doorway watching him, he was leaned on the freestanding sink his head hanging between his shoulders. She leaned on the frame crossing her arms over her chest, "So does Mrs. Logan Cale get to know the details of what exactly happened after the Manticore monsters took her away from him?" she said in a flat voice.

He jumped at the sound of her voice his head coming up sharply. More slowly he straightened and turned back toward her, "No…" he said quietly, brushing past her with a towel in hand. She followed close on his heels still not willing to let the issue go. She sat on the bed near him as he gathered together his clothes for the day, staring at him with the look that usually guilt-tripped him into almost any confession. It didn't work this time, Logan didn't even look at her as he pulled on his pants and then he left for the front of the apartment.

Max sighed heavily closing her eyes and shaking her head, something was wrong. What ever had happened after she had been taken to Manticore it had been very painful for him and he was not nearly ready to talk to her about it. This time she let him be, he would tell her eventually, he always did. Pushing him would only make him shell up further, and that was not the way to start their first week back in each other's arms.

She instead slowly dressed herself, happy to find that Logan had kept her things. He had even left them in the dresser, though she would have expected that he would have at least packed them into boxes and put them in storage. She looked down at herself noticing that her already small frame had gotten smaller with her captivity, her clothes were now loose on her. She frowned unhappy with the way here and there her bones showed where they never had before. She was always too stuporous, and too uncaring to notice that before. She was going to have to fix that.

When Max finished dressing she moved back toward the living room trying to tell herself that she was not looking for Logan. She was just checking the place out to see how much it had changed… it hadn't, everything was pretty much the same as she had seen it last, minus an item or two that he probably had to sell to make ends meet. As she finished looking through the place she was unhappy to find that Logan was not about. Max knew he hadn't left she would have heard that. Max shrugged moving to kitchen to find something to eat. She realized that she was starving and tried vainly to remember when the last time was that she had eaten.

She opened the icebox pulling out some lunchmeat and bread, lettuce, tomatoes and the condiments. She moved over to the island in the kitchen, setting every thing down. She began to fix herself several sandwiches. She happened to look up and out the window, her brows furrowing as she found Logan out on the balcony looking out over the tower district toward the water. The sun was beginning to set outside making his lone form no more than a halloed silhouette against the bright orange sky. She continued to fix her meal, now and again glancing up at him, confused, he had never been comfortable with heights, in all the time that she had known him, yet there he was two feet from a 35 story drop. She separated the sandwiches onto two different plates and headed for where her husband stood looking forlorn.

Max silently approached Logan pausing just a few feet from him watching him, she could see that his thoughts were not on the view by the dour set of his mouth and the far away look in his eyes. Taking a deep breath she sidled up to him and slipped the plate up under his nose, "No longer afraid of heights I see."

He jumped again looking down a moment and then back up at her stepping back away from the railing. He smiled thinly, as if he didn't feel like it, and took the proffered sandwich from her, "Thanks," he said quietly moving toward a small patio set nearer the entrance and sitting down. Max followed him over as he shrugged, "A lot can change in four years," he said softly.

Her mouth thinned and she nodded taking a bite of her sandwich. He had picked up his sandwich but didn't take a bite and after a moment he set it back down just staring at her. Max tried to ignore it at first concentrating on getting the beast in her stomach to stop talking to her. Finally she set her own sandwich down looking back at him trying to decide what exactly he was thinking, she failed utterly, "What's wrong?" She asked him, knowing this had something to do with his sudden withdrawal upon rising, something to do with the nightmare and the scar.

"How's your hand?" he said evasively.

Max looked down at her fingers, "'s alright," She responded shrugging.

"I'm sorry," He said sincerely, "I didn't mean to hurt you…It was…"

"A bad nightmare, Logan I understand."

"I wonder if you really do," He looked away a moment his own mouth thin, then he looked back at her, "I missed you," He said.

"You said that already," She chided him smiling, She picked up her sandwich again taking another bite.

He took a deep breath nodding, "I know… It's just… I…" He shook his head his brows furrowed, "When I thought I lost you, I went crazy… literally," Max stopped halfway through chewing her food, setting her sandwich down yet again. She watched as Logan twisted the wedding ring on his finger, "I stopped caring, about my health, my appearance, my life. I almost ended it two weeks after the incident in the alley. If Zach hadn't interrupted me…" He shrugged his eyes absent, "I wouldn't be here now," she watched as his eyes focused on her, they were glossy with pending tears, "Zach offered me an alternative… and it was not necessarily a better one. He offered me revenge for what Lydecker had done to you, and I took him up on the offer… gladly. I had every intention of taking out Lydecker and dying in the process," Max's eyes widened, "And with that driving me Zach and I went to rescue Tinga, her family, and several other of the X-5's in California. But I still didn't care… The only thing keeping me going was the thought of revenge. After the mission was complete I went after Lydecker on my own, knowing I was going to die in the process. I came to my senses only when I was actually faced with death at the hands of two young Manticore soldiers."

Max looked astonished, "You took on two Manticore Kids?"

He smiled crookedly almost seeming embarrassed by it, "Yeah… I did," Then he sobered again, "By the time that I had realized my whole pattern of thinking had been skewed by my grief, the neglect had taken its toll on my leg. An infection had set in, something I ignored all signs of to that point. All of that and I found myself in Lydecker's hands. He used that against me, adding pressure to the wound, trying to get me to talk," he looked away out over the city again, then he blinked returning his attention to her, "I was reliving that moment when I woke this evening. Seeing him standing over me steadily increasing the pain, and there was nothing I could do about it, bound to a pole and weak with blood loss and infection."

Max nodded slowly looking slightly sick at the thought, "D… did he know it was you? I mean after the alley…"

"No, not at the time," He spread his hands she looked down at them seeing the shaking that was there, "Zach and Tinga came to my rescue, but I had already managed to free myself, using their distraction to get out of my bonds. I was hurting, barely conscious, and hardly able to maintain my feet. I met the three of them coming in, Lydecker herded before Tinga and Zach," He laughed shortly, "I broke Lydecker's jaw. I was this close to killing him," He held up his thumb and forefinger, "I had the gun on his temple, one shot and it would have been done. But… I chose to save Zach first from a soldier that had a bead on him, and before I could re-aim… I lost it, loss consciousness," He slammed a hand angrily onto the table, suddenly agitated, "Twice now I've been presented that opportunity, and twice I didn't take advantage of it."

"What, not taking tactical advantage over your enemy? He'd be so disappointed if he knew," Max said pointedly.

Logan smiled hearing his own words coming out of her mouth, he quieted again pursing his lips, "The funny thing is, if I had… killed him back then, it would have been the biggest mistake of my life," he reached a hand across the table toward her. Max took his hand smiling as he said, "I would never have found you."