Hi, I'm back. Took me some time, but I still have a lot of work to do and after all Christmas is coming up.

But here is the next chapter anyway.

Kyre: Thanks for pointing out to me that OC does not know that Logan is eyes only at this point. Well let's just pretend, Max just told Cindy that she helps him do some research for his stories as a journalist, and let's pretend, she said that he never let go of a story or something.

All right?

Thanks for reviewing!

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Chapter 6

Logan was busy preparing dinner, lost deeply in his thoughts. This case was really getting to him. How on earth should he get the charts he needed for Matt Sung to arrest those bastards? All the computer files had been deleted. Now the only existing proof of what was going on at the foundation could probably be found in some archives at the hospitals and the foundation itself.

So he someone had to go there in person, sneak into the archives, looking for any written documents that stated which families had donated money to the foundation and how much. He did not think that those criminals would have dared to touch the bigger amounts coming in like charity runs or donations of large firms. So it was most likely that they would have stolen the money of the small people who had sick children themselves and wanted to support others who were in a similar or worse situation.

The hospitals were authorised to accept cheques from those people directly and then send it on to the foundation. As far as he knew sometimes an employee would even come around and collect the cheques in person. That idea struck Logan like a blow on the head. Oh my god! Probably they had stolen even more money that way! It would never even have appeared on the foundation's account!

Well, he would find that out as soon as he got hold of the records.

The only problem was he couldn't just walk in there himself and look through the files as he would have done it if…. Someone else would have to do that.

Max, obviously came to his mind, but he pushed the thought away. No way. This was too personal. He had to do it on his own. He wouldn't want her sneaking around in all those hospitals , intruding into his own past.  He considered his options.

Maybe Bling could help him. At least he wouldn't ask all those questions Max was surely going to ask. He had filled him in about his past enough for him to know not to ask any further. It was just nobody's business anyway. Those were his own personal demons and he wasn't going to share them with anybody.

Trying to push those thoughts away he wheeled over to the counter to prepare desert. First of all he had to get this done, if he wanted it to be ready by the time Max would arrive.

He had prepared the cream filling earlier and now piled biscuits into the bowl, soaked them with espresso and sweet liquor and covered them with the sweet mixture.

Like this, he piled layer by layer into the bowl topping it with the cream. Job done he licked the spoon and smiled to himself. Delicious. If Max didn't like this…! He knew she was into those sweet things.

Thinking of Max he reminded himself not to look forward to much to this evening. She had not even answered his page. Maybe she wouldn't even come to join him.

In that case he would offer her to pick up the leftovers the next day. The Tiramisu would be even better then, after sitting for a day.

But he really hoped that she would not decline his invitation. Although he couldn't take his mind of the case he couldn't do anything about it anyway now and he just didn't want to be alone that night. He still felt kind of out of time and place after that unnerving dream he had had that morning.

He was just pondering on how a bad dream sometimes could affect your whole day, when the phone rang.

He threw the dirty spoon into the sink and wheeled over to pick the phone up.

"Yeah?!" he said wiping away some leftover cream from his mouth.

"It's me, Bling."

"Oh , hi!" Logan answered not even making an effort to hide his disappointment that it wasn't Max calling.

"Well that sounds pleased!" Bling said sarcastically. "Sorry to disappoint you! How are dinner preparations going?"

"Good, I just finished the desert. It's perfect!"

"Max will like it," Bling finished Logan's thoughts. "I'm sure she will."

"Yeah, problem is she hasn't even called back. Maybe she won't make it tonight…" he trailed off.

"No worries, man. You know her. She'll never miss a good meal and especially not a desert like that."

"We'll see about that.." Logan replied. "Why are you calling anyway?"

"Ahem, I was going to ask if you'd mind me coming for therapy about an hour later, tomorrow. My mother just called me. She wants to wash her curtains tomorrow. And I don't want her to trip over and break a leg trying to get them down."

Logan smiled imagining this tall, strong man being ordered around by a small resolute elderly woman, taking down some plushy curtains.

"No problem. Why don't you come over and get mine down, too. You don't want me to break my neck either, do you?!" he teased.

Bling wasn't prepared for his friend's unusual light mood. For some days now his mood had changed every ten minutes or with each and every wrongly chosen word.

" You don't even have curtains, Logan" he stated matter of factly. He shook his head. He didn't know what to make of that. Something had Logan confused completely.

Logan chuckled: "Well, you're right, I forgot. …Anyway," he continued more serious now, " I have something else to ask of you. It's about that case, I'm working on. I'd do it myself if I could, but this one I can't do from my computer."

"What is it?" Bling asked.

"I told you this afternoon about the actions going on at the foundation. Remember?"

"Sure, what about it?"

"All the files about any transactions to and from the account of the foundation have been deleted. But in order to arrest those people we need some proof that there is actually some money missing. So we have to get the hospitals' records on all the donations that were done over the past few years and the foundations' files on all the incoming and outgoing money.

They have to have it all on paper for backup. I just hope they haven't touched those records yet."

Bling interrupted Logan: "And you want me to do that for you? What about Max? As far as I know, she has quite some practice sneaking in some place to get what she wants, right? Certainly more than me!"  Like that habit of picking Logan's look each time she came there, he mused.

Logan remained quiet. He knew Max would be more capable of doing this job than Bling knew, but that was out of the question:

"I can't ask her." He simply replied.

"She can take care of herself, you know…" Bling said hesitantly.

"I know, but I can't ask her. …I don't want to. Please Bling, I need your help this time.

I don't want to get her involved. I have my reasons. …"I thought you knew that." He added meekly.

Bling sighed. "You know I'm glad to help you with anything I can. But I'm not sure if I can do this. It's illegal. Breaking in and …"

" Bling, what those people are doing is illegal!" Logan exclaimed." We're just trying to put things in order again."

"I don't know man! Let me think about it, okay. I'll tell you tomorrow." Bling said reluctantly.

Logan knew his friend wouldn't let him down. He just needed some time to make this out with his conscience.

"Sure. No problem. See you tomorrow." he said before he disconnected the line.

Bling sat there, receiver in hand and pondered if he could do what Logan was asking of him. He was an honest and deeply religious man. He'd really have to get over himself to do something like this. Breaking in, stealing some records, probably hurting some people along the way. That was not right.

But after all it was for a good cause. And he knew, Logan wouldn't have asked him if it wasn't something really important. Also, if he turned him down, Logan would probably rather do it himself than asking Max for help, he had made that pretty clear. Bling sighed. He knew, he couldn't refuse to help his friend. Maybe he was doing something good after all, both for those children and for Logan. 

Logan wheeled back to the kitchen. He placed the desert in the fridge and started to prepare the main course. It was almost six. He knew that Max had to work until about six thirty. If she decided to drop by after work, she should be there in about an hour.

Still she hadn't called back. Logan was beginning to worry about her. She usually called him right after he paged her. Usually it only took her a few minutes.

He had paged her twice now. The last call had been over an hour ago.

He decided to try again.

****

Half an hour later Logan was all done with his preparations and decided to take a shower while he was waiting for Max to call back. He took his time, washing his hair, shaving, and even cutting his fingernails. Although this certainly did him some good, he was just trying to distract himself from the fact that Max hadn't called yet. He also took some time to chose his clothing. He finally went for some black cargo pants and a maroon v-neck sweater which fit tightly and showed off his well built upper body. Finally all of the hard work was paying off, he thought. His arms and shoulders had never been in better shape, he prouded himself. Sure, he had always worked out some, but he had never been as consistent as now, that he had his personal trainer kick his ass when he got lazy. Also he just couldn't afford to miss the workout, as his arms were his independence and now had to make up for everything his legs wouldn't do anymore.

Logan turned back and forth in front of the mirror, eyeing his reflection suspiciously.

He still couldn't get used to not being able to inspect his whole height in the mirror, to turn and twist and show off his whole body. He had always been proud of his tight, muscular ass and most women had liked it, too. Now it probably was all white, limp and skinny. Not a nice sight anyways. He was glad Bling was the only one who got to see it from time to time.

He suddenly felt ashamed of himself and quickly moved away from the mirror.

He went back to his bathroom to brush his teeth.

When he had just stuck the toothbrush into his mouth the phone rang.

Great! he thought. Perfect timing! He put the toothbrush down and hurried to his living room where he had left the phone.

"Hewo.." he said in a slightly annoyed tone trying not to spit the toothpaste all over the room.

"Hi, Logan! It's me…"

"Macsh!" He exclaimed. The toothpaste was running out of his mouth and threatened to stain his sweater.

"Logan. My pager broke. I didn't hear it. Just figured out you called me…"

Logan was wiping away the toothpaste "Hang on a shecond," he managed to say, dropped the phone into his lap and wheeled back to the bathroom.

Max heard Logan spit out, then the water was running. If she hadn't already been confused before she definitely was now.

"Logan?" She asked. "You still there?… I was worried that you had something im.."

Logan picked up the receiver again, while he reached for a towel with the other hand

"..portant. …"he heard Max finish her sentence.

"Hey Max. I'm sorry. Now I can hear you. What did you just say?.."

"What the hell were you doing there…?"

"Oh," Logan explained sheepishly. "Just brushing my teeth…"

"Oh, okay." Max said confused. "So what did you want? Something important?"

"Depends on how you see it" Logan teased. All back to his old confidence now.

"I was going to ask you if you'd like to join me for dinner. ..Just to make up for my empty fridge this morning." He added. "I got some nice steaks here, fresh vegetables and an incredible desert…"

Max could feel her stomach react to this delicious offer.

But she felt dirty and soaked and tired. At first she hesitated to give in to that tempting offer, but then the perspective of a decent meal, some good pre-pulse wine and maybe a hot shower, made up her mind.

"Sounds good," she said. "Thing is, I got myself all wet and dirty…."

"You're welcome to use my shower…if you don't want to go home that is..", Logan interjected.

"Honestly the perspective of going back to my apartment and then over to your place again in this weather is not all too inviting…. But I don't have anything fresh to wear."

Logan thought for a second if he could be as bold as to offer her some of his own clothes.

"Well," he eventually said. "I'm sure we could find you something to wear."

Max hesitated for another second, then said:

"Okay then. I'll be there in twenty minutes."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Max arrived, Logan had just finished setting the table. He opened the door to her knock. Today she didn't bother picking the lock. After all he was awaiting her. So what was the use going through that trouble.

Logan smiled at her and took her wet jacket from her, before she could throw it somewhere like she usually did. She really looked dirty, soaked and even tired. That was an unusual sight for her.

"Dinner will be ready soon." Logan greeted her.

"Can I take a shower first?" she asked already on her way to the bathroom.

"Sure," Logan replied. "You have twenty minutes. Will that be enough?"

"Sure! More than enough." She said closing the door behind her.

"I'll go get you some clothes", Logan shouted through the door.

Then he wheeled to his room to search for something that would fit her. Probably everything would be way to big anyway.

He searched through his closet for a few minutes and finally picked out some grey cargo pants. He zipped the legs off beneath the knees. This way they should be short enough for Max. He added a black shirt, the tightest one he could find. Actually he hadn't worn this one for some time since it didn't fit anymore.

He also took a pair of tight boxers and some woollen socks that had shrunk in the washing.

That should do, he thought, content with himself. He returned to the bathroom door and knocked on it. He could hear the water running. Max was humming a song, he never heard before. She was obviously enjoying the hot water.

Logan left the clothes on the floor in front of the door and yelled: "I have your clothes here. Let me know if I can get you something else."

"Which towel can I use?" Max yelled back.

"There are some clean ones underneath the sink. Just help yourself." Logan answered.

Then he moved over to the kitchen to put the finishing touches to his meal..