It was nearly midnight when Logan finally heard the soft knock on the door. Before he could reach it, he heard the faint clicking noise of the lock being picked and then saw Max come in. He smiled remembering the old days.

She drank him in again and was disturbed at the effect his appearance had on her. She could smell him from outside the door. His faint cologne mixed with soap and whatever else gave him that cinnamon or pine scent that he had. She allowed herself to inhale him. She quickly regathered her defenses.

"I don't like meeting like this." She said as she quickly surveyed the hotel suite, checking behind each window and studying any potential threat to their safety.

"Max, please could we sit?" He gestured to the couch, and Max sat but maintained her rigid posture. Logan slowly wheeled over to her until only the coffee table was between them.

She slowly raised her head until her eyes met his, and yet again, she could feel her heart quicken. She prayed Logan couldn't tell.

"Logan, I . ." She lost all train of thought.

"Listen Max, I need to tell you a few things that you aren't going to like."

"That seems to be your M.O." she spat out before she realized the venom that she still had in her.

He looked up shocked by the tone of her voice. At least it was something, he thought. He took a deep breath and then dove in.

"I wasn't following you to Paris. I didn't know you were here. If I had, I never would have come." He nervously rubbed his palms on his knees. Her eyes never left his. He could see the hostility that lay there.

"Logan, I got it the first time you told me six years ago. You never want to see me again. You don't need to beat it into my head." And with that, she started to rise to leave. As she brushed past him, he grabbed her wrist.

"I have a lot more to say to you and you need to hear it. Your life is in danger."

Max could feel the heat of his hand on her wrist and fought the urge to curl herself into his lap. Instead, she shrugged him off with a little too much force.

"I'm not in danger anymore. I'm not the same girl you knew. No one would dare tangle with me Logan." She said at barely a whisper and followed it with a sinister grin. She was remembering her own reputation among vigilante killers. It was a small circle of mercenaries and she was well known for her brute strength and fierce fighting skills. I

"Yeah, I know. You're the 'Phantom'." He said flatly.

She was surprised, but not shocked that he had learned of her nickname.

"Yeah well, we can't all save the world." She said airily as she again moved around the suite checking all potential areas of vulnerability.

"It's Zack." He said suddenly.

She was glad that she wasn't facing him when he said that. She didn't want him to see the pain that washed over her face at the mention of his name. She steeled herself, then turned to face him.

"What about him?" She controlled her words steadily.

"He'll kill you if he sees you with me." Logan heard her footsteps before he realized she was now standing in front of him.

"What?" She spat.

"Max, he told me that if he saw us together again, he would kill you. He knew you wouldn't leave me, and he was so afraid for the safety of the others if you were compromised."

Max felt her head swim. She knew she was going to fall down if she didn't grab onto something. Quickly she sat back down on the sofa and rubbed her temples.

"When did he . .?" She couldn't put her thoughts into complete sentences.

"Six years ago."

Max rose again from the couch. The sudden knowledge had propelled her from the cushion. Her head pounded. Zack had done this. Zack had forced Logan to break it of with her. Finally she spoke.

"Are you saying that it wasn't your doing that sent me away?"

Finally Logan could no longer control his voice. He removed his glasses and rubbed his hand over his face, as if to affect his expression.

He could not meet her gaze, so he spoke downward.

"It wasn't what I wanted to do. I hated him for it. But I did it. I'd rather have you alive without me, then dead Max. I loved you." He forced himself to use the past tense. "And Zack is the reason I wanted to see you today. If he knows that we met in the park, or are meeting here today, then you may already. ."

Max cut him off sharply.

"Zack is dead."

Logan didn't think he would be the one to receive shocking news today, and this was a shock. He fought for control.

"Zack's dead?" He asked with disbelief.

"Yes. I killed him four and 1/2 years ago."

If Logan hadn't already been sitting, he would have fallen over, he thought ironically. He nervously placed his hands on his wheels and rocked back and forth. He felt like someone had punched him in the chest. Zack was dead and had been dead for over 4 years. That's four years he could have been with her. He shook that thought away momentarily when he looked up and saw her face. He recognized the fight for control her saw in her eyes. He then remembered that she had said that she had killed him.

"You killed Zack?" He asked, trying not to sound horrified. He could hear Lydecker's words in his head still; 'she's not the girl next door. You have no idea what she's capable of.'

Max rose again and walked to the window. He studied her as she moved. She never made a sound. The air around her barely moved. Finally, facing the glass still, she spoke.

"I killed him Logan. I did it." She said flatly.

He waited for what seemed like an eternity for her to continue, but she never did. Finally, he spoke.

"Why Max?" He asked gently.

With that, she spun around and was again in front of him so quickly, he barely had time to register the action. Her brown eyes glowed with anger.

"What gives you the right to ask me that? To ask me anything?"

Logan instinctively moved backwards, away from her. He was shocked by the venom still inside her.

"I don't know Max, I'm sorry" was all he could say.

Max straightened her willowy frame and seemed to remake her calm facade.

"The circumstances surrounding that event are mine to bare, mine alone."

Logan was saddened to hear her voice that calm. At least when she was yelling at him, she seemed alive. Now, she had again disappeared behind that damned wall of self-protection.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry." He tried to calm his own voice to match her even rhythm.

"Listen, I gotta go." She exhaled with what seemed to Logan to be despair.

"No, not yet." He spoke from the heart. His tone must have betrayed his emotions because Max turned to face him. Her eyes finally flashed with the recognition he so desperately wanted to see. She walked slowly until she was standing in front of him. She cast her brown eyes down upon him then reached her hand to him. He took it and closed her small hand inside his.

"I can't stay with you." She said.

"You can if you want to. I want you to." He tried.

"It's been too long Logan. Things are different." She steadied her voice. If he knew how different, he would never want me again, she thought bitterly.

"I know, but we could try to start something new Max, something different." He didn't want to let her walk out of his life again.

She looked up to the ceiling and let go of his hand. She realized she was going to say it, say the thing that would make him let go of her forever.

"I'm on the run Logan. I'm a wanted criminal."

"I know about the 'Phantom' business, we'll get you somewhere safe, we'll change your identity. ." His thoughts were running together as they spilled from his lips.

"No, you don't understand. I'm not a petty thief, well, I am, but there's more. I'm a mercenary, a hired gun." She slowly lowered her gaze to see his reaction.

"You kill people for money." His voice was barely a whisper.

"Yeah, and I'm always on the move, I have to leave Paris tonight in fact." She was starting to get nervous until his judgmental, icy stare.

Logan couldn't believe what he was hearing. All those Eyes Only missions she went on. He thought she was fighting the good fight along with him. What was going on here? How did this happen to her?

"Do you even want to come home with me, even if you could?" He couldn't help himself from asking her.

She waited a long time, then said, "I'm too dangerous to have around the house Logan. I have to run, and you can't run with me." And with that, she stepped away from him and was out the door before he realized it. She had struck him where it hurt most. He was surprised that reference to his disability could still hurt. Maybe it was because it had come form Max, the one person who mattered. Hell, she was right. You can't exactly be on the lamb with handicapped license plates, he thought bitterly. But, she had offered once. So many years ago. She had said that he could go with her. She didn't care then, but apparently she cared now.

At the sound of the adjoining door opening, Logan spun around to see Alec.

Logan cleared his throat, and his mind of emotion.

"You still want me to tail her?" Alec asked, obviously having heard the conversation.

"Definitely." Was Logan's cold response.

"Okay," and with that, Alec slipped out the door, dressed all in black.