Max's cold was clearing up, she still didn't really fully understand why
she got sick but decided that it wasn't important.
"Are you coming to work today?" Original Cindy came out to the kitchen where Max was busy buttering her toast.
"I might." Max said cheekily taking a bite out of her peanut buttered toast.
"Damn girl," Cindy shook her head, "Alec got wrapped around his finger for you."
"What are you talking about?" Max screwed up her face and asked innocently trying not to smile.
"You know you can't pull the wool over Original Cindy!" Cindy said waving her finger at her.
"I still don't have any idea what you're going on about." Max said without breaking her innocence.
"My God," Cindy shook her head again, "I'm gonna break it down for you. Alec likes you."
"Okay." Max said directly, gaining her eye contact.
"Okay?" She asked confused. "And you like him."
"Please," Max scoffed, "Me and Alec aren't even like that."
"That's exactly what you said about Logan and look what happened there." Cindy said smartly.
"Speaking of, I have to go and see him some time today." Max made a mental note and went back to her toast.
"Why?" Cindy inquired.
"I just haven't spoken to him in like two weeks." Max said casually.
"Oh, why?" Cindy asked again.
"I don't know but I get the impression that he's avoiding me." Max said now puzzled.
"That doesn't make any sense." Cindy scratched her head.
"No it really doesn't." Max agreed still pondering.
"Well, why are you going to see him?" Cindy asked.
"I have to ask him about Asha." Max said.
"Asha the psycho killer." Cindy added.
"That would be the one." Max confirmed getting some juice out of the fridge.
"I'll have one of those." Cindy said when she saw the juice. "Maybe he's worried about how you'll act."
"Well," Max handed the glass full of juice to Cindy and plastered a serious look on her face, "he should be. He didn't tell me that she was running around trying to kill me and mine."
"I see why he's avoiding you now." Cindy said smartly like she had just cured world hunger. "He afraid that you're going to get angry with him for not telling you about Asha."
"You know what, you're right." Max smiled. "I am going to yell at him."
"I should be a marriage counselor." Cindy complimented herself.
"Logan and I aren't married." Max pointed out on her way back to her room to grab her shoes and jacket.
"You wish!" Cindy yelled after her.
Max smiled to herself as she pulled her shoes on.
~*
"Hot run!" Normal yelled in a new employee's direction as Original Cindy and Max entered the building.
The poor guy struggled to stay balanced, catch the package and hold his bike all at the same time and fell on his ass.
All of Jam Pony erupted into fits of laughter, everyone accept Max.
"Sorry bout that." Max offered him a hand and pulled him up. "You're new, what's your name?"
"Trent." The young man answered dusting himself off.
"I'm Max." She shook his hand and then signaled for him to follow her to the lockers. "So Trent, you're new to Jam Pony, are you new to the city as well?"
"Yeah, I lived in Portland all my life and decided that it was time for a change." He answered watching Max fiddle with some things in her locker.
"You gave up Portland to work at Jam Pony?" Max asked in disbelief.
"This is only temporary." Trent stated.
"Wish I could say the same." Max said walking around him and over to Normal's desk. "Give me something with the new kid."
"Okay." Normal handed her a package. "Scoot."
"You don't need to tell me twice." Max left Normal at his desk and went to get her bike. "Come on Trent."
Trent obediently followed her out of Jam Pony and headed towards sector two.
"So what do you want to do?" Max asked.
"What?" Trent asked taken by surprise.
"You said that Jam Pony was a temporary deal, so what is it that you want to do?" Max asked keeping her eyes on the road.
"Oh," Trent remembered their earlier conversation. "I didn't think that you were even listening."
"Me?" Max said surprised, "Nothing gets past me. I hear just about everything. So are you going to tell me or not?"
"Um, I want to investigate stuff." He told her.
"Like for the cops?" Max asked now officially intrigued.
"No," Trent shook his head, "like for a journalist or something like that."
"Cool." Max complimented giving him an approving nod.
~*
Alec decided that he didn't feel like going to work that day and chose to stay at home in bed. He had called Normal, who was more than happy to give him the day, and went back to sleep.
At ten o'clock he got up and had some breakfast, he treated himself to bacon and eggs, pancakes and toast with strawberry jam. Most, of which he had to get the night before at the market before they ran out, stuff like that was pretty rare to people these days.
After breakfast, he showered and sat down to watch daytime TV. Apparently this chick called Hope and this guy called Beau had been planning to get married again for the past twenty-five years. "Good stuff." Alec said biting into an apple and watching intently.
~*
"Logan?" Max called entering his apartment with Trent closely in tow.
"In here." Logan called from his office. "I was wondering when you were going to drop by.""
"Hear I am." Max headed for his office. On arriving at the door she saw Logan bent into a filing cabinet. Max tilted he head to the side and looked at his ass moving around as he struggled to get his head out of the cabinet and regain his composure. She put her hand of her mouth and tried to stop herself from laughing hysterically.
When Logan was free from his man made disaster he leaned against the filing cabinet and smiled. "What are you doing here?"
"Wasting time." She answered looking at his mess of papers and other stationary. "What happened in here? Did you like switch on the fan and throw all your work into it?"
"No." Logan replied picking up a book off the floor. "When I moved I managed to lose some stuff."
"What, you thought trying to stuff your whole body into a filing cabinet would help?" Max laughed.
"Was there a reason why you dropped by or are you really just wasting time?" Logan asked obviously hurt.
"It's not even like that." Max started to defend herself. "I was in the area and thought that I come and see you. I haven't seen you for weeks."
"I've been busy and you've been in hospital and sick." Logan replied flipping through the book then discarding it on the floor and picking up another.
"Yeah," Max responded distracted by his actions. "What is it that you're looking for?"
"Nothing." Logan saw the disbelief in her expression. "Some stuff that Lydecker gave me a while back and I'm trying to find it because it might help."
"Help with what?" Max asked curiously.
"Well, with White." Logan informed. "After Manticore burned down he gave me a whole heap of papers. I think that White and Renfro were part of the same deal. If I can prove it then I'll do a ha. What?" He trailed off when he saw Max waving her arms around signaling for him to stop.
"Um," Max stuck her head out the door and mumble for Trent to come and meet Logan and then stuck her head but in again. "Logan this is Trent, Trent, Logan."
"Nice to meet you." Trent said extending a hand to Logan.
"Max," Logan said taking Trent's hand but still looking at her, "it I had known that I was having visitors I would have baked a cake."
"Get the stick out of your ass Logan." She snapped at him.
"I'm sorry." Trent spoke up sensing the tension between the two of them.
"No that's okay." Logan said turning back to his scattered papers.
"Trent's looking for a job. Got anything available?" Max asked.
"Are you really?" Logan said surprised that his girlfriend was now getting other people jobs.
"Um, yes, I guess." Trent replied nervously.
"Logan's a journalist." Max stated.
"Really?" It was Trent's turn to be amazed.
"Ah, yeah." Logan confirmed.
"Who do you work for?" Trent asked totally interested.
"Um," Logan started.
"He works for Eyes Only." Max finished.
"You work for Eyes Only?" Trent said is disbelief.
"Yeah." Logan said seeing that this was heading for disaster.
"Have you ever met him? What's he like?" Trent was getting over exited.
"He's nice I guess." Logan said giving Max an evil eye as she tried to hold back her laughter.
Max's pager sounded. "It's Original Cindy, can I use you're phone?"
"Yes." Logan sighed.
*phone conversation*
"Max?" Cindy asked picking up the phone at Jam Pony.
"What up?" Max asked.
"Oh my God, Sketchy and Riggy were playing and Normal stepped in to stop them and Sketch broke his jaw. We had to call an ambulance but as they were loading him in Normal managed to put me in charge and fire Sketch." Cindy said in one breath.
Max laughed. "Is Riggy okay?"
"Yeah, Riggy's all cool but Sketch is hangin around like a dead lump. Get back here, it's our first office party." Cindy hung up the phone.
*end phone conversation*
Max laughed and shook her head slightly. "Trent, we gotta go. Normal's got a broken jaw and we have to get back to Jam Pony and do as little work as possible."
"Can we talk more later?" Trent asked Logan as Max dragged him by the collar outside.
"Sure." Logan answered.
"I'll be back." Max yelled back into Logan.
"Okay." He said closing his front door.
~*
"Where's Alec?" Max asked noticing the absence of her friend.
"He didn't come to work today." Cindy informed her.
"Okay, why not?" Max asked grabbing Cindy's arm as she walked past.
"Oh," Cindy teased her, "why do you care?"
"I don't!" Max shrugged.
~*
Logan stared at the clock. Max said she'd be back, she didn't necessarily say when. "Next week, tomorrow, never."
"Now." Max whispered making her presence known. "Logan, I was going to ask today but because Trent was with me I decided that I should making his meeting you for the first time should probably be a pleasant experience. Did you know that Asha was the killer?"
"Max." Logan stared at the floor and was trying to think about how he should word his answer.
"Don't Max me!" Max tried not to raise her voice. "Just tell me the truth."
"In a way, yes." He answered trying to judge her next move.
"You knew that Asha was trying to kill me and you didn't tell me?" Max started to lose her temper. "What kind of boyfriend does something like that?"
"Hey," Logan started yelling, "I couldn't say anything until I was sure."
"No, instead you waited until I was half dead on the floor before you decided to do anything about it." Max yelled back at him.
"Asha and the S1W are valued informants. I had already jeopardized that when I asked if S1W was involved." Logan defended himself.
"I so now your little informant is more important than my life?" Max started to tear up not wanting to believe the words coming out of her own mouth.
"It's not even like that." Logan said quietly knowing that this was a fight that he wouldn't win.
"Then how about you tell me what it is like?" Max said bitterly.
"Matt called me and said that the guy that saw the murder said the murderer had a broken arm." Logan explained. "I thought of Asha first but I couldn't believe it. Max, some one like you should understand."
"Don't you dare tell me what I'm like." Max threatened and started pacing around the room. "I've been running around doing shit for you for the past three years. When I got back from Manticore I would have just gone back to my normal little worthless life if it weren't for you! I cared about you, that's why I came back. And this is how you treat me for caring about you. Letting your other girlfriend try to kill me."
"That's not fair!" Logan responded letting his anger get the better of him. "If you didn't want to come back then you shouldn't have. It would have been better for everybody if you didn't."
"Then maybe I'll go away now!" Max screamed.
"Please do!" Logan coached.
"If I could touch you, I'd slap you to Australia." Max stormed out of the room slamming the door and loud she could muster.
~*
Alec stared at the ceiling, the TV had gone off when the rain started. There wasn't anything wrong with the city's power supply, it's just Alec liked being able to listen to the rain fall on the street.
There was a light knock at the door, light but loud enough to bring Alec out of his trance to answer it.
He swung the door open to reveal a soaked to the bone, shaking Max with tears streaming down her face. Alec didn't make any stupid remarks or ask any questions, he just pulled Max into his arms and let her cry.
Max didn't know what she was doing at Alec's or how she got there, something inside her just made head there. "I didn't know where else to go." Max sobbed.
"It's okay." Alec tried to smooth out her wet hair and kissed her gently on the forehead.
Max looked up into Alec's eyes, she leaned into his strong arms and let him surround her. For the first time in a while she felt like she was missing something. Max placed her right hand on Alec's face and kissed him.
Alec had never felt like this when Max was around. She really only had the ability to throw insults at him and make him feel reasonably uncomfortable. He kissed her back.
In moments their kisses turned from innocent to passionate. Max ran both hands through his hair and he scooped her into his arms.
Max jumped up and wrapped her legs around him and let him carry her into his bedroom.
They tumbled into Alec's bed and shook of their garments.
"Are you coming to work today?" Original Cindy came out to the kitchen where Max was busy buttering her toast.
"I might." Max said cheekily taking a bite out of her peanut buttered toast.
"Damn girl," Cindy shook her head, "Alec got wrapped around his finger for you."
"What are you talking about?" Max screwed up her face and asked innocently trying not to smile.
"You know you can't pull the wool over Original Cindy!" Cindy said waving her finger at her.
"I still don't have any idea what you're going on about." Max said without breaking her innocence.
"My God," Cindy shook her head again, "I'm gonna break it down for you. Alec likes you."
"Okay." Max said directly, gaining her eye contact.
"Okay?" She asked confused. "And you like him."
"Please," Max scoffed, "Me and Alec aren't even like that."
"That's exactly what you said about Logan and look what happened there." Cindy said smartly.
"Speaking of, I have to go and see him some time today." Max made a mental note and went back to her toast.
"Why?" Cindy inquired.
"I just haven't spoken to him in like two weeks." Max said casually.
"Oh, why?" Cindy asked again.
"I don't know but I get the impression that he's avoiding me." Max said now puzzled.
"That doesn't make any sense." Cindy scratched her head.
"No it really doesn't." Max agreed still pondering.
"Well, why are you going to see him?" Cindy asked.
"I have to ask him about Asha." Max said.
"Asha the psycho killer." Cindy added.
"That would be the one." Max confirmed getting some juice out of the fridge.
"I'll have one of those." Cindy said when she saw the juice. "Maybe he's worried about how you'll act."
"Well," Max handed the glass full of juice to Cindy and plastered a serious look on her face, "he should be. He didn't tell me that she was running around trying to kill me and mine."
"I see why he's avoiding you now." Cindy said smartly like she had just cured world hunger. "He afraid that you're going to get angry with him for not telling you about Asha."
"You know what, you're right." Max smiled. "I am going to yell at him."
"I should be a marriage counselor." Cindy complimented herself.
"Logan and I aren't married." Max pointed out on her way back to her room to grab her shoes and jacket.
"You wish!" Cindy yelled after her.
Max smiled to herself as she pulled her shoes on.
~*
"Hot run!" Normal yelled in a new employee's direction as Original Cindy and Max entered the building.
The poor guy struggled to stay balanced, catch the package and hold his bike all at the same time and fell on his ass.
All of Jam Pony erupted into fits of laughter, everyone accept Max.
"Sorry bout that." Max offered him a hand and pulled him up. "You're new, what's your name?"
"Trent." The young man answered dusting himself off.
"I'm Max." She shook his hand and then signaled for him to follow her to the lockers. "So Trent, you're new to Jam Pony, are you new to the city as well?"
"Yeah, I lived in Portland all my life and decided that it was time for a change." He answered watching Max fiddle with some things in her locker.
"You gave up Portland to work at Jam Pony?" Max asked in disbelief.
"This is only temporary." Trent stated.
"Wish I could say the same." Max said walking around him and over to Normal's desk. "Give me something with the new kid."
"Okay." Normal handed her a package. "Scoot."
"You don't need to tell me twice." Max left Normal at his desk and went to get her bike. "Come on Trent."
Trent obediently followed her out of Jam Pony and headed towards sector two.
"So what do you want to do?" Max asked.
"What?" Trent asked taken by surprise.
"You said that Jam Pony was a temporary deal, so what is it that you want to do?" Max asked keeping her eyes on the road.
"Oh," Trent remembered their earlier conversation. "I didn't think that you were even listening."
"Me?" Max said surprised, "Nothing gets past me. I hear just about everything. So are you going to tell me or not?"
"Um, I want to investigate stuff." He told her.
"Like for the cops?" Max asked now officially intrigued.
"No," Trent shook his head, "like for a journalist or something like that."
"Cool." Max complimented giving him an approving nod.
~*
Alec decided that he didn't feel like going to work that day and chose to stay at home in bed. He had called Normal, who was more than happy to give him the day, and went back to sleep.
At ten o'clock he got up and had some breakfast, he treated himself to bacon and eggs, pancakes and toast with strawberry jam. Most, of which he had to get the night before at the market before they ran out, stuff like that was pretty rare to people these days.
After breakfast, he showered and sat down to watch daytime TV. Apparently this chick called Hope and this guy called Beau had been planning to get married again for the past twenty-five years. "Good stuff." Alec said biting into an apple and watching intently.
~*
"Logan?" Max called entering his apartment with Trent closely in tow.
"In here." Logan called from his office. "I was wondering when you were going to drop by.""
"Hear I am." Max headed for his office. On arriving at the door she saw Logan bent into a filing cabinet. Max tilted he head to the side and looked at his ass moving around as he struggled to get his head out of the cabinet and regain his composure. She put her hand of her mouth and tried to stop herself from laughing hysterically.
When Logan was free from his man made disaster he leaned against the filing cabinet and smiled. "What are you doing here?"
"Wasting time." She answered looking at his mess of papers and other stationary. "What happened in here? Did you like switch on the fan and throw all your work into it?"
"No." Logan replied picking up a book off the floor. "When I moved I managed to lose some stuff."
"What, you thought trying to stuff your whole body into a filing cabinet would help?" Max laughed.
"Was there a reason why you dropped by or are you really just wasting time?" Logan asked obviously hurt.
"It's not even like that." Max started to defend herself. "I was in the area and thought that I come and see you. I haven't seen you for weeks."
"I've been busy and you've been in hospital and sick." Logan replied flipping through the book then discarding it on the floor and picking up another.
"Yeah," Max responded distracted by his actions. "What is it that you're looking for?"
"Nothing." Logan saw the disbelief in her expression. "Some stuff that Lydecker gave me a while back and I'm trying to find it because it might help."
"Help with what?" Max asked curiously.
"Well, with White." Logan informed. "After Manticore burned down he gave me a whole heap of papers. I think that White and Renfro were part of the same deal. If I can prove it then I'll do a ha. What?" He trailed off when he saw Max waving her arms around signaling for him to stop.
"Um," Max stuck her head out the door and mumble for Trent to come and meet Logan and then stuck her head but in again. "Logan this is Trent, Trent, Logan."
"Nice to meet you." Trent said extending a hand to Logan.
"Max," Logan said taking Trent's hand but still looking at her, "it I had known that I was having visitors I would have baked a cake."
"Get the stick out of your ass Logan." She snapped at him.
"I'm sorry." Trent spoke up sensing the tension between the two of them.
"No that's okay." Logan said turning back to his scattered papers.
"Trent's looking for a job. Got anything available?" Max asked.
"Are you really?" Logan said surprised that his girlfriend was now getting other people jobs.
"Um, yes, I guess." Trent replied nervously.
"Logan's a journalist." Max stated.
"Really?" It was Trent's turn to be amazed.
"Ah, yeah." Logan confirmed.
"Who do you work for?" Trent asked totally interested.
"Um," Logan started.
"He works for Eyes Only." Max finished.
"You work for Eyes Only?" Trent said is disbelief.
"Yeah." Logan said seeing that this was heading for disaster.
"Have you ever met him? What's he like?" Trent was getting over exited.
"He's nice I guess." Logan said giving Max an evil eye as she tried to hold back her laughter.
Max's pager sounded. "It's Original Cindy, can I use you're phone?"
"Yes." Logan sighed.
*phone conversation*
"Max?" Cindy asked picking up the phone at Jam Pony.
"What up?" Max asked.
"Oh my God, Sketchy and Riggy were playing and Normal stepped in to stop them and Sketch broke his jaw. We had to call an ambulance but as they were loading him in Normal managed to put me in charge and fire Sketch." Cindy said in one breath.
Max laughed. "Is Riggy okay?"
"Yeah, Riggy's all cool but Sketch is hangin around like a dead lump. Get back here, it's our first office party." Cindy hung up the phone.
*end phone conversation*
Max laughed and shook her head slightly. "Trent, we gotta go. Normal's got a broken jaw and we have to get back to Jam Pony and do as little work as possible."
"Can we talk more later?" Trent asked Logan as Max dragged him by the collar outside.
"Sure." Logan answered.
"I'll be back." Max yelled back into Logan.
"Okay." He said closing his front door.
~*
"Where's Alec?" Max asked noticing the absence of her friend.
"He didn't come to work today." Cindy informed her.
"Okay, why not?" Max asked grabbing Cindy's arm as she walked past.
"Oh," Cindy teased her, "why do you care?"
"I don't!" Max shrugged.
~*
Logan stared at the clock. Max said she'd be back, she didn't necessarily say when. "Next week, tomorrow, never."
"Now." Max whispered making her presence known. "Logan, I was going to ask today but because Trent was with me I decided that I should making his meeting you for the first time should probably be a pleasant experience. Did you know that Asha was the killer?"
"Max." Logan stared at the floor and was trying to think about how he should word his answer.
"Don't Max me!" Max tried not to raise her voice. "Just tell me the truth."
"In a way, yes." He answered trying to judge her next move.
"You knew that Asha was trying to kill me and you didn't tell me?" Max started to lose her temper. "What kind of boyfriend does something like that?"
"Hey," Logan started yelling, "I couldn't say anything until I was sure."
"No, instead you waited until I was half dead on the floor before you decided to do anything about it." Max yelled back at him.
"Asha and the S1W are valued informants. I had already jeopardized that when I asked if S1W was involved." Logan defended himself.
"I so now your little informant is more important than my life?" Max started to tear up not wanting to believe the words coming out of her own mouth.
"It's not even like that." Logan said quietly knowing that this was a fight that he wouldn't win.
"Then how about you tell me what it is like?" Max said bitterly.
"Matt called me and said that the guy that saw the murder said the murderer had a broken arm." Logan explained. "I thought of Asha first but I couldn't believe it. Max, some one like you should understand."
"Don't you dare tell me what I'm like." Max threatened and started pacing around the room. "I've been running around doing shit for you for the past three years. When I got back from Manticore I would have just gone back to my normal little worthless life if it weren't for you! I cared about you, that's why I came back. And this is how you treat me for caring about you. Letting your other girlfriend try to kill me."
"That's not fair!" Logan responded letting his anger get the better of him. "If you didn't want to come back then you shouldn't have. It would have been better for everybody if you didn't."
"Then maybe I'll go away now!" Max screamed.
"Please do!" Logan coached.
"If I could touch you, I'd slap you to Australia." Max stormed out of the room slamming the door and loud she could muster.
~*
Alec stared at the ceiling, the TV had gone off when the rain started. There wasn't anything wrong with the city's power supply, it's just Alec liked being able to listen to the rain fall on the street.
There was a light knock at the door, light but loud enough to bring Alec out of his trance to answer it.
He swung the door open to reveal a soaked to the bone, shaking Max with tears streaming down her face. Alec didn't make any stupid remarks or ask any questions, he just pulled Max into his arms and let her cry.
Max didn't know what she was doing at Alec's or how she got there, something inside her just made head there. "I didn't know where else to go." Max sobbed.
"It's okay." Alec tried to smooth out her wet hair and kissed her gently on the forehead.
Max looked up into Alec's eyes, she leaned into his strong arms and let him surround her. For the first time in a while she felt like she was missing something. Max placed her right hand on Alec's face and kissed him.
Alec had never felt like this when Max was around. She really only had the ability to throw insults at him and make him feel reasonably uncomfortable. He kissed her back.
In moments their kisses turned from innocent to passionate. Max ran both hands through his hair and he scooped her into his arms.
Max jumped up and wrapped her legs around him and let him carry her into his bedroom.
They tumbled into Alec's bed and shook of their garments.
