Part4
Cindy paced Logan's apartment. She'd told him everything that had passed between her and Max, or the girl that was once Max. He stood by the window, watching the world go by as he often did. They both turned as they heard a soft thump somewhere close by. When Max entered, Cindy stood in front of Logan, defiantly. Logan met Max's eyes the moment she entered, searching for the presence of her former self.
"Get out of the way Cindy. There's something I have to do." Her face was impassive, even her deep dark eyes showed no emotion.
"No, Max. I won't let you. You don't know what you're doing, an' you'll hate yourself for it when you do!"
"Get, out, of, the, way." She said slowly, "Don't make this hard."
"What?! You're tellin' me…"
"Do it Cindy." Logan spoke for the first time. "Just get out of the way." She glanced at him, disbelieving, but moved aside. Max nodded slightly. She slowly made her way towards Logan, who swallowed, nervously. Standing right in front of him, Max placed one hand on either side of his head, a gesture that when you know the strength of an X5 is easy to see as aggressive. Looking up into Logan's eyes, she was still. Cindy watched in terror, wondering what her best friend had become. Logan looked down, into a face he had dreamed of for much longer than a year and a half; and a smile quirk one side of her mouth. She reached up, kissing him full on the lips. He caught her and held her up, kissing back. Cindy's eyebrows nearly launched into space as she watched the two embrace passionately. When they came apart, Max was looking up at Logan once again, and a tear rolled down her cheek,
"I'm so sorry." She whispered. He brushed the tear away with his thumb and held her close.
"It's ok, everything's gonna be ok." She held him back, sobbing into his chest. Cindy burst into tears, unable to control herself. Across the apartment, there were two more thumps, slightly harder than before, quicker, less controlled. Cindy jumped, turning to the sound. Two figures entered cautiously, a tall, brown haired guy and a shorter, long dark haired girl.
"Max?" the guy called out, then stopped, seeing her and Logan, who were kissing again, and raised his eyebrows, "Well she said you had some kinda relationship…" Cindy was far more interested in the girl, I think I'm in heaven, she breathed to herself. "Max." the guy said again. Max broke away from Logan, looking around, slightly dazed.
"Oh, Alec. I thought I asked you to wait outside."
"Uh, huh. But, er…" he pointed upwards, "Choppers." Max snapped out of her dazed state.
"Oh shit. D'you think they followed us? Did they see you?"
"No and I don't think so. Hell I don't even know if it was them, but we weren't taking any chances." Max nodded.
"That's ok. Oh," she exclaimed seeing the confused expressions on both Logan and Cindy's faces. "Logan, Cindy, this is Alec, and Brin."
"Brin?" Logan repeated.
"Yeah, Brin. It's ok, Logan, she's with us. These guys helped me get away." Cindy was still confused,
"What happened, Max? You freaked, an' ran off, an' I thought…" Max looked sad, and slightly embarrassed,
"I'm sorry O.C." she hugged her friend, "It's kinda complicated, I didn't mean to scare you, I was just… well, saying 'in a bad way' is a major understatement. I guess I got a lot of explaining to do."
Max looked down at herself, hmm no holes, don't feel dead, what the? Renfro collapsed to the ground. The guards, as stunned as Max, just stood there.
"You ok, little sis'?" asked Brin as she stepped round the corner. Max grinned,
"I am now." The guards, finally catching up, attacked Brin. Max joined in, and saw 494 coming up from the adjoining corridor that Brin had entered from. "Renfro ambushed me." She told him.
"Really?" he quipped sarcastically, "I didn't guess." When the guards were all sufficiently unconscious, Max looked sideways at him.
"I'm gonna call you Alec." She said,
"I was just thinkin' he'd need a name." Agreed Brin, "But why Alec?"
"Y'know, as in 'smart aleck'." Brin smiled broadly,
"Perfect." Alec looked at the two of them,
"Whatever."
Max told Logan and Cindy what had happened over the past year and a half, and Brin and Alec what had happened over the past few days. When everyone was satisfied, they were silent, no one knowing what to say next.
"So what's been goin' on round here?" Asked Max finally.
"Nothing much. Same-old shit." Cindy answered, but she smiled at Logan. Max caught the glance.
"What?" she asked. Logan smiled and swung his legs under his chair. It was then that Max realised there was no gentle whirring of motors as he moved. "Oh my god! How?" she cried.
"I was wondering when you'd notice. Lydecker hooked me up with a genetics guy, also on the run from Manticore. He helped me, in return for passport, fake ID, and anything else he needed to get out of their sights." He looked down at his legs, "He was good." Max laughed shortly,
"Apparently." She hugged Logan, "I'm so happy for you." Cindy raised her eyes brows; anyone who knew her would be able to read her look as "happy for him? That's not all your happy about…" Alec just looked clueless.
"I think I missed something." Max glanced at him.
"Logan was paralysed from the waist down."
"Oh." He looked very pitying, "Well, good for you." Max laughed again, a little erratically. Then she seemed to be considering something. "D'you still have all those safe-houses, Logan?" he nodded. "It's just that these guys are gonna need somewhere to stay." Brin finally spoke up,
"That's ok, I'll probably get moving right away." Alec was annoyed.
"Don't be dumb. You need to rest, stay put for a while. You were knackered before you spent three days in solitary. We'd both be grateful if you had somewhere we could stay for a while." The last part to Logan, who nodded immediately.
An hour later Alec and Brin were both fast asleep in a guest room and Max, Logan and Cindy sat in the living room.
"Aren't you tired?" Max asked Cindy.
"Na, bu. I hadn't even thought about it. Its great to have you back girl." Max's smile faded, and she looked down. When she spoke, it was barely audible.
"I'm so sorry."
"For what girl?" Max looked up, almost sharply.
"For what? I almost killed you. Both of you! Hell, Logan if you hadn't said my name, an' freaked me out… I betrayed you." Logan shook his head fiercely.
"No, Max. No you didn't. You went through months of torture and never told them anything about any of us. You gave yourself up to them so that you could ensure you would never say anything."
"Uh-huh, and that worked so well."
"Bu, listen to yourself! You're being dumb. There was no way you could ever know what Renfro would do! And any way, the point is, you didn't hurt us. In fact, you saved me."
"Yeah, after I pushed you." Tears were rolling swiftly down her cheeks. "You guys just don't understand. You can't, I don't expect you to. When I started to remember stuff, up on the space needle, I started to freak, right?" Cindy nodded, "Well it wasn't because I was thinking, oh my god I'm a traitor, or, Manticore have been lying to me, I was thinking, none of this can be true, because if it is, then I've spent a year working for the enemy. If all this is true, then all those missions I've done, people I've… people I've killed, may not have been justified after all. I've wasted Zack's gift. Just before he killed himself, he told me to fight them. Well I didn't. I didn't fight them; I fought for them. I've been doing Manticore's dirty work for a year, Logan! I've … disposed of eyes-only operatives! I've silenced people running from Manticore! I have become what I've been running from half my life!" Neither Cindy nor Logan knew what to say, because Max was right, there was no possible way for them to understand how she felt. All Logan could do was hold her in his arm and try to provide some comfort. She tried to push him away, but he just held tighter. Eventually, he managed to speak,
"You're right, maybe we can't understand. But I do know that none of it is your fault, and I also know that you are not gonna be alone in this. I'm here for you Max, I'm so sorry I ever left you." Max finally held him back, sobbing like Cindy had never seen her sob before.
The next morning, Logan gave them details of a safe house Alec and Brin could use and gave them the fake ID's he'd got for them. He hasn't changed Max thought, smiling.
"Thanks for this Logan." She said, "I'll show them the way." Alec looked a little confused,
"What are you going to do?" without waiting for Max to reply, Cindy jumped in,
"She's coming back home wit' me!" Max grinned at her friend.
"It's not over though guys," She said, the smile fading a little, "Cos Manticore have the search narrowed down to only about three sectors of Seattle, and if I broke your security, then they will too." Logan dismissed this point,
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. And you only got through my security cos you knew how!" he acted hurt at her suggestion that his precautions weren't good enough.
"But I didn't know I knew!"
"But even if you didn't know you knew, you know you still knew…" Alec butted in,
"Ok ok, slow down guys, those of us with normal sized brains are finding this conversation slightly hard to follow. Some how you knew Max, ok? Don't even think about making out that you're just so clever that you worked it all out in a minute flat!" he grinned cheekily, but was glad that he wasn't standing next to her, she had sharp elbows.
Later-Cindy and Max's apartment
Max was going through her wardrobe; all her stuff was still there,
"I just felt that if I got rid of all your stuff then you were really gone." Cindy had smiled to her friend. Now Max looked at the clothes, noting low cut tops and tight trousers and feeling slightly uncomfortable, it had been over a year since she'd worn anything like that. She held up a glittery one shouldered top,
"I wore this?" she exclaimed. Cindy laughed,
"Only once that I can remember, Bu. Y'know, to get into that gangster casino?" Max thought for a moment, then laughed,
"When Sketchy lost their money, right? I remember." She felt so awkward with all these memories, because although she remembered most stuff, some things were still a little fuzzy round the edges, and she was constantly terrified that she would forget something important. Cindy was looking at her oddly,
"You ai-aight, bu? Why don't you get on with it and put something on? You'll remember once you get used to it again!" Max looked unsure, causing Cindy to laugh again.
"Hey, stop laughing at me!"
"I'm sorry, girl, I'm sorry, come on, I'll show you, then we can go surprise everyone at Crash. You should call Alec and that damn fine female of a sister of yours, they could come too, and Logan." Max laughed at the Brin comment and gave her friend a wobbly smile, she really wasn't sure about a big crowd of people who all thought she was dead until the second they see her, it'll be…interesting, at least she convinced herself.