Reaching for the Moon by ThePekingNoodle

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Chapter Forty-One:  Purpose and Cross-Purpose

In which miscommunication is the order of the day…

For the rest of that day, Logan refused to let Max exert herself in any way.  He brought her breakfast in bed and for a second she thought he was going to try to feed her, like an invalid. When she told him she was going to take a bath she thought he was going to insist on bathing her, going by the way he hovered and anxiously worried that she might have another seizure and drown while in the tub. She put an immediate stop to that idea with a stern look and sent him off to work on his cable hack.

When she emerged from his room ready to do something, he tried to send her back for some more rest. "Logan, I risked life and limb to get you that information last night. If you don't do this hack I may just have to go do it myself," she declared finally running out of patience with him.

Logan saw an opportunity to keep her under his watchful eye and gave her one of his fifty megawatt grins. The ones guaranteed to turn ordinary females into a pile of melted mush.  "You want to watch while I do it?"

Max looked at him thoughtfully. "Sure."

Shortly she was ensconced in a chair in his computer room while he set up the system to record the hack. That didn't last long though. Soon she was hanging over his shoulder, asking him all kinds of technical questions about the equipment and software he was using. When he looked at her quizzically after a particularly technical question, she simply shrugged and smiled.

"I excelled in telecommunications as a child."

"Oh. Right." Logan got back to what he was doing and soon the hack took up all of his attention.

Max sat down and looked at him curiously. Something was different about him today. There had been none of his usual sidelong looks, the ones that made her knees weak and he hadn't tossed any double entendres her way. Instead he was treating her like a china doll who might break if he wasn't careful.  She wasn't sure she liked it. 

Suddenly she had a horrible thought.  Maybe last night he had finally truly understood what she was. Understood that she was a freak. He'd never go back on his word to her father to keep her safe, but he probably couldn't stomach the thought of touching a creature who wasn't even really human. She felt sick to her stomach.

"Logan, I think I'm gonna go lay down for a while."

"Um hmm…" he murmured not really paying attention.

Max left the room with a last look at him as he sat there absorbed in his hack.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Several hours later Logan looked into his room and found that Max was standing and staring out of the window.

"Hey, you hungry?" he asked.

Max ran her eyes teasingly over him and smiled. "For…?" there was a clear invitation in her eyes and in her posture as she stood there with her head cocked and a hand on a hip.

Logan gulped but steeled himself. He was not going to treat her like one of his past girlfriends anymore. Max was special. She deserved to be treated specially.

"For dinner of course," he answered calmly managing to keep his eyes under control. His body desperately clamored to take her up on the clear invitation she was sending him, but he was determined not to. He felt a pang that she thought she had to behave like one of the cheap bimbos she had so far seen him with. 

"Oh, sure." Max answered quietly. She had been right. He was revolted by her now and obviously couldn't stand the thought of touching her.

Logan had already turned to leave so he missed the look of disappointment and hurt that crossed her face.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next few days continued in the same vein. Logan was careful to keep Max up on a pedestal. He stopped flirting with and teasing her. Instead he was solicitous and caring. He anticipated her every want but he refrained from physical approaches to her.

When she returned to her own room to sleep, the night after the customs house break in, he didn't try to stop her. Instead, when she said good night and stood looking up at him expectantly, he leaned in and kissed her softly on her forehead. "Sweet dreams, Max," he said.  She didn't notice him clenching his hands to keep himself from pulling her to him and kissing her senseless, since she had already turned away.

Trouble was, the more he tried to treat her as someone special, the more she seemed to withdraw from him.  Logan wanted to kick himself. He had clearly gone over the line and she no longer wanted anything to do with him. Frustrated he threw himself into Eyes Only work, when what he really wanted to do was to scoop her up and carry her off to his bed where he could make sweet love to her all night long.

Max for her part was miserable. Since the break-in and the seizure episode, Logan had made no further moves toward her. Clearly she had been right in her assumption that he no longer wanted anything to do with a man-made freak, a chimera.  She began to think about places she might go where she would be safe from Manticore, and where she wouldn't have to suffer the torture of being around Logan day in and day out, all the while knowing that he was only tolerating her for her father's sake.

Things might have continued in this way forever, with the two lovers at cross purposes, if Logan hadn't opened his mail one day to find an unwelcome invitation.

"Damn." He groaned.

"What?" Max asked him wondering what had upset him about the thick cream colored card that was clearly an invitation to something.

"It's my aunt and uncle's annual weekend house party."

"And that merits a damn because…?" Max asked.

"Because I, I mean we, have to go."

"Oh." Max said quietly, thinking that he was upset that he had to bring her around his family.

" Max, it's only the worst ordeal known to man. A houseful of Seattle's snootiest all trying to impress each other with how wonderful they all are, and with how much they have. To top it off my Uncle routinely spends the weekend completely bombed, and my aunt spends it making sure that I know that I'm only there because it would be déclassé not to invite a family member."

He paused and then looked at her with a smile. "At least you'll be there to make it bearable this year." Max's heart leapt at that statement. It was the first time in days that Logan had sent her one of those looks. It plummeted just as quickly when he continued on. "She won't be throwing her society girls at my head all weekend. That'll be a relief."

Max sighed, her mind suddenly made up. She'd go to this thing with Logan but then she'd be gone. It was time to move on and try to make a life for herself somewhere else. Somewhere where she wouldn't have to fall asleep at night wishing that he was with her, holding her close and making love to her, somewhere where she wouldn't have to look at him every day hoping for him to once again turn that devastating charm of his on her. Somewhere she could forget her dreams of Logan and a life together, laughing and loving and fighting the good fight together…

"Max? Are you listening?" Logan was saying. "We have to leave tomorrow afternoon to get to their place. Do you need to buy anything to bring?"

"What are the events?"

"Formal dinners and dancing each night for three nights, sailing during the day, horseback riding for those who are interested. The usual boring society stuff."

"I'll need a few evening dresses I suppose. My last one kind of got destroyed."

Logan smiled in spite of himself at the memory of Max in that dress. She looked at him curiously, wondering what had brought that familiar look into his eyes once more.

"Logan? What's funny?"

He wasn't about to tell her that he was fondly thinking of a certain lap dance, so he quickly changed the subject. "Oh um, nothing. Look, I need to finish up some Eyes Only stuff since we'll be gone for three days. Why don't you call Kendra and see if she wants to go with you to get whatever clothes you need."

"Sure, Logan." Max said. She stared after his retreating back more confused than ever by his behavior. One minute he was hot and the next cold. She shrugged. Soon it wouldn't be her problem anymore. He could get back to his bimbos and she would move on with her life.

Meanwhile Logan headed to his computer. There was one essential thing Max had to have for the weekend and he was going to make sure she had it. 

End of Chapter Forty-One…TBC…