This is gonna be pretty shippery again, hope it doesn't get boring.I'm trying to find a way out of this!!!
Please review!!

**

„Anna, can I make a phone call? I have to let somebody know I won't be back at work on Monday."

"Sure, help yourself."

Max knew Cindy would be awake by now, getting ready for work.

"Hey, it's me."

"Max! Why didn't you call earlier!?"

"Sorry, I was busy."

"With rollerboy..."

"Cindy, lisen. I'll tell ya everything when we're back, and there's gonna be a lot to tell. Bt right now I need you to find an excuse for Normal. We won't be back for another few days."

"Sure, but what the hell is going on between youand rich boy? Are you finally..."

Max cast a short glance at Anna who carried the dishes over to the sink.

"Yes, can we please leave it at that for now?"

"Aiight, greet Logan."

"Thanks, see you."

"Bye."

**

"Hey, was that Cindy?"

"Yeah, greetings from her."

"Thanks."Logan tried to roll past her but she laid a hand on his wheel to stop him.

"Let me see your leg." Max bent down and lifted it from the footrest.

"It's just a scratch."

"We're gonna be careful though," she said, her tone didn't leave any room for discussion. "I'll bandage it later."

"Thanks."

"How do you feel?" She whispered so they had some privacy.

"I'm fine. I know that was uncalled for last night. I don't know why it..."

"It's OK Logan. Bling and I were actually waiting for that. Do you feel better now that it is lifted from your shoulders?"

"Yeah, I think so. Thanks Max." He gave her a shy kiss on the cheek when the doorbell rang.

"That's Emily!" Max stated and pit his leg, which she'd still been caressing, back in the footrest. Logan listened as Emily greeted Max, shaking his head and chuckling he wheeled over to his Grandma to help her do the dishes, Max woul be preoccupied now.
He was grateful Anna did not mention what she for sure had witnessed last night.

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing boardgames and watching Pocahontas. Logan even caught his supersoldier secretly wiping away a tear.

**

"We wanna go out for dinner tonight. Hope you don't mind."

"Of course not.I can see how you young people don't want to spend every evening with us." There was a twinkle in her eyes to indicate she knew he ddn't think so. Then she became serious. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine", he said. "Yesterday just kinda pushed me over the edge."

"Logan, there is something I always wanted to tell you." There was something in Anna's voice that made him look up in alarm. Slowly she said down so she was on eye level with the handsome young man.
"Peter and I...we, we're sorry for all you had to go through."

"Granny..."

"No, I mean after Margret and your father had died, we should have tried harder to..."

"There was nothing you could have done..."

"You can't know that, maybe everything woul have turned out differently...and in the long run, you maybe would not have been shot..."

"...and I wouldn't be here with Max. The universe is right on schedule, that's what Mom used to say, and I figure she didn't just come up with it, but learnt t from someone else. Maybe that was my destiny, I don't know. But despite the fact that I had and am still having a hard time coming to terms with this damn chair, I wouldn't have wanted things to turn out any differently. Don't worry, and don't dare to blame yourself, everything is just the way it was meant to be- and I'm happy."

"I hope you are right."

"I am." He squeezed her hand. "I love you."

"I love you too. Just stay the way you are. You are so much like your mother." She embraced her grandson.

**

"Max, come on. We're gonna be late, I got us a table!"

He couldn't help but grin at the closed bathroomdoor. This all felt so wonderfully normal. He had been ready to go for thebst of an hour now, but tonight Max acted like a typical woman. Sh'd literally kicked Logan out of the room after the third dress, he figured t was because he'd said it would look perfect three times- appartenly two times too often. Instead she'd hysterically called for Anna, and the only time he was allowed to enter was to grab his own clothes, he had to get dressed in Anna's and Peter's room though.

The rest of the time he'd spent watching soccer with Peter. It had been a long time since he'd last seen a game. Peter andhe even thought about going to see a match the next day when Arsenal would play at home.

**

Finally the bathroom door opened and a beautiful angel stood in front of him. She wore a black dress that ended just below her knees, spaghetti straps held it on her slim shoulders. Her black hair fell lose like sat in and her eyes challenged the glittering necklace Anna had borrowed her.

"Wow, this was definitely worth the waiting." He smiled at her in admiration and then spotted Anna in the doorframe, grinning knowingly.

"If I didn't already have a beautiful wife, you'd have competition pal." Peter leaned agains the living room door. "A lot of men are going to envy you tonight."

"Yeah, I can't believe I'm gonna be the lucky one to take her home."

"We'll see about that. Depends on how you are gonna behave, Mister." Max leaned down to kiss him on the cheek, double checking if she'd left lipstick marks.

"Come on, get going. You're already late." Anna pushed Logan's chair towards the door, he good-naturedly let her. "Have fun!"

"We will. Don't wait up." Logan motioned for Max to precede him through the door.

**

When they'd reached the car Logan wheeled over to the driver's side, and opened the door for her. Thanks God, Peter had offered them the bigger car, so Logan wouldn't require her help to store away the wheelchair. Max sat down and watched her fiancee getting settled.

"Keys?"

"Oh yeah, sorry. Voila." He tossed her the keys and leaned back.

"Can you drive with those shoes?"

"Better than you anyway." In response, Logan sticked out his tongue.

**

Half an hour later Max parked in front of an expensive looking restaurant.

"Wow, you sure we fit in there?"

"You do, no doubt about that, at least dress-wise." He grinned. "And besides, let's just enjoy it for once. They'll never see us again."

Max nervously glanced around. People had watched them enter, strange looks on their faces, their thoughts readable like open books: What is that gorgeous young lady doing with a guy like that. How much did she cost him?

But as Logan pretended not to notice, she decided to play along and just concentrate on the handsome guy she dated. Why should she care about what other people thought? She never did.

"You know, when I was a kid, Margo and Jonas would rag me to places like this and I hated it."

"Yeah, but somehow you fit in here." She giggled when she saw his funny face. "Don't worry, I still love you. Besides, I like it here. It's not exactly the Crash, where you have to join me when we are back by the way, but there is something about this place aswell."

The waiter brought the menu and Logan helped Max figure out the dishes. When they'd placed their order they both fell silent for a moment, enjoying the atmosphere.

"You know, we can still get put of this babything if you don't feel like doing it."

"I'm fine with it, really. Don't worry, Max. Besides, I get to marry you."

"You could have me without the baby." Max whispered.

Logan took a deep breath. "When I look at that litle girl it's like seeing me. Do you understand that? I was a lot older when I lost my parents and I still had relatives to take care of me," he snorted. "But basically she needs just whatI would have needed back then."

"You never really told me what growing up was like for you."

"There is not much to tell." Logan responded, his jaw tight.

"Are you going to tell me when you are ready?"

Logan looked up in surprise, then struggled with his words. "Max. Listen...I'm sorry..I..I just can't, not yet...I know I should be over that, but I guess I never really worked it out, you know. I tend to bottle feelings up.."

"Tell me about it!" Max grinned sheepishly.

"Anyway, I guess I never uncorked that particular bottle again. The way I see it, you will make me do it sooner or later. But please, not right now, OK?"

"Deal." But he coud read in her eyes that there was something else that bothered her.

"Logan?" She carefull looked him in the eyes, trying to find out whether he was growing angry. When he looked at her expectantly though, she dared to go on.
"After the accident, you know, you...there were no friend but Bling. Why have you been that isolated?"

He sighed. "I don't know- no that's not true. I do know. Pople called, I refused to talk, let alone see them for weeks. I just couldn't imagine having to stand that look in their eyes, the pity, the awkwardness. I thought they only wanted to see me because that was something they felt obliged to do. So I wanted to safe both sides a lot of embarassment an didn't allow them to come in the first few weeks. Most of them never tried again, and the few who returned, let's just say I scared them away with my attitude." He grinned reluctantly. "And you? Why did you come back? Just pity and guilt?"

Max thought about it for a moment, could she dare to tell him the truth?
"No pity, actually.I didn't see the point in feeling pity for you. I've seenmuch worse. Sympathy, yes, but no pity. We talked about the guilt thing already, I did feel guilty." She held up a hand to stop him from disagreeing. "We've already discussed that, OK?" She paused. "And you's told me you could help me find my siblings. So it was kinda egoistic."

"That's why I told you, to make you return- under different circumstances obviously, but still..."

"And I was in love with you..." She smiled when she saw the look on his face. "I didn't want to see it,and I tried to deny it- ask Original Cindy, she had to deal with all my shit. But looking back I'd already had those butterflies in my stomach back then."

"Wow, things could have been so much easier."

"Yeah, but maybe we needed that time to come to terms with our own issues first, both of us."

Before Logan could answer, the waiter brought their orders and they spent the next few minutes enjoying dinner.