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Peter walked around the Cale Mansion. He marveled at how quiet it was. When Emily Cale had been alive, it had been this quiet at this time of night, but never this full. Young Mr. Cale had requested his girlfriend's family stay there so that the Cale family vultures wouldn't be able to help themselves to Emily Cales property before the will had been read. He frowned at the sight of Jessica sitting on the windowsill staring into the night. "Is everything alright Miss?" Jondy turned to look at the butler. "Yes, everything's fine. I just don't need a lot of sleep." Zane had headed back to LA and Krit and Syl were heading back to their homes the next morning. "Tell me about Emily Cale." She was fascinated by the woman that had won Max over so easily. There didn't appear to be any photos of the woman in the house. Peter sat in a chair beside the window. The way this young woman was perched on the windowsill reminded him of a cat. "I've worked for Emily Cale for the past thirty years, Miss. I have never met anyone that I admired as much as her. It wasn't like a job, it was like helping a friend and getting paid for it. Does that make sense?" Jondy nodded and smiled. "She sounds like a wonderful woman. You must miss her as much as Logan does." "She's a great loss, Miss." Peter had noticed that the pretty redhead not only looked after and was mother to fourteen children, but didn't seem to sleep more than a couple of hours a night, if that. "So why don't you need a lot of sleep." Jondy shrugged her shoulders. "I've never needed much sleep, even when I was a child. I'm hoping it's not something my children will inherit from me." She saw something moving through the garden. "Tinga, we've got our nightly visitor." She had borrowed several sets of coms off of Logan. "Is Krit still feeling playful?" Tinga walked into the bedroom that Krit was using. She kicked the bed waking her brother. "Rise and shine Baby Brother. It's rodeo time." Krit climbed out of bed and took the rope his sister was holding out to him. "You know I was having this seriously hot dream. I'm gonna be pissed if my dream girl's not waiting for me when I get back to sleep." He plugged his coms into his ear. "Where abouts is the calf I'm rounding up, J?" "Go out onto your bedroom balcony." Jondy was still watching the intruder. "Lonely little calf to your right." A couple of seconds later the intruder was swinging in the air. Peter stared out the window in amazement. "Where did you people learn to do that?" Jondy's face was the picture of innocence. "We're military brats. It's sort of in our upbringing. Good night, Peter." Jondy eased off the windowsill and walked up the staircase. The feline in her preferred the exercise the staircase gave her to the simplicity of the elevator installed for the wheelchair bound Emily Cale. Max woke to find that Logan still hadn't come to bed. She had fallen asleep out of the boredom of waiting for him, not because she was actually tired. She could hear his fingers clicking away on the keyboard. It was a reassuring sound. She couldn't help but remember how despondent he had become the time the doctor who had, had a possible cure for the paralysis in his legs had been killed by Lydecker. They had never talked about the fact that Logan had almost taken his own life. Max had almost forgotten the incident, especially after Jondy had finished the job that Dr. Vertes had started. When Logan's Grandmother had died, Max had noticed Logan starting to shut himself off. It had all come flooding back to her. The part that had scared her the most was the memory of returning to Foggle Towers and seeing the ambulance, then running into the apartment and finding no Logan and his gun out on his computer desk. Max shook her head pushing the memory and it's accompanying feelings aside and climbed out of bed. She made no sound as she walked barefoot across the polished wooden floors, but Logan still seem to sense when she was near. Max noticed that since she had given him a blood transfusion a year or so back, that Logan appeared to be more attuned to her. He turned away from his computer as she approached him. "Hey, aren't you coming to bed. You need the sleep more than I do." She sat down on his lap and put her arms around him. Logan looked at the clock on his computer. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize how late it was." He gave Max a worried look. "Have you actually been sleeping?" He touched her forehead. "You're not ill are you?" Her forehead didn't feel overly warm. Max shook her head. "No, I just got bored waiting for you to come to bed." He was worrying her. Logan seemed to be burying himself in work so that he wouldn't have to deal with his Grandmother's death. "You're going to make yourself ill if you keep working like this. Not to mention, I'm starting to get jealous of the attention your computer is getting over me." He managed to smile at her last comment. "Fine, I'll come to bed. I wouldn't want you to feel neglected." Logan switched his computer off and stood with Max in his arms. He had to admit, he was exhausted. Falling asleep with Max in his arms certainly helped ease the pain of the loss of his Grandmother. Max watched Logan fall asleep. The stress of the last couple of weeks started to fade from his face. She loved watching him sleep. He always looked as though he didn't have a care in the world, when in fact all he ever did was care about the world. "We'll get through this together Logan. Just don't push me away." In response to her whispers, Logan's arms tightened around her waist pulling her closer. "Good answer." She whispered as she lay her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Alec picked up his coffee cup and threw it against the wall. Every time he tried Asha's cell phone he got the damn answering machine. It was bad enough he had found out that she had lied about her giving Logan's key back. Now he couldn't even get hold of her so that she could explain herself. One thing was sure, he was not going to be her substitute for Logan. Alec grabbed his jacket and headed for the Cale Mansion. Jondy would make him feel better. She seem to have the knack of knowing when he was in a bad mood and finding a way to get him out of it. Krit followed Jondy down the stairs. "I'm telling you, it was an awesome dream, and you had Tinga wake me up. I mean this woman was built like a..." "I heard you the first three times, Krit," Jondy interrupted him. "How many times do I have to ask you, not to tell me about your pornographic dreams. You know, there are just some things a sister does not need to know about her brother." She walked into the dinning room and took a seat at the table in between the two high chairs her twins were seated in. Jace looked up from her breakfast. "Is anybody going to let him down?" She pointed to the man swinging outside the window. "Later." Syl reached for another piece of toast. "Peter, which one of the Cales is that anyway?" Peter looked out of the window. "I can't quite tell from this angle, Miss. I think it might be Mr. Wesley Cale. He's one of Jonas Cale's sons. Just as greedy as his father was." Peter felt slightly uncomfortable sitting at the table with the family, but the young people around him had insisted he do so. "Looks like I arrived in time for breakfast." Alec had let himself in. "I see you had an unwelcome visitor." He nodded to the body swinging outside the window and took a seat beside one of Jondy's twins. "Whose handy work is that?" "Krit's." Syl handed Alec a plate. "Has anybody heard from Max this morning?" She wanted to say goodbye to her sister before she and Krit headed back to their own homes. Jondy nodded. "She and Logan should be here soon." She poured Alec a cup of coffee. She could tell something was bothering the X5, but he wasn't a big talker when he got into one of his moods, so she just squeezed his hand and let him be. An impatient knocking at the door interrupted their breakfast. Krit grinned. "I think Aunty Margot's come to pick up her little boy." Peter frowned with confusion. "How do you know it's not Miss Guevara?" It seemed more realistic that it would be Max. After all they were expecting her. Jace shook her head. "Our family doesn't knock. We tend to just let ourselves in." She stood and went to answer the door. "Where the hell is my son?" Margot Cale's infuriated voice echoed through the mansion as she stormed into the dinning room. Belinda clasped her hands in front of her. "God bless Mom, Dad, Aunty Tinga, Aunty Jace, Aunty Syl, Aunty Max, Uncle Krit, Uncle Zane, Uncle Alec, Uncle Logan, Uncle Joshua and Peter." There was still a faint trace of her native French accent behind the English accent she had adopted. Her Swiss sister, Leeza, nudged her. "You forgot to ask God to bless the food before us." She and her sisters had pulled this stunt a lot in the last week or so. Nothing seemed to stop the Cale family cold than a bunch of little girl's praying. It all looked so innocent. Margot Cale waited for the children to finish grace before approaching the table. "My son Wesley came here last night to make arrangements to stay and he hasn't returned. I want to know what you've done with him." Max walked in at that moment dragging Logan behind her. She had been determined to get him away from his computer for the morning. "Morning." She caught sight of Logan's cousin swinging around outside. She let go of Logan's hand and walked over to the window, opening it. "Morning Wesley." She shut the window and sat herself down at the table. Logan frowned at the scene outside the window. "What is that, the third time this week Wesley's tried to break in here?" He sat down beside Max. "Fifth." Max helped herself to some coffee. "You'd think he could wait another two weeks for your Grandmother's will to be read." Margot looked horrified at the sight of her son swinging around outside. "Get him down immediately. Just you wait until that will is read." She glared daggers at Max. "I wouldn't look so smug if I were you young lady. It's not as though you would benefit from the will. "You're not even Logan's wife." Syl pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. "According to this piece of paper here she is." She held up the paper to show a marriage certificate. Margot marched angrily out of the room to retrieve her son, totally unaware of the shocked look on Logan's face. A few minutes later Wesley hit the ground outside as his mother untied the rope. Alec snatched the piece of paper out of Syl's hand and chuckled. "Nice penmanship. Is this your work?" His chuckle changed to a deep laugh when Syl nodded. "Logan, I thought your Aunt was going to burst a blood vessel for a moment." "Mya, could you go upstairs and see what Mrs. Cale is doing please." Jondy looked over at the Mexican girl she had adopted. "I think I can hear her in my room." The young girl excused herself from the table and moved silently upstairs. A few minutes later she reappeared. "She's looking behind the pictures. I think she's also about to go through your suitcase, Mom." Peter was confused. "I locked all of the paintings away and I understood that your suitcase had a lock on it, Miss." He had carried Jondy's suitcase upstairs himself. A scream of "Oh my God" came from upstairs. Minutes later Margot and Wesley ran down the stairs and out the front door. Jondy smiled sweetly. "You all owe me ten bucks each. I told you that Margot would go snooping through my things." All of her siblings handed over the money. "I asked Joshua to loan us some of his paintings to cover the blank walls and that safe in the library. As for my suitcase, I hid that in the ceiling and left one filled with handcuffs and whips that I borrowed from one of the neighbors under my bed." Everybody at the table roared with laughter. No wonder Logan's Aunt had been so shocked. That was certainly the last thing anybody would expect to find under Jondy's bed. "Why do I get the impression, it's going to be a long two weeks until that will is read." Peter sighed and started collecting the empty plates, but Jondy's daughters were already clearing the table. The maids had told him that the rooms were already cleaned and tidied and the beds made when they arrived to do their jobs. "Miss Guevara, I am paid to clear the table and the maids are paid to clean the house." "My girls don't get waited on at home and they will do their fair share while we stay here." Jondy was firm, but kind. She wiped the twin's faces. "Julia and Kera phone this morning. They made it home without any problems." "Speaking of which." Krit stood up and went to hug his sisters. "Syl and I had better get going." He shook hands with the men. "Thanks for the place to stay Peter." He slapped the butler on the back. Syl hugged her siblings and Logan. "Give us a call if you need anything." It was an open invitation to everyone in the room. She followed Krit out the door to the car they had already packed. "I'm gonna head back and get some work done." Logan bent down and kissed Max on the top of the head. "Why don't you stay and visit with your family." He had a couple of leads on Sandeman's family. Max didn't want to appear clingy but she was worried about what Logan would do if he were left alone. "Are you sure?" "Yeah." Logan waved goodbye to everyone and left. He figured Alec would probably bring Max home later if Jondy didn't. "What's wrong, baby sister?" Tinga could see the worry written all over Max's face. "Is Logan not coping with his Grandmother's death?" Max shrugged her shoulders. "I wouldn't know. He won't talk about it. I actually had to go and tell him to switch off the computer and come to bed at 3AM this morning." "Maybe he's fed up with you." Alec winced as Jondy swatted him across the back of his head. "Or maybe he's just busy. It could happen." Max shot him a filthy look. "I just keep remembering what happened or almost happened when Doctor Vertes was killed. I know losing the chance to walk again and losing a relative is totally different. It's his reaction that's the same. He's closing himself off and I almost lost him the last time he did that." Max felt so helpless. "Well, from what I've seen of Logan's family, " Jace spoke up. "Maybe it was never encouraged to speak about your feelings. God knows it wasn't where we all came from." Tinga nodded in agreement. "Logan probably just needs a little time and space. Try not to worry too much, Maxie." Jondy had seen the file Doctor Vertes had written up on Logan. Because of that, she could understand why Max was worried. "Alec, could you go and keep an eye on Logan for us." When he started to object, she rested her chin on his shoulder and looked up at him. "Please." Alec rolled his eyes. "Fine, but I'm going to be bored out of my mind." He was rewarded with a smile from Jondy. "You owe me for this." He kissed Jondy's cheek on his way out the room. "You think I should worry about Logan, don't you?" Max asked her sister. "No." Jondy smiled. "I was just getting Alec out of your hair." She handed one of the twins to Max and sat the other twin on her lap. "I think Tinga's probably right. Logan needs a little time and space. Why don't you take the girls to visit Rebecka. It'll give you a break as well." "Maybe you're right." Max couldn't help noticing that Jondy never seemed to refer to Rebecka as their mother. Still, after being without a mother for so many years, even Max had to admit it took some getting used to. She handed the baby back to Jondy. "Mind if I take the van." Jondy shook her head. "No. You know where I leave the keys. Just don't let Rebecka spoil the girls. I don't want to have to travel back to San Francisco with twelve brats." Max giggled. "Don't worry. Catch ya later." Max felt a little better after talking to her sisters. After rounding up the girls, she piled them into the van and set off to visit her mother. Jace waited until the van had left the property before questioning Jondy. "You're concerned about Logan as well, aren't you? That's really why you sent Alec to watch Logan." Jondy rubbed her forehead. "I saw the file Doctor Vertes had on Logan. His mental state at the time wasn't great. Things have changed since then, so I could be worried about nothing." "But, " Tinga continued for her. "Max and Logan never talked about what happened last time, so there's always the fear that Logan might try again and succeed." She had pretty much caught up with everything that had happened with her siblings after she was taken back to Manticore. Jase took baby Ben off of her sister. "So why don't you go and talk to Logan, Jondy. You always seem to be able to get through to people. Tinga and I will look after the twins." Tinga took baby Tinga from her sister. "Sure. I just want to phone Charlie and Case. They panic if they don't hear from me everyday. Besides, Alec's probably already bored with watching Logan." "I don't know how much good I can do," Jondy pushed her chair away from the table. "But I'll give it a go." The worst that could happen is that Logan would tell her to mind her own business. "Damn it," Logan cursed the computer in front of him. Yet another dead end. Wherever Sandeman's wife and son had disappeared to, they weren't eager to be found. Every lead ended up at a dead end. It was as though they had disappeared into thin air. Deciding it might help if he took a break, Logan wandered around the apartment. He had switched his cell phone off and turned the volume of the apartment phone down. Every time the phone rang it was just another greedy relative wanting to know why Max's family were staying in Emily Cale's mansion. Each of his so-called family demanded access to the mansion. Logan paused in front of a brightly colored painting. It had been a gift from his Grandmother and one of the few possessions he refused to sell. It reminded him of her so much. The elegance of the brushstrokes, the subtle subject painted with such bright cheerful colors. Logan flashed back to the week after his parents had died. He had been searching for his mother's locket. It had been her most treasured possession and she had wanted him to have it. It had in fact been her dying wish. Emily had asked Logan to stay with her for a couple of weeks. She had said it was so that Logan could keep an old lady company. In hindsight, she had been more of a comfort to him, than he was to her. She had been livid when she found out that Margot had taken the locket. She had even gone as far as to tell Jonas never to bring that woman into her home wearing a necklace that she had obviously stolen. Margot of course, denied it was stolen and that it was a piece of family jewelry she had been given. Never the less, she never wore it in the presence of Emily Cale. "Is that painting worth more in sentiment or money." A voice behind Logan jerked him from his thoughts. Turning around he found Jondy leaning against the doorframe. "My Grandmother gave it to me." Logan headed back to his computer. "But it is also worth a lot of money as you well know." Normally he didn't mind Jondy's surprise visits, but today he just wanted to be alone. "I'm kinda busy, was there something you needed?" Jondy studied Logan for a moment before answering him. "Have you even looked at the time and noticed that Max has been gone for four hours?" Jondy had stopped in on Rebecka to suggest that Max take the girls to visit Joshua as well. Then she had spent an hour on the roof with Alec, who had repeatedly told her how bored he was. He had also been able to see what Logan was working on from where he had been sitting. Logan glanced at the clock on his computer. It had been four hours since he had left Max at the mansion. "Max is alright, isn't she?" Jondy nodded. "She's fine. She's worried about you though. You need to let her know what's going on inside that complicated head of yours, Logan." Before he could open his mouth to tell her that he was just busy, she interrupted him. "Don't you dare try to tell me that you're busy trying to find Sandeman's family. I know you keep running up against dead ends on that. If you keep building the walls up around you to try and forget the one decent member of your family has died, then you will end up losing Max as well." "What do you expect me to do?" Logan startled himself when he started to yell at Jondy. "You want me to drag Max down into my black hole of self pity? Is that what you want for your sister?" He didn't know why he was so mad or even who he was mad at. Jondy wasn't fazed by Logan's outburst in the slightest. "It would probably help you if you just talked to Max. It would certainly stop her from feeling left out." She turned and walked towards the door, her red hair flowing around her shoulders. "Oh, by the way, did you ever consider that Sandeman's wife and son might be hiding the way White's family should have been." The door clicked shut quietly behind her. Logan stood stunned by his computer. Jondy had certainly left him a lot to think about. He sank down into his computer chair and reached for his cell phone. First things first, he needed to know that Max was really alright. There were some things that he needed her to talk through with him as well as vice versa. Alec looked up at Jondy as she sat beside him on the roof. "Do you think your visit worked?" He took the can of beer she offered him. It never ceased to amaze him, what Jondy could store in her purse. Jondy pulled the tab on the can she had gotten out for herself. "Let's wait and see." She clinked cans with Alec. "I noticed Asha wasn't at Emily Cale's funeral. Is she away with the S1W?" "Yeah." Alec pretended he knew about Asha's whereabouts. "Something like that. I guess it's pretty important cause I can't even get her on her cell phone." He looked over at Jondy to see if she believed him. As usual, it was impossible to tell. "So, you think that Sandeman guy lied when he told Max what her DNA was for?" Jondy shrugged her shoulders. "I don't think that he told her everything. I can't help but feel that he is somehow linked to White and his band of freaky men." The two of them sat in a comfortable silence until Max returned to the apartment. Quietly they made their way down to the street and back to the mansion. It was obvious Logan had called Max by the expression on her face. At least it was a start. Max sat on the edge of the computer desk. "So have you found anything on Sandeman's family?" Logan had said he wanted to talk, but he hadn't said a thing yet. "No." Logan switched off his computer. "Jondy seems to think that maybe Sandeman is linked to the familiars." He made his way over to the sofa. Max followed Logan over to the sofa. "I guess that makes sense." She decided to take the plunge. "So you said that you needed to talk. What's up?" God, this was so hard. It didn't help Logan that he and Max weren't the best at talking things out. Usually one or both of them ended up yelling. "I've been told that I'm closing you out and using my search for Sandeman's family to justify it. I guess I couldn't admit how much I miss my Grandmother because I didn't know if you would understand. I can't exactly turn to anyone in my family seeing as they're more interested in the will. The only person out of all of them that would remotely care is Bitzy and she's taking Grams death pretty bad herself." Surprisingly, he felt better just admitting that much. He took a deep breath and continued. "I guess I sort of felt abandoned when Grams died, cause she was the person I always turned to when I had a problem. Like when I first ended up in the wheelchair or when Ben went on a killing spree and you closed me off. You know you never talked to me about that. I guess I felt hurt about that because I thought that we had got to the point, where you felt safe enough with me to tell me anything." Logan looked into Max's troubled brown eyes and wondered if he had gone too far. Max realized if she was going to get Logan to completely open up, she was going to have to talk about some things as well. "It wasn't that I didn't feel safe. It's just that we had this complicated thing going and I didn't want to make it worse by telling you that I killed my brother." The shock on Logan's face, Max knew wasn't at the fact that she had killed Ben, but that she had ever been pushed to the point that she had no other choice. Logan took hold of Max's hand. "Was Manticore closing in on you?" Max nodded. "Ben and I got into a fight in the woods. I broke his arm and his leg trying to stop him. I couldn't let him go on killing innocent people." The tears started running down her face. "We could hear the Manticore troops getting closer. I couldn't carry him out of there, we would have both been caught." She was openly sobbing now. "He begged me not to let them take him back, I didn't want to do what he asked. God, I hate that I even knew how to break his neck." Logan pulled Max into his arms and held her until her sobbing subsided. "And then I acted like a real jerk because I got scared of what you were capable of. Glad I got over that." He tried to joke away the memory of the photos Lydecker had sent him. "So do you feel up to telling me why Alec has been watching me all day? Although I have noticed that he's gone now." Max blushed as she wiped her tears away with the heel of her hand. "You'll think it's stupid and Alec was Jondy's idea. I would have sent one of my sisters." She could see that Logan was waiting for an explanation. "I know after Doctor Vertes was killed, that you came pretty close to committing suicide. It was just another subject we swept under the carpet and tried to pretend didn't happen." Logan guessed the rest. "So when my Grandmother died and I started closing you out and burying myself in work, you got scared that you were going to come home and find me with a bullet in my head." Max couldn't meet his gaze. "I told you it was stupid." "Your feelings aren't stupid, Max." Logan hugged her tighter and rested his chin on her head. "A lot of things have changed since then. I have your love and support which I foolishly took for granted. I can walk thanks to your sister. I have a second family that more than makes up for my insensitive blood relations. I actually look forward to a new day as long as it's one I get to spend with you. I used to think despite you telling me the contrary that you could never feel anything but pity for me while I was in the wheelchair. Max, I don't ever want to go through another day like the three months I spent alone when you died in my arms." Max smiled up at him. "Is that a fancy way of asking me to move in with you? Cause I think I've pretty much already done that." She was relieved everything was now out in the open. Logan smirked. "I guess you have. Have I told you what a fantastic family you have?" Max rolled her eyes. "Some members are better than others. So what's your next step in finding Sandeman's family?" She snuggled up to him. All of this talking about their feelings was exhausting. Logan kissed her forehead. "I figure if we find out more about White, we may find a connection to Sandeman and his family. There's no rush though. Tomorrow's another day." He looked down to find that Max had fallen asleep. "Well that's the first time I've ever worn you out and not the other way around." He lifted the sleeping beauty into his arms and carried her into the bedroom. Cuddling up beside her Logan drifted off to sleep, finally in peace with all of his demons laid to rest.
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