| |||||||||||||||
Original Cindy whistled away to herself. Normal was in an usually good mood. Probably because Max's siblings were using Jam Pony to deliver packages to Logan. Life was good. Trudging up the front steps to Sandeman's house, she knocked on the door. The door was opened on her first knock by a rather worried looking Logan. "Hey Cindy. Come on in, but can you keep it down. Max is sleeping." Original Cindy frowned. "Max is sleeping? Is my girl alright?" It was rare that Max slept very much and almost never when she was with Logan. Logan shrugged. "I'm not sure. I thought Max was just having a headache, but then the seizures started and about half an hour ago, Jondy phoned me to say she was flying in." "Sister girl's not driving. She must be in a hurry to get here." Cindy glanced towards where she knew the bedroom was. "What does she know that we don't?" Logan ran his hand through his hair. "She said something about it being a twin thing." "Which means she knows something's wrong, but she's not sure what." Cindy had gotten to know the red headed X5 pretty well over the past year or so. Logan nodded. "That's what I pretty much figured." He noticed Cindy had a parcel with her. "Is that for me?" Original Cindy nodded and handed him the parcel. "Same instructions as the others. Not to be opened until Friday. I think this one came from Zane." Logan smiled in spite of his concern for Max's health. "I can't believe they all remembered my birthday." "So when did Max get here?" Original Cindy knew that Max was staying at Terminal City because Logan was so busy with the renovations to his Grandmother's house. At least that was one of the reasons. "Alec dropped her off last night just before the guards changed shifts." Logan poured Cindy a cup of coffee. "He said she'd been getting the headaches for the past couple of days. Max, of course said it was nothing. Then she crashed on the sofa and she's been sleeping ever since in between seizures." Original Cindy could see from Logan's expression that there was something else he wasn't telling her. "Why do I get the feeling you're missing out a couple of pages to this story, Boo?" Logan knew he couldn't hide anything from Max's best friend. "She keeps having these flashbacks. This morning she asked me to check on you, to make sure you weren't in shock from being held hostage by the Red soldiers yesterday." Original Cindy's eyes widened. "That happened nearly three years ago. Do you think it has something to do with the implant?" Logan shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure. I'm hoping Jondy can tell us when she arrives." At that moment Jondy burst in the door with Alec right behind her. She was talking to someone on the cell phone as she walked. "Where are you?" She groaned at the answer. "God, too much information Zane. We'll meet you at the hospital." She quickly hugged Logan and Cindy while she talked on the phone. "No, the hospital at Terminal City isn't fully operational yet. At least not with what I'm going to need." She headed for the bedroom. "See you there." Original Cindy grabbed Alec's arm as he went to follow Jondy. "How did Sister girl get here so quickly? She only called Logan half an hour ago." "She called from the plane." Alec explained. "Then she by passed security and I picked her up from the airport." He walked into the bedroom where Jondy was checking the back of Max's neck. "What's wrong?" Jondy gently rolled Max back over. "So you went with Logan to his cousin's wedding last night. What was that like?" Max felt completely drained. "It wasn't what I expected. If I hadn't had to keep leaving to save Normal's sorry ass, I probably would have enjoyed myself more. It was still fun though." She looked over Jondy's shoulder and saw Alec. Her mind flashed back to the fight she and Ben had in the woods. "Ben?" She was getting so confused. She shook her head to try and clear her mind. "No, Ben's dead." She looked up at her sister. "What's happening to me." She started to shake as another seizure took over. Jondy cursed under her breath. "Max, I need you to calm down. I think the implant may have somehow been reactivated." The seizure wasn't easing up. "Logan, I need some help here." Logan crawled onto the bed and pulled Max into his arms and started to rock her. "Max, honey, you've got to try and relax. Jondy can't help you if you don't." Gradually he felt the seizure subside. He kissed Max's forehead before looking up at Jondy. "Now what?" Jondy stood up. "Now we all get into the car and head for the hospital. Zane and Beverly are waiting for us." Original Cindy moved aside so that Logan could carry Max out of the room. "So Boo, why is Max remembering things that happened two, three years ago?" Jondy pointed to the back of Alec's head and neck. "The implant is here, but when operational it clamps on and reaches all the way up the back of the brain. It's affecting the memory because the brain knows the implant shouldn't be there and is trying to reject it." "So, are you going to try and get it out?" Alec knew Jondy hadn't considered it safe enough to remove the implant previously. "I thought it was too risky." He opened the door for Logan. "We can't leave it in there any longer." Jondy followed Logan carrying Max to the car. "The implant needs to be disabled and programmed to retract so that it can be removed." Original Cindy didn't like the sound of that. "What happens if it stays in." "She'll die." Jondy hurried down the porch steps and helped Logan get Max into the car. There was no way she was going to stand back and watch her sister die. Zane was waiting around the back of the hospital for them, with a gurney. He looked on in shock as Logan lay Max on the gurney. "When the hell did this happen?" He held out a lab coat for Jondy to slip into. Jondy shrugged as she eased into the lab coat Zane was holding up. "Max has been getting headaches for a few days but it got really bad last night." Logan held onto Max's hand as Alec and Zane pushed the gurney into the hospital and down the corridor into an examination room where Beverly Shankar was waiting. "I managed to get the equipment you asked for." Beverly had never seen Max look so pale. "From what you told me about the implant Logan, I'm not sure how we're going to be able to remove it." "I don't know how it can still be working." Logan watched Jondy push a sonar graph machine closer. "Not after zapping so much voltage into Max's head the last time." Jondy switched on the sonar graph monitor and gently rolled a now unconscious Max on her side. Scanning the back of her sister's neck, she saw exactly what she had suspected on the monitor. "Shit." She looked over her shoulder at Alec. "What's happened at Terminal City in the past few days. Any extra machines working? More hover drones patrolling?" "No, if anything there's less hover drones in the area." Alec frowned. "Why? What are you thinking?" Beverly was horrified by what she saw on the monitor. "You're thinking some sort of signal reactivated this thing." Zane thought through the possibilities of what might have caused the implant to reactivate. "So you need the right frequency to get the implant to retrack." Logan could see Max getting more and more pale by the minute. "Why don't you try those machines you use to test people's hearing? Surely that should have a frequency on it that can reverse the implants process?" "Don't you have to know which frequency it was that jump started the implant in the first place?" Original Cindy was no expert, but she figured her comment made sense. At that moment Jondy's cell phone rang. Quickly answering the phone, she kept an eye on the monitor. "Hi Sebastian. What have you come up with?" As she spoke she noticed the implant make a small movement. "Sebastian, I'm going to have to call you back on a land line." She quickly switched her cell phone off. "Everybody with a cell phone switch it off now." Beverly had seen the implant move as well. "This can't be the first time any of you have used a cell phone near Max." Alec thought back three days previous. "No, but three days ago we had that machine Zane built working and it's the first time Max has been in Terminal City when it's been operating." Zane groaned. "It works on a high pitch frequency. So what now? We find a higher pitch to make it reverse?" Jondy quickly punched Sebastian's number into the phone on the examination room wall. "I don't know if we have time. Beverly, do you see the swelling around the implant?" Beverly nodded. "How did you stop it from working previously?" Logan shook his head. "I've already told you, I am not shooting that amount of voltage into Max's head again." He watched Jondy talking to Sebastian on the phone, filling him in. Alec had been listening into Jondy's phone conversation, using his genetically engineered hearing to hear Sebastian's side. They would have to get Logan out of the room if Jondy was going to help Max. He gestured to Original Cindy. "We've got to get Logan out of this room. Somehow I don't think telling him he's in the way is going to do it." Original Cindy nodded. "I got your back. Just agree with everything I say. With any luck Zane will back us up." She walked over to Logan. "Hey Logan, Alec heard somebody coming down the corridor. I'll go with Alec, if you go with Zane. Jondy and Doctor Shankar need to stay with Max." Logan hesitated for a moment, not wishing to leave Max. "You'll call me if anything changes, Jondy?" Jondy nodded as she put the phone down. "You know I will. Just keep everybody out of here for a while. We might have a way to get the implant out and Beverly and I don't need any interruptions. Plus, I'm going to have to cut Max's hair to get a clear path to the back of her neck." Zane chuckled. "You know she's gonna kick your ass for that, J." Jondy smiled at her brother. "I know, but with her hair this long, it's going to keep getting in the way even if I tie it up." Beverly whispered to Jondy. "Do you know what you're doing? Cause this is way out of my league." Jondy pulled a pair of scissors and a comb out of her purse. Carefully, she started to cut her sister's hair. "We're going to zap the implant with the paddles with enough voltage to get the implant to retract, instead of completely stopping it in it's tracks. Once we've done that, then we can remove it." Logan kissed Max's forehead. "I won't be far away Max. I love you." He stopped in front of Jondy. "I trust you with her life. I know you won't let her down." He hugged the woman that was like a sister to him before walking out the room with Zane. Original Cindy also hugged Jondy. "Tell my girl we'll be right back when she wakes up." She dragged Alec out of the room before he could say anything. Beverly took a deep breath. "Does their faith in you make this easier or harder for you?" She didn't know if she could cope if she were in Jondy's position. It was hard enough that she would be operating on her sister, but then she had the added pressure of Logan's faith that she would make Max better. "I'm going to put it out of my mind until my sister can get out of bed and kick my ass for cutting her hair." Jondy handed Beverly one of the paddles. "We have to place one on the forehead and I'll hold this one on the back of her neck where the implant is poking out." Beverly nodded. "Here we go. Clear." She got the impression Jondy had far too much medical knowledge for someone so young. "Did it work?" Jondy put the paddle aside and scanned Max's head and neck. "Yeah. We still have to get that thing out." Beverly administered a local anesthetic while Jondy connected Max up to a couple of monitors. "How did the implant get into Max's head in the first place? You don't all have one do you?" Jondy shook her head. "No, Max shoved the implant in her head to save Original Cindy. It's a long story." Beverly got a trolley of sterile instruments. "I've got time to listen." Zane leaned against the wall watching Logan pace. "Logan, she'll be fine. Max has got the two best Doctors working on her." Logan managed a weak smile. "Don't you think you're a bit bias, considering you're seeing one Doctor and the other's your sister." Zane chuckled. "Yeah, but you know I'm right." Logan nodded. "Yeah I know you're right. It's just the waiting that's driving me crazy. The longer we stay in this hospital, the more danger you guys are in." "Do you think we ought to call Rebecka?" Zane knew Max and Jondy's mother would want to be there. "I would have called her when Jondy first called me to meet her here, but I remember how she reacted when Jondy lost her sight." Logan had forgotten all about Rebecka. "Why don't we wait until we can get Max back to my place. I think we'll draw less attention that way." "I think Jondy will be relieved to hear that." Zane agreed with Logan's plan. "Rebecka visited Jondy in San Francisco when she was getting her eyesight back. She wouldn't let Jondy do anything for herself and Jondy ended up telling her to go back to Seattle." Logan felt sorry for Rebecka but could understand where Jondy was coming from. "I think Rebecka's trying to make up for all the time she was apart from Max and Jondy. Ever since Max found out that Rebecka tried to keep her when she was born, she's wanted to meet her. Jondy always had Devon's mother looking after her, so she didn't feel the same emptiness in her life that Max did. I guess Rebecka just needs a little time to understand that." Zane shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know if she ever will. Sometimes Rebecka makes Jondy feel claustrophobic. She's so clingy with Jondy, probably because Jondy was supposed to have died at birth. Jondy doesn't want Max to feel left out, especially considering Max was the one who wanted to find her Mom." "Hey!" Original Cindy came running down the corridor. "They got the implant out. We just have to wait for the swelling to go down and Max to wake up." "Thank God." Logan raced back to the examination room where Max was. He saw that Jondy was sitting on Alec's lap beside Max's bed, when he entered the room. "Is she going to be alright?" "We have to wait for Max to wake up and the swelling to go down before we can be sure." Jondy warned him. "Remember that implant rewired the neuro pathways. I'm putting a lot of faith in Manticore technology. Because of our souped up DNA, any damage should mend itself, but I don't know how long that's going to take." Logan understood. "Max is still alive thanks to you and Beverly." He looked around the room. "Where is Beverly?" "Doing her rounds." Alec offered. "I thought Zane was with you." Original Cindy chuckled. "He went to help the doctor with her rounds." She saw a small glass jar on the table next to the bed. "Damn. Is that the implant? That's what's been in my girl's head?" "Ugly, ain't it?" Alec couldn't believe Max had actually put that thing in her head. Friend or no friend, he couldn't say he'd do the same thing if he were in her position. Zane walked into the room before Cindy could respond. "Time to get this show on the road. The cops are doing a random transgenic check. What do we have to take with us, J?" Jondy stood and disconnected anything they didn't need to take with them. "Tell Beverly to send me the bill for all of this, Zane." "No problem." Zane gave Alec a gentle shove. "Come on, the sooner we get Maxie out of here, the sooner you can make out with Jondy on Logan's sofa." Alec grinned. "At last, something I want to do. I knew I'd get rewarded for doing good eventually." Jondy rolled her eyes. "I seem to be doing all the giving on this trip. Zane where did you park the van?" "Out the back where you came in." Zane fished his keys out of his pocket and handed them to his sister. "I'm going with Max." Logan handed Alec his car keys. "Can you bring my car?" "No problem." Alec helped Zane lift Max and the mattress she was sleeping on, into the van. Original Cindy climbed in after Jondy, both of them holding IV bags. Alec leaned into the van to give Jondy a quick kiss. "I'll go and get Rebecka and meet you all back at Sandeman's." Original Cindy grinned at Jondy as Logan climbed into the back of the van and shut the door. "You just draw them to you like moths to a flame, don't ya." Jondy smiled back at her friend. "It's not intentional. It can be a draw back more than a blessing a lot of the time." Zane drove as carefully as possible back to Sandeman's house. It had grown dark by this time, so it wasn't too hard to get Max moved into the house without being spotted. Alec arrived with Rebecka, ten minutes after they had settled a still unconscious Max into Logan's bed. Rebecka had been stunned when Alec turned up on her doorstep and told her what had happened. She couldn't contain her shock at the sight of her daughter looking so pale and fragile. "Is she going to be alright?" Logan looked up from where he was sitting beside the bed holding Max's hand. "We won't know until she wakes up." He was worried that it was taking so long for her to wake up. Logan brushed a stray curl off of Max's face. It was then he noticed Max wasn't breathing. "Jondy!" Jondy raced into the room as Logan called for her. "Rebecka, get out of the way." She pulled her mother off of her sister where she had flung herself and all but threw her across the room. Pulling the pillows out from under Max's head she started CPR. "Logan, a little help please." Logan quickly pulled himself together and breathed into Max's mouth while Jondy did chest compressions. Relief flooded over him when Max started breathing for herself. "Max, honey. We need you to open your eyes." Despite the panic Logan was sure Jondy felt, her voice was so calming. Max struggled to open her eyes. "Where am I?" She saw moments of her life flashing through the darkness. "What happened?" She finally managed to open her eyes to see Logan's concerned blue eyes looking back at her. "You're at Sandeman's." Logan wondered for a moment if the implant may have erased some of Max's memory. "Do you know what month it is?" Max frowned as she looked over at her sister, who was now sitting cross legged on the bed beside her. "It's November, isn't it?" She noticed a couple of the buttons on Jondy's shirt were undone. "Did I get you out of bed or something?" She knew her sister would have dropped everything to get to her, once she realized something was wrong. Jondy looked down at her shirt to see what Max was talking about. "Damn it, I knew I'd lost track of one of his hands." She realized as she did up the buttons that her bra had disappeared. "Alec, I seem to be missing a certain item of clothing. Do you happen to know where it is?" Alec poked his head around the doorway. "I have it right here. Did you want it back right now?" "I'll come and get it in a minute." Jondy turned her attention back to Max. "I just want to check a few things then I'll leave you alone." Max nodded, then winced as a sharp stabbing pain shot through her head. "I guess that implant's playing up again." "It was. Beverly and I took it out." Jondy held out her hand. "Squeeze my hand." She waited for Max to follow her instructions. "Now use your other hand." It appeared that Max's brain was still sending the right signals to her limbs. "Ok, tell me what your name is." "Max Guevara." Max felt fine except from the splitting headache. She knew her sister was just making absolutely sure everything was still working. Jondy asked a few more simple questions and made sure that Max could move the way she should be able to. "The headaches should stop once the swelling goes down and things might be a bit confusing. The implant clamped down on the part of your brain that stores your memories." She moved off of the bed. "You were getting flashbacks before we got you to the hospital. As you heal, you should get less flashbacks making it easier for you to figure out what's going on now and what happened a few years back." She moved towards the door allowing Rebecka to take her place beside Max. "Oh and by the way, I gave you a haircut." She left the room to let Original Cindy know that Max was awake. Max reached up to her head, amazed at how short her hair was. "God, she didn't leave much, did she?" She looked over at Logan. "Have you got a mirror?" Logan went and fetched the makeup mirror he had brought for Max, out of the bathroom. He smiled at the shocked look on Max's face when she saw her reflection. "I like it. I can see more of that sexy neck of yours." Alec snorted from the doorway. "Max could shave her head, paint herself red, white and blue and tattoo 'White Sux' on top of her head and you would still think she looked hot." Original Cindy heard the end of Alec's comment and smacked him around the back of the head. "Where's the wrong in that? Go help Jondy." Alec shrugged his shoulders and disappeared. Zane appeared seconds later. "So I see you're awake Maxie. You gave us all a scare. Why didn't you ring Jondy and tell her you were having problems?" "I didn't need to." Max mumbled. "She knew anyway. That's why she's here." Rebecka was slightly confused. She still didn't know very much about her daughters. The way Jondy had flung her aside so easily had scared the hell out of her. "If you didn't tell Jondy you were having problems, how did she know?" "It's a twin thing." Logan didn't really understand it himself. "Jondy got on a plane as soon as she realized the headaches she was getting had nothing to do with her." "The two of you were sharing a headache?" Rebecka had heard of twins sharing some sort of bond, but only when they were identical. "Do the two of you share everything you feel?" "No." Max was so tired of all the questions being thrown at her. "It's more of a freaky sixth sense we have." Jondy walked back in the room at that moment. "Max needs to get some rest, so everybody but Logan out." She saw that Rebecka was about to refuse to leave. "Look, I don't care if any of you want to stay or not. You can stay in the living room if you have to, but get out of this bedroom now." Original Cindy took Rebecka's arm and led her out of the room. "Come on. You can come back in when Max has had some rest. You don't want to mess with Jondy when she's in Doctor mode." As Jondy turned to leave the room, Max called her back. "Thanks for coming to the rescue. Again." Max reached up and touched her short hair. "If you ever decide to give up bartending and medicine, you could always become a hairdresser." Jondy chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind. Get some sleep, I'll be right outside if either of you need me." Logan looked up at Jondy. "Thanks Jondy. Will you be alright out there with that lot?" "Yeah. I'm going to get Zane to call the Terminal City clan and let them know what's going on." Jondy pushed her hair off of her face. "Original Cindy's looking after Rebecka, so I guess that just leaves me Alec." "I'm sure you can handle that." Logan grinned as Jondy shot him a mischievous smile and left the room. He turned his attention back to Max. "You know, you've gotta stop scaring the hell out me like that." Max rolled her eyes. "It's not as though I reactivated the implant on purpose. What did Beverly and Jondy do with the implant anyway?" Logan shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure, but I think they sent it to Sebastian." He gently stroked her forehead. "Get some sleep, you've been through a lot today." Max smiled up at Logan. "Only if you get some sleep as well." She moved over a little so that Logan could lay on the bed as well. Logan hesitated a moment before kicking off his shoes and carefully lowered himself onto the bed. Any worries about hurting Max by holding her, flew out of his head when she cuddled up to him and promptly fell asleep. There had been a moment or two that day when he had wondered if he would ever get to hold Max again, despite his faith in Jondy. Exhaustion finally took over as his eyelids grew heavy and he fell asleep. "Are they both asleep?" Original Cindy looked up from the card game she and Rebecka were playing. When Jondy nodded, she asked the question that had been running through her head earlier. "So how come Max stopped breathing?" Jondy sat down on Alec's lap and rested her legs on Zane's lap, who was sitting next to Alec on the sofa. "Her brain registered as it started healing, that something was missing so it instructed her body to start closing down. Because the implant rewires the neuro pathways it told the brain that it was normal for the implant to be there. The whole problem when the implant reactivated itself was that a part of the brain knew the implant shouldn't be there and was rejecting it." "So Max's brain was basically having an argument with itself trying to figure out if the implant should be there or not." Rebecka looked at the implant sitting in the jar on the coffee table. "I still can't believe that thing was in Max's head." Zane glanced up from the book he was reading. "I can't believe you dug that thing out of Maxie's head, J." "I had help doing that." Jondy pointed out. "Speaking of which, why are you here when you could be making out with the good Doctor in the supply closet." Zane chuckled. "Beverly told me I couldn't come back to the hospital until after her shift. She says I'm too distracting." Alec pushed Jondy's hair over her shoulder so that he had access to her neck. "You must get that from your sister." He proceeded to nibble his way up her neck. "Oh man." Zane teased. "Get a room. I'd like at least one sister's sex life to remain a mystery to me." "This, from the brother who was telling me over the phone exactly what he was doing in the supply closet with Doctor Shankar." Jondy teased back. The three X5's attention turned suddenly to the front door. Original Cindy noticed the friction in the air. "What's up?" "Asha's just arrived." Zane looked over his shoulder at Alec. "Is that a problem?" He knew his sister well enough to know Asha appearing in Alec's presence had to bring up a few questions in her head. As usual his sister's expression told him nothing. "No, it's not a problem." Alec's arms tightened around Jondy. He could only guess what was going through her head. "If she's here, it's not to see me and I don't think Max is up to kicking her ass. I don't know why she keeps coming back here, especially after I told her that Logan always had Jondy and Syl if he didn't have Max." A mischievous smile crossed Jondy's face. "Alec, take off your shirt. You too Zane. We're going to stop Asha hitting on Logan for once and for all." The two men did what they were told despite being completely confused as to what Jondy had in mind. As they heard footsteps on the front porch, Jondy tossed Zane's shirt to Original Cindy and ushered Zane, Alec and Rebecka out of sight. Quickly pulling on Alec's shirt, Jondy removed her jeans and boots and tossed them across the room. Original Cindy followed the redhead's lead, she had a pretty good idea what Jondy was up to. Asha knocked on the door. She was pretty sure that Max wasn't there, as there was no sign of the X5's motorcycle. She had pretty much ruled out turning up for Logan's birthday. Max and her test tube family were definitely going to be here on Friday. The smile on Asha's face froze when Original Cindy answered the door wearing , as far as she could tell only a man's shirt. "What's up Sugar." Original Cindy struggled not to laugh at the shocked expression on Asha's face. "Can you keep it down. We sort of wore Logan out. He trying to get some well earnt sleep." Asha was confused. "I thought you were gay and what do you mean we?" At that moment Jondy walked into her line of vision. "Oh, that's what you meant by we." Alec's words came rushing back to her. She had thought he had just said them in anger, but now it seemed he had known what was going on behind closed doors. Original Cindy draped her arm around Jondy's shoulders. "What can I say? The boy's so hot, he converted me." Logan stumbled out of his bedroom, having heard the knock on the door. His glasses were still on the bedside table so his vision wasn't so hot at that moment. "J, who's at the door?" He knew Jondy wouldn't mind him using the nickname her brothers used for her. "Asha." Jondy had stayed with Logan and Max often enough to know Logan's brain would still be half asleep, so he wouldn't register what was going on for a couple of hours. He wasn't a morning person. "I think she's here to wish you an early Happy Birthday." Logan had, at some point during the night removed his shirt which made Jondy and Original Cindy's act appear to be true. "Oh, that's nice. Can you come back some other time though. I had a busy night, so I'm not really up for company." He turned and walked back to bed knowing Jondy and Original Cindy would see to Asha. On the way he nearly tripped over Jondy's jeans. "J, your jeans are on the floor." He was slightly confused as to why Jondy's jeans would be on the floor, but he was too tired to think about it. Folding the article of clothing, he placed it on the arm of the sofa. He waved good night to Zane, Alec and Rebecka as he walked back into the bedroom. Original Cindy could hear Zane and Alec struggling not to laugh. "You know I could do with some sleep myself." She faked a yawn. "Was there anything else you wanted." Asha was so stunned that all she could do was shake her head. She stood on the porch in shock for a further ten minutes after Jondy had shut the door on her. Logan hadn't struck her as the kind of guy that was into threesomes. Finally she turned and went home. It was lunchtime before Logan crawled out of bed. Original Cindy handed him a cup of coffee. "So what's going on?" He could see that Zane was missing and Alec and Jondy looked as though they were joined at the lips. "How long have they been like that?" Original Cindy checked the stop watch that Rebecka was holding. "Two hours and ten minutes." She sat down beside Alec and Jondy. "Zane went to meet up with Doctor Shankar after she finished work. Alec was telling Rebecka how he was trained to hold his breath and other fun tricks he learnt at Manticore. Rebecka didn't believe him so he decided to prove it." Logan frowned. "I thought the breath holding thing was only for four minutes. Besides, they're cheating. They're breathing through their noses." It was then Logan recalled Asha being there. "What was going on with Asha this morning?" It was all coming back to him, including the state of undress Jondy and Cindy had been in. "Why do I get the feeling Asha now thinks I'm into something kinky?" Alec finally came up for air. "She thinks you were having a threesome with Jondy and Cindy. I don't think she holds you in such high esteem." "Good." Max walked rather shakily out of the bedroom. "That means she won't be hitting on Logan anymore." She sat down on the arm of the sofa next to where her sister was perched on Alec's lap. "I thought I'd already scared her off already. What did you do Jondy? Open the door wearing no clothes?" "No, I was wearing Alec's shirt." Jondy grinned at her sister. "Original Cindy was wearing Zane's shirt. Logan was half asleep so he didn't realize everything he was saying was backing up our story." Max giggled. She could just picture Asha's face. "Where were Zane, Alec and Rebecka while all of this was happening?" "We hid out of sight." Rebecka stretched her cramped limbs. "Although Alec and Zane nearly gave us away trying not to laugh." "Ah come on." Alec protested. "You have to admit, Original Cindy claiming Logan was such a God in bed that he had turned her straight was funny." "I never mentioned the word God." Original Cindy was trying not to laugh herself. "Although I have heard Max call him that." Logan took the good natured ribbing as it was meant. "I was wondering what Jondy's jeans were doing on the floor. I just thought you and Alec had decided to rip each others clothes off." "Maybe later." Jondy shifted so that she was facing Max. "How are you feeling this morning?" She glanced at her watch. "I mean this afternoon." Max shrugged her shoulders. "Everything's still a bit confusing, but my headache's almost gone. You cured the retro virus right Jondy?" She breathed a sigh of relief when her sister nodded. "Good. That means I wasn't remembering a dream I had. How long are you going to stay in Seattle?" "I'll stay a couple more days to make sure you're alright." Jondy missed her children and was eager to get back to San Francisco. "I'll be back for Thanksgiving with the family." "Max will be alright though?" Rebecka thought that Max still looked too pale to be left without medical supervision. "From what I can tell." Jondy tried to stop the smirk from crossing her face. "As long as you don't overly exert yourself for a couple of days, Max. You should be fine." Alec cracked up laughing. "You expect Max and Logan to keep their hands off each other for a couple of days. What are you going to do, tie them both up?" Original Cindy joined in Alec's laughter. "No, that's what Max was going to do for Logan's birthday." "Very funny." Logan was trying not to laugh himself. "I think we can control ourselves. Besides, I can always go and take a cold shower." "That may not be necessary." Jondy nudged her sister. "Come on, let's go and change the dressing on your neck. "Then I really have to call my kids." "Well, I'd better get to back to work before Normal fires me again." Original Cindy picked up her back pack. "What'll that be? The third time he's fired you this week." Alec asked. "Something like that." Original Cindy chuckled. "See ya later." Alec could see by Logan's expression that he needed to talk to somebody and Alec wasn't very good at heart to heart talks. "Hey Rebecka. How about I drive you home. You can catch up on some sleep and I can bring you back here later." Rebecka didn't really want to leave, but there was nothing she could do to help. "Alright, I'd appreciate that." Alec picked up Logan's car keys from the coffee table where he had left them. "Ok if I borrow your car?" He waited for Logan to nod before heading out the door with Rebecka behind him. Jondy watched Logan from the bedroom doorway for a moment before approaching him. "Max is asleep. The more rest she gets the better. If you're good, I'll let her seduce you for your birthday." Logan laughed at her joke. "Max is going to be alright though. You're not just trying to stop me from worrying?" Jondy sat down opposite Logan. "You've known me long enough to know I wouldn't lie to you. Now why don't you tell me what's really going through that head of yours." Logan realized that he should have known Jondy would see right through him. "I had this big plan of asking your sister to marry me at Thanksgiving. Then she got sick and I thought I might lose her and I'm even more sure that I want to marry her. The problem is ....." "You're scared she'll say no because her memory is a bit jumbled at the moment." Jondy finished for him. "You're also scared that Max won't want to burden you with the dramas that would come with being married to an X5." "Yeah." Logan know Jondy would understand. It just felt good being able to talk to someone. "It's never mattered to me who or what Max is. I love her for the person she is. I always have." "Then what's stopping you?" Jondy promptly carefully. "You've faced huge obstacles before and still come through them together." "What if she says no?" Logan was terrified that was exactly what Max would say. "Is what you have at the moment so bad that should Max say no, you can't continue as you are and ask her again sometime in the future?" Jondy knew that Logan already had the rings. They had been left to him by his Grandmother. "No." Logan could see Jondy's point. "So you're saying even if Max says no, she may say yes later." Jondy nodded. "And you're asking my permission so that you can ask Max to marry you." Logan chuckled. "Am I that transparent?" Being an only child, Logan was always appreciative of the sisterly approach Jondy took with him. "Sometimes. You never hide your feelings for Max though." Jondy beamed at the man who was as close to her as her brothers were. "You know you don't need my permission to marry Max. You just need hers. I wouldn't propose over thanksgiving dinner though." Logan laughed at her frankness. "So no stuffing the ring in the turkey. There goes that idea. You're probably right. Joshua would probably end up eating the ring before Max found it." Jondy joined in his laughter. "Oh God. I can just picture that happening." She turned serious. "Look, as soon as Alec gets back, we'll go out somewhere and give you and Max some time alone. I'm sure she's going to be fine, I'm just staying around for a couple of days as a precaution." "Thanks." Logan wasn't bothered by Jondy's presence, in fact most of the time she was so quiet that he forgot she was there. It was just that he had come to cherish the time he got to spend alone with Max. "No problem."' Jondy watched Logan head into the bedroom as she dialed her home number on her cell phone. It looked as though Thanksgiving was going to be real interesting this year.
| |||||||||||||||
