Zaz's note: Fanfiction.net has, in its latest act of stupidity, banned the use of the table tag - I wonder what they were smoking. - The result is what you see below, and there is no way to get around it unless the royal morons of this webpage return to their senses.

"Inbetween Prodigy and Cold Comfort"
by Kirsten Tapp

Disclaimer: Dark Angel doesn't belong to the author, but to James Cameron, etc. No copyright infringement intended.
Summary: What the title says.
Spoilers: Prodigy and Cold Comfort
Rating: PG
Category: Drama/Romance
Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone that has reviewed my stories. As much as I would like to write these stories full time, I have a full time job and have to do my story writing on my tea breaks and after work. Still, who knows, maybe James Cameron will wise up to the brilliance of the writers on fanfiction.net and employ us all to write a new series of Dark Angel for him. (Hey, Dreams are free.)

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Max and Logan stood watching each other for a moment. After a day full of Lydecker, terrorists and crashing through a window together, it was nice just to be in the same room without any dramas.

"So, how about I make us some dinner." Logan finally broke the silence. If he stared at Max for too much longer, she might freak and race out the door.

"Sounds good." Max replied. It had struck her how close she had come to losing Logan today. They had actually become quite good friends despite being from totally different sides of the track. At least that's what she told herself. "I'll just let Kendra know where I am. After today, she's a bit freaked out."

"That's understandable. This sort of thing doesn't happen everyday to her." Logan realized that for he and Max, the life threatening situation was becoming a regular occurrence. "Why don't you call her while I start dinner."

"Thanks." She quickly dialed her home number. "Hey Kendra. I'm staying at Logan's for dinner. Are you gonna be alright by yourself?"

Kendra chuckled on the other end of the phone. "Yeah, Original Cindy's here. You just enjoy dinner with your rich boyfriend. Don't hurry home on my account." She couldn't believe that Max and Logan spent so much time together and weren't banging the gong. "Take all the time you need."

Max rolled her eyes. "I keep telling you, he's not my boyfriend. I'll see ya later." She hung up the phone, grateful that Kendra wasn't alone. She wished her friend would stop jumping to the conclusion that she and Logan were more than just friends. Although she couldn't understand why Logan was still single. He could cook, he cared about others and whether she liked to admit it or not, he was pretty damn hot.

Logan hadn't thought twice about turning himself over to Darius as a trade for the women hostages. He knew Max could take care of herself, but it had terrified him when Bling had called him over to the television. Knowing Max was in the building and exactly what Darius would do for his latest cause, overrode all reason in Logan's head.

Logan tried to convince himself that he was only doing what any good friend would do, but he knew deep down inside it was more than that. He dragged himself back from his thoughts as Max walked into the kitchen. "Everything ok?"

"Yeah. Original Cindy's with Kendra." Max took her usual seat on the preparation bench watching Logan cook dinner. "I don't think today's events will leave her scared for life, thank God."

"What about you?" Logan guessed that Lydecker had been unaware that he was so close to one of his escaped X5s. "Can't have been too easy on you being that close to your childhood nightmare."

Max shrugged her shoulders. "I'll get over it. At least he didn't get his hands on another kid to turn into a toy soldier." It made her shudder to think what might have happened to Jude if she hadn't got to him in time.

"Thanks to you." Logan was positive that anyone else would have left Jude and only worried about getting themselves to safety.

Max rolled her eyes. "I guess it takes a freak to know a freak." She had felt as though she and Jude shared a common bond. Although Jude hadn't been created in a test tube, he had still been somebody's science project.

"I prefer to think of you as unique." Logan had come to understand that Max considered her abilities more of a hindence most of the time.

Max cast him a sly smile. "Unique huh? If I'm so unique, how do you explain my siblings?" She couldn't help but be flattered by his comment.

Logan flashed her a toothy grin. "Well, I didn't see any of your siblings leaping off the top of a building to save my ass. Or did I miss seeing them?" He had been a little hurt when Max had called him her meal ticket, but he knew she had been joking.

"No. If there had been more of the Manticore escapees, that hostage situation would have been over with a lot quicker." Max announced proudly. Then the reality of what she had said hit her. "The body count probably would have been higher as well."

"Well, then it's just as well you handled the situation by yourself." Logan handed Max two plates loaded with food, while he picked out a bottle of wine. He had never known a woman that could pack away food like Max and not put on an once of weight.

Max put the plates down on the table. Obviously Logan had been expecting her, as the table had already been set. "I had a little help." She was happy to admit now, that Logan had bought her some time. "Of course having yourself thrown off the top of the building was a bit excessive."

Logan chuckled as he shuddered from the memory of falling and looking up to see Max coming after him. "It's an extreme way to get over my fear of heights." He joked as he transferred into the dinning room chair after placing the wine on the table.

Max giggled. "Did it work?"

"Hell no." Logan poured the wine into two glasses. "If anything, it may have made it worse." He raised his glass. "Here's to remembering to steal hotel towels."

"I'll drink to that." Max raised her glass as well. "You know what I don't get?" She took a sip of her wine. "Darius didn't want Jude to be used as a science experiment, so his motives were good. So why'd he have to bring a gun into the picture? You can't terrify people into doing what's right."

Logan could see the situation from both Max and Darius' sides. "Unfortunately, people that want to do what's right often get ignored. The world's become so cynical that everyone tends to look out for number one, unless forced to pay attention. Often guns are brought in to grab the public's attention. It's not right no more than taking a group of people hostage to save a child from one life, only to have him raised in another life that was no more normal and healthy than the one he was being taken from."

Max raised and lowered her eyebrows. "I don't know what's worse. Being used as a science experiment or learning how to use a gun so that you can bully people into doing the right thing. So what if you kill a few people to make the world a better place. It's all for the greater good." Max looked up from her dinner to see Logan watching her. His beautiful blue eyes seemed to look right into her soul, past the sarcasium. "At least Dr Tanaka seemed to care about Jude. For the most part he seemed to want to help people."

The thing that had struck Max while at the conference about Jude, was that not once had she seen the little boy smile. He was clearly devoted to Dr Tanaka, but not once had he looked happy. Jude had sat at the piano with such a hollow look in his eyes. He did what he was instructed to do without question, but took no joy in playing the beautiful piece of music on the piano.

Logan watched Max process the events of the day in her head. He could almost hear her mind ticking over. "Well, I've found a home for Jude through a contact of mine. They're good people who'll raise him as a normal kid. They have a couple of boys around Jude's age, so he'll have a couple of instant playmates."

"Where were you when I was put into foster homes?" Max half heartedly joked. "Maybe you should open your own orphanage."

"Nah." Logan pretended that he didn't know that Max wasn't totally joking. "It wouldn't leave me enough time to save the world and track down your siblings."

"You found out anything else on my brothers and sisters?" Max was grateful to be able to change the subject.

"No, not yet." Logan had been able to get hold of Vogelsang's files, but the man hadn't found much on the children that had escaped from Manticore. "I was thinking though, if Zack was hanging around in Seattle even if it was just to check up on you, maybe some of the others are closer than you think."

Max shrugged her shoulders. "I guess that's possible. Stranger things have happened to me."

Brin walked through the streets of Seattle. She had to find somewhere with ice and fast. What little medical treatment she had managed to get in LA before Lydecker and his goon squad had descended on her, had taught her that the best way to slow down whatever was happening to her was to bring down her core temperature.

She had found out that Zack had headed for Seattle, so she had followed him. Hopefully between them they could figure out what was making her ill and fix it. As soon as she brought her temperature down, Brin would phone the contact number and meet with Zack.

Keeping to the shadows so that she wouldn't draw any unnecessary attention, Brin spotted a store advertising frozen cuts of meat. It was perfect. There would have to be a freezer in there and it looked as though the store was about to close. Quickly darting into the store while the lights were flicking off one by one, Brin made her way to the rear of the store.

She waited until she heard the sound of the door being locked, before locating the freezer. The only thing that was locking the freezer was a padlock which Brin easily broke. Finding a space behind a frozen carcass, she sank down on the floor with a sigh of relief. Closing her eyes she relaxed. She would be safe here until morning, then she would get hold of Zack.

In the freezer she stayed all night, until two Spanish men found her upon opening store in the morning. She had scared the hell out of them when she had opened her eyes and bolted out of the freezer and the store. She had one purpose: to get hold of Zack.

The End