Disclaimer and Spoilers: See Chapter 1
A/N: Still not finished. But unfortunately it's Max's and Logan's last morning in the mountains.
Beta thanks go out to Kasman. As usual.
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11. LEAVING THE HAVEN
When Logan woke up early the next morning, Max was still lying next to him. She was obviously awake, since she smiled brightly, but she was still there.
No dream. It really happened. She's still there.
"Hey," he murmured, still half asleep.
"Morning, sleepyhead."
"It's not that late, is it?"
"Nah, I would have woken you if it was. Sleep well?" Max wanted to know.
'Cause I did, she added in her mind. I slept better and longer than…well…ever?
"Great," Logan said and kissed her quickly, but Max wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.
When they came to a stop Logan asked, "Weren't we supposed to be the first at the gondola?"
Max smiled back at him. "Yeah. So maybe you should finally get out of this bed."
He obeyed and about half an hour later they were having breakfast together.
"I can't believe that this is our last breakfast here," Max said.
"We can always come back, if we want to," Logan told her. "And you know that you can come over to have breakfast with me whenever you want to."
"Maybe I'll do that," Max smiled. "And maybe there'll be mornings when I'm already there?"
She's going to stay with me. We're going home tonight and Max will still be there. She'll stay in my apartment every once in a while and we'll wake up next to each other. Like today. Logan hesitated a moment before he said, "I hope so."
When they had finished breakfast they packed their things together and loaded them in the car before starting off to go skiing for the last time.
The weather was almost as great and the sun shone almost as bright as Max and Logan themselves. When they were waiting for the gondola it was Logan who took Max's hand and held it until they had to enter. When they left the gondola on top of the mountain and Logan transferred from his wheelchair to the ski, Max wrapped her arms around him from behind and kissed him before making sure the wheelchair could stay at the upper station again.
They'd just gone down a few short slopes when somebody sped down next to them, overtaking them with incredible speed and ease before he braked hard. Logan looked down at him and smiled, when he recognized the man on the mono-ski. "Hey Chris!" he shouted and skied further down to meet him. "No work today?" he asked.
"Hey Logan! Nah, Lucy's taking care of the shop. The weather forecast said the snow is going to melt, so I decided to go skiing before the season is really over. You're doing pretty well, by the way."
"Thanks," Logan answered. "It's really fun."
"Where is Max?" Chris wanted to know.
"Can't be far…Look, here she comes."
Both men watched Max ski down the slope until she stopped next to them. God, she's so beautiful. Logan exchanged a bright smile with her before she greeted Chris. "Hey!"
"Hey."
"You're incredibly good," she told him. "Saw you going down the slope in record time. Really cool."
Chris grinned wide. "Thanks. Like Logan said, it's just so much fun."
"Sorry for not returning the skis," Logan said, "but you see, we simply couldn't stop using them."
"No problem, it's not as if there were thousands of people waiting for you to return them," he told them.
"But we will return them today," Max said. "We have to go back to Seattle this afternoon."
"Really? Sorry about that. But there's always the next winter, right?"
Max and Logan exchanged a short look and nodded. "Yeah."
Next winter. Yeah, we could come here again. Together. Right from the start. But there will not only be next winter. There will be much time in-between when I'll stay with Logan. And maybe we'll get the chance to go on other trips, Max thought. Gotta ask him about that.
"Look, if you two are up for company, we could meet for lunch," Chris suggested.
"Sure, why not," Logan nodded, when he felt Max's reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Any recommendations?"
Chris laughed. "There is a self-service restaurant at the upper station, but…"
Logan grimaced. "Yeah, we tried that. Good food but horrible guests."
Chris looked irritated and Max explained, "Had a run in with a couple of not so tolerant specimens yesterday. So if you have a better suggestion…?"
"Of course I have."
He explained them where to find another restaurant with good and inexpensive food, and added, "They make sure there's always snow around the benches outside, so no problem to get there. And even though it's usually a self-service restaurant, they make an exception from that rule for mono-ski drivers."
"Sounds good," Logan shrugged, looking up to Max, who nodded at him.
"Yeah, why not. Meet you there at lunchtime?"
"Twelve o'clock?" Chris asked.
"Sharp," Max gave back.
"See you then," Chris nodded and waved goodbye, pushing himself to go further down the slope.
"Next winter, huh?" Max asked Logan, smiling brightly.
"Yeah, why not?"
"Yeah, why not?" she repeated and bent down to kiss him.
The rest of the morning passed almost eventless, only the two of them going down slopes and enjoying themselves. When the time had come to set off to the restaurant at which they were supposed to meet Chris, it was Logan who asked, "Race you down there?"
Max grinned. "Sure. Whoever's last to the restaurant has to pay for lunch."
"Deal," Logan laughed and on three they headed down the mountain.
Both went down pretty fast, knowing it was maybe their last chance to do so. They'd have to return the skis after the lunch-break and head for Seattle, so they tested how good they'd become and how fast they could go. Things went pretty well and they were close to each other until Logan, who was skiing on the right hand side of the slope completely missed the warning signs that another slope was going to cross. He saw the little kid coming fast down the crossing slope and he tried to give way. Luckily for both of them he succeeded and the kid passed unharmed, but Logan completely lost control and landed on his back pretty hard.
Max was already much farther down and instead of coming running she shouted, "You okay?"
Logan raised a hand and waved to indicate that he indeed was okay, but in the same moment, realized that he had again lost his crutches. Not again, he cursed silently, but to his own surprise his great mood didn't change at all. So what? I lost the crutches. I'll get them back somehow.
"Missing something?" he suddenly heard a voice from above. When he opened the eyes he had closed before to shield them from the sun, he saw Chris sitting next to him.
"Yeah," he said, when he saw that he held his crutches. "Thanks." See? Everything's fine.
"No problem. Can you get up yourself?" Chris asked.
"Sure. Practiced that a lot the last two days," he laughed, and within seconds he sat next to Chris. "Lunch?" he asked.
He then told himself again, Everything is fine. This was so easy. If Chris hadn't come, somebody else would have. And if not, there's still Max. There's really nothing to be worried about.
Chris nodded and indicated him to go first.
Max had watched the two of them before continuing but was already releasing the bindings of her skis when Chris and Logan stopped next to her. "Looks like the bill's on you," she told Logan before tousling his hair and removing some of the snow out of it.
"Looks like," he nodded. "My Dad used to say that you didn't learn anything if you didn't kiss the snow at least once. So that was my time for today."
Chris and Max laughed and together they searched for a table. On their way there Chris waved to an elderly lady and she waved back. "Be there in a second," she shouted over to them.
They found a table and Chris and Logan transferred from their mono-skis. They were just done when the woman appeared. "Hey Chris! Didn't think we'd get to see any more of you this winter."
"Hey, Mary. Yeah, well, thought I'd use my last chance," he explained.
"You three want to eat?" she asked.
"Yeah, please. What's on the menu?" Chris asked.
"We have a vegetable soup and spaghetti and hamburger. Or I can give you the menu if you want to eat something bigger."
Chris looked over to Max and Logan, but both of them shook their heads. "I'll go for the spaghetti," Max said and Logan nodded, "Yeah, me too, please."
Smiling, Chris added, "Make that three. And water for me to drink."
Max and Logan ordered drinks too and Mary disappeared smiling.
"So what happened in the other restaurant?" Chris wanted to know. "People here are usually pretty tolerant."
"Well, not those guys," Logan said, but shrugged. "Let's not talk about it. They got their asses kicked."
Chris looked from Logan to Max and shrugged. "Whatever you say."
He then realized that Max and Logan on the other side of the table had pulled of their gloves and were now holding hands under the table and staring into each other's eyes every once in a while, oblivious to anything around them. "Hey, what happened to that 'We're not like that - we're just friends' thing you told me about?" he asked curiously, already grinning widely.
Max and Logan looked at each other and smiled. "Well, we decided we wanted more than that," Logan said.
"Yeah," Max added softly. "Sometimes friendship just isn't enough."
"I'm really happy for both of you," Chris said, his eyes confirming the truth of his words. "I mean, a blind man could have seen how much you liked each other when you were still talking about being 'just friends'. Glad you changed you mind."
"Thanks for that, Chris," Logan said. "You gave me a couple of things to think about."
"Always glad to help," he laughed. "Looks like our lunch is coming."
Mary was coming back with their plates and glasses and placed everything on the table before she went back, obviously in a hurry. They chatted a little more over lunch and Max was thrilled to hear that Chris, instead of skis, rented bikes during the summer months.
He smiled at her enthusiasm and looked over to Logan who looked again skeptically. "Now don't make such a face," he told him. "I saw you skiing down that hills and you were doing great. Riding a handbike will be the easiest thing for you."
"Handbike?" Logan asked. "Maybe I better stick to basketball."
"Ahh, no Logan, we have to come back and try it out!" Max smiled her most winning smile, well knowing that Logan wouldn't be able to resist.
Handbiking? That's so cool. Me and Logan riding bikes. That makes the summer worth waiting for.
"And here I thought you already pedaled enough for Normal."
"It's something different. I'd love to pedal with you," she told him, smiling again.
Logan sighed and leaned over to kiss her. "You know I can't resist you when you look like this."
"Yeah, I know," Max laughed.
Chris smiled wide at the sight of them kissing. He had seen the love between those two the first time he'd seen them together. And even though he had had the long guy talk with Logan in Matt's bar, he hadn't been sure if it had been enough. Seeing this kiss shared between the two so easily left him with the warm fuzzy feeling of having done something right. "That means I'm going to meet you two when the snow has melted?" Chris asked, curious to see how this relationship was going to develop.
"Could be," Logan nodded and was interrupted by Max who said, "Count on us."
About half an hour later, they said goodbye, and Max and Logan started their way back to the gondola. When they reached the lower station and got into the car Max leaned over to Logan and kissed him deeply.
"What was that for?" he asked, when he finally got a chance to catch his breath.
Max shrugged. "For being you. For giving me so much fun. For everything."
He smiled. "Thanks." He then leaned over to her side and kissed her equally deep.
"And what was that for?" Max asked in return.
"For dragging me up here. For forcing me to finally have fun. For being you. And for the best weekend I've had in a long time."
"You're welcome," she answered quickly and her look made him laugh. "You call that the best weekend? With all that happened? You're really a strange person, Logan Cale."
"Yeah, maybe."
"You're gonna stop at Chris's shop so I can return the skis?" she asked, dropping the topic.
Logan nodded and a minute later he parked the car in front of it.
Max jumped out, took the skis out of the trunk and brought them back to Lucy, who was sitting behind the counter, reading a book. She waited to get the receipt, then waved goodbye and went back to Logan.
"Next stop - our agent to return the keys?" Logan asked.
Max shrugged and waited until Logan parked the car again, then went in to return the keys. A minute later she was back in the Aztek and together they started their drive back home.
