Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters are copyright 2001-2002 Twentieth Century Fox Studios and James Cameron and Charles Eglee. This original story is copyright 2003 Star24.
Chapter Three
Outside of Kent, WA
Logan stood on the porch of the comfortable farmhouse, looking out over the pleasant vista that stretched in front of him. James had left the farmhouse early to tend to the milking and the myriad other chores that went along with the successful operation of a small dairy farm, and Anna had departed with Maria to school. Logan didn't mind the solitude; he welcomed it as a long overdue chance to clear his head and try to begin to make some sense out of the chaos that he had come to call his life. He sipped at the cup of coffee he had carried outside with him, as he stood trying to relax.
In those long ago dark days when he had thought he had lost Max forever, he had naively dreamed that someday she would return and everything would be perfect. She had returned, but instead of sorting themselves out, things had become even more confusing. He glanced down at his legs, realizing that his ability to walk again was one of the more confusing of recent events.
"Penny for them?" James' voice interrupted his train of thought, and Logan started.
"Oh, hey, didn't hear you coming."
"You wouldn't have heard me coming if I was herding my cows in front of me." James chuckled. He leaned against the railing next to Logan, and for a few moments the two men stood in silence staring out over the fields.
"You've got a good life here, James. Anna is wonderful and Maria seems to have really settled in." Logan observed after a moment.
"I can't complain. Most people these days don't have half of what I do. I'm a lucky man." James agreed. He shot a shrewd look at Logan. "So, how's your life treating you?"
"It's fine." Logan hedged not meeting his friends' eyes.
"So fine that you suddenly had to get away from it, and just turned up on our doorstep two days ago?" James asked. "Not that we mind. You know that our door is always open to you."
Logan was silent.
"It's a woman isn't it?" James asked.
"No…I mean…yes…I mean…I don't know…" Logan floundered.
James dropped a hand on his shoulder. "It might help if you talked about it. All of it. You know my lips are sealed. I won't even tell Anna, if you don't want me to."
Logan finally met his eyes and sighed. "You know, I think that's why I came here. Ever since we were kids, you were the one person who never judged me and who always accepted me for what I was. You always had my back, even when I pulled one of my more hare brained stunts and got my dad on the warpath."
"Isn't that what best friends are for?" James walked over and sat in one of the wooden rockers that stood on the porch. "Cows don't need me for a while and Anna and Maria won't be home for hours. We have all the time you need to talk, Logan."
"Yeah. We do, don't we?" Logan smiled and walked over to sit in the rocker that stood next to the one James already occupied. "It all started over two years ago when this girl literally dropped into my apartment…"
Max's Crib
"So Bling won't give up the man, and you have no idea where he took off to?" Original Cindy sat and considered Max who was pacing the floor of their apartment restlessly. "Girl, you gonna wear a path in that floor, if you don't stop with the back and forth here."
"Bling isn't talking. I've got Sebastian looking for Logan for me, but it might take a while to locate him."
"And in the meantime you got this doomsday message about some kind of bad ass nuclear thing that might be in Seattle. That is a problem."
"Unless we all want to wake up one night glowing in the dark, I've got to do something about it."
"You sure it's actually here? Didn't the message say maybe?" Cindy asked.
"I have to go on the assumption that it is here. But I don't even have a clue as to who might have it or want it or why. That's Logan's thing – finding out the down low. I'm just the leg man," Max said. Her frustration was clear in her voice.
"In other words, he's the brains and you're the brawn." Original Cindy chuckled, despite the seriousness of the situation.
Max stared at her. "Someone else said that to us once."
"Oh yeah? Well ain't it the truth?"
Max smiled despite herself, "I'm not exactly an idiot you know, but yeah it's pretty much the truth." Her smile faded. "Why did Logan have to pick now to pull a disappearing act?"
Cindy looked at her, but didn't answer.
"I know. I should have stayed and talked to him. But I…he made me feel… the way he looked at me…"
"Boo, I been telling you for a while now that you got to step to the real with Logan. You two love each other, but if you don't start talking that ain't gonna count for nothing."
"I know, but it's hard." Max protested.
"Ain't no one ever guaranteed you that life was gonna be easy. And that goes double when you talking about dealing with one of the three legged gender. But runnin' away from it ain't the answer. Thought you learned that by now."
"Logan is the one who ran away this time!" Max said, stung by the injustice of Cindy's words.
Cindy wasn't letting her off the hook, "Maybe so, but you ran from the hotel room. Maybe if you just went at it and had a knock down drag out, followed by some good old fashioned make-up sex you wouldn't be in this situation right now."
Max sighed. "Well we are and I can't wait to find Logan to do something about this other thing."
"So what you gonna do?"
Max squared her shoulders. "Make it up as I go along. It's what I always do." She reached down and picked up her leather jacket, shrugging into it. "I'm going to go check the informant net at Logan's to see if anything new came in and then I thought I'd hit the streets. See if any of my contacts have heard anything."
"Sounds like a plan, boo. You want me to keep a listen out at CRASH for any word of strange doings in town?"
Max smiled at her friend. "That would be a help. Just don't do anything to draw attention to yourself. This could be nasty and I don't want you in the line of fire."
Original Cindy shrugged, "Ain't nothin' I ain't been through before, boo. You take care."
"Yeah. Catch you later." The door slammed behind Max, and Cindy sat lost in thought for a moment. Then with a sigh she rose and went to get ready for an evening at CRASH.
End of Chapter Three