Disclaimer: We don't own the main characters and we do not intend to steal anything from anyone. We're just havin' fun!
Note: Enjoy!
Sleepyhead
Max and Logan didn't wake until noon. After the emotional roller coaster ride the previous evening, and the long talk, both of them were exhausted. Beth assumed they were exhausted from travelling so she didn't disturb them. Instead she prepared lunch and patiently waited for the two of them to show up in the kitchen.
*
Max woke up to the dim sunlight that was falling through the curtains.
Logan was still sleeping soundly next to her, his face peaceful and his features relaxed. He was lying on his back, one arm stretched out across the cushion, resting on her hair.
Max felt for Logan's hand and picked it up carefully so as not to wake him, but when she started to caress it every so lightly, he stirred and finally squinted at her. His voice was still heavy with sleep as he mumbled a good morning.
"Good morning, sleepyhead," Max answered with a chuckle and playfully placed a kiss in the palm of his hand. "How do you feel?"
"I'm fine. Sorry about yesterday. It was uncalled for." Then he turned his head to have a look at the alarm clock. He couldn't quite read the display so he stretched out his arm to reach for the clock. He brought it closer to his face and let out a groan. "God, it's almost noon!"
He definitely didn't want to discuss the previous evening again.
Suddenly Logan let lose a scream and dropped the clock. He struggled to sit up, breathing hard.
"What's the matter?" Max frowned at him.
"Spider! BIG spider!!!" He motioned towards the clock. "God! Get it away from me!"
"You're not seriously telling me you are afraid of spiders." Max couldn't help but laugh. With raised eyebrows she looked at the suddenly wide-awake guy next to her.
Logan frantically surveyed the blanket, shuddering at the thought of the hairy animal making its way up his leg and not being able to feel it! "What if I said I was?" he responded, sheepishly.
"You're kidding right?" Max sat up on her knees and looked at Logan, giggling.
"Max, this isn't funny. I don't care how you do it, but get this thing away from me." There was actual panic in his voice so Max started to search for the animal.
"Maybe it was just your imagination..." she tried to calm him.
"I'm NOT imagining spiders. God, it was huge!!"
Max shook her head and leaned over the edge of the bed, checking the floor. "Its probably more afraid of you than you of it..."
"I don't care! I need it out of my bed now!!" Logan reluctantly lifted the blanket, and after making sure nothing moved he carefully pulled his legs over the edge, leaning over to make sure he wouldn't come down on the spider. God, it had been so ugly! Another shudder ran down his spine. If this beast showed up again, he wouldn't even be able to jump away from it! He threw the blanket to the far side of the bed and when turning his head his gaze fell on a black spot against the white wall. "Max!" He frantically pointed at the spider sitting motionless only inches from his face.
Max sighed. "It's not even that big. At Manticore they used to do these experiments with spiders..."
"I don't want to hear any of this right now!" Without taking his eyes off the wall he made sure the brakes of his chair were locked. Carefully, so as not to agitate the spider again, he transferred. He felt a lot calmer immediately. At least he would now be able to make a quick getaway.
While he adjusted his bare feet on the footrest, Max crawled towards the wall and slowly reached out for the spider. "Come on poor thing. Did he scare ya with all his screaming? He just doesn't like you." She urged the animal to move and it landed in her open hand. "Here we go." She climbed off of the bed and neared Logan who backed up immediately.
"Max...I'm serious. Just get rid of it, I really don't wanna see it!" he had paled even more.
Max still giggled, but decided to be nice. "Aiight, aiight. Come on little fellow. Go play outside." She opened the window one-handed and leaned outside to put the hairy animal in a bush next to it. "Bye!"
Then she pivoted and leaned against the window. Taking a deep breath and wiping imaginary sweat from her forehead she teased Logan. "Task completed. Enemy taken care of!"
"Very funny." Logan blushed.
"Sorry, I just can't believe you're afraid of spiders, I mean..." She walked over to the bed again.
"Max, stop it!" Logan gave her a warning look.
"So? You got any plans for today?" Max asked, jumping on the bed and stretching out.
"I don't know. My grandmother might have called my uncle." He reached out for his glasses on the nightstand and put them on. Now that he could see clearly he tentatively scanned the room again.
Max noticed his discomfort and giggled, but then decided to drop the subject. Her stomach was reminding her of something far more important than teasing Logan: food! "Did they want to come over for lunch? "She asked sniffing the air.
"We better get ready soon then, if that's what smells so heavenly!"
Logan looked at her, disbelief clear in his eyes. "How can you think about lunch right after waking up?" Logan asked.
Max tilted her head to one side and made a face. "We missed breakfast! I'm starving!"
"Whatever you say," Logan mumbled, stifling a yawn, suddenly remembering how tired he had been minutes ago. The rush of adrenaline from the spider incident didn't seem to last long. "Gotta give me some more time to wake up, though. I'm not a morning person."
"Oh, right. I've noticed." She grinned at him and jumped out of bed, running for the bathroom.
Logan sank back in his chair, shaking his head at Max' agitation[SM3], unable to stifle a new yawn.
"Come on. The sooner you get ready, the sooner I'll get something to eat!" Max yelled from the bathroom.
"Actually, to eat, you don't need me![SM4]," he shouted back, "Last time I checked you were quite capable of doing that alone!"
He followed her into the bathroom, sighing when he realized how narrow it was. Sharing it with Max made it tricky to move.
"Ah, come on! What would that look like, me starting lunch without you?" Max mumbled while brushing her teeth. "Your grandmother's probably waiting for us to rise from the dead anyway!"
"Yeah, probably." He reached for his toiletry bag and started rummaging around. "You can go ahead and see what Beth planned for us. I'll be there in five minutes."
Max ignored his hint and stood in front of the mirror pulling up her hair into a loose ponytail. "How about I go for the nice girl today?" she said, good-humoured. "Maybe with that new dress you bought me? Just to impress your relatives, ya know." She loved the idea of dressing up like a girl for once but she couldn't quite admit it.
Logan grinned at her. "I'm not gonna object there. But you sure you're gonna feel comfortable all girly and nice?" He added slyly, "Isn't that boring?"
"Well, it's worth a try, anyway," Max said and walked out of the bathroom in search of her dress.
Logan quickly shut the bathroom door, in fact, a little too quickly for Max's taste.
He'd rather be alone in there. Max would just have to accept that.
***
Max quickly dressed and fixed her hair, then went to the kitchen. She could hear music playing on the radio and the smell of the food got so intense that it made her mouth water.
"Good morning, Beth!" she said lightly when she found the old lady sitting at the kitchen table chopping vegetables.
Beth looked up and smiled at her. "Max, you look beautiful!"
Max blushed and straightened the seam of her dress. "Uh...thanks. It's just I'm not quite used to wearing dresses...I usually go more for a casual style."
'Or cat burglar style', she added to herself.
"You should wear dresses a lot more often, then. Hasn't Logan told you how great this looks? I always thought he had a good taste!"
"Yeah, actually he has. He bought it for me when we were in San Francisco," Max answered, sitting down opposite Beth.
"Where is he, anyway?"
"He's in the bathroom, getting ready. Not really a morning type of guy. So is this all for us three or are you waiting for more guests for lunch?" she changed the subject. She was not sure if this was his usual morning self or if the events of the previous night were at least partly to blame for his mood.
"I mentioned Logan's Uncle Eric, didn't I? He's coming over with his family. In fact, they should be arriving any minute. I hope you don't mind."
"Oh, I see. You had me a little worried there. I thought this was for just the three of us!" Max motioned around the kitchen, grinning.
There was something sizzling in the oven and she could see a large bowl of trifle on the counter. Also, there were heaps of vegetables and potatoes on the kitchen table.
"It's gonna be nice to meet them. And you said they had twins? How old are they?" she asked curiously.
***
Logan's mind was racing while he went through his[SM5] routine. As much as he liked the fact that Max was all cheerful and relaxed, obviously strangely enjoying her new role as the good girl, he felt very uncomfortable about settling down too much. After all, they were still on the run. Those guys could still track them down, even though everything seemed so peaceful now. While this little stopover in LA seemed just right two days ago, it now dawned on him that it probably was the stupidest and most careless thing he could've done, bringing his grandmother and the rest of his family into the line of fire. He'd have to talk to Max about it soon. He sighed, catching his reflection in the mirror. 'Damn, I look like crap!' he thought. A few days of relaxation were definitely in order. But he just couldn't let himself give in to the temptation, no matter how much he wanted to. He would talk to Max after dinner. They should be ready to move on soon.
He brushed his hands through his wet hair and made his way to the kitchen. From the hallway, he heard Beth explain about his uncle Eric. Apparently he and his family were going to come over. His heart skipped a beat. Suddenly he felt his insecurities surface again. He hoped his grandmother had already done all the talking and given them enough information so that they wouldn't have too many questions. After the previous night, with all of his painful memories resurfaced, he felt like he could freak at any wrongly chosen word. As much as he felt relieved, having talked about all those pent up feelings, he now felt totally out of control. It was as if the barriers had crumbled and the emotions of the past months were just waiting to flow over any minute. He fought down the twinge in his guts and wheeled into the kitchen, smiling. "Good morning, Grandma!"
"Logan. Morning! I was just telling Max about your Uncle Eric coming over for lunch." She turned towards Max again. "The twins are three years old now, and really cute."
Logan was relieved that the two women were busy and therefore oblivious to his state of mind. He stopped at the counter and poured himself a cup of tea from the pot that had been waiting for them since early morning.
Beth turned around to him. "Oh, Logan, don't drink that. It's old. Has been sitting there for quite a while." Logan shrugged while Beth checked her watch. "I was just about to set the table for lunch." She stood up and walked over to the cupboard to get out the plates.
Max remembered her good manners and asked, "Oh, can I help you with anything?"
Beth held out the plates to her.
"If you wouldn't mind, you two could set the table in the dining room. I usually don't use it, but now that there will be so many of us, the kitchen is too small."
"Okay, great!" Max beamed, took the plates from Beth and went for the dining room, glad that Beth hadn't asked her to do anything more complicated. She could feel Logan's grin following her and quickly turned around to stick out her tongue at him when Beth wasn't looking.
"What?" he asked, holding up his hands, innocently.
Max just shot him a look and left the room.
Logan followed her, shaking his head and grinning. Women- and Max seemed to be more like a normal woman than he had ever expected. Or she was at least playing her role very well. When they were alone, he paused for a minute. Maybe this was the right moment to talk to Max. Ask her to pack her things, so they could leave. But something held him back. Whether it was the way Max was eagerly putting the plates into place, smiling happily, or his own desire to prolong their pleasant stay with his grandmother, he couldn't discern. But something made him bite back the words. He reassured himself that Max would be much more willing to listen with a full stomach and postponed the talk until after dinner. Ignoring his bad conscience best as he could he just showed Max where to find the good cutlery and glasses and returned to the kitchen to help his grandmother.
TBC...
This is shorter than the past chapters, but the next one's waiting to be posted already. And eventually there will even be some action again.
********************************************************************************
Thanks to Alaidh for her patience!
Note: Enjoy!
Sleepyhead
Max and Logan didn't wake until noon. After the emotional roller coaster ride the previous evening, and the long talk, both of them were exhausted. Beth assumed they were exhausted from travelling so she didn't disturb them. Instead she prepared lunch and patiently waited for the two of them to show up in the kitchen.
*
Max woke up to the dim sunlight that was falling through the curtains.
Logan was still sleeping soundly next to her, his face peaceful and his features relaxed. He was lying on his back, one arm stretched out across the cushion, resting on her hair.
Max felt for Logan's hand and picked it up carefully so as not to wake him, but when she started to caress it every so lightly, he stirred and finally squinted at her. His voice was still heavy with sleep as he mumbled a good morning.
"Good morning, sleepyhead," Max answered with a chuckle and playfully placed a kiss in the palm of his hand. "How do you feel?"
"I'm fine. Sorry about yesterday. It was uncalled for." Then he turned his head to have a look at the alarm clock. He couldn't quite read the display so he stretched out his arm to reach for the clock. He brought it closer to his face and let out a groan. "God, it's almost noon!"
He definitely didn't want to discuss the previous evening again.
Suddenly Logan let lose a scream and dropped the clock. He struggled to sit up, breathing hard.
"What's the matter?" Max frowned at him.
"Spider! BIG spider!!!" He motioned towards the clock. "God! Get it away from me!"
"You're not seriously telling me you are afraid of spiders." Max couldn't help but laugh. With raised eyebrows she looked at the suddenly wide-awake guy next to her.
Logan frantically surveyed the blanket, shuddering at the thought of the hairy animal making its way up his leg and not being able to feel it! "What if I said I was?" he responded, sheepishly.
"You're kidding right?" Max sat up on her knees and looked at Logan, giggling.
"Max, this isn't funny. I don't care how you do it, but get this thing away from me." There was actual panic in his voice so Max started to search for the animal.
"Maybe it was just your imagination..." she tried to calm him.
"I'm NOT imagining spiders. God, it was huge!!"
Max shook her head and leaned over the edge of the bed, checking the floor. "Its probably more afraid of you than you of it..."
"I don't care! I need it out of my bed now!!" Logan reluctantly lifted the blanket, and after making sure nothing moved he carefully pulled his legs over the edge, leaning over to make sure he wouldn't come down on the spider. God, it had been so ugly! Another shudder ran down his spine. If this beast showed up again, he wouldn't even be able to jump away from it! He threw the blanket to the far side of the bed and when turning his head his gaze fell on a black spot against the white wall. "Max!" He frantically pointed at the spider sitting motionless only inches from his face.
Max sighed. "It's not even that big. At Manticore they used to do these experiments with spiders..."
"I don't want to hear any of this right now!" Without taking his eyes off the wall he made sure the brakes of his chair were locked. Carefully, so as not to agitate the spider again, he transferred. He felt a lot calmer immediately. At least he would now be able to make a quick getaway.
While he adjusted his bare feet on the footrest, Max crawled towards the wall and slowly reached out for the spider. "Come on poor thing. Did he scare ya with all his screaming? He just doesn't like you." She urged the animal to move and it landed in her open hand. "Here we go." She climbed off of the bed and neared Logan who backed up immediately.
"Max...I'm serious. Just get rid of it, I really don't wanna see it!" he had paled even more.
Max still giggled, but decided to be nice. "Aiight, aiight. Come on little fellow. Go play outside." She opened the window one-handed and leaned outside to put the hairy animal in a bush next to it. "Bye!"
Then she pivoted and leaned against the window. Taking a deep breath and wiping imaginary sweat from her forehead she teased Logan. "Task completed. Enemy taken care of!"
"Very funny." Logan blushed.
"Sorry, I just can't believe you're afraid of spiders, I mean..." She walked over to the bed again.
"Max, stop it!" Logan gave her a warning look.
"So? You got any plans for today?" Max asked, jumping on the bed and stretching out.
"I don't know. My grandmother might have called my uncle." He reached out for his glasses on the nightstand and put them on. Now that he could see clearly he tentatively scanned the room again.
Max noticed his discomfort and giggled, but then decided to drop the subject. Her stomach was reminding her of something far more important than teasing Logan: food! "Did they want to come over for lunch? "She asked sniffing the air.
"We better get ready soon then, if that's what smells so heavenly!"
Logan looked at her, disbelief clear in his eyes. "How can you think about lunch right after waking up?" Logan asked.
Max tilted her head to one side and made a face. "We missed breakfast! I'm starving!"
"Whatever you say," Logan mumbled, stifling a yawn, suddenly remembering how tired he had been minutes ago. The rush of adrenaline from the spider incident didn't seem to last long. "Gotta give me some more time to wake up, though. I'm not a morning person."
"Oh, right. I've noticed." She grinned at him and jumped out of bed, running for the bathroom.
Logan sank back in his chair, shaking his head at Max' agitation[SM3], unable to stifle a new yawn.
"Come on. The sooner you get ready, the sooner I'll get something to eat!" Max yelled from the bathroom.
"Actually, to eat, you don't need me![SM4]," he shouted back, "Last time I checked you were quite capable of doing that alone!"
He followed her into the bathroom, sighing when he realized how narrow it was. Sharing it with Max made it tricky to move.
"Ah, come on! What would that look like, me starting lunch without you?" Max mumbled while brushing her teeth. "Your grandmother's probably waiting for us to rise from the dead anyway!"
"Yeah, probably." He reached for his toiletry bag and started rummaging around. "You can go ahead and see what Beth planned for us. I'll be there in five minutes."
Max ignored his hint and stood in front of the mirror pulling up her hair into a loose ponytail. "How about I go for the nice girl today?" she said, good-humoured. "Maybe with that new dress you bought me? Just to impress your relatives, ya know." She loved the idea of dressing up like a girl for once but she couldn't quite admit it.
Logan grinned at her. "I'm not gonna object there. But you sure you're gonna feel comfortable all girly and nice?" He added slyly, "Isn't that boring?"
"Well, it's worth a try, anyway," Max said and walked out of the bathroom in search of her dress.
Logan quickly shut the bathroom door, in fact, a little too quickly for Max's taste.
He'd rather be alone in there. Max would just have to accept that.
***
Max quickly dressed and fixed her hair, then went to the kitchen. She could hear music playing on the radio and the smell of the food got so intense that it made her mouth water.
"Good morning, Beth!" she said lightly when she found the old lady sitting at the kitchen table chopping vegetables.
Beth looked up and smiled at her. "Max, you look beautiful!"
Max blushed and straightened the seam of her dress. "Uh...thanks. It's just I'm not quite used to wearing dresses...I usually go more for a casual style."
'Or cat burglar style', she added to herself.
"You should wear dresses a lot more often, then. Hasn't Logan told you how great this looks? I always thought he had a good taste!"
"Yeah, actually he has. He bought it for me when we were in San Francisco," Max answered, sitting down opposite Beth.
"Where is he, anyway?"
"He's in the bathroom, getting ready. Not really a morning type of guy. So is this all for us three or are you waiting for more guests for lunch?" she changed the subject. She was not sure if this was his usual morning self or if the events of the previous night were at least partly to blame for his mood.
"I mentioned Logan's Uncle Eric, didn't I? He's coming over with his family. In fact, they should be arriving any minute. I hope you don't mind."
"Oh, I see. You had me a little worried there. I thought this was for just the three of us!" Max motioned around the kitchen, grinning.
There was something sizzling in the oven and she could see a large bowl of trifle on the counter. Also, there were heaps of vegetables and potatoes on the kitchen table.
"It's gonna be nice to meet them. And you said they had twins? How old are they?" she asked curiously.
***
Logan's mind was racing while he went through his[SM5] routine. As much as he liked the fact that Max was all cheerful and relaxed, obviously strangely enjoying her new role as the good girl, he felt very uncomfortable about settling down too much. After all, they were still on the run. Those guys could still track them down, even though everything seemed so peaceful now. While this little stopover in LA seemed just right two days ago, it now dawned on him that it probably was the stupidest and most careless thing he could've done, bringing his grandmother and the rest of his family into the line of fire. He'd have to talk to Max about it soon. He sighed, catching his reflection in the mirror. 'Damn, I look like crap!' he thought. A few days of relaxation were definitely in order. But he just couldn't let himself give in to the temptation, no matter how much he wanted to. He would talk to Max after dinner. They should be ready to move on soon.
He brushed his hands through his wet hair and made his way to the kitchen. From the hallway, he heard Beth explain about his uncle Eric. Apparently he and his family were going to come over. His heart skipped a beat. Suddenly he felt his insecurities surface again. He hoped his grandmother had already done all the talking and given them enough information so that they wouldn't have too many questions. After the previous night, with all of his painful memories resurfaced, he felt like he could freak at any wrongly chosen word. As much as he felt relieved, having talked about all those pent up feelings, he now felt totally out of control. It was as if the barriers had crumbled and the emotions of the past months were just waiting to flow over any minute. He fought down the twinge in his guts and wheeled into the kitchen, smiling. "Good morning, Grandma!"
"Logan. Morning! I was just telling Max about your Uncle Eric coming over for lunch." She turned towards Max again. "The twins are three years old now, and really cute."
Logan was relieved that the two women were busy and therefore oblivious to his state of mind. He stopped at the counter and poured himself a cup of tea from the pot that had been waiting for them since early morning.
Beth turned around to him. "Oh, Logan, don't drink that. It's old. Has been sitting there for quite a while." Logan shrugged while Beth checked her watch. "I was just about to set the table for lunch." She stood up and walked over to the cupboard to get out the plates.
Max remembered her good manners and asked, "Oh, can I help you with anything?"
Beth held out the plates to her.
"If you wouldn't mind, you two could set the table in the dining room. I usually don't use it, but now that there will be so many of us, the kitchen is too small."
"Okay, great!" Max beamed, took the plates from Beth and went for the dining room, glad that Beth hadn't asked her to do anything more complicated. She could feel Logan's grin following her and quickly turned around to stick out her tongue at him when Beth wasn't looking.
"What?" he asked, holding up his hands, innocently.
Max just shot him a look and left the room.
Logan followed her, shaking his head and grinning. Women- and Max seemed to be more like a normal woman than he had ever expected. Or she was at least playing her role very well. When they were alone, he paused for a minute. Maybe this was the right moment to talk to Max. Ask her to pack her things, so they could leave. But something held him back. Whether it was the way Max was eagerly putting the plates into place, smiling happily, or his own desire to prolong their pleasant stay with his grandmother, he couldn't discern. But something made him bite back the words. He reassured himself that Max would be much more willing to listen with a full stomach and postponed the talk until after dinner. Ignoring his bad conscience best as he could he just showed Max where to find the good cutlery and glasses and returned to the kitchen to help his grandmother.
TBC...
This is shorter than the past chapters, but the next one's waiting to be posted already. And eventually there will even be some action again.
********************************************************************************
Thanks to Alaidh for her patience!