Chapter 7:

"Saywha?" "Oh my god i havnt seen her in so long"
"What? Who"
"Max." Logan leaned over the corner of the hall. "What's going on"
Max's eyes dilated as she looked up at him, but they started to head south as her train of thought changed.
"Hm. I-think-I'm-going-to-go-to-the-bathroom." Brin said in a robotic voice that all too bluntly suggested it wasn't true. "C'ya Max." She said with a slight devilish grin.
"Bri-," Max tryed to spin around and grab her before she ducked into the door they were standing next to, with no success.
"Brin!" She said desperately, but the door had already shut and she heard it lock. She spun around to where Logan was standing. Her lips were pulled in and she had an extremely worried look on her face. Logan started to step into the hall towards her.
"Are you o-" "Stop!" She blurted out.
"Wha-"he was interrupted again "Ihh-I..I'm.." Her tone changed quickly from anxiety to arousal and her gaze was quickly shifting down again.
"Max." He said snapping her out of the trance she was falling into.
"Wha..uh..I"
"Are you ok"
"No." she stated flattly. Just then Rafer walked up behind Logan casually.
"Hey Max where'd you g-hh...hho." His breath hitched and he stared at her. She looked up at him and a sly smile crossed her face as their eyes locked and her hormones started to react with her fellow X5's.
"Woohh. Ok time ta go." Brin jumped in as she swung the bathroom door open and grabbed Max without hesitating. She had obviously been listening the whole time. She dragged Max behind her, who was shifting so that she didn't break the suggestive stare between her and Rafer, who were both smiling seductively. Logan, never having seen Max in heat before around other guys, still had no idea what was going on.
"I'm takin you outa here right now." Brin said. Now at the door Max decided to stop struggling and instead focused on what was in front of her.
"Ooo, vibratey.." she said with a childish smile looking at her bike.
"Logan we're takin' the car!" Brin yelled back, then yanked Max by the arm, opened the passenger door to the car they had stolen a couple days ago, pushed Max in, and closed the door again before she even had time to protest. She hopped in the driver's seat just as fast.
"Ok where's this Cindy?" She pressed the auto-lock button on the car just as Max shifted to get out.
"Max?" Max looked back at her and crossed her arms disappointedly.
"Two blocks down the street, make a right it's on the left"
"Max that's a strip club"
"How the hell did you know that?" She looked over at Brin surprised.
"Let's just say I went exploring while you were at Logan's." She smirked.
"Damnit." Max said, resting her head on her hand.
"It's on Fullon Street. 49 in the run down apartment building." Replied a defeated Max. Brin started the car and sped off towards Fullon.

Crash
"What exactly just happened here?" A confused Logan asked. He was also disappointed, after all, he hadn't seen Max in almost a year and it was their anniversary.
"um...what.?" Zane was still pretty out of breath and not really back to reality yet.
"Ok, no seriously. What the hell is going on"

Stollen Car
Brin glanced over at Max a couple times, who was very flustered and furiously taping on the side of the car.
"You alright"
"hhNohh.." Max seemed to have adopted a problem with breathing. Brin sighed.
"Stupid manicore people have to go and ruin all my fun." Brin mumbled under her breath, but of course Max heard it.
"Your fun?! Hello! I'm the one who's friends think she's dead and hasn't seen them in 12 months remember"
"Ok, ok, you win. Jeez chill." "Sorry I'm freakin out here!" she said much more calmly. Max took a deep breath and picked up a half-full diet pepsi can from the car's cup holder. "How the hell can this heat get so bad so fast?" she asked, to no one unparticular.
"I guess it gets worse each time"
"Well then what the hell is gonna happen to me when I'm 30, am i gonna fucking explode or something?!" Brin let out a small chuckle but you could tell she was trying to keep from laughing because of Max's mood. She was pretty sure Max would kick her really hard if she laughed out loud.
"Well it has to have a climax or something." Max's breath hitched and she choked on her soda almost spitting it out. She glanced over at Brin with wide eyes and a slight shortage of breath.
"God this is sooo not what i need to be talking about right now. Brin I'm in heat. Pleeaassee don't use words like that." she said and took another sip of the soda. "Ugh! Why the hell am I drinking this it's disgusting and..warm." she said disgustedly chucking the can back into the cup holder with her thumb and finger. Brin was now having a very difficult time keeping from laughing.
"Shutup! We're here." Brin jammed the breaks down and the car jolted causing Max to let out a small gasp that wasn't of surprise. She regained her composure and glanced quickly around nervously.
"Don't..do that either." she said in a small voice. Brin raised an eyebrow at Max and they both began to get out on the car.

Crash
"Oh shit." Logan said. They were sitting back down at the bar, well Logan was sitting anyway.
"Yeah." There was a pause "So are you two like..an item?" Zane asked, leaning against the bar.
"Uh..i guess you could say that. Wait but then why the hell did she just go out there with Brin"
"Dont worry, Brin'll take care of her. She's family." Logan shuttered remembering that this was the guy Max was near tears about a year ago.
"W-well, not..real family. I mean we're not related, she's like family...sortof. I mean Zack-" he caught himself and didn't finish his sentence.
"What about Zack?" Logan asked. Zane couldn't know he was dead, unless he was in contact with Krit or Syle, and even they thought he was just stuck in manticore. But then they would have told Max before that Zane was in Seatle and he would have helped with the attack. So why did he not want to talk about Zack?
"Uh-he..he um.." Then he realized something. "Wait what was Max talking about earlier when she said you know with Zack, and I considered him my big brother?" Rafer quoted Max's exact words from before that Logan didn't even remember she mentioned until now. -Well he is a genetically engineered superhuman with a beyond photographic memory. Ok why does he look so worried?- Logan thought.
"Oh, um, its nothing"
"They weren't um like doing anything were they? I mean they weren't..." his voice trailed off.
"What's wrong Zane you got a thing for Zack?" Logan said with a sarcastic smile.-Hes probably just worried about the incest thing..or jealous. Damn him for taking advantage of her, i'll have a talk with him about that-
"Logan, that's your name right?, I'm serious, what did they do"
"Well i don't think they did anything, but now that your acting like this your starting to make me wonder, I mean they were at the cabin together.. If Zack-" bad thoughts were starting to form in his mind about Zack but he dismissed them -He died for her Cale respect him for that.- and it's not like he didn't, his whole attitude towards Zack changed when Max told him what happened, he just didn't like the idea of Max getting laid by two of her brothers, once after their first kiss and the other on their anniversary, -Logan you are way jumping to conclusions, there's no way they did anything, she came back didn't she-
"Logan!" he was pulled out of his thoughts by Zane.
"Are you sure or are you not kidding"
"They never did anything Zane"
"Thank god." he said with a sigh obviously immensely relieved.
"Why? I mean you don't really have a thing for Zack right?" Logan said with a little smile and took another sip of his beer.
"I-It's just"
"Oh my god you do!" Logan stated in triumph even though he knew it wasn't true.
"Noo!" he sighed again. "Zack, had um, this thing with one of our sisters." He ran his hand through his hair and took a very long sip of his beer. Logan put down his beer a little louder than he intended to and looked up at Zane in surprise.
"Which one?" he asked furrowing his eyebrows. Zane glanced up at him then down at his beer.
"Jondy." He said drinking some more. Logan stopped in the middle of a sip of his beer with glass tilted already. He looked back over at Zane again and put his beer back down, his mouth was slightly hanging open.
"What"
"Yeah. They were pretty into each other. I mean they had their moments, a lot of them, cause you know how Zack's always running off to fight the fight and do the good, and occasionally interfere with one of his siblings lives. Well he didn't come back once when he promised he would. Broke Jondey's heart. For a second there i thought he might of.. i don't know"
"Woah. Um, i don't think he ran out on her Zane." Zane looked up from his beer at Logan.
"He was stuck in manticore, a while ago, long story, but he did that amnesia thingy to forget everyone's stats so he wouldn't get brainwashed and givem away. When he got out he couldnt remember much about you guys"
"Oh"
"Well, he remembered where you guys lived and that she worked at a bar and that you had a dog or something." "Bukes!" Zane smiled and Logan gave him a weird look.
"I left her with with Jondey to keep her company while I was gone." he said with pride in his voice.
"Why did you come to Seattle"
"Well me and Zack didn't really get along so great. And after what he did to..what happend with Jondey, you can imagine i was pretty pissed off. I mean he was always telling everyone how to live their lives and stuff and he almost kicked my ass cause i was going to medical school. You'd think he'd be happy that we'd have a trained medic we could trust but no he haad to go and"
"Zane." Logan interrupted him to get him back to the subject.
"Sorry, well anyway. Oh and I've been using an alias cause of this close call i had with manticore. But I was extremely Pissed that he screwed with my sis' like that so i stayed with her in SanFransisco for a while and tried to find Zack. There was this thing i found that led me here but i haven't found him yet. Bastard"
"Up until a couple hours ago you'd be my new best friend"
"What? Where the hell is he anyway?" Logan sighed, he wasn't planning on breaking really bad news to anyone tonight.
"Zane, a little while ago he got a bunch of you guys together for an attack on manticore's genetics lab, cause they killed Tinga." Zane almost fell off his chair. -Damnit i forgot he didn't know about that- Logan thought.
"It worked ok, cause we had Lydecker on our side, they double crossed him cause he actually cared if u guys died. But um, on the way out there were some X7s we weren't planning on. They got him and Max. Max was shot in the heart and she was gonna die without a transplant but he..." His voice trailed off. Zanes head was hanging down between his hands that were propped up on the bar.
"Logan.I get it." There was a pause.
"Max escaped a couple days ago with Brin and she just came back to Seatle tonight." Zane looked up at him pretty flustered, you could tell he was holding tears in.
"Thanks man. Im gonna uh, see if i can get a hold of Jondey." he said sliding off his seat and setting off towards the pay phones near the bathrooms.

Max's Apartment Building
Brin slammed the car door shut and stood up looking over to the passenger side.
"So who exactly is..." Max wasn't there.
"Max?!" Then she saw her making her way over to a guy that was just stepping into the apartment building. Brin got to her before she could give the guy a heart attack by sneaking up behind him. "Max." Brin grabbed her arm and Max spun around letting out a small yelp of surprise.
"What the hell happened to your stealth hearing." "Disappears when you're this preoccupied i guess." she said shrugging then she smiled a whirled around back to where the good looking dirty-blonde was standing looking through his mail. But Brin still had hold of her arm and yanked her back almost throwing her off balance. By then the guy was inside and stepping into the elevator.
"Common, we're takin' the stairs." Brin said. Max sighed disappointedly and followed Brin, who still had a vice grip on her arm, after her hopes were shattered by the dinging of the elevator as it closed.
"Hey if we hurry we can catch him." she said hopefully.
"Don't count on it sis'." Dont count on it sis' Max mouthed with an expression behind Brin.
"Hey! Cut that out!" Brin said like she had eyes in the back of her head. Max just did it again and smiled satisfied with herself. When they reached the fifth floor, Brin was in a hurry to get Max to safety, they arrived as the blonde, who just happened to live on the same floor, started walking down the hallway. Max followed him without hesitation like that had been her destination all along but she jolted back again forgetting she was still attached to Brin.
"Hah." Brin said in her face with a smile. Max just frowned and mimicked her again. Brin dragged her all the way down the hallway, in the opposite direction, to apartment #49.
"So tell me who Cindy is"
"Old roomate. Good friend." Max said. Brin knocked on the door but nothing happend. So she waited a second and knocked again.
"Hold your shit I'm coming!" cried a muffled voice from inside. Brin knocked again because it was getting very hard to keep Max from bolting down the hallway to where the very slow guy was fumbling with the keys to his apartment. "Wait a fucking minute, I'm coming bitch!" Cindy returned. Max suddenly realized why they were here when she heard Cindy's voice and she forgot about the guy. Instead she decided to pounce to the door and nearly jolt the knob off.
The door, which happened to be unlocked, swung open and Max smiled when she saw Cindy making her way over to it in a robe with a cup of coffee in her hand. She looked extremely pissed and like she had just been woken up. But when Cindy saw Max the mug fell from her hand and broke on the floor and Cindy's jaw dropped. Max smiled wider.
"You know you guys really have to stop breaking things when you see me. I swear, i still have a piece of glass stuck in my foot from Logan's." She said sarcastically. Cindy didnt even move. She just stood there staring at Max.
"Uh..OC?" Max said starting to get worried that she hadn't moved yet. She started walking in towards her.
"Hollyfuckinshit.." Cindy said smiling and letting out a breath she had probably been holding since the coffee fell out of her hand.
"..it's ma' boo!" They hugged each other. Then Cindy pushed her playfully and started hitting her between words.
"What. The Hell. Is. Wrong with. You." Max stood there smiling.
"You ever do that again and i dont care if you're freaking 23rd century Xena wid a tatoo'd neck, I'm puttin' the smack down on that booty!" She took a breath, "Now where the hell av' ya been boo?" she said calmly "N who's dat?" She asked pointing to Brin who had stepped in and locked the door behind her to slow down Max incase she went into fuck-mode again.
"That's Brin." Brin gave a little smile and lifted her hand as a gesture of a wave.
"Sista' a yours"
"Yup"
"Ain't she the hardass one"
"Hey I was brainwashed then when i kicked Max's ass." Brin said to her own rescue.
"And you also had half a years recent military training." Max came back at the kicking of ass part.
"What you think you can take me now Maxie?" Brin challenged.
"Hell yeah!" Max returned turning around to face her.
"Let's see you try!" Brin encouraged.
"Unfortunately i need you conscious to keep me from running out and finding a fuck buddy!" Max countered.
"Woh, woh, calm down ma' bitches." Original Cindy stepped between the two of them and put her hands up.
"Now you can work this sibling rivalry shit out on ya own time k?" She said. Both the X5s were smirking at one another. Max stuck out her tongue and Brin countered.
"Hey! Don't make me get out a hose! Now wha's this shit about a fuck buddy? You in heat again boo?" Max made a final face at Brin then turned to Cindy and nodded.
"MmHmm, and you pissed cause ya wana shak up wid Mr. Clark Kent rolly boy but it's ur anniversary and you two avnt made puppy love yet?" Max nodded again.
"Woh. You're good." Brin said.
"Thas' wat OC does. Now c'mon boo lez get u sumthin cold ta drink n' u tell me wat the hell 'apnd. Girl you might wanna lock the door there case she gets a little antsy." she said to Brin.
"Way ahead of ya." Brin said.
"Fuck. You fast girl"
"Cindy, please dont say that word." Max said starting to get affected by the heat again.
"What? Fast?" Cindy asked obliviously. Max blinked at her.
"You havnt changed much." she said, shaking her head and smiling.

Crash

"Logan! What the hell are you doing here?" Logan spun around and smiled when he saw a cheery Gale.
"Hey Gale"
"Helloo..shouldn't you be, lets see, at home? with, Max?" she told him like he had forgotten where he was supposed to be and gone to Crash by accident.
"Ah, long story." He said "Wow. She dumped you already? Logan I knew you were boring but not that boring." she said sarcastically and plopped down next to him. Logan responded with an unenthusiastic smile.
"Noo, she didn't dump me. And we were actually technically never going out." She furrowed her eyebrows and started popping nuts from a bowl at the bar in her mouth and chewing them noisily.
"So what, you guys are like, married?" she joked between nuts. Logan rolled his eyes.
"No, we just"
"Well you..i mean you"
"Yeah"
"Does she"
"I dont..know.. i mean she.. i dont know if she"
"So you guys never"
"No"
"Why not"
"Um because...well..its not like.. i mean... ok we were stupid." -I hope she's talking about the same thing i am..- Logan thought to himself suddenly realizing none of them finished any of their sentences or used the word love.
"Well there ya go." she said and continued eating her nuts then tried to catch one in her mouth. She missed by about a foot and the nut flew over her shoulder, she looked over her shoulder then in front of her and started eating the nuts again.
"So. What are you doing here"
"Well Landen's safe at his apartment blowing chunks. So i decided to come down here and see if i could find the jackass that nailed him in the face, so i could whomp his ass, but it looks like I'm a little late"
"No you weren't"
"I know, I was just bored and I've had way too much coffee and beer today to get to sleep but there's no one here. hey wait a minute, you never answered my question"
"What question"
"The one where i asked you: What the hell are you doing here"
"Yeah i did i said it was a long story"
"I'm not going anywhere, remember, the coffee and the beer, plus I'm running on adrenaline cause i was up til 4:00 last night working on that article." Logan stared at her, she was talking crazy fast.
"Exactly how many cups of coffee did you have"
"Let see.." It took her a second of deep thought before she reached an answer.
"abouutt..eight if you don't include the ones that were half sugar and chocolate syrup or the Frappuccinos, the it would be maybe 15"
"Jesus Christ! You're gonna like..die"
"Ha! Of what"
"I dont know.. caffeine overdose or something"
"No such thing"
"Well careful cause I don't want any extra work at the office"
"Hey!" she punched him in the arm playfully.
"So seriously what happened with Max, did u guys get in a fight and you came here to wallow in your beer"
"No"
"Oh. Did she get abducted by aliens"
"No"
"Did she get sucked into a time warp and lost in a different dimension"
"No"
"Am I getting close"
"Nope"
"Are you gonna tell me or am I gonna have ta keep guessing cause i could go all night." Logan smiled.
"Ok well, um..how do i explain this"
"Well i wont know how to explain it till you tell me what it is"
"But i cant tell you what it is until i figure out how to explain it"
"Quit stalling or I'll punch you again"
"Fine"
"So"
"Ok well Max.. has feline DNA right"
"Ok"
"Well have you ever had a female cat"
"No but I had a guy cat named Mr. Wiggles, he climbed out my window and up a tree and fell out"
"Really"
"No. But i did have a guy cat named Cinnamon"
"Did he fall out of a tree too"
"Your stalling again"
"You're the one that brought it up"
"No I'm not you asked me if I had a cat, and then I said I had one named Mr. Wiggles who fell out of a tree and then you said really? and i said no but i had a"
"Gale"
"What"
"Whoever gave you caffeine should be shot"
"Aww poor Mr. Columbian Guy With a Mustache and a Donkey"
"Gale"
"Yeah"
"Shutup"
"Ok"
"Ok, so Max has feline DNA"
"Yeah I got that part"
"And..female cats have these cycles"
"Like a washing machine"
"Are you trying to be annoying now"
"Yes"
"Stop"
"Do I have to"
"Yes"
"Ok"
"Where was I"
"Washing machines"
"No. Female cats. They have these cycles"
"Like"
"No"
"Ok"
"They.. go into um, heat. You know like..mating cycles." Gale raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"Ha! That shut you up!" he said.
"Are you serious"
"Yeah"
"So Max is, like having a ..mmating thing"
"Where she tries to jump every half decent guy she sees? Yeah"
"Damn. That's gotta suck"
"Wait but why isnt she with you?" He looked up at her about to give a long explanation about what happened tonight when Zane walked up behind them.
"Logan." Zane said he looked over at Gale questioningly.
"Problems." he said in the same voice. Logan nodded towards Gale.
"Its alright." Zane glanced at her again then continued.
"Jondy's not answering"
"So she's probly just out"
"Logan, I tryed six times"
"Ok, well she's probably just out. I mean you guys dont really sleep so she's probly doing something"
"See normally, I'd agree with you. But she hasn't been answering all day"
"Or..yesterday." he added.
"Well dont you think she could have gone somewhere to unwind." Zane shifted kind of nervously realizing he was overreacting.
"Maybe she met a guy." Gale piped in noticing she wasn't getting any attention. Zane gave her a look and gestured towards her.
"Wha..what is she..does she even know who"
"Ignore her, she's crazy." Logan said, ignoring her. Gale slapped the back of his head and glared at him, Logan tried to keep from smirking.
"Look, Zane, I'm sure she's fine. If you're so worried why don't call Kritt or Syle and see if they know where she went or if they can check up on her or something." Logan said ignoring Gale again. Zane stared at him obviously surprised.
"Wha-What"
"Just call someone else, see if they know where she went"
"See, I don't think that would work too well considering the fact that up until now i didnt even know they made it out"
"Oh"
"Its just that I haven't really talked to her in a couple of months and that's why i called her the other day"
"So we'll get Max to give you their contacts n you can call them and see if..oh yeah that wont work cause"
"Logan shutup." Zane cut him off.
"What"
"Ok I have feline hormones too here"
"Zanne..is there something you're trying to tell me?" Logan said with a completely strait face even though he was kidding.
"I mean I knew they did experiments with you back there but..." Zane glared at him and punched him in the arm.
"Ow. Why is everyone punching me tonight"
"Hi I'm Gale." Gale said reaching out across Logan to Zane and shaking his hand ignoring Logan.
"Zane. I'm uh, gonna go. I got some stuff to deal with." Logan thought he probably needed some time to take in all the news.
"Okay. Um..you know..where to reach Max?" Logan asked. Zane hesitated.
"Uh...shhee knows..where to find me." He said nervously and slapped some money down on the bar.
"See ya around"
"Yeah"

Max's Apartment
"Daaamn." Original Cindy said, leaning back on the couch with Max next to her. Brin had left Max in Cindy's hands to go out and find Zane so she could figure out what was up with him. Max had told Cindy about what happened with Zack and everything since then. She was extremely busy now trying to occupy herself from her own thoughts. When she started talking about Zack with Original Cindy she kept getting unwanted day dreams about him. Max jumped up quickly all of the sudden.
"Um.. its hot in here"
"Wa's da matta boo? Heat gotcha down? cause it aint hot in here." Max nodded.
"Want OC ta getcha sum wata"
"Actually I think, ill just, um, take a shower"
"'Least we dont hav'ta worry bout hot water"

Zane pulled up infront of Max's apartment building. His original destination was his own apartment but for some reason that wasnt where he ended up. some images flashed in his mind and it was all the encouragement that he needed. He shut off his bike and started toward the apartment.

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