Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel or anything so… DON'T SUE! XD you love me! Remember that!…

Summary: -Starting from where the book "After the Dark" left off-

Christmas in Terminal City is a sight to see. Transgenics celebrate the holidays and take time to kick back. Max and Logan's Christmas is almost perfect, if not perfect. When all seems right in the post-pulse Seattle, everything goes sideways. A new enemy, Jason Conlie, a familiar after revenge for the "fall" of their cult, rears his head in the almost perfect world. Bent on the death of X5-452, J.C. finds a way to bring up riots between the transgenics and the ordinaries. Will Max and Logan's relationship go anywhere in all of this carnage? And who is this Leon fellow? How does he know about the Cult, and the Transgenics?

This Fic includes:

Asha bashing

Max & Logan fluff…fluff and more fluff…(So much fluff that you'd think there was a herd of sheep somewhere in the fic. somewhere in the background "Baaaaah!"…. HEY! Who let those things out?)

More Asha bashing

Secrets revealed

…More fluff…

AN: Right now, I apologize to those who have read my previous DA fic. Yes, I took it down, but only because I ran out of Ideas and well… I found out that BOOKS followed the series! YAY! Sorry… Maybe I'll continue that one and re-post it ; This FF may take me a while to bring updates to it, but hey! I'll try my hardest! And I won't take this fic down. I'm going to NOT abandon this one. Because if I do… my friends will hurt me sob

After the Dark

-:-The End-:-

Then Terminal City's next alderman crawled in back of the truck, where Lydecker had been propped up, half out of it. Joshua, riding shotgun, waved like a little kid. Mole, behind the wheel, stogie in the corner of his mouth winked at her.

And they disappeared into the bright morning.

Christmas morning.

The couple got into Logan's car, max behind the wheel.

"So I'm forgiven?" Logan asked.

"I guess." She started the car and followed the route the truck had taken, but lagging.

"Because of what you said? My uncle and all?"

"Yeah. That, and I love you."

She said it so casually, he didn't seem to be sure he'd heard right. Their eyes met for a moment, and she could see the surprise in his gaze, then she turned back to the road.

Logan seemed stunned. "I don't think you ever said that to me before."

"It was always too hard. I wanted to. Maybe I didn't figure I needed to, until now. But… Looking for you, finding you… now I know how important it is. To say it."

He touched her cheek, briefly. "You know that I love you, don't you?… God, Max, its nice to be able to just feel my fingers on your skin… Are we all right?"

She glanced at him. "I won't lie to you."

"I won't lie to you either!"

She smiled a little, then returned her eyes to her driving. "I can't say that this business with Seth doesn't still bother me…"

"He was your brother. It'll always bother you. It should always bother you." An edge came into his voice. "Just know, I would never do that to you again."

As good as it had been to hear him say he loved her, hearing his pledge felt even better.

They rode in silence for a while.

Then…

"Sounds like you're getting ready for a road trip," he said. "You and Lydecker going to find your mother?"

She smirked humorlessly. "She could be across town, or on another continent. We have to talk to the colonel… and you know Lydecker."

"Reliability is not his middle name… And if your mother is halfway across the world?"

"I need to find her."

"I understand. Room for one more?"

Max smiled at him. "I don't know. Lets get you cleaned up, and see if I can stand being seen with you."

He arched an eyebrow. "Have you seen yourself lately?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That sprinkler system wasn't kind to your hair."

"Is that right? Well, you can take a look at me, after I have a nice long hot bath. I may just sleep until Christmas, then let everything sort itself out."

"This is Christmas, Max."

"So it is."

They rode in silence for a while—a sweet, comfortable silence. Finally, maybe halfway home, with Logan asleep in the passenger seat, she pulled off the road and into the lot of a small roadside motel at the edge of a little town. She checked in, unlocked the room's door, then came out to the car and opened the door on his side. He was lolled back on the seat. She touched his arm.

"Come on," she said.

He awoke slowly. "Where…are we?"

"Middle of nowhere. Motel."

He said nothing, getting out of the car cautiously as if he didn't trust his muscles to work—or the exoskeleton for that matter,

"You can have a shower or bath," she said, "which I'm gonna do, too… but what we really need is a rest."

They were to the door now, and she had her arm around his waist, helping him walk inside the motel room.

He allowed her to take her bath, and when she freshened up, and stood in the open bathroom doorway, using the motel's drier on her hair, she found herself alone. She was just about to get concerned when he stepped back into the room, and explained that he'd just run across the highway to a convenience store, where he'd picked up a few toiletries, including a shaver.

He showered and emerged in twenty minutes, the scruffy beard gone, his shirt off (AN: Not a bad mental image if you ask me), drying his hair.

"You hungry?" Logan asked. "Or should we just go to bed?"

"I thought you'd never ask," she said, and raised the sheet for him.

Christmas Morning

Morning came earlier than expected. The sun filtered in through the shutters on the windows. The small motel room was dimly lit, barely rousing the two sleepers cuddled in the queen-sized bed that rested in the middle of the room. Max cuddled up in the warmth of Logan Cale's arms. A smile was placed on her beautiful face as she buried her face further into her love's chest. Logan responded by tightening his grip around her, pulling her closer into his embrace.

Max let out a soft groan of protest as sleep began to disperse and she began to wake. Her eyes fluttered open and she squinted against the dim light in the room. She glanced at the face just inches away from hers. Another smile lit her face as she leaned her head toward his and placed a light kiss on his lips.

The contact of Max's lips on his own brought Logan to into reality and he smiled when he realized Max remained in his arms. "Hey." He whispered, opening his eyes slightly to look at her.

"Hey…" she whispered back and placed another soft kiss on his lips. Only this time he returned the kiss with a grin.

"It's morning…"

"Kinda figured that."

"Yeah…" Logan reached up to brush a stray lock of hair away from Max's eyes. "Of course."

"Its Christmas." Max settled back into his arms, closing her eyes as she snuggled into his warm embrace.

"Yeah."

"Anything special planned?" she asked, hiding a smirk as she rubbed her nose into his bear chest.

"As a matter of fact." Logan released Max and sat up, receiving a groan of protest from the woman he'd abandoned. When Max tried to pull him back down and curl into his warmth, he resisted with a mischievous grin. "Come on Max, you don't want to stay in bed all day do you? Its Christmas morning."

"Well that all depends. Are you going to be in bed with me? Personally, I think it would be a perfect Christmas gift."

Logan quirked a brow and looked down at her, a toothy half grin on his face. "Well I say, we should go back to my place. This place doesn't really… set a mood, wouldn't you say?"

Max glanced around and pulled the blankets up around her. "Looks fine to me."

Logan figured there was no point in really arguing with her. He stood and stretched, still shirtless. With a stifled yawn, he walked into the bathroom and closed the door. Max sighed and slowly made it out of bed, her muscles aching from the day before... The fight with the familiars had taken a lot out of her, and she didn't realize it until now.

When Logan emerged from the bathroom, Max was dressed and in the process of putting her boots on. Logan took his pants off and sat on the bed in his boxers. Max glanced at him with a grin. "Hey tiger, thought you wanted to wait until we got to your place? But if you want, we could take care of business in a quick couple a minutes."

Logan gave her an amused glance, one of those 'ha-ha' looks. With that, he turned his attention back to what he was doing, attaching the exoskeleton to his lower half and switching the knob to "on".

"Thought you didn't need that thing?" she asked as she glanced at him while she tightened the laces on her boots.

"I don't… It's just hard to get rid of it. You know?" Logan went to work putting his pants back on.

"I guess." Max turned her attention back to her boots.

"Besides. I just can't leave it sitting around collecting dust. Not when there is a chance my I might need it. Sort of a superhuman power of my own."

"I see… So a super brain isn't good enough for Logan Cale?" Max smirked and stood, stepping toward him.

"I guess you could say that." Logan slipped his shirt on and went to putting his own shoes on.

"I'm gonna get the car ready."

"Right."

Max grabbed the keys and stepped outside into the cool morning air. A shiver ran down her spine as the chill settled on her skin. Snow lay around on the ground, and still fell from the gray skies above. A white Christmas… Perfect.

Once Max was in the car and started it up, Logan stepped from the motel room and walked to the car. "Any chance of letting me drive?"

"Sure thing. I'm kinda tired anyway."

"Max Guevara? Tired?" Logan quirked an eyebrow and grinned as he took the driver's seat and Max slid over to the passenger side.

"Well, I kind of stretched myself out for you." Max shot him a glance, a smirk on her face.

Logan obviously didn't catch the little dirty joke as he started the car and started to back off without even cracking a grin. They drove off, heading back into Seattle… Where their perfect Christmas awaited them.

AN: OOOOH What did you think? Well, it was just a morning scene I wanted to get down before it all disappeared from my hyperish mind. Lol Be sure to Review and let me know what you think?… Any Flames will be used to Toast the remains of Asha. Don't like it? Don't read it!-Gflea: Yay Asha Bashing!-pats Gflea on the head Be calm grasshopper.

Anyway, sorry if its short… Thanks for your Review ahead of time! Poofgone