He waited for them outside of Logan's job. It had been five months since the last time he'd seen them. He'd almost gone up to the table a few times during their dinner, but he knew that would cause them to run. Nothing he could say would convince them otherwise. Logan would run as far and as long as he had to, in order to keep her safe.
He'd known it the moment he'd heard his voice calling out to her. Saw it the first time he'd seen him look at her. He'd seen it again at the street fair and at the restaurant. Logan loved Max more than anything else, he would never allow her to be taken from him again. Alec understood, he would do the same with Rachel if only he'd be given a chance.
She was dead now though, he'd placed flowers on her grave. They would never have a second chance.
Alec took an unsteady breath, pushing away the memory as he waited for Max. He'd seen the signs up for the street fair, it came every three months and lasted for a week. He'd seen them here a year ago, he could only assume that they would repeat the experience. This was the third day though and all he had watched was Logan walk out to his car everyday after work.
He would go and wait at their apartment if he could. He couldn't disappear for that long though, couldn't spend day after day hoping she'd emerge. Who knew how often she'd go out with a newborn? He could slip out of work early though, disappear for an hour and hope.
He realized his patience was finally going to be rewarded as Logan emerged, paused outside of the building and looked down at his watch. She walked up a few minutes later in a pair of black fitted capris, sneakers and a fitted white shirt, not at all looking like she could be responsible for the little person in the blue stroller she pushed. Logan kissed her first, cupping the back of her head and pulling her in close to him. When he pulled away he whispered "Hey"
She smiled back "Hey yourself."
He grinned and moved his attention downwards, "Hey Alex" he pushed back the blanket a bit to see his wide eyed son.
"Okay so I'm thinking you were right"
Logan looked up from the computer to Max standing next to him, "What was I right about?"
"We're not ready for a baby."
His eyes fell on her stomach and then raised back to Max's own.
"Don't look at me like that." She said walking away, well waddling away, not even an X-5 could be graceful this far along.
He laughed as he followed her, he hugged her from behind, "We're ready…We have every single piece of baby paraphernalia ever made."
Max shook her head and turned, "No, no I don't mean that…In less than a month there's going to be another person in this apartment. Someone totally dependent on us."
He laughed, "We're gonna be fine."
"What if we're not?"
"We will be" he gave her a soft kiss to reassure her.
"You're gone all day." she whimpered.
He laughed and didn't dare remind her that she had been the one who wanted a baby, "If I have to I'll quit, I promise."
"Promise?"
"I promise"
Logan took over Max's place pushing the stroller and Alec made his way down to street level to follow them.
Again it was a baby stand that caught Max's attention.
Logan laughed, "Max there's no way he can need any more onesies" he said as she started looking through a stack.
Max turned with a serious face, "More clothing this kid owns, less often I have to do laundry."
Logan laughed as he bent over to pick up his son who had started to fuss.
"Hey" he whispered walking back into the room, so very aware of his sleeping son.
She looked up smiling, he'd never seen a more beautiful sight, though she'd grimace every time in the future that she saw pictures of herself. She saw sweaty and disheveled, he saw glowing. "What'd my girl say?"
"That you owed her twenty bucks."
Max laughed softly, "I never made that bet."
He smiled sitting down on the bed next to her, his finger tracing his son's cheek, "You did good" he said to her.
"We did good." she said it and she meant it, not just the perfect blend of their DNA. The months he'd spent by her side through every step, a bit frustrating at times, but so very welcomed. Then the eleven hours they'd waited for their son to arrive, not once did he complain about her crushing his hand, though she did catch him rubbing it a few times and she'd remember up until the next contraction hit that he was only human. She felt the baby stir in her arms and she looked down smiling at this perfect little being, "Look who's finally waking up." Their son had promptly fallen asleep after being placed on Max's chest and had screamed when the nurse had removed him to clean him up, he'd been asleep by the time he'd been given back to her. "Feel like holding your son Mr. Cale?"
He smiled at the name, mostly because it meant he'd get to say it back to her and the joining of her name and his still stirred within him a feeling of joy he'd never imagined possible, "Why thank you Mrs. Cale." he said as she transferred the newborn over to him, not as gracefully as one would have imagined, but that would come with time.
"Hey there Alexander Zachary Cale" he said as the infant's blue eyes looked up at him, he didn't care what anyone said about infants not being able to focus, Alex was obviously advanced. "Thank you" he said to Max.
She titled her head and smiled, "I seem to remember you had a part in creating him."
Logan shook his head, "No, thank you for loving me, sticking with me through everything. I never even imagined Max…" he looked down at his son and shook his head, he hadn't known all that was possible…He looked up at her again, "Thank you for coming home."
She brushed away the tears that had fallen down her cheeks, definitely wasn't only the hormones. They'd come so close to not having this…
"Ducks or frogs?" Max said holding up two different onesies.
Logan shifted his son in his arms and actually stopped to think about it, "Ducks, he'll match the room he's never in."
Max laughed as she put down the green outfit.
They were both lying awake staring at the ceiling.
Logan pushed himself up and grabbed the monitor and held it up to his ear. "Is he breathing?" he turned to her.
She took it from his hands and held it up to her ear, "Yea."
"Okay" he said lying back down.
She put the monitor on the table beside her and curled into Logan's side. They both lay there for several minutes longer, Logan's eyes wide on the ceiling, Max's wide staring blankly at his chest. Both ears craning for the tiniest little out of the ordinary noise. She shot up and grabbed the monitor, "That sounded weird"
He pushed himself back up, "What was it?" He asked, cursing his only normal hearing and eyeing the chair.
She jumped out of bed dressed in his boxers and tee-shirt, thankful that the boxers no longer irritated the skin below her belly where they had been forced to reside through the final months of her pregnancy and the shirt was no longer taunt against her skin. "I don't know, I'll go check."
"He's fine" she said returning to the room within a minute. She crawled back into bed and once more rested her head upon Logan.
They both shot up as they heard a noise out of the monitor. They both turned to the monitor awaited another sound, but there was none.
Logan groaned and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, "We're never going to get any sleep."
Max thought of the white daybed in their son's room for when Original Cindy wanted to crash. "I could" she was about to offer to go stay with their son.
Logan gave her a look knowing what she was thinking, the same thought had crossed his mind too, "Bring Alex and the bassinet in here?" he offered
Max sighed a breath of relief, the bassinet, she'd forgotten about the bassinet. Not the low cradle that rested beside the couch, the bassinet they'd bought for visiting Cindy or so they could have Alex next to them as they worked at the computer. "Thank you" she said with all the relief of a new mother.
She carried in the bassinet and then Alex, stopping by Logan's side first so he could kiss the infant goodnight again. She tucked their son in and then tucked herself into her husband's slightly more relaxed body.
"Original Cindy keeps asking to babysit."
An eyebrow lifted as Logan looked at Max, "Not that I"
She laughed, "Yea I know." Max shook her head wondering how exactly her friend expected her to be away from her seven week old son for more than the half hour it took to run some desperately needed errand.
Once they'd figured out how to let him out of their room, they'd think about letting him out of the apartment and considering Max had already mentally rearranged their room to fit in the crib once he got too big for the bassinet, Cindy was in for one hell of a long wait.
Alec smiled as Max walked away from the table to place a kiss on her son's head before her attention was recaptured by a duck towel that squeaked when you pressed the hood, which she repeatedly demonstrated for the men in her life.
AN: Yea okay more fluff. Hmm, I know one person is still reading this, not sure if anyone else is, but anyway...next chapter is going to be a real chapter and not just catching up, might be the last one too haven't decided that yet, all depends on how much a feel like writing in one shot.