Chapter 12
Christmas Eve 2020
She watched him pack; with his back to her, he was seemingly unaware she was watching him. The holidays made most people take stock of everything they had to be thankful for, she was no exception to that rule, but she realized everyday how lucky she was. She had somehow managed to end up with more than she'd ever imagined, more than she deserved.
"I know you're there Max" he said before he turned.
She laughed and walked into the room, throwing the bag she was carrying on the bed. "You're already dressed." She said raising up to kiss him hello. He was dressed in black slacks and a crisp white shirt, unbuttoned at the top.
"Almost" he said holding her closer for a few seconds longer.
"How long do I have?" she asked stepping out of his embrace and making her way over to the closet.
"Half hour?"
She pouted looking into the closet.
He laughed walking up behind her, "You can always skip out. I wouldn't blame you."
She laughed leaning back into his embrace, "You put up with my family year round, I can survive yours a few nights a year. Is maroon too holiday-ish?" She asked looking into the closet at one of the seven dresses she owned.
"I'm wearing a maroon tie."
"So black it is" she smiled pulling out a different dress.
He chuckled as she turned to him.
"How long do we have to stay?" she asked
"Hour, hour and a half, not too long….You sure you want to leave tonight?"
"You're not getting out of this Logan." What he wasn't getting out of was her Christmas present from him, after Logan admitted weeks ago lying in bed at night that he had no idea what to get her since her bike was in working order. She'd laughed and admitted the same, his birthday the month before had killed her. She'd tried doing the ultra perfect girlfriend thing of an ultra romantic dinner, of course she over estimated her culinary abilities and they ended up with some pretty salty pasta.
Her Christmas gift was a week away from it all, the laptop and cell phone were going to remain in the car unless Bling or Krit (who had taken a liking to this Eyes Only stuff during her absence), called hers. They were going to the cabin as soon as they were done schmoozing at the Cale-Prescott Mansion, which actually made the old house look much like her old place compared to Logan's. She was definitely getting the better gift since all she had to give Logan was a leather-bound journal, for all of his lyrical musings which still made him blush when she'd read them. Of course, he'd told her not only for his birthday, but for Christmas and any other holiday that followed that he didn't need a gift because he had her. Once more reminding her just how damn lucky she was.
He chuckled, "I wasn't trying to, I just want to be sure you want to spend Christmas away from everyone."
"I see them year round." She smiled as she walked across the room to her dresser, "You know if you keep trying to get out of this, I'm gonna actually give you Kendra and OC's gift."
He lowered his eyebrows in thought, "They gave me a gift."
"They did give you a gift," she laughed draping the dress across the bed, "but I'm talking about their gift to me." She laughed at his confused expression as she dug in the bag for the gift, she pulled out a red velvet g-string with puffs of white fur on the pouch.
His mouth slightly opened, "They want me to wear that?"
She shook her head and laughed again looking at it, "Yea, I don't think I'd ever be able to look you in the eye again, let alone…"
His eyes finally disengaged from the horror she held in her hands, he loved her, he would do anything she asked of him, but wow was he thankful they both agreed about that monstrosity. "Wait," he said suddenly remembering she said they'd given him a gift, if they'd given that to her… "If that was your gift…What's mine?" He said with an already pleased smile.
"You just have to wait for the cabin and lie to OC and Kendra otherwise I'm going to tell people you wore this" she said shooting the g-string across the room at him, there was no way she'd allow her friends to know she'd worn that bouncy little red number they'd gotten her, the hat as definitely staying off though.
He caught it and looked down at it and laughed again, "I'm gonna finish packing now."
"Knew you'd come around to my way of thinking." She smiled as she moved her attention back to getting dressed.
-o-o-o-o-o-
"You have everything" Max sighed as she watched Logan looking anxiously over his desk.
"I know" he nodded and quickly walked away. He'd give it up for her, he knew that. He would sacrifice the world to make her happy; one week away wasn't asking so much. He still worried about her, worried about the time she'd spent away, worried about the things they'd done to her that she swore didn't matter. Physical, mental torture, but she swore she was fine and most of the time he believed her. She'd come around, come back to her old self, though more mature, if that was the word, a little less quick to joke, but mostly the old Max. You couldn't escape things like that, they haunted you forever and it was unfair of him of any of them to ask her to try to be the exact person she had been. Sometimes it worried him just how okay she seemed.
He smiled at her hovering in the doorway, the long black dress jacket already covering the black dress than landed just past her knees. She would stand out, she always did. Her beauty was intensified by the simplicity of her dress, the casual upswept hair, the light makeup. She didn't need the gaudy cocktail dress, the hours spent in the hairdresser's chair, the caked on makeup that made all the other women feel beautiful. Though he hoped she wouldn't hate the necklace he'd bought her anyway since a week at the cabin didn't feel like enough of a gift. She'd sworn she was open to wearing jewelry, he was going to be finding out soon if that was true. Material things didn't matter to her, but he knew she didn't hate them. A single solitaire, simple, perfect and blindingly beautiful just like her and one day when she was ready it would go perfectly with the ring his mother had left to him.
He walked out into the hallway and slipped into the black coat before picking up his weekend and laptop bags.
"These too?" Max asked raising up the wine bottle and small present.
"Yea" he said reaching out to grab them.
"I got them" she said shaking her head and walked out the door as he closed the lights.
"I didn't know you were getting anything for your aunt" Max said looking down at the small golden package as they waited for the elevator.
"It's not for her, it's for Noelle."
Max looked over in shock, Noelle, Bennett and Marianne's daughter, she'd been born just three days before. Max had somehow managed to avoid having to go see her in the hospital, okay she'd lied and told Logan Kendra was having a crisis and backing out of their plans at the last minute. "They're going to be there?"
"Yea" Logan said adjusting his tie, "Aunt Margo guilted them into spending the holidays with her and Prescott."
"Oh" Max said dropping her gaze back over the closed elevator doors.
"It's one of those baby's first Christmas ornaments." He'd gotten it since she'd arrived two weeks early and the last thing his cousin or his wife had was time to go out and buy those things and he doubted his aunt would have remembered something so trivial, in the midst of planning her first party as Mrs. Jonathan Prescott, wife of the newspaper mogul.
"Oh that's cute. I'm sure Marianne will love it."
-o-o-o-o-o-
She watched Logan trying to casually look at his watch as his faux uncle tried to talk him into going back to work full-time since he'd been freelancing quite a bit anyway in the past few months.
"Now Max," Prescott said as Max approached, "wouldn't you like Logan out of the house during business hours."
"Doesn't really matter to me Pres, I'm at work." She smiled knowing she'd just made Logan's fight harder, but it was kinda funny. Especially since his real uncle had referred to his work as those 'little articles of his' and his faux uncle openly praised him to anyone who would listen, she liked the guy who thought Logan was as brilliant as Max did and he didn't even know the half of it.
" Logan, you're making Max work." He chastised.
"Oh no," Logan said cutting him off, "I don't make Max do anything, no one does."
Prescott looked over to Max and a grin emerged on his face as he nodded, "I have a feeling you're right about that one son."
"We should really be going Prescott; it's a long drive out to the cabin, especially at night." Logan said.
He made a face, "Why don't you just go in the morning? These roads aren't safe at night anymore."
"I know, I wrote that article two months ago. We'll be fine; we want to make it out in time for midnight mass."
"Drive slowly" he said conceding, "Do you have a gun?"
Logan laughed and Max frowned, "Underneath the seat. We'll be fine. Merry Christmas Pres" Logan went to extend his hand and was instead pulled into a hug.
"We're family now Logan." He patted him on the back before releasing him and turning to Max, "You watch him Max. I know this boy and speed."
She smiled as he took her in for a hug, "I will, you have a good Christmas."
"You too."
Marianne overhearing their conversation walked up to them in an empire waist forest green dress designed to conceal the post-pregnancy weight, "You guys cannot be leaving yet, you haven't seen Noelle, Max."
Max opened her mouth trying to figure out how to get out of this, but realized from the expression on the other woman's face that would be impossible without hurting her feelings, "Lead the way" she smiled brightly.
-o-o-o-o-o-
"Is she awake?" Marianne asked the nanny walking into the nursery.
The nanny turned and smiled holding out the little girl, dressed in red pajamas.
Marianne approached her with the infant.
"She's beautiful" Max smiled, barely glancing down at the newborn Marianne was so captivated by.
"Here" Marianne said going to hand over the baby to Max, "Hold her."
"No really, that's okay." Max took an involuntary step back
"She's not going to break Max," Marianne said coming closer and slipping the baby into Max's arms before she could refuse again.
"Isn't she perfect?" Marianne said stroking her daughter's cheek as Max did everything in her power to not look down, to not think about the weight in her arms.
"Beautiful" Max said glancing down briefly, "We should really be going." She nodded and handed the baby off to her mother again.
" Logan aren't you going to say goodbye to your niece?" Marianne asked Logan who was standing silently in the doorway having been stopped for a brief moment as the women had gone on ahead.
He nodded and walked over and stroked her cheek with his finger, "Merry Christmas Noelle." He looked up and smiled at Marianne, "You too," he said as he placed a kiss on her cheek.
"Merry Christmas Mar" Max said as she turned to leave.
"You too Max" Marianne called out while as her attention returned to her daughter.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Logan was eerily silent as the waited for the car to be brought around and as he slid into the seat and started to drive.
Max looked ahead nervously and prayed Logan wasn't as observant as she thought he was.
"That's what was wrong." He finally said. "It wasn't Zack."
She thought about denying it, but she didn't want to lie to him, not to mention she was pretty sure he wouldn't believe her.
"Am I right Max?" he asked glancing over at her.
She nodded.
"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked as his heart was being torn in two with the thought of her hurting like that. Seeing her with Noelle it had suddenly all made sense, she hadn't been able to look at the child, she'd done everything in her power to avoid seeing her, talking about her, he just hadn't paid enough attention before.
"What's the point? It was over and done with Logan." She said coldly looking out onto the night sky.
"Max, I could"
She turned and cut him off, "What could you do Logan? Go into Manticore in a few years and perform a DNA test on every little boy there?"
He froze looking dead ahead absorbing her words, "A boy?" he finally asked turning to her for a second.
Max closed her eyes and stated the facts, "Only XY embryos implanted in the surrogate."
"How many?" he asked, it was in his nature, he'd spent too many years of his life searching out the details.
" Logan" she began and he just turned, "3. 10 eggs, 3 surrogates, it only worked in one." She turned and watched him looking dead ahead at the road, watched as he struggled to digest the information; she saw the pain in his eyes that she knew was for her. "There is nothing you can do Logan. It's just DNA, trust me more than a few people out there have my DNA."
"Three." He nodded, "Well only two now." He turned to her, "Lydecker's a fountain of information."
"It doesn't matter Logan, just let it go."
"How do you expect"
She cut him off angrily, "Because I did. It kills me to think that any innocent child is going to be raised that way and let alone someone…" she shook her head. "I can't keep thinking about it Logan. I can't do anything to change it and neither can you."
"Max, I could"
"What could you do? This isn't going to be in any of the information you'd be able to hack into. Please Logan." She looked over at him with wide eyes.
He looked over at her and nodded.
-o-o-o-o-o-
He held her tighter as the little children placed the plastic baby Jesus into the cradle resting in the manger. He'd double checked in the cabin to make sure she wanted to attend the service, but she'd just nodded and raised herself up for a kiss and told him she had a lot to be thankful for. He couldn't imagine what she was going through, then again the thought of her child, someone sharing her blood being out there, being raised in that cold environment and what it was doing to her was probably a hell of a lot worse than if someone had taken a piece of him. He didn't know how, but he would find him.
She would kill him for going to Lydecker, but he had no choice. There was no way he was letting Manticore do this to her. He wouldn't rest until he found that little boy or boys. There was no way he'd let them have any part of her.
Thanks for reading guys.