Chapter Twenty

He woke up with Max asleep on his chest and wondered if he'd just hallucinated her with the baby since most times she rejoined him in bed the most contact she had with him was a hand upon his arm. However, judging from the fact that he was actually rested for the first time in days he was guessing it wasn't just a dream.

He smiled looking down at her, the tumble of waves obstructing his view of her face. He tightened the hand that had found its way to her in sleep and pulled her closer, part of him wondering if he should wake her up in this rare moment of rested silence. Instead he just raised up his other hand and brushed back her hair, her head unconsciously moved upwards and she let out a soft sigh without ever waking up.

-o-o-o-

She looked out past the green grass onto the water, the warm summer sun beating down upon her; it was a moment of peace. Peace that was of course meant to be broken.

"Oww," a little voice exclaimed.

She turned in time to see a small hand pushing into a chest, but not inflicting much damage before it turned its attention to rubbing the owwie on his arm he'd just received.

The two little boys were glaring at each other, dark green looking accusingly into crystal clear blue before turning for sympathy from his mother. She couldn't help but give a pouting smile at the image before her, the sandy locks and sun-kissed skin of the younger boy framing the muddy green eyes, the older boy with soft brown waves, the same sun-kissed skin whose eyes were looking away innocently, the differences in their sizes ever so slight, the age difference noticeable though in their actions, the baby and the big brother.

"Will," she began ordering the corners of her lips to stay down.

"He wouldn't share," he defended his actions and held a tighter grip on the action figure in his hand.

"You know you have to share," she reminded the youngest before turning back to the oldest, "you can't hit though, your brother's smaller than you."

She was rewarded for that statement with an indignant glare from her younger son whose hand quickly fell away from his injured arm.

"You are not allowed to hit either," she gently scolded her other son to put him at peace.

That seemed to distract him from the bruised arm, the stolen toy and being called a baby. "I'm hungry," he whined.

"I'll go see what's taking so long," she said standing. "Be good," she ordered with her eyes darting between the two young boys daring them to even think about not behaving.

She headed over towards Logan who was standing before the black public barbeque pit in light jeans and a white polo emphasizing his tan, holding a spatula just looking down at the cooking food.

"Hey what's taking so long," she asked sliding an arm around his waist.

He just smiled, "They getting cranky?" he asked as his arm went around her.

"You've only got a few minutes before they resort to cannibalism. The hitting just started, biting can't be far off." She smiled and rested her head against his shoulder, the heat hitting her in every direction, the sun, the barbeque and him; she was just warm all over.

"Mommy," she heard their cries in unison and turned, breaking away from Logan to look back at the now vacant blanket. She turned back to him, but he was no longer standing before her. Her eyes forced her to look down and he was lying on the grass, a bullet wound perfectly centered in his forehead.

Her name was screamed again and it forced her gaze back up, directed towards where her sons were being carried off by soldiers.

Renfro coldly smiling, "The future of Manticore, such brilliant little boys, they'll be a real addition." Her eyes traveled down to Max's feet, Logan's body, "Shame. I did warn you though, you're poison. There's no one to blame but yourself."

She went to charge at Renfro, but was stopped by arms pulling her back.

"Hey, hey come on," he murmured towards her as one arm held her tightly to him and the other pushed them up, "it's okay, just a dream."

She nodded allowing her arm to tighten around him and take in a deep breath of him, "Said it before, I'll say it again, sleep is highly overrated." She pushed herself away, "I'm gonna go shower." She was out of the room and into the bathroom before he could even react. She didn't pause to brush her teeth or pee, she just stripped off her clothes and moved under the showerhead hoping to wash away the new dream…Funny she hadn't thought they could get worse, but they did.

-o-o-o-

She skipped going back into the bedroom and getting dressed and instead moved into the kitchen wrapped only in a towel. The robe issue had been discussed since she more often than not wandered around the place for quite some time without bothering to get dressed. Logan was pretty sure someone in another building permanently had a telescope trained on their apartment, especially since he'd tug at the end while she wasn't paying attention or at least he thought she wasn't. The robe she'd had at her old place had been scrapped with half of her wardrobe deemed unsuitable for living with Logan by OC and Kendra.

There was no Logan waiting to comment on her attire as she entered the kitchen, his coffee mug resting on the table, signaling that he'd returned to the room to tend to the infant she'd heard crying while showering.

He returned as she was already halfway through her bowl of cereal and downing her coffee.

"I gotta head over to the girl's place before work, their toilet won't stop running," she said as he joined her at the table with his own breakfast. Sure it had been running for over a week and she'd promised to look at it over the weekend, but had 'forgotten' and pushed it to the side saying someone in Kendra's rolodex could take a look at it instead of her putting her hand in the nasty tank. She needed to get out of this place a hell of a lot more than she minded dealing with that.

He just stared in shock after a kiss was dropped down on the side of his lips fifteen minutes later and she dashed out of the apartment and wondered once again what the hell just happened.