CHAPTER 18

"Max, what's wrong?" O.C almost screamed out.

"I don't know-" Max clutched her stomach again just before she passed out and hit the bar floor.

"LOGAN!" O.C yelled over to the pool table room. Watching Logan turn and run in to help in horror, she and Alec picked Max up and headed up the stairs of Crash and out the door to Logan's car.

Hospital

Logan was pacing as O.C was talking to the doctor and Alec was sitting, head between his legs and hands on his forehead.

"When are they going to be finished?" Logan asked frantically.

"We don't know Logan, I'm sorry." Alec answered.

"Oh I know, I'm just so worried about her." Logan said still pacing.

Dr. Carr finally came out several minutes later, to have Logan pressuring him for answers.

"How's Max? How's the baby? What happened?"

"Please Logan, calm down! Max is doing fine, the baby is fine too. She just had some brackston hick's contractions. I gave her something to calm her down and relax her. She'll be fine and ready to go home tonight."

"Can we see her?" Logan asked.

"Yes." Dr. Carr said leading the way.

"Hey Max, how are you feeling? Everyone is here to see you now." Dr. Carr said as they entered Max's room.

"Hi. I feel a little groggy, but I'm ok now thanks." Max answer, eyes half open.

"Max, thank god you're ok!" Logan shouted as he went to hug her, but paused as the realization once again had hit him. Instead he blew her a kiss. Max blushed a little then looked over at O.C, who smiled back, and Alec, who had a little bit of disappointment etched on his face. Logan looked at both O.C and Alec, "Hey, could we have a minute alone for a second?"

"Yeah sure." O.C answered pulling Alec out of the room and Max noticed the look on his face that said, I don't want to leave her. Max smiled trying to reassure them, but unsuccessfully she had thought.

"Did the doctor say anything about the baby's health?" Logan asked anxiously.

"Yes, he said that the baby was fine, but he wants to keep on eye on it…" Max felt a tear in her eye but tried again to brush it away, without much success unfortunately, "The doctor said that there is a possibility that this baby may not survive…because you don't have the virus and I do." Max finally surrendered to the tears and buried her head in her hands. Logan wanted to hug her and tell her that it would be all right, but he had to resist yet again, because of this virus that Manticore was responsible for.

"Well, when we…had sex, you didn't have the virus did you?"

"I still had it, it was just kept more at bay with Alec's blood."

"Oh…well I don't know what to say to make you feel better. I know it's going to be hard, but I will be here for you always." Logan tried to reassure her. She managed to smile back in conformation, but still felt the pressure of tears from behind her eyes.

"I know Logan."

Alec and O.C had re-entered the room, knowing full well that something was wrong. Logan agreed to give them a minute alone, since they had done the same.

"How are you gurl?" O.C asked in helplessness.

"Ok, considering. The doctor said…this baby might not survive, because I have the virus and Logan doesn't."

"Oh Max, I'm so sorry." O.C said hugging her tightly. Max hadn't realized how much she had missed hugs from her friends…or maybe it was just hugs in general that she missed.

"Hey Max, how are you feeling?" Alec asked, although the answer was pretty obvious.

"I'm missing a lot of stuff actually, like hugs from you guys, and just human touch." Max blushed a little as she realized how that probably sounded to both Alec and O.C.

"You know that we are always here for you though right?"

"Oh yeah I know that. In some ways I'm ready to move out of Logan's. It's so hard being around him all the time, one of these days I'm worried that we are just going to hug or he's going to touch my hand and I'll hurt him. You guys probably don't want to hear this."

"It's ok Max." Alec smiled awkwardly.

"So how is Zach? Have either of you seen him lately? Is he still staying at me and Logan's house?" Alec and O.C looked at each other in complete sadness.

"Max, Zach has gone missing…we didn't want to tell you because we weren't one; sure of how well you were and second; we didn't want you going after him in your condition."

"When did this happen?" Max asked in concern, trying to get up from the bed. Alec and O.C pushed her back down.

"It just happened yesterday…I'm so sorry Max." O.C answered. Alec looked over in shock, "You're kidding right?"

"No, but he did leave a note…it said that he had to leave and that he didn't want to put you in danger, Max and that he would phone in a few days to explain." O.C said.

"I think I know why he left…" Alec looked over at Max, who was trying to find an answer in his eyes.

"How do you know?" Max pressured him.

"I saw him when he was still at the hospital, he said that the last thing he remembered was seeing White standing in front of him. He also said that he didn't want to put you in danger of getting caught. I tried to stop him Max, but he left the hospital anyways…" Alec finished explaining.

"We have to go after him." Max once again tried to get up out of bed.

"No Max, we can't! You can't!" Alec didn't dare look at Max, for fear of her look of anger.

"Don't try and stop me Alec, I want to find him. He can't take White alone…none of us can!" Max pushed her way off the bed and grabbed her cloths, "I'm going after him Alec." O.C just looked at Alec, who looked back with 'I know we can't win this one' kind of look.

"Alright Max, but we're coming with you, there is no way we are letting you lose this baby over finding him."