Disclaimer: I do not own anything, nothing significant at all. My net worth is a negative number. Nothing to sue here people. Move along. (imagine a hand waving).

Chapter 7 Dammit!

A very loud PURRRR filled the air. Followed almost immediately by an even louder "Whoa!" and a crash that was somewhere in between in volume.

The purr stopped immediately. Max was startled. Logan had as murderous of a look as Bling had ever seen, but he really couldn't blame the man. Bling hadn't intended to interrupt. He was just going to sneak in and grab a cup of coffee until they were done.

Max immediately hopped off Logan's lap, leaving Logan grumbling about the downside of her speed. "Logan is going to need to go see Dr. Carr today!" She blurted.

"What did you do to him?" Bling asked before he thought.

Max blushed, but did not pause. "I didn't … It was freezing in here when I showed up last night! He had hypothermia. I think he's OK, but he should go in and be checked."

"Mild hypothermia doesn't have any long term effects. Although, have you checked him for frostbite?" Tried Bling.

"No." Max stated, seeming less than comfortable.

"I feel fine." Logan asserted. "Actually, I feel better than I have in a long time." Logan reached out to Max who was slightly out of his range.

"You need to go in and be checked. You seemed kind of …out of it." Max asserted.

"I was not 'out of it'!" Logan was not quite yelling.

"I'm just going to clean up the coffee and you two can go back to whatever you were doing before," offered Bling.

"I have to get to work," said Max.

"Max!" Logan paused. He knew they weren't going to get much resolved with Bling there. "Come back for dinner?"

Max hesitated.

"Please?" Logan prayed.

Max nodded and bolted out the door. Logan let out a deep sigh after he heard the door shut.

"I am so sorry." Bling offered, even though he knew it would not really help.

Logan just glared at him.

Logan did call Dr. Carr, but the man was busy with the serious casualties of the unusual weather. Seattle did not usually have ice storms, and while this was not a record low for February (1 degree Fahrenheit, 1950) this was the first bad one since the Pulse. There were far more homeless and squatters in inadequately protected buildings, than in the winters of 1989 or 1990 (which also had many days below freezing) so this storm hit the city much harder than any had ever before. Most of the equipment to deal with the ice was either missing or broken.

Logan thought about braving the still treacherous roads, but decided he had too much work to catch up on since the Eyes-Only informant net had been down for days. Logan gave serious consideration to sending Bling out to gather Valentines Day gifts for Max. The man felt guilty enough that he would probably have done it. Then he remembered that he and Max were going to make things up as they go. He would shove some candles near each other and they would make S'mores over them. That would work. If he and Max could be said to have a style, it would have to be unique.

The only good to come out of the storm was that it apparently shut the bad guys down as well. You wouldn't know it from the casualty reports, but so far all the deaths appeared to be from natural or accidental causes. Logan was caught up with his Eyes-Only mission before noon.

With Eyes-Only current and hours before he could start dinner, Logan began researching dreaming. Not that the Internet was what it once was, but a good researcher/hacker like Logan could usually find what he was looking for. Assuming the knowledge existed, Logan thought ruefully. Everything to be found on co-dreaming, or whatever it was, appeared utter quackery. It's hard to research something when you don't even know what it's called.

Logan considered the possibility that no one had ever shared a dream before he and Max. He couldn't dismiss it. If it was something to do with the unique physiology of the X5's then they might be the first. Max seemed surprised, did that mean she never shared a dream with someone before, never discussed it with them or had never actually slept with someone before? There was no good way to ask her if she had ever slept with someone before. Zack, and the others that followed his lead, may never have let anyone that close either.

He doubted the X5's still with Manticore had ever slept with anyone. He again contemplated the worth of trying to free them versus the cost of potentially bringing their wrath down on Eyes-Only and Max. Max once said he cared about strangers, but he wasn't helping these strangers no matter how desperately they may need it, because it could cost him Max. Still, he would continue to gather information. If; when, Max wanted to go after Manticore, he would be ready to help her.

Logan had just begun to entertain the attractive notion that there was some special, mystical bond between him and Max when his cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Logan." It was Matt Sung.

"Hey, Matt. Something up?" There was nothing like his mission to distract him from pleasant thoughts about Max.

"Nothing you can help with. Truth is I was worried about you."

"Why?"

"You hadn't been answering your phone."

Logan knew that wasn't all. He was an investigative journalist after all. "Why were you trying to call?"

Matt took a while to answer, but apparently either couldn't think of a nice way to say it or decided he respected Logan enough to be blunt. "I wasn't sure how you were doing with the cold. I don't know where you're staying. We're starting to find people that froze to death in their own homes. I was worried. If you had been stuck somewhere without power or heat ..."

With that comment Logan was right back to pleasant thoughts about Max, Logan had to smile. "I'm aiight," he said. He was not about to tell Matt how close he had been to freezing.

"Good. Take care."

"I will." Logan hung up and went to set up the candles and start dinner. He had a date with an Angel.

It was not until two hours after Max usually got off work that his mind started to make up reasons why he would never see her again.

To be continued …

Coming soon: Chapter 8 The Purrfect Evening.

Weather information provided by weather . yahoo . com and www . weather . com