A/n: thanks for all the reviews for 16.

Life in London is pretty much back to normal, except for the transport system being even worse than usual. Everyone's determined to carry on and prove we won't be beaten by terrorism. Thanks again for your sympathy.

Chapter 17: Why

Max was still trying to get her head around the barriers between uncle and nephew. "I know you don't like Logan. From what I gather you've never thought much of him. But he's smart, funny, good at what he does. Why can't you just be glad he's found something that makes him happy?"

"It's what he does that's the problem," Jonas replied. "My brother, Logan Senior, was a brilliant entrepreneur. He built up Cale Industries from a small manufacturing company into a multi-million dollar corporation in less than twenty years. When he died it should have gone to Junior, his son and heir, when he hit 21. I had to manage CI in the meantime, while he finished college. But the ungrateful boy didn't want it. After the pulse all he wanted to do was take a second degree, learn to write and try to protect the poor. As if they mattered."

"But why are you complaining? It got you control of the business."

"I freely admit I'm not half the businessman Logan was. And neither are any of my sons. But Junior is at least his father's equal. By the time he was fifteen he was a millionaire in his own right, from an Internet company he'd set up designing web pages. In his hands, Cale Industries could have been a world leader by now. And our stock could be among the most valuable on earth."

"Oh, so this is still about money? You think he could have made you so rich you'd never need to leave your private Caribbean beach bar and could just sit on your ass in the warm for the rest of your life. That and jealousy, that he had the gift but you didn't."

"What's more important than money?"

"Blood. Nothing is more important than being there for your family."

"And what would you know about family? You were made, not born."

"More than you'd think. A few months ago some guys tried to sell my sister to the Chinese. She was sick, dying because of some flaw in her genes. To get her out my brother and me had to ally ourselves with Lydecker, our own private antichrist, who then tried to betray us. In the end we had no choice but to let him take her back to Manticore to cure her illness. If we could both of us would have given our lives to stop that happening. No amount of money would have induced us to allow her to be taken. That is family. Something you could know nothing about."

"You don't think I care for my sons? I give them everything they could ever want. And it was Junior who cut himself off from the family, not the other way around. I'm his closest living relative and he avoids me like the plague."

"Is it any wonder after the way you've treated him? Did you even visit him in hospital?"

"Did you?"

"Of course I did. I'd only known him three days and I still went to see him."

"Why? Why should you care if some guy you'd just met got himself shot?"

"Why shouldn't you care that your nephew, who you'd known his whole life, was lying all alone in an ICU, fighting for his life?"

"Because I couldn't take the time off from the office. We sent flowers…"

"You spent money, when all he needed was your presence, to know that someone in his family still gave a damn."

"Bennett went when we heard he was awake, but Junior refused to see him. What was I supposed to do?"

"Being there to support him when he found out he was never going to walk again would have been a start." Just then, Logan's cell phone began to chirp in Max's pocket. "Hold that thought," she said, flipping the phone open and picking up. "Hello?"

"Hey, you," came the familiar greeting in the even more familiar voice. Max's heart skipped, and then accelerated to double its normal speed. A combination of shock and blinding relief flooded through her body at the realisation that Logan was definitely alive. It was some time before she managed to speak.

Tell me what you thought.