A/n: Sorry this is a bit late, everyone. Logan's life history was never really explored in the show so I had to make it up as I went along. Hope you like it, anyway.

Oh, and for those who've been missing her, I've brought OC back into this chapter.

Chapter 30: Secrets

Max and Logan were just sitting there, arms around one another in comfortable silence. The hush was broken by the ringing of Logan's cell phone.

"Sorry. I forgot to turn it off." He said, pulling the phone out of his pocket and checking the display. "It's your home number."

"Must be Cindy. Go ahead and pick up." Logan did, holding the phone close enough to Max that she could participate in the conversation.

"Hey, Cindy."

"Hey, richboy. You back from the black lagoon then?" Trust Cindy to get straight to the point, he thought.

"Yeah. Did you want to talk to Max?"

"She there?"

"Listenin' in," said Max, grinning.

"You gonna be comin' home tonight, boo? Or have you and your squeeze got better things to do?"

"Uh, I don't know. Haven't thought that far ahead yet. Anyway, we're trying to keep a guard on Logan as much as possible now Lydecker's looking for him. How about you come over here? Brin could probably use the company."

"She fine?"

"Manticore design at it's finest."

"Sounds good. Where's your boy's new place at, boo?"

"1066 Alexander. See you around seven thirty?"

"Cool. But I don't wanna see anythin that'll give me nightmares."

"You won't," chuckled Max. "Anyway, Logan's cooking."

"Hey! I made lunch!"

"It's either that or let me loose in your kitchen."

"Ok, I'm cooking."

"So I'm finally goin to get to find out what you been ravin about all this time? I'll be there. Later."

"Later, boo," said Max.

The couple returned to their peaceful embrace, the quiet enveloping them in a soothing cocoon. Reluctantly, Max was the first to break it, knowing Logan would need some encouragement to tell her about himself.

"Ok, Logan, it's your turn to spill all your embarrassing secrets."

"Compared with what you just told me, my problems fade into insignificance. Anyway, you look exhausted…"

"Oh no, you are not wriggling out of this. You said you'd tell me, and I'm not letting you get up until you do."

"Oh, all right, if it'll make you feel better. Get comfy, this'll take a while." Obediently, Max curled her legs under her and snuggled even closer to Logan, resting her head on his shoulder. Rather surprised, and pleased, Logan tightened his arms about her slender waist before he began.

"My dad inherited a medium sized car plant from his father when he was 21. Within twenty years, Cale Industries was a multi-million dollar international corporation manufacturing computer chips. My mom was a brilliant musician. She came from a small town in Wyoming, but she won all sorts of scholarships and managed to get to study music at Yale. My dad went along to one of her performances, and followed her around for two weeks until she agreed to go out with him. They were married a year later. Two years after that, she gave birth to a son, heir to the Cale Empire."

"You," interjected Max, firmly.

"No, actually. My older brother Jonathon."

"I didn't know you had a brother! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm coming to that bit later. I told you it was a long story."

"Ok. Get on with it then."

"Anyway. Jonathon was two years older than me, and I had a sister too, Katrina, who was a year younger." Max opened her mouth and sensing her movement, Logan continued before she could say a word. "If you're going to keep interrupting I'm going to stop and go check my emails." He heard her teeth click together sharply as she shut up and he grinned.

"As soon as Jon was born, dad started really pushing Cale Industries. He wanted to leave it to his kids, give them an inheritance, you know the drill. He had it all planned out in his head. Jon as CEO, running the ship with the same golden touch as his dad, me as one vice principal and Kat married to another one. I don't think he ever really let go of that vision."

"Course it didn't work out like that. Jon was definitely not CEO material. Dad invested millions in his education, private tutors, extra classes, everything, but it never changed the fact that Jon was… dumb. Dad always refused to believe that the only thing he was really good at was football. Kat was just like mom, except she was an artist instead of a musician. And then there was me, the younger son. The spare, intended to spend my whole life licking my brother's boots like Jonas had to."

"Then, we found out my mother had cancer of the lymph glands. She had chemotherapy, drugs, more drugs, dad even turned part of the house into a hospital for her. He employed nurses around the clock, paid for any treatment that might help. Nothing worked. She died when I was twelve, after two years of illness. Nothing was ever the same after that."

"Dad couldn't cope with losing her, so he threw himself into his work. We hardly saw him any more. Jon was the only one he really noticed. While he scraped through high school with C's, despite all the extra tuition he got, I was bringing home straight A report cards and dad never noticed. He just said well done and keep up the computing, because that would be useful when I was head of research and development. So I did, because it was the only thing he seemed to approve of me doing."

"Jon and I didn't exactly get along, as you can probably imagine. He didn't like the fact I was smarter than him, so he took great pleasure in making my life a misery. His favourite trick was stealing my glasses and hiding them in a high, exposed place. I had to get Kat to get them back for me, she never had a problem with heights. We were pretty close. Whenever Jonas brought our cousins over Bennett, Kat and me spent our time avoiding Jon and Bennett's brothers."

"Then, on his seventeenth birthday, dad bought Jon a bright yellow Porsche 911 convertible. Jon of course was delighted. He drove it everywhere, showing off to people by never driving at less than double the speed limit. One day, dad asked Jon to pick up Kat from a late art class at school. Jon complained because he wanted to go to a party, but he showed up to get her anyway. I think secretly he was as fond of her as I was."

"They never made it home. Jon had been speeding as usual to get back in time for the party and wrapped the car around a tree. Police reckoned he had to have been going at least a hundred when they crashed. Jon was killed outright. Kat was in a coma for two weeks before she had a fatal brain haemorrhage. Suddenly there was just me and dad left from a family of five."

"I took up web design to take my mind off things. I figured if it worked for dad, it would for me too. Guilt and grief meant he almost never came home from work. And that was his undoing."

"In the fall of '06 he was working on the preliminary designs for the first generation of hoverdrones. Unfortunately, one of his competitors wasn't pleased about it. On the fourth anniversary of my mother's death we went to the cemetery together. I was standing right in front of him by mom's grave. I saw something, a movement behind him, but I thought nothing of it, then. Now, I realise it was the assassin lining up his shot. If I'd only looked closer I could have done something… shouted, pushed him down… something… but I didn't."

"The bullet took him in the back of the head and went straight through. If I'd been a couple of inches taller it'd have killed me too. The body fell on top of me and I hit my head on the tombstone. I don't remember anything after that. When I came to, I was in hospital, surrounded by cops and Jonas. They'd cleaned the blood off me by then. Killer was never found, officially at least. It was so weird. All my life I'd been trying so hard to please dad and suddenly he was just… gone. Wiped out in a split second right in front of me."

"After that, Jonas adopted me to get hold of my 50 share of the company. I went to live with him and Margo. Of course they couldn't wait to get rid of me. Within three months, they'd packed me off to the most expensive boarding school they could find. I hated it of course, but there were some advantages. Avoiding Jonas, Margo and my older cousins for a start. I met Sebastian there too. Graduated two years later, went to Yale to get my first computing degree."

"I was still trying to please Jonas back then. Did whatever he wanted, but it was never good enough. If I ever didn't win something, he acted like I'd come last. If I did, he'd say it was nothing to be proud of because I should win anything I entered. I had to be the best, no matter what. You should have seen him when I broke up with Daphne. He was convinced it was my fault. I married Valerie on the rebound just to try and get him off my back."

"Then the pulse happened. Jonas never saw it as anything other than a business opportunity. After all, all those fried computer chips would need replacing. He imported millions of them from facilities overseas and made a killing. There were people starving on the streets and he didn't care. As long as he could grow even richer on their suffering he couldn't give a shit. It was disgusting."

"On my 21st birthday I came into my inheritance from dad. But after the pulse, I didn't want it. If Cale Industries was benefiting from the total destruction of millions of lives I didn't want to own it. I wanted to sell the shares but Jonas wouldn't let me get rid of them. So I became a sleeping partner. I got a share of the profits but made no decisions within the company. It made sense at the time. After all, we'd need cash with a child on the way…"

Ooh, another cliffhanger! Bad me. I'll try not to keep you waiting too long. Tell me what you thought, anyway.