Chapter Three

Inspiration


Max had her feet curled up underneath her on Logan's couch, staring out into the night, forgetting to even sip the tea he had given her almost a half hour ago.

"Explain to me why I went through the effort of making that?" Logan asked pausing in the doorway to just watch her, thankful that no matter what tomorrow might bring they had another night together. He had a feeling he was going to feel that way often.

She smiled and leaned forward to put her cup on the table before stretching out on the sofa. "Sorry busy thinking."

"Zack, the mission or Lydecker?"

Max frowned at the mention of Lydecker's name and realized she wanted to talk more to Logan about what Lydecker had said while waiting outside the strip club, instead of the two seconds worth of talk on the way to the Needle. "So I was inspired by with wife…How freaky is that?"

"Decently freaky," he answered lifting her legs up and sitting down on the couch before allowing them to fall back down. "What exactly did he mean by inspired?"

"I don't know," her head tilted as it often did while she was thinking, "he said I have her eyes."

"What did he mean by having her eyes? Did they take that part of her DNA or did they actually manipulate your DNA to have the same look?"

Max frowned, she didn't like having to think about this, this was worse than thinking about how she walked away from her chance at true freedom. "I don't know."

Logan thought about it for a moment, "The first one is probably more plausible, it seems to be what they do best, take little bits out of things they like."

Another frown, "I know. It's pretty disgusting to think that little section of me, the last time it was in use it was looking at him adoringly." She groaned, "And you should have seen the way he looked at me when he said that."

"Why was it the way I look at you?" He joked with that goofy smile of his.

She couldn't help but smile back, she wondered if…no be realistic Max, when this was going to stop being new and wonderful, she was a realist, she wasn't going to let falling in love change that. She laughed a bit, "Not quite"

"So what was it like?" He asked running a finger down her arch.

She squirmed a bit "Stop that...Umm I don't know what it was like. I think it was freaky because he reminded me how he stayed with me once when I was sick."

Logan looked puzzled.

"I was little, probably around 7, maybe 8. I know it was a bit before we escaped, I'm not sure how long though, time could get kinda blurry in a place like that." Her voice softened as he mind wandered back, "I was sick, I don't know with what, I collapsed during drills and I remember lying on the bed with a doctor standing next to me and seeing Lydecker come rushing through those doors…You know I think I've spent the past decade trying to forget that night and he remembered it so vividly."

"Why were you trying to forget about it?"

She paused for a moment, she had never said these words aloud, she'd barely even allowed her consciousness to allow them to bubble up occasionally from her subconscious, "It looked like love, like concern that something was wrong with someone you loved. It wasn't though, it was concern that something had happened to his project because that's all we ever were."

"I don't know, you are his favorite."

She glared at him, "How'd you know that?"

"Okay aside from the fact that he could have very easily pushed you into going tonight?"

"He couldn't have pushed me into anything?"

"Yea right…It's just how he looks at you, how he treats you…"

"God he wasn't looking at me like I was his wife was he?"

"No, not at all," Logan shook his head, "You know how he calls you guys his kids?"

Max nodded

"You can see it a bit when he looks at everyone else, you can see the concern. I mean the guy honestly does think he knows what's best for you, but Max, with you…It's like he wants to protect you." He looked out onto the living room, thinking of how Lydecker acted today. Nothing like the man he had talked to when Ben was on the loose, not at all like how Max described him.

"Oh god"

"What?" he asked turning back

"When we were in the motel, right before I woke up, he said that he wished he could take me away from all this, where they couldn't do anything to me."

Logan's brow furrowed, "He said that before you woke up?"

Max groaned and smiled, "You know that kinda dreamy/just been zapped with dozens of tasers kind of state, it was also when he talked about me being sick." She shook it off, "You know it's just because I've got her eyes. I'm sure a cat lover would treat me better than he did."

"Hmm"

"Hmm what?"

"Nothing just hmm."

She could tell he was lying, some days he was good at it, this was not one of those days. " Logan think of where my feet are…You've seen me kick threw walls."

"Easy there Maximum Girl."

"You're really amused by that possible alter ego today aren't you?" she asked with a nod.

"Just slightly."

"So what were you thinking?"

"Two things, one is Lydecker's unusual attachment to you being attributed to his late wife, his murdered in an unknown way late wife."

"That was only one," she pointed out when she realized he had stopped talking

"I know; I combined them."

"So weird attachment to me and dead wife. We never bothered to find out how she died?"

"We?" Logan raised an eyebrow

"I get shot at, you do computer work. We're a team."

"Hello, I get shot too; I just get hit when you manage to evade them."

She grimaced a little, "Sorry"

"No problem, you've got a very well adjusted Logan, well at least until this thing stops working." He poked at the exoskeleton.

Max lifted her legs off of Logan and adjusted them underneath her, she leaned forward, "Speaking of that thing working, didn't Zack interrupt something yesterday?"

"You know I do seem to recall that vaguely. You sure that was only yesterday?"

"It was…Now let me refresh your memory," she said with her first true smile of the day and proceeded to do just that.