Chapter Twelve

Innocence


The following weekend:

Max-

The drive to Toren Oregon Julia Lydecker's final resting place was a long one. Between the check points and the drive itself we had been in the car for eight hours and for the past three out of those eight hours Logan laughed and made fun of me for acting like a child for repeatedly asking "Are we there yet?" You'd think after a year, he'd be used to me not being able to sit still. I mean hey I jumped out of a window the first day we met…

-o-o-o-

Once past the final checkpoint and into the small town she allowed her mouth to drop, "It's Mayberry."

Logan laughed, "You know Mayberry?"

"I've caught a few reruns," she sheepishly admitted, but then turned her gaze back to the town, "I didn't know there were places like this that still existed."

"Yea," he said looking around at the small country stores and people walking down the street, "looks like they've been a little more prosperous than Cape Haven."

"So where to first?" Max asked, half expecting Logan to send her to the trenches of some library to do actual research before they approached the locals.

Logan looked around as the drove through the only slightly populated street. "Coffee," he said with a smile, he needed it after 8 hours in the car with the five year old version of Max.

-o-o-o-

Inside The Diner

"Max," Logan whispered tapping her on her shoulder.

"Hmm?" She murmured turning and then following his gaze to the wall opposite the counter, it was covered with pictures, she hadn't bothered to glance at, only look for the waitress.

It was a picture of a young Lydecker, his face and his eyes so innocent and hopeful that half of her didn't even believe it was him. His arm was around his wife, who Max could once more see clearly that she wasn't a clone of, she did have her eyes, but their faces held more of a resemblance than anything else, her skin darker than her own, her hair a different texture.

It was the cute little boy sitting on Lydecker's lap that Max finally forced her attention towards, she didn't want to look at the little boy who had died so young, didn't want to see the child who was everything to Lydecker she was never going to be, but had always wanted to be as a child.

He was cute.

Like really cute, his hair was a sandy brown, but he was still too young for it to be anything but a baby's breath on his head and hazel eyes stared out past his death and seemed to bore into Max's soul.

Seeing that little boy, who had his life snatched away from him at five made Max want to cry.

She blamed his mother's eyes, this little part of her DNA was once the same part that watched that little boy grow and then whither away. Was that somehow recorded into her DNA? Could feelings be passed along like traits? Hadn't they disproved that decades ago?

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't realize anyone had come in…How can I help you?" Max ignored the voice, trying keep the tears in her eyes.

"Two cups of coffee would be great." She heard Logan say

She took a deep breath and turned

The woman looked up as she grabbed two cups and saucers from beneath the counter and her eyes connected with Max's. For a moment all Max could see was kindness, a sweetness in those old grayish blue eyes that she rarely saw in the city and then suddenly Max saw shock. The shock she had seen in Original Cindy's eyes after she found out about Manticore, the way Max feared people would see her if they ever found out the truth about her.

She heard the ceramic shatter on the ground and it seemed to pull the woman out of her daze.

Logan's eyes connected with Max's, asking her if they should run, wondering if this place wasn't a set up.

Before even Max could decide the old woman raised a hand up to her mouth, "Oh my god you have her eyes." She turned to the wall where they had been looking before turning back to Max.

Max just kept her mouth shut.

"Julia Lydecker?" Logan supplied, they had come here looking for answers.

She nodded in affirmation and then suddenly realized what had just happened "Oh dear, I gave you a heart attack didn't I? Sit down kids." She motioned to the stools in front of her and took out two new cups and filled them before she talked again. "I'm sure your father must have looked at you a thousand times like that. You just looked so much like her at that moment; you could always see what she was feeling in her eyes."

"Yea he told me I have her eyes." Play the part Max, the voice inside her reminded

She smiled again, "Deck did love your mother's eyes. Said he could stare into them for hours and he wouldn't only see her, he saw parts of himself he had never dreamed possible."

Logan smiled, "I know that feeling."

"Oh you know what we haven't introduced ourselves, I'm Dorothy Woodrick. I've owned this place since your father was a boy coming here with his parents."

"I'm Logan Cale and this is Max," he said extending a hand.

"Just Max?"

Max nodded, there was something off about this whole thing, what had Lydecker said about gut? She should so be out of this town by now.

"Max, you know that names seems so familiar. Maybe your mother mentioned it once."

Finally Max knew she needed to speak, "She died before I was born."

Sympathy flooded the woman's eyes, "Oh honey I know, I lay flowers at her grave every 4th of July."

"Why the fourth?" Logan asked.

"It was the last time I saw her alive and that's how I want to remember her." Her mind drifted back to that day, it was evident in her eyes as she spoke, "I can still remember your parents that day, been together over a decade and they still acted like they had met only yesterday."

"Can you tell me about it?"

She extended a hand and placed it over Max's. "Oh sure honey. Let's see. It was a sweltering day, had to have been mid-nineties. Oh you know what I have a picture on the wall."

She walked over the wall and scanned it, she found the picture and took it off the wall and then gestured for Max and Logan to sit at a table opposite of her. She turned the pictured around and gave it to Max, it was still a younger Lydecker that Max found disconcerting, but she could see the lines had formed around his eyes, guess losing a child did that to a person. The woman's hair was up in a sloppy knot, it was frizzing, they both had on bathing suits, hers a black bikini, the bottom covered by a pair of ultra short army fatigues, the store bought kind and his just a pair of black trunks, though longer than she would have expected from him, then again he never had dressed very out of style, even now in his fifties. The thing Max couldn't get over was the fact that they both were covered in paint.

Max just looked up confused at Dorothy.

She laughed, "Face painting every year. It's a tradition." She laughed some more, "The stars and the moons is actually quite masculine for Jules. Your poor father had rainbows, butterflies, balloons, god, just about every embarrassing thing your mother could think of."

"He didn't mind?"

"No, not at all. He'd complain like he did, but you could always see the laughter in his eyes."

"What's POD?" Logan asked examining Julie's camouflaged face and body, wondering what the word across her chest meant, he doubted it meant pod, like a pea pod.

"P.O.D. Property of Deck. He labeled her every year, not like she'd ever forget though; she loved that man more than anything." She once more extended a hand across the table to cover Max's "She loved you too, even though you never met her."

"How is that possible?" She still found the whole thought of being thought of as a dead woman's child a little disconcerting, but it was obvious the woman had more than believed it possible.

"Well she created you didn't she? You know your father was so anti having more kids after Matty died, he blamed himself. But your mother knew better, she knew how much he loved that little boy and being a daddy. I remember asking her how she was going to make Deck agree with her, she said she wasn't going to give him a choice and just to be sure everything was going to go smoothly she was going to make sure you looked like her, so he could never be mad at you." Awareness dawned in the old woman's eyes, "She said she would make sure you had her eyes." She shook her head "God, I guess if you wish hard enough for something you really can make it happen."

Suddenly two people walked into the diner, "Hey Dorothy," they called out.

"I'll be right back," she said standing.

Max leaned into Logan, "I don't like this, I think we should leave."

"Why because you're finding out Lydecker isn't only human, he was a nice guy at one point?"

"Yea well if nice guys grow up to be Lydeckers I'm leaving you here." Max replied with her normal bite.

"You're afraid because you feel connected to him, you've always felt connected to him, he's been the only father you've ever had as horrible as that is."

"You know you're right, I don't have any choice in being connected to Lydecker, but I don't want to feel connected to this woman because I have her eyes. She isn't my mother, my mother is the woman who loved me and wanted to keep me."

"Yea, but a little part of you might be a little part of this woman."

"And I'm probably more connected to alley cats."

"I figured it out," Dorothy said sitting back down

"That was quick," Logan said startled by her reappearance.

"They just wanted pie and coffee. Speaking of which, can I get you kids anything else. A refill on that coffee Logan?"

"No thank you."

Max looked over and saw Logan's almost drained coffee cup and then down at her completely full one, she forced herself to take a sip and shook her head.

"So what is it you figured out Dorothy?" Logan asked

"Your name, your brother's favorite cartoon or maybe it was just the only one your mother let him watch 'Mighty Max.'"

"Mighty Max?" Logan bit back a laugh, thinking once more of Phil.

"I was not named after a cartoon," Max said giving him the evil eye. I freakin named myself and this jerk is thinking that I'm on a trip down memory lane.

"Your father never told you anything about your mother or brother did he?"

Max shook her head

"Your brother started getting sick when he was around 4, no one knew what was going on, he was just a little boy who got sick really easily. Your parents had been trying to have another child since he was 2 or maybe 3; no it was 2 years because they thought a 3 year gap was perfect. Two kids at 21 wouldn't have made sense to anyone but your parents. Well anyway, they started doing all of that in-vitro stuff right before Matty starting getting sick. Before they realized how sick he was and they stopped trying to have you to focus on him, he always said he wanted to name you Max after the character in the show. I think it was like Maximilus or something, the point is you should be really grateful you were a girl."

Max couldn't fake another smile, another response, "You know it's getting really late, it was a long drive."

"Oh of course. You're not staying at the cabin are you? I can't imagine how much work that place needs. I wouldn't be surprised if all your mother's things were still out."

"No we're staying in a cabin on the lake," Logan once more answered for Max. "I wonder though if you could draw us a map for how to get to there tomorrow though." His words were seamless.

"Oh not a problem," she stood and walked over the counter.

Logan followed her, "You know I really want to thank you for all you've done."

She waved her hand "Oh it was nothing; I have tons of stories about those two. If your girlfriend's ever up to hearing them I'll be more than willing to tell them." She stopped writing out directions and looked over at Max who was staring at the wall. "She just found the picture of Deck when he caught that big ol' fish. He wasn't a good dad to her was he?"

Logan shook his head "He let his old demons drive him. It's hard to imagine that guy in the picture as they guy we just left."

"He loved her didn't he?"

Logan nodded, knowing he wasn't lying "He just didn't show it very well."

"What a shame" she said shaking her head, "Well here are the directions, I think they're pretty clear, now you go take that pretty little girl of yours to the cabin, she needs some rest. Coffee's on the house."

Logan smiled and gave his thanks.

"Uh, thanks for everything Dorothy," Max said when Logan rejoined her

She was putting the picture back down on the table, when Dorothy called out "Oh honey you can keep it, I'm sure I've got another one I can pop up somewhere."

"Thanks," Max melting into Logan as he put an arm around her to lead her out of there.


Okay so this chapter was for every time I've heard, that was such a short chapter...I hope you didn't fall asleep in the middle of it. Oh and babyangel I'm sorry I killed someone off on your bday, though now you are forever connected to my story, which makes sense since you review the most and have kept these chapters being posted. Sorry it was a kid dying though.