Chapter Twenty
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The door opened only seconds after Max had knocked on it, she'd been riding around all day, stopping only because she realized she was going to run out of gas soon.
Original Cindy opened the door, the phone dropping away from her ear as she saw Max, "Oh thank god girl," she said wrapping her arms around Max, she separated to bring the phone back to her ear, "Logan she's here…Yea no, I won't leave her alone." she said over the phone, watching Max walk over to the sofa and drop onto it. "Your man's been worried sick all day." Cindy said pressing end.
She glared at Original Cindy, "He deserved to suffer a little."
"Okay well I'm guessing that means the honeymoon's over" Cindy said dropping down on the sofa next to Max. "Tell me what he was keeping from you."
Max stood and shook her head as she walked over to the window.
"It can't be that bad Max."
"No, this is pretty bad."
"Just tell me boo." Cindy said wrapping her arms around her.
"Normal was right." her voice was emotionless.
Original Cindy had no idea what her girl was talking about, so she tried to lighten her mood with humor, "So you're a lazy good for nothing"
It didn't work, Max turned and almost glared, "Lydecker's my father."
"That uh…he's…"
Max nodded.
"And Logan knew?" she asked piecing the puzzle together.
"He found out for sure today, but he's thought it for two weeks and never mentioned it to me."
"Oooh."
Max nodded.
"Can't believe anyone would treat their daughter like Lydecker treated you." she said shaking her head, the man had looked cold, but that was unimaginable.
"He didn't know." she shrugged weakly.
"Oh"
"Yea"
"So what you and Lydecker just supposed to sweep a decade worth of abuse and another one of him chasin you under the rug?"
"He'll be dead soon, no sweeping necessary."
"Max, I know you hate the man, but patricide is a little harsh."
She shook her head once more, "He doesn't need anyone's help getting killed."
Original Cindy didn't know what to do, so she just stayed there holding the stoic Max in her arms.
He was sleeping on the couch as she let herself back into the apartment. She paused to watch him for a moment and knew this day had been nearly as hard on him. She didn't doubt that he had followed her to Lydecker's apartment and probably searched all of her normal haunts looking for her. She was thankful though that once he knew she was safe he left her alone, giving her the space she needed.
The emotional drain on him was evident though as he slept with his head titled back on the sofa, files in his lap, he'd been waiting up for her. At least she understood now why Logan's sleep had been off for over a week. It was three am, he hadn't been asleep this early in at least 5 days and his sleep had been restless before that.
She made her way to the computer and put down the jewel cases Lydecker had left for her. Her hands trembled as she opened this first one and placed it in the dive.
She steadied her hand as she moved the mouse to open the file and then a small smile crossed her face when a picture appeared. It was Matthew, he must have been two or maybe three, she didn't have enough experience to be able to correctly date any child. He wasn't doing anything special, just standing in shorts before a body of water, probably the lake they'd stayed overlooking, orange bubbles on his arms. His skin had a slight tan to it, his hazel eyes popped, his hair had been spiked up with water. Max's fingers went out and touched the smiling cheeks and tears started to well up in her eyes. As much as she hated Lydecker and his wife….That little boy….He should have been her brother, he was her brother as much as Zack was.
"Max" she felt his arms go around her, she had missed hearing his movements, the sounds of the exo as he'd woken and walked to her, she had been too captivated by the picture on the screen.
She turned and buried her face in his neck. So many different thoughts and feelings ran through her, how this wasn't fair, how someone had stolen her life from her, she wondered who she would have been, she wondered how Lydecker could have done this to her, how Julia could have, she wondered not for the first time in her life who she was, so many questions there weren't answers to. Just Logan, "Who am I?" she whispered.
"Same person you've always been. Max. Sister, friend, love of my life. None of this changes that."
"I was his sister" she turned and looked at the monitor.
He nodded, "You still are, you've always been his sister."
Max blinked away the tears and looked at the face of the boy who had named her, but had never gotten to know her. She turned back to Logan, he was still there, still squatting by her side.
"I'm never leaving you, Max" he reassured as he raised a hand to her cheek.
"Life doesn't have guarantees. You can't promise that."
Tears caused his eyes to shine and he placed a hand on the back of her neck, green eyes stared deep into brown, "Yes I can. Even if I died tonight Max, I will never leave you."
She knew he was telling the truth, she would never be alone in this world again.
Yea okay, I did the whole Darth Vader and Luke thing. When I watched this show for the first time I was on the edge of my seat as they were about to have that convo (I really like Lydecker, he's got tons of potential, they were successful in making him a very human bad guy) and when I watched it for the second time I still remembered that. I almost took it out of the story, even though it was the reason why I wrote the story, but I decided against it. Different topic, unless I change my mind and decide there's something else I really wanna include next chapter is probably going to be the last one, just wanted to warn you, but there's a chance I could always come back to this story somewhere down their timeline. There are a few other things that I've been toying with, but I'm not sure if I actually want them in the story or not. Thanks for reading!
