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Chapter 2: Hide and Seek and Destroyed

Logan was sitting at his computer array. Most of the screens were off. His headset was on and he was thoroughly absorbed in whatever he was working on.

Bitsy tapped him on the shoulder. He quickly tabbed away from the window, removed the headset, and turned to face Bitsy. "You're back early. It's only …" Logan was smiling until he actually checked his watch. "Uh oh."

Bitsy glared at him, arms crossed, foot tapping firmly. "Where are my children?"

"Umm," Logan stared up at her. "Oh, no."

Bitsy just stared at Logan, watching him squirm, taping her foot.

"They are around here somewhere. Max would have told me if they were going someplace."

"Max?" Bitsy glared at him. "Glad you could find a babysitter on short notice. Very resourceful of you."

'You have no idea,' Logan thought. "Max!" he called.

There was a faint giggling from the front room. Logan tried smiling at Bitsy, who glared at him for a moment. She turned on her heel and marched into the front room when she couldn't keep a straight face any more.

"Brandon! Brittany!" she called. Bitsy followed the giggling to the tiny tent city. Logan took an awfully long look around the front room and wondered if he could have worked straight through an attack. Logan couldn't see any bullet holes. Gunfire would have been loud enough he would have heard it even through the headphones, wouldn't it have? Not if they had silencers. Damn. Nah, he finally concludes, Max could have handled an attack.

"So, does 'Max' have much experience babysitting?" Bitsy glared at him.

"No." It was all Logan could think to say as he looked around at the devastation.

It was all Bitsy could do to keep a straight face. Logan looked so …dumbfounded. She had never seen her brilliant, opinionated, stubborn, cousin so at a complete loss. She'd never even heard of Logan being at a loss for words. No one was going to believe this.

"He he," Brandon giggled delightedly, still in Bitsy's arms.

Logan snapped out of his shock when the flash went off.

"Mom's always have a camera," Bitsy explained.

"Ah hah!" and a very high pitched scream came from behind Logan. Logan jumped. Bitsy snapped another picture.

Logan turned his wheelchair around and glared at Max who was approaching him carrying Brittany. "Max," he said warily.

"I caught this intruder trying to get into the main computer, Sir!" Max held Brittany upside down with one hand and saluted with another. Brittany was squealing delightedly. Bitsy was laughing silently behind Logan, regretting she couldn't see the look on his face while he just sat there, speechless.

"Let me fix you something to eat." Logan tried quickly.

"I'm full!" declared Brittany. Logan looked like he was going to be ill.

"What did you cook them for lunch, Max?" Logan asked.

"Max doesn't cook! Cales cook!" Brandon declared triumphantly.

Logan looked pretty ill. "Uh oh," slipped out before Logan could stop it.

"Really, you think?" Bitsy asked, apparently quite upset.

"Well, what did you do for lunch? You let Brandon cook?" Logan accused Max.

"Depends…on what you consider cooking." Max answered with a nonchalant shrug.

"We killed wild chips. We found a whole herd!" squealed Brandon.

"But we only kill what we need!" Brittany declared solemnly, as if she where dispensing the wisdom of ages.

"That right!" Max confirmed.

"Been teaching them the ways of the forest?" Bitsy asked. Max shrugged again.

"You had chips for lunch?" Logan asked, even though he really didn't want to know the answer.

"Not just chips." Max replied.

"We ambushed cookies, too!" Brittany added.

"Ambushed?" Logan looks at Max.

"Yep. They set up at the doorway, one on either side." Max motioned dramatically at doorway. "We knew that this was the cookies natural migration path, so it was just a matter of time."

Logan looked down at the floor. There was indeed the remains of a package of cookies, and a large crumb trail, all over the floor.

"Cookies too," said Brandon.

"You had chips and a bag of cookies for lunch?" asked Bitsy.

"Well that's not all." Logan was relieved when Max said that, until she continued. "They told you. Two bags of cookies." Logan actually groaned at that. If they were the ones that pigged out on junk food why was he the one feeling sick to his stomach?

"Anything else?"

"Soda."

Max and Bitsy made sure that they walked into the kitchen in front of Logan. He was in shock at seeing his kitchen in such a state of disarray that he didn't even notice Bitsy had turned off her flash and was snapping more pictures. There were empty soda cans strewn about. Wooden spoons, spatulas and assorted cooking tools lined up along the floor like they were marking a runway. An empty bottle of wine in a circle of flowers.

"Max?" Logan pointed to the bottle of wine.

"Empty when we found it." Max held up her hands in a universal gesture innocence.

"We spun the bottle. Michael at school said he played spin the bottle and it was cool, but Max doesn't know how to play. Do you know the rules?" asked Brittany.

Max shrugged and gave her best innocent look. "Never heard of it." Max smiled and cocked her head. "Have you?" she turned and looked at Logan. Logan just glared at her.

"I think they know and just won't tell us." Brittany pouted.

"You could be right about that." Max replied in a stage whisper. She nodded at Brittany. Brittany smiled back.

"That is what all three of you ate?" Logan asked.

"Even you?" Bitsy asked Max, not believing an adult could be so irresponsible, well not with that figure anyway.

"Yep!" Max replied.

'Life just sucks,' thought Bitsy. "I guess that explains the running around."

"Roadrunners like cookies. Beep. Beep." Brandon declared.

"On the bright side, they should sleep tonight." Max said.

"Max is really fast!" Brittany said.

Logan looks at Max. Max smiled. "Well I am, probably, the fastest runner here." Logan sighed.

Bitsy let out an overly dramatic sigh. "Speaking of running, we do need to get going."

They all walked to the front door. Bitsy tried to sound casual when she said "They really like you, Max. You're better with kids than you give yourself credit for. … So when are the two of you planning on having kids?"

Logan was about to laugh when he saw Max smile at him thoughtfully and the only reply she had for Bitsy was a thoughtful sounding "Hmmmm."

Logan's jaw dropped. Bitsy's camera snapped six pictures before Logan's expression turned angry. "Damn it, Bitsy!"

"Bad words!" scolded Brandon.

Logan, duly chastised, took a deep breath before he continued. "Bitsy, I don't deserve this from you. I was trying to doing you a favor. On less than four hours of sleep."

"You were? Gosh, it seemed like you just brushed the kids off on Max. Whom you called for 'help' with absolutely no clue why you needed help"

"You did give me quite a scare when you just dropped the phone like that."

"Fine!" Logan conceded. "Max is the one with a right to be mad at me, not you."

"Of course, Logan." Bitsy replied. "Max, how many copies do you want?"

"How about one of each?" Max said with a smile.

"Sure, pick 'em up anytime tomorrow. I should be home all day. Thanks. For everything." Bitsy smiled at Max and waved.

"Goodbye, Max!" The children chorused, they added "Bye Uncle Logan!" only after Max covertly pointed at him.

The door shut and the silence was deafening.

"Why didn't you come get me to fix lunch?"

"I tried. Three times, you were on a phone call."

He was. He remembered that now. He had abandoned Max after she had come over the help him. He screwed up, again. One of these days she was going to be fed up with him. "I cannot believe this." He said looking around at the mess. He deserved this. It was the least he deserved. He only hoped that after he spent a week cleaning this up that Max would consider his debt paid in full. It would take him a week, too. For the umpteenth time, he cursed the chair and his own disability.

"You knew I had no idea how to take care of kids."

"Well, yes, but …" Logan managed to stop himself before he brought up the fact that she was that age once. Max may have been six at some point, but she wasn't ever a child, not really. Logan Cale didn't do anything small, not even screw up, he thought cynically.

"I'm sorry." They said it in unison, each startling the other.

"'bout what?" They asked. Logan got a frustrated look on his face. Max was simply amused.

"Agreeing to watch the kids when I knew ...should've known I couldn't handle it. She called before I had any coffee. I was up until three."

"No big dealio. I'm sorry about the mess. Go to bed. I'll have it cleaned up for you by the time you get up." She turned and skipped into the kitchen, leaving a very puzzled Logan Cale behind her.

Logan knew he must be seriously over tired, because he couldn't figure out what was going on here. He wheeled into the kitchen after Max. Once he got there, he sat and watched her in amazement. The dishwasher was open. Spoons and spatulas were flying across the room to land in perfect place inside of it. Well, almost all of them. She moved so fast he could barely see her individual movements although they were obviously executed with precision. He just sat there staring at her. For the umpteenth time he was amazed by her grace and beauty.

She was done with the kitchen in five minutes. She finally noticed him staring at her. "What?"

"I was just …wondering … what …I mean. When you said you were sorry. I can't imagine why." Logan was pretty pleased with his fast thinking there.

"About the mess, Logan." Max repeated. He must be more tired than Max thought.

"We thrashed your place. You always keep it so …perfect and …we thrashed it. I'm sorry. I …we just weren't thinking about it. Y'know? We watched cartoons, the road runner. They were just so happy running around, jumping over the sofa. We made a race track." Max motioned to where the spoon line used to be. "I wasn't thinking. I was just ..."

"Playing." Logan finished for her. "That's fine, Max. Hadn't you ever done that before?"

Max shrugged. "Not like they encouraged it at Manticore. After that, it wasn't safe to … I probably shouldn't have."

Logan felt a strange warmth that his home was the only safety she'd ever known. "You should play more often."

"Really?"

"Really."

"So what's the dealio with this 'spinning the bottle' thing?"

Logan stared at Max, standing scant inches from him, empty bottle in hand. 'Could she really not know?' he thought.

"Actually, what I was thinking is that if I can get Bitsy to forgive me, and I swear to fix a real lunch, maybe we can have them over again. Maybe go to the zoo."

"The zoo?"

"They reopened last May. I hear they have a goat now."

"You have a more exotic creature in your apartment right now." Max said. 'That you obviously aren't interested in playing with,' Max thought sadly. "Better go clean up the rest of the place, since you obviously don't want to share your wisdom." Max smiled wistfully and put the empty bottle in the recycling bin.

If Logan hadn't been so tired, he would have objected to her calling herself a creature. It was one of many missed opportunities that he would eventually, deeply regret.

The End?

Nah! Next chapter: At the zoo!