Disclaimer: I don't own anything although I wish every Christmas I owned Zack.

A/N: Sorry, for taking so long to update. Review please. P.S. hphotshot, please continue your story. I was loving it until you stopped writing. Keep going, it's great. Max/Zack rocks!

Max woke when the sun pierced through the curtains and realized that someone was watching her. She lifted her head from her mate's chest and saw Zack smiling dazzlingly at her. She smiled back and traced his lips with her fingers.

"I'm glad you decided to take up my offer on smiling more," she said.

"It isn't so bad," he joked.

"And you have a sense of humour now too." She chuckled. "Never thought I'd see the day when serious, stoic, 'I'm the C.O., don't mess with me' Zack would get one."

He put on a hurt look. "Not fair."

She laughed and kissed him. "I love you."

He looked at her tenderly. "I love you too, Maxie. Always." He sighed and pulled her closer. "I wish I could wake up every morning like this."

"You can," she told him.

He looked down at her thoughtfully. "Yeah, I can. It's just that I'm still so new to this. I've wanted us to be together for almost all my life and now it's happening, and… it's just so hard to believe."

"I know how it feels," she responded. "To get something you've wanted for so long, but it feels unreal because you never thought it'd happen."

"Yeah."

She kissed him again and got up to get dressed, Zack watching her every move. "I know O.C. and Alec covered for us with Normal, but we're toast if we keep ditching work. Besides, I don't need Sketchy to tell him I was detained by the sector police for practicing witchcraft again."

Zack laughed and started to dress himself as well. "Was he dropped on his head when he was a baby? I mean, I like the guy and all although he's weird."

"Sketchy's aiight if you get used to him being an idiot." Max shook her head. "Too bad I don't think he'll ever grow out of it. But he's a great friend."

"I can see that," Zack said as he pulled on his pants. "You're lucky to have made yourself a new life, Max. And it's great that you found people who know our secret but who care about you just the same. Not everyone is as fearless to befriend someone like us."

Max nodded her head. "Yeah, I am." She turned towards him, now fully dressed. "Karma making a comeback, huh?"

"Uh huh. Come on, we need to eat breakfast and get to work before Normal fires our transgenic asses," Zack said and they walked into the kitchen.

Alec looked up from his coffee. "Hey guys. I'd ask if you slept well but according to the noises last night I'd assume you didn't sleep very much," he said, raising his eyebrows and grinning.

Max whacked him on the head. "No dirty comments during breakfast or I'll smack that grin off your face, ya hear?"

Alec rubbed the back of his head muttering something that sounded like, "Why in God's name did they have to make X5 women so strong?"

Zack pulled up a chair as Cindy placed a bunch of pancakes in the middle of the table. She waved an egg beater at the three X5s.

"I know you boos eat a lot, but there better be some pancakes left after Original Cindy gets her decaf."

Max laughed at her friend. X5s were known to have a, uh, healthy appetite. "Where'd you find pancake mix in this broken city?"

O.C. smiled mischievously. "You transies aren't the only ones who've got a few tricks up their sleeve. Original Cindy is keeping this one a secret."

Zack tasted the coffee. "This stuff actually tastes like something half decent, not like when the coffee we had in that shop when you thought I was Sam and tasted like goat piss."

Max nodded her head, remembering that time. "Yeah, if it's any consolation for treating you horribly because of Herbal getting fired, I thought you were damn hot."

Zack raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

Alec chose this moment to intervene. "I thought you said no dirty comments, Oh Queen of Bitchiness."

Max whacked him on the head again.

"I'll shut up now," he said.

They continued talking until they had to leave for work. Before they walked out the door, Max's pager beeped. She didn't even have to look at it to know who it was. She looked at Zack, then back at her pager, conflicted on what she should do. She sighed. "I guess I'll just swing by quickly before work."

"I'll come with you," Zack said.

"No, I need to do this alone. I'll see you later." Noticing Zack's anxious expression, she kissed him and said, "I'll be fine. I'll only stay a minute." With that, she walked toward the penthouse of the man who was so eagerly expecting her.

"Max," Logan said. He stood up and walked toward her, but she kept her distance.

"Logan, we already talked about this. I'm sorry, but I love Zack. I love you too, but not in the same way. As a friend. I can't be with you the way you want me to. I need you to accept that and move on with your life."

"You are my life, Max."

Max struggled not to get angry at him. "I'm sorry, Logan, but get over it. Zack's my past, present and future. I won't ever love anyone other than him. I want us to be friends again so badly, please Logan, I need you to understand."

Logan bowed his head. "Okay. Friends for now it is. I'll do it for you."

Max sighed in relief. "Thank you."

'I won't give in that easily,' Logan thought. 'I'll be with her again, even if I have to force her to love me. She'll realize once Zack's out of her life for good that she loves me. Even if she refuses to be with me, I'll find a way to make her.'

At this thought he brightened up and smiled cheerily. Max was a little uneasy by his sudden acceptance and behaviour, but she shrugged it off. 'Who knows what goes on in that little computerized mind of his.'

"Well, then, you should be getting to work," he said.

"Uh, yeah, work, right." She turned around and left, too bothered by her thoughts on the way he was acting to even say goodbye.

As soon as she stepped into Jam Pony, two people were in front of her. One person she wouldn't mind seeing every second of her life, and the other… well, not someone she particularly enjoyed seeing for more than a millisecond.

"You're late Missy Miss," Normal said.

"No, I'm not," she defended. "It's exactly 8:00."

"It's five seconds past 8:00," he said, pointing at his watch. "Don't be late again or you'll have to find another job."

Max rolled her eyes. "In case your head's too up your butt to realize, or maybe you're just too busy having gladiator dreams about Alec, but we're all looking for another job."

At Normal's gaping expression, she smirked. "Yes, Normal, we all know about your sick gladiator dreams. Ease up on staring at Alec's butt a bit, though, okay? He's getting majorly freaked out."

She stalked off with Zack trailing. She opened her locker and he leaned against it.

"So what happened with Logan?" he asked.

"He actually took it pretty well," she said. "Although I have a feeling he hasn't completely let go, because he was acting sort of strange."

"Maybe he's coming around," Zack said, although he felt that something was definitely off.

"Yeah maybe," she said absentmindedly. "Where did I put that money?" she muttered.

Zack opened his mouth to answer but a loud crash was heard. They looked at each other and shook their heads. "Sketchy," they said. Then they raced towards the source of the sound and sure enough, they found Sketchy on the floor with his bike beside him.

Max and Zack stepped up to O.C.

"When is that boy ever gonna learn?" she said. "Wiggy here was trying to impress the new worker Melanie. She damn fine, but not Original Cindy's type unfortunately."

"Bummer," Max said.

Sketchy walked toward them, still looking a little disoriented. "Hey guys. Glad you're back. This way Normal will spend more time yelling at Max than staring at Alec which creeps him out."

"You're telling me," Alec said, coming up to them. "That guy definitely isn't normal."

"Actually, yes he is," Sketchy said. "Get it? Normal? His name's Normal?" he started, cracking up at his own joke.

O.C. rolled her eyes and smacked him upside the head which made him start coughing. "I think that accident with the bike made you lose more brain cells 'cause your jokes are lamer than usual, boy."

That got the rest of them laughing.

"Report," White said.

"We've already terminated about 40 transgenics, Sir," Otto said.

"Good. Keep running the signal. We need to get rid of as many as we can."

Otto nodded and left. White went back to remembering the DNA workup of the X5. "Why did Renfro keep that?" he wondered. "Is there something special about this X5?"

Lydecker looked over Max's workup. "No junk DNA. Every gene is coded to do something. This has to be it. Max is the one."

A/N: Dun dun dun… Please review and give me feedback where necessary.

Thanks to –

Iridescent Twilight – I smell Logan who's going to do something stupid soon. LOL Love your fic by the way.

kiwifruit03 – Thanks for reviewing

hphotshot – Yeah, eventually they'll go to Terminal City. Don't worry. I plan ahead. Well, sort of. LOL Please continue your story, I was loving it!

willow98002 – Thanks for reviewing!

shygirl1 – Thanks for reviewing!