Disclaimer: No infringement intended. Not affiliated in any way with anyone. Nothing to sue here people, move along.

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Logan broke the frenzied kissing to say, "I love you, Max." The small, soft squeak of the faucet was Max's only warning before she was drenched in cold water.

"LOGAN!" Max screamed his name, but not at all of the reasons she had imagined doing so five seconds ago. She made a half hearted attempt to move, but he held her tight under the icy water. They both knew she was stronger, but her will wasn't her own anymore. It was his, and she submitted to him.

"I love you, Max. That means I want you to be happy, not that I want to have sex with you."

"Logan. Please …"

"I am going to take care of you, not take advantage of you."

"But, I do want you Logan. I have…even before."

He so wanted to believe that, but he'd hurt her too much already. "You're in heat. You don't mean it. You would just hate both of us tomorrow."

"No, that's not true." Max held onto and caressed the strong arm that was holding her under the cold water that was slowly returning coherent thought to her. "I want you. I've wanted you. I just didn't think …you wanted a freak."

"Max, you tell me that when you're not in heat and I will give you the night of your life. I swear."

Max pulled him in to her and kissed him. Logan moved them both under the icy cold water.

"I love you, Max. I'm not going to let you do anything you'll hate yourself for. I'm going to take care of you."

Max didn't want to let go, but she didn't want Logan to catch hypothermia. She let him go and started to cry. She wasn't even quite sure why she was crying. Maybe it was because she'd never really had someone love her before, and he didn't believe she really wanted him. That she really loved him, too. She'd known she loved him since she came back to give him her blood. She'd rather die than go back to Manticore, and she'd rather go back to Manticore than let Logan die. She knew then that she had it pretty bad. She'd toyed with the idea of more to their relationship, a romantic side, but she'd never managed to completely convince herself he could settle for her, that she was worthy. The closest she came was last year, right after they perfected the cure, they were fixing up Sebastian, and she walked in and overheard Logan tell Sebastian he was in love. It never occurred to her that he was talking about her. Maybe she was crying because everything was going to be fine. Logan had said that all she needed to do was get over the heat and then they were going to be together. Max smiled and nodded, but couldn't stop crying.

"I'm going to go make you something warm to eat. I'll get some dry clothes for you. Everything is going to be alright Max. I promise."Logan almost kissed her on the top of the head, but then thought better of it and left her in the cold shower.

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True gentleman that he was, Logan let her have the master bedroom for the night. He placed a tray with a hot bowl of soup, some fruit and a sandwich on it just inside the door, but didn't come in. Max appreciated the thought, but spent the entire night tossing and turning in his bed, imagining the things they were going to do to each other right here, as soon as she could convince him that she really did want him.

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Max woke to find it was morning. Her pager was going off. It was work, what was work doing paging her on her vacation. Admittedly since gas prices had become even more unreasonable, the bike messenger business had been booming, but still a girl had to have her priorities.

She got out of bed, dressed, and went to find Logan. There was one moment of sheer panic when she found him on the floor of the other bathroom.

"Logan!" she screamed. He jumped, sat up a little to quickly and promptly threw up in the toilet he was laid next too. Hangover, Max thought, she might as well go in to work.

Logan stood up and turned sheepishly to Max. "Sorry. Are you …alright?"

"Yeah. I'm fine; back to …normal. Are you OK?"

"I will be. It's my own fault. Normal called, apparently there is a flu epidemic, he needs you to come in."

Max smiled, "And you weren't going to tell me unless I was over … it."

"Damn straight," Logan smiled back.

Max almost kissed him, but the smell…. "Will you be OK until I get back?"

"Yeah," Logan noticed her hesitation but misread the reason for it.

"OK, I'll see you tonight." Max turned to leave. "Logan, thank you."

"Anytime Max." Logan smiled. He stood staring after her long after she was gone. He knew she would be glad they hadn't done anything. He proceeded to brush his teeth while he thought about what last night would've been like if he didn't always do the right thing.

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Logan had all day to convince himself that he had made an ass out of himself. Max had said that she was coming over tonight, so she couldn't have been too put off. Unless it was just to say goodbye once and for all.

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Max was flying all day. She had actually slept the night before and felt remarkably refreshed. She knew she had a goofy grin on her face, just thinking about what she and Logan were going to do that night. She didn't want to explain it to any of her co-workers, not that there were that many in. Those that had showed up for work were kept busy picking up the slack for the ones that had called in sick. Fortunately, even on autopilot that was not difficult for Max.

Max even had time to stop into a quaint lingerie shop and pick up a flimsy little (very little) something in black.

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