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Working Title: Apprentice of Evil.
Part Seven: 493
Max didn't know what to do. She was still quite physically capable, but definitely showing, IF you knew her. She needed to get out of Seattle; she wasn't up to dodging Lydecker and crew. Plus, for the first time it felt like she really had something to lose if they killed her.
She couldn't even go see Logan again; he would definitely notice.
She didn't know how to contact any of her sibs. She couldn't ask Original Cindy to go on the lamb with her; she wasn't built to survive it. She didn't know anyone else she could trust. She spent an inordinate amount of time crying on top of the Space Needle. Logan had been paging her, but he wouldn't tell her what was wrong over the phone, and she couldn't go over there for the reason that would be obvious if he saw her. She packed her things while Original Cindy was asleep, and left. She climbed to the top of the space needle for what she planned to be the last time and tossed her pager off. She had been sitting on there for hours, trying to figure out where to go.
She could go up to Canada. That was the quickest, easiest, way out of the country. She knew who Logan used to get the papers. Cash wasn't one of her problems right now. She could get papers from the same guy with no questions asked; at least, not asked until after she was long gone. She could easily tolerate the cold in some of the remotest regions, but would her child be able to?
She could go down to Mexico. It had been a while since she had spoken Spanish, but X5s don't forget. She could probably pass as a native there. Maybe even find Jace.
The only trouble was that she didn't want to go. Seattle was home, and Logan was here. She just sat there trying to think of some way to stay with Logan. But the only way she could think of involved an unacceptable sacrifice. She wanted the baby, Logan's baby. She knew very well she would never have another chance, to carry his child, to have someone that was at least partially like her. To Max, her child represented her only hope of having someone who would really love her.
Max knew she loved Logan, she could admit that now. But she also knew he didn't love her. How could he? How could a beautiful, intelligent, noble man like Logan love something cooked up in a test tube? But the baby wouldn't know any better. Maybe for the first time in her whole life she could love someone with her whole heart and be loved in return.
She tried to imagine his reaction if she told him about their child. He'd probably propose, or ask her to move in with him. For the baby's sake, because he felt responsible for knocking her up in the first place. She didn't want that. She wanted him to be happy, find a normal girlfriend who he could fall in love with instead of being stuck with her because he'd got her pregnant. He probably didn't even want a kid; certainly not with her.
She knew she should leave Logan a note, but she had no idea what to say, so she didn't. She knew she had to go back into soldier mode for awhile. Forget everything that being with Logan had taught her about being human until she was somewhere safe.
In the end it was the hope of finding Jace that was the deciding factor. She wanted to be with someone like her.
She was about to go down and start south, when she heard someone else in the café. Who else could possibly be up here? It was pretty well secured to keep the local gangs out. You had to jump a 14 foot fence then one heck of a leap where they severed the stairs to make it this far. She turned to face the handsome young man behind her.
"Maxie?" he asked.
Max's face lit up with joy as she though she recognized the same smiling face that used to make up stories to comfort her when they were just children. "Ben?"
TBC