A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed for your comments and b-day wishes.
And it doesn't look like I'll be going in for surgery on my wrist as soon
as I thought, but it will come, eventually. Now their saying it's not
really the cyst, it's tendonitis. And of course the doctor asks me if I'm
happy about that. It's like, what am I supposed to do? Break out a party
hat and run around the office yelling 'yeah for tendonitis'? But Anywhoo..
I don't really care what they say. It still hurts, they're still dumb, and
yous still want me to just shut up and get to the chapter..
A/N #2: It may look as if Kayla is being ignored, but not to worry. I plan to bring her back, possibly in a big way in a few chapters. First, I'll get the familiar deal taken care of and then I'll reopen that door.
________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 13: The Mighty Shall Fall
Friday, September 12th Terminal City Abandoned Warehouse
Ducking the blow to her head, Lex flipped back over the barrel between her and her adversary.
"You can't escape me," the familiar threatened, leaping up to join her.
"Arrggghhh!" Lex lunged her feet at him as powerfully as she could, sending him hurdling back into a metal pole. Following to where he landed, she turned and swung her elbow into his face, forcing twin rivers to flow from his nose. Giving a second blow, she knocked his head to the ground. Thinking he was out cold, she took a deep breath and began to examine her own injuries from the long fight. Her hands were spattered with blood; whose, she didn't know. A myriad of green and purple bruises adorned her chin, neck, and legs, and well as a lone one on her right arm. "Shit!" she cursed to herself, having underestimated the familiars. "Monkeys they are defiantly not." Caught off-guard by the awakening man below her, Lex suddenly felt herself flying backwards until something sharp pierced her side. "Ahhhh!" she screamed in agony.
"You're arrogance is your undoing," the familiar spat in her face and delivered a crushing blow to her temple.
Breathing deeply, her head bobbing like a blowing ball in her neck, Lex fought the blackness that was overcoming her. "No, no, no! Never back down!" she tried to yell at herself. "Get up; it's not that bad."
Before she was even halfway standing, the man grabbed her shoulder and whispered harshly in her ear, "You're just like your mother, transgenic filth. Who's superior now?" He brought his other hand to Lex's throat and began to slowly apply pressure to her windpipe, "I'd kill you right now if the conclave didn't want you alive. But say, in battle, you happened to loose you footing and fall from one of those rafters near the ceiling. I'm sure you'd still be just as useful for experiments."
As the man began to drag her towards the stairs, a semi-conscious Lex struggled to break free of his grasp. Suddenly, she began to have intense flashbacks from the last time a strange man dragged her off. With newfound vigor, Lex thrashed her neck from side to side and clawed mercilessly at the man's arms, face, and neck; wherever she could reach.
"Bitch!" the man screamed and dropped Lex as she snagged the cornea of his eye with her fingernail, rendering him blind.
Inhaling sharply, Lex took advantage of every second of mercy she could get. She clawed at his other eye, but missed, only breaking the skin just below his eyebrow. As he took back his hands, Lex cringed at the site of him- blood and the contents of his eye socket mixing into a gel as it oozed down his cheek. Just as he was ready to pounce, blood from the gash above began pouring into his other eye, depleting his clear vision. Lex dove behind him. As he felt around Lex's pervious location for her, she jump up and delivered one foul kick to the back of his head, sending him into the corner of the metal storage tank in front of him. As the sharp, protruding edge broke the skin and skull of his forehead, he fell to the ground. His face was barely recognizable with bits of bone now added to the mixture pouring to the floor. The one good eye was coated with blood, making it red in appearance. Slowly stepping back, Lex stared at the sight in horror. She'd been in more fights that she cared to think about over the past five days, but never in her life and she killed someone, let alone with her own hands. As she began feeling faint and nausea rushed over her, she turned and ran from the warehouse, terrified to look back.
Lex ran though the littered streets of Terminal City, blinded by tears and unable to concentrate. Quietly, a voice registered in the back of her mind. Turning around, she saw Logan running after her, but unable to keep up.
"Lex!"
Relief filling her, she ran towards him as fast as her legs could carry her, launching herself into his arms and breathing rashly.
"Lex? What happened to you?" concern filled Logan's voice as he surveyed the cuts and bruises covering his daughter's body.
"I was just. I didn't mean to. but I, I couldn't," Lex tried to form a coherent sentence, but failed miserably.
"Come on," Logan picked her and carried her back to the headquarters.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Jondy!" Logan called out as he ran into the warehouse. "We need you over here!"
Rushing over with a first aid kit, Jondy stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Logan laying a beaten Lex down on the couch.
"Oh my god, what happened?!" Jondy shook her head and hurried to her niece's side in shock.
"I was just tuning up my bike, and this familiar came at me," Lex told her.
"How long were you fighting him?" Jondy cleaned the blood off Lex's hands.
"I don't know," Lex hung her head. She winced as Jondy hit a cut on her knuckles.
"Damn, what'd you do, punch a window?" Jondy secured some wrapping down.
"No. Got thrown into a pile of scrap metal," Lex tried to laugh, but gasped at the pain it rendered in her back and chest.
Looking over Lex's shoulder, Jondy saw the beginnings of bloodstains appearing on Lex's jean jacket.
"Logan, you might wanna leave now," Jondy warned.
"Why?"
"Because this is the part where Lex has to take off her shirt." As Logan bolted up and out of the warehouse, Jondy nearly fell off the couch in hysterics. "Ok," she caught her breath, "Now let's have a look at that back of yours."
As Jondy cleaned and bandaged the array of cuts, Lex tensed up again, "Aunt Jondy, when's Mom gonna be back?"
"She hasn't had any run-ins so far, so she should be back from work in about an hour. What's wrong?" Jondy asked as she taped up the last slice near Lex's shoulder blade and tossing her a fresh sweatshirt.
"I won," Lex whispered hesitantly.
Thinking for a moment, Jondy understood what Lex was implying. "Oh, sweetie," She took Lex into a comforting hug, "It's alright. All that matters is you're ok."
"Easy for you to say," Lex mumbled. "I've never killed anyone before."
"I know," Jondy sighed. "But just because of what I went through, it's not fun. You need to look at the big picture here. If you hadn't have done that, he would have killed you. And I probably wouldn't feel any remorse for killing in self-defense, especially if I got cut up like that. But you do, and that proves that you're not a bad person. You're more humane than any of the rest of us."
Closing her eyes and returning Jondy's embrace, Lex felt faintly relieved, "Thanks."
"I love you, ok?" Jondy smiled down at her.
"Ok."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jam Pony
"So how's the war zone going?" Original Cindy closed up her locker as she and Max got ready to leave.
"I've seen worse. It seems to be dying down, though, and that worries me," Max flung her backpack over her shoulder.
"'Boo, correct Original Cindy if she's gone crazy, but would less a them be a good thing?"
"No, because it means they're planning something. I don't even want to count how many familiars we've killed since Monday, but no way we took them all out. We've gotta take out the leaders, and to do that we've gotta find out where they're hiding."
"So no idea when this is gonna end?" Original Cindy's hope fell.
"It's like another Manticore," Max mounted her bike. "They'll just keep coming until you take out the source."
"Well, then, in the mean there's always Logan to bug you about."
"Cindy! Where Logan and I are going is the last thing on my mind right now. There are these little idiots that keep getting in the way," Max shook her head.
"Yeah, just like you two 'weren't even like that'," Cindy rolled her eyes. "You two are gonna have to have that conversation sooner or later."
"Yeah, I know,' Max sighed and stared down at her feet, "Believe me, I know." Snapping back up and into reality, Max started her engine. "I'll call you tomorrow, boo."
"Mmmm," Original Cindy nodded her head and waved. As Max disappeared into the crowded street, Cindy pedaled her own way into the mass of people and sighed, "Sounds like dejá vu to me."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Terminal City
"Hey," Max strolled up to Logan with a smile on her face and snaked her arms around his neck.
"Hey," Logan mumbled back automatically.
"What, no kiss?" Max teased, starting to worry about the look in his eyes.
"Sorry," Logan snapped out of his trace, capturing her lips with his. After their mouths parted, Max kept her eyes focused on his. "What?"
"Are you ok? You look like freaked out."
"I am, a little. But I'm ok," Logan wasn't sure whether me should tell Max or just take her to see Lex.
"Care to tell me what happened?" Max prodded further.
"Um, well." Logan tried to grasp what had happened for himself. "I'm not sure of the details, but somehow Lex got into a fight with a familiar."
Gasping, Max looked around, "Well where is she now? Is she ok?"
"She's with Jondy. I'm sure she'll be fine, she's just a little shaken up," Logan said. "She killed him, Max," he blurted out at the end.
"What?" Max was sure she hard Logan wrong.
"That's what she's freaked out about. She did it with her hands."
"Oh my god," Max knew Lex wouldn't deal well with that. She had had training from Max and Jondy, yes, but Max had always taught her that killing was the last option. Max resented being bred as a killing machine and refused to pass that onto her daughter. "Um, have you said anything? To Lex, I mean," Max asked Logan.
"Not really. I found her running up the street and brought her in, but I left before the talking started."
"Well, you don't like killing people either so I-"
"No, no," Logan cut her off. "Um, Jondy had to patch up some cuts on her back."
"And?" Max didn't quite grasp his point.
"Well, she couldn't exactly do that through her shirt, so. I came out here."
"Oh," Max laughed as she realized what Logan was saying. "You know, we both wear the same size, so she wouldn't be wearing you haven't seen before."
Covering his ears, Logan shook his head, "Max! I didn't need to know that!"
Laughing, Max rested her head on his chest for a minute before taking a deep breath and heading into the warehouse to find Lex. Spotting Lex and Jondy on a couch underneath the stairs, she walked over and sat down.
"Heard you had a rough day," she reached out and moved Lex's hair to better see her face.
"No shit," Lex mumbled and leaned into Max's open arms.
"You wanna talk about it?" Max glanced over at Jondy, who just shrugged.
"Not much to say. He would have killed me if I didn't beat him to it," Lex shrugged, sounding a little too void of emotions for Max's liking.
"Honey, it's ok. Just promise me you won't just bottle everything up," Max pleaded, seeing Lex's wasn't in much of a talking mood.
'I know, you learned the way," Lex ended her mother's plea for her. "I won't, I promise." Getting off the couch, she headed out towards the back, "I'm gonna go read for a while."
Watching Lex disappear out the door, Jondy sighed, "I didn't get anything more out of her."
"I jut hope she's gonna try to run from it, like I did," Max shook her head.
"I don't think she will. But she's not gonna be chatty about it either," Jondy agreed.
"Yeah," Max sighed. "Hey, what happened to the body?"
"Sent some people out to tae care of it," Jondy winced. "Um, apparently one of the eyes was gouged out and the forehead was totally crushed in."
"Ewww," Max winced as well, imaging what the scene might have looked like. "Why the eye?"
"The one to ask isn't talking," Jondy referred to Lex. "But they said given the spots of blood all over the place, it must have been one hell of a fight." After an awkward silence, Jondy tried to lighten the mood, "At least she's not calling them monkeys anymore."
"Mmmm," Max wasn't really listening.
"Ok, what's wrong with you? You sure as hell didn't kill a familiar or you'd be bouncing of the walls," Jondy tried to gauge Max's eyes, which were empty.
Sighing, Max knew lying to Jondy was futile. "It's Logan," she said cryptically.
"I thought you two were getting along just fine," Jondy wiggled her eyebrows, giving away what she was implying.
"Not that," Max spat out slowly. "It's the whole where-do-we-go-from-here thing again. I was talking to Original Cindy and she bought it up."
"Well at least one of you is," Jondy rolled her eyes. "You won't let me ever bring it up, and you walk around like it doesn't even exist."
"I just don't know what to do. I mean, it wasn't anything I ever expected."
"So you were going through the motions like you were never gonna see Logan again?"
"Knowing the way my life usually panned out, I didn't expect anything more," Max shrugged.
"What happened to ditching your 'hope is for losers' philosophy?" Jondy pushed.
"I did, for the most part. But if I did have hope, and nothing happened, I couldn't have dealt with that. When you expect nothing there's not much room for disappointment."
"Well, something did happen. And you're gonna have to deal with it sooner or later. I mean, you're in Seattle, you're living with him, you're obviously in love with him, and it's been almost five months. How much longer are you gonna put this off?" Jondy could see the fear and apprehension Max was trying so desperately to hide.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Staring to Logan's peaceful face the night as he slept, Max loved the way the soft moonlight illuminated the blonde still in his hair.
"Max Cale, Max Cale," she thought over and over in her head. Max couldn't tell what she found more strange- the name or the fact that it wasn't scaring her.
________________________________________________________________________
A/N: Well, there we have it. I actually wrote an action scene. And I don't think it totally sucked. More like, just flirting with that line. Anyway, enough of my own review- tell me what you guys thought. In my opinion, I suck at action scenes, so I avoid writing them at all costs. But if you liked it, or you wanna see them more often, humor me and leave me a review. I know these chapters have been getting slow, but it should go back to normal after my research paper in social studies gets done. Thanks for sticking with this; I know a lot of you liked that I used to get chapters about once a week. I apologize for what were probably a million spelling/grammatical errors in this chapter. It's late and I read over it haphazardly.
A/N #2: It may look as if Kayla is being ignored, but not to worry. I plan to bring her back, possibly in a big way in a few chapters. First, I'll get the familiar deal taken care of and then I'll reopen that door.
________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 13: The Mighty Shall Fall
Friday, September 12th Terminal City Abandoned Warehouse
Ducking the blow to her head, Lex flipped back over the barrel between her and her adversary.
"You can't escape me," the familiar threatened, leaping up to join her.
"Arrggghhh!" Lex lunged her feet at him as powerfully as she could, sending him hurdling back into a metal pole. Following to where he landed, she turned and swung her elbow into his face, forcing twin rivers to flow from his nose. Giving a second blow, she knocked his head to the ground. Thinking he was out cold, she took a deep breath and began to examine her own injuries from the long fight. Her hands were spattered with blood; whose, she didn't know. A myriad of green and purple bruises adorned her chin, neck, and legs, and well as a lone one on her right arm. "Shit!" she cursed to herself, having underestimated the familiars. "Monkeys they are defiantly not." Caught off-guard by the awakening man below her, Lex suddenly felt herself flying backwards until something sharp pierced her side. "Ahhhh!" she screamed in agony.
"You're arrogance is your undoing," the familiar spat in her face and delivered a crushing blow to her temple.
Breathing deeply, her head bobbing like a blowing ball in her neck, Lex fought the blackness that was overcoming her. "No, no, no! Never back down!" she tried to yell at herself. "Get up; it's not that bad."
Before she was even halfway standing, the man grabbed her shoulder and whispered harshly in her ear, "You're just like your mother, transgenic filth. Who's superior now?" He brought his other hand to Lex's throat and began to slowly apply pressure to her windpipe, "I'd kill you right now if the conclave didn't want you alive. But say, in battle, you happened to loose you footing and fall from one of those rafters near the ceiling. I'm sure you'd still be just as useful for experiments."
As the man began to drag her towards the stairs, a semi-conscious Lex struggled to break free of his grasp. Suddenly, she began to have intense flashbacks from the last time a strange man dragged her off. With newfound vigor, Lex thrashed her neck from side to side and clawed mercilessly at the man's arms, face, and neck; wherever she could reach.
"Bitch!" the man screamed and dropped Lex as she snagged the cornea of his eye with her fingernail, rendering him blind.
Inhaling sharply, Lex took advantage of every second of mercy she could get. She clawed at his other eye, but missed, only breaking the skin just below his eyebrow. As he took back his hands, Lex cringed at the site of him- blood and the contents of his eye socket mixing into a gel as it oozed down his cheek. Just as he was ready to pounce, blood from the gash above began pouring into his other eye, depleting his clear vision. Lex dove behind him. As he felt around Lex's pervious location for her, she jump up and delivered one foul kick to the back of his head, sending him into the corner of the metal storage tank in front of him. As the sharp, protruding edge broke the skin and skull of his forehead, he fell to the ground. His face was barely recognizable with bits of bone now added to the mixture pouring to the floor. The one good eye was coated with blood, making it red in appearance. Slowly stepping back, Lex stared at the sight in horror. She'd been in more fights that she cared to think about over the past five days, but never in her life and she killed someone, let alone with her own hands. As she began feeling faint and nausea rushed over her, she turned and ran from the warehouse, terrified to look back.
Lex ran though the littered streets of Terminal City, blinded by tears and unable to concentrate. Quietly, a voice registered in the back of her mind. Turning around, she saw Logan running after her, but unable to keep up.
"Lex!"
Relief filling her, she ran towards him as fast as her legs could carry her, launching herself into his arms and breathing rashly.
"Lex? What happened to you?" concern filled Logan's voice as he surveyed the cuts and bruises covering his daughter's body.
"I was just. I didn't mean to. but I, I couldn't," Lex tried to form a coherent sentence, but failed miserably.
"Come on," Logan picked her and carried her back to the headquarters.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Jondy!" Logan called out as he ran into the warehouse. "We need you over here!"
Rushing over with a first aid kit, Jondy stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Logan laying a beaten Lex down on the couch.
"Oh my god, what happened?!" Jondy shook her head and hurried to her niece's side in shock.
"I was just tuning up my bike, and this familiar came at me," Lex told her.
"How long were you fighting him?" Jondy cleaned the blood off Lex's hands.
"I don't know," Lex hung her head. She winced as Jondy hit a cut on her knuckles.
"Damn, what'd you do, punch a window?" Jondy secured some wrapping down.
"No. Got thrown into a pile of scrap metal," Lex tried to laugh, but gasped at the pain it rendered in her back and chest.
Looking over Lex's shoulder, Jondy saw the beginnings of bloodstains appearing on Lex's jean jacket.
"Logan, you might wanna leave now," Jondy warned.
"Why?"
"Because this is the part where Lex has to take off her shirt." As Logan bolted up and out of the warehouse, Jondy nearly fell off the couch in hysterics. "Ok," she caught her breath, "Now let's have a look at that back of yours."
As Jondy cleaned and bandaged the array of cuts, Lex tensed up again, "Aunt Jondy, when's Mom gonna be back?"
"She hasn't had any run-ins so far, so she should be back from work in about an hour. What's wrong?" Jondy asked as she taped up the last slice near Lex's shoulder blade and tossing her a fresh sweatshirt.
"I won," Lex whispered hesitantly.
Thinking for a moment, Jondy understood what Lex was implying. "Oh, sweetie," She took Lex into a comforting hug, "It's alright. All that matters is you're ok."
"Easy for you to say," Lex mumbled. "I've never killed anyone before."
"I know," Jondy sighed. "But just because of what I went through, it's not fun. You need to look at the big picture here. If you hadn't have done that, he would have killed you. And I probably wouldn't feel any remorse for killing in self-defense, especially if I got cut up like that. But you do, and that proves that you're not a bad person. You're more humane than any of the rest of us."
Closing her eyes and returning Jondy's embrace, Lex felt faintly relieved, "Thanks."
"I love you, ok?" Jondy smiled down at her.
"Ok."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jam Pony
"So how's the war zone going?" Original Cindy closed up her locker as she and Max got ready to leave.
"I've seen worse. It seems to be dying down, though, and that worries me," Max flung her backpack over her shoulder.
"'Boo, correct Original Cindy if she's gone crazy, but would less a them be a good thing?"
"No, because it means they're planning something. I don't even want to count how many familiars we've killed since Monday, but no way we took them all out. We've gotta take out the leaders, and to do that we've gotta find out where they're hiding."
"So no idea when this is gonna end?" Original Cindy's hope fell.
"It's like another Manticore," Max mounted her bike. "They'll just keep coming until you take out the source."
"Well, then, in the mean there's always Logan to bug you about."
"Cindy! Where Logan and I are going is the last thing on my mind right now. There are these little idiots that keep getting in the way," Max shook her head.
"Yeah, just like you two 'weren't even like that'," Cindy rolled her eyes. "You two are gonna have to have that conversation sooner or later."
"Yeah, I know,' Max sighed and stared down at her feet, "Believe me, I know." Snapping back up and into reality, Max started her engine. "I'll call you tomorrow, boo."
"Mmmm," Original Cindy nodded her head and waved. As Max disappeared into the crowded street, Cindy pedaled her own way into the mass of people and sighed, "Sounds like dejá vu to me."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Terminal City
"Hey," Max strolled up to Logan with a smile on her face and snaked her arms around his neck.
"Hey," Logan mumbled back automatically.
"What, no kiss?" Max teased, starting to worry about the look in his eyes.
"Sorry," Logan snapped out of his trace, capturing her lips with his. After their mouths parted, Max kept her eyes focused on his. "What?"
"Are you ok? You look like freaked out."
"I am, a little. But I'm ok," Logan wasn't sure whether me should tell Max or just take her to see Lex.
"Care to tell me what happened?" Max prodded further.
"Um, well." Logan tried to grasp what had happened for himself. "I'm not sure of the details, but somehow Lex got into a fight with a familiar."
Gasping, Max looked around, "Well where is she now? Is she ok?"
"She's with Jondy. I'm sure she'll be fine, she's just a little shaken up," Logan said. "She killed him, Max," he blurted out at the end.
"What?" Max was sure she hard Logan wrong.
"That's what she's freaked out about. She did it with her hands."
"Oh my god," Max knew Lex wouldn't deal well with that. She had had training from Max and Jondy, yes, but Max had always taught her that killing was the last option. Max resented being bred as a killing machine and refused to pass that onto her daughter. "Um, have you said anything? To Lex, I mean," Max asked Logan.
"Not really. I found her running up the street and brought her in, but I left before the talking started."
"Well, you don't like killing people either so I-"
"No, no," Logan cut her off. "Um, Jondy had to patch up some cuts on her back."
"And?" Max didn't quite grasp his point.
"Well, she couldn't exactly do that through her shirt, so. I came out here."
"Oh," Max laughed as she realized what Logan was saying. "You know, we both wear the same size, so she wouldn't be wearing you haven't seen before."
Covering his ears, Logan shook his head, "Max! I didn't need to know that!"
Laughing, Max rested her head on his chest for a minute before taking a deep breath and heading into the warehouse to find Lex. Spotting Lex and Jondy on a couch underneath the stairs, she walked over and sat down.
"Heard you had a rough day," she reached out and moved Lex's hair to better see her face.
"No shit," Lex mumbled and leaned into Max's open arms.
"You wanna talk about it?" Max glanced over at Jondy, who just shrugged.
"Not much to say. He would have killed me if I didn't beat him to it," Lex shrugged, sounding a little too void of emotions for Max's liking.
"Honey, it's ok. Just promise me you won't just bottle everything up," Max pleaded, seeing Lex's wasn't in much of a talking mood.
'I know, you learned the way," Lex ended her mother's plea for her. "I won't, I promise." Getting off the couch, she headed out towards the back, "I'm gonna go read for a while."
Watching Lex disappear out the door, Jondy sighed, "I didn't get anything more out of her."
"I jut hope she's gonna try to run from it, like I did," Max shook her head.
"I don't think she will. But she's not gonna be chatty about it either," Jondy agreed.
"Yeah," Max sighed. "Hey, what happened to the body?"
"Sent some people out to tae care of it," Jondy winced. "Um, apparently one of the eyes was gouged out and the forehead was totally crushed in."
"Ewww," Max winced as well, imaging what the scene might have looked like. "Why the eye?"
"The one to ask isn't talking," Jondy referred to Lex. "But they said given the spots of blood all over the place, it must have been one hell of a fight." After an awkward silence, Jondy tried to lighten the mood, "At least she's not calling them monkeys anymore."
"Mmmm," Max wasn't really listening.
"Ok, what's wrong with you? You sure as hell didn't kill a familiar or you'd be bouncing of the walls," Jondy tried to gauge Max's eyes, which were empty.
Sighing, Max knew lying to Jondy was futile. "It's Logan," she said cryptically.
"I thought you two were getting along just fine," Jondy wiggled her eyebrows, giving away what she was implying.
"Not that," Max spat out slowly. "It's the whole where-do-we-go-from-here thing again. I was talking to Original Cindy and she bought it up."
"Well at least one of you is," Jondy rolled her eyes. "You won't let me ever bring it up, and you walk around like it doesn't even exist."
"I just don't know what to do. I mean, it wasn't anything I ever expected."
"So you were going through the motions like you were never gonna see Logan again?"
"Knowing the way my life usually panned out, I didn't expect anything more," Max shrugged.
"What happened to ditching your 'hope is for losers' philosophy?" Jondy pushed.
"I did, for the most part. But if I did have hope, and nothing happened, I couldn't have dealt with that. When you expect nothing there's not much room for disappointment."
"Well, something did happen. And you're gonna have to deal with it sooner or later. I mean, you're in Seattle, you're living with him, you're obviously in love with him, and it's been almost five months. How much longer are you gonna put this off?" Jondy could see the fear and apprehension Max was trying so desperately to hide.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Staring to Logan's peaceful face the night as he slept, Max loved the way the soft moonlight illuminated the blonde still in his hair.
"Max Cale, Max Cale," she thought over and over in her head. Max couldn't tell what she found more strange- the name or the fact that it wasn't scaring her.
________________________________________________________________________
A/N: Well, there we have it. I actually wrote an action scene. And I don't think it totally sucked. More like, just flirting with that line. Anyway, enough of my own review- tell me what you guys thought. In my opinion, I suck at action scenes, so I avoid writing them at all costs. But if you liked it, or you wanna see them more often, humor me and leave me a review. I know these chapters have been getting slow, but it should go back to normal after my research paper in social studies gets done. Thanks for sticking with this; I know a lot of you liked that I used to get chapters about once a week. I apologize for what were probably a million spelling/grammatical errors in this chapter. It's late and I read over it haphazardly.