Facing Death
By: lfbrox
Story: Set in early second season. Logan can walk (just because I like him to). And lots of transgenics are on the run and the other X-series are all out too. Lydecker, Renfro and White are the enemies – as a team this time.
Rating: R
AN: Hey there. Another update. Sorry about the last chapter, but I knew that I wouldn't fool a lot of people. You know I love teasing you. And I'm not done yet either. Read on, the story is taking a little unexpected (at least from you unexpected) turn. But bear with me. We'll get to the good fluffy stuff soon enough. Thanks Sammi for beta-ing for me even in the midst of exams. Also thanks for everybody reading and reviewing. Now where were we? Right. It was a long night's wait…..
Chapter 11: And the night is not over yet
/God this isn't helping./ Max thought, setting her cup on the counter and walking to her closet to get dressed. Maybe Logan was still awake. And if not she could at least hang around his place. She could think of a few things to keep herself busy with there. She grinned and wheeled her baby out of the room to go over to Logan's.
Outside Max' crib:
After storing his heavy equipment at his rundown motel room Zack had rushed over to Max's place just in time to see her wheel her motorcycle out of the front door of her building. He wondered where she was going and contemplated following her on his own motorcycle. Deciding that there was no chance that she would not see him, he simply watched her speed off in the direction of the checkpoint to sector 9. /Either she's going up the Space Needle or she's heading to Cale./ Zack thought, knowing Max well, and decided to check on both locations before reporting her departure to Lydecker. He waited another 5 minutes and then headed towards the checkpoint himself.
Logan's penthouse:
Logan's mind was working on overdrive tonight. He wasn't tired in the least and after changing his sheets and cleaning and decorating his bedroom, he started a load of laundry and headed for the kitchen to get more cleaning supplies. He figured that maybe Max would want to use the bathtub. Okay, he figured – or hoped - that maybe they would use it together. So cleaning the bathroom was next on his mental to-do-list.
He turned some music on and moved to the master bathroom, happy to finally have something to do other than think about their appointment in a few hours – even if it was cleaning the bathroom at 3:45 in the morning.
Max arrived at Fogle towers. The parking garage was closed and she didn't want to bother Mike, the security guy, to open it for her. Sure he would let her in even at this late – or early – hour. He didn't know what kind of relationship she had with Mr. Cale but she always seemed more than welcome to come and go as she pleased – no matter what time. But Max was still unsure if she wanted to go up to Logan. What if he was asleep? What if he wanted to be alone?
So she parked her bike across the street from the main entrance and looked up to his apartment. She was pleased to see that it was brightly lit. Even more so than normally. Usually he had all the lights off except in the room where he was, which was mostly his computer room. But in the early morning hours it looked like he had pretty much every light on.
She smiled to herself, relieved that he couldn't find sleep either, and walked across the street, convinced that he could use some company. Her company.
Manticore, Seattle HQ:
"Colonel Lydecker." The doctor greeted once Lydecker stepped inside the lab.
"Is 493 ready for questioning?" He asked, wasting no time with small talk. 493 was his only hope to gain information about Eyes Only until 599 found something while observing Cale and 452.
"Yes Colonel. Go right in. He might seem a little drowsy but he is able to hear you and process what you say." The doctor explained and gestured for Lydecker to go inside the indoctrination room.
Lydecker contemplated whether he should call Renfro but decided really quickly against it. He had no idea if 493 would have any answers or if he would remember anything from his recent past. Better to let Renfro know once he had something to report that could prove his success.
"Hello 493." Lydecker snarled and approached the indoctrination chair Ben was strapped into.
"Lydecker." Ben snarled back.
Lydecker flinched slightly. He didn't know if 493's tone meant that this second and last indoctrination session didn't work or if his voice just held the same hatred all his kids used when addressing him back then when they were still at Manticore. He knew they never saw a father figure in him, even though he always saw them as his kids, his children. They hated him back then but they obeyed him just the same – they didn't know any better and were too scared of him. They still hated him today but they also despised his mission, their mission – and they weren't scared of him anymore. Well… scared maybe but not too scared to fight him.
"It's Lydecker SIR." Lydecker replied hoping to get the right answer. The answer he needed.
"Lydecker, Sir." Ben replied in the same tone he had spat Lydecker's name before.
"How do you feel soldier?" Lydecker asked hoping to get the desired result. The obedient result.
"Fine, sir." Ben answered with more strength in his voice than before.
Lydecker couldn't hide a small smile. /Seems like the session went well. The soldier got his bite back. Let's see what he knows./ Deck thought and moved closer to him.
"493. We have a mission for you. Provided you are capable – physically and emotionally." Lydecker started, still carefully gauging 493's reactions.
"I'm fine sir." 493 confirmed and held Lydecker's gaze, awaiting his instructions.
"Alright. If you say so 493. You may be aware that some of your group disobeyed my orders." Lydecker explained, unsure of what his recollections of the past may be.
"Yes Sir." 493 replied, his eyes turning darker, indicating that he did not approve of his fellow group member's actions.
"Good. Well we have a situation here that needs the whole group together. We are facing a dangerous enemy, which you will learn about later. We need you to find your stray fellow soldiers and bring them back to the base. We have a team ready to go with you to bring them back whenever you are ready to go." Lydecker explained in full CO mode. Yes. 493 was back and he would help him get some of the renegade X5's back. And, with some luck, deliver him Eyes Only.
"I'm ready sir. We could get started as soon as the team is ready, sir." 493 replied but still waited to be untied rather than struggle against his restraints.
"You have a lead on where to find them 493?" Lydecker asked and moved closer, ready to untie him if he said he had the location of the others.
"Yes Sir." 493 confirmed.
"Great. Let's get you untied and you can go see the team." Lydecker replied, a sadistic grin on his face.
Logan's penthouse:
Max let herself into the penthouse and was greeted by loud music. And not the typical Logan Cale broody-moody music either. It sounded like pre-pulse rock to her. Not that she knew a lot about pre-pulse rock.
Her first stop was the computer room – as usual. But it was unusually dark and miraculously empty. Next stop was the kitchen. Empty besides the also unusual bottle of whiskey on the counter. Checking its contents she was relieved to find it almost full. Next she moved into the living room where he usually stood in front of the window staring out on the city. She secretly hoped she wouldn't find him doing just that because that would mean that he was letting negative thoughts happen.
Relieved that she hadn't found him there either, she moved over to his bedroom. She pondered for a second if she should just march in there and surprise him, but decided to stop and make her presence known.
"Logan. You in there?" She called, leaning against the doorframe of his bedroom. No answer. She took a breath and boldly walked inside. No Logan. She tried it again.
"Logan?"
"Max?" Came Logan's voice from the master bathroom.
"You decent?" Max asked, relieved to hear his voice, while walking towards the bathroom.
"Ahhhm. Sort of." Logan replied and turned towards the open bathroom door when he saw Max leaning against the door with a more than amused expression on her face.
"Hey you." Max greeted him with a wide smile. Damn she had got him good. There he stood wearing pink rubber gloves and an equally pink flush on his cheeks. Whether it was from his exhausting exercise scrubbing the bathtub or from the humiliation he felt being caught with pink gloves she didn't know. But he looked adorable.
"Hey yourself." Logan replied his face color turning normal again. He hastily took off his gloves – even though he tried really hard not to make it look hastily. "I suppose you couldn't sleep either." He said and gestured for them to move to the kitchen.
"No. None." Max lied and was glad Logan couldn't see her face now, as he was walking behind her. She didn't know why she was reacting so strangely to that particular dream. It wasn't like she never had a naughty dream about Logan. She had actually had a lot of them, considering she wasn't sleeping a lot. Maybe it was because that dream could become reality within the next 24 hours or so that affected her so much.
"You want some food?" Logan asked and moved behind the kitchen counter to get a glass for Max.
"No. I'm not really hungry." Max said and went to the freezer to get some ice for the drinks Logan was pouring from the whiskey bottle.
"Well that's a first." Logan laughed and carefully handed her the glass. They toasted and took a sip, both feeling a little more at ease for the first time since they had said their goodnights a few hours ago.
"I guess there's a first time for everything." Max replied and took a seat on the counter.
"Yeah." Logan agreed thoughtfully. "So what do you wanna do for the next 4 hours?" He asked her but quickly added, "But it better be fun Max."
"I don't know. Let's brainstorm." Max said and moved over to the couch to get more comfortable.
Manticore, Seattle HQ:
493 stood next to Lydecker and waited for the team to assemble. He had recovered quickly after he was untied; having now changed into fatigues and gone over the details of the plan to reunite the group.
"Line up." Lydecker shouted when the team arrived. 493 had given him locations of the former whereabouts of 3 X5's. So he decided to send three teams out and try to make it a triple catch in case they had maintained contact with one another and could warn the each other.
Commander Fest would lead one team to capture X5-656 aka Tinga who last lived in Portland with her husband and son as far as Ben knew. X5-734 aka Brin would lead the second team to capture X5-701 aka Syl. Last Ben heard from her was that she lived in L.A. and worked as a waitress at a restaurant on Hollywood boulevard.
Commander Sedwick would lead the last team to capture X5-471 aka Krit who lived in Tacoma and worked at a hardware store. 493 had tried to convince Lydecker that he was up for the job to lead that team and more than willing to do it, but Lydecker told him that he was still too weak and unstable to handle it and it would be better for him to remain at the base and help coordinate the teams over intercom.
The teams stored their equipment and weapons in their respective helicopters or planes and turned towards Lydecker, signaling that they were ready and awaiting final orders and instructions before leaving.
"Ready?" Lydecker addressed everybody in the room.
"Yes Sir." All the soldiers and their team leaders replied in unison.
"We've been over the plan. You all know what to do. I'll be available on the comm. It is important to do this quickly. Grab them and bring them back to base. Understood?" Lydecker instructed.
Another "Yes Sir" and then everybody moved. As L.A. and Portland were a little further than Tacoma, those teams took planes to get there and would change to SUV's that were already awaiting them there. Commander Sedwick and his team took a helicopter to cover the short distance to Tacoma. Lydecker and 493 moved to the observation room so they could set up the communications for the three teams as well as observe Logan Cale's penthouse.
The teams checked their comm Connection with the base and then took off on their mission to reunite the family. Not an easy mission when the members that where needed to complete the group did everything they could to stay as far away as possible. But that is what family is all about. If you don't fit in you leave. Get your own life. Figure out your own way to live it. But you never get rid of them. Can't erase the past and deny where you're coming from. Your family is present - if not physically then in memory. And now it was time to make it physical again for both parties.
Logan's penthouse:
After they brainstormed for 15 minutes they decided to play chess. But to make it more fun they made a drinking game out of it. Every time one captured a piece he or she got to have a shot of whiskey. Logan pointed out that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to show up drunk at a doctors appointment, but Max told him that he wouldn't do a lot of shots cause she was going to win every time anyway.
"You'd think after all those shots you would eventually make a mistake and give me a chance to steal a piece." Logan said in frustration while trying to figure out his next move while Max downed her 7th shot of whiskey.
"It takes a whole lot more than a few shots to get a genetically engineered killing machine even a little tipsy." Max replied, refilled her shot glass and waited for Logan to make the next move.
"Ever tried it out?" Logan asked making his move.
"Tried out what?" Max requested, reaching for her shot glass even before she made her move and sacked one of Logan's figures.
"Get drunk. Ever tried out how much is needed to make you outta control?" Logan asked and watched Max down yet another one.
"Nope. Didn't want to draw too much attention to me. Why you're asking? Trying to get me drunk to make me submissive?" Max replied looking over at Logan who suddenly lost all interest in chess or shots.
"You mean I have to make you drunk before you surrender?" Logan asked in feigned shock.
"You know if this cure doesn't work you wouldn't want me to be outta control." Max answered breaking the lightheartedness of their conversation.
"But if it does I do want you outta control." Logan tried to steer the conversation back to the easy banter but knew that negative thoughts had not only occurred but were ready to spill out.
"What if it doesn't not work?" Max asked her voice now serious and devoid of all banter.
"We'll deal with it Max." Logan answered, sensing that the fun was over for good.
"How?" Max asked.
"Somehow." Logan replied not knowing what else to say.
"I don't know if I could keep going on like this Logan." Max said gesturing to the space between them. "I don't know if I want to keep going on like this."
"Like I said before Max. Touching or no touching. I need you in my life one way or the other. And eventually we'll find a way to beat that virus. Of course it's not going to be easy. You have no idea how badly I want to kiss you right now. How badly I need to touch you. But I can't. We can't. And that sucks and that frustrates me and it makes me angry. But to imagine not even seeing those lips that I long to kiss, not hearing your voice, not listening to your stories, not seeing you smile is so much worse. I'm not going to change my mind about this Max. And as far as I'm concerned this discussion is over. But if you feel different about it then tell me. If you rather want to break everything off if the cure doesn't work then tell me. Don't just stop showing up or not return my calls. Just say it. What do you wanna do? What do you gonna do?" Logan finished looking over at Max, awaiting her answer. He knew that her answer could either make him extremely happy or could kill him inside. There was nothing in between.
"If only it were as simple as that Logan. The concept of us beating this bitch and being together is thrilling. The concept of saying goodbye to you and not seeing you ever again is killing me inside. But eventually, if enough time has passed we both will get over it and move on. But when I imagine that we will keep going on like that I only see pain. It hurts now and it would continue to hurt. And I don't know if I could live with that. I don't know if you could. Let's just agree on exploring every possible option and chasing after every lead. But if nothing works we will have to get real and go our separate ways. You know the concept of "Forever" never popped up in my mind before I met you. But now it's there. And I want it. But if I can't have it, I'll settle for "Okay" instead of wishing there will be a chance to have the "Forever" while being in pain forever." Max babbled, not knowing if her words made sense to her or to him.
"I know what you are saying. But let's explore all options. Let's chase after every lead. Because what we could have would be worth all of it. It will be worth it." Logan replied, realizing that there was an in between.
"Yeah. I guess it really would be worth it. I mean I would be going to work and you would do the housework. And when I got home dinner would be waiting." Max had had enough of the heavy stuff and aimed for more banter.
"Oh. So I'd be your bitch?" Logan asked, silently agreeing with Max to leave everything negative for after the meeting with Dr. Richmond.
"Of course. I mean I look good in my bike messenger gear and those pink rubber gloves seem to be made for you." Max teased, filling both of their shot glasses again.
"You make it sound like you never saw a man cleaning before." Logan defended his cleaning outfit before downing his shot.
"Not many. And I especially thought I would never see the great Eyes Only himself scrubbing his bathtub in the early morning hours." Max replied.
"Who else did you think was doing that for me?" Logan wondered out loud.
"I don't know. I thought you had someone doing it for you. You didn't seem to be the type for that." Max answered while getting up.
"Where you going?" Logan asked.
"I'm going to take a shower. And you should too. Then we'll have breakfast and go to Dr. Richmond." Max explained and left to the guest bathroom.
"Great. I'm already her bitch." Logan muttered but decided to do as he was told and take a shower. He hadn't slept all night and probably smelled like alcohol. Yawning he walked to his very clean bathroom just as he heard the shower in the guest bathroom start.
Manticore, Seattle HQ:
"Rewind that." Lydecker barked at the soldier in the observation lab.
"Yes sir." He replied and got to work.
"You make it sound like you never saw a man cleaning before."
"Not many. And I especially thought I would never see the great Eyes Only himself scrubbing his bathtub in the early morning hours."
"Play it again." Lydecker ordered and got up from his seat to move closer to the screen.
"You make it sound like you never saw a man cleaning before."
"Not many. And I especially thought I would never see the great Eyes Only himself scrubbing his bathtub in the early morning hours."
"The great Eyes Only himself." Lydecker shouted triumphantly. "Cale is the great Eyes Only himself. Get the Special Force ready. We need them immediately. We need to strike tonight. We need to strike right now. Get me a connection to 599. Now." Lydecker ordered and left the observation lab. Outside the lab he pulled out his cell and dialed Renfro's number.
"Speak." Renfro snapped.
"We have Eyes Only." Lydecker reported. "It's Cale. We're getting a team together to get him right now. 452 is with him so we need to be cautious. We have also three teams out to pick up three stray X5's. They should be in our facility within the next 24 hours." Lydecker finished.
"4 X5's and Eyes Only. That's what I call a successful day. You planning on being employee of the month Deck?" Renfro mocked.
"Just informing you. I'm moving out with the team within the next 30 minutes. Any instructions?" Lydecker asked grudgingly. He despised Renfro for all he was worth but he knew the military ranks. And Renfro was his superior.
"I'd like to talk to Mr. Eyes Only. But if he poses too much of a problem kill him. Just get him off of our backs. And if 452, as his personal bodyguard, is causing trouble – kill her too. I'd rather have her dead than alive anyways." Renfro said and hung up the phone not even waiting for Lydecker's answer.
AN: Ohhhh. Trouble ahead. And no, I'm not even apologizing for it. I pretty much know where I'm going right now and if I'm able to pull it off then it is worth the wait. So I'm off writing the next chapter. I promise it won't be too long. So read and enjoy and review. Thanks.
Lfbrox