A/N: Thanks to all the readers and reviewers.

Chapter 2

Max didn't have the energy to discuss any other aspects of her relationship with Logan, no matter how much she needed Cindy's input. She just decided to throw a bunch of stuff back in her messenger bag and get out of there before the subject came up. She already had some of her things in his spare bedroom, so it wouldn't be that big of a deal to slip a few more into the drawers. As evidenced by her earlier freak out in the foyer, she wasn't sure where they were in the scheme of things, or if she was ready to talk about how much she could appropriately leave in the penthouse or how many consecutive nights she could stay without actually moving in, but she kinda needed to know. Plus, it was easier for her to have some of her staples available for nights when they were, um, working late. She looked through her own drawers, not that there was so much to choose from, and selected a few shirts, pants and underthings. Cindy watched from the doorway as Max closed the bag and slung it over her shoulder.

"He has toothpaste, drawers and drawers full of toothpaste," Max revealed. "I'll bring a tube tomorrow," she paused, "Or whenever."

"Sugah, you just spend as much time with Logan as you two need. Original Cindy is here when you need her, aiight?"

Max nodded, thankful that Cindy just understood. "I gotta pick us up some dinner on the way back. You want anything?"

"Nah, I ate earlier." She pointed at the heap of fabric on the floor beside Max's bed. "Why'd you bring your dirty clothes back here? He's the one with the washin' machine or laundry service or whatevah."

"Oh, yeah." Max grabbed the pile she'd just dumped from her bag. Everything she'd ever left there had been returned to her clean and pressed. Why hadn't she thought of that back at Logan's as she was streaking out the door? "I'll take them back then." She grabbed the phone and called in their dinner order. "What should I do about my bike?" She tried to sound absolutely nonchalant about the whole thing and not like her sanity depended on figuring it all out in the next five minutes.

"Which one?" Cindy asked, looking over at the Ninja, placed prominently in the living room.

"Not my baby," she whined, walking over to rub her hand down the seat. "I'll have to pick it up later." She hadn't even thought about how they'd do that or if they'd need to. Not wanting to draw attention to her pauses, she pulled herself back into the conversation with Cindy. "My work bike, I mean, should I assume I'll be staying there tomorrow night and need it on Monday morning? Is that too forward?" She realized she was sliding into the trap of talking about how she and Logan most certainly were "like that," but she realized she wasn't going to navigate all these obstacles without Original Cindy's wisdom.

"You have it with you now?" Cindy asked, contemplating the situation.

"Yeah, it's in the Aztek."

"Just leave it in there. You'll either need it to get home tomorrow or to work on Monday."

"Oh, right," Max realized. "Good thing I have you around, you know?" She kinda sucked at being a girl.

"I do know, Boo. You'd better jet, though. Don't want to get caught by the sector police again," Cindy pointed out.

"Right. Thanks. I'll call you tomorrow, k?"

"Yeah, girl. No problem," Cindy winked.

"Late." Max waved her goodbye and took the steps two at a time to the street level. She slid into the driver's seat and drove a few blocks toward the edge of Sector 5. When she pulled up to the Chinese place she frequented, the delivery guy, Manny, met her at the car. She handed him Logan's bills in exchange for her food. He grinned as he pocketed the generous tip as Max started her trip across four sectors to Fogle Towers. What seemed like hours later, but was in reality only about 35 minutes, she pulled into Logan's space and sauntered toward the elevator. It arrived quickly and she stepped in, their food and her bags hanging from either of her arms. She'd figure out the bike stuff and all that went with it later.

When the doors opened, she wasn't completely surprised to find a darkened apartment. What did surprise her, however, was finding the computers quiet and the office empty. She deposited the Chinese boxes on the counter and her bags of clothes in the guest room before moving back into the master bedroom. She smiled as she came into the room. The bathroom light was still blazing, but Logan was down for the count, sprawled across the bed. The scent of his soap and shampoo drifted in the air but filled her nostrils as she took a seat beside him. Slowly and gently, she traced her fingers along the inside of his arm. He shivered a little and brought his other hand over to scratch the area she had stimulated. When his hand found hers, a smile curled on his lips. He squeezed her fingers for a second before opening his eyes.

"Ah, that's nice," he breathed into the air around them.

"What's nice?" she asked, reclining beside him.

"That I'm awake and you're still here." He turned his face toward hers to kiss her cheek. "How's Cindy?"

Max pulled herself into a ball and closer to Logan. "Fine. She told me that if we're going on a trip I'll need to go shopping. Apparently, my wardrobe isn't tropical enough. More like, urban warfare burglar chic, whatever that means." Max omitted the white bikini nonsense as she had a feeling Logan would be siding with OC on that one.

"Hey Max," Logan started.

"Hey Logan," she answered.

"I have to say something, and I'm not sure how you'll take it, but it's important for me to say, okay?" He knew he was going out on a limb starting like that, but hell, they'd pretty much thrown caution to the wind for the past few days, hadn't they? Plus he knew that once he explained to her what he was thinking she would get it, too.

"Okay, I guess," Max conceded, scrunching up even closer to him.

"What I have is yours. Anything you want I'll do my best to give to you, anything. You're welcome here, to live, to stay, to come and go as you please, whatever. I would have said it sooner, months ago, even, but I know how much your privacy and independence matter to you." He paused. "I don't want you to stay if that's something that will make you feel uncomfortable or caged, but I hope you want to. I hope you will. Stay, I mean." He sighed as he finished, hoping he'd been clear in his discourse.

"With you?" she asked. "Here, I mean, live here?"

"Only if that's what you want. I want you to be happy and feel safe. That's the most important thing to me." He didn't want her to trap her in something that wasn't right for her. That was the last thing he wanted to do, still, he continued. "I know it's inconvenient with your job, but maybe we could work it out. I could drop you off or you could get a ride with Bling or something. We can work out something."

Max ran her hands up under his shirt on either side of his abdomen, feeling him squirm against her at the arousal of the touch. "You really want me here?" she asked, knowing she now held the advantage and he would give her a truthful answer.

Logan moaned a sigh of pleasure as she continued working the sensitive areas on his chest, abdomen, and back. "God, Max!" She was pretty sure that wasn't part of the answer. He grabbed her hands to stop them, allowing his head to clear a little. "Of course I want you here," he finally managed. "I always have and always will. But you need to be the one to decide on it 'cause there was never any doubt on my part."

"Even when I'm cranky and sulky and in a bad mood?" she asked, just making sure.

"If you're willing to put up with me even when I'm cranky and sulky and in a bad mood," he assured.

"The great Eyes Only-slash-Logan Cale in a cranky pity party of sulking? Never! Who could even imagine such a thing?" She joked as his arms wrapped around her. "I was kind of freaking out about my bikes and stuff, like when was I supposed to be where and how was I supposed to know when to go or stay. So kind of figuring that out would be nice, ya know?" she admitted.

"I had an idea something like that was happening," revealed Logan. He was slowly learning to interpret her actions and words, and he realized that she needed him to say the words, even if her answer was no. She needed to know where they stood, but he realized this was becoming more. "So you'll stay, then?" He sounded hopeful.

"Yeah, I mean, I might want to keep my bed and some stuff at Cindy's just in case I need a place of my own to crash sometimes, but yeah. I'll stay."

He sat up on his elbows and looked down on her. "For real?" he asked, just making sure.

"Yeah," she grinned shyly, "For real." She felt herself exhale fully for the first time that day.

He leaned over and kissed her, inhaling as he did so. "You smell like Kung Pao chicken," he pointed out, pulling back. "And I'm starving." Max laughed and offered him a hand. She helped him forward into a seated position. "Don't want to ruin the moment and all, but you're the one coming in here smelling like deliciousness knowing full well I'd be famished." He moved over into the chair.

"What makes you think that wasn't precisely my plan," she twinkled. "Come on. I'll fix you a plate so you can eat and we can get back to business."

"Excellent idea, my dear," he used the term with ease. It fit; he smiled. "Lead the way."

"Sure thing, Hot Boy," she crooned, straddling his lap and running her fingers through his hair. "If you want to go out there and eat now, who am I to stop you?" she asked before climbing off and starting down the hall, glancing seductively over her shoulder to make sure he was following.

"Jesus, Max," he groaned as he pushed off to follow her. "That shit's just mean."

"So what have you found out?" she asked cautiously as she set Logan's plate in front of him. She did want to know. Sort of.

"Well," he frowned as he accepted the chopsticks in her outstretched hand, "Not much so far. It's the freakin' weekend."

She scowled at him, "What?"

"Never mind. We'll get to that CD eventually," he told her, deciding that she wasn't ready for R. Kelly quite yet.

"Whavev," she shrugged as she dug into her dinner. "Am I just starving or is this better than usual?"

"It's not bad, actually," Logan agreed. "You want an egg roll?" He handed the plate across to her so she could grab one.

She took a large bite and swallowed about half of it before she looked back up at him. "So, not much headway today, then?" She cringed as she brought the subject up again, but she knew he'd think she was dodging it if she just let it drop.

He let his shoulders rise and fall. "I guess it was a little unrealistic for me to think that everyone else would immediately answer my emails." He took another bite, smiling at her as he chewed. "I'm guessing that I won't hear anything until Monday. Unless," his eyes brightened, "Unless I get some word from Asia tomorrow. It will be Monday there when it's Sunday here. They're 17 hours ahead of us."

"So by late afternoon tomorrow it will be Monday morning in Osaka," she finished for him.

"Well, yeah." He still sometimes forgot how quickly her brain worked, how savvy she was with that kind of stuff.

"So that gives us plenty of time tomorrow to drive up to the cabin for the day," suggested Max.

"Um, okay." Logan wasn't sure where she was going with this. "It could be fun, but that's an awful lot of driving and gas for just one afternoon. Don't you think?"

She nodded. "But your tank is almost full." She pulled sector passes from her pocket and placed them on the table, "And I have these. And an idea."

He leaned forward on his elbows and pursed his lips. He had a feeling this was going to be good or really bad. "Okay, Max. What's your idea?"

"I have to tell you something, and you're not going to like it very much, but I need you to understand why I did it without getting mad at me." She gave him a small smile.

He stifled a grin at how she's made her words match his. Barring something horrible, there was no way she could upset him. "Well, you'd better go ahead and tell me," he managed.

She sighed. "I told Zack he could use the cabin." Logan's eyes widened. "Not all the time, obviously, but just when he needs a place to lay low for a couple of day. Or if one of the other kids is in trouble," she revealed. "I think he stays sometimes when he doesn't have anywhere else to go. He really liked it there." She finished, looking quickly at Logan to gauge his reaction.

"So your 'brother' is probably holed up in my cabin right, now and we're gonna go up and hang out for the weekend? I can tell he really likes me. It'll be a great time." Logan pontificated, still not putting it all together.

Max had figured he would be at least mildly peeved until she explained to him what she was thinking. She started explaining. "Maybe. Probably not, but I was thinking it's likely the best place we can leave him a message to get in touch with us."

Logan still didn't know how he felt about asking Zack and the other X5s for their help and blood. Actually, he knew exactly how he felt about it. He didn't like it at all. But until he talked to Dr. Takahashi and found out for sure, he guessed it couldn't hurt anything more than his pride to try to contact Zack. Besides, he hadn't been out of the house in days. A drive in the country would definitely do both of them good. Besides, the chance that the other man was actually at the cabin had to be pretty small.

He looked up into Max's eyes, staring intently and expectantly back at him. He shrugged again. "I guess we do need to talk to him, and since you already went to all the trouble of securing sector passes, which couldn't have been easy, by the way, I say let's go."

Max smiled and moved around the table to his lap. "It wasn't easy to get those passes," she agreed, "And I'm glad you're not being weird about asking Zack for help." Logan ducked her gaze as his face reddened. "Well, I'm glad you aren't refusing to go because you're being so weird about asking Zack for help," she chuckled.

He bristled slightly. "This isn't gonna be easy for me, Max."

She kissed his lips lightly. "I know it isn't, Logan, but thanks for making the effort. That means a lot to me."

"I know you have reservations about all of this, but you're willing to put those on hold for now. And that means a lot to me. The least I can do is go along with this for you," he decided.

"It's not just for me, Logan. It's for us." She swallowed hard. "For this treatment to have even a chance of working, you're going to need and X5, and I might not be the one who can help." Her head dropped slightly as she said this.

Logan's hand found its way to Max's chin and raised her face to his. "Let's get one thing straight right now, you may not end up being the physical stem cell donor, but that doesn't have anything to do with what you mean to me, Max." She tried to look away, but he softly caressed her cheek. "I need you, Max. And I'm not talking about stem cells or Eyes Only legwork. You understand that, right?"

She nodded her head. "Yeah," she understood perfectly because she needed him, too. Not as a place to stay or a meal ticket, but the same way he needed her. But she couldn't say that yet. Agreeing to move in was one thing; it made practical sense, and she liked being around him. Attaching herself to someone else in the type of commitment that would certainly come with speaking words like that was quite another. That was going to take more time.