A/N: You may have feared this one abandoned, but it is not! Not really, anyway. It's always in the back of my mind, but I haven't been able to move it along. I did find my outline, which stated "if no plot, will start to end here." But that's not for about 5-6 more chapters :-) So away we go. And I spent some time in Hawaii this year, so I think once we get there, things will improve. I'm not sure if any of the original readers are still out there, but I'd certainly welcome any thoughts and reviews.

Chapter 7

She slipped back into bed just before it was time for her to leave for work and kissed him awake. Logan woke slowly, waiting until the last second to open his eyes, lest this was all a dream. He reached for his glasses beside the bed.

"Already?" He asked, so thankful she was corporeal and in his arms.

Max nodded as she snuggled into the angle where his body met the bed.

"You're cold. Have you been up the entire night?"

"Most of it. I went to the other room for a while. I didn't want to wake you."

"Max," he admonished.

"'S okay, Logan. You need your beauty sleep."

He kissed the top of her head. "Any more for you, and I know there's no way I'd be able to keep you for myself."

"I have to go."

He started to sit up beside her. "Can I make you something?"

She carefully urged his body back instead. "Stay in bed a while longer. I'll grab something on the way."

He relaxed back, not protesting. "Lunch with Marianne?" he asked as he recalled her plans for the day.

She nodded and kissed him again and was gone.

Logan stretched his arms and yawned. The clock informed him that he'd only been in bed for three hours. As much as he hated to admit it, he was no turbo-charged genetically engineered female, and Bling would arrive in another three hours. Before he could debate whether or not to get out of bed, he fell asleep again.

Max pedaled through the brisk foggy drizzle. She loved the march of the seasons from summer to fall to winter. It was easier to cover things people didn't need to see in layers of warm clothing. And as crazy as it may sound, the snow reminded her of her childhood. From Logan she was learning that even people with a "normal" upbringing sometimes had to choose to remember only the happy times. For her, those inexplicably warm memories were crowded with her brothers and sisters running through the snowy woods. She conveniently left out the part where two of them lay dead from the bullets from the guns Lydecker's goons carried and the fact that they were being chased relentlessly into the night. But ultimately, that last run through the snow meant freedom.

She would talk to Normal today about leaving. Max was about 98% sure that he'd fire her, but she'd always proven dependable for him, so the chances that he'd hire her back and that there'd be a job for her when they returned were high. She fully realized that depending on how the next three or four months played out, she may very well need the job when they got back. She attempted to think only positive thoughts, but it was going to take more than a couple of nights at Logan's to completely change her outlook on life. Good things didn't happen to people like her and her siblings. They hadn't been engineered and bred to grow up to raise families in high-rise apartments. She fought to push those feelings of inadequacy down as she pulled into Jam Pony.

"You kids must think that I can print money in the back room," Normal huffed behind the multiple stacks of papers on his desk. Max tried to be as understanding as possible, nodding solemnly as he continued his lecture about responsibility and commitment and her "duty to deliver packages to the waiting people of Seattle."

"Normal," she started, summoning as much maturity as she could dredge up, "I hope that you will respect the fact that I'm coming to you and asking for leave rather than disappearing. I know you can't promise me that there will be a job when I get back, but I'd appreciate you considering hiring me again if at some time in the future if that time comes."

Max feared he may fall out of his chair, noting his shock at the sophistication of her words and tone. "W-w-when do you think you might be looking again?" he stammered after a few seconds spent righting himself behind the desk. He flipped through a calendar planner he liberated from the bottom of a pile on the left.

"My best guess is somewhere between three and six months."

He glanced at the folio as he shifted the stacks around in front of him. "I-I-I think we might, I mean I might be able to make that work." He looked up and glared again at her, mistrust in the fact that she'd held back this more grown-up side of herself, she imagined, crossed his face.

She opened her mouth to explain but then closed it. The less he knew about her the better. Instead, Max stood and held out her hand. "Thank you. I'll clean out my things now."

"Uh huh," he grunted as he let his fingers flop in her hand before she turned and walked out of his office.

Cindy had let the others know what was going down with Max, so other than a few sad eyes, there were no guilt trips or ribbing as she emptied her locker. Sketchy patted her shoulder, holding back tears as Herbal sent her off with a blessing from Jah. Cindy walked Max to the door.

"Donchu worry 'bout any of us here, no how," Cindy established as soon as they hit the sidewalk. "We all gonna go 'bout our bizness just like always. And when you all get back, we'll meet up and hear all the stories, K?"

Max nodded. "I'm doin' the right thing here. Right?" She'd been her own and only means of support since that night ten years ago.

Cindy placed her hands on Max's shoulders and nodded, touching her forehead to Max's. "Logan's a good man, and he loves you like nuthin' else. Let him take care of you for a while. You deserve it."

Max allowed a grin to tug at one corner of his mouth. "Thanks, OC. I gotta go see a lady about a bikini." They hugged quickly and Max rode off to meet Marianne at a boutique downtown. The older woman had contacted her the day before through work. Those Cales were a force to be reckoned with when they put their minds to something, and Marianne had put her mind to meeting Max for swimsuit shopping and lunch.

Marianne arrived at the store after Max had been pacing the front sidewalk for about five minutes. She recognized the younger woman immediately and pulled her into a bilateral air kiss hug thingamajig. Max's muscles stiffened at the other woman's touch, but she forced a smile.

"Max!" Marianne gushed as she nearly pulled Max through the revolving door. "It's so good to see you again. I'm so glad that Logan called. I really would love the opportunity to get to know him better. Bennett talks about him all the time, so I feel like I do know him in some ways, but you know." Max nodded. "And you," Marianne continued. "We're so glad that you're in Logan's life. Bennett's worried about him so much this past year."

Interesting way of showing it, Max thought, but she just smiled a tight little closed-mouthed smile and followed Marianne as she moved without requiring any direction or reference to the second floor in the back left corner of the store where the racks holding clothing labeled quite colorfully as "Resort Wear" was located. Before she even turned a price tag, Max knew she was in WAY over her head and budget.

While Marianne prattled on beside her, Max attempted to size up the situation, but it was like three days in Logan's lap of luxury had dulled her survival instincts. Although she was quite sure she could survive without the crocheted triangles Marianne was now holding dangerously close to her breasts. The tag, which was nearly as big as the swatch of material, flashed a number that she quickly calculated to be about two weeks' salary at Jam Pony. And Max no longer worked there. She twisted away from Marianne's approaching arm.

"Let's pick something for you first," she suggested. "I think I'm probably just going to use last year's suit," she lied as beads of sweat began collecting in the curve of her back.

Marianne stopped talking for the first time since they'd met on the street. "Oh. Well. Okay." It was like watching a balloon deflate, but not in the clown at a birthday party way.

Max immediately regretted her evasion of Marianne's attention. The older woman had obviously been looking forward to this outing. "I just quit my job, and I'm not sure…" Max explained with a sigh, not really enjoying revealing this to a person she'd now seen a total of two times ever, but she felt she owed Marianne something in the way of an explanation.

Marianne's face suddenly brightened. "Oh, well…"

Max shook her head before the offer even came out. "I couldn't accept it. It's too much."

"Well," Marianne thought quickly, "Logan has an account here, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind, and the two of you could settle up later," she offered. "Or," sensing Max was still ill-at-ease with this option, "Did you have another place in mind where we could go?" Now, Max watched Marianne force a smile, but she was totally committed to making Max comfortable.

Max weighed these options quickly in her mind as she realized how genuinely Marianne wanted her to make the choice that made her feel most confident. And she and Logan had discussed this very situation quite a bit. He wanted her to be a part of his world, and she wanted to knock him dead when she walked out of the ocean and into his arms.

"Well," she decided, reaching toward Marianne for the wisps of fabric, just the ghost of a smile extending from the corner of her mouth to her mischievous eyes. "It couldn't hurt to try it."

Half an hour later, tiny bags in each of their hands, they followed an overly polished waiter to a table with a white tablecloth and more forks than Max thought she and Cindy and Kendra owned collectively.

"I'm so glad we've had this time together," Marianne started after they had given their orders.

Max glanced toward her own, significantly smaller, bag. "It doesn't cover much. Especially below the belt," she added with a blush rising quickly up her neck and across her cheeks. "Logan will love it, but I may need some advice on how to take care of, um, all that."

Marianne laughed with an affectionate squeeze of Max's hand. "Oh, Max. From bikinis to bikini waxes in one afternoon! Don't worry about anything; we'll make a proper lady out of you yet!"

TBC