A/N: New job, new chapter. Life is very hectic, but I'll try to keep going! Reviews help (hint, hint).

Chapter 10

Max answered the knock at the door as Logan fussed with something in the sitting room. The woman on the other side wasn't at all who Max had been expecting. Makiko Takahashi stood almost six feet tall with fair skin, light brown hair and grey eyes. She looked nothing like Tinga or Brin.

"Dr. Takahashi?" Max asked, almost apprehensively.

The slightly older woman extended her hand with a resigned smile. "I know. The name doesn't really go with the rest of me, but it's mine," she explained in slightly British-accented speech.

Max smiled and welcomed her in. They turned to meet Logan. He opened his mouth, but no words actually came out. Max offered Dr. Takahashi a seat and crossed to grab a glass of water. She squeezed Logan's shoulder as he passed. Thankfully, that seemed to be enough to snap him out of his surprise.

Dr. Takahashi accepted the glass from Max and took a quick drink before she spoke. "My mother was Norwegian and my father Japanese. It's made for a quite curious mix of genes resulting in a name and appearance so at odds with one another. I'm used to the pauses and stares."

"I'm sorry," Logan managed a little too late. "We're glad you're here, and I don't really care what your name is or what you look like as long as you can help us."

"Well, my name's Makiko. Please call me that. And let me show you what I have in mind."

About half an hour later, after they'd listened to her ideas and work regarding neuron regeneration, pluripotent stem cells, the use of biologic immunomodulators by manipulating T-cells, and the added weapon of employing nanotechnology to rebuild nerve conduction scaffolding, Logan dared himself to hope for his future out of the chair.

Max stood as she completed her presentation. "I know you've talked about the first attempt and everything."

Makiko nodded. "About Manticore, you mean. I do. My mentor worked there briefly in the early 2000's. Our goal has always been to use our 'powers' for good instead of evil. Without the research undertaken there, there's no way we'd be having this conversation, but I can assure and guarantee you that I'm no more trying to build a superhuman race of invincible soldiers than I'm trying to cross paths with those who do. I know who you are Max." She looked toward the case containing the saliva samples. "And I know, approximately, where you got these. I don't want to draw any attention to you or your family, but I do think that given my research, I can help you. Both of you."

Max glared. "What do you mean?"

"The technology that created you is more than 20 years old now. We've been advancing this line of work ever since then, even with the Pulse, which amazingly wasn't as devastating in Asia as one would have thought. We're nearly back to full function now. I don't know what's going on at Manticore right now, but I can make reasonable inferences."

Max nodded, recalling finding Zack in the woods after his most recent brush with Lydecker and Manticore. She didn't need to make inferences. She knew what went on inside those walls.

Makiko pulled an empty plastic container and a small blue vial from her own bag. "I'm also assuming that you haven't given me a sample, but would you?" She put up her hand to silence Max's protests. "It's not for Logan; it's for you. I'd like to see how I can help you, too." Max's eyes narrowed and Makiko sighed. "Don't tell me everything's perfect because I know it isn't. You obviously don't have the progeria mutation, but I'm guessing there are insane heat cycles." Max wouldn't meet Makiko's eyes. "And seizures. You have them, too, don't you?"

Max nodded, still looking away. Makiko walked toward her, placing a hand on the younger woman's forearm. "I can't undo everything, but I promise I can make things better."

Max glanced toward Logan first, the hopeful anticipation in his eyes alone was enough to break her. He held such high hopes for what this woman was promising. She couldn't really do anything but comply. Her head nodded, almost as if by its own volition and almost imperceptibly, but just enough for Makiko to consider her on board with the plan.

Before she could think further to change her mind, Logan moved the three of them to the dining area to continue the discussion over lunch. He served as Max excused herself for the bathroom. She needed a little space, and suddenly, all she could think about was Sebastian's report in the bottom of her bag. She slipped past the other two and pulled her entire duffel with her in to the en suite.

Locking the door behind her, she perched on the edge of the tub as she tore through the folder. There were pages and pages of Cs, Gs, As and Ts, but those alone didn't mean anything. She needed context. She searched through the pages for scans of electrophoresis gels comparing Zack's DNA to Logan's and to other presumably unrelated controls. Several bands were circled and marked as significant. There were clearly more common alleles between Logan and Zack than the random control. She flipped to the next sheet. This time, Logan's DNA had been compared to hers as well as the control. A quick survey showed even less correlation between their respective genetic make-ups than Logan's compared with the control. There was no question there. Max and Logan were NOT related.

She turned to the final page. It was also clear. Logan and Zack shared more DNA markers than could have happened by chance. Max didn't know if Logan had ever wanted a brother or not, but it looked like he had one. A tear slipped from her left eye. She grabbed it before it traced the contour of her face.

Logan's relationship with his family, especially with his late father was so complicated and tenuous. She knew she didn't have the emotional experience to navigate something like this with him, but she didn't know who else to call upon. Bennett and Marianne were an option, but she had just met them, and Logan was still far from cozy with that situation. She also realized that the depth of this analysis could not definitively determine which elder male member of the Cale family, Jonas or Robert, had provided the shared genes. Mitochondrial testing would be of no use as Logan's father and uncle had the same mother. She thought that for now, she would have to just leave this alone. It could have easily been Jonas that linked these two men in her life. There was no need to dance on Robert Cale's grave at this point. If and when Logan was in a less fragile place emotionally, or when Makiko had completed her analysis, they could revisit. But for now, the less Max knew, the better. Her ignorance in the matter would be at least partly genuine if Logan figured any of this out on his own. A knock on the bathroom door interrupted her concentration.

"Max?" Logan's voice pleaded through the slab of wood. "Are you okay?"

She held the papers steady so they wouldn't rustle and searched frantically for a place to stash them before she opened the door. She leapt from her seated position and tucked the folder between two towels on the top shelf of the linen closet. He was there, of course, eyes wide in concern as she entered the bedroom.

"I'm fine." She forced a grin, knowing he wouldn't quite buy it.

"Really?"

A genuine smile crinkled the corners of her eyes. He was so deliciously predictable in his concern for her. "No. Not really, but since when has that ever mattered?"

Logan sighed. "Max."

"Sorry." She reached down and kissed his cheek. "I'm raining on your parade."

He knew better than to push her so quickly backtracked. "Not really."

She couldn't help but smile now. "Really."

"She's still got your mouthwash." He paused. "If you want to."

Max shrugged, trying to retrieve her normal air of aloofness, but felt her attempt falling flat. "It won't hurt to give her a sample. Unless she's hijacked by Manticore on the way home."

Logan's eyes widened again. "We've taken precautions."

"I know," she quickly added. "I was exaggerating."

He nodded but now with a seed of doubt about her safety stuck squarely in his mind. "We should get back out there. She's waiting." She allowed one last small smile to cross her face briefly as she nodded and placed her hand on his shoulder before she followed him into the other room.

Hours later Max still wasn't quite back to normal form by Logan's estimation. When they met Bennett and Marianne for the tour through what remained of Beverly Hills and the surrounding areas, she barely said a word. She gazed distractedly out the window as they drove up the PCH to Malibu where they stopped to watch the sun set and eat crab legs at a restaurant on the beach. She allowed Logan to hold her hand almost the entire time; that alone told him all he needed to know. Marianne, however, found plenty to say to fill the silence.

"Can you believe President DiCaprio's place in Los Feliz?" she gushed, recalling the tours of celebrity homes earlier in the day. "He'd been basically off the grid for years prior to the Pulse. It makes so much sense that he'd be the one to help bring us back to life," she reasoned. She also mused that it certainly hadn't hurt the President's campaign that he'd been one of the biggest movies stars of the beginning of the 21st century.

Following the Pulse, the administration attempted to keep the country together in some semblance of order, but chaos prevailed. Military rule began in 2010 following a final executive order aimed at preserving as much of the United States as possible with the President functioning more as Prime Minister and overseeing the attempts to control the West, which had become quite wild again. Over the next five years, the once-great country limped forward and back to its feet. By 2016, what remained of Congressional leadership decided it was time for the first post-Pulse Presidential election. Leonardo DiCaprio, well-known in the 1990's and 2000's first as an accomplished and popular actor and then as an environmental champion who had pushed for sources of alternative energy long before fossil-fueled electricity became alternative emerged as the most legitimate candidate. The country elected him in a landslide, and he had worked systematically over the previous three years to bring the country back "online." His private home in Los Feliz had become somewhat of a destination for idealistic pilgrims holding onto their memories of the past or bolstering hopes for the future or both. Marianne was a fan in every sense of the word.

Slowly they drew Max (who had actually been able to sit still long enough to watch most of Titanic) into the conversation. By the end of dinner, Logan had registered her laughter three times. He breathed a sigh of relief as they slid back into the hired car. She leaned against his shoulder and exhaled deeply.

"Okay?" he whispered, not wanting the others to hear or worry.

"Mmm," she sighed again in answer before her breathing slowed indicating one of her brief periods of sleep.

Logan's fingers combed gently through the tangles of her hair. He wanted to keep her safe, but every day it became clearer to him that he could not do that alone. He dared to hope that Makiko would help make life better, not only for him, but for her. It would almost be enough not to see her body racked with seizures and urges she couldn't control. If there was nothing for him, he decided he could live with that. And that, he realized, was love. And the thought of loving her so completely didn't scare him nearly as much as he reckoned it should.

TBC