A/N: All is not lost. There will someday be a resolution to this. Maybe not today, but here's an update.

Chapter 14

The next three weeks proved to be both the fastest and slowest in Logan's life. He found himself frozen with agonizing anxiety every time the phone rang, thinking it could be Makiko giving them the go-ahead. In between phone calls, he organized lists of supplies, oversaw the purchase and packing by Max and Bling, and prepared travel documents for Zack. Although he itched to get the process moving, he feared they wouldn't be ready when the call came in.

In reality, when Makiko finally contacted them, everyone's bags had been packed and sitting by the door for days, much like an expectant couple waiting for baby go-time. Max was out on a last-minute supply run when he received word, and didn't immediately reply to her pager. That wasn't unusual; phones weren't found on every corner. But Logan definitely couldn't tamp down his nervous energy now. He paced the floor from bedroom to kitchen to living room to office and back as he considered conducting his own sector by sector search to give her the news. He realized how irrational that idea sounded, even in his own head, still he'd nearly worn ruts in the hardwood by the time she returned.

"Max!" Logan met her at the door.

She wasn't sure if she should be worried or excited or scared as she jumped out of his way to keep him from mowing her down with the chair. "Good to see you, too, Logan," she mumbled, as she bounced off the far wall in her attempt to avoid him.

"She called. Everything's a go. We can leave tomorrow."

Max leaned against the table in the foyer to let him roll by her. "Tomorrow? Wow. That's soon."

"Oh god. Zack! I almost forgot."

"I'll see what I can do, but he might need a little more time." She crossed into the office, grabbed the phone, and keyed in Zack's pager number followed by their prearranged code. Logan sat forward in the chair, hanging on her every move. "It'll take a minute for him to call back, Logan. You're gonna drive me crazy if you sit there and wait for the phone to ring."

He pivoted, heading away from her and into the kitchen. "I can cook."

"Well, I can always eat," Max reasoned as she trailed behind him.

"You think he'll be at the cabin? If so it could take him hours to get to a phone."

"We can leave tomorrow at the earliest. It doesn't matter if we're a little later than that, right?"

Logan frowned at this technical truth. "Yes."

"So tell her we'll be there in a week."

"Max!"

"You don't want to spook him."

Logan's eyes widened. "He said he was on board."

Max knew Logan's restlessness had grown with each passing day, but he was bordering on manic here. "And he is, but maybe it's best not to push him too much, though. He's used to giving the instructions."

"Yeah." He ran his hand through his hair. "You're right. We can give him space. I'm a little more stressed than I thought I'd be about this."

Max rubbed his shoulder. "Why don't you work on dinner? And make enough for three just in case he stops by."

"Good idea." Logan moved forward and began rummaging through the contents of the fridge. "How about lasagna? I can make a béchamel sauce and a ragú with what I have here."

"Whatever that is."

"It's good; you'll like it."

She shrugged. "If it's food I'll like it."

"True enough. But it will be good food."

"I'll wash up and then I can help."

"I like that plan."

She reached around from behind and planted a kiss on his cheek, his head still buried in the fridge. "And I like you." Max skipped down the hall into their shared bedroom and returned a few minutes later, having changed into a pair of shorts and a slouchy sweatshirt, her hair pulled back into a sloppy bun with her bar code visible. He loved that she felt safe enough here to do that.

"How was your day?" Logan inquired as she perched her bottom on the stool across from where he was assembling ingredients on the island.

"Fairly uneventful. I actually stopped by Jam Pony this morning and pitched in a little bit. Pro bono."

"Seriously?"

"For a few hours, yeah. I was missing the gang. This 'kept woman' thing is harder than it looks."

Logan laughed. "I thought you might struggle a little with the practice if not the concept."

Max smiled. "I wasn't so sold on the concept to begin with. How was your day?"

"Pretty much business as usual until I got that call just before you got home."

"And we're definitely all ready to go on this end?"

"Yes."

"And you're nervous?"

"Yes."

"Well, try not to be. It's about time someone figured out how to use some of the Manticore craziness for good instead of evil, right?"

"You'd think." He'd gotten noticeably quieter as this conversation continued.

Max realized this. She slid off the counter and placed her hand on his shoulder first before she leaned her chest against his back, draping around his neck. "Hey. This is going to work out."

He kept his focus on his the vegetables in front of him. "It might not."

"It's only been a few months. Not even a year. Those neuron pathways haven't rewired with scar tissue yet. If this is ever going to work, now is the time to try."

"That's what everyone keeps telling me," Logan agreed with a sigh.

"And if it doesn't, it doesn't. It isn't the end of the world."

He turned and eyed her skeptically. "Speak for yourself."

Max moved around in front and sat herself squarely in his lap. "Baby. Seriously?"

"I can't pretend it isn't the only thing I ever think about, Max. The only thing I truly want."

"Really? The only thing?"

"I've got you now. What else could there be other than this?"

Max closed her eyes and shook her head. "Look outside your gilded tower here, Logan. There are a ton of people who are way worse off than you, than me. I absolutely think you have to go through with this treatment because I don't know how you'd live without yourself, or how I'd live with you, if you don't try it. And it may or it may not work. But either way, there will still be people in need tomorrow out here on these streets. There will still be injustice in the world, and you will still have the ability to fight it. And I'll still be here beside you to do whatever you need from me. That's not going to change no matter how tall you are."

"You think this is about vanity?"

"No. Of course not. I understand what it's like to have a jacked up nervous system. If anyone can understand even a tiny bit of what you're dealing with here, it's me. But do you even think about that, do you consider me a liability when you ask me to go out there? Are you afraid I'll have a seizure and not get your job done or get hurt or die?"

Logan had to concede this point, even if tangentially. "I always worry that you're in danger, but mostly for the fact that I ask you to do dangerous things, that you just do dangerous things."

"Right. And I don't think that you're any less qualified to do what you do now, either."

"I want to believe that." Logan dropped his head. "But you know it's more than that. There are other, um, considerations."

Max picked the most obvious problem. "The plumbing issues?"

A blush crept up Logan's face and across his cheeks. "To begin with. Yeah."

"But you could deal with it, we could live with it."

"Yeah. We could. But it sucks. Everything about this sucks, Max."

Max caressed the edge of his face with more tenderness than she knew she had in her. "I know it has to. So we'll go and we'll try, and whatever happens will be what happens. Until something else comes along. K?"

He nodded. "That's all there is to do. And I'll try not to get my hopes too high."

"Well, we both know that second part isn't going to happen," Max revealed how well she knew him with a sad little smile.

"No," Logan admitted. "It isn't."

"So why don't we work on dinner?"

His kissed her cheek. "Yeah. Better idea."

Max stood. "Or, maybe an even better one, you can work on dinner, and I'll go see if I can find Zack."

"Really?"

She shrugged. "I can at least check the usual places."

"Thanks, Max." He placed his hand on her leg, inching under the hem of her shorts. "You should probably put on some pants, though."

"Don't you worry about what I'm wearing," she teased as she leaned down to kiss him. "I'll be back in an hour, two tops."

"I'll be here."

"With dinner?" Max reminded.

Logan managed a genuine smile. "With dinner."

Max roared across the city, arriving at the Space Needle just as the sun sank below the horizon, the brilliant hues of sunset still illuminating the sky. Zack was waiting.

She came at him without preamble. "What gives? Logan's about to jump out that big window waiting for you to call him back."

"I got his page. I was headed in that direction."

"See, that's not how a pager works. When a number comes up, you're supposed to call it back."

"I'm going out on a limb for him, Maxie. I think that entitles me to a minute of reflection here."

She tapped her watch. "Time's up."

Zack turned his back to her, facing out toward the few flickering fireflies of street lights beginning to light the Seattle night. "You're absolutely sure about this guy?"

"I thought you two had agreed on a truce."

He turned back to confront Max. "What if this is some kind of Manticore trap?"

"Zack."

Max's exasperated groan prompted him to raise his hand, signifying their own ceasefire. "I know you've chosen him over us. Just promise me that I'm not wrong to trust him."

"You're not. He helped me find you along with a lot of other Manticore stuff, all while he was keeping me off their radar."

"I like to be the one calling the shots."

"I know that. And he understands that."

Zack shook his head, finishing the gesture with an unconvinced shrug. "It's an island in the middle of the ocean."

"I know that, too."

"You're like ¾ cat. How's that gonna play out?"

Max grinned. "I'll climb a tree." She nudged Zack with her elbow. "He's important to me Zack. And he really, really needs this." She stared out across the cityscape before them, the vestige of humor having passed between fading away. "Besides, if I had agreed to help him out when he first asked, he might still be walking around." Max attempted a callous shrug, but the worried lines of her face confirmed that she was way too invested to get away with that.

"I'm not going to even try to pretend that I'm okay with the idea of you and him switching places," countered Zack.

"I wouldn't have gotten shot."

Zack knew that. He shrugged. "Still."

Max nodded toward the ladder. "We should go. He's cooking."

The blonde man's face erupted in a wide grin. "You should have led with that."

Max's stomach grumbled audibly at the thought of Logan's culinary skills. "I know, right?"

Zack raised his palms in surrender, the mood suddenly lighter and his connection to Logan refreshed in his mind. "Obviously I'm going. I gave him my word."

"He's not going to be able to relax until we get there. If then, even. This is a big deal for him, Zack. He didn't grow up like we did."

Zack's features contorted into a scowl. "You want me to cut him some slack for growing up as a billionaire? No. I'm not buying that."

"I just mean that his priorities are different than ours. Just do whatever you need to do to get this done. For him, for me, to fuck over Manticore. Whatever." Max made no attempt to hide the contempt in her voice. "Let's go."

"Don't get pissy with me." Zack's voice softened as he reached out to place his hand on her shoulder.

Max sighed, eyes closed for a second before she looked up at him. "Just help him, Zack. Please."

"You know that I will."

"So stop being passive-aggressive about it."

"I'll try that, too."

Max nodded. "We seriously have to go. You cannot imagine how anxious he is about this. He needs to know you're still on board."

"Sure, sure. I get it. Let's go; I'm hungry." He started toward the ladder, but Max didn't budge.

"There's one more little thing you should know." She figured they might as well get this out of the way, too.

"What's that?"

"He's going to want you to stay at the penthouse until we leave."

Zack took two more steps away from her, his head shaking the whole time. "Oh no. I'm not listening to you two getting it on down the hall."

"Zack. It's not like that." His glare and scoff told her he wasn't buying that either. "Okay, so it's kind of like that, but do this for me?"

"I'm already doing you a pretty big favor with this whole Hawaii stem cell thing, you know?"

Max walked forward and touched his arm with the featherweight of her fingertips. "I do know. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Am I? Is Logan?" She pushed.

"You want me to tell you if I'm doing this for Logan or for you?" Zack sucked in a deep breath. "Mostly you," he decided as he blew it out. "But he's not a bad guy. And he doesn't deserve this."

"I know you don't understand my choices, but I really hope that someday you'll be able see things my way and that you'll have something in your life that means this much to you, something other than Manticore."

"Max."

She raised her hand to stop him. "You're my brother, Zack. Always have been, always will be."

"I know that."

"I haven't been in contact with the others like you have, but you told me that most of them have found something or someone in their lives that makes them happy. And you have to know that we all want that for you."

"And that may be true, Max, but the rest of us them still willing to give up whatever that outside thing is to run if they ever begin to close in. You won't do that. And that's dangerous to all of us, including the people we love."

"I'm not running. Not if we can expose them, bring them down once and for all."

"Max! They are the US government. There's no 'bringing them down.' You have to know that."

She offered him only a stubborn shake of her head. "I know that money talks, and Logan has a lot of it."

"We know very well what kind of talking the Cales do with their money."

"That's not Logan. He's not his father or his uncle. That's why he needs to make a difference."

"And he can't make a difference in the chair?"

"Those two things have nothing to do with one another. What you agreed to do for Logan is personal. Manticore is business."

"And if Logan owes you, or me, then he might be more motivated to push the Manticore issue?" Max didn't answer. "Glad you cleared all of that up."

"I do love him, Zack. I could have a life with him. And if he's happy and healthy and I'm not looking over my shoulder for Lydecker or Manticore, then who am I to mess with that?"

"I think you're up to your elbows in it."

"That is how you would see it."

"I think it's how Logan would see it, too."

"Is that a threat?"

"No. I just think you should be careful about admitting all of your motives out loud."

"But we're family." Max realized she was using Zack's own words and sentiments against him.

"So are Logan and I. Remember how I got roped into this in the first place?" He shot back.

"That sounds a little incest-y," Max decided with a crinkle of her nose.

"You and Logan aren't related. And technically, neither are you and me."

Max's pager squawked on her belt. "Three guesses who that is."

"Let's go. There's no getting out of this, so we might as well get it over. And get dinner."

"He's making lasagna."

"Oh, that sounds good."

"You know it will be."

"Then why are we standing here in the rain?"

Max shrugged. "We were engineered to be sadists?"

"Something like that," Zack agreed.

She started toward the ladder, but he held his ground. "Max." She turned. "I don't hate him. And I can see that he makes you happy. That's not easy for me, but I do want what you talked about. And if it can't be you, then maybe I'd like to try to find something or someone else that I want to build a life with, too."

"Yeah?"

"I think about it sometimes. I'm mostly human."

Max grinned. "Can I help?"

"I think I have to do this one on my own."

"Probably best," she conceded.

"Yeah. Probably." Zack moved toward the ladder now. "You say there is hot water to spare at Logan's?"

"And fluffy towels like you can't even believe. And toothpaste."

"So why are we standing in the rain when there's food and hot water and toothpaste in a penthouse across town?"

"I keep asking myself the same question over and over and over."

"And I guess you keep coming up with the same answer."

They locked eyes and spoke at the same time. "Manticore."

TBC