DISCLAIMER: Same as all earlier chapters.

MY THANKS to everyone reading, and my appreciation for the reviews, comments, e-mails and messages left along the way for this story. This chapter was not one of the couple remaining intended to finish off the story – it inserted itself as a little freebie when I went back to get serious about wrapping things up.

So much for serious.

(Blame the toad: other writers here have a 'muse;' I wouldn't presume anything so refined. Instead, I have a little toad that lives in my backyard and comes to whisper DA stories to me, which I dutifully type for her... as you can imagine, typing is not a toad's strong suit. )

BUT BACK TO MY THANKS--It's gratifying that so many of you seem to want to read more about the cousins after CJ is done; I suspect we'll be seeing them getting back together in the future... stay tuned!

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON: February 12, 2020; 6:40 p.m.
SECTOR 9; Fogle Towers. Penthouse.

Max leaned over the kitchen work table, watching Logan's graceful hands at their task as she had so many times before. The difference, this time, was that she didn't try to hide her blatant admiration for the poetry of the movement and the calming effect his actions had on her, when he coaxed simple ingredients into such wonderful dishes like this, just for her. As she watched him paring fruit into bite-sized pieces, he became aware of her admiring glance and found himself smiling softly toward his work. "All mixed?" he looked up into the lovely face across from him, and was reminded yet again of how much had happened in the past few days. The world has been set on its ear, marveled Logan, and in the middle of all the uncertainty, and the chaos, and the reunions, Max was brave enough to force the issue ... and here we are...

She nodded. "Um-hmm. Now what?"

Those amazing eyes, he reflected ... but managed to respond, "Well... how does it taste now? Is it sweet enough for you?"

He watched as she dipped a finger in the yogurt she'd just swirled with honey and popped it in her mouth, tasting it and considering; he scooped his own finger into the mix when she offered the bowl toward him. He nodded as she did, and he leaned across toward her. "Maybe one of these..." he pushed several small tins toward her from where they sat between them. "See which you like. Actually, you can combine any of them," he explained as she opened the first container and smelled the sweet cinnamon inside, "but you should go easy, a little at a time – taste it with each addition..."

"It will all be gone before I'm done tasting," she frowned.

Logan chuckled. "There's plenty." He went back to paring the rare pear he'd managed a few days before, and watched Max lift the small canister of grated nutmeg to her nose.

As they had left the airport terminal to head to the car, Logan was still quiet at the departure of his cousin, but at Max's gently insistent presence – asking more about the basketball plays Tony had designed that he knew she'd otherwise care little about, her confession that she'd always imagined flying but had never even so much as been on a military carrier, and her repeated amazement that Logan had been hiding such an interesting, amusing relative from her all this time – by the time they'd gotten into the Aztek and he'd started the engine, Logan was smiling softly at just how lucky he was...

"You know, this is hardly fair," Max confessed, watching the chef turn odds and ends into another gourmet dish, "I promised to make you dinner..."

"You did, Max," he assured her immediately. "This is dessert."

"Some dinner," she muttered, opening a small jar of cloves to sniff, then putting it down quickly to lift the one labeled 'coriander.' "I just raided your fridge for leftovers to make sandwiches."

"I like sandwiches." He started in on an apple, quickly paring it in to bite-sized pieces and dropping them with the pear, tossing them with a bit of lemon juice.

"But you were the one who decided we could make chicken salad. With nuts and fruit," she sighed theatrically. "My sandwiches aren't even in your league."

"Max," he chuckled, his eyes twinkling at the drama she put on for him, "you have to let me do something better than you..." He was pleased to see her response, a smirk and a roll of her eyes. "Besides, you're making the sauce. You get to decide just how to spice it."

"With a little help."

"That's what makes us great, Max ... we're here to help each other out."

At his words, Max paused, looking at him as she realized how such a simple thing was so important to each of them, and so big, for two persons usually too stubborn to ask help from anyone else. She felt her mouth curve up into a smile, impossible to control, and she looked at the man who had let her discover that there was some of the romantic in her DNA, after all. "We are ... and you've finally figured that out?" Her voice was soft, her eyes, warm ...

...and Logan Cale believed in life again.

He wavered, caught, and finally relaxed into a smile. "I think I have..." he said softly, looking at her, and finally shrugged, "there's still a lot we have to discuss, Max, " he reminded her, unable to trust yet that his luck was really that good...

"Not so much," she challenged, "and the hard part's all done," she reminded him. "But if you've got something to talk about, the world's been pretty quiet lately..." She reached over to sneak a piece of apple from the bowl. " And tonight's as good a time as any, if, you know..." her tough guy shrug, in the quiet of his kitchen, was endearingly Max, and made more so as she couldn't stop the tiny smile that peeked through, "...anything comes to mind..."

He pursed his lips, nodding as he too tried to play it cool. "If it does, I'll let you know." The smile that leaked out across his features, though, brought the smile fully back to Max's face. "What about that sauce?" he asked, dropping his knife with the completion the fruit, and he backed up, pivoted, and crossed into his pantry to root around for more items to add.

"Mmm... Let's try..." She turned back to the small mixing bowl and shook a bit from one tin, then another, into the creamy white yogurt and stirred. As she did, Logan came back from the pantry, a couple items on his lap, one of which he handed to Max. "You might like a little of this – half to a whole teaspoon, if you want to add it."

She uncapped the small brown bottle to sniff and nod immediately. "Vanilla – yes," she reached for the measuring spoons he'd left out for her. Stirring it in, she took another finger full and sampled, then blinked up in surprise. "Logan, it's good!" she beamed.

"Is it?" her joy was contagious.

She nodded quickly and scooped another finger into the bowl. "Here," she reached toward him in her enthusiasm, and he took the offered finger into his mouth in quick surprise, then, eyes locked onto hers, slowly sucked off the sweet creamy yogurt from her finger, barely tasting it, so taken by the sudden, sensual moment...

...and reddened, coming to his senses and releasing her finger. "Sorry," he murmured.

She blushed too, but dared to let her fingertips brush across his lips, hopefully. "I'm not," she whispered. At her words, he smiled, watching her carefully, and caught her fingertips with his lips to gently nibble at them, a question in his eyes. Smiling wider, she cocked her head and asked, her voice teasing softly, "so what do you think?"

"Perfect..." he breathed.

She laughed, "the yogurt, Logan."

He shook his head, shrugging, and admitted, "I don't know..." As they each laughed at their awkward, new infatuation with what was happening between them, Max yet again scooped some yogurt on her finger and held it before him. "This time, it's got to be the yogurt, okay?"

"Whatever you say." His eyes twinkled now in his delight. He slowly, delicately, wrapped his lips around her finger again, just the tip this time, and just as slowly pulled back, their eye contact never breaking, her finger clean now. He grinned, chuckling, "it really is good."

"Now what?"

A myriad of responses paraded through his mind before he settled on their original intent, and he lifted the package still on his lap. "Well..." he regretfully pulled his attention from her back to the work table, and brought two crystal parfait cups before him. "We could finish the dessert I promised you..."

"For a start..." she raised her eyebrows, and Logan stared meaningfully at the workbench before him, his grin lingering.

"First ... we put in some of the fruit..." he spooned the fruit pieces into the cups, "and then..." He opened the package that still held a few of the ladyfinger cookie-cakes he'd used in the tiramisu, and broke one in half, crumbling the halves into the cup. "Now, some of your sauce, maybe a third of it or so..." He watched as she spooned the blended yogurt over the fruit, and nodded to say, "now we repeat a couple times." He spooned fruit in again and added more cake; she again spooned sauce over as they filled the cups, the silence between them still suggestive but, surprisingly, as comfortable as they'd been before. Logan found himself wondering if he'd ever been as infatuated with anyone as he was with Max at that very moment. Maybe having his legs –and his confidence – shot out from under him gave him a new perspective on these things... he mused. Back in the day, he may have made some bad life choices when it came to women, but he never appreciated what it was to be loved for who he was, and not just how he looked or how wealthy he was...

Loved? Logan looked back up at Max as she topped off the parfaits, giving him a cute little smile of success as she spooned out the last of the sauce and ran her finger around the inside of the bowl to get out the last of the sweet cream. Watching her place the bowl in the sink, he dared to chide himself, yeah, 'loved,' Cale. Imagine that...

Unaware of Logan's trust blooming just across the room, Max lifting the steaming carafe from the brewer on the counter. "I'll get the coffee," she offered.

"How about dessert in the living room?" Logan looked up to her, wondering if he'd ever stop smiling now...

"Okay." She pulled out a pair of mugs and, with the coffee pot in her other hand, Max led the way into the living room as Logan brought out the parfaits they'd made. As she put the carafe on the table and he lifted the dishes from his lap, Max watched him and, impulsively, suggested, "what if you come sit on the couch ... by me?'

He wavered, still getting used to what was happening between them. "Okay," he nodded, looking away, suddenly too self-conscious to let Max see how pleased he was that she asked. As he moved closer to set his brakes and start his transfer, Max sat gracefully on the edge of the couch, one foot tucked under her, so she could face Logan as he settled in. "Coffee..." she handed a cup to him, which he set in front of him on the low table, "and a... dessert," she finished, unsure what to call their creation. "Nice." She smiled pronounced happily, reaching for her own bowl as Logan set his by his coffee.

"It is." Logan smiled, appreciating how much Max had done to move things along in their relationship. Once she'd spoken, at the cabin, to tell him that their kiss so many weeks ago really had meant something to her, she hadn't looked back and had drawn him in, drawn closer to him ... She'd dropped her defenses, and let him in. And he was still dizzy...

He watched as she sampled the concoction they'd managed, and waited, anticipating. "So what's the verdict?"

Max swallowed ... licked her lips ... and beamed. "I'm not such a bad cook, after all," she allowed. Seeing how Logan's face lit up at her words, pleased, she admitted, "more teamwork." Her voice softened, and she ventured, "we're a pretty good team all around, Logan..." She looked for his reaction, and offered, "don't you think? I mean, even though we had a pretty strange start..."

"'Crossing paths by fate' is sometimes the best way to get things started." Logan watched her, thinking how he would never, ever tire of just watching her... At his words, she shrugged, but the beam of pure delight he'd seen earlier dimmed a bit, as she stared into her bowl for a moment, and put it back on the table. "Max?" He wasn't sure how his comment had been, so suddenly, the wrong thing to say, but she clearly was reacting to something in his words...

Her thoughts circled for another moment before she looked back up to him and admitted, "That's one of those things we haven't talked about yet." She paused and managed a wan smile. "Sorry."

"What was it you said, that the world was pretty quiet these days?" No matter his own self-consciousness about airing his fears about them as a couple, and about there being a whole world of better partners for her – at the moment Max lost some of her happiness, Logan forgot anything other than wanting her smile to return. "If you want to talk about it, Max... I'm not going anywhere."

The strength of the man beside her gave Max the courage to admit one of the few true regrets in her life – and to face it for what it was. "Logan, my not coming with you that day, to help keep Lauren and Sophy safe..." She saw him shake his head quickly and draw a breath to speak, but she raised a hand to silence him, interrupting to insist, "No, I need to say this..." She paused, the words hard and the thoughts, harder. "I'm sorry I bailed on you, when you asked for my help. I could have prevented..."

He shook his head again, a little surprised that she would try to take the blame for that day – and in any event, not willing to let her do so for another moment. "It was my choice to go, and I knew the risks. We all did – Peter, Lauren..." Logan sighed, and he said softly, "it was my fault, Max; I knew the plan was risky but I'd managed to pull off everything I'd tried before. I was getting cocky."

"But that's just it," she shifted to face him more fully, her regret and self-blame painfully clear. "I knew you'd try it; I knew that a guy bold enough to run Eyes Only hacks under the noses of everyone from the middle of Seattle in a high-priced penthouse wouldn't stop 'til he got his witness protected..." She paused, the guilt not assuaged. "I could have made a difference ... and you might not have been shot." Her voice was a whisper as she looked away, finally voicing the worst.

Logan looked to her and reached up to gently brush her cheek with his knuckles, trying an encouraging smile. "We'll never know – with all the men Sonrisa had out there, it's likely I'd've been, anyway... and you might have been hurt, too." Max could see that he honestly was relieved that she had not been involved, and felt her guilt deepen as it hit home. "Peter talked about aborting, but he would have made sure we backed out if he thought it was impossible." Logan wavered, again ready to accept on himself all events of that mission. "I think if I'd decided we had to regroup and try to get them out another way, he would have been relieved ... and he might have survived it." Logan looked away, fighting what was clearly a long-fought argument with his conscience, and he sighed, looking back to her, "it was costly lesson, Max, and it's taken a long time for me to see it. The work I've been doing is important, and necessary – but it's also dangerous, and there aren't many safety nets out there to protect us. I've asked too many people to take too many risks ... the way I did with you." He looked back up to her and admitted, 'the way I have, since I've known you."

Hearing Logan switch the subject to his own guilt about the dangers inherent in the work they did for Eyes Only, it was Max now who shook her head in denial, and she asserted, "you've let me help with the details to make things safer and easier, and you wouldn't have ever argued if I needed to abort a mission. That's letting me do what I do."

He sighed, the thoughts difficult, as he faced his own admission. "Not at first..." He looked into the dark eyes and confessed, "when you just showed up, back here, after all those months... all I could think of was the selfish need to get Eyes Only back in the game, and you were my best chance at doing it."

The look of concern in her eyes now, as she remembered that time, was much like the one he'd seen at that very meeting, and he felt another wave of guilt to see it. "So you did know I was coming..." she tried.

"I didn't. I'd hoped ... but given our previous meeting, and what I'd asked you to do – I had my doubts." He looked away, remembering the events that so completely changed his life in so many ways. "I had a lot of time to think, after what happened ... and realized that in my obsession with getting Sonrisa put away, I wasn't thinking about what I was asking you to do – but you'd caught onto that long before I did. I wish I could say my interest in your protecting Lauren was because she and Sophy deserved to be safe ... but I wasn't even seeing her as a person... she was a witness, just a link to getting Sonrisa off the streets... "

"Nothing wrong with wanting both..."

Logan looked back into beautiful face before him as he heard Max urging him to forgive himself for events of that time. His confessions compounded. "I'm not sure I did, Max ... all the high-minded talk ... it was just that, talk ... up 'til then, empty words from someone who'd managed to beat the odds ."

Max's expression softened for the man before her, who was always too ready to bear the weight – and the guilt – of the world on his shoulders, alone. "Not you, Logan ... I know you." She would not let him deny what was the best part of him. "You might have gotten carried away for a few minutes here and there, but you never forgot Lauren and Sophy ... and you knew I was coming back; you had Bast here, and the file on Zack..."

"I didn't know..." He sighed, and this time would not meet her eyes. "But when you did, and even being so aware of how I'd already asked you to risk everything ... it was bad enough I did it once, but there I was, waiting and hoping you'd come back so I could ask you again."

Max peered down a bit to try and catch his eye, and when he didn't look up, she reached over to his hand, resting motionless on his thigh, and threaded her fingers through his, seeking the connection to make her point. "And I'm glad you did," she promised.

He looked back to her and was gratified to see that not only did she mean her words, not only did she forgive him his audacity ... but she seemed to understand that his injuries were not her doing and that he could not allow her to accept any blame for his life as it was now, whatsoever... well, other than making me fall so completely in love with her, maybe... It was his turn to attempt a wan smile, for her efforts...

"You were so calm, just asking, you know?" She offered a small smile as she saw he was coming to terms with all that had lay unspoken between them, before. "After everything that had happened, you asked without dropping a beat, like asking the time of day, just so bold, assuming I'd agree ..."

"Calm?" He shook his head, "I was terrified, Max ... I knew I was being selfish, and asking too much..." He'd come this far and knew that clearing the air on this part of their lives meant admitting the rest. "But, whether it was rational or not, I also had decided that if you couldn't help, there was no way for Eyes Only to continue, with me off my feet. And without Eyes Only ... I had no reason to keep things going ... or to keep going, myself ..." He paused, feeling that he owed it to her to let her hear it all ... "I was asking you to give me a reason to live, and you had no way to know." Still embarrassed for his manipulation of her so many months ago, he confessed, "I'm sorry..."

Her eyes glittered to hear now what had motivated his recruitment of her, and felt a wave of relief take her as she realized that since that time, he'd found himself and his confidence again, enough to keep Eyes Only a strong force in the region ... enough to mount a rear flank attack on an armed lunatic bent on protecting her son a few days ago ... enough to start to believe her words that his injury did not diminish him, in her eyes...

In response, she leaned in closer to offer a long, tender kiss, one that remained sweetly insistent until she felt him start to kiss back. Satisfied that her 'reply' had been heard, she sat back and, eyes sparkling for him, went on, as if his painful words had not been said. "Of course, my first thought was that you were crazy, back at it so soon after being shot up ... but my second thought, right after the first, was that I had to get to know this guy who would just pick up and run from where he'd left off, stubborn and driven and crazy..." She saw in his eyes the mix of hope and uncertainty she'd learned to recognize recently, as Logan was starting to trust what she felt for him, what he had to offer her... and so added, in soft, serious encouragement, "Logan, however we hooked up – my committing a felony to get inside your place to rob you, your looking for my help to get going again – that's all past, and the past has served its purpose. We're here, now ... and for as long as you want me here, I'm here to stay."

He searched the face he loved for some sign of uncertainty or pity or insincerity and found nothing of the kind, no conditions, no regrets... only her own love for him, lighting her face in anticipation. With a hopeless laugh, too emotional to his ears, he capitulated, "and you thought I was crazy..."

"Well, think about it," she beamed again, her happiness back, now that she saw they'd managed to release a few more skeletons and had survived to smile about it. "Here you are... a revved up girl practically in your lap, and you haven't yet exploited your tactical advantage? Don't make me call Tony so soon..."

It took a moment or two to appear, but with her words, the megawatt smile Logan shared with his cousin soon appeared, and with it, he raised a hand to her cheek, leaning toward her on his other hand to nibble her lip, sensuously. "Why are you sitting all the way over there?" he teased, "when there's a perfectly good lap waiting over here?"

"Thought you'd never ask," she purred, and shifted into his waiting arms.

...TBC...