DISCLAIMER: Dark Angel borrowed, no profits realized.

A/N: An AU in full S2 denial, this universe extends the S1 world as it was before AJBAC several years past that time. This is another installment in a story originally intended as a one-shot. And as it's non-canon hypermoosh, it's dedicated to all M/L mega-shippers.

SPOILER: This installment is actually a sequel to another story as well, "the Interview" and as such is a spoiler for it. Therefore, if you haven't already read the Interview and think you might like to someday, it would be best to read it before going on with this one.

January 17, 2024

Dinner had been remarkable, and the chef had outdone himself: they had trout almondine, steamed baby asparagus, and strained carrots. They had a crisp pinot gris in Irish crystal and apple juice in a sippy cup.

After a long, quiet talk at the table, candles burning lower and their companion showing signs of flagging, it was Max at the sink, clearing away the table and tidying up the kitchen; it was she who pulled out the tray to set out the carafe and coffee cups as she listened to the sounds from the other room, faint enough that only ears as sensitive as hers would hear them: sounds of baby coos and Logan's rich voice talking back ...

"Da!"

Max smiled ... she could imagine the speaker's face, that innocent, filled-with-delight look as she beamed her pronouncement...

"Dadada..."

She smiled wider at the pleased chuckle it elicited, along with a responding, muffled "Dadada" from Logan, spoken, Max knew, around a pudgy hand caught in his gently nibbling lips as he took his turn at the fatherly duties of wiping down sticky face and hands, of changing diaper and of pulling on sweet-smelling pjs, of cuddling the sleepy baby toward slumber and speaking soothingly and softly, finally lifting her back tenderly to tuck his newest angel into her bed...

Max came into the dimmed room to find the scene just as she imagined, her little girl lying quietly in her bed, a blanket pulled up over her tummy and her favorite stuffed kitty in her arm. Logan glanced over toward Max, and held out his arm for her to come near, to join them. She came into the offered embrace and looked into the crib, feeling her own smile widen.

"Hey, little girl," Max greeted the child, and received a sleepy beam in return. She leaned over the bed, safety netting still lowered on their side, to leave a soft kiss on their daughter's forehead. "Sweet dreams..." Straightening, leaning into Logan warmly, she leaned over to nuzzle his hair, and murmured, "and you, Papa? Going to come see me about some of my own dreams?"

Logan tipped his head back, offering his mouth where she had nuzzled his hair, and their lips met for a long, sweet kiss... As they pulled away, Logan smiled softly, "Equal time for both my girls? Lucky for me that you're both so easy to please..." He let his hand curl up from her waist, to caress her back. "You go ahead and get comfortable. I'll tuck in our little angel, here, and be right out." He trailed his hand back down to her waist, adding, "You have another package that needs attending. "

"No; Logan..." She protested, touched by his generosity and touched again by the gift she'd already received. "You already did too much..."

"Nah...look at the present you gave me..." he tipped his chin toward the round little form in her pink footie pyjamas. "How can I compete?"

With another buzz to his crown, Max teased, "now who'd have thought that the great and powerful Eyes Only was such a pushover?" She bent over the crib for one last gentle brush of her lips along the baby's brow and murmured words of goodnight, then slipped from Logan's arm and quietly left the room. With a contented sigh, the doting father turned back to look at the beautiful little girl, the impossible made real, his own green eyes in Max's features, her creamy skin a blend of her parents'...

"Sleep tight, baby..." Logan said softly, leaning in for his own goodnight kiss before raising the side bumper to safely enclose her for the evening. "Hey, wish me luck, alright? I'm gonna give your mama her other birthday present now – from both of us – so let's hope I did well..."

With a final gaze to the already-sleeping child, Logan turned to leave her and moved out of the room, pulling the door most of the way closed behind him. He started down the hall toward the living room, but came only a short way before stopping, with a grin, to lean down and pick up the small toy wagon lying along the way, another little stuffed animal as its cargo. From cool bachelor digs when he first got the place, he mused, to lonely Eyes Only lair ... to family home complete with a few strewn toys and safety covers on electrical outlets... 'crib to crib,' literally. He never imagined that this little domestic life would be the place where, finally, he felt settled and balanced, as if there was hope in the world...

He grabbed the little wagon, bunny and all, and sat back up, his eyes catching, as he straightened, Max's lithe form suddenly there at the edge of the living room, winsomely holding her own stuffed bear. Seeing her there, leaning against the doorway in soft, drawstring pants and warm pullover, the delicate gold and garnet necklace, his first 'birthday' gift to her, twinkling at her neck, he wondered if she had ever looked more beautiful...

At the look in his eyes, Max's smile pulled a little higher and, pushing off the doorway to amble over to him, she tried, "Have you noticed that we have quite a menagerie around here? More animals than the Seattle zoo ever had..." She reached out as she neared, taking the hand he offered.

"I love you..." He said, helpless in her beauty and her smile, just for him...

She laughed a little, teasing, "Footie pyjamas and baby powder always make you so romantic..." Her smile was dazzling as she came close to sit in his lap, right there in the hall. "And that makes me love you even more..." She nuzzled his ear as they both let their stuffed animals fall back along the hallway floor.

His arms pulled her close. "Happy birthday, Max..." He felt her relax against him, letting him believe, at that moment, that the dream he was living really was real. "Look, if you'd like to go out – anywhere, to Crash, or to the Pier, whatever you'd like to do, Tracie is standing by, already paid up til midnight, with overtime available..." Sandra's niece, a winning fifteen year old as reliable and good with kids as her teacher-aunt, had been there a few times before to babysit, and Logan knew Max trusted her as much as he did, allowing them an occasional evening away. "So you can decide however you'd like to spend the rest of your birthday. You say the word, if you'd like to get out for a while; if not, we'll settle in here..."

She pulled back a little to look into his sparkling eyes. "Even if I'd wanted to go out before...how could I want anything but time alone with the guy who would come up with such a plan?" She wondered if she ever could return even a part of the generosity of spirit he'd shown her, these past years. "I can't imagine anything better than to stay right here, all evening." As if to make her point, she burrowed in closer, a deep breath nuzzled close bringing her the scents of his soap and shampoo and the fine sprinkling of baby powder still clinging to his sweater...

"But the coffee's in the living room, isn't it?" he quipped weakly, lost in the feel of her. "Much more comfortable surroundings than here in the hall..."

"This is just fine, thank you..." She grinned, happily ... but in a moment sat up again to look at him, grin softening to say, sincerely, "and ... thank you for the new bike, Logan. It really is too much..."

"You never really got over letting Zack take yours..."

"But he needed it and ... well, at the time, I didn't need to be zipping around town, bumping over potholes and torn up pavement ... I had a couple more months to be pregnant, after all..."

"I know how you felt about that bike – and about riding. And about Zack. It was just ... it was a very generous act, and ... well, is it patronizing to say how proud I was of you, to give it away so readily? Something that meant so much to you..."

She smiled softly as she looked into his eyes. "Things change ... the things that were so important before might not be so high on the list now. I love the ride, I crave the speed ... but I used to need to know I had a fast escape. I used to live every day thinking I might have to run away in the next moment..."

"'Used to...'" he repeated, hope lifting. "Not now?" He knew the answer, he really did, but ... to hear her say it, to recognize it, too...

"No way," she kissed his nose, playfully. "Now – it's just for fun."

His smile grew again, "How did it ride? Was it fun?"

"Oh, Logan, it's so sweet," her eyes sought his understanding, hoping he knew how much it still meant. "Maybe even sweeter than my old one, if that's possible." Her grin widened, "but I'm not sure if it's the machine – or the fact that it was from you." She wavered only a moment, and admitted, "When I gave my other one to Zack, part of me was thinking that it might not be right to keep it anyway, once I became a mother."

"Why not, if it still makes you happy?" He leaned in to return the kiss, nibbling her nose. "You make the two of us pretty happy, you know. So...it's your turn."

"Hey," her brow furrowed, "you know that if all I had in this world was the two of you, I'd still be richer than any Cale I've ever known..." She watched the look in his eyes deepen, and she urged, "You do know that, don't you?"

"...and you know some pretty wealthy Cales..." He acknowledged, slowly.

"Damn straight" she whispered. "I love you, Logan..."

He pulled her close, long fingers twining into her hair, kissing her hungrily for several moments before breaking off, regretfully. Dropping his hands to his wheel rims, Logan began moving them both down the hall in to the living room, where coffee and the chocolate-raspberry torte he'd made as a birthday cake for her awaited them. "We have some more birthday to address..."

Crawling off his lap regretfully, Max came around to kneel by the low table and pour their coffee. "Just a few years ago, you'd never have been able to get all that chocolate and raspberries at the same time – you'd've had to wait for the chocolate, then hoard it til the raspberries appeared, whenever that might be."

Slicing into the decadently rich dessert, he chuckled, "And just a few years ago, you wouldn't have known that – since you weren't much into cooking, at the time..." He glanced up to see her smirk, and nodded toward the table, "there's another present there, for you ... it's ... from the both of us."

Max smiled slowly, and as she reached for the small box, in gleaming white paper and a soft blue ribbon, said, "Logan, you really do too much, you know; it's just a birthday..."

"The way I figure it, you're still catching up – you went too long without knowing exactly when it was. Now, since you know..."

"...thanks to you..."

He smiled, self-consciously even now, and went on, "...you need to have some serious celebration. Besides ... it's not much."

"But on top of a bike – that in itself was pretty 'much.'" Max looked at the package in her hand.

"Go ahead. But..." Logan suddenly stopped, and shrugged, "this year it's a little different..."

Max looked at the hopeful face, seeing his uncertainty, and pulled away the ribbon. Each year since discovering her actual birth date, Logan had given her a lovely, private birthday evening, each unique and special. He'd also given her a special gift with her birthstone, a deep, red, garnet, as a marker of her newly found identity. How different, then, she wondered...

Pulling away the paper, Max opened the jeweler's box to find a silver bracelet sparkling up at her. With a soft hum of appreciation, she lifted the bracelet to see the dangling, single charm there, a pair of stylized wings around a shimmering gemstone – but of sea-blue, pale and sparkling. "Logan, it's beautiful..."

She looked up to the eyes that still excited her, the ones now looking carefully to see if she understood. "Not a garnet, this year ... but an aquamarine..." Logan began, feeling his cheeks warm a little as he wondered if she would finally despair of his sentimentality. "It's the birthstone for March..." As her eyes lit with understanding and her smile broadened, he explained in a rush, "I'd wanted to get it for you last year, when you were still pregnant, but ... not knowing how everything would turn out, since we still weren't sure if ... if she'd be as perfect as she is..."

Max felt her eyes prickle as her vision swam for the briefest moment. Getting up to come push her way back into his lap, she let Logan's strong arms surround her, reminding herself again what a miracle it all was, that she'd found such a man, that he loved her, that they could together make the most beautiful little girl the world had ever seen, her daddy's angel...

...suddenly she pulled back to look at the wings wrapped around the stone, understanding, and said simply, "angel wings..."

He nodded. "For our angel." He looked at her closely for several moments, and face falling only a tiny bit, asked "or is that too sappy?"

"Way too sappy," she whispered, "and I wouldn't have it any other way..."