A/n: Again, I can't tell you how good it feels to read your reviews. It's great to have fans.

Chapter 6: Family Connections

Jondy stood by the roadside, hand on hip, thumb out as she saw the truck round the corner. As expected, the driver was more than happy to stop and help out a pretty blonde girl all alone in the middle of nowhere.

He opened his door and called out to her. "Hey, sugar, need a ride?"

"You bet," she replied, with a flirty grin.

"Budge over, buddy, and let the young lady in," said the trucker. He'd already picked up one hitchhiker, a man in his early twenties.

Jondy opened the door, and stared in disbelief at her fellow passenger. It was several seconds before she could form the word pounding in her brain.

The High Priestess of the snake cult was sitting behind her desk, attending to some paperwork when White knocked on the door to her office.

"Come," she called, glancing up, annoyed by the interruption. "Yes, Ames?"

"I have the report you ordered on the prisoner, Priestess," he said.

"Excellent. We have a name for him now?"

"Logan Cale, Priestess."

"Cale? Of the Seattle Cales? That's very unexpected."

"You've heard of him? How?"

"The Cales are one of our best sources of new blood. We have had a number of them in the breeding programme." The heavily tattooed woman called up a file on her computer. "Yes, here we are. This one was never considered for one of us, too rebellious. His cousin, Bennett Cale, on the other hand, was chosen for the intelligence line. He was married to a familiar last year. What does he say he was doing with the abominations?"

"He claims he had a deal with them. He was crippled two years ago and says he got blood transfusions to fix his back in exchange for his computer skills."

"You don't believe him?"

"I know he's not telling the whole truth. Cale claims to have hacked into military special ops to find information on Manticore. I asked the techs, they say that's impossible."

"Why not give him a computer and ask him to do it again? If he can't, you'll know he's lying. If he can… maybe we could have some additional uses for him. Leave that report, I want to look into it in more detail. You are dismissed, Ames."

"Yes, Priestess." White placed the file on her desk and opened the door. He hesitated, then turned back. "One more thing that's not in the report, Priestess…"

"What is it?" Her tone implied that 'this had better be good'.

"I think Thula likes him."

"Really? She's never shown any interest in a specific male before. Perhaps it's a sign we should find her a breeding partner."

"You aren't concerned? If this Cale is as clever as he thinks…"

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can use the situation to our advantage. Send Thula in to see me. I want to hear her side of this."

Alec had changed a lot since the destruction of Terminal City. He was no longer the fun loving joker he had once been. Now, he was far more serious; he pushed himself hard, not resting unless he absolutely had to.

Every time he closed his eyes, Alec saw the faces of everyone he had let down, everyone he'd killed. From his first assassination mission to Rachael to Biggs to Cece… and Logan. Especially Logan. When he'd seen Joshua's painting he'd stopped breathing. In it, Alec saw everything Max had ever wanted, and it was his fault she didn't have it. Over and over, he wished she'd just let his head explode when she had the chance. The guilt he felt at Logan's death was so heavy he sometimes thought he'd collapse, and not be able to get up. He had nightmares about it whenever he slept, being trapped under a pile of bodies he'd created, Logan's sightless blue eyes boring into his own.

Max had noticed the change in his behaviour, everyone had. Jondy had tried to get him to talk to her about it, bribing him with a bottle of whiskey she had brought him. Alec just drank the whiskey in silence, hoping it would bring him peaceful sleep. Instead, the alcohol made the dreams even worse than usual and when he woke he only just made it out of his sleeping quarters before he threw it back up.

Alec was up a tree, rigging some home-made camouflage netting over the new command centre. As he looked down, he saw Max emerge from it and head away from the settlement. She had left like this at least every other day since their arrival at the site. Alec suspected she went to be alone so she could cry, providing an outlet for her grief. His stomach twisted with guilt whenever he saw her. As Alec watched, however, Max was intercepted by Jondy. Behind her was a person Alec had never thought he'd see again. What the hell is he doing here? He thought, climbing hastily down from his perch.

Thula left her meeting with the priestess with relief. She'd spent more than an hour being questioned about her attitude to the prisoner, in humiliating detail. Of course Thula had lied. If the priestess found out that she had what was rapidly becoming a full-blown crush on Cale, she'd be punished for sure. Instead, the priestess had been convinced that her interest was purely because of her desire to see the downfall of 452 and the transgenics. Thula's assignment now was to get as close to him as possible, to try and wheedle information out of him. To relive the stress-induced tension in her muscles, she decided a workout was in order.

When Thula dropped into the phalanx's training room she found it already occupied. Cale was doing one handed pull ups with no apparent effort. He wore no shirt, and his taut muscles could be clearly seen moving under his skin, glistening with a thin sheen of sweat.

"Didn't expect to see you here, Thula," he said casually, changing hands.

"Likewise, Cale. Who gave you permission to be in here?"

"It wasn't locked. I thought I'd try out these new muscles the nanocytes have been so busy building for me."

"You seem pretty comfortable with them."

"Oh, you mean this?" He changed hands again. "I could have done this before. One thing not many people appreciate about wheelchairs is the amount of strength you need in your shoulders to push one. I'm a tall guy, I had a lot of dead weight to move."

What the hell, the familiar thought. "You want to really test yourself?" She asked, eyeing his bulging arms as his biceps contracted.

"What did you have in mind?" A hint of challenge crept into Logan's voice as he jumped gracefully down from his bar.

"How about a sparring match?"

"Sorry, I'm allergic to having my ass kicked."

"I'll be gentle, I promise."

"Well, when you put it like that, how can I refuse?" His wide grin brought a tinge of red to Thula's cheeks. Damn, he's just so hot, she thought, as they faced each other for the fight. She barely remembered to drop into a combat stance, busy watching the play of muscle movement on his chest.

Logan's thoughts were very different. So, the familiar's ice queen has a crush on me. Maybe I can use this to my advantage; hell, if flirting with Thula is the price of getting back to Max, it's worth it. Time for the famous Cale charm to go on the offensive.

Thula tried to get her focus back. It wasn't really working, so she attacked, hoping to catch him off guard. Her foot shot out towards his stomach, but never connected. Logan had raised a knee to block her and then grasped her ankle, twisting it in his powerful hands. Thula went with the motion, landing on the mat on her elbows. She flipped backwards, over Logan's head, and paused for a second at the sight of the network of scars on his back before she kicked him.

"I thought you were going to be gentle?" Logan said as he picked himself up from the floor.

"I lied. Nice scars, by the way."

"Thanks, I collect them." He spun suddenly, getting behind Thula and grabbing her in a headlock. All her senses were overwhelmed by the feeling of having his skin pressed against hers. His warm breath on her neck made her shiver when he spoke.

"Nice to know you appreciate me, Thula," he said huskily. He released her, just as suddenly, and picked up a towel from the floor. "I'm heading for a shower, I'll leave you in peace." She was bewildered by the abrupt changes in his mood, from playful to flirty to indifferent in less than five minutes. Then, just as he reached the door, he glanced back and shot her one of his unbearably sexy smiles. (You know the one… ;)

Thula just stood still, transfixed by the sparkle of his eyes like a rabbit caught in headlights. It was several seconds after the door closed that she remembered to breathe.

From the gallery above, the priestess smiled to herself. Oh, Thula, she thought. You always were a bad liar.

When Max finally escaped from her duties as leader of the transgenics, she immediately headed for the path that led up to the top of the dam to update Logan on her progress. She was so focussed on that objective, she almost didn't hear Jondy call her name.

"Hey, Jon, what's up?" Max had a sense of foreboding that this was going to keep her from her destination for a very long time.

"I met a fellow hitcher when I tried to hijack that timber truck we saw coming."

"Oh yeah? Anyone we know?" A figure stepped out from behind Jondy into Max's field of view. She just stared at him, shocked into silence.

"What's the matter, Max, don't you remember me?" Zack asked, his voice laden with sarcasm.

Do you like the way I brought Zack back into the story?

I know, I know. Logan flirting with Thula is just plain wrong. But it's very important to the story, and anyway, if you were a selectively bred familiar warrior and you met Logan being… well, Logan, wouldn't you go weak at the knees?

I know I would.