Okay so I guess I need to be clearer in what this story is….This is not a Max lying to herself that she isn't in love with Logan story.

Max is as in love with Logan now as she ever has been, I had her say it in the opening scene that in the three days between what happened at Jam Pony to Joshua's flag being raised they were as close if not closer than they had ever been. It's just that Max realized that she and Logan probably won't get the Disney ending as they were watching the flag together.

This isn't her worrying about killing him, it's that they don't get to be what they had always wanted to be, it's a love from afar now. She'll never stop loving him, but she has no hope left for them finding a way to be with each other as they both want to be with each other. It's them both trying to figure out how to move on while still loving each other, watching each other as they move on.

Hmm I hope that clarified the story. Oh it will be angst ridden at times because they'll want to be the person they see the other embrace, the one they kiss, it'll tear their hearts out at times because that's what happens. They just don't have any choice in the matter… Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Three

Innocent Victims

"Hey," Max says walking up "Who's the little fella?"

He smiles as he looks down "An X-8"

"There are X-8's?" Max frowns, why had she never heard of them?

"Rumor has it only a few, apparently someone trashed their DNA Lab before they really got up and running" he grins.

She froze; she hadn't thought about children when taking down Manticore, how had little children escaped?

He knew her thoughts, over a year together, they weren't that hard, or at least this one wasn't "It's okay Max, there were only a few, according to the people this one was with, they all got out." He smiles again to reassure her.

She swallows hard

"Not lying Max, I'm telling you exactly what they told me, they had no reason to lie."

She shook her head, trying to forget that she may have aided in the death of children, "Who'd you come in with?" No one else entered the main room despite the fact that she'd heard Newcomers coming from the hallway.

Logan's grin fell, "3 guys like Mole" he looked out for blood, "Apparently they were with an x-5 female, who had been taking care of this little guy up until a week ago, when she got shot. Made them promise not to just abandon the kid." He shook his head "They handed him to me the moment I got into their building. Kid has a diaper rash like you wouldn't believe, they were letting him just wander around the building in a shirt in this weather."

Max made a face "That building must have smelled worse than the sewers."

The grin returned "Close."

"So what do we do with him?" Max said stepping closer to examine the child's sleeping face.

"My guess is hope that the girls in the nursery can share their mothering."

Max groaned as she looked up at Logan "You're aware we're soldiers and mothering comes a little harder to us than it does to normal people right?"

He laughed and shifted the now sleeping baby a bit in his arms "I've seen Gem with Ronnie"

"That girl is an exception the rule; the others are all like I would be."

He gave her a disbelieving look "I saw you with Brittany."

Max shook her head thinking of the 3 screaming babies that constituted their nursery, "I could reason with Brittany, I could bribe her with food, those kids though…" Max groaned "All they do is cry"

Logan frowned and looked down at the little guy against his chest.

Max laughed "Don't worry. I promise we'll all get better with the babies."

Logan frowned again, even though he didn't mean to and readjusted the sleeping baby.

Max reached out and stroked the baby's back where the towel had slipped down "So you said he's a he right?"

"Yea little boy, at least a year, probably a little older than that by the way he walks. This kid can move." He said patting the baby's back like a proud daddy.

"Hey Logan" One of the X-5's Max had sent out with Logan yesterday, Zen came up to them. "I put the kid's stuff in the nursery. He turned to Max "We got iodine tabs, some gas, some food, not a lot though and some more blankets."

Max groaned "We need food a lot more than we need blankets."

"How long we good for?" Logan asked the fair haired boy standing before him.

"6 days."

Logan nodded at Max, "We can go again long before six days are up."

"If they haven't blocked the tunnels yet. You guys are lucky you didn't get caught as it was."

Zen laughed, "Not luck, skill."

Max frowned, there was something how he said that…She turned to Logan and wasn't at all surprised to see a guilty look on his face that he couldn't hide, "What happened?"

"Neighbors tipped the cops off to the fact there were 3 amphibians living next door to them."

"Yea" Zen said dropping a hand to pat the baby on his head "This little guy's lucky Logan was there. Cops were coming in the front door and the fuckin guys we brought here went out the back. Logan barely stayed ahead of the bullets going upstairs."

Max turned to Logan and saw him grimacing

"Dude me and Vida got back in time to see Logan going out a side window."

"A second story side window?"

"Well the front and back were covered by cops." He tried to interject some humor, to save himself from Max's gaze, hadn't worrying once been his job?

" Logan, you could have been killed" Max's voice was raised to just below a yell

The baby whimpered and started to wake, "I couldn't just leave him Max, you wouldn't have." Logan said as he turned the awaking baby into the crook of his arm.

Max was about to go off on the fact that she was an X-series and meant to do things like that, but then she looked down onto thinned out cheeks, proof that this little guy hadn't had an easy time these past seven months on the run and into blue eyes, innocent blue eyes. She couldn't help but smile, "So what do we call him? Already named a kid Bullet, so Window?" she said jokingly

Logan laughed as he looked down at the baby, "I've never named anything, I had one dog as a kid and my mom named her," he shook his head "Muffin" he made a face.

Max stifled a laugh, trying to imagine a little Logan throwing a stick yelling Fetch Muffin.

"Why not Cale since he wouldn't be here without Logan?"

"Cale?" Logan made another face

"What's wrong with Cale?" she asked

"I hated being called Cale."

"Well too bad because I think we've just named the baby that." Max looked down at the blue eyes watching everything intently "Hey Cale" she said with a smile as she stroked his cheek and the baby gurgled, "Sorry Logan, Cale likes his name."

He shook his head "Cale, what kind of a name is Cale."