Okay not too sure how much I like this chapter (Shh babyangel, I need to give warnings when I'm not too fond of something). Here it is anyway because I don't know how I'd fix it…There's something missing in it that I'd meant to put in, I just can't remember what that is. Oh well…Hope ya don't hate.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Outlier

Max walked back downstairs after separating from Original Cindy after dropping off their purchases from their day shopping in Max's room. Max and Josh now had enough snacks to last at least another two weeks, well that's if they managed to keep Alec from them.

"Cale, littlest fella" She heard Joshua's desperate voice before she saw either of them. Suddenly she saw Cale darting, well as fast one his age could dart across the room, giggling as Joshua chased after him. She laughed as she scooped up the tiny bundle.

Poor fella, she thought as Josh slowed down realizing she had him, he must have been looking for him for awhile, "Hey Big Fella" she kept her laughter inside as the slightly haggard looking Joshua approached, looking surprised to see her.

"Hey Little Fella, we were just playin with the babies."

Max looked up from tickling the baby and laughingly asking if he'd been bad. She'd only halfway been paying attention to Joshua, but she heard something in his voice. She looked around the main room, "Where's Logan?" He'd arrived as she was leaving that morning, he'd told her he'd see her later, but here she was and no Logan, Cale was with Joshua and Josh was sounding like he was hiding something and it wasn't the fact that Cale had managed to get away from him again. Afterall, that seemed to be his favorite game while with Joshua and only Joshua.

"Umm with Alec"

"What are they doing?' The annoyance was evident in her voice…What were they up to?

"I dunno"

She sighed looking at him, no reason to pester Josh. "Where are they?"

"Logan's office"

Well there was good news, whatever they were up to they hadn't done it yet. "Thanks Josh, I'll come by your quarters tonight to share my score okay?" She said sweetly, making sure he knew it wasn't him she was annoyed with.

"Kay" he nodded as she started to walk towards the office.

-

She opened the door to see Logan standing over the desk, pointing down at something. Alec, Zen, Cassia (the brunette who had no problem openly ogling Logan) and Kera, a blonde X-5 had all been standing around looking down, but looked back at her as soon as they heard the door.

"What are you guys doing?" She asked walking over

Logan stepped back from the blueprint.

She looked down at it, it was the specs for the hoverdrone. Logan and Alec had come to her weeks ago about breaking into the storage facility and tampering with the chip that detected body temperature that they had installed not for detecting fires, but for detecting transgenics. She'd deemed the mission too risky because they'd not only have to do at least 3 runs according to Logan's intel, they had no one on the inside. She hadn't wanted to risk jeopardizing the talks that were going on over the phone between them and well everyone else.

"I can't believe you guys. You're going behind my back even after I told you this was too dangerous."

"Max," Alec began, "we've been cooped up here for months."

"Yea and you wanna be cooped up in here longer if they realize what we're up to? Or worse?" She shook her head and then turned her attention and anger to Logan "Ugh and you"

She was cut off by Cale's outstretched arms and cry of "Lo"

She continued to glare at him as she allowed Cale's torso to fall away from her own so Logan could easily grab him with no contact between them. "I can't believe you, Mr. Be Careful thinks this is a good idea. Did you guys learn nothing after what happened with White?"

She was referring to the loss of Poe and Miles when Logan had suddenly gotten a lead on White in Utah over two months after he'd gone underground. They'd all been aware there was a good chance it was a setup, but as Alec and Logan had repeatedly pointed out these weren't a bunch of naïve kids, they were the best soldiers in this country; Poe, Miles and Harper had all been out on several missions during their time at Manticore. Yet only Harper had managed to make it home and without any information as to what this shroud of death might be that they were facing.

"Max" he sighed as the baby curled into him, "Everyone just wants to be able to walk down the street." He looked at her and she knew what he was thinking, it had been what he'd told her when he'd first come to her with this idea. There was no way the city was going to willingly remove the heat sensors, they would continue to track the transgenics. That was unless the transgenics made it impossible and considering they hadn't found a way to lower their body temperatures this was the only way, short of bringing down all hoverdrones which would probably piss the city off more. Eventually they'd figure out what had happened, but the point was it bought them time.

Hers and Logan's were the only eyes in contact, the rest all had picked places on the wall to distance themselves from this fight. His weren't going to back down and she knew he'd have the support of this city, they all wanted out and they wanted out now. Hers were not a patient people. She shook her head giving up and extended her arms to take Cale back, he did as she had done before and allowed the youngster to fall away from his body. "When are you going?"

Alec turned back around for this one, "Tonight"

"You've been planning this, this whole time haven't you? How the hell do you expect us to make it out of this if we don't stick together?"

"You're the only one not in this Max," was Alec's reply.

"That's because I'm the only one thinking beyond right here and now." She snapped and turned out of the room.

-

"You know, it's that they think they're invincible." she shook her head, pausing from bitching to Original Cindy and then returned to pacing her room, "You know I thought I was too once….Thought I could take on anyone and anything…You know how well that turned out…I let my guard down for one second and look at where it got me." Memories of seeing a younger version of herself came flooding back to her…Nothing else would have caused the hesitation, but that brief second delay had changed her whole world.

The new lipstick Original Cindy had been trying out fell away from her lips, "That's what this is all about."

"What?" Max looked at her confused.

"You like this"

"Excuse me?" What the hell was her girl talking about?

"You're here playing house with Logan." Her eyes briefly dropped to Cale happily ignoring all the anger and playing on the floor, "Once you get back out there, it's back to the real for you guys."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Cindy looked at Max as if she was a simpleton, "Okay let me break it down for ya. As long as you stay here it's going to be Max and Logan. You see him everyday, you eat with him, you play with Cale with him; you're in constant contact with the boy."

Max's eyes rolled at the word contact.

"I know, I know, no touching. But while you're here it's just you two…All your talk about moving on, it's just talk. You go back out into that world and you might actually have to live up to your words."

"You're wrong."

"No I'm not. You go back out there, you have to go back to living a real life."