Chapter 31

Awareness

Still at the Park:

"No one ever told me you had a child." Max turned in fear to see Clemente standing at the edge of the swingset. "Then again, no one seemed to know anything about you."

Logan dropped the camera he'd been holding in his pocket as Max grabbed hold of the chains to stop the swing, cutting short Cale's first time on a swing.

He looked at Logan and then back at Max who was now holding Cale, "I certainly understand now why you'd put yourself in the line of fire."

"I'm sorry do we know you?" Logan asked calmly.

Clemente laughed at the unoriginal line, "Nice job with the hair Max. Most people a dye job doesn't cut it, but I honestly didn't realize it was you until I was almost on top of you." He looked at Cale once more curled into Max's body, "You know I would have never pictured you as a mom." He smiled at the baby then turned to Logan, "Cute kid, really takes after you."

"Thank you."

"I have two," he said nodding his head, "girls…I would do anything for them or their mother." that last comment directed his attention back to Logan. "Suddenly why Logan Cale jumped on top of a car and took a sniper makes a lot more sense."

"How long have you known who I was?" Logan asked appearing to keep his cool, Max was right he was an idiot for not wearing the exo; they could have been out of the park by now.

"Took a few weeks. Saw what they did to your apartment…Let me guess White?"

Logan nodded, "So if you've known who I am for months…" he left the question implied

Clemente gave a shake of his head, "Asked around about you…" he then turned back to Max, "And I told you, I appreciated that you didn't turn that day into a bloodbath."

Max who had remained silent, her eyes scanning for officers approaching or any misplaced sounds in the background, couldn't deal with this anymore, "Clemente can we just stop the chit chat and you can tell me what it is you want?"

"How long have you been out?" he asked eying Cale.

"Clemente"

"Max it's a simple question."

"Twelve years."

He looked puzzled by that, it made sense with the kid, but how had she become so involved with all the newcomers.

"I was recaptured over a year ago. I spent 3 months there," she answered the question obvious in his eyes.

He nodded finally understanding and caught a glimpse of Logan's eyes as he'd listened to her words, the pain that flashed behind them couldn't be masked. "Must have been tough" he said to him, and then turned back to Max, "On all of you."

Tough, that was a joke of a word, "You have no idea. Are we done yet?"

"Yea" Clemente said with a nod, his eyes focusing on the little boy still patiently curled up into Max's body, he smiled.

Sandeman's House:

"Oh my god," Max said pushing the empty stroller into the house behind Logan and Cale.

Logan turned around and smiled, "Like it?"

Max's eyes dropped over to him in shock, if she hadn't followed Logan into the house she would have been sure she'd gone in the wrong door. The place was immaculate, the walls a freshly painted cream, the wood sanded and finished, the place positively gleamed.

He laughed over Max's stunned silence, "Zen and I had a lot of free time on our hands. That and the neighbors started complaining about us playing ball at 2 am."

"Oh my god," Max repeated as she started walking into the living room. Some of the upholstery on the furniture wasn't in the best condition, but everything that could be fixed, was. She barely recognized the furniture she'd previously seen in the basement and attic; they'd even moved the piano upstairs.

"Figured it might be easier for Joshua to come back if it…"

Max sighed, didn't remind him of Annie. He still wasn't over losing her, "I don't know. I think he might actually like it there."

Logan shrugged his shoulders, "Like I said Zen and I had a lot of free time on our hands. Everyone else who crashed here helped."

"I can't believe you did this though," she said touching the doorframe, imagining the hours they had spent sanding, staining and painting.

"It was kind of nice actually," Logan smiled as he put Cale down on the floor. "Working with your hands and everything."

She laughed, "What the exo didn't count?"

"This," he said looking around the room, "this was different." He smiled, "Cathartic."

She smiled, "How many rooms have you done?"

He just looked at her.

"You've got to be kidding me," she started adding up the rooms in her mind, it was a big house. 4 bedrooms maybe?

"Four months Max." Four months and the help of various transgenics.

"And here I felt bad leaving you in this dump. If you tell me you have hot water in this joint"

Logan smiled.

Max groaned, "Hot water, you've got to be kidding me."

"How many times did I fix the exo?" Logan reminded her.

Max frowned thinking of all of her cold showers and sponge baths at Terminal City.

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The Bathroom:

"What are we doing Max?"

She looked up at him from her seat on the toilet as she wiped off Cale's sauce covered face as Logan removed a small piece of spaghetti lingering in her hair after holding Cale throughout dinner. What was he asking?

He stepped back, leaned against the sink and looked down at them, it was all so natural, so easy, which made no sense.

She continued looking at him, watching him watch them, she didn't say the words she would have said years earlier when questions were difficult and stating her obvious actions, instead she honestly admitted, "I don't know." She wasn't fully sure what he was asking, but that was her answer regarding everything involving them.

"I can't give him up Max; I don't think you can either."

She looked confused by that, "I never thought you were going to."

He remained still after hearing her words. He had planned to with Cale as he had done with dozens of other children, find him a good home, not his own. After all what did he have to offer? He had thought he would be able to let go, but every day that passed the thought of that became harder and harder to even consider, "I thought I'd be able to let him go." Just like I thought I'd be able to let you go, he'd realized the day he woke up in the hospital to see Max's face that was a lie.

"Where would he go Logan? You're his dad." she said the words simply for the first time aloud and not in her thoughts.

He thought for a moment, "Clement thought he was ours. My own cousin thought he was ours."

"What are you saying Logan?" he hadn't said the word mine, he said ours.

"Can you let him go any easier than I can?" he asked again

She looked down the little boy now happily entertained by the washcloth in his hands and totally ignoring them. She thought of how empty her arms would feel without him in them. She looked back up at Logan; it was the same pain she had felt every time she'd thought about leaving him.

"Bev guessed he was born in December or January." He referenced back to Bev's examination of him soon after his arrival in Terminal City.

Her head tilted, waiting for him to explain.

"Bennett's wedding was in January. That's why he thought he was ours. Timing fits."

Max mind pushed back the fact that they hadn't even known each other a full year then and caught on to what he was thinking. " Logan what exactly are you saying?" She needed to hear the words.

"Let people think he's ours. He's safer that way, less questions get asked, documents/records are easier to fake. Even if people find out about you…"

She nodded, catching on to what he was thinking, everyone at her job and her apartment had proven their loyalty, but his family if they were to find out or others…Thinking he had Logan's blood running through him would help keep Cale safe. And they were no longer a couple, adopting a child didn't happen between friends.

"He's ours Max" his focusing on them. Finally allowing the words of people like Alec and Original Cindy hit him, all the times they'd referred to Max and Logan as Cale's parents, the reactions of the people they'd interacted with today outside Terminal City, not just Bennett and Clemente; everyone they encountered had viewed them as a family.

"So what do you want to do?" her words were calmer than what was going on inside of her head and her racing heart.

"My family already thinks I'm an asshole Max

She looked at him slightly confused.

"We let them think Cale is ours. Barcode is gone. Timing fits. My family only met you at Bennett's wedding."

Logan saying the words aloud impacted her even though she'd known he was leading up to them. It hadn't been playing house, it had been as real as it felt even if they hadn't been aware of it.

He squatted down in front of her, one gloved hand on Cale's back, the other resting on her knee, he looked at the little boy sitting on her lap, and then up at her, "If I'm his dad Max"

She nodded knowing what he was leading up to, "I'm his mom."

Their eyes both fell back down to Cale.