Chapter Forty-Five

Everyday Life

The Following Wednesday:

Lanie laughed as Logan turned towards Alec, his face expressionless as he slightly shook his head over the comment before slowly turning back to her and smiling slightly.

"You live with him" she laughed again from her normal position of leaning up against the counter as they ate.

"Only because his girlfriend kicked him out."

"Ugh," he made a face, "she wasn't even my girlfriend. That's what makes it so completely unfair."

She laughed tucking a honey brown strand of hair behind her ear, "Have you figured out what you did yet?" She was well versed in the Alec and Asha drama since he had lunch and dinner there several times a week.

"No clue" he said shaking his head, he'd gone over the night White had killed Isabelle bearing slightly burnt brownies as a peace offering, since making them the last time had proven to be their breaking point, "I apparently just don't understand." She'd repeated that phrase several times in his various attempts to either move past what had happened or draw what had gone wrong out of her. "So what about that cute little redheaded friend of yours?" He asked changing the subject, he was not going to be brought down by a woman, he wouldn't give her that power.

"Camilla?"

"Yea her."

"She's single; she'll be out this weekend. You guys going to The Cellar on Friday?"

Alec frowned, he'd told Sketch he'd hit up Crash with him this Friday, eh he doubted his friend would be that saddened by the change in venue. "Yea"

"Not me" Logan said suddenly looking down at his watch and realizing the time, "Max is working." He said tossing down his money.

"I'm sure we'll be there on Saturday too."

He smiled, "I'm sure I'll see you then, thanks for the meal."

She nodded, "Welcome."

"I'll see you back at the house man." Alec said as Logan was leaving, "Okay so what's the deal with this Camilla girl."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Saturday:

"Hey you haven't been around much lately." Jeff said walking up to Max in Terminal City.

"I picked up a couple extra shifts this week." Max said turning to the dark haired and eyed X-5 whom she'd worked with a decent amount during the early days of the siege. "You just come from work?" She said taking in the ash blue coveralls that covered his 6-foot frame.

"No Max," he smiled, "I dress like this normally." He shook his head, "Actually fixing up a car here."

"A car and not a bike?" She made an appalled face.

"Yea well some of us are actually stuck paying rent." Getting a car from the junkyard was a lot cheaper than buying a bike.

"At least you have a landlord." She offered

"Yea lot of good that does me, I haven't had a hot shower in a week."

"You got spoiled quickly didn't you?"

He laughed, they'd only been out of TC a few weeks, "You kidding that first morning when the freezing cold water hit me I think I actually missed Manticore."

"Then you realized it was just the hypothermia setting in?"

He laughed, "So what are you up to here?"

"Nothing, just came by to see Josh. Apparently though I'm not as interesting as Cale, they're playing in some paint."

Jeff made a confused face.

"Finger painting or something" Max said shaking her head, "Not really my kind of thing."

"Feel like rebuilding an engine?" He asked with a smile.

"Now that's my kind of fun." She said with a nod.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Hey" Max said walking into the lab to see Logan with Cale looking over some papers, "Josh said you were up here."

He looked up at her, his eyes focused, "Finger painting Max?"

"What? Sounded like fun." She shrugged her shoulders, and then noticed Cale's fresh clothing.

"He had paint in his ears." Logan informed her.

She laughed walking over, "How'd his art turn out?"

"Similar to Josh's." he joked.

"So what's going on up here?" She said noticing the lack of people in the normally busy area.

"They figured it out."

"You're kidding?"

He shook his head, "Nope, apparently it was pretty straightforward." They'd identified the immunity quickly in the transgenics and Isabelle. Finding the slightly different variation in Max hadn't been that hard and they just had to work it into a transmittable form, not that difficult since it had been created to do just that.

"So do we need Josh?"

Logan shook his head, "They isolated the antibodies without the virus."

"Oooh" Max said with a small smile spreading across her face, "Amsey boy is gonna be pissed."

Logan shook his head over her pleasure, she'd seemed to have forgotten in either 5 or 8 months, which ever comet this virus was going to be attached to, when the apocalypse didn't come they were likely to have more than just White after them.

"How'd the make it airborn?" Max asked knowing that had been the only means of transmission possible in order to infect the population in time, not to mention it's not like they'd be able to talk the masses into getting a vaccine made by transgenics to prevent their death from the tail dust of a comet.

Logan shook his head and handed over the report, "This will probably make more sense to you than me. I need to be heading out anyway." He said standing, "I'll see you tomorrow Picasso." He kissed the little boy's head before handing him off to Max.

"Big plans?" She asked about his Saturday night, wondering what was making him leave her so quickly, he always stayed and talked for awhile even though he'd seen her less than eight hours ago dropping off Cale.

"Nothing special."

"Going to the Cellar tonight?"

"I was thinking about it."

"That place is grimier than Crash."

"And their beer's kind of flat." he added.

"Sounds like a good time." she joked.

"It's not that bad" he laughed.

"Well you have a good night. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Night Max" He said slinging the backpack over his head, "Night buddy" he waved.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Hey Max" Jeff said rushing to catch up with her.

She turned with Cale in her arms and her bag slung over her back, "You still having issues with the alternator?"

"Yea, but that's not why I'm stopping you. I wanted to know if you wanted to grab dinner?"

"I was just gonna eat some Ramen it's his bedtime." she looked down at Cale.

"How about I grab some real Chinese?"

She thought about it for a brief moment before nodding, "Yea why not. You remember how to get to my place?" She asked he'd been to her place a few times during the siege escorting Original Cindy home.

"No Max I forgot." He said shaking his head as any X-series would do when being asked that question.

"Sorry" she smiled being used to the normal human memory.

"So I'll see you in an hour?"

"Sounds good." She nodded.

Thanks for reading!