X-318: Never apologize for asking questions, this story's at like the 170 page mark, too much to remember and too much to wade through to find the answers yourself. Oh and the bells thing that was actually supposed to flash you back to the time things got a little hot and heavy in the living room when they'd realized they were a family. Of course no one was going to remember that unless they had just read the whole thing straight through, so it was probably in there more for me than you guys, but I must share anyway.

He jumped as she spoke over his shoulder looking at the picture. –"Sorry" she laughed-He shook his head, "It's fine, gotta get used to it again." That or tie a bell around her neck, how many times had he thought about that.

Oh and Normal isn't gay, he's desperate. The guy he fell for was actually a woman at the point he fell for her and he certainly enjoyed the strip club. He just kinda had a guy crush on Alec, it happens and it's just about as ewwy as the thought of Normal with Gem. I do believe Normal is the eww factor in all of that. And the story isn't a dream, there may be more dream chapters, but the whole story isn't a dream.

To those who are trying to figure out what happened to the X-5 at the end of 63:

It was a passing line in the last chapter. A few brief words of the Chinese going after another transgenic since she and Vida had rescued Ty from an airplane hanger, much to the dismay of Alec and Zen, who arrived at their location as the last man fell. His location was tracked down, the girls came and kicked ass, which you know is never okay with Alec, Ty was returned to his girlfriend. The threat of people/countries/organizations coming after them is not over and will probably never be over.

Aside from all that, I hope you guys like the chapter.

Chapter 65

Life

Early Summer:

She was slightly bent to the side trying to hold onto her son as the other hand pushed the stroller he had refused to remain in therefore killing any idea she'd had for the casual morning walk over to Logan's. She boarded the bus with Cale and stroller in tow instead of returning to the apartment for the car. Out of the corner of her eye as turned onto Logan's street, she saw Logan and Alec doing the same on the opposite side, though they were taking the corner at a brisk jog.

She easily tossed the little boy up into her arms as he tried to break away and cross the street as his father was doing the same. She frowned taking in their sweat soaked appearance, not shocking for Logan, but pretty damn odd for Alec.

Alec caught sight of her look, " Logan." He said shooting a look across at his jogging partner.

"People were starting to stare." He said defending his actions and smirked remembering dumping the water on Alec. "Hey Cale" he said stretching out his hand to touch his son's cheek.

"No they were staring at how much you were sweating."

Logan turned and shot a look across at Alec.

Max chuckled pulling back their son as he tried to move into his father's arms.

"Or the fact that you're starting to look like Grizzly Adams." Alec tacked on.

Max once more chuckled, it was an apt description, Logan's scruff had evolved into a full-grown beard and his hair was almost the length it had been before she was shot the second time.

"Cale and I are getting haircuts today."

"And the beard?" Max asked.

"I was lazy this week?" He'd been meaning to shave, but since he was going to the barber's anyway…

"Something happen to the car?" he asked looking down the street to his house and not seeing her car there.

"Tried to go for a walk."

He just laughed at that one, not one of her smarter moves.

"Feel like skipping the barber and coming with me to TC?" she asked.

"Sure…Any special reason?"

She shook her head, "No, just told Josh I'd come by."

"Daddy" their son said as he once more tried to move into his father's arms.

His hand again reached out to touch his son's cheek instead of take him into his arms.

"Anyone know why we aren't walking back to the house?" Alec asked leaning up against a gate, not that he wasn't having fun being completely ignored like usual.

Max and Logan both shot a look at Alec and he suddenly felt sorry for what Cale was going to be facing for the rest of his life.

They were standing on the porch as Logan was about to unlock the door and the next thing he knew his son was tumbling towards him and out of Max's arms as she'd finally let her guard down preparing to lower him to the floor.

Logan gave a not entirely surprised and very resigned smile to his son's actions.

"I told you the kid doesn't understand no." Alec declared self-righteously, he warned them time and time again, but no…no one ever listened to him.

"Looks like Cale's showering with you." Max said with a small laugh.

Logan just nodded as he sighed.

-o-o-o-

"You know you should work out more Maxie" Alec said taking up a position at the kitchen table as Max grabbed the carton of OJ out.

She gave him a look.

"What I'm just saying, it would make sense for you to keep in shape." Why did females offend so easily? They might be X-5's but there was a difference between being an in-shape X-5 and an out of shape one, they could always be better, faster, stronger.

"Do I or do I not whoop your ass every single time we fight?"

"And people talk shit about my ego." He muttered under his breath, but then it suddenly occurred to him that if Max worked out anymore than biking around the city and occasional sparring with him, her statement would actually be true so he let it drop. "Hey" he exclaimed as he saw her putting the juice back in the fridge after pouring a glass.

"What?" she said turning.

"You pour some for yourself and not for me?"

"Did you say you wanted any?"

"I just jogged 7 miles."

She rolled her eyes and opened the fridge back up.

-o-o-o-

"So did Logan tell you about meeting with his old editor?" he said awhile later trying to shift the conversation away from himself.

A frown, "No, why was he meeting with him?"

"They had lunch the other day; he offered him his old job back."

Why the hell was Alec the one telling her this and not Logan? "Is he going to take it?"

"It's not like he can Max unless you're planning on quitting."

With her final frown, he realized it was take to take his leave, "I should be getting back home. I'll see you guys at Terminal City later?"

She absent-mindedly nodded.

-o-o-o-

"No Cale you've got to go with the grain not against it" she heard his voice saying as she walked through the open bedroom door.

"Isn't he a little young for shaving lessons?" she asked leaning up against the bathroom's doorway viewing Cale with shaving cream on his face turned around on the counter looking into the mirror mimicking his father's movements. Logan smiled into the mirror, "Hey if he wants to do it I might as well teach him the right way."

She smiled again, trying to ignore the fluttering within her at seeing Logan with only a towel slung low across his hips, the full view provided to her since the mirror reflected almost all uncovered parts for her viewing pleasure. She forced her focus away and onto their son partially redressed for the day in a white tee shirt and jean shorts. "You're aware he's going to have to be changed again." She said watching a flicker of foam fall down to his shirt.

He gave a look down to the toddler's shirt, "It's white, that'll come out with a washcloth."

Wow, he really is lazy this week. "So Alec said you had a meeting with your old editor."

He frowned into the mirror, "I had lunch with Tom yesterday, it wasn't a meeting though."

"Oh"

"We just ran into each other."

"Oh, so he didn't offer you a job?"

Ah, so there it was, the actual question, "He always offers me a job Max. I resigned, I wasn't fired."

"You know if you want to you can take it."

He turned for that statement instead of just looking into the mirror.

"We can figure something out with Cale, I could…" she realized she was about to offer to go back to waitressing so she stopped herself, she did love Logan, she wanted him to be happy and fulfilled, but there had to be a better solution than that. "Josh, I bet Josh would watch him."

He chuckled, "I'm not going back to work Max, don't worry."

"Why not?"

He knew her reason behind asking that, Eyes Only no longer took up as much of his time as it once did, a serious benefit from not only being fully vertical himself, but having several more than trustworthy legmen. Hell Alec and Zen were more than just legmen, there were times they did as much work as he did. Why not had been the question he'd been asking himself since yesterday afternoon, he knew the reason, the little boy beside him, he had somehow turned into his mother and not even noticed. "Maybe when he's in school Max," he refrained from groaning afterwards at the pain of actually admitting it aloud.

She couldn't help but smile at his attempt at hiding his embarrassment, kinda reminded her of his lyrical pen scratchings.

"I at least want to enjoy the summer with him." He tacked on before he turned his attention back onto shaving.

She thought about mentioning that his dad got things like this wrong, the clear devotion and love for their son was even manlier, and certainly sexier than the poetry. She decided in the end though, to let the moment go before he grew more embarrassed, that and her attention was distracted between thinking about how cute father and son looked shaving and how downright amazing Logan looked clad only in a towel.

-o-o-o-

TC (mid-afternoon):

They both cracked up at the sight before them. Joshua and Cale sitting on Josh's floor bright finger paintings before them, the primary colors splattered across them on them and on Cale faux fur earmuffs oddly fashioned to his head. Their words suddenly came back to haunt them, repeatedly telling Josh if he wanted to finger paint with Cale, it had to be kept out of his ears unlike the first and second times. Cale managed to keep it out of his mouth and eyes on his own, not his ears. Yet they never expected to walk in and see their son in a pair of fuchsia earmuffs that covered half of his head.

"You told me to keep his ears clean." Joshua said as Max was gesturing towards the earmuffs, but laughing too hard to actually say anything. "Ears clean." He said raising up a muff.

"Yea they are Joshua," Logan said with a nod moving over to the paint streaked pair, "thanks."

"Good thinkin Josh." Max said with a nod.

"Hey buddy nice look." Logan said squatting down before his son who was smiling brightly as his father removed the earmuffs. Just then a brownish purple hand came in contact with Logan's face, right between the eyes, on his glasses and nose. Logan and Max froze in shock as Cale laughed, then came the other hand alongside his cheek, "Pretty Daddy"

His mouth open in shock as his son was laughing; Logan took off his glasses and just looked down at them. It took several moments before the shock wore off and he joined Cale in laughing, finally allowing Max and Josh to do the same.

-o-o-o-

She was standing in the middle of the main hall, she'd just been talking to Gem still trying to weasel information out of the girl about her relationship with Normal which had been the main topic of gossip at work for months. Either nothing really was going on between the young girl and their boss or she was pretty damn good at hiding it. She let out a deep sigh of impatience as her eyes scanned the room wondering if she should wait here or go looking for Logan, who should have definitely been back by now from cleaning up their son and himself.

For a split second, she was positive she was hallucinating as she saw her brother simply dressed in a pair of jeans and white tee shirt, his hair floppy as usual. Then the fear started to race through her, is that why Logan was taking so long? Was Logan now lying dead in the bathroom? Victim to her brother's programming?

Oh god and what about Cale.

She could see the scene so vividly in her head, Zack coming up around Logan, his hands around his neck before he could even scream. She could see Cale launch himself at anyone trying to hurt his father, attacking his legs as he would when mock fighting Alec. She could see Zack barely even notice kicking a small child off of his legs and into a wall…

Logic reentered her brain… Logan wouldn't have had a chance to struggle…He probably didn't feel a thing. The faintest touch upon his neck before Zack snapped it. Her son sitting beside his father trying to shake him awake as if he were only sleeping…

She should probably be flying towards him right about now as the soldier in her had been trained to do. Not even a slight tremor passed through her body. Just absolute stillness as her body fought to decide if it was going to be throwing up or passing out.

"You lied" he smiled.

She continued to stare.

"The hospital, I asked if I knew you…"

His words, his demeanor started to sink in. He didn't know her, if he didn't know her, he didn't know Logan, Logan was tied into her or at least she thought he was. Zack certainly wasn't acting like he'd-

"Mommy"

She turned at the voice flying towards her, scooped him into her arms and held him tighter than she'd ever held him before as she saw Logan's brief smile by the entrance before it turned into one of shock, Alec's words froze mid conversation as he saw who Logan was fixated on. Alec moved in front of Logan without thought, making sure he could easily block the other man's attempt at getting to him.

Zack had smiled at first seeing the little boy running towards her, but his face had too settled into one of shock, seeing how she was desperately clinging to the little boy, while looking across at the other two men who had just entered the room.

"Baby" she said looking into her son's blue eyes, while ever so aware of the other blue eyes focused on the scene before him.

"Notta baby." He adamantly declared.

"I know" she said kissing his head, "You're a big boy. Go to Daddy though? Mommy's gotta take care of something."

He looked at her puzzled and she realized she hadn't done a very good job at hiding her feelings, he was about to protest before his father called to him.

"Come on Buddy" Logan said from the doorway, "Let's go get your painting from Josh."

"Paint?" his eyes twinkled at the thought of returning to one of his favorite activities.

"Maybe, let's go see Josh."

He allowed his mother to put him down and headed back over to his father, only pausing once to look back at her, still unsure he should be leaving.

"Alec go with them." She said as Cale was lifted up into his father's arms.

"If you think I'm leaving you here with this-"

Alec didn't get to finish his words as Logan's hand clamped down around his arm and gave him a look not to fight her after all no matter what Alec still held their brother's face.

"You're scared of me." He said as the others had left the area and she had turned back to him with a fierce resolve in her eyes.

Scared Was she really scared of her brother? Her brother…She would have been dead without him. She loved him, she missed him more than any of her other siblings, but he was right she was scared of him. Petrified. He could take it all away. He could take away everything she'd ever dreamed of, everything she never thought she was worthy of, he could take it away in an instant.

"You're the one I hurt."

His words shocked her, but she realized Zane must have told him something to keep him out of Seattle when all other transgenics were here. He was right, she was the one he'd hurt, the one he would hurt if he stayed. Logan would be gone forever and she would have to live with it.

"You gonna say anything?"

Her mouth opened and remained that way for a second before she found the words to speak, "You have to leave."

"I just got here. I need answers."

"Adam, you need to go."

"Adam is that really my name?"

She shook her head, "Adam and Eve. You were the first, the oldest of us, it made sense."

"So what's my name?" he said moving closer to her.

She shook her head.

"It's my name I deserve to know it." He said moving closer to her, his words growing angry.

"I wish I could tell you." The guilt was overwhelming; she was depriving him of his life to preserve her own.

"Tell me what they did to me?" He needed answers, over a year and only vague answers, how was he supposed to live like that?

She just looked at him.

"You're the one I tried to-"

She shook her head.

He thought for a second, wondering what else could make her react like this, "That other guy? Your husband?" he frowned looking across at her hands to find them hidden by gloves, "Your kid's dad?"

She nodded

"Why would they-"

"He's one of the good guys." Her eyes welled up. "You are too. But I can't…I can't let you take him from me."

She was so vulnerable standing before him, he wanted to take her into his arms, he could feel his love for her, he didn't know her, but he could feel his love.

"I almost killed you last time. I'll finish before I let you hurt him."

He was frozen by her words, her voice steady, but he could feel the layers of emotions behind those words. "I need answers."

She nodded, "I don't know what-" She didn't know what the triggers were, she knew one, her name/face/barcode, who's to say how many other things could have triggered it.

He stopped her from having to speak, "I loved you."

She nodded.

"You love me too?"

"You're my brother." She said simply, hoping afterwards that wasn't too much information.

"And he's your-"

"Everything."

"What happened last time?"

She looked up into her brother's face, had he ever been this nurturing? This caring? This patient? "I forced you to remember. You seemed fine or I…" she just shook her head. "After the memories started to come back so did the programming and…Nothing was going to stop you from killing him, not even me."

"How'd you?" he tapped his head, "I don't remember any of it."

"A little water a lot of electricity." She gave a small chuckle.

"Toaster in the bathtub?" he smiled trying to put her at ease.

"Something like that."

They simply looked across at each other.

"I wish things were different Adam."

"You're really not going to tell me my name?"

She shook her head.

"Or yours?"

She shook her head again.

"That can't be all you're gonna tell me."

"You saved my life. I would be dead if it wasn't for you. You kept us all safe, but you saved my life. I love you, that's why you need to leave."

His mouth opened to fight her.

"We got a second chance Adam. Manticore's gone. Being normal" she shook her head, "It's everything we thought it would be."

He nodded his head, "Go back to your family."

Tears welled up in her eyes again at the word family.

"Take care little sister" he said before he turned and he never knew as he said that, it was Zack finally letting her go, allowing her to let go.

Okay I can't remember who had wanted a Zack scene (it was awhile ago), but you got it stuck in my head. I don't remember if this is the scene I wanted though since originally I was going to have it in the previous summer, but there were too many other things going on. Oh well I hope you didn't hate it (if you're still reading).