Chapter Seventy
Worlds Collide – Part One
"Golfing?" Max repeated the word he'd just said.
"Yea, the weather's still good." He said not even paying attention to how she was saying it, more interested in the work they'd been going over as they'd started to discuss their plans for the weekend.
"You golf?" her tone incredulous as she looked down at him seated behind the desk.
He turned for that, tilted his head up to look at her, "Why is that so hard to believe?" That had been the same tone she'd used over the whole club thing, he could still hear her ask, 'You went to a club?' Okay well he'd understood the club thing, but golf? Max had definitely accused him of being a snob on more than a few occasions, golf went with that title.
"You like to golf?"
Oh there it was, Max's own opinion about golf. "It's not my favorite thing to do in the world, but it grows on you." Not like he'd had a choice growing up the son and then nephew of a CEO.
She frowned, golf was so sedentary. Then she pouted wondering why exactly she would find it shocking that Logan would like something like that, a game based on control and focus. There was a stillness in her mind, a peace that she always equated with Logan. Sitting behind a computer or simply talking to her. He was the calm in the middle of the storm, always had been, insanity would be raging about and he would simply be there watching with a smile on his lips, be it at Crash or at home with their son. He was rarely excessive be it in talking or moving.
Funny though how she'd forgotten that for a moment, she'd gotten so use to the action oriented Logan. Gunshots, car maneuvers, fights though those did seem to be things of the past. But not the simple passing time shooting hoops that would turn into a full out one on one game that he couldn't be dragged away from, the tossing of a football that would evolve into a full blown war between opposing sides. That wasn't who he was though at the end of the day, end of the day he was her rock.
"Seems kinda boring," she said scrunching up her nose, boring there was something she didn't equate with Logan. Had to wait for everyone to have their turn, then you had to travel to the ball and repeat, definitely didn't seem too exciting.
"It's not that bad, I'm gonna get my ass kicked though," his face held a slight grimace at the thought.
"When was the last time you played?"
"Almost five years ago," he made a pained face.
"Guessing Bennett plays a little more regularly than you?"
"Just slightly."
-o-o-o-
Bennett prepared himself for the worst as he pulled up behind Logan in front of his house. Not that the neighborhood was horrifically bad, in fact it seemed more deserted than anything else. That was also the feeling he got as he looked up at the house, sure the lawn might be properly tended to as were the few bushes, but the house was in serious need of a face lift as were all the other houses he could see. He'd wanted to know, he reminded himself as he opened his car door suddenly seriously worried about leaving his car unattended on the street.
"You sure you're okay for money?" he asked in a low voice as he approached his cousin retrieving his clubs from the back of his car.
Logan simply chuckled, "Trust me I'm more than fine." He wasn't lying, he hadn't been unprepared for the demise of Cale Industries; he never banked on it to always support him.
Yea like he was going to believe that one, from Foggle Towers to something that looked like it belonged in Nightmare on Elm Street. Yet his cousin moved with a relaxed ease up the stairs, his bag draped over his shoulder, pausing to retrieve a stray ball from the yard and carry it up with him.
He braced himself as Logan unlocked the door, but as the door opened and he followed his cousin in, he barely even noticed the other man dropping the ball down to a table and leaning his clubs up against a wall. It was as if he'd been transported to a different part of town, he almost even looked back outside the other door to make sure the street was still there. The inside of the house was on par with Logan's old penthouse. Gleaming floors, brightly polished wood of the staircase, freshly painted walls, the crisp molding revealing the house's age at the same time it looked brand new.
Logan laughed seeing his reaction quite similar to Max's original one. Even more had been done to the house since then, he'd outfitted the place with some new pieces of furniture, solid simple pieces more suited to his taste than the bits and pieces Sandeman had left behind.
"You want a drink?"
"Scotch?"
Another chuckle from Logan, "Why don't you wait in the living room," he nodded his head in its direction.
Bennett absently took his cousin's advice and found himself in the other room at first all he was confronted with was the overwhelming signs of a child's presence, so very different than his cousin's old place. Toy box in the corner with toys sitting to the side of it too, a halfway completed building with Lincoln Logs on the floor by it. A child sized wooden table and chairs, tucked underneath the windows. A small stuffed cat tucked in with a small dark blue blanket on the couch.
Once the shock of being confronted with so much proof of his youngest cousin's existence did he allow himself to see anything else. The small pieces of art or just things of interest his cousin always had, tucked high out of reach of a child. The art hanging on the walls…
It looked familiar; it held that sense of old and new like that showing Marianne had taken him to a few months ago. Sure enough upon closer inspection he saw the scribble of 'Joshua' in the corner. Maybe his cousin really wasn't hurting for money because he'd talked Marianne out of investing in an unknown since they'd just finished redoing the house. If Logan bought it though maybe he should look into it, his cousin had always had a good sense when it came to things like that.
He was struck again by that sense of old and new, that sense of familiarity as he stood puzzled in the living room, just staring down at the brown leather sofa and matching chairs once he'd been left at only the basics to look at.
"They're from my old apartment," Logan supplied walking into the room with two short glasses of Scotch in his hands.
"Yea," Bennett answered still looking confused, "I thought they were, but didn't you get different ones?" Not that he had been in his cousin's apartment more than a handful of times after the shooting, he'd caught on real quick his presence was no longer appreciated. So he'd given his cousin space, never imagining it would grow so vast so quick.
Logan nodded, "Most of the things in my apartment were destroyed." That certainly wasn't a lie, sofas slashed as was his bed; he didn't know how the guest bed wasn't taken out in the process. Everything glass shattered, the paper shades of lamps shredded. The pictures he'd instructed the cleaning crew to take showed a destruction he hadn't imagined, though it still looked better than the hospital room he'd been in only seconds before it was firebombed. "This stuff had been in the basement in storage," he nodded.
He thanked god they hadn't realized that or hadn't had the time to access it, it'd saved a living room set, dining room, a proper desk he hadn't used in years, but was now what he primarily used though it tended to be cramped and he normally ended up spreading everything out in the dining room. Not to mention things like his dresser which had to be removed since he hadn't been able to reach half of the drawers and most of his workout equipment which he couldn't use after the shooting and the elliptical from those few brief weeks all those years ago in which he'd first gotten his legs back. He could still remember the pain of looking up into his closet after his legs had stopped seeing everything that was once more out of his reach. He remembered Bling having to lower the bars again…Might have been foolish and unimportant, but it had still hurt.
Bennett nodded, "Goes better with the house."
Logan gave his cousin a look.
"Hey, I just had to help decorate an entire house," he said explaining his preference for the solid leather furniture in the cream walled, wooden floored room. Then again he had a vague feeling that had been Logan's old living room too; frankly all he ever seemed to remember of Logan's old place were the red walls.
"Marianne trusted you with that?" Logan chuckled moving to take a seat.
"Eh I was more her sounding board. Found out apparently I did nothing right in my old apartment." He answered dryly moving over to where he saw a group of pictures, the last picture he remembered being in Logan's apartment had been in his old apartment when he'd been married, those normal couple shots every woman put out. These seemed to have that feel though too, the pictures held within the wooden frames all seemed to have that cozy domestic feel to them.
The normal family shot in the middle, Logan and Max side by side, his arm draped over her as they were squeezed in tight together, Cale in the middle of them, but more on Max's lap secured by her arm as she leaned in. He was pretty sure it was the cabin and looked like Donna had been right about how she'd described them.
There was another of a much smaller Cale right next to it as he was in Logan's arms wearing one of those footed pajama things on an unknown couch. One of Logan seemingly asleep on the grass with Cale on top of him. The next one was from the same day he realized seeing Cale's outfit, "This is the day I ran into you two?" he asked raising up the picture of Max with the short blonde hair ducked behind Cale on a swing holding the chains so their faces were almost next to each other.
"Uh," Logan said looking over, "Yea," he nodded as he went to sort through the mail that had been waiting on his coffee table all weekend.
Bennett continued to look over the pictures, the basic holiday picture of Cale in front of a package, then one of Logan and Cale wearing matching antlers and judging by his cousin's expression in it, he hadn't been the one to put up that photo.
Then blonde Max, though with longer hair than when he'd seen them with a small yellow hard hat being hit in the head with a hammer by a construction worker Cale.
Another one with all three of them, Cale's birthday as he sat on Max's lap, her hands covering his as Logan and the unexpected guest from his wedding blew out the candles.
He raised the picture back up and turned.
Logan chuckled, "Apparently he's not afraid of fire and kept trying to grab the candles."
He pointed at the female, "Why was she at my wedding?" he asked as he'd always meant to.
Another laugh from Logan, "She came to tell Max something and Daphne took a liking to her."
He raised up the picture, "Really?" He asked realizing what Logan meant by 'liking.'
He nodded.
"Hmm, shame my dad never installed those cameras like he meant to."
Logan laughed as he went through a bill.
Bennett raised up the picture in the middle again and studied it, the only one out of the group that had Max the way he was used to seeing her, not that she wasn't hot as a blonde though. She'd looked younger in the other pictures, she'd almost reminded him of a little pixie the day he'd run into them. This picture though…he knew the bible said, 'you shall not covet your neighbor's wife,' he wondered what it said about your cousin's ex girlfriend, though he was pretty sure he already knew what his wife would say about it.
He was about to ask his cousin about her again, but decided against it since he hadn't managed to get anything much out of him in over a year of asking.
"So Marianne took me to this guy's showing back in May," he said walking over to one of the pictures.
Logan looked up, "Really?"
"Yea, there were a few pieces Mar wanted. Prices were kind of inflated for someone who hasn't even been on the scene for two years."
"He's in demand," Logan replied knowing Rita had quickly sold all of his pieces. Not that he had bought any of the artwork he now had hanging in his house. Two had been forced upon him after he'd casually commented that he liked them. The next came with his birthday, one had followed at Thanksgiving since Logan had brought wine when Joshua had first cooked, then another on Christmas, he tried explaining after the first time he'd cooked that Josh didn't need to bring a gift, but another painting had shown up when he invited Josh over in March.
'You're the only one who has wall space," he'd said gruffly and handed off the painting.
Wall space and he hadn't sold any of them like Alec.
"Just shows I should leave decisions like this to Marianne," he said stopping to look at the painting again.
Logan laughed; his cousin had definitely been his father's son in more than one way.
-o-o-o-
His head suddenly turned and he frowned hearing noises out on his porch, wondering who was out there. The door opened and he heard her voice first, "Lo-"
It was cut off by his son's desperate cry of "Daddy?"
"In here," he said standing.
The door shut loudly as frantic footsteps came towards him and within moments his son was scooped into his arms followed by a rather pissed off looking Max.
"Hey, what-" he began.
He was cut off by the door opening again and "Hey nice holding the door for me Maxie," Alec's voice called out.
That explained the slam that had preceded her walking into the room.
The annoyed look grew and she glared at Alec walking into the room and moved around the coffee table to pick up Cat who Cale had tucked in this morning before breakfast telling his father the stuffed creature was still tired.
"Ooh," Logan said making a pained face, realizing what he'd done and helped explain why she was looking ready to kill him too.
"Cat," Cale's arms went straight for the cat, his mother passed it along with a resigned look.
"Sorry," Logan apologized.
She just continued to look none too pleased.
"Hey I'm Alec," Alec finally said introducing himself stepping towards Logan's cousin with an extended hand, "you must be Bennett, nice car," he ended with a nod in regards to the car he'd stopped to admire.
"Thanks," he said accepting the hand. "Hi Max," he nodded in her direction.
"Hi Bennett," she smiled though not particularly convincingly.
"Ha see told ya Maxie, the runt tired himself out," Alec smiled nodding in Cale's direction where he was halfway slumbering on his father's shoulder clutching the black cat. "I'll put him down," he said moving to take Cale out of Logan's arms after Max shot him another look.
Once he heard Alec hit the stairs he turned and asked rather hesitantly, "Rough day?"
He was rewarded with another glare.
Bennett held in his chuckle.
"Oh let's see no one was around so Alec decided to show up on my doorstep at 10 am gets Cale running around the apartment. Then he tags along as I'm trying to run errands, I leave them alone for ten minutes. I come back to Cale washing down his pixie stix with soda."
Logan made a pained face.
"Yea," she nodded, "so then he's coming off a sugar high and sleep deprived and he's missing Cat." The memory of her son's temper tantrum that had resulted from her trying to convince him to nap without the cat that had led to her finally being frustrated enough to decide to go and retrieve the cat. Of course Alec hadn't wanted to stay with Cale instead he'd acted like a two year old and wanted to go with her. Then Cale had fallen asleep on the drive over and Max had decided to just run in and grab it anyway instead of risk waking up her son carrying him inside and not having the cat. Of course Alec had said Logan's name seeing his car and Cale had instantly perked up, instantly babbling on about his father and had started screaming again when Max had said they weren't seeing him, demanding at full whine that he wanted his father. "Course you know he's almost asleep in the car and Alec wakes him up," she said with a strained face amazed she hadn't killed anyone yet today.
"Sounds like you could use this more than me," he said referring to the glass he'd picked up during her angry rant.
She just shook her head and gave him an exhausted look, frustrated with everyone and thing including him.
"Sorry?" He apologized again.
"Alec's yours for the rest of the day," she said with a shake of her head.
"Where's the love Maxie?" Alec asked walking into the room.
"Love died when you got my kid high."
"It was a single pixie stick Logan," Alec defended himself, "you guys eat yet?" he asked Bennett.
"We ate at the club," Bennett answered wondering who this other guy was and why he was dragging him into the middle of this.
"He weighs 22 pounds Alec, one pixie stick is a lot," she fumed. "And you were sneaking him cookies at the apartment, he leaves crumbs," she explained her discovery once they'd gotten back to the house.
Alec just looked guilty and diverted his eyes away from Max's glare, "So guys, how was your game?"
Side notes because I'm anal and want to explain everything in case anyone was wondering:
The house is still grubby on the outside so as to not attract anymore attention to it.
Max and Logan do normally wear gloves when in private, obviously she took them off when seeing Bennett's car and she would have removed them in order to take a proper picture, so that's why I didn't have Bennett wonder about her wearing gloves because she wasn't.
Thanks for reading guys!
Babyangel: Actually there was a mention of a barbeque in what I considered for the final chapter of 'Outside the Box,' but then I wouldn't have Max and baby Will as my final scene. Hmm…actually I could have…Okay well the point was I didn't. Hmm I'll get back to you on that one.
Idlehands: I didn't end Outside of the Box because I'm burnt out, I swear. I ended it because that was the image I had in my head for the final scene, I know the final scene I want for all of my stories.
X-318: This is so out of order, I'm sorry.
Buffy comment:
Oh my god do you just mean Buffy's mom's death (I for the life of me don't remember a funeral; remember Angel and Buffy in the cemetery, but no funeral). That was one of the most traumatic television moments; it felt like I'd been sucker punched, I just remember sobbing hysterically watching it. One of my guy friends (the only one who watched the show) even has that down as one of his most powerful tv moments. Okay I just had to go back to your review and try to remember why you mentioned that because now for the second time I've gotten so distracted remembering that. I can't remember a stillness for the life of me once more probably because I was hysterical throughout, flowers, breaking rib, vomit, everyone really angry/not knowing how to react, then Angel, that's it, like I said I was very emotional during it, it was the worst fear of their target audience, it was just cruel of them to make us think of that.
Hmm okay now that my major Buffy moment is over that was actually a great thing to draw upon while reading this because that complete 'no this isn't happening moment' is what I wanted. A totally normal moment, she's walking in teasing about the flowers and well boom, life altering, unexpected, completely this cannot and should not be happening moment.
Max was in a completely normal moment, she was just going to bs about something completely unimportant when it happened. This is also the moment to say it was a reference to the crow from Season One's finale, but that crow only had power because of the previous crow from Max's childhood, but it was primarily about the night Max died. This chapter was my reaction to how everyone flipped out over the NCIS finale, they wanted confessions, final moments, but that's not how things happen. You don't get a crow warning you that the end is near, you get a phone call after you've had a fight or a bad thought about the person or even when nothing at all is going on.
Various Languages:
I don't know why I did that exactly (though I'm sure I knew much more when I wrote this than now, bad memory). I just had the vision of Logan up on the rooftop with a million different ways to say two. Then I realized I had the whopping total of 3 in my mind, so I doubted he'd know a dozen, he's smart, but not that smart. The transgenics however…a whole bunch of ultra smart people, who are thought of as second class citizens, them boasting that way would be part extra boast and part unintentional, they're just smarter and more educated than the rest of the country. It worked out well (I think) providing the same theme as last year, everyone else is so excited and happy and Max and Logan can't be as happy. That anniversary is also the anniversary of finding out there was a virus that would keep them apart, major high and low all within a day. Also worked out well for a title, got more than one meaning…always nice.
The Bikini and pool:
Haha the bikini wasn't meant to torture Logan, it was just Max's bikini, hell she could be in a tarp though and drive Logan insane.
Everyone else has lives, I swear. I always have friendships were there is no clear boundary so I think I bring that to the story. Not to mention, Alec is an up in your business kind of guy anyway. Marianne and Bennett are more of the family, there are just things you're supposed to know and they don't and you know you so talk shit in your family about the other family members and everyone's always speculating, trying to piece everything together, not to mention Bennett's disappointed in Logan. In his mind Logan was 30, Max was 18, he got her pregnant, got himself shot (he chose his lifestyle, Bennett's stable, so it's definitely not the type of life he'd approve of a dad to be living) and doesn't marry her, not to mention Bennett only finds out he has a second cousin when the kid's a year and a half…Yea you know you'd be talking shit too :-D
Cut-off tee and kiss: Yea I don't like those shirts either, I just wanted the you're home, you're lazy, it's hot and you don't care at all about what you look like outfit. How passionate are you going to be when you've just infected the love of your life with a deadly virus? She tried, she really did, she was too scared to just forget about the consequences.
Curing the Virus: I am totally against doing anything that anyone else has done. Though I did think that was a great way to cure it, totally cried when I read it. I stop and try to change common things when I realize someone else has done or said it. I almost scrapped an entire story that I had already completed after reading another one which had like a single (very common) line in common since they were both already accidental sex stories. So sorry, trust me I would have loved for the virus to go poof too, but way to major an event to do something I've already read.
M/A: Yea whenever there is an M/A scene someone always asks if it's turning into that, so trust me it wasn't only at you. Read previous ANs and you'll see others, I swear. No one trusts me.
My other stories: Be glad you don't watch the shows because I very rarely update them and I know I drive the readers insane.
So did I mention your reviews totally make me like the story more? Is that like really odd? I mean your reviews always make me so happy (honestly I am so giddy at the moment); you always seem to say the exact right thing. Like how you were worried that it was just a dream, I totally thought I failed at that because no one said anything. You did that throughout and I love you sooooooo much for it! So in short never worry about not always getting the chance to review because when you do they're sooo above and beyond amazing.