Okay so as I've stated a million times writing the end of this is giving me issues because I want to write it present day with flashbacks. That being said I have no idea when I'm ever going to finish this epilogue, so I'm going to post in bits, it'll probably make writing it easier because I won't keep going back looking at the old stuff and maybe it'll even be less confusing to you guys this way. If the writing style (back and forth) becomes annoying or unclear drop a line saying so -pretty please :-D- and I'll do my best to fix and change the style with the next chapter. Thanks for reading! This chapter starts about a year and a half after we last saw Max and Logan.

Oh and thanks for all the GREAT reviews with the last chapter. I'm glad to know my epic pleased a few of you. Thanks for sticking by me in my 100,000+ word endeavor. :-P

Chapter Eight-One

Epilogue Pt.1

2026, Max and Logan's Anniversary:

He loved the sound of feet rushing towards him before he even opened the door.

Loved the cry of 'Daddy' or 'Dad' that would always greet him.

He relished it even more because he didn't know how much longer it was going to last.

The hugs that followed that involved lifting the growing little boy into the air and were usually paired with a kiss to his hair.

Hugs and kisses had been banned this year at school as had the use of 'Mommy' or 'Daddy.'

Max would occasionally cajole a hug out of him when she dropped him off, but she seemed to treat it more as a sign of adoring respect and would allow her son to be a 'little man.' And her face would grow so serious sometimes that both of the men in her life would end up laughing.

So this was the time he cherished just slightly more than the others. Coming home to Max and Cale.

"Mom's bribing the baby," however was his greeting today instead of 'Daddy.'

Uh oh, that wasn't good.

"Okay," he said lowering his son to the ground. "You finish your homework?"

"While ago"

"Okay well then why then why don't you watch tv for a few while I check on your mom."

He didn't move, but instead looked up unsatisfied and entirely unpleased with that answer, "I'm hungry."

Ah that explains it, he thought as his nose took in that extra scent floating through their house. "Grab a cookie," he replied before her turned. "One cookie," he emphasized with his foot on the first step.

-o-o-o-

She was lying with her cheek resting on the peach colored tiles.

"Hey rumor has it you're trying to bribe the kid into being good," he said stopping in the doorway.

"We're up to an in-ground heated swimming pool," she reported dryly.

"Yea well if the kid hasn't taken you up on the pony, the '63 Sting Ray and you doing his homework for the rest of his life, I don't think I have to worry about him taking you up on the offer."

She groaned and curled up a little.

He walked towards her, squatting down beside her, stroking her cheek.

"Never ever feeling guilty about that damn virus ever again," she looked up rather pitifully.

He laughed upon hearing her say that for the first time in weeks, but had certainly heard it frequently before that.

They had com so far…

:Flashback:

"What's wrong?" he asked walking up behind her in their bathroom finding her standing before the sink not moving.

"I'm late," her voice was flat as she imparted the information.

It took a moment for his mind to register what she was talking about, it wasn't until she turned with that tell tale blue case he suddenly understood why she'd been distracted all evening. "How late?" he asked.

"Six days," her mouth remained dropped for few a seconds longer than it should have. That same dumb and vacant stare she'd gotten used to seeing in the mirror since realizing as they'd been preparing dinner.

"How you-" his mind was as frozen as hers.

"I missed pills," her head shook. "Four…with everything going on…" She'd realized that upon looking down at the number of pills she had left. Realizing she should be starting a new pack. Everything had just been so chaotic…From Halloween to New Years…Just over two months and there had been four holidays, two birthdays, two school plays… "So I don't know, maybe that means I'm only two days late?" she looked up from the pack she'd started staring at again, "Does that make it any better?" her face was scrunched to one said asking.

He finally laughed a bit and moved towards her, "Probably not in the way you're thinking," his hands took the case she'd started staring at again away from her.

She looked up with scared eyes.

"Hey this isn't bad news," he said lightly stroking the bottom on her chin with his thumb. "Just a little unexpected and we don't even know if it is news."

She nodded still stunned and pushed away, "I should go out and get on of those pee on a stick and see your futures."

Another low laugh as he stopped her and pulled her back, "You should stay here. You're likely to put your ride into the side of a truck at the moment."

She looked up once more with scared eyes.

"This is a good thing Max," he promised, "it's going to be fine. Cale's downstairs working on his science project-"

"How does coloring count as a science project?" she automatically asked.

"I don't know, but his teacher says it does…" he smiled. "Why don't you go downstairs and help him? I should be back in a half an hour, an hour tops."

She nodded.

-o-o-o-

She paced while he sat on the closed toilet.

"Hey, hey," he said catching her hand, her distractedness made it easy for him to easily pull her into his lap. "Come on, it's going to be fine. Didn't we say we'd talk about having a baby around this time?"

"Talk Logan, not have." They decided in those early days to spend some time on themselves and Cale, the family they already had before adding on to it, at least a year they'd decided.

"Yea well maybe the kid was tired of waiting to be invited," he said placing one large hand across the expanse of her stomach. "We were supposed to have that talk a few months ago."

"We don't know anything about babies," she looked up with a trembling lip.

"Hey Cale didn't turn out too shabby did he?" he asked looking into the watery brown eyes.

"He could talk, he could let us know what he wanted…A baby...they're so helpless Logan."

"We'll figure it out," he promised.

She didn't look much relieved or convinced.

"It's going to be fine," he repeated as his hand went up to her hair.

"Says the guy that gets to stand on the sidelines for the next nine months."

She loved that puff of air slid out of his lips instead of a full laugh, it almost always succeeded in weakening whatever wall she'd put up. Then came the ping and she felt her heart lurch into her throat.

"Am I checking?" he asked quickly squeezing when she didn't move.

She shook her head, despite the fact that she desperately wanted to say yes, "I got it." Without even pausing to take a deep breath she reached past him and to the box he'd hidden on the tank behind him finally after she'd kept poking at it. Her eyes blinked as she went to remove the test from the box. Then she just stared. She finally remembered to look at Logan who was awaiting her with anxious eyes.

"Second life changing event taking place in a bathroom," she followed with the breath she'd been holding in. She turned it and with a stunned shake of her head said, "I'm pregnant."

-o-o-o-

The scene of that second life changing event had become what appeared to be Max's domicile for the following nine months. That following morning they finally started to talk about it aside from the stunned, "I'm pregnants" and "We're having a baby" that had passed their lips the night before in sheer shock and awed reverence to the fact. Plans started to be made, calls to doctors were promised, discussion of how Cale was going to take it, wondering if he should move into Alec's old room and the one of across from the master bedroom, should be the nursery. They started to discuss her job….She begrudgingly agreed that in a few months it would have to be left behind. Smiled and said at least it was more time to spend with Joshua, at which point Logan pointed out that a toxic environment and developing mind and body didn't seem like a good mix. Her smile had fallen as she'd started to realize everything that could go wrong. Children between transgenics and ordinaries weren't a guaranteed thing, while they hadn't seemed to miscarry at a higher rate than their counterparts they seemed to be at a lower frequency. Reminding her that the good old folks at Manticore had been pretty shocked by the news of their occurrence in the first place.

She started to freak. It started with the basics of the normal transgenic/ordinaries differences and quickly led to her 'extra special' self. Her junk DNA, what if that did something to screw with their baby…And he turned out with three arms or a tail…Or the baby being born with permanent ruins across his forehead…

No matter what he said or promised he couldn't calm her down. She hid it, but it lingered in the back of her mind during every waking moment.

A doctor's visit had followed two days later. Blood had been drawn, pregnancy had been confirmed by one of the few doctors that had actually handled a transgenic pregnancy before. Her eyes had widened as they filled her in on everything they'd been through. Options for genetic testing were discussed. Max had scoffed at that, as if they'd have any idea what they were looking for.

The doctor however had been dutifully gathering data for the time when things like this became public and widespread. "We'll compare it to that and see what we're working with."

She'd sent them on their way with a smile and a "Try to take it easy and not worry."

Max had scoffed at that too. The woman was obviously not a mother. After five years Max was aware she now worried better than she did anything else, which was saying a lot.

It was three days after that. Amongst varying plans kept between only Logan and herself as she refused to tell anyone else in case things went south (as that nagging feeling in her gut told her they would) that their son decided to start making his presence known. Less than a week before the only sign of him had been a handful of missed pills and two clear lines on an indicator. Seemingly overnight he had overtaken her life.

The smell of French Toast cooking had sent her rushing to the half-bath on the main floor.

The next day Normal had sent her home by noon. He'd ignored her repeated guarantees of being fine and called Logan to come pick her up.

Tuesday she wasn't stupid enough to leave the couch and hadn't even lifted her head to kiss her son goodbye, instead forcing him down to her level.

By Friday Logan had had enough and scooped her and a plastic bag into his arms and loaded her into the Aztek after a week of exhaustion, nausea that was seemingly impossible to avoid and a few incidences of swaying that seemed to be inches away from fainting.

The doctor had once more smiled sympathetically, but informed them following every test she could perform and an examination that she was just in for a rough first trimester, but decided that maybe they'd be better suited with a doctor more accustomed with difficult pregnancies considering Max's extra unique makeup and set up an appointment with a high-risk OB/GYN and had once more shuffled them out of her office with annoying advice. Stay hydrated, don't let your stomach get empty, try to figure out if there were any certain smells/foods that caused it and then avoid them, move slowly and stay in bed a little longer. Max had almost thrown the plastic container of cotton balls at her.

That was around the time Max had moved into her new domicile. The peach bathroom that they'd commented for over a year that they needed to update. Knock into the other room and install a bathtub that would not only fit Logan while not scrunched up, but Max as well. A separate shower that wasn't a challenge to clean and water actually stayed inside of and of course the main reason. Non-Peach.

He started to realize the first time he'd found Max using the scrunched up bathmat as a pillow and asked him to toss down a towel to use as a blanket because there was no way her body was moving from its perfectly flat position, that he as soon as the baby was here would be making a call to 'The Royal Flush' as five transgenics had named their plumbing company. He was also going to be reminding them that he knew their secret and that there was absolutely no reason to work at their normal snail's pace to 'throw off suspicion.'

It was either that or come home one day to Max and a sledgehammer.

The secret Max had wanted to keep came out quickly. Gem and Original Cindy had invaded the first afternoon after Max had given up trying to even get up and instead told Logan to call Normal and tell him she quit. No witty remarks, no clever coverups, no bashing that she had been saving up for years. No…She'd said the words quickly and without much feeling aside from feeling sorry for herself and closed her eyes before he'd even left her side.

Cale had followed later that evening as he whined about 'Mommy being sick again.' They realized afterwards that they'd probably confused the kid up for life as they told him, 'Mommy was trying to get him a little brother or sister.' They figured they'd explain in better detail once they were actually sure he would get a little brother or sister.

Alec had found out the hard way about their pregnancy. A hand had clasped over Max's forearm as he went to ask her what was wrong as she went to dash out of the room. He'd gone flying back into a bookcase as she'd continued on her way.

You couldn't really notice the crack running down its center unless you were looking.

:Present Day:

All of that had led to this. What he had started to hope was an uncommon occurrence since she'd finally at least taken the reigns of her nausea after she'd passed the first trimester they'd sworn it would end at, but of course it hadn't.

"Feel like moving this to the bedroom?" he asked after careful consideration. Always nervously attempting to judge her mood before he asked, sometimes he was successful, others…well…

"Isn't that how I got into this situation in the first place?"

He smiled at the common joke passed between them. "Yea well that never seems to stop you from letting me do the laundry," he said as he bent down to gather her up in his arm. Funny how creative and desperate you could get living with a six year old with highly sensitized hearing. He thanked god for television, video games and a dislike of folding clothing. He and Max had become old pros quickly at the art of quickies and interesting positions. It was highly unlikely their second son had been created in the bed he was depositing her on, tugging up a loose blanket before settling in with her tucked into his arms.

His second son, he smiled and a hand splayed out across her rounded stomach, more emphasized by her sudden weight loss from her 'round the clock' sickness.

"Should have been admiring your handiwork a half hour ago," Max replied dryly.

"Speaking of which, what were you thinking?" he said referring to the smell of cooking ground beef, a common no no according to Max's stomach.

"I was thinking I should be able to make dinner for one son without my other throwing a fit," she replied once more annoyed with how limited she now was, "seriously. I'm sneezing and this kid is coming out."

More comments he was used to, her repeated references to the shortest labor on the books after what he was putting her through with just pregnancy. Then he felt her hand slide over parts of his and knew she was silently promising the youngest Cale that she'd be sick for everyday of the rest of her life as long as he was okay.

"You couldn't just wait for me or make him something different?"

"Promised Cale a Sloppy Joe…I thought I was fine." She'd survived the frying eggs this past weekend, had been next to Cale eating a burger while they were out, hell a whole sea of different foods. She thought she was past it.

"Max," he smiled, "we've had this discussion before. You have no power in this situation. Hell if Cale's any indication, we aren't going to have anything resembling control for at least three years."

"Real reassuring Logan," she replied dryly. She'd like to see just how relaxed he'd be when someone was screwing with his body. Sometimes it felt like the kid had her under house arrest. Controlling what she ate, where she went…And the kid was only in-utero, he was going to be an interesting teenager, she was sure of it.

"I'm still hungry," Cale called up the stairs.

"Six years, seven years…" his head shook in defeat, "we're kicking them out when they turn eighteen."

She laughed, "I think us bailing is the only chance we've got."

"So," his eyebrows wiggled up, "you, me, a Mexican beach in 18 years, 4 and a half months?"

"It's a plan," she smiled, "go down there before he breaks out the stepstool and starts cooking."

"Get some rest," he said kissing her temple.