Okay short chapter compared to the other ones as of late. I think it's got a slightly different writing style, I give up trying to be consistent, it's just not me. Don't expect any new chapters for at least a week, I'm going away, worry though if don't see a new chapter in like 2 weeks and you've heard of a plane crash. Yup I'm a bad flier, feel sorry for my friends. Thanks for reading guys.

Chapter Nineteen

In-Between

Max and Original Cindy's Apartment:

"I swear," Original Cindy shook her head. "Nothing happened he was in his room and I was in the guest room," she repeated Max's words from yesterday as she'd given the third degree on Max's first official sleepover in Logan's crib, instead of just her normal crashing.

"Nothing did happen," Max defended, sure there might have been a kiss under the mistletoe and she might have been in bed with a buck naked Logan the next morning…Damn that sounded like she had a lot more fun in the in-between time than she actually did.

Original Cindy just shot her a disbelieving look.

"I swear," Max returned with an innocent look.

"You two were seconds away from droppin' to the floor."

"We weren't that bad," Max wondered if she played that off well because if she'd managed thought at all during that kiss instead of just the overwhelming need that probably would have sounded like a damn good idea.

Cindy just looked at her while replaying the scene in her own mind as she watched Max's changing expressions, soldier girl or not, she could read her girl like a book.

"New Year's kiss," Max reminded.

"No," Original Cindy began with a serious drop of her head, "I got a New Year's kiss." She stopped and continued remembering Max and Logan's embrace, the hands gripping and pulling the other closer. She paused trying to find the words to describe it, preview, foreplay, as much as you could do without getting arrested. Not that it had lasted long, that damn fool had gone and bumped into them and they both back off like skittish colts retreated to opposite ends of the group for at least an hour before they found their way back to each other.

"We're just friends," Max took advantage of her friend's momentary silence.

That prompted an eye roll. Max had used that line more times than Original Cindy could count. Max must've thought she was ignorant to rules that defined the hetero world. Sure men and women could be friends, not even in the Max and Sketch sense, men and women who were attracted to each other could be 'just friends.' Of course people who were just friends dated others, dated others more than Logan's pitiful attempts at dating which generally seemed to be once, twice tops with the same girl and even that was rare. People who were 'just friends' didn't spend as much time as Max and Logan did together and hell if Logan were just a friend he would be on the same level as the rest of them, yet when was the last time Max had canceled plans with Logan to hang out with any of them? Not that, that made Original Cindy jealous or envious, okay well maybe slightly envious because Max had once been her party girl and now with her and Kendra both enraptured by guys, her going out crowd wasn't nearly as much fun as it had once been. To top it all off, not only did friends not kiss like that, friends weren't constantly doing the lingering looks, or the sly looks when they thought the other wasn't looking or the way they lingered when in contact with each other, all the kind of stuff that made you want to scream 'Get a room!'

Original Cindy awarded Max one final shake of her head, it was late, she was ready to fall into bed and dream sweet dreams about the sweet little thing who'd coyly given her digits at the end of the night, "You just keep telling yourself that boo." One of these days, things were just going to explode and all the lies were gonna stop. She smirked to herself and wondered what it would take to get Normal to part with the fire extinguisher; she liked her possessions non-charred.

ooOoo

Logan's Apartment (a few weeks later):

"Yea no I don't think so Bennett," Logan said in mid-discussion with his cousin over the phone.

Max turned and pouted, shame her super ears couldn't pick up what was being said through a phone line, she hated not knowing what was going on and Logan wasn't giving anything away with his end of the conversation. She was a little confused as to why Logan suddenly started walking towards her since the popping corn on the stove definitely made it harder for him to hear his cousin over. He took the butter from her and went to set the flame to low under the small saucepan waiting on the stove. She laughed as she realized what he was doing and sure enough his next move was the silverware drawer where he extracted a butter knife, all while trying to speed along his cousin's conversation and placate him the best that he could. She watched the now cut chunk of butter fall into the saucepan and Logan tossed the knife in the sink before going to return the butter to the fridge, "Don't let it get too hot," he said softly covering the mouth piece as he nodded, before he walked back into the living room and away from the noise.

Common disagreement between them, the amount of butter and salt that should be put on popcorn. Logan would be happiest with the barest trace, Max however wanted it dripping, what they'd end up with was a compromise, especially since Logan would always point out the scarcity of butter, shame that argument worked with everything. They could just do two bowls; the logical thing to do was to have two bowls. Yet they never had two bowls, in fact within seconds of their first argument about it as the words were about to be said they both froze and realized they'd rather suffer through cardboard or pure butter. So the words were never said aloud and the fight had continued every single time they had popcorn and guaranteed one of them would make a face at some point and time during the movie, well Logan only made a face, Max was always more vocal on the subject, especially since on a few occasions Logan had actually gotten up to heat up more butter.

Logan returned to the kitchen as Max took the finished popcorn off the stove and proceeded to pour on the butter as she flipped the bowl coating the popcorn. She realized Bennett was trying to talk Logan into watching Nicholas as they both leaned up against the counter looking at each other, while popping popcorn into their mouths waiting for the conversation to end.

"I think Max and Brittany are on the same wavelength," he said with a smile directed towards her as he was explaining to his cousin why he and Max had no problem watching Brittany.

She honestly didn't even realize what she'd done until he was looking down at the small oil stain now gracing the olive button down. Max tried not to look guilty as his eyes slowly returned upwards to hers. He didn't say anything though, just looked. His mouth almost started to open, but then he stopped, distracted once more by his cousin's pleading over the phone. "No I'm not watching Brittany so Bitsy can watch Nicholas." His eyes remained connected with hers as she awaited his reaction. All she got was a simple head shake as before he placed the phone between his ear and shoulder and his fingers raised up to the buttons. She almost thought for a second she would be getting a slight strip show, though common sense reminded her he wore a shirt underneath, but instead he turned and headed towards his room. She withheld the pout and sigh that tried to escape and grabbed the bowl to go wait for Logan in the living room.

She thought back to their New Year's kiss as she awaited him on the couch, the popcorn already being demolished. How they'd gone back to everything being normal with even less of an awkward period than their last kiss...Maybe that was a lie though because images of Logan and of her and Logan, they seemed to flood her mind on a more frequent basis now. Before she could keep them at bay, not now though. Right now she was thinking of something simple like dropping her head down his shoulder watching the movie or her head resting innocently in his lap just staring out at the screen as his fingers absently played with her hair. Not that she would though, the most contact she had with Logan during movie time besides the popcorn was occasionally stretching out and resting her feet in his lap, which she could easily play off as a bratty thing to do and he reacted as such with several looks slowly passing from her feet to her head, normally ending with either a comment or a sigh and a shake of his head, never an order to remove though…

'Hmm wonder what he'd do if I reversed?' She thought to herself and thought back to their contact over the past few weeks, the change in it. They either broke apart quickly now or lingered longer, it was her only evidence that Logan had been even slightly effected by their kiss.

He returned wearing the Che Guevara shirt that always kinda cracked her up. Sure it wasn't really her name, hell it was even a different spelling and definitely a lot more Logan than her, but still…Logan had even given her a brief history of the guy early on, furthering the minimal stuff she knew about him (Probably to inspire her or something). She had to admit she'd kinda liked his alleged parting line from this earth, 'Shoot, coward, you're only going to kill a man,' it had a nice amount of the kind of attitude she liked.

"So has your family decided you're its babysitter?" she asked with a smile as he sat down next to her.

"I think it's more you, I'm just their only means of getting to you," he smiled as his fingers found their way into the bowl.

"So why can't Bitsy watch Brit and Nicky?" She asked, ignoring that fuzzy warm feeling she'd just gotten from his comment.

" Brittany isn't particularly fond of him," he phrased it tactfully. Apparently his little cousin had more than vocal on the subject, probably didn't help that she was no longer the only grandchild and attention had been reduced.

"Nanny? Professional babysitter?"

"Marianne refuses to trust him with anyone, but family."

"And you're the best they could do after Bits? What'd a pack of hyenas raise Marianne?" She definitely remembered a few members of Marianne's family at the wedding, she was sure at least a few were in the city.

He feigned outrage, "I will have you know, I never once dropped Brittany on her head." He smiled, "I may have thought about it, but I didn't."

"You babysat Brit when she was a baby?"

He shook his head at the unpleasant memory, "I had two choices either watch Brittany for a few days or have Bitsy kill Kyle and get her full time. Never accept when someone asks you to be a godparent."

"You're her godfather?" She shook her head, " Logan have you ever even been in a church?"

He laughed, "I think that was the last time." He shook his head once more, "Since Kyle had his sister, Bits wanted one of us. I appeared to be the most stable."

Max almost rolled her eyes at that.

He laughed, "You've got to remember then I actually not only had a job, I had a wife. So what about this movie?"

"Wait, so what about Nicky?"

"I'm not his godfather, nor am I going to be."

"That is so wrong," she said with her mouth remaining slightly open.

"I don't care," he smile and nodded, "movie."

She picked up the remote from next to her and chuckled softly to herself.

-o-o-o-

Max held the small gold man Brittany had left behind; she was almost making it dance as she only half paid attention to the movie. It was from a soccer trophy. He remembered soccer; he'd liked it, which made sense since he stopped playing it by the time he got to high school. His mom had been like one of those soccer moms on tv, she'd been the same with Little League, tons of snacks, always cheering from the sidelines, scolding his father for talking on the phone while he was supposed to be cheering. Of course he always seemed to manage to stop talking just in time to scream at him to do the opposite of what his coach had told him. Still soccer like most things from before his mom died held good memories for him. It was odd to realize that the first decade of his life had been amazing while for Max it had been the worst, complete and total opposites. The flash of gold caught his eye again and made him remember what Brittany had asked…

"Uncle Logan?" She asked looking up from the cake he'd managed to talk her into instead of ice cream after visiting Nicholas in the hospital (ice cream in Post-Pulse Seattle in December was near impossible to find).

"Yea Brit?"

"Are you and Max going to have a baby?"

He swallowed the hot coffee a little too quickly and almost scalded his throat, "Uh, no remember Max and I aren't married."

"Mommy says you don't have to be married to have a baby."

"Well Max and I aren't going to have a baby," he stated clearly.

She pouted at this and he wondered if he should take the opportunity to wipe off the icing she'd managed to get on her cheek despite her best attempts to eat properly. "Betcha you'd have a baby like they have on tv."

He smiled to that like Max had smiled to Brittany asking why Max couldn't be her aunt instead since she liked her more.

"What?" Max asked turning her head, to see Logan smugly smiling to himself.

"Nothing," he said with a shake of his head.

"You sure?"

He debated for a second telling her, but quickly decided against it, "Nothing," he once more shook his head and attempted to return his attention the screen and not the woman next to him.