Someone explain to me how my short little scenes seem to keep doubling in size lately? Hell totally more than double, I'm so more at the triple level. That being said, not much happens in this chapter because otherwise it would end up around 7 thousand words to get my complete next thought out. Good news is that means I still know what I'm doing for one more chapter. Yay! Thanks for reading guys and putting up with me :-D

Chapter Twenty-Five

Intrusions

"Hey Max, Logan tells me you're a little under the weather."

"Don't worry I'm not contagious," she offered up with a joking smile, not knowing the question had just been asked.

Damn, Logan thought to himself. "So what brings you by Bennett?"

"What I can't just stop in to see my cousin?"

"No," Logan said bluntly knowing that definitely wasn't the reason.

Max laughed to herself. "Can I get you something to drink Bennett?" she asked taking over Logan's normal role, his manners apparently impeccable until it came to his family.

"You know just a glass of water would be great," he nodded.

"I'll get it," Logan said as his manners slightly returned, "do you want anything Max?"

"Soda," she said taking full advantage of Logan having bought the stuff for Brittany, non-caffeinated of course to make up for the sugar, but still it was a bubbly sweet beverage.

ooOoo

…

He returned to find Max acting out of what he would have once assumed out of character for her, but after seeing her at Bennett's wedding he wasn't too surprised to see her sitting on his couch holding his cousin's son, albeit somewhat awkwardly as she was in fear of jostling and upsetting him.

She looked good with kids, natural despite the slightly uneasy moment he was seeing. Maybe it was because she was still kind of a kid, a kid who had never gotten to be a kid. The point was she still remembered what she'd wanted to feel, how she'd wanted to be treated. Bennett was shuffling the dvd cases across the coffee table where they'd left them scattered trying to figure out what to watch. All kids movies, mostly Disney since they were the only ones Logan had been sure would actually be acceptable for her age despite what the labels said.

"Sleeping with your nightlight on tonight?" Bennett asked as Logan handed off the glass of water after placing Max's before her, he'd been rewarded by a short sweet smile before her attention returned back down to the infant who had indeed mostly grown past the looking like Uncle Jonas stage.

"I was five," what the hell was going on with his cousins lately? Did they all feel the urge to pick on him thinking he was missing it because their father was no longer around?

Max frowned wondering the same thing, especially from Bennett and over a Disney movie? Considering how Brittany had clung to Logan for dear life during certain scenes she was guessing that was a pretty normal reaction for a little kid.

" Logan had nightmares for over a month after we saw 'The Lion King,'" Bennett fingered through the pile again, "I notice that's not here, still have a problem with it?"

"Neither is Bambi, I didn't feel like explaining life and death to Brittany."

It was weird the amount of things she knew without ever having experienced, she had to pick things like that up because not having done/seen the basic childhood things led to more attention than she was willing to draw to herself. Mom died in Bambi, dad died in the Lion King, certainly sounded traumatic to her.

"Whatever you say Logan," Bennett chuckled this time picking up a dvd to read the back.

Her eyes hesitated shifting over to Logan as if taking her eyes off of Nicholas would cause him to break into a full out wail that she'd experienced many a night at her apartment. Logan and his family tended to do that, tended to start some teasing story and then stop because the majority of the group already knew it so nothing more needed to be said.

"Really wasn't my fault," he said from his position on the armchair to her questioning gaze.

Bennett laughed.

"Bennett you weren't even old enough to remember," why were they discussing this? Shouldn't they be discussing his cousin's unannounced visit?

"I heard the story enough times," he shot back still gleefully smiling.

"Either of you ever going to get around to telling it to me? Cause if you're just gonna keep bickering like two little kids I'm going back to my nap," she would have made the move to threaten them, but once more the kid limited her actions.

"Oh let me," Bennett began and Logan sighed, funny how often he sighed when with his family. "We were five?"

Logan shook his head, why was he being dragged into a story he didn't want to tell? "Somewhere around there," he answered anyway hoping to speed this along.

"Our moms leave us with the nannies-"

"Nannies? How many did you guys need?"

Bennett gave a quick frown thinking, "I don't know, there were either two or three, I know there were two nannies in my house for awhile, Logan always had one." What the hell was Marianne thinking, they'd turned out decently well with two and she wouldn't let Nicky have one?

"Two nannies? Margo never worked did she?" she frowned trying to figure out exactly how many adults could be needed to corral four kids.

"Just didn't like them," Logan threw in.

"You've lived with my parents, you know no attention is good attention," Bennett pointedly said to his cousin, the only reason they'd turned out semi-normal was the fact that their parents hadn't raised them.

" Logan and a nightlight remember?" Max said viewing the slightly escalating confrontation between the two Cales.

Bennett smirked, "So we're at the movie and when Mufasa dies Logan cries-"

"So did you, we were five," everyone had gotten teary eyed, he remembered that from when Bitsy would tell the story, Bennett and Jon always seemed to skip over that part.

Max laughed a bit and jostled the baby who seemed to frown with displeasure, she shifted him closer and caught Logan's eyes and he caught the movement.

"Fine we all cried, better Logan? Anyway we leave the movies and we go to meet up with our moms who were having lunch."

"They were shopping," Logan corrected, "Jon always connects everything with food or alcohol," knowing that's where Bennett had gotten his faulty information.

Bennett gave a short laugh, "The point is Logan sees my aunt and run to her and starts hysterically crying-"

"I wasn't hysterically crying, there may have been a few tears-"

"I thought you didn't remember this?" Bennett asked.

"I remember my mother's account of it," things like this caused fights in their lives, his mother had been forced on more than a few occasions to set things straight amongst five various versions.

"Doesn't change the fact you had nightmares for a month," Bennett retorted with.

"I had nightmares from my dad, not the movie, I remember that part." He turned to Max, "When my father came home my mom told him what happened so he sat me down and gave me the circle of life talk not as effectively as they did in the movie. So I kept dreaming that my parents were dead," Logan shrugged his shoulders, "I had to be brought to them or they had to come to me every night to prove they were still alive. My mom even had to call my dad once when he was away so I could hear his voice," he ended with his mouth pressed together and nodding, still not too pleased.

"Ouch," Max made a face, imagining how quickly that got annoying.

"Yea," Logan nodded again.

Bennett once more laughed.

Max tried to bite back her smile.

"I was five," he pointed out again. "So why are you here Bennett?" he asked moving past Max to her couch partner.

Bennett laughed again, not that he'd actually stopped for long periods of time, "Called Bitsy she told me what was going on."

"That would explain why you're hear, but why's he?" Logan nodded towards Nicky.

"Marianne decided she needed a day to herself," Bennett answered somewhat reluctantly.

"So Marianne left you alone with the baby, you called Bitsy for help and she told you she was out of town and Brittany was with me," Logan supplied dryly.

Bennett nodded, "Basically."

ooOoo

…

Bennett looked over at Max stilling holding his son some twenty minutes after he'd fallen asleep. He'd offered to put the baby down once he'd nodded off, but she just shook her head and said, 'I got him.' He may not have had as many relationships as his cousin and older brother, but he knew what that meant, she was getting more settled in her life and looking for that next step, he wondered if his cousin had noticed that.

"What's he doing here?" all eyes shot around to see the petulant frown Brittany was giving her cousin.

"Hey Brit," Bennett said acting as if he hadn't become one of her least favorite people after the birth of his son.

She frowned and looked at Logan the only person she cared to acknowledge since Max too had become the enemy. She was frowning as she started to climb up him and he lifted her up to his lap. The scowl deepened as she sat there glaring at Max as her uncle rubbed her arm trying to calm her down.

"Brit why don't you come sit next to me?" Max asked sweetly, knowing putting the baby into his carrier or passing him along to his father would only succeed in making the little girl think she was justified in her hatred of him.

"I'm not sitting next to him," she crossed her arms for that.

"Brit, just be happy you only have one and not four like your mom had," Logan said as he tried to reason with the girl as he wondered what exactly her parents were thinking since Nicky's birth had reminded them, they'd only put off having anymore kids and not stopped.

She looked up and rolled her baby blues at him, oh the little girl was pure Bits, he thought as he brushed back all the downy soft stray blonde hairs that had risen up from her ponytail as she slept.

The action encouraged her to bury her head into her uncle's chest as she scrunched up into him and he rubbed her back. "I don't like him," she repeated.

"I know," Logan murmured to her, "but he's not going anywhere no much how much you wish he was. Trust me I tried with Uncle Ben."

Logan and Max both let out small smiles and Bennett acting the role of younger cousin frowned.

"Do you still love me more?" she asked poking her head up to look at him with wide eyes.

That worked well to choke up everyone in the room, especially the one it was directed at, "Aww Brit," he said holding her a little tighter, "you know I love you."

"That wasn't what I asked," she said once more proving her maternity.

"Hey you can walk and talk those are both big plusses in your favor," most of the time that was.

She continued to frown keeping Logan on the spot.

"You're my only godchild," he reminded.

That settled away the frown, as her eyes continued to view him warily, she thought about it for a moment before deciding to move on, "I'm thirsty."

"That I can help you with," he said pushing off with one hand as the other hand held her to him as she quickly wrapped her legs around his waist.

"Can I have soda?" she asked as they left the room.

"You've had enough soda; you'll be bouncing off the walls soon, milk or orange juice," he answered.

"Iced tea?" she compromised.

"Water?" he retorted with.

"Ugh, OJ," she answered rather dejectedly leaving both Max and Bennett chuckling in the other room.

Max shifted with the baby who had fussed with the previous movement and Bennett caught a quick look at her as he listened to Logan and Brittany in the other room as Logan was talking her out of snacks.

His father had referred to Max as a piece of young ass Logan needed to soothe his ego after being paralyzed, Bennett had quickly realized after finally spending time with them over dinner that wasn't the case. Still though Bitsy's words after their time together at the cabin hadn't really rung true until just now, she'd commented on the fact that Logan was finally grown up. He didn't know what she meant, sure he'd never seen his cousin happier, more content, noticing the caring and compassion he exhibited towards Max that was genuine instead of whatever it had been between him and Valerie, her needs really were above his own, but he hadn't understood. He got the grown up comment now, which hadn't made much sense since he cousin seemed to be the most mature person he knew because of his serious nature. He turned as Max cooed to his son…Yea he definitely got it now.

ooOoo

…

'You should probably stay here again,' wow he was regretting those words now, they just seemed to flow from his mouth without a second though, it had started earlier.

"Where's Original Cindy?" he asked after being informed that she wasn't around to worry about Max not showing up.

"Trix's, her roommate's apartment sitting," she said in-between bites of food.

Trix, the girl from New Year's Eve, Patricia, who had become Tricia, which had led to Trixie, which was shortened to Trix, what exactly did people have against their own names nowadays? Max was the only one of her friends who actually used hers.

She frowned, he knew what the frown was from, the silent unspoken knowledge that OC wanted to live with her gf only they both had roommates. Max felt guilty considering she had been the reason Cindy had been evicted, but it was her apartment, she wasn't about to start looking for a new place to crash to suit Original Cindy's lustful urges, which would probably crash and burn in a few months anyway. Max had confided it all to him one day after turning up on his doorstep after feeling like an outsider in her own apartment, but as far as he knew she hadn't taken his advice and talked to OC about it. She'd just smiled and said 'thanks' as he promised to keep his ear to the ground about any apartments.

So somewhere after that discussion, after the next round of mild seizures and Max yawning during dinner, he'd said the words of 'You should probably stay here again.'

Great thought at the time, but it was later now and he was alone with a Max who was definitely up to more than sleep tonight. Perkier, smiling, teasing and she hadn't had even the slightest tremor in almost three hours; she was well past the hump and he was missing his chaperons.

He found himself touching her, nothing that anyone would consider inappropriate, but what they had shied away from since the all out mauling of each other at Crash. A hand at her waist or arm, she'd flicked popcorn out of his hand seconds before it reached his mouth on more than a few occasions as they'd settled in with Brittany to watch yet another movie, she'd grabbed onto his arm as she'd been laughing over something, but it hadn't been until they'd been tucking in Brittany and their hands had lingered over each other that he really started having moments where he was forgetting his 'we're just friends' mantra.

So he'd thrown himself into work, Max shifted in between his office and the living room, he'd thanked god when she'd started yawning around one and she'd gone off to bed without much of a fight.

Now though as she was falling back asleep in his bed after waking up to his arrival he realized that the soft little almost mewing sounds she was making as she readjusted herself with his pillow and comforter had completely woken him up again after he thought he'd worked himself to exhaustion. It would be so easy to just reach and touch her, give her another reason to make those incredibly appealing little noises and maybe a few others.

He steeled himself though as he stared across at the wall and quickly the noises stopped and eventually he too fell asleep as all the reasons he should stay in that positions ran through his head trying to block out her presence.