GD: Haha you were wrong, not only gave it a night gave it a week. UST I think is just more fun to write. :-(

Short chapter folks. Figured I might as well throw it up since it's a completed scene and I haven't decided which scene I want to come next and someone tends to abhor waiting. :-P

Ah and note to that same person, only one very short ML scene in this chapter, so be prepared.

Thanks for reading folks!

Chapter 31

Smiles and Frowns

Kendra and Walters:

She frowned.

She frowned just about every time she'd start thinking about 'them.' Her and Logan. It would begin with that small creeping smile that she couldn't avoid and then as her thoughts moved further along it would fall into a pouting, confused frown.

"I don't know," she answered Kendra's question honestly about what was going on with her and Logan.

Her old roommate laughed, "You just lean back and tell Dr. Maibaum everything."

Max couldn't help but laugh as Kendra tugged on her feet and pulled her out on the couch she'd been sitting sideways on, knees formerly pulled up against her as she reclined against the arm looking at Kendra.

"Kendra," she began as her friend moved towards an arm chair.

"Try to think of me as your love doctor Max."

"I don't need a love doctor," her eyes rolled.

"I think you do," she nodded and attempted seriousness as she sat. "Now why don't you start from the beginning."

Max raised an eyebrow and looked at her.

"Max, you need relationship advice more than anyone I've EVER met before."

Not her fault most guys were annoying little pricks...With just that.

"So the beginning."

'Put it down. Now.'

She smirked.

"You never did give me a straight answer on how you guys met," Kendra questioned.

Max shrugged, "His apartment, doing a job."

"Then he tracks you down at Crash…" Kendra supplied, the details imparted to her by Original Cindy who'd made a few comments about the chemistry between the two. 'Never seen the girl fluster before,' had been how OC had described Max. Kendra thought it was a pretty apt description of how Max reacted around Logan.

"And you know the rest of the story," Max dryly replied.

"I know he blew you off for a date once and you wanted to kill him, refused to utter his name the next day."

She frowned remembering. "Wasn't a date," she muttered.

Kendra shook her head, "First kiss…"

"What about it?"

"When was it?"

"January…Didn't really count though…We were both kinda emotional."

"And why were you emotional?" she asked in her best Freudian voice.

"I didn't think I was ever going to see him again."

"And this upset you?"

"You're getting annoying," Max said shooting daggers over at her friend.

"Avoiding the question…Interesting," Kendra pondered once more in her normal voice.

"And here I thought the reason I'd been avoiding your place was Walter and Big Wally," Max inwardly shuttered remembering the cruel surprise she'd gotten walking in from shopping one day with Kendra. And she'd thought with the boxers was bad…

"Fine, next kiss."

"Christmas, mistletoe. New Year's, midnight..." She rattled off and paused remembering heat.

"I heard about New Years," Kendra said with raised eyebrows, "Christmas though…"

Max shrugged again and pushed up, once more sitting, "Wasn't that big of a deal, his goddaughter put him up to it."

"The six year old?" Kendra questioned. "So how was it?"

"How do you think it was?" Max shot off. Obviously there wouldn't have been more than one if it wasn't good.

"Hmm," Kendra's catlike smile resembled Max's own in heat, "with Logan's lips and that tongue," her eyebrows raised up quickly. The lips she was soon thinking about weren't the ones on her face.

Max stared with wide and annoyed eyes.

Kendra shrugged, "What can I say, monogamy can screw with a girl. Kay back on track. Great kisses how about the fourth?"

"Good just like the three before it," was Max's quick answer.

"Details."

"I was drunk and threw myself at him," drunk, heat…Close enough.

Kendra frowned, " Logan doesn't…"

"Logan doesn't seem like the type to take advantage," Max supplied, he's not, she once more frowned. "I threw myself at him, he said no, I hopped on the next available warm body, then the next thing I know Logan and I are almost fucking in the bathroom," her words were all biting and quick. Refusing to linger, dwell, be disgusted by herself or worst remember the flood of emotions that had followed his rejection of her. She stood and started to poke through Kendra and Walter's knickknacks.

"He stopped?"

She nodded, " Logan Cale, always the gentleman."

"What happened after that?"

"We both apologized and acted as if it never happened."

"You can pretend like you weren't ready to fuck your best friend in the bathroom."

" Logan's not my…" her voice trailed off and she turned to find Kendra nodding and smiling sympathetically at her. Crap.

"Want to tell me about the fifth kiss?" Kendra asked knowing pushing Max in too many directions would cancel out any shot of making any progress with her.

She smiled despite herself. There was no reason for that kiss aside from them…Nothing that could explain it away. It had just been them, no outside mitigating factors.

"Good kiss?" Kendra asked with a smile.

"Sweet," Max turned with a smile. Had she really just said, 'Sweet' and smiled?

"More details," Kendra reminded.

"We were babysitting Brittany-"

"His goddaughter?"

She nodded, "I was sitting up on the counter in his kitchen and he was picking a piece of bath confetti out of my hair," her curls bobbed as she shook her head remembering.

"He kiss you?"

Her head shook slightly, "More like we came together."

Kendra's eyes widened and they stared Max's suddenly sheepish face.

"Sixth kiss?" Max quickly offered before her friend said anything.

Kendra laughed and nodded.

"After Crash, he had the hiccups so he came upstairs-"

"Drunk or sober?"

"Sober," Max nodded, up until now she'd been pretty sure they were sober.

"What happened?"

"We were just goofing around and I ended up on his lap-"

"Because you normally end up on someone lap when you're goofing around?"

"Point is next thing you know we're going at it for a good fifteen minutes before OC barges in."

"Would you have not stopped if she hadn't?"

I wouldn't have stopped the first time if my brother hadn't been standing there. Shoulders raised, "Wasn't really doing a lot of thinking."

"Next story," Kendra said shifting herself around trying to get comfortable.

"You need a life," Max said once more sitting down on the sofa.

"I have one, yours is just more interesting. Next story."

"Pressed up against the wall in his apartment."

Kendra's eyebrows raised.

"Not that interesting," Max quickly informed, knowing exactly where her friend's mind was.

"And you guys haven't discussed this at all?" Kendra asked.

Max once again looked a little sheepish, "He wanted to," or at least he said the words, "I told him talking was highly overrated."

Kendra chuckled, "Knew we were friends for a reason."

Max rolled her eyes.

"Anymore?"

"Making out in the kitchen until I put my hand in chicken salad."

Kendra doubled over laughing.

"Yea like I told him, it's really not that funny when it happens to you."

"So's that it?"

"I still stand by, my 'this is entirely too much effort for a sandwich,'" she said as Logan positioned the brick over the frying pan he had flattening the chicken, pesto and mozzarella panini.

"Says the person who not only ate all of hers last time, but half of mine."

"Hey, we're in a depression, I'm not about to let good food go to waste."

"I got up to answer the phone," he said turning and walking over to trap her in-between his hips and the counter yet again.

"You snooze you lose," she smirked.

His lips had twitched up in a smile for that statement, leaving no doubt in her mind that this was not one of those occasions.

'Nice way to pass my lunch,' slid through her mind as his fingers slid into her hair.

And it had been right up until the smell of burning cheese reminded her of their previous activities.

"This afternoon?" she admitted as she sat down.

"So every single time you guys have seen each other since the bath confetti?" Kendra pointed out.

"No," she shook her head. Just every single time we've been alone in the past two weeks.

"And how long do you think you guys can go before you talk about it?"

She looked over with pouting lips and wide eyes, "Forever?"

Kendra shook her head, "So lying there in bed afterwards? What you're just going to stare at the ceiling?"

"Gonna take a page out of your book and keep going till he conks out," she said hopping to her feet, for some reason unable to keep her lighthearted cockiness going without movement. In bed with Logan? Was there really a chance they'd actually make it that far?

"Speaking of which, I have a gift that's been waiting for you."

"I'm pretty sure I don't want it," Max responded seriously.

"I've tried to have this talk with you before, you've got to make certain allowances for Logan's condition," the blonde said pausing by her bedroom door.

" Logan doesn't-"

"It may not affect how you see him Max, but that doesn't mean it's not there. He's a guy, his ego is going to bruise more from not satisfying you than any help he might need."

Max at this point was considering curling up in a ball and dying. How was it they'd trained her to deal with every single type of situation that had nothing to do with her personal issues? Maybe that had been next year's lesson, inter-personal interactions while on a mission…

Kendra returned from her room with a folded over brown paper bag, resting in her hands as if on a tray and she was presenting ambrosia to a mere mortal.

"This really isn't necessary," Max said trying to keep her cool.

"Max we don't need to talk about, I just want you to take it, I even picked up some pamphlets that time I was working in the hospital."

Max groaned.

"When you're ready to talk about it, I'll come over and explain everything."

Max's eyes shot over an evil look.

"Or we can do it over the phone, if you have any questions," Kendra amended.

" Thanks Dr. Ruth…Can we shut up about this subject now?"

"You got it," Kendra said with a smile dropping the bag down to the coffee table before sitting down.

Max sighed and followed her lead, wondering if it was really safe to stick around or if she should just make a run for it.

"Feel like talking about Original Cindy's relationship instead?"

"Definitely not," Max dryly replied.

"What's wrong?"

"That tv show lied, three's definitely not company."

"There was a spin off,Three's a Crowd."

"Describes our apartment."

"She seemed nice."

"She was nice when she wasn't around all the time."

"Doesn't she have her own place?"

"OC isn't a big fan of her roommate," she turned, "seriously you wouldn't think she'd catch on from that."

"Max she's in love, you really expect her to notice you can't stand her girlfriend?"

Her friend had once upon a time been perceptive…considerate…

"TV?" Kendra offered seeing her friend's mood fall considerably.

Max nodded. Trying to push all thoughts of Logan and OC to the side and focus on the animated yellow characters on the screen.

"Aww," Kendra's pouted some time later during a commercial break as a baby reaching for toilet paper fell and bumped his butt, which led to the mom drying his tears with his initial target.

Max turned and stared. What the hell had domesticity done to her friend?

"What?" Kendra asked turning, "Tell me you didn't think that was cute."

"You and Walter aren't going to have kids are you?" she asked dejectedly, she couldn't take anymore of this. This relationship grownup crap.

"Are you kidding? Our living together has already knocked our marathons down by half. Can you imagine what a kid would do to our sex life?"

"I asked you to never mention Walter andsex in the same breath didn't I?"

"You started it, how do you think one gets a kid? Did your parents forget to have that talk? Because if they did I've got more of a gift in the bedroom and you need to go grab the cucumber from the fridge."

"I think I may be sick."