First AN: Hmm this chapter changed from what it was supposed to be…Why can't my brain and body ever cooperate…This is just like me always walking into doorframes, except a whole lot less painful. Thanks for reading.

Second AN: Okay so I'm behind on my reading and my reviewing (really bad since I read Mari's before it was posted and still haven't reviewed). I am going to be doing both folks, just real life get's kinda crazy on the rare occasion (ever notice everything always hits at once and is never spaced out? Plenty off goodness mixed in though folks and plenty of insanity about doing things that lead up to goodness, so no one worry). So that being said you'll probably see a flood of stories from me for a few weeks as I procrastinate and then I'll probably be tapering off for a few weeks (I'm sure I'll leave you with plenty to tide you over though :-P).

Short chapter since I haven't been in a 'sitting in front of computer mood' lately. 3/4 of this was done so I figured I should finish it off and leave the rest for another day. Once more thanks for reading.

Chapter 32

Searching, Seeking, Surrendering

"Been doing a little boozing without me?" she asked raising the dark wine bottle between her fingers.

"Damn," he smiled and snapped his fingers, "you found me out," he bent to pull out a large container from the fridge

She frowned looking at it, "Only 2020? You're a cheap boozer without me? Now I mean that's really just undignified, what would your uncle have said?"

"Well considering it was for the bird?" he said lifting up the container was carrying over to the stove. "There's a good chance I would have been kicked out of the family."

"An entire bottle of booze for a bird?" Then she frowned as he started to pour/ scoop it into a large pot, "You invite me over for dinner and then you give me leftovers?"

"It's Coq au Vin, it tastes better the next day," he easily replied. Then paused and frowned, "Though that bottle had to have been in here for two days."

She looked amused as he stared at it.

"Where have I been eating?" he asked still shaking his head wondering how he missed it.

Hmm, considering you were stuck so firmly to your office chair, we almost had to use a spatula to get you up… "My guess is you haven't."

"I eat," he defended knowing where Max was taking this.

"You look in a mirror since Bling bailed?"

"Hmm," he thoughtfully murmured as he went back to scraping the container into the pot. How many mornings had a half eaten bowl of cereal been poured down the drain after he'd gone back to it with disgust and surprise after he'd gotten too caught up in something. "That reminds me, can you grab the Barbaresco and put it in the fridge as this warms up."

"The…" her head shook as she approached the rack.

"Top left hand corner, I put it there so I wouldn't forget." Yet he had.

"You're seriously off lately," she shook her head as she pulled out the bottle, "2016, you're improving."

He smiled, he wasn't going to mention how much it actually cost, but she was right, it wasn't pre-pulse. More sensible for someone living on a modified income, as he was at the moment. "Someone informed me I was spending entirely too much money on a single bottle of wine."

"A bottle of wine shouldn't be most people's paycheck for the month," she said going to drop the wine into the fridge to chill it ever so slightly.

"Grab the lettuce while you're in there."

"Uh Logan," she stifled a laugh a moment later, "when was the last time you looked in your crisper?"

"I really don't like how that sounds," he said walking over.

She turned with a wilted head of Romaine.

"This was fine," he said taking it from her, "when I looked in there yesterday." He stared at the drawer as if expecting 'MALFUNCTION' to suddenly appear in large red letters across it.

"You sure about that because everything else looks fine," she poked a few odds and ends over to prove her point.

He shook his head as he turned, "I can't believe this," it was completely unsalvageable.

"Just as well," she shrugged with a smile, "not a big fan of the leafy greens if you haven't noticed."

His lips raised as his head shook, "Doesn't mean you don't need them."

"I'll steal one of your multivitamins after dinner, how does that sound?"

"I suppose it'll have to do," he said walking back over to her after putting the lid on the large pot.

"Might want to set a timer before you do that," she teased.

"Timer," he smiled and nodded, "clever idea."

"Clever girl," she pointed out.

"I noticed," he said quickly pressing the buttons on the stove. He turned back, "So if you're so clever why don't you tell me what it is I was about to do?" he asked taking a step towards her.

"Well there's no salad," she nodded. "The wine apparently needs to chill," she wasn't exactly sure why the wine needed to chill, but she'd believe him and would one day pay attention to which one did and which ones didn't. "There's no work to be done until your informant calls."

"There's always work to be done," he pointed out as he took another step.

"There won't be work until your informant calls," she amended. "You suckat chess."

He paused in his next step and looked at her, "I do not suck at chess. I'm actually incredibly good at chess…We're going to have to take a trip to the park when the weather gets a little nicer."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself," she smirked.

"So clever girl, you've told me everything I'm not going to be doing…I'm still waiting for what I'm going to be doing."

What is it he's offering you? She wondered. This wasn't quite Logan, then again, this, wasn't quite them. "TV, of course," she airily replied as she bounced with her turn. "Simpsons are on and The Munsters," she turned back, "absolutely no Xena."

"You know," he began following with a smile, "I do actually get new tv shows."

She made a face and stuck out her tongue, "European shows do not count as tv. Unless it's one of those reality shows. They can't really find that stuff funny," she flopped down on the couch wondering about their sitcoms.

"I suppose it takes some getting used to," he offered.

"If ever there were a reason aside from my sibs for not bailing to Europe, it's the tv," she added with the clicker in hand.

"Max," he said as she paused in her pursuit of a show, "how many times have I told you around the fortieth viewing of the same episode, it goes from boring to annoying."

"Fine," she rolled her eyes and switched the station away from her beloved yellow characters.

ooOoo

How long is he going to let me sit here? She wondered as Herman Munster started in on 'Darn darn darn,' an act she was considering imitating. She didn't know what had clicked in her as she'd left Kendra's the other day, she just knew that she needed answers. She didn't know what answers or how to get them because she knew for certain that while she'd let him slink out of this without question, but she couldn't handle hearing him say that, if he said it than it would be admitting something had happened, this way they could just go back to their old ways. Or at least that's what she kept telling herself.

"Wine should be cool enough by now," he said quickly nodding and standing ignoring the fact that it was a lie since it couldn't have even been ten minutes.

"Want-"

"No," his head shook, "I'll bring it in."

She smiled innocently as she watched the sudden tautness of his features.

He returned a few moments later with the open bottle, not at all interested in letting the wine breathe, the glasses were flipped upright and settled on the table as he sat, this time leaving just inches between them.

She turned with a smile, pleased at her little discovery. This wasn't something he could just walk away from.

He caught sight of that and he instantly turned, simply staring at her with a bemused expression. His fingers trailed along her jaw.

"Thought you wanted wine?"

"Needs to breathe," he pointed out. "Thought you wanted to watch The Munsters?"

"Turns out you see them scare one hapless neighbor, seen them scare them all. Simpsons really is more my thing," she stared deep into the focused eyes.

"I can go do something else," he offered as his fingers started to trail elsewhere, "if you want to watch them."

"I'm good," she nodded, "episode's almost over anyway."

"So clever girl, any idea how to occupy our time now?"

"I might be able to think of something," she nodded.

ooOoo

They kept being caught off guard by things. It seemed as if the moment they were finally alone and together, everything else stopped. Until of course whatever it was that would yank them back into reality. Other people, hands put in sandwiches, and of course the trusty timer.

It was funny how quickly they turned breathless, they never seemed to remember/manage to take in enough breath once things truly started, they were greedy, never willing to waste any time.

He was breathless as the timer had jarred them out of the moment, "Dinner," he nodded with seemingly full composure minus the shortness of breath.

"Right," she nodded back, wanting to say 'screw dinner' and pull him back to her, but she didn't. She let him go right back to normal 'Good Ol' Max and Logan' buddies, pals, coworkers of sorts, not the strangers whose lives they kept slipping into.

The strangers who were overtaking them on a regular basis, an increasingly frequent basis because they didn't even last five minutes in the kitchen as their dinner was stirred and bread was sliced. They started to lose their focus as the garlic Logan had crushed cooked in the oil, lending its flavor. Control was lost though as the bread was added until smell of the burning pan and charring bread forced them away from each other as Max's legs were around Logan as she sat on counter as she'd been ordering them to remain in control, grateful Logan couldn't feel their increasing pressure as she forced herself to not just toss him up on the island with her and praying she didn't accidentally bust up the exo since she couldn't get them to release.

Once more though the stranger disappeared and Logan slid back into his place. Dinner was served with the remaining half of the plain loaf and he regaled her with his normal mix of old and new chatter, as always drawing her more into the conversation than anyone had ever managed before as she readily voiced her opinions and side stories, her true side stories and not quick ones made up on the spot when she was expected to comment.

The hint of the stranger, that red blooded American male occasionally peaked out from behind his eyes and it made Max forget that she'd been enjoying her meal, enjoying the trivial banter of their time together. She'd never been so eager for a meal to end.

He seemed to delay it though, lingering at the table with his dwindling glass of wine.

Normal for him.

Normal for them.

'Them,' who they usually were so she held herself tight to her seat and refused to pounce up with the dishes any earlier than she normally would.

She remained calm as he finally stood and started to gather the dishes. She joined in as always.

Things weren't 'as always' anymore though, there was no 'normal' anymore, they'd thrown that to the wind. So she wasn't too surprised by the slow lingering kiss she received in the kitchen as he simply tilted her head up with his fingers with no need to rush past the simple joy of kissing her.

However there was an 'as always' brief moment of extreme annoyance about to lead to a serious bout of anger as the phone rang since the everyday citizens of Seattle apparently gave no consideration in disrupting Logan since apparently Eyes Only was apparently only for their benefit only and gave no pause in using him to their own advantage. Always rushed, desperate and needy. His well-being mattered none in comparison to their own, never even registered a moment's thought. They'd simply continue to take until there was nothing left to the man behind the mask. They'd almost been successful once and she was pretty sure it was simply a matter of time until they tried it again.

Final Notes:

Since Mari made a joke a week or so ago (damn I'm really behind in my reading) about what Max and Will were up to (Attempts at Living), I decided I should throw up little previews about what's happening in the next chapters (since I'm probably going to be slow for at least another week or so posting).

Attempts at Living: Maxand Will at yoga with the 'upper crust' of society.

Falling In: Still in the shower. :-P Also let me point out I'm not a devotee of the "T" label, I'm just too lazy to write "M" actions, anything spatial (if that's the right word) has always and will always give me issues found this out in HS physics and nothing ever fixed it. Oh and they follow up the shower in bed. ;-)

Moving On: SnapshotsLiterally the pictures in the Cale household come to life and tell their stories, all cheesy main holidays/events with side characters like Syl and Bennett telling the story.

Remnants of Another Life: Umm is anyone still reading this? Ummm yea, that just explains why you don't see it anymore, everything else got more reviews so it's waiting patiently to be finished. When it does eventually come out it'll be Max meeting up with Zack.

Oh and thanks to those who reviewed my short little vignettes (that was just really repetitive wasn't it?). Makes me eagerly anticipate Shy's next one (oh and before anyone says anything I can't think of another for that particular start, which is why I'm not following Rei's lead).