AN: Okay my chapters veer off course every single time, two chapters in and I still haven't gotten to the end scene for this little part of the story. Sorry. Then again not my fault, BA wants this to go one forever and apparently she's enacted some curse upon my fingers and the keyboard to make that happen.

Also I'm FAR behind on reading, I apologize.

I hope you guys enjoy, thanks for taking the time to read (and yea sorry about the wait).

Oh and as always tons of similarities with 'Attempts at Living.'

Chapter 34

A Different Kinda Life

Logan's Apartment (immediately following last chapter):

"Question," Max asked as the door shut and their eyes fell down to the sleeping infant.

He looked up and over.

Her gaze lifted to his, "What are we supposed to do with a baby?"

"No idea," his head shook.

Their gaze returned downward.

"He is sleeping though," Logan pondered aloud with a bob of his head.

"So he is," her head tilted upwards with a smile.

Logan stepped around the carriage and towards her, "So where were we exactly?"

"You know," she said looking up as his arm came around her waist, "I'm not sure exactly, but I have this vague feeling this," her hands found the hem of his tee-shirt, "was about to pull a disappearing act."

He stiffened and his hesitant look caused her to pause, "How about we return to our previous activities instead," his hands slid underneath her shirt to find bare skin.

"Shy all of a sudden Cale?" she asked looking up with a raised brow.

"I recall you had a few choice words about my shyness," he pointed out with lips twitching up.

As in more of a lack thereof, "So what seems to be the problem then?"

"Are we really going to stop and have a talk about this?" he asked as her arms locked not allowing him to raise the shirt off her again.

"You've seen mine," she pointed out with a cocked head.

"Are you serious?" What were they? Fourteen?

"You're the guy clinging to his shirt," she found herself growing rapidly annoyed, and she was going to be a hell of a lot more annoyed if it ended up being for the reason she was betting it was for.

"Fine," he stepped back and in one clear swoop the mustard yellow shirt was tossed off and left in its place a mixture of Logan and technology.

"That's better," she said looking up with a smile and quickly followed his lead and tossed her shirt off again refusing to allow his petty male ego any time to wallow.

ooOoo

She'd never expected to be pinned against Logan's door unable to move. Then again she'd never expected to be topless and Logan having taken a vertical descent to explore the uncharted territory. Kinda thing made a girl stand still.

Though if his fingers finally did follow through on the teasing they were inflicting on her waist band she wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to stand for.

A hand trailing up her back as he returned upwards, capturing her lips and pulling her close against him.

Tugging her away from the door before backing her towards or maybe she was pulling him towards the guest room, lips fused, hands wandering.

What the hell was that noise?

Their heads both jerked around to that offending sound that pulled them out of their lust induced haze.

The baby, shit, they'd forgotten he was there.

ooOoo

The Car:

What had he been thinking? Ran through his head as they approached Magnolia Farms.

People knew him, people remembered him. It wasn't like walking through the regular city streets. These were people he'd grown up with, the chances of running into them much higher here than anywhere else.

There would be hugs, smiles, polite chit chat…

The 'what have you been up to' question that he always tried so desperately to avoid.

He avoided his own family because of it, not that he actually needed a reason to avoid his family.

It somehow always made him feel like a failure despite knowing the truth.

He knew there was some deep rooted psychology behind it stemming from his childhood that he had absolutely no interest in exploring. Bitsy would start spouting off on it occasionally, but they always just tuned her out until she shut up.

It was a simple fact, Cales were meant to be somebodies.

Cales did not live off their trust funds, Cales did not write silly little articles. Cales were active in their lives.

Granted occasionally they weren't active in productive ways, but still…

His stomach turned as he pulled into the spot and he debated running, but that was another thing. Cales did not run…

ooOoo

So much for worrying about whether or not he'd hold your hand, she thought as she hooked the carrier into the shopping cart. Wondering how exactly she'd gotten the baby.

Was it just her imagination or had he moved slower than normal when it came to getting out of the car? She thought she might have heard a small sigh once she'd closed her car door…

And he definitely had tried to pass the baby to her earlier because of his diaper…

He scooped the baby up without thinking upon hearing the cries, but the movement allowed more air to pass and more than a strong whiff of the full diaper reached their noses. "Oh," the baby was flung away from his body and rapidly approaching Max.

"What the hell?" she asked seeing the baby about to be passed to her.

"That smell is horrible," he said nearly gagging.

"Yea noticed that, why are you putting it in my face," she asked covering her nose.

"I'm not changing that," he said with wide eyes, debating throwing up from the smell of it covered, he wasn't about to remove the protective layering.

"Logan stop being a wuss and change the baby," hell she was only soldier girl so far, even Manticore hadn't covered something as deadly as a baby's diaper. She took a few more steps away.

Logan looked at her in shock, "You offered to watch him."

"He's your cousin, I said I'd keep the kid alive, I'm just here to make sure you don't drop him on his head."

He briefly wondered about that. He'd seen Max's reflexes before, had been the recipient of them time and time again. He could drop the kid and she'd be forced to catch him and therefore deal with the diaper.

He wondered if her reflexes would slow, if the smell had muddled her brain like his as it ate through the protective layers surrounding it, if her vision had clouded like his from the tears…

"Grab the bag," he said turning with the baby still held away from him as he mentally cursed his cousin.

She'd never seen Logan gag before.

Hmm, come to think of it, he's not looking too well right about now either, she realized looking at him through the corner of her eyes as he looked rather distracted.

"You okay?" she asked realizing this place might bring up some childhood memories he might not feel comfortable remembering as seemed to be the case with all of his childhood memories.

"Yea I'm good," he nodded seemingly snapping out of it, "he all hooked in?"

"All ready to roll," she nodded.

"Let's go find you your fondue then," he smiled.

ooOoo

He relaxed stepping through the doors. He relaxed with every step he took. Forced Max to smell and feel fruit. Quizzed her on the various ways to tell if they were ripe. He joked, teased, commented, threw in a bag of handpicked apples for her place knowing it would be the only unprocessed food in her apartment.

It was nice, she realized as she leaned against the handle of the cart and made faces at Nicky as Logan methodically read the nutrition panels on the cereal boxes after she'd tossed in a box of Trix, which he countered with an eye roll. It was nice to be normal even if it wasn't for real.

Just as it'd been nice taking care of Brittany.

It was nice to just look normal, to feel normal.

A family spending their Saturday shopping for groceries, how much more American and domestic did that get?

Not that she was really that big of a fan of the good ol' US of A-

Her thoughts were cut short by an exclamation of, "Oh my god."

Max's head snapped up and Logan's head snapped down the aisle.

Daphne walking towards them with some unidentified ash blonde male.

"You can say that again," the male responded with a smile.

Logan's eyes widened as he snapped himself out of the trance they'd sent him into, "Daphne, Ricky," he smiled and put the cereal boxes down.

"Don't Daphne, Ricky us," she said closing the space in between them. "I haven't seen you in over a year and suddenly I'm seeing you with a baby, congratulations," she moved forward to grasp his arms and kiss his cheek.

He bent back, "The gossip mill wouldn't have let you miss that one. That's Nicky and you remember Max," his head knocked to the side.

"Oh of course," Daphne smiled at her.

"Well I still don't know who Nicky or Max are, hell I wouldn't have even known which name went to which face if you hadn't nodded."

"I'm sorry," Logan took a step away from Daphne. "Nicholas as in my cousin, Bennett's son and my friend, Max."

Your friend my ass, she thought as she smiled, friends don't pin half naked other friends against doors.

"Nice to meet you," Ricky said taking more than a few steps forward to grasp Max's hand.

"You too," she smiled back.

"So friends," he repeated Logan's word with disbelief.

She gave him a look daring him to challenge it.

"I've known this guy," he stepped away from Max to lift up a bit and throw an arm around Logan, "since the days of T-ball."

She turned with his movements, "That the game were the ball stays stationary and you try to hit it?"

Logan chuckled and shook his head as everyone else laughed, "That would be the one."

Her nostrils flared out a bit as she looked at him.

"I was 4."

"Ah Lion King age," she nodded as she started to smile.

"Oh god," Daphne covered her mouth as she started to laughed, "I'd forgotten about The Lion King."

Max frowned before she could stop herself, luckily everyone had turned for Daphne's outburst.

"What's the-" Ricky began.

"Don't even ask," Logan ordered.

"Okay," his eyes widened as his voice tapered off.

Manticore had never taught her how to judge a person's character, but Logan threw her more than the rest. He'd been cocky those first few days, but then it had changed. She hadn't realized how much it'd changed until it had started to return.

She'd always pegged him as solitary though, but he hadn't been. That had changed with the times. He hadn't been a bookworm, he hadn't been a pushover…Respected, in charge, control-

Logan always had to be in control, she thought with a smirk.

"Tell me in the car?" Ricky asked knocking his head closer to Daphne's.

She just smiled.

"As fun as this is, we need to finish shopping before this kid wakes up again," Logan smiled and randomly grabbed one of the boxes he'd been looking at. "It was good seeing you again."

"You too," they replied in unison.

Daphne let out a soft smile before they went to go their separate ways, "You should try not being a stranger Logan."

He paused ever so briefly as memories of an old, almost forgotten life enveloped him like a blanket, he nodded, "I'll do my best."

ooOoo

Later that evening, The Penthouse:

"I was wondering where you went," Logan said walking into the living room to find Max with the clicker in hand on the sofa.

"I'm thinking about dying my hair red," she said not even looking up at him.

He simply looked puzzled.

She nodded at the tv.

Ah Kim Possible, he easily recalled the name of the cartoon, partially from his own childhood, but primarily from Brittany's love of it.

"Tell me that doesn't look familiar," she said taking in the two main characters dressed to take down the bad guy.

He laughed and shook his head.

The unspoken love between the kick ass heroine and the adorably blonde underestimated best friend, who never fails her. Sebastian taking on the role of Wade, the super genius, the endless supply of seriously stupid criminals… "Think Bling would have an issue being the rat?"

Logan stopped and turned looking at the tv and the bald companion of Ron Stoppable, he let out another laugh, "I really wouldn't mention that to Bling if I were you."

She smiled, "Tell me it's not a good match."

His head shook and he moved to sit down, "If we're going to be a cartoon, we're going to be Titan A.E."

"Gonna have to help me out here."

"He had my name, we're forever bonded. Cale Tucker, though as Bennett always pointed out, he had all of our names, we had the same bad haircut though."

"I'm going to need more details before I pick besides just your name and hair," she continued to smile.

"Well, I remember he had a wise ass companion," he smirked.

"Gonna need more than that."

"I don't know…She had a weird name," he paused and turned after saying it, okay that fit, Max wasn't exactly what you'd call a 'normal' name for a girl. "Drew Barrymore was her voice," he added. Hmm haven't heard anything about her in a few years.

"Okay what about the story?"

He paused once more as he realized the point of the story, "Earth was destroyed, they were trying to save humanity."

Talk about on the money, she realized.

He smiled once more, brushing that off, "All I know is if we ever take over the planet, we're renaming it Bob."

She let out a puff of laughter as she turned back to him.

"They grew a planet, that seems a little physically impossible, dictatorship though," he smiled.

"Bob?" she nodded as she wondered if Logan had really said that.

"We're going to have to watch it," he said tapping a hand on her thigh before standing.

"How's dinner going?"

"It's cooking or melting I should say, should be about a half hour before it's done give or take, tea light is never really the best means of preparation, made more sense than the electric kind however."

She suddenly had a vision of herself and Logan sitting across the dining room table lit only by the stars and a few candles. She swallowed hard, "Anything you need me to do?"

"I was hoping you'd be interested in cubing some bread."

"Consider it cubed," she said standing.

ooOoo

"Well this is certainly different," Logan said with a joking smile as he dipped his bread into the fondue as Max was showing off her skills as she avoided dripping cheese onto the baby's head since he decided he wanted to join them for dinner.

"Just a tad," she said before popping it into her mouth at the same time she shifted Nicky into a more comfortable position.

He went to put the bread into his mouth, but paused, "They are going to come back for him right?"

Max frowned, "Marianne will, not too sure about dear old Benny though, he's had enough time to get over the border."

ooOoo

The chess board was nestled between them as moments of seriousness were followed with brief smiles and lingering gazes.

Chess, it seemed like a nice sensible way to pass the time until Nicky was picked up. Guaranteed to not lead to anything that might make them forget there was a little boy they were supposed to be taking care of or give Bennett anymore gossip to go running back to Bitsy with.

"We haven't done this in a while," she said softly as her tone fit the mood they'd created with most of the lights off and soft music playing in the background.

"We haven't, have we?" Logan said looking up as their eyes locked.

Her head shook, they'd been preoccupied as of late.

"Hmm," he murmured amazed he hadn't realized that until now.

"We used to do this all the time," she remembered aloud. She smirked, "You're a lot more social now," she tacked on.

A breath of a laugh as Logan shook his head, "And you never let me forget it." Then again she had been the one to force his return to the real world, albeit it hadn't been her words that had finally initiated that change. Just the fear of not being there for her when she needed him in those dark days.

"This can be kind of nice though," she responded thoughtfully. Not that she didn't normally spend one on one time with Logan, this was simply the familiar comfort of their old days.

"I thought it was nice then," he said looking up with a tender smile from the board he was studying at every given opportunity.

She simply smiled.

ooOoo

She stood by the windows in the living room, Logan's voice in the computer room muted by the distance. He was doing what he was always doing, taking notes, making plans, all to save Seattle from some atrocity most would never know about.

She stared out into the night and thought about his words from earlier, simple unassuming words…

Well this is certainly different….

ooOoo

Max voiceover:

Different doesn't necessarily mean wrong does it?

Maybe different can be good.

Change can be good, that's what people always say.

I thought my life did a complete one-eighty when I met Logan, but maybe I was wrong.

There's still more, there's still this whole other life…

A life I'd scoff at and envy all in the same breath.

Not saying I want to marry Logan and have a half a dozen kids, pack their lunches, cook their meals…Of course that probably wouldn't be my job even if I married Logan.

Kids would probably be pushing it anyway with my genetics and the unknowns of Logan's…

The unknowns of me not being there when he needed me the most.

Unknowns that only he knows and isn't about to tell me and that they didn't put readily accessible in the file I'd read about him waiting for him to wake up in the hospital as I ate his jello.

Still though…

Change…

There were a whole lot of things I believed in the eleven years up until meeting him, now I'm wondering if they're really true. The kind of life Tinga led, the kind of life Zack preached against.

Maybe one day the story could be as uncomplicated as it appeared in the supermarket today.

A girl can at least dream…

ooOoo

"Ready to get your ass kicked?" Logan asked walking back into the room.

She turned with a smile, "As if."

It was a moment before he spoke after staring at her, he shook his head, "You're not allowed near the tv anymore."

Mini Rant: And now I can't do three dots after my O's! Why the hell does FFN get such a kick out of changing the rules!