A/N: This one popped into my head courtesy of the 3 Doors Down song "Let Me Go". Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed so far! I'm so glad you guys enjoyed Instinct!

To Wnchxstcr- Thank you for your very kind review of the last prompt, I'm so glad you enjoyed Mole and Alec's friendship (Those scenes were some of my favorites to write), and thank you for the birthday wishes!

J is for Jack

"I swear I'm gonna tear that ordinary's head off if he doesn't stop 'relating' to us," Mole growled out. Max stopped in her tracks as she caught the venomous statement just before turning the corner. Her eyes narrowed as she bristled at the threat against Logan. Another voice stopped her before she could stomp out from around the corner.

"Just ignore him, man. That's what I do," Alec's amused voice replied, Max's jaw tightened even more.

Mole's tone turned mocking. "I know how you feel. Just sit tight and things will all work out," he said, mimicking Logan. "Like he knows how it feels to be a six foot talking lizard," he grumbled.

Alec let out a chuckle. "Logan don't know jack, Scales. You know it, I know it, we all know it," Alec said unconcernedly. Max frowned from her hiding place as she thought about the conversation she was overhearing. Sure, Logan had been a bit quick to place themselves in their shoes but...well that was to help them. She felt her anger heighten.

Mole scoffed. "Queen Bee sure don't."

"Max'll figure it out eventually, Godzilla," Alec replied seriously, his tone was a little more strained and Max suddenly wondered how many times he'd had this conversation.

"Better happen before her boyfriend loses his head," came the terse reply, more distant as they moved away from where she was eavesdropping. Her anger told her to follow them and call them out for questioning her and for mocking one of the few ordinary people they had in their corner. An influential ordinary at that. There was a little voice, though, one that she usually ignored and didn't often win that reminded her that she understood their frustrations because sometimes she felt it too.

Max slumped against the wall and started walking back towards the direction of her office. What she was going to go over with Alec could wait until she cooled down a bit.

~DA~

"It'll be okay," Logan said softly from where he was standing next to her, his gloved hand on her shoulder. "Things are tough right now but we'll get through it like we always do," he told her reassuringly. Max wanted so badly to believe him, to take comfort in what he was saying. Alec's words that she'd overheard a few days ago played through her head. "Logan don't know jack. We all know it. Max'll figure it out eventually."

"I hope so," was all she could force herself to reply.

~DA~

Sometimes, usually on her high place when she was all alone, she admitted the truth to herself. Logan loved her. Logan loved her deeply and brightly and wholeheartedly. That was the truth she wanted to believe. The real truth though, the one that she hadn't realized for far too long, was that Logan couldn't love her. Not really, not all of her. He loved her but he didn't really know who she was.

It was partially her fault of course. She kept pieces of herself, important pieces of herself, locked away from him. They were the parts that she didn't like to examine too closely herself, the parts that she knew he could never understand.

She had been able to blithely live in her little love bubble for awhile but now...besieged in Terminal City, surrounded by others like her, Max was slowly facing a reality she had hoped would never make itself known. She sighed as the wind whipped at her hair, looking down at the ground that wasn't nearly far enough down for her liking. How could anyone think on such small buildings? She missed the Space Needle. Her place.

~DA~

When the alarm sounded everyone moved as one entity. Everyone but Logan because Logan didn't know what it meant. Max couldn't get to him as the crowds pushed past her. She exhaled in relief when Alec was suddenly at the cyber journalist's side and herding him through the door.

Dix and Luke had rigged up air raid sirens to let everyone know if they needed to find a secure shelter in case of attack. There was a subbasement beneath the building they used as Headquarters. "What's going on, Max?" Logan asked, eyes wide after being marched into the dank dark space below ground by Alec.

"Air raid sirens," she told him with a frown. She hadn't heard anything about an impending attack and was frantically searching out Alec or Dix or Mole to clue her in on what was going on.

A sharp whistle cracked through the loud chatter. "False alarm everyone," Alec's calm voice suddenly boomed out, and he was visible to her now as he stood on the staircase above them all. "Someone hit the wrong button on the keyboard upstairs," he explained briefly but Max saw his focus center in on Logan for a moment before giving the order to calmly return to their duties.

Max and Logan hung back and let the crowd dissipate around them before heading up the stairs. "Logan, buddy," Alec said with false cheer as they caught up to him. "Do us a favor and don't touch Dix's computers, okay?"

Logan shrugged. "Sorry, I was trying to send a message out to a contact of mine. No harm though."

Alec tensed and his gaze sharpened. "We were lucky. An alarm like that could have triggered all sorts of backlash. Trigger happy transgenics could have taken to the streets in defense of the city. The sirens could have caught the attention of the authorities outside and they could have seized the opportunity to storm in. Don't touch the computers," he said with cold finality before turning to go settle the confused masses.

Logan turned to Max, anger warring with contrition in his gaze. "I'm sorry, Max. I was only trying to get us some more help," he told her with a helpless flail of his arms.

Max sighed and bit her lip. Her first instinct had been to snap at Alec for the way he'd spoken to the hacker but she couldn't because he wasn't wrong. She closed her eyes to give herself a couple more seconds before facing the cold reality. They fluttered back open and she looked him straight in the eyes. "I know, Logan," she told him quietly. "I think you should leave Terminal City for awhile though," she forced out.

"What? Why?" he asked in bewilderment. "Max, you guys have cleaned the city up enough over the last year that it isn't a danger to me anymore and we're getting close to getting out of this mess. I can feel it."

"It isn't the toxicity, Logan. You just...I think you'd be more help to us out there in the world where you can interact with the people who we're trying to appeal to," she told him, hoping to appeal to the savior complex he held deeply. "I've been thinking about this for awhile."

He tilted his head in consideration as he thought it over. "Just for a little bit," he told her with a soft smile as he reached over and gently squeezed her gloved hand. "You're right, we need some on the ground intel."

She smiled in relief. "Exactly."

~DA~

Logan hadn't just chased intel down for them. He'd chased down the cure. Newly invigorated to bring their relationship to the next level he had sought it out relentlessly over the months since he'd stopped staying in TC round the clock and, somehow, he'd found it. She'd been injected twenty four hours earlier.

"We need to arrange transport for Logan?" Alec asked as he came up to stand beside her. "It's been a day right? All cured now?"

"What do you think of me and Logan?" she asked him suddenly, turning to face him. His eyes widened in visible surprise.

"You're asking me?" he asked incredulously.

"We're friends now, right?" she asked, she'd be a fool to deny that she and Alec had grown close over the time they'd been isolated in Terminal City.

"Sure..." he replied hesitantly.

"Well, I can't ask OC right now so I'm asking you."

"I'm not exactly an unbiased party here, Max," he told her as he rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.

She huffed out a sigh of irritation. "Alec."

He shrugged. "Fine. I think Logan's an okay guy for an ordinary. I think he genuinely wants to help you get out of here-"

"Us," she cut him off. "Help us get out of here,"

Slowly Alec shook his head. "No, Max. Do I think Logan would have taken an interest in our plight if he didn't know you? Sure, I think there'd be a video hack or two talking about the corrupt government. Do I think he'd be working tirelessly to try and get us freedom? No. Logan doesn't understand us. He hears about the things we've done and it makes him sick. He doesn't trust us or even like us. He trusts you and he thinks he loves you. The rest of us are just along for the ride."

Max frowned. "He thinks he loves me?" she demanded.

Alec shrugged again. "Look Max, I'm no expert on relationships but you asked me so here it is. Logan thinks he loves you but he can't because a person can't love someone they don't know. Trust me, I learned that the hard way," he muttered, a flash of pain crossing his features and she knew he was thinking about Rachel.

"Do you think I love him?" she asked next, her voice cracking.

Alec smiled sadly. "I think if you have to ask me then you already know the answer, Maxie," he told her before reaching over and squeezing her shoulder.

~DA~

They hadn't arranged transport for Logan to come into the city that night but it hadn't kept him out for long. They were cured which meant that as far as he was concerned he and Max could resume a relationship of the 'like that' variety.

It had been three days since she'd been completely cured and had her conversation with Alec. The conversation in which he'd told her what she'd already known. When Logan knocked on her door she had opened it expecting to get snapped at for not letting him in sooner. Instead he just grinned at her, the hurt and irritation sliding off his face as he stepped forward and caught her face between his hands before ducking down and kissing her.

She found herself responding despite her best intentions. He pushed her back into the apartment and the door slammed to a close behind them. His hands went to her waist where they traced the bit of smooth skin that showed beneath her shirt, relishing in being able to touch her.

He broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers with a happy smile. "I love you, Max," he whispered reverently.

It broke the spell and Max inhaled harshly and took a step back. Logan frowned. "Not the reaction I was hoping for," he said, hurt entering his tone and flooding into his too expressive eyes.

"Logan," she breathed out, bringing a hand up to push a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Why did I have to fight to get into the city, Max?" he demanded, all the irritation he'd promptly forgotten at the sight of her rushing back to him. "We've fought to find a cure for two years and the moment we finally get it you what? What is going on? I love you, Max."

Max was torn. Torn between what she knew was right and what she'd once wanted. "You don't know me, Logan," she told him softly, brokenly.

"What? Of course I know you! I've known you for years! I know you better than anyone," he argued passionately.

Max shook her head. "No, you only know the pieces of me that I've let you know. You can't love someone that you don't really know Logan. It's something I've had to learn recently. You love me but you don't know who I am," she told him with a sad shake of her head.

Logan snorted. "Let me guess. You're torn between the life you lead and where you stand?" he asked mockingly.

Max was caught off guard but the description was fairly accurate. "Well...kind of, I guess. Yeah," she agreed.

"You're breaking up with me through a 3 Doors Down song?" he asked incredulously.

"Who?" she asked in bewilderment.

"I can't believe this," he said with a shake of his head, ignoring her confusion. "I suppose you want me to 'just let you go' too."

"Well, I would like to be friends still...like we have been the last couple years, Logan," she told him beseechingly.

"We were never really friends Max," he reminded her. It was true too, there had always been the subtext of something more.

"I'm sorry Logan," she told him quietly.

"Yeah. Me too," he bit out before turning to leave.

~DA~

"Took forever but I guess you were right, pretty boy," Mole grunted through a smirk.

"Of course I was," Alec replied automatically. "About what?" came his quick follow up.

Mole snorted. "Queen Bee figuring out that the ordinary don't know jack," he filled in. "She's a little slow on the uptake though," he mused.

Alec shrugged with a grin. "Well, I did say 'eventually."