= = = CHAPTER 15= = =

SEATTLE – FOGLE TOWERS

MAY 5, 2020

6:15 AM

"What the hell is that?" a distinctively female voice sounded off a in a part of Max's brain that was slowly coming back into full consciousness.

"It's called a blood transfusion," another voice – this one male – responded back in deadpanned sarcasm.

"I can see that fool but why are you makin' it so personal? Can't you use the old IV method?"

"Last time I checked this place wasn't stocked on medical supplies," the male voice snapped.

At first Max thought it was Logan because his was the last voice she remembered hearing before she blacked out – the last real voice anyway. All the time she was drifting she heard other voices, people she knew dressed like gangsters and fully equipped to play the role. Her eyes finally opened and she was actually relieved to see Original Cindy – not in a white dress – but in a pair of gray track pants and matching jacket that she had obviously thrown on in a hurry because the drawstring on the pants weren't tied and the jacket was zipped up but a peaking of flesh revealed that she was naked except for a bra underneath it.

Max blinked once to clear away the gritty feeling that was blurring up her vision. Cindy was eyeing her the entire time – a look of concern setting up camp across her features.

"Hey," it was Max's voice – raspy from disuse – that said the first word.

It was a huge tension breaker for Cindy and a warming smile spread across her face. "You better not scare us like that again boo," Cindy's voice hovered between worry and relief.

Max smiled back in return, but the abrasions on her face made even this simple action painful and it ended up becoming more of a grimace. "Don't think I would want to if it hurts this bad." She took stock of her body that was lying in Logan's pillow topped mattress. A warm goose down comforter had been pulled up to her waist but her left leg was left out due to a lengthy tan bandage swathed around the bruised flesh and she also felt the tiny pricks from several metal bars bracing the injury. The whole thing was uncomfortable but only pulsated a dull ache that felt like a toothache was happening in her leg. Besides her obvious injury she found several coaster size bruised tender points on her abs and a five-count stitched laceration near her hairline. "Tell me I don't look as bad as I think I do," she demanded plucking at the thin hospital gown she was wearing that reeked of antiseptic and dried blood.

"We could. But it would be an out-and-out lie." The male voice – which Max finally realized belonged to Zack – teased her from beside the bed where a thin tubing connected their arms together and a steady flow of his blood was emptying into her veins.

"Is that a catheter in my arm Zack or are you just happy to see me?" It hurt to smile and to joke but Max was damned if she was going to let pain dictate what she did.

If Zack were any other man he might have blushed or laughed dryly in a form of quiet denial. But he was true to his X5 roots and offered her his wit. "You can always find your blood supply somewhere else little sister." He had been transfusing her for the last hour and the blood loss made him a little weak and drowsy but he would never admit nor give into it. He pulled the needle out of Max's arm a minute later after enough blood had been exchanged and chucked the dirty needle and tubing in Logan's open-ended laundry hamper that sat in a corner of the room.

"I'm sure Logan will appreciate my blood on his clothes," Max commented her voice becoming stronger as she talked more. The words were just said as a means of trying to break back into the world she hadn't been able to live consciously in all night.

No one had said anything about Logan and Max mentioning his name made her wonder just where the hell he was. It was his apartment after all and yet he was strangely absent from it. "Where's Logan?"

As if it was staged the quiet click of the front door being opened echoed in the hallway.

"He was a wreck beside your bedside sugah," Cindy informed. "So Original Cindy made him go out to the market for an orange 'cause it's the only thing I knew that would keep him huntin' long enough for him to pull himself back into a functional human being."

Logan's footsteps sounded off a few inches away from his bedroom door and soon he pushed the door open slowly like a child entering a room he shouldn't have. "Max." He only realized that she was awake after he was completely in the room and it shocked him so much that he almost dropped the single orange he was holding.

"You already know her name genius," Zack snapped.

Logan glared at him but said nothing; he had had enough of Zack's mouth for one night. "How are you feeling?" Logan directed this question at Max.

"At least I'm not dead," Max answered honestly.

No one had said anything out loud but Cindy and Zack's presence in the room was putting a tension between Max and Logan because they felt like they were constantly scrutinizing their moves.

"Damn," Max cursed at the bruises on her body that were now beginning to throb. "If you were sent out to buy morphine Logan I'll take my dose now."

Her statement surprised Logan because Max would never admit she was it pain unless it was bad. She had been through major surgery when he took her out of the hospital and he never even considered how much of a toll it would take on her already weakened body. And now she was asking him for painkillers – it was all enough to make him mentally kick himself for being so untuned to her needs.

"Don't beat yourself up about this," Max's voice brought him back to reality. "It's a waste of good Delta waves." She knew Logan too well and wasn't about to let him put himself through seven kinds of hell over something that wasn't his fault. She hissed under her breath. Not only were her bruises throbbing but the pain in her leg was becoming more acute. But she bit her tongue to keep from crying out about it. She wasn't about to admit that she felt worse because she had a strong soldier reputation to maintain.

"I won't waste my intellectualism worrying about my past wrongs if you let me give you something for the pain," Logan said in quiet concern.

"Sorry I'm not that kinda girl," Max joked. Even with all her injuries she still had her smart-ass wit.

"Max-" Logan's voice was a tired sigh. She was as stubborn as she was beautiful and he knew she would dance around his concern like it was nothing.

Original Cindy caught the exasperation in Logan's tone and knew that if was going to get anywhere with her girl she'd have to give them space. "Sam-" Cindy called over to Zack who was still standing beside the bed.

"Zack," Zack corrected quickly annoyed at Cindy's mistake even though she had only heard his real name spoken once.

"Whateva," Cindy snapped not caring for his attitude. "How 'bout we make ourselves disappear and reemerge where there's a pot of black coffee so we can pretend we're actually awake during vampire hours."

Zack was silent for a moment contemplating the idea but soon made up his mind "That pot has to be as full of coffee as a Sector Cop is with bull to get me to pretend that I have any level of alertness."

"Boy you can have it high enough to take a bath in it if you want just move so I can have some company out there besides myself." It was a direct order, not as harsh as Zack's commando voice could dictate but no less intimidating.

"You'd better watch yourself," Logan warned Zack. "She's no lightweight when it comes to ordering people around."

Cindy smiled but didn't add anything to that. Instead she walked over to Max and offered her a quiet kiss on the cheek. "You gonna be aiight for a while boo?"

"I'm always aiight," Max reassured. "I'm probably gonna fade out in a moment anyways so you should find somethin' else to amuse yourself with." Max shifted her attention over to Logan. "That goes for you too. I don't need a monitor to watch me while I lie on my ass."

"If it's alright with you I think I'll stay," Logan insisted. "After all it's my room"

"Logan Cale has to look out for his own best investment," Max returned, her voice getting stronger as she talked.

"You're right about that," Logan agreed. "But it isn't my furniture that needs looking after." He was being very sincere and hoped Max picked up on what he was trying to say. He knew she would be turned off he coddled her too much.

"Forget that coffee," Zack cut in with a displeased voice. He walked across the bedroom's hardwood floor but then stopped halfway from the bed and turned back around to face Logan. "You better have some hard liquor Cale because suddenly my sanity needs looking after."

Logan said nothing to that because he was working up the balls to say something else: "Thanks – for helping me out today."

Zack lowered his eyes to Max for a brief moment. "I didn't do it for you." He turned and walked out of the room the rest of the way with Cindy following him at a safe distance.

"He's an interesting guy," Logan stated after Zack had left.

"That's the understatement of the year," Max notified from the bed.

He turned towards her. "He's your brother Max. I don't think you would've liked what I really wanted to say."

"Zack has a lot of moods and mystery," Max explained. "You get use to it after a while."

"He obviously cares about you enough to let you in past all of that."

"He doesn't own the world on people caring about me," Max informed.

A long but comfortable silence settled over them and both bathed in it for a while before the words came that would bring them back to reality.

"Sorry I worried you," Max blurted out.

Logan sat down on the edge of his bed next to her. "You have nothing to be sorry for." A quiet insistence was tangled up in the words. "I'm just relieved you're okay. When Zack told me that the dime was dropped to Lydecker about where you were I knew I had to reach you before he did."

Max was slightly surprised at the news of Lydecker being after her in the hospital but not completely surprised. Her life was sadly like this, an endless loop of escape and evade. "I say you succeeded, unless Manticore barracks have gotten a high-end upgrade since my day."

Logan offered her a gentle smile, but it was overshadowed by his concern for her. She looked so worn out and small in his huge bed. "Do you remember anything?"

"It all happened so fast," Max admitted. "I barely got a look at the Hummer before I was knocked down after that I must've lost it 'cause waking up here is my first coherent memory."

"Don't worry about it," Logan reassured. "Memory loss is common with trauma. It will get better with time."

"Who are you tryin' to convince?" Max asked a loaded question. She tilted her head sideways, observing him from the new angle.

"Are you okay?" Logan questioned thinking of a million things that could be wrong because of her movement.

"I'm gettin' the weirdest sense that I've seen you tonight." Max replied.

"Max you did see me tonight," Logan reminded.

"No I mean it was you," Max agreed. "But you were – different."

"What do you mean 'different'?" Logan was really getting worried because she wasn't making any sense, and Max always made sense.

"You were dressed up like an old gangster," Max explained. "Button down suit, fedora – it was kinda hot actually. And I was Ga Ga Gabore and Bonny Sinclair rolled into one."

"Max you were dreaming," Logan was relieved that she wasn't hallucinating due to a ruptured blood vessel in her brain.

"It was too real to be a dream Logan," Max corrected. "It was like I was living in another time."

"Maybe you're remembering a past life," Logan suggested completely serious. "It would explain your remembering me."

"So you're saying that I lived some 1940's glamour life and now I'm remembering it because of an accident?"

"The belief of past lives has widely been believed to exist in some controversial but very real forms such as the déjà vu phenomenon."

"If that was a past life then I wish I didn't remember it."

"I thought you liked what you saw," Logan teased but he immediately lost his mirth when he saw the look in her eyes. "What about it was so bad?" His voice had grown softer; prying carefully into something that had obviously affected her.

"Nothing except that Lydecker seems to screw me wherever I am." Her words were filled with such raw emotion and she gripped at the end of the comforter like she was wringing Lydecker's neck. "He tracked me and Zack down. Apparently he was head of some Post Nazi level genetic experimental project and even in that life he managed to damage us as kids and want us all back for personal gain." The raw emotion in her tone changed into distinctive anger. "I was still me though – all dressed up like some seductive scandal – but I still had my moves and got out of the line of fire-" she paused. "Apparently in both my planes of existence."

"I can believe that," Logan agreed. "You being an ass kicker in multiple lives. You have a way about you that would defiantly transcend through time."

"Good job Logan Cale-" Max chided. "Compliment a girl who can't even stand up to thank you."

"You don't have to be standing up to thank someone Max," he responded. "All you have to do is use your mouth."

"That's what I was plannin' on." Her voice was colored with a quiet sensual longing.

It took Logan all of three seconds to understand her response. He leaned close to her and kissed her, not passionately, not gently but rather a combination of the two that left her feeling a lingering desire when he pulled away.

"Get some rest okay?" Logan ordered gently. He lingered by her side tracing the edge of her face as if brushing aside an invisible lock of hair that had fallen in her eyes.

Max looked up into his eyes but didn't say anything, watching as he stood up from the mattress and moved easily, but slowly, towards the door. She continued to watch him until he was right in front of the door the stopped him from going out with a single word: "Logan?"

He turned and looked back at her lying on his bed.

"Thanks," she said. It was a simple remark that but one that held such deep meaning. It summed up everything she wanted to say but didn't want to cheapen with sappy words.

"I care about you Max," Logan informed. "And I wouldn't hesitate to do it again – not even for a second." There was no smile on his face, only truehearted sincerity that a smile wouldn't cover. He watched her for a lingering instant before slipping quietly out the door leaving her with the taste of his kiss on her mouth.

XXXXXXXXXX

METRO MEDICAL – PARKING LOT

How the hell did you see yourself so above the chain-of-command that you would unblinkingly assonate one of my top agents?" Renfro's voice was quiet but no less pissed off. In front of her Agent Sodaval was being wheeled on a gurney – in a black body bag – towards a black military SUV.

Deck watched the proceedings with the cold, unfeeling eyes of an Army Colonel that considered death a weapon. "Sondaval was a weak leak in your chain-of-command; a very real threat to Manticore itself."

"We have ways of dealing with these kind of situations," Renfro reminded with hostility. "You didn't have to take him out."

"The only way of dealing with a weak link is to remove it; otherwise it will bring down everything around it."

"What about the two Attack Team soldiers that were offed while following your orders? You let two of your best men get killed playing cat and with the X5 who you let escape in 09. You remember that and then you tell me again who's the weak link here." Renfro's voice had risen. She didn't tolerate Lydecker's unique 'relationship' with the rouge X5's. "For God's sake Deck; you're not a commander; you're a father chasing after those renegade kids of yours. They're some of the finest genetic creations in the world and their free ranging all over God's green earth because you would rather have them keep evading you then put down their resistance."

"Their DNA is some of the finest in existence," Lydecker informed coldly. "And I'm not about to see the mistreatment of millions of dollars worth of science and labor from you or any of those pathetic workers you call 'agents'."

Renfro sat in quiet anger for ten seconds; the hem of her black pea coat flapping in the wind of the impending Seattle rain. Something resembling a smile soon crossed her face. "Your kids are more like you then you know – or maybe it's the other way around."

"My kids are smart," Deck reminded punctuating each word slowly. "It takes more then a hat trick to bring them in. You may be dismissive of my ideas, but never underestimate their capabilities."

"What I underestimating aren't their capabilities Deck, but yours." Renfro addressed him with no remorse, staring him down like she was the Army Colonel not him. "Frankly I question your ability to remain Commanding Officer at Manticore especially considering your constant slip ups in bringing in X5-452."

"452 is one of the top level X5's. None of your men have been trained properly to deal with a skill level as advanced as hers."

"The girl runs every time one of our units moves in to intercept her. That's not skill, that's cowardice."

"X5's were trained to avoid exposure at all costs. Without me there to anticipate her movements she'll keep vanishing into the woodwork and we'll never catch her."

"We can't catch her now," Renfro slid her hands into her coat pockets, lowering her voice when a pair of ER nurses passed by them on the way to the outside smoking section. "What makes you believe that me keeping your miserable skin on the payroll will make this situation any better?"

Deck went quiet, thinking about his next remark but it quickly ended after only two seconds. "I killed one of your well trained agents and your questioning my ability to catch someone higher trained? This isn't a game Anna. It's a war and in war only military personnel are allowed access. I will bring in 452 myself. Make no mistake about that." Deck finished in quiet matter-of-factness and then headed towards his waiting SUV.

XXXXXXXXXXX

MAX (VOICE OVER): "There exists at any given time multiple universes that we all live in everyday – past lives that only a few of us really think are real. At least that's what conspiracy theorists claim."

(Max is lying in Logan's bed resting her head carefully on the pillow as if it would shatter like glass at too much pressure. She stares out the large window a foot away from the bed taking in the gray Seattle Skyline)

MAX (VOICE OVER CONTINUES): "I know the value of actual reality; how déjà vu can be explained as just a manifestation of a life we would want to live that makes itself known in our subconscious. But I also know the conspiracy theories because I'm a conspiracy theory myself."

(SHOT CUTS TO A SIDE SHOT OF LYDECKER DRIVING AWAY IN HIS SUV.)

MAX (VOICE OVER): "But my past has always been chasing after me and there are some things I don't want to relive in a parallel world."

(SHOT SWITCHES TO 1944 SCENE OF MAX WALKING DOWN A DIRTY ALLEYWAY, BUT SHE IS LOST IN COMPLETE THOUGHT ABOUT SOMETHING THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ROAD IN FRONT OF HER.)

MAX (VOICE OVER): "It's not like I have a choice in living through some crap in past lives – but that doesn't mean I won't survive them all.

XXXXXXXXXX

END

Whew, this was quite an undertaking. And to think it all started with this image in my mind of Max wearing a fedora hat seated at a bar in an old nightclub. Well I can safely say that it escalated into something much bigger. The parallel world thing I came up with because I didn't want to do an out and out story about Max in 1944. I thought tying the past with the Dark Angel present would be more unique then just doing one story about Max in 1944 and one story about her getting out of Lydecker's hands.

This story featured songs from the era of jazz, swing and blues, some of my favorite kind of music. I have a Glenn Miller CD and I would listen to his swing orchestra play while I wrote this to get me in the mood.

If you all got anything from this story I hope that it was something with satisfying action, good dialogue, good emotion and well – old fashioned sexiness. I worked real hard on that last one. If you noticed no one in this story ever had actual sex. I consider it a higher form of writing to make a sexy atmosphere in your story without having anyone get under the sheets.

Thanks for reading, and please review.

Peace

Mystic