Title: Between

Name: Joy

Email: [email protected]

Rating: PG

A/N: This series is dedicated to Rachel who this story was written for. She has kindly given permission for me to post it for you to enjoy.

A/N2: I appreciate suggestions, but this story is already finished. I am just releasing it in segments.

Max stood under her shower trying desperately to remember the dream she had been having when she woke. It was the third morning in a row that she felt certain that she had dreamt something important. She knew Logan was part of it, and there was a large group of comfortable people, but she wasn't sure where or who the people were.

It was her day off, so she rode her baby over to Logan's hoping that the sight of him would jog a memory. Bits and pieces flashed in the back of her head. There was a hotel. The people all lived in an old hotel. She would then see images of faces she didn't recognize. She saw Logan in a light blue turtleneck smiling at her with a gleam in his eyes. It seemed so real, so close.

For three days in a row these images had haunted her. The first day, she avoided Logan because she was totally weirded out by the fact she dreamt of him. The second day, she avoided him because she didn't want to explain why she had blown him off the day before. Now she had no choice but face the music that it might be weird, but she was most definitely dreaming about him for a reason.

Max let herself into Logan's apartment bright and early. Early enough that she didn't anticipate him being up. She crept into Logan's room to find him waking up with a start. He seized a pen and paper next to the bed. He was scribbling furiously when she appeared in his bedroom doorway. Logan actually screamed at her 'appearance' in his inner sanctum.

"Sorry, I needed to talk to you," Max said apologizing.

"Why?" Logan asked with a great deal of suspicion.

"What's up with you? You're acting like I've done something wrong."

"I'm sorry… It's just… Well, I tried to tell you about this earlier, but you didn't return my calls," Logan said as Max looked at him quizzically. "Now you're looking at me like I did something wrong."

"Sorry… I'm just wondering… Are you dreaming about me?" she asked.

The surprise on Logan's face was tremendous, "Are you?"

"Yes."

"That's why you didn't return my calls… I've been trying to sleep more so that when I wake up I could jot down what I remembered. What do you remember?"

Max thought over the parts of the dream she could remember, "Well, there is a hotel that a large group of people live at. They don't seem threatening in anyway. It's like a commune of some sort. You and I are there…" She gazed down before saying, "You are wearing that light blue turtleneck you have and you're smiling at me."

Logan blinked wildly, "There are people I don't know…"

"…but somehow seem familiar," Max finished looking up at him.

He looked away saying, "You are wearing your leather jacket and blue tank top with your hair up in a pony tail. I don't know why since it would expose your barcode, but… You look happy, content." He wouldn't look back at her face.

"There's something else you're not telling me. There's something you feel about it that isn't definite, so you aren't saying it," Max ventured.

"I think I am leaving you there…" Logan said with great pain.

"Are you scared for me?"

"No. I think it is best. I'm happy too," he paused. "I'm scared of what this could mean."

"What? You're scared we're connected?"

"No," he said shaking his head. "That I'm going to lose you to that place."

Max's face became hot, "We don't even know where it is or what this means. No need to worry just yet."

"Do you want to leave Max?" Logan finally found the courage to ask. "I figured this was some weird way I was preparing myself for your leaving."

Max sat down on his bed next to him. "I'm not going anywhere… I don't want to go anywhere… I like my life here. It's home." She took a long pause and summoned the courage to slip in a small admission of feelings. "I mean, I have a job, apartment, friends,… you."

At her last part, Logan looked up at her to see her eyes cast downward. His heart began to race as the possibility of what she was implying sank in. Timidly, he said, "Me? You like being here… partly… because of me?"

"Yeah," she said as her nerves got the best of her. She stood and went to leave the room only to have Logan catch her arm. His eyes were wide open, pleading with her to stay. Running was natural, but staying took guts. They just stared at one another for a long while. He released her arm to see if she would leave. Frozen, Max just stared at him.

Logan rose to his feet staring deeply into Max's soul. He saw the fear in the deep brown puddles of her eyes, but he also saw the possibility. "I'm terrified of loosing you. I don't ever want to face the day you walk out of my life. For you that dream just meant seeing strange people and me smiling. For me that dream meant loosing the reason I get up in the morning…"

Max was trembling at the words he spoke. She couldn't think. "I've been writing down everything I could about those moments, so I can stop them from ever coming true. I can't lose you," he whispered closing the space between them.

Max searched Logan's eyes with fear and apprehension. He felt for her, deeply. He was speaking the truth. He would do anything not to lose her. She turned from him without a word. "Max?"

"I'm going to lay down in the other room… I need some time to figure some stuff out," she said with her back to him. He followed her out of his room and to the door of the guestroom. She shut the door and locked it. Logan heard her lock the door and felt his heart crumble into a million pieces. She didn't feel the same about him.

He trudged back to his room flopping down on his bed with tears in his eyes. "I love you,…" he whispered to the wall hoping somehow she would hear it and believe him.

"I love you too," she whispered back, having heard his confession through the wall. Her confession was safer because he didn't have her enhanced hearing.

Each slumped against their beds and let tears briefly fall. Nothing had happened. No emergency had arisen to take her away. He was able to walk and was well. There were no major obstacles between them. If she ran, he would follow. Yet it seemed they were being torn apart by this dream. A dream they shared but didn't understand.

*************************************

"You've returned! How nice… Mia, the nice couple from that other place has returned. I think they might stay with us this time," an elderly gentlemen in a white robe with a purple sash spoke to a teenage girl with the finest and lightest blond hair imaginable. "You've already forgotten my name haven't you? Since you both returned so quickly I expect you will remember our discussions soon enough."

Logan looked at Max and they were wearing the clothes they each described in the dream. "I'm sorry sir, I don't remember your name. Where are we?"

"Logan, I have to laugh every time you come here. You say the same thing each and every time. You're rather predictable in your politeness. Max here, she is very unpredictable. Last time she even showed me her barcode. I am so proud of you for that," the old man said smiling grandfatherly at Max. "Well, my name Nicholas and you are in the Between."

"We are in between. Now that's rich," Max said gruffly.

"No, you're in the Between."

"Between what?" Logan asked.

"You are in the place that effects your life most. You two have been battling fate for a long while now. Very few people return to the other place with memories from this one, but you fight so hard that we could not think of another way. So now you are back to learn and grow more. Hopefully we can get you, young man, to give up this silly notion that you will scare her off by admitting your feelings."

"What are you talking about? I just told her I was terrified to lose her and she locked herself in my guest bedroom. How else am I supposed to take that?"

"So that is why you returned so quickly. Mia, Mia where are you?"

"What is it, grandfather?" the blond said.

"Bring me the book please and gather the others."

"I don't understand," Logan pled as a couple of children urged him to a chair that had been set down behind him. Max was ushered into a seat as well.

"Now let us see… Mia, my eyes are not that good. Has it changed?"

"No grandfather… They will never understand. They just do not trust or love or hope. How can the future possibly move forward without hope, trust, and love?"
"That is why we will teach them…" Nicholas said to the frustrated girl.

"They will not even fight to be together," a small boy with dark hair and dark eyes said looking at Max.

"They are fighting right now," another elderly man said from off to the right.

"They will find a way," a twenty something woman said from the left.