Thanks for all of the reviews, I really appreciate them! I don't really like this chapter that much, it just doesn't feel right, maybe a bit rushed? Anyway tell me what you think.
Chapter two.
Logan laughed softly, and carefully poured himself another generous glass of chilled red wine.
"Are you sure you don't mind me drinking this?" he asked, suddenly very aware that he was in the company of a recovering alcoholic.
Valerie smiled against the rim of her sparkling water brimming glass, and shook her head. Logan noticed how her red hair shone in the soft candle light. He used to love her hair.
"Not at all." She insisted. "I never used to drink that stuff anyway. I always told you it tasted like cat pee."
Logan smiled.
"I remember. You announced it very loudly in the middle of the restaurant, as I recall. Right before you tried to club to club a waiter with the bottle."
"I'd forgotten about that!" Valerie laughed, settling her glass down so she didn't spill its contents.
"I really don't see how…"
"Hey, you've had your embarrassing moments too."
"Oh yeah?"
"I seem to remember a certain idiot walking into a glass door at a family reunion, getting a pretty bad concussion, and telling his uncle Jonas exactly what he thought of him."
"I don't think I've met this idiot." Logan said sheepishly.
"Oh, I'm sure you have. He's my ex husband. Kinda cute, spiky hair, nice eyes, great kisser…"
Logan smiled, and leaned forward to respond to her flirting. He wasn't exactly sure what he was doing. Being the sort of person who prided himself on knowing everything all of the time, the situation should have terrified him. But it didn't. He hadn't seen Val for years. He'd missed her. The sober side of her. Seeing her again was bringing back old feelings, even if he knew full well that they didn't exist any more. Right now, he was happy to pretend that they did.
Before his lips could reach hers, the office door urgently swung open. Bling entered the room, looking slightly embarrassed and hesitant to interrupt.
"Bling, we're kinda in the middle of something here. Do you mind?"
"I-Its Max." Bling stuttered, seeming to stumble over his words.
"Can you tell her to come back later?" Logan said, trying to ignore the pang of guilt, ripping through his stomach.
"Logan, that's not what I mean. She's been in an accident."
The whole world stopped for a second. A thousand thoughts pulsed through Logan's mind. All of Max. Was she dead? What was the last thing he said to her? How could he cope without her?
"What happened?" He demanded, still fighting the wave of slow motion sweeping the room.
"Original Cindy called." Bling told him. "She sounded pretty shaken up. From what I could make out, Max almost collided with a truck. Came off her bike,-"
"Is she alright?"
"Logan she got a metal pole through her stomach."
Logan closed his eyes, physically flinching. Max could dodge bullets. Jump off buildings. Take out guys three times her size. But could she survive this?
Valerie's voice brought him back to reality.
"Max is the dark haired girl right? The one I met yesterday?"
Logan had to bite his tongue, to stop himself snapping that her questions were completely irrelevant, and it made no difference whether she knew Max or not.
"I have to go." He said monotonously, taking the brakes off his wheelchair.
Val stood up.
"Do you want me to come with you?"
Logan shook his head. He couldn't be with her right now.
Max…
Logan wasn't sure whether to go into her room. He didn't like hospitals at the best of time. They unnerved him. The sterile smell of antiseptic. The coldness. The unvoiced fears and heartache hanging heavy in the air. But seeing Max in there unnerved him the most.
She was sleeping, or at least resting her eyes. Just lying there, carefully positioned in the standard sterile white hospital sheets. Her dishevelled dark curls haphazardly surrounded her face, contrasting with it, showing how pale she was. Her lips were ashen. Her eyes were puffy and red. She looked so weak. So helpless. Those were things Logan had never thought he would associate with Max. They were things he had never wanted to associate with her. It threw him into unfamiliar territory. Somewhere he had no idea what to expect.
He certainly wasn't expecting her reaction.
Logan greeted her with a truly heartfelt smile, the second she opened those huge dark eyes he'd been so scared of never seeing again. She mumbled something unenthusiastically, and tried her best to ignore him. When he started talking, she steered the conversation to business pretty much straight away.
Logan had put her on the trail of a very busy successful businessman, who he suspected was that way because he was killing his opposition. The only problem was he was nobody had any idea how he was doing it, but every time someone turned up dead, it looked like natural causes. Heart attack. Suicide. Stroke. Never murder.
"So our Mr Louis fancies himself as a scientist?" Logan asked, with sudden interest when Max told him about his prestigious library of rare and detailed books on anatomy and genetics. It never ceased to amaze him how off hand she could be about breaking into someone's house, taking out several guards, having a quick futile look around, then making a break for it with several vicious Alsatians hot on her heels.
Max shrugged.
"That's something you'll have to figure out, because I don't think I'll be up to hanging outside windows for a while. I was going to use a fake ID. Act like a threat."
"And see how he tried to kill you? That's a bit risky."
"But sure to work."
"I wouldn't have let you do that."
She glared at him, with that familiar 'like you could have stopped me' look glinting in her eyes.
"So think of something else then." She snapped.
"Max…" Logan said softly, with absolutely no idea how to end the sentence. He didn't know why she was being so off with him.
The confusion must have blossomed in his eyes, even thought his mouth couldn't seem to describe it, because when she looked at him the defiance melted, and she sighed.
"I-I'm just tired Logan." She told him, her voice wavering slightly.
Tired. Coming from someone who never slept, it wasn't a very good excuse. But what could he say? She wanted him to leave. So he left, with his tail in between his legs, confused and worried, dreading the prospect of working this case alone.
I hate the last line. It just didn't sound right, but I couldn't seem to fix it! Please review.