Rating: R

Disclaimer: We all know who owns DA, and it's not me.

A/N: Way sorry for the wait, but I've been so busy this week and I haven't had time at all to write. Not to mention I wrote some, decided I hated it...started again...hated it (vicious cycle and I suck at action). Anyway, this is what I came up with, not quite what I anticipated when I started this fic, but I've thought about this a lot, and I think it ended the only way it really could...Oh yeah....I know Zack couldn't really take the elevator up to Logan's apartment (needing the key and all) but, well...I'm overlooking that...

By the way, all of you who read Hidden Behind Glass and weren't sure, it was Normal. I didn't ever use his name for a reason, but just so you know, it was him.

Wild is the Wind

"I couldn't be the one

To make your dreams come true

That's why I had to run

Though I needed you...

Wild, wild is the wind

That takes me away from you

Cold is the night without your love

To see me through

Wild, wild is the wind

That blows through my heart tonight."

-Bon Jovi

Max was sprinting down the street toward Logan's apartment. She and Zack had arrived back in Seattle moments earlier and she'd immediately bailed out of the plane, leaving Zack to pay the pilot. After all, it was his fault that they'd had need of the man's services in the first place. She had other things to do.

Adrenaline coursing hotly through her veins, she lowered her head and picked up her pace. Although she was remotely aware of the fact that she would probably need Zack's help, she knew he would catch up to her. He'd always been faster than her, and she'd never been able to understand how a man as bulky as he was could move so quickly. Unfortunately, such ponderings on Zack's inner workings were second place to Max's burning need to reach Logan.

Logan. He was all she thought of.

Careening around a corner, she nearly collided with a car coming down the street. The man inside leaned out the window, and began yelling all the obscene names he knew. Max noted that he was quickly silenced after "bitch" and during "dirty whore." Moments later, Zack came up even with her, his arms pumping.

Heedless of the attention she was attracting, Max darted in and out of the shadows going up to Logan's building. If Lydecker had him, he wouldn't make it hard for Max to be able to come to them. She knew enough about him to know it was an outright trap, but it was one trap she wasn't going to pick through. This one would be broken by the brute force of a woman in love. The stories people told about mothers lifting up cars to save their trapped babies was nothing compared to the rush of angry, frightened strength being pumped into Max's muscles.

"I'll take the stairs," she announced as they entered the sparkling lobby of the building. "You take the elevator."

Zack nodded and made a bee-line for the elevator. She turned, throwing open a door that clearly said "stairs" across its front on bold, black lettering. She raced up the flights of stairs faster than she had ever moved in her life, her feet only connecting with every third step.

She arrived in front of Logan's apartment moments before Zack. She grabbed the doorknob, finding the door unlocked. As she barged into the room, she was met with the distinct scent of Logan hanging dimly in the air. Her hand shaking, she turned on the light.

Astounded, she looked around the penthouse to find nothing out of place. Everything was carefully placed exactly where it had been when she'd left. Wary, she stepped hesitantly inside, Zack at her back. The feeling of having him so near by eased her fear somewhat, and while her muscles didn't relax her heart beat slowed.

"There's got to be something somewhere," she murmured to herself.

"I'll check the other room," Zack replied, moving her aside with a gentle touch to her arm. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she began her own search, trying to find some clue as to where Lydecker could have taken Logan. For a moment, as she brushed her dark hair out of her eyes, she wondered if Lydecker didn't even have him and they would only make a complete idiot out of her when he returned to find them snooping through his apartment because he hadn't answered the phone.

Max could almost imagine his laughter at learning that the always cool headed Max had gotten so fired up over a phone call that she'd demanded she and Zack travel backwards hundreds of miles to make sure nothing was wrong. A little embarrassed, but still with the aching feeling that something was wrong, she walked over to his dining room table.

Gently, she brushed her fingers across it's smooth top.

So many good memories here...fancy dinners...nice company too.

"Max, come here!" Her fingers came to an abrupt halt as Zack's voice interrupted her small reverie.

Rushing to the other room, she nearly lost her footing -- something that never happened to Max. She wasn't clumsy and rarely, if ever, tripped over her own feet. Still, she refused to admit to herself that her worry for her friend had overtaken her senses to the point where her simplest functions were disabled.

"What is it?" she asked, her eyes making a quick scan of Logan's office.

"The computer," Zack replied, motioning toward it as if at any moment something would jump out of it and bite him. For a genetically engineered man, he was ridiculously afraid of technology. Somehow, Max didn't blame him. When she looked at Logan's computer, she saw a powerful tool and a thing that could rip what little meaning she had been able to find from her life. In Logan's hands, the small boxy object worked miracles, but, with what Max had learned from watching him, she also knew that the same technology could be used for evil. The same kind of evil she was spawned from.

Sitting down in Logan's chair, she typed in a short password and command that stopped the gentle, flashing blue light which had alerted Zack. Immediately, a video came across the screen.

"You know, I really have to try harder next time because I'm beginning to think we really fucked you guys up," Lydecker's tired features came across the screen. "Should have seen it from the beginning you'd be the soft hearted one, Max...you were always so...well, we probably shouldn't go into that, should we?"

His lips contorted into a vicious grin.

"But Zack...now that was one I didn't see coming," he laughed. "Interesting little conversation you had with your friend Logan. Anyway...if you want him back, you're going to have to come and get him, but I can't guarantee that he'll be in one piece when you get here, so you'd better move faster than you ever did back in Gillette."

Next to her, Max could feel the anger radiating from Zack as he watched the tape.

"I'm disappointed you came back," Lydecker continued. "Thought I trained you a hell of a lot better than that." The camera angle shifted for a moment as Lydecker got up, showing Logan being drug out of the room in the background. Split seconds later, the screen went black.

Max and Zack sat for moments in complete silence as everything sank in.

He didn't look good...oh, God...

"Let's go, Max," Zack's hand came to rest on her shoulder. Through her light jacket, she could feel the heat of his skin and was aware of the slight tension in his fingers as they gripped her.

Shaken, she stood up, the flashing light on Logan's answering machine catching her eye. Her message, her desperate attempt to reach out to him that had never been received. Forcing herself to reign in her ever wilder emotions, she collected herself. All hope was in her regaining control and the ability to think clearly, the last thing Logan needed was her running in and getting herself killed so that she could join him in his grave.

Cringing, she knew Manticore wouldn't be as kind to her as Logan. She was their property, to be handled and disposed of as they saw fit. The barcode on the back of her neck was a constant reminder that she was not free, and never would be. It was her leash, the mark that singled her out as inhuman. Most likely, if she died at the hands of Lydecker and Manticore she's be in so many pieces that she wouldn't need a grave.

"Where do we start?" she wondered aloud, not having any idea where to begin. Normally, she would have been shocked at her inability to come up with a good plan of attack, but her mind was filled with only one thing, and it wasn't helping her be the tactical genius she was taught to be. Zack, however, was still in firm control.

"We know Lydecker well enough to rule out quite a few places," he replied as they rushed toward the door. Max tried to listen, but couldn't seem to will herself to. Logan's face kept circling in her brain, unwilling to go away. His image seemed to be burned on the inside of her eyelids, there was no escape from him.

"We need a ride," Max noted, her calf muscle twitching as they waited for the elevator, taking the crucial time to think the situation through. She forced herself to run over the details she'd seen in the video when Lydecker had got up. Their intention, obviously, was to do one of two things: lure her to them, or extract her location from Logan. Once they got either, he was as good as dead. With her knowledge of Logan, she doubted he'd told them as much as his middle name, which meant he was probably still alive.

"Not a problem," Zack said, tossing her a grin. She frowned.

How could he grin and joke at a time like this? Callous bastard...

It was a callousness she at once hated and envied. She'd been like him once, and still was for the most part. Her last moments with Logan immediately came to mind. She'd never told him how she felt, never even admitted to herself that her feelings were anything more than a strange effect from something she'd had for lunch. She could see the same kind of denial within Zack. They'd been taught from an early age to look the other way, that feeling was bad; where they'd been, feeling had been an awful thing. No one could have lived through Manticore with a soft-heart.

She bit at her bottom lip as the elevator dropped down to the ground floor; her eyes on Zack, who carefully avoided eye contact with her. Her understanding of the inner workings of his mind had been tested in the past few days, and she had failed miserably. Even as she stood, observing him, she was no closer to the man she called her brother than she had been when she first came to Seattle. He was still a mystery to her, an enigma that refused to be solved. Long ago, she'd decided that Zack was too far gone into the commando state of mind to ever really think beyond it.

However, he'd professed his love for her, showing a much higher degree of emotional intellect than Max possessed. He'd pushed Logan into a bear trap, only to come back and help pull him out. There was nothing stopping him from continuing on into Canada and leaving Max to her own devices on her way back to Seattle. Not accompanying her would undoubtedly have been the best strategic choice, but, oddly, he'd shown more humanity than she had in choosing love over tact. Perhaps she'd discounted her brother too soon.

They walked out into the night. The glow to the east signified the quickly approaching dawn. How long did they have to find Logan before Lydecker assumed she wasn't coming? A day? An hour? Max preferred not to think about it.

"There," Zack leaned in close to her, his hand gesturing lightly toward a motorcycle parked across the street. "Noticed it as we came in."

Max hadn't, which she couldn't deny made her angry.

"Not a ninja, but I'm betting it moves a hell of a lot faster than either of us do," he shrugged. Max nodded and the two crossed the street, creeping invisibly through the shadows. As they neared the vehicle, Max decided they would both be better off with Zack driving. She was distracted and needed time to think, and he obviously already had more of the situation unraveled than she did anyway.

Roughly, she signaled to him with her hand. He replied with a sharp signal of his own that she almost didn't catch.

Gettin' rusty, Girl.

Silently, she met Zack beside the motorcycle after he finished checking to make sure no one was around. The last thing they needed was someone seeing them stealing something and getting stuck in jail for the night. Apparently confident that the street was empty, Zack climbed onto it, motioning for Max to follow. She stepped on behind him, wrapping her arms around his wide chest to anchor herself down.

The roar of the engine filled the post-morning silence and Max could feel the vibrations run up her body. Pushing the kickstand up, Zack peeled away from the sidewalk, tearing down the empty streets.

"Where are we going?" Max asked over the biting wind and engine.

"Lydecker's military, Max," Zack yelled back to her. "He knows where his assets lie, and that's in numbers. He's got to have some kind of military outpost he's working from."

"How is it you know so much about what he's doing here, and I don't have a clue?" she demanded.

"Maybe you should pay attention to what's going on around you rather than the scenery," he replied.

"Scenery?" Max yelled back. "I'm assuming your talking about Logan. You know, you seem a little obsessed with him."

"Not him, someone else," Zack yelled in return, his voice nearly drowned out by the air rushing by them.

Darkly, Max sat quietly behind him. She had been a little lax due to her infatuation with Logan, but that certainly wasn't his place to point out.

She turned her head, watching the buildings flash by. Banks, hotels, warehouses, they all looked pretty much the same: pathetic, old, and run-down. Logan always kept an eye on the real-estate around him. He was very aware who bought what and what they did with it. Never one to miss out on an opportunity, he seemed to get more joy out of busting bad guys in his own backyard than somewhere across the city.

"Zack...turn here!" She dug her elbows into him, reinforcing her command.

"Why?" he tossed back, ignoring her arms digging into his sides.

"A warehouse a few blocks away, it was bought about a month ago, but Logan was never able to find out who bought it," she replied, not liking having to explain herself. "It could be Lydecker, what better place to run your operation from than a few blocks from ground zero?"

"Your going to break one of my ribs, Max," Zack announced as if the fact were inconsequential. As she released her grip, he swung around the corner, the motorcycle tipping and weaving expertly as he sped up to an otherwise dangerous velocity. With anyone else driving, Max would have been nervous, but she was confident that Zack's reflexes were just as quick as her own.

"There! Up there!" she pointed, leaning forward, wanting to be there quicker. Zack slowed and came to a stop a block away from the warehouse.

"Looks abandoned, Max," he said frowning.

"We have to check," she insisted.

"You're wasting time," he replied sharply.

"Why? Do you have some better idea?" she demanded.

"Yeah, quite a few really," he answered angrily. "Why would he use a warehouse? The rooms are too big, nowhere to keep Logan, no where to privately conduct business."

"Wait...look!" Max hissed, pointing toward a dim light in one of the windows. "It's got to be them, Zack. I've got this feeling in the pit of my stomach that he's there."

"Might want to head a little lower with that feeling," Zack replied bitterly, then seemed to shift moods on her again by patting her thigh and pulling around the side of the warehouse.

"This is it...I know it is," Max insisted again as she climbed off the motorcycle. As she looked up at the building, her heart pounded. She knew she was close, no one else could make her blood boil like Logan.

***

Logan was becoming used to waking up in the isolated, cold little room. For the third time, he found himself sitting in the salty smelling environment. His head hurt like hell, but he was alive and that was all that really mattered. No -- what really mattered was that Max was safe. He figured that she and Zack were probably hundreds of miles away, Max sleeping soundly in some hotel room bed.

The thought was comforting, and he allowed himself to envision himself there with her. It was all together less painful for him to imagine himself with her only to realize he would never have her than to see her in his mind with someone else. He wouldn't allow himself to think of her that way, groaning in someone else's arms. That, well, that hurt ten times worse than his head.

Leaning his head tentatively against the wall, he closed his eyes. Shutting himself out of the depressing world around him and creating his own. Logan was an expert escapist, although he'd heard that a person's imaginative capability dwindles with age, his seemed to have only matured. He also found that he much preferred the world he tailor created to the one reality presented.

So, within his own mind, he sat on the side of Max's bed. The mattress bending with his weight, causing her to roll toward him. Her eyes flashed open as her arm came into contact with him. However, the look he received wasn't one of hostility, but open invitation. He took the invitation he saw, and bent down to press a gentle kiss to her mouth. The touch was soft and fleeting. As he pulled away, he brushed her cheek with his fingers. Lightly...everything was incredibly light and gentle.

Smiling, she lifted her head to meet his once again, giving to him the same way he gave to her. Her kiss traveled low, until she hooked his bottom lip between her teeth. She teased him only once before letting go, signifying it was his turn to continue the game.

Games -- that was what was wrong between the two of them, wasn't it? The playing and tugging, but never giving. No, he and Max definitely didn't do enough giving.

He looked down at his imaginary Max, wanting to do more than give his heart to her. He wanted to worship her, to hide her under his wing and protect her like the precious jewel she was.

Bending down again, he kissed her more firmly, earning a long sigh that feathered past his skin. He could feel the soft rise and fall of her chest as he lowered himself on top of her. The gentle up and down was soothing underneath him, her body warm. She opened her mouth, letting him deepen the kiss like he wanted to. Still, there was no urgency in their embrace, only the delicate alignment of everything in their lives that was right and good coming together.

Her hand brushed his face, then buried itself in his hair. His own hands were traveling down her sides, hardly leaving a trace as they moved. The hurried passion gone out of him, all he wanted was to spend eternity in the exact position he was in.

"Come on! Quick!" He was snapped out of his imaginary world as the real world ran by his door, yelling. The voices traveled away down the hallway, leaving Logan once again alone to contend with his emotions and contemplate his situation.

***

Max took out the first two men she came across easily. Taking their weapons, she kept one and tossed the other to Zack. They crept down the long hallway, wary of other men lurking about. The two had agreed before coming in not to speak to each other, and to use the hand signals instead.

Zack signaled to her that he would move ahead, giving her the cue to start her frantic search for Logan. She could almost feel his presence as she walked down the stark, cement walled passage. For a few moments, she watched Zack ahead of her as he took down the few people lingering in the hall. Checking all the rooms they'd come by, Max found nothing.

Keeping close on Zack's heels, she followed him down the rest of the hallway, which opened up into a large, spacious room. Max walked into it, fully expecting an ambush. When it didn't come, she immediately become more alert. Lydecker was no fool, he had a plan. She was upset to find that she didn't see it.

Zack pointed toward another hallway that opened on the other side of the room, and she nodded. He stepped hesitantly out to the middle of the room, his muscles rigid. Max paused to put the gun she'd taken from the first man she'd encountered in her jacket pocket.

The people she'd be up against would have guns, she wouldn't be caught without one as well.

Eager to find Logan, she brushed her vision quickly over the room before emerging from the shadows. As far as she knew, he was being executed as she stood there, and she was determined to get him out alive and well. In that moment, that highly charged moment, his safety was all that mattered.

Her legs bent a little, ready to pounce if necessary, as she joined Zack, her arm brushing against his as she passed by.

"Be right back," she whispered, leaning close to him. He nodded curtly. He didn't need to tell her that he didn't like the situation they were in, didn't like her risking her life for Logan Cale. However, as much as she loved and respected her brother, she had no choice in the matter.

As she moved toward the hallway on the other side of the room, the shadows suddenly lurched out at them. Her heart jumping into her throat, Max dashed toward the opening with all the speed Manticore had graced her body with. Zack could defend himself, but Logan couldn't, and now that they obviously knew she was there his life meant nothing.

Her lungs ached as she tried to pull breath into her shocked system. She distantly heard the men behind her, heard guns go off, and hoped Zack was safe. She was also aware of the fact that no one was following her, for which she was exceedingly grateful.

Sprinting down the darkened corridor, she tried to decide on a door to try. When she reached the abrupt end of the hall, she spun on her heel to look back on her progress. She could see men fly past the opening, and she silently applauded her brother -- an army unto himself. As she prepared to start checking every door, one to her right swung open.

The cold click of a gun's loading mechanism filled Max's ears as she looked at the man's wide, familiar back. Looking down the hall, he was unaware of her presence behind him, and she seized the opportunity with all the vengeance and power of a demon strait from hell.

"Where is he?" She demanded, throwing Lydecker up against the wall and knocking the gun out of his hand. She noticed that it wasn't a regular gun, and suspected that the bullets were specially made, probably filled with a strong sedative or poison. Even after years, Manticore wasn't dead. The experiment was still running, and they weren't about to terminate it by killing the subjects.

Lydecker's eyes bulged out of his head when they came into contact with her own.

She tightened her grip on his throat as she pushed him savagely against the wall.

"A little surprised?" she asked. "Thought you would be. Didn't think Zack would come back with me, did you? Now, where's Logan?"

She let up her grip on his throat a bit, allowing him to speak.

"He's dead!" He laughed hoarsely. "You don't think I'd actually take the chance that you'd be able to get him back, with all he knows about us, did you?"

Max felt her stomach around her ankles, and rage replace where it had once been. Angrier than she could ever recall being in her life, and filled with aching, burning pain, she increased her grip on Lydecker, lifting him off the floor.

"You don't deserve to live!" she spat out at him.

"Maybe so, but today is not my day to die," he announced, choking.

Max tilted her head, not understanding how he figured he had a way out. Moments later, she felt the chilling point of a gun press to her stomach. Her gaze traveled down to look at the weapon in his hand, then back up to meet his triumphant eyes.

"Goodbye, Max," he snarled.

She flinched when she heard the gun go off, only it seemed somehow more distant, far off. She didn't feel the pain, and it took her long moments to register the fact that she wasn't injured.

Lydecker slumped in her grasp, the gun clattering to the cement floor out of his grip. She looked up at him, at his blood splattered, lifeless face. Then, she turned, seeing Zack down the hall, a smoking weapon still hanging from his arm. He dropped it then, everything moving in slow motion. He blinked once, twice...stared intently at his sister.

Unable to breathe, she dropped Lydecker, who landed in a crumpled heap on the ground. Her life long enemy, the man who frightened her more than almost anything -- she'd only recently discovered something that inspired more rampant fear in her heart -- was dead.

Gasping, she took a small amount of air into her lungs. The smell of his blood -- the salty, warm scent -- brought her back to her senses as it began to pool openly on the floor. An eerie silence settled over the building as she stood, processing in her head all that had occurred..

"Logan..." she whispered, breaking it. He was dead, just like Lydecker. She couldn't bring herself to believe it. The tears streaming down her face were unrestrained, filled with all the anger, grief, and outright pain she'd hidden for so long. Her inner control crumbled to pieces around her, the façade she kept of strength bled away onto the floor, joining it's maker.

"He's not dead...I can't believe it...he's not," she whispered brokenly as Zack started down the hall toward her.

"Max...let him go," he insisted.

Her hot gaze pinned him.

"He's not dead," she hissed through clenched teeth, then franticly turned to check all of the rooms. The first she checked were empty, and as each empty one passed she grew more upset, her emotions taking full control of her for the first time in her life.

She opened doors, searched the rooms insanely.

"Max...stop," Zack attempted to intervene, only to find himself shoved violently into the wall.

Desperate now, she tried the next door. As it swung open, her eyes came to rest on him, laying on the floor, his hair wet with blood and his hands bound behind his back. All of the air that had ever even thought of being in her body rushed away from her, and her muscles froze.

"No...oh God...no," she cried, stepping into the room. She walked hesitantly up to his body, her vision blurred by tears. Crouching down beside him, she was afraid to look. Behind her, she was hardly aware of Zack standing in the doorway.

"Logan?" she asked, touching his face with her hand.

His eyes flashed open, surprising her.

"Max?" he blinked a few times, as if he couldn't believe she was there.

"Logan?" she breathed, the relief running through her system like hot lead. "You're alive...I can't believe it....you're alive!" Her elation grew as the depression of the previous few moments wore off. Grabbing his head in her hands, she pressed her lips to his. Forcefully, she pushed her tongue into his mouth, kissing him wildly. His taste was a marked difference from the one she remembered from a previous kiss they had shared, this time there was a tinge of salt to his tongue.

Her eyes pinched tightly shut, she threw herself into him with all the frightening emotion of the previous twenty-four hours. His reaction was slow and somewhat dulled, bringing her back from the brink of complete relief-born rapture.

She pulled away, aware of the way she couldn't help but linger a little to long. As she looked down at him, his eyes remained closed. Her hands remained deeply buried in his hair, made stiff with sweat, blood, and fear. His eyes, his beautiful cerulean blue eyes, opened slowly then as his tongue darted out to make a slow line across his lips.

"Only you can save a man's life with such flair, Max," he murmured.

They stared at one another for a moment, their eyes locked, sub-consciously giving and taking of one another. For the first time, Max saw his open up to reveal his inner emotions. She figured hers were probably overflowing with all the foreign things she'd found locked away in her heart. Never had she even imagined that she was capable of thinking, or feeling a number of the things she had felt in only the previous hour. The stress of the emotional high made her heavy with weariness.

"Hold still," she commanded, coming somewhat back to her senses. Not having the key for his handcuffs, and not wanting to waste the time to go find it, she grabbed the chain running between the middle and with a flick of her wrists snapped the middle link. The plastic zip ties proved to be somewhat more of a challenge. As she sat, pulling on the plastic to get it to release, she almost didn't notice Zack standing beside her in the room, offering her a pocketknife.

"Thank you," she said, her throat dry. He only responded with an impersonal nod as he released the small weapon into her hand. The knife went through the plastic easily, releasing Logan's legs. He sighed with relief, rolling onto his stomach with his hands under him. Max stared down at the back of his head where there was a wound that had only recently clotted. She guessed it was from being hit with something, and feeling the need to comfort him, she reached out to settle her hand on his shoulder.

Logan forced himself up with his arms, getting into a kneeling position that Max helped him out of. His arm tossed around her shoulders, they walked together out of the bleak room. His head lolled against hers, and she wondered if he had a concussion or was about to pass out.

Zack looked up as they stepped out into the hall, his expression black. Max looked at him for a moment before realizing what was wrong with the picture he presented. At his feet was a dark puddle, but Lydecker's body was absent.

"Fuck" was all he said.

***

Zack stood in the bright hospital hallway. People rushed past him, their faces determined, worried, and pained. He hated hospitals, they reminded him too much of Manticore, of the time he'd spent around doctors who tinkered with his body in ways he hadn't imagined possible.

Frowning, he walked into the room where Logan was staying. Max was sitting in a chair next to his bed, her body folded halfway onto the bed as she slept. Her head snuggled against Logan's side, who was staring intently down at her. The hospital staff had recommended keeping Logan awake due to his head injury. The job of making sure he didn't sleep had fallen upon Max's shoulders. Ironic that she, who was engineered not to need sleep, had fallen into it snuggled beside him.

"Feeling better?" Zack asked quietly.

Logan started at the sound of his voice, his head snapping around to meet Zack's eyes.

"Much better, thank you," he replied.

"I'm going to be leaving today," Zack announced, walking to stand on the side of the bed opposite Max. His eyes rested not on Logan, but on the top of her downy soft head. His heart swelled until he thought for sure it would burst.

"You're welcome to stay as long as you'd like," Logan replied.

"No, I think going would be better," Zack shook his head. "God only knows if Lydecker's still alive, and besides, Max is...otherwise occupied."

"You know," Logan raised one hand to rub his eyes, "you don't have to keep running."

"Look who's talking," Zack snorted in reply. "You let her go without even telling her." Zack was very aware that people discounted him. He was an observant man, and he rarely missed the underlying currents between people. Even he would have to have been completely unaware to miss the strong ties between Logan and Max. He'd resented them at first, indeed he still did, but he'd come to accept that Max wasn't the small girl he remembered.

When he'd watched her run into Logan's cell, bury her fingers in his hair and kiss him, his heart had shattered into a million pieces. He'd spent the time since carefully picking them up. He wasn't quite ready to put them back together, but, in time, he knew that it was something he would get over. Zack was like that, he was used to having to push everything that hurt him away.

Sadly, he shifted his gaze back to Max. He needed her, badly, but he couldn't have her.

"I don't know what your talking about," Logan finally replied, his voice wavering.

Frustrated, Zack ran his hand through his too long hair, his jaw tightly clenched. The least Logan could do was treat her the way she deserved to be instead of playing endless games with her heart.

"You know, Cale," Zack sighed, steeling himself against what he was about to say, "she loves you, which is more than I can say. If I was in your place, I wouldn't be wasting my time fucking around with little games of denial."

Logan's face took on a humbled expression, and he blushed slightly.

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked suspiciously.

"Because she's my everything," Zack answered, turning to leave, "but I can't seem to make her happy."

He walked out, never turning to look back. He knew that if he looked back, he wouldn't be able to keep going, and that scared the hell out of him. Lydecker's body had disappeared, he had obligations to ten other people who he couldn't allow to get hurt. Life was a painful journey alone, but it had been more painful in knowing the only woman he'd ever let into his tightly guarded heart was bitterly empty.

Not for the first time, Zack walked away and tried to ignore the gaping, bleeding wound in his soul.

***

Logan stood in front of his bathroom mirror, gingerly touching the back of his head.

"Always thought you had a hard head, now I've got proof," Max joked from he doorway.

He sent her a look that conveyed he didn't appreciate the jest. She sent him one of her blinding smiles in return. He'd suffered a concussion and gotten a few stitches in the back of his head, but there was no permanent damage done by the ordeal, except perhaps the newly created fissures in his heart.

Zack's visit to the hospital haunted him. The broken hurt he'd seen in the other man's eyes had effected Logan in a way he hadn't expected it to. He'd never realized the way the games he and Max played really effected either of them, or other people. In fact, he'd been trying to work up the courage to finally tell her how he felt.

"I should probably get back to work before Normal goes on the war path," Max sighed, leaning against the doorframe.

"Thanks for stopping by," Logan said, walking up to her.

"Thought I'd make sure you hadn't fallen down and recracked your noggin," she shrugged, smiling. He'd been a little dizzy from the medicine he'd gotten at the hospital, and she was a constant tease.

"Nice to know you're thinking about me," Logan laughed, moving her gently aside with the brush of a hand.

She followed him to the living room.

"Actually, I was wondering about something else," she admitted, biting at her bottom lip. "Did you talk to Zack before he left?"

"Yeah," he admitted.

"Did he...I mean...did he leave because I was pissed off at him?"

"I don't think so."

"Because I chewed his ass out pretty good..."

"He didn't say anything about it," Logan shrugged.

"Oh." She looked sad. "Logan?"

"Yeah?"

"Never mind...." she turned to leave, but hesitated. He could plainly see that she missed her brother and he couldn't help but think that maybe there were times when Zack needed her more than he did. Times when she needed her brother instead of a friend, instead of a lover. Logan wanted to be her lover, to be her everything, but he was only to aware that he couldn't be. She needed Zack in her life.

"Max?" She stopped, turned around.

"What?"

"Maybe in a few weeks, me and you can take a little vacation, try and find him?" She smiled and walked back to him. She stood close enough that he could smell her shampoo.

"That would be nice," she said, looking up at him. He wanted to kiss her with every fiber of his being. Her eyes searched his for a moment before she reached out and touched his arm. "Guess I'd better go."

She started to walk away, but he couldn't let her go. He grabbed her hand, the simple gesture breaking both of them. They came together, for once unrestrained. Their lips sought one another and locked in a deep, passionate embrace.

When they pulled apart, breathless, her eyes were dancing.

"Maybe we can go sooner than a couple weeks," she suggested, then, grinning, walked out his door. He watched her go, his feelings tangled. There was a wall between them that had been broken, but it wasn't yet the right time to give professions of love that neither of them were ready to give or receive. There was yet two rifts that stood between them, one of which was Zack. The other, well...the other was Max herself. For so long, he'd thought they could be together if he could walk, and he'd concentrated on that until finally he could. However, that had been only one block to get past.

With time, they would be together. In a time when Max was ready to ready to hand her heart to him, in a time when he would be able to drop the walls around his.

Until then, they would remain. He, the determined, resilient man. She, the strong, intelligent young woman. Neither able to give the other what they needed, and both contending with the currents running through and between them that were as abandoned and wild as the wind.

*Was it what you expected? Not how I thought it was going to end, being the shipper I am. But really, this is a story about Zack...and that, maybe, sometimes, he does need Max more than Logan does. There are times when the only one I want, and need, is my big brother and no one else will do no matter how much I may like (or even daresay love) them. Ugh, I'd better quit explaining myself while I'm ahead! Let me know what you thought.*