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Chapter 60

Awakenings

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She turned and she saw his sleeping face, head nodded back on the chair, and felt his hand clasping hers. He had more facial hair than she'd ever seen, a full beard. He seemed to sense she was awake and he jerked upright.

"Hey," he said leaning forward and stroked her cheek.

Her mind was hazy, what had happened? "Hey yourself. I feel like I've been hit by a truck." she thought about it for a moment, "No, I've been hit by a truck this feels a hell of a lot worse."

"I can imagine. You gotta listen to me when I say be careful."

She smiled weakly, "What happened?" Max gave up on trying to remember it on her own, everything seemed so blurred.

"You went and almost got yourself killed again."

She laughed, she couldn't believe how hard it was to laugh, she looked at him through confused eyes.

"Max what do you remember?" He asked leaning over her, panic in his face.

She smiled, "Got the basics down, you're Logan, I'm Max." she tried to focus for a minute, "Lydecker?"

"Yea, Lydecker went and tracked down the doctor for us."

She shook her head, that didn't seem right, then again neither did Logan, actually wait no he did, he felt incredibly right. She tried again to focus.

"Hey," he said brushing back her hair and looking into her eyes, "Just take it easy. Your body's been through a lot."

Her mind started to clear and she saw two worlds emerging, which had been the dream? Both seemed so vivid.

"Just calm down Max, it's okay. Everything's okay now, we're together aren't we?"

She nodded and smiled, "Logan" she said softly

"What?" he smiled

She gave a small laugh as the dream fell away, "All of this crap, you being paralyzed, Manticore, the virus, it all made us into us didn't it?"

"Yea" he whispered, "But all of that's gone now."

"I had this dream, I saved you from being shot."

"How'd that turn out?"

"We had a lot of sex."

"Sounds like you had a better time in the drug induced coma than I did watching you."

"I'm sorry" her eyes fell for a minute, but then they went back to his, "I had to do it."

"I know you did." He closed his eyes, "You've got to promise me, you're never going to do anything like that ever again. I don't think I can live through it again."

-Flashback-

"So let me get this straight you want to pour bleach into Max?" Logan asked in disbelief as the doctor finished explaining the treatment.

The doctor laughed at Logan's summation of his treatment, it had been his own fault by comparing it to the CDC procedures Logan used after contact with Max. "Basically."

"Wouldn't that kill off more than just the virus?" Max asked softly.

The doctor nodded, "All of your immunities, your antibodies, blood cells, and there will be damage to your organs."

Logan laughed at the absurdity of it all, why were they even here listening to the psycho who had done this to them in the first place.

The doctor turned to him, "I'm not saying this isn't risky, a human would be dead within the first day of the treatment, but with Max's physiology, she should most likely pull through and once the virus is gone, we stop the treatment, and give her several x-5 transfusions which should restore all of her previous immunities and her organs will heal in time."

Logan shook his head, "Max let's go"

"Wait."

He turned to her in shock, "Max, there's no waiting needed."

-End Flashback-

"We had a daughter," Max smiled softly, recalling the chubby cheeks and cherubic lips, "and she was perfect. She was so real."

"Maybe one day I'll get to meet her," Logan smiled holding her hand.

It was bittersweet, when it shouldn't be. Her ova were most likely damaged to the point where Engel would suggest never trying for a child naturally. It was doubtful any of her eggs would be viable. That hadn't mattered to her before because there would never be a child without Logan, only now she realized there would never be a child with Logan. Allie would eventually fade from her mind, every moment as real as it seemed, would disappear as the dream it was.

"Hey, Max," Logan said with a finger catching the tear that started to stream down her cheek.

"I'm fine," Max shook her head, "just a little broken at the moment."

"Been there myself a time or two," a tender smile graced her eyes, the crinkle of his eyes, the love expressed in all of it.

"Everyone's waiting outside," Logan nodded at the door, "do you want to see anyone?"

His name was on her lips, she had wanted to see her brother, to show him happy endings did happen. Instead all that came out was a gasp as she covered her mouth, pain flooding through her, so intense it felt as if she would crack on the spot.

It replayed in slow motion, but it had happened in the blink of an eye...

-o-o-o-

They never figured out what had made him snap. Zack had been fine for months, Lydecker had been positive that the Psy Ops had been able to counter Renfro's programming. Then one day he had gone after Logan, Alec had been no match to the man with bionic parts and they had always known that, the two frequently joked about it. Alec's attempt at protecting Logan had resulted in a skull fracture, a concussion and three broken ribs from how he connected with a piece of rebar.

It had all happened before anyone could react. Alec had been the only one next to Logan and Alec flying through the air was their first sign of something being wrong.

Max launched herself forward, but even as she was doing it, she knew she'd be watching Logan's death. She was simply too far away. She was going to watch her brother murder her love.

As the shot rang out, Max froze. Her brother's blood splattered on the wall, her brother's collapse. Lydecker's gun ending the life of another one of his kids.

-o-o-o-

"Zack," Max whimpered.

"I know," Logan consoled as he pulled her into his arms, climbing onto the bed with her.

"He's gone, he's, it's… I should have done this better. Why didn't I know how to do this better?"

"You did your best, we all did our best."

"It wasn't enough."

"Yes it was," Logan took her hands and looked into her eyes, "you just said it yourself, what happened to us, made us into us. And I wouldn't change us for the world. Our friends, all the people you helped."

"I should have-"

"I have a million regrets Max, I wouldn't be human if I didn't, but we have to move past them in order to keep living."

-Flashback-

"Is that going to be us one day?" Max asked seeing a couple outside of a church, the bride wasn't in a white dress, the groom not in a tux, but they were surrounded by their screaming friends throwing seeds. Everyone looked happy and joyous, it was rare to see on the streets of Seattle, except for when everyone was drunk.

"Definitely," Logan held Max's glove covered hand tighter.

"Promise?" Max's lips lifted up in a hopeful, yet desperate smile, "When we beat-" Max noticed as she watched Logan's mouth fall, "What?"

"No," Logan shook his head.

Max was too stunned to react.

"Our love has nothing to do with this virus or the Familiars."

"We can't touch-"

"Skin," Logan brushed it aside, "marriage is supposed to be about more than that. It's about loving someone forever, telling everyone that is the one person you would do anything for, give anything for. We're going to find a cure Max, but even if someone told me that would never happen. You're that person, you'll always be that person."

"Lo-"

"Marry me," Logan asked her.

"Even though you can't kiss the bride?"

"Because of that."

Her brows lifted.

"I'd be happy to just hold your hand for the rest of your life."

"When?"

"Today, tomorrow? We'll stop by and see Father Destry."

"I love you," she told him easily at this point.

He tightened his grip on her hand, "I love you too, so is that a yes?"

"Wasn't even a question," Max smiled at him.

-End Flashback-

"Are you okay?" Logan asked with a hand across her cheek.

Max nodded unable to speak. A vision of Zack perched on the edge of a crappy couch, of Allie and Logan nose to nose.

"You sure?"

"Just remnants of another life."

AN: The dream aspect was meant to be pretty noticeable at the start of the story (it was, right?) and then meant to fade away as the dream became her reality. There were two scenes without Max, the strawberry and the scene with Zach, I figured they would be such memorable scenes that they would have been recounted to her on several occasions, though after posting them I wished I changed the dialogue so it wasn't verbatim to the show.

As I continued to write this and grow attached to the new versions that had been created, I wanted to make a reality based version, where we would have Logan chapters because there were a lot of completely disastrous things that happened. The end of that following the fade to black would have had Logan off in Europe somewhere with his daughter, having given up on everything aside from protecting his daughter, including Max (what Max would have wanted) and Max having sacrificed her freedom, ending up back in Manticore to keep her loves safe.

So Remnants is completed, thanks for reading, if you were happy to have an end thank Babyangel, if you hated the end, blame Babyangel. :-P