"Logan's Tied Up in Bed"
Aug. 27th, 2007 06:44 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
savannahjan.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
jam_pony_ficTitle: Logan's Tied Up in Bed
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
savannahjan
Pairing: Max/Logan
Word Count: 3604
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Uh...none, I don't think. Unless you don't know what happens with White's family.
Author's notes: This was written for the August ficathon. I wrote this fortartanshell. My prompt was "Max and Logan end up in bed together." I hope this satisfies.
I don't own 'em, but I wouldn't mind having them over for a visit.
Summary: In order to get information from Max, Ames kidnaps Logan and sets an elaborate trap.
It's time like this that I wish I had a D.A. icon. *sigh*
Ames paced the small room, gloating over the body laying on the only furniture in the room: a small bed. The hands of the victim were tied at the head and the feet were also restrained at the end. The struggling had gone from violent and desperate to pathetic with gasping breaths.
“Are we done?” Ames cooed sarcastically.
The figure thrashed weakly at the sound of Ames’s voice, making growling noises, trying to speak through the gag blocking any sound.
Ames laughed and reached over to remove his bait’s blindfold. “Oh, Logan, is it? Or do you prefer Eyes Only? Don’t worry. You’re not the one I want. But, once she knows you’re missing, I have no doubt 452 will rush over here in some little black outfit to save you. She seems to be fond of you. Something I don’t understand,” he spoke conversationally as he took a seat at Logan’s feet. “I mean, she may be the shortcut, cheap knock-off version of the real deal, but even her superiority, generic as it is, should be above you. I guess she has a weakness for lost causes.” He leaned forward. “In fact, I’m counting on it.”
He stood up and moved to the door. “You won’t be alone long, I guarantee that,” he said over his shoulder as he walked out, the sound of metal closing behind him.
***
Max wasted no time following the directions on Ames’s note. She growled to herself about the cowardice of White’s actions involving Logan. But, she knew it had been a strategic move. After all, exploiting a target’s weakness had practically been Manticore 101. And here she was, walking into the trap set especially for her. “Lydecker would be so disappointed,” she muttered.
She moved silently along the roof of the building Ames had specified, hopping to find Logan and get out without even seeing Ames, but that seemed unlikely. The building was literally a cement block with no windows. “What architect puked up these blue prints?” Two doors, a front and a back were the only openings she saw in the minimal time she had to do recon before the roof lit up like those pictures of the Vegas strip she’d seen in books.
“452, would you care to join me in the drawing room,” Ames slurred.
“Where’s Logan!”
“Follow me.” Ames turned and walked downstairs on the side of the building.
Max followed cautiously, looking for an ambush, but she followed Ames inside the building and into a small room without incident. She sensed no immediate danger in the room, but still remained standing, though he’d indicated a place for her to sit.
“Spill it, what do you want?”
“Oh, we’ll get to that. But first, the answer to your first question?” He used a remote to turn on a small television.
Max had to concentrate in order to show no reaction to the sight of Logan restrained on a bed. Revealing weakness in front of the captor would only make the situation worse. “I had no idea you were into the kinky stuff, Ames. I had you pegged as the lights off, hit it and quit it, kind of guy. This reveals a whole new you.”
“I thought you’d be more concerned for his well-being, seeing as it is because of you that he’s in this predicament.” He clicked the remote and the screen went black. “So, now that you’ve gotten in your verbal attack would you like the answer to your next question?”
Max remained silent, but perched on the arm of the chair indicating a willingness to listen.
“You took something of mine,” Ames started.
“Your pride? Self-respect? Fashion sense?”
Ames slammed the table beside him. “My son!” he shouted, his eyes wide in anger.
Max sat with no reaction to the outburst.
Ames’s shoulders rose and fell with a cleansing breath and he continued. “You were a part of kidnapping my son. You know where Ray is. That is what I want. His location.”
She shook her head. “And what’s Logan got to do with that?”
“Think of him as motivation for an honest answer.”
Max’s head was abuzz, running escape scenarios. None seemed viable. “Sorry, Ames. I have no idea where the kid is. We aren’t pen pals. I dropped him off at child serves and walked away,” she smiled.
His face reddened, and he spoke through clenched teeth. “If that were true, I’d have found him by now.” He straightened up and loosened his collar. “But, I expected this from you. No worries. I have even motivation.”
Max tensed, but realized it was too late when she felt a tiny prick in her neck. Somehow, he’d hit her with something. She felt limp.
“Not fast enough, 452,” Ames moved toward her.
Max tried to move.
“Don’t worry, I need the info more than I want you dead. Right now, anyway.” Ames stood above her. “You know, it took me this long to realize it, but I read something very interesting about you in you Manticore file.” He bent his face close to hers. “Have you received all your shots, 452? I’d hate for you to give a virus to your friend,” he hissed.
Max felt her eyes getting wet before the room went black.
***
“Max. Max, wake up,” a voice tried to penetrate the darkness that consumed Max’s consciousness. She pushed through it, willing her eyes to open.
Through blurred vision she saw a face directly beneath her. And panic overcame any self-discipline she’d ever had brainwashed into her. She thrashed, scrambling to remove any contact she was making with Logan. “I can’t! I can’t!” she was close to screaming.
“Max!” Logan’s voice attempted to command the ex-soldier above him.
“She paused and tried to focus on him. Now she noticed that she was above him, but making no contact with him. “What the hell?”
Logan smiled awkwardly. “I don’t think you’ll believe me.”
Max tried to look around the room, but couldn’t see much. Though, as her faculties slowly returned, she realized what was going on. She was suspended above Logan. A shirtless Logan, she noticed, feeling heat redden her cheeks. “So…”
“I was hoping you’d have the plan,” he said, looking directly into her eyes.
Before Max could speak, the lines suspending her slackened, dropping her inches closer to Logan. Logan’s eyes grew wide and Max braced her body, hoping foolishly her mental power could stop her from falling toward Logan. The drop halted, but Max saw something equally upsetting. A knife was standing on Logan’s stomach, directly beneath her chest, ready to pierce her skin once she’d fallen onto Logan.
She could hear Logan’s gasped breaths and heard an intercom click on. “And that’s how the game is played. Every ten minutes, I drop you two inches. The way I see it, you have about half an hour to tell me where my son is.” The intercom clicked off.
Max knew that Ames probably had the room tapped, so they’d have to communicate carefully.
“So that’s what this is about,” Logan said.
“Afraid so. I tried to tell him, but that guy’s a hard sell.” She remained suspended above him in silence for a moment and then heard Logan laugh haltingly. “What?”
He swallowed his laugh and said, “The many times I’ve pictured you this way, it was in a very different situation.”
“Logan, I don’t think you truly appreciate the situation we are actually in. If I get the urge to sneeze, you die. If Ames’s little contraption malfunctions, you die.”
He sighed. “I know. So, what’s the plan?”
She gazed around the room the best she could, but nothing jumped out as any great help. “So, how tied up are you?”
“Pretty secure from what I can tell.”
“You remember our friend with the camera?”
“Yea…what about him?”
“Don’t you always keep that thing he gave you on your person?”
Logan’s eyes grew wide with recognition.
“So you have it now?”
He nodded.
Suddenly, Max felt herself dropping.
The intercom kicked on. “This isn’t an exercise in escape Houdini-style. Where is my son?” It clicked off.
“Max-“
“I know, I know! I’m working on it.” She calculated, strategized, but nothing was coming. Two more drops and Logan would die. Not to mention, she’d have a knife through the chest. Her eyes brightened. “I’ve got nothing. Manticore didn’t exactly prepare me for this scenario.”
“What?”
“And we can’t tell him where Ray is,” she whispered.
Logan’s mouth gaped. “Max.”
She bit her lip. “Logan, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry this happened.”
His eyes softened. “We’ll get out of this. Just think.”
“Logan, just stop. If I start to cry, Ames won’t have to continue with the torture. It’ll be death by teardrop for you.”
She saw Logan struggling to loose his arms. “I’m not giving up,” he grunted.
She glared at him pointedly. “I’m not asking you to,” the words came out deliberately.
He paused. And Max saw what may have been a wink, but to anyone else, just a twitch of the eye. “You fought your whole life to give up now?”
“Logan, I’m so tired of fighting. Sometimes I feel like my life is a TV show where every week I’m fighting either for myself or the ones I love. And that much action takes a lot out of a girl.” She dropped her head, feeling the restraint pushing on her throat.
“Oh, Max,” Logan sighed. “You’re really done?”
“Yes.”
“Even if I were to believe this, if you give up, and let Ames win, I die too,” he said, tearing up.
Max lifted her head. “That I’ll never give up on. Which means, you’re going to have to do something for me.”
“What’s that?”
“If I die, the virus dies with me. You’ll have to help that happen.”
“Max, I can’t.”
“Hey, I fall, we both die. You help me, I die, but you may still have a chance.”
Logan shook his head. “Not much of a chance without my transgenic friend to help me escape.”
“You’ll think of something, I know it. We don’t have much time.”
“Let’s just say I’ll go along with this. What exactly am I agreeing to do that will help you kill yourself?”
“We don’t have many options. So I’m going to strangle myself,” she rushed through the words, forcing them out.
“No-“
“Yes. I just need help. I need you to use Camera Guy’s gift to get my feet loose. If I let them hang, I’ll strangle. Even my arms can’t hold me up forever by themselves.”
“This is ridiculous!”
“Hey rich guy, saving the world from a penthouse,” she paused and smiled at him, “It will be ok.”
The silence filled the room like smoke.
“Max, I love you,” Logan said softly. “I hate that it is taking this to make me say it, when I’ve had to many better chances.”
“It’s still nice to hear,” she said softly.
They remained silent for a moment. “This is usually where the guy kisses the girl.”
“There’s never been anything usual about us.”
“That’s true.” He looked away a moment before looking her directly in the eye. “You are so beautiful. Please. Don’t give up.”
She shook her head. “I don’t see another way. Do it now.” She closed her eyes and let her head fall. She could hear Logan struggling to loosen the exoskeleton. She heard the restraint break off the bedpost. Max strained against her restraints in order to help them break. The link on each ankle broke as they worked together.
“Max?” Logan panted.
She looked up.
“Is this it?”
She smiled at him. “Logan, don’t give up. Don’t make this a waste,” she looked into the blue eyes she’d come to depend on and relaxed her entire body, feeling the rope tighten around her throat.
She used all the discipline Lydecker had ingrained into her to control her breathing. She realized Ames wouldn’t let this go that easily. It had to be real. She had no idea how much time had passed, but she knew if she moved before the final drop that there would be no other way out of this. She could hear Logan breathing as he attempted to play the mourner, maybe struggled to get lose. Come on Ames, just do it!
After what was felt like half an hour, Max’s lungs began to pulse with her heartbeat. She didn’t know how much longer she could pull this off.
The intercom clicked. “452, this is pathetic. Sacrifice never achieves anything. Just tell me where Ray is.”
Max didn’t move.
“Ames! Let her go! She’s strangling! Release her! Please don’t let her die!” Logan sounded like he was crying.
“Well, I suppose I could do that. After all, if I drop her, you both die anyway. And it is obvious you’d both rather die than give me what I want. You hear that, 452, if there’s still the slightest breath in you, that virus is alive and kicking, and you are about to kill your darling Logan.” He paused. “One last chance. Tell me where he is, or that Manticore virus finally gets its chance to do its job.”
“Ames! You aren’t going to get Ray back. We don’t know where he is! Just stop this! Stop it now.”
“I knew you were pathetic, but this is just stomach-churning. Any last words, 452? Nothing to say to me?”
Logan was kicking his feet, wrestling with his arm restraints.
“Fine. It looks like I’m going to get one of the things I’ve always wanted. 452 is about to become an autopsy report.” The intercom clicked off.
“Max?” Logan whispered.
The ropes fell and Max drew a quick breath before pushing off her right foot, to turn and land beside Logan, rather than on top of him.
“Max!” Logan gasped.
“Not now!” She reached her hands toward the knife and cut the ropes off her hands. She immediately rolled out of the bed, worried some part of her would touch Logan, allowing the virus to run its course. “Don’t. Move,” she ordered. She carefully removed the knife from its mount and went to setting Logan’s arms free. Don’t touch. Don’t touch, she chanted in her mind.
She moved quickly away from Logan as soon as he was free and stood ready for what would be coming through the door.
The intercom came on. “Oh, 452, now I’m really angry. But I’m afraid I can’t stay around to watch. Building demolition is wearisome.” His laughter was cut off when the intercom turned off.
“Demolition?” Panic soaked Logan’s words.
“We’ll be outta here before that happens.” Max scanned the room, but the only way out was the door. “Metal door, who makes this stuff!”
The two stared at each other when they heard small explosions from somewhere in the building.
“Time to go,” Max said as she moved to the door. A weakness. Come on, old building. Don’t let me down. But nothing around the door was letting them out. And Max could hear the explosions getting closer, and felt dust from the ceiling falling on her. “Is that dust?”
She rushed and stood on the bed before Logan could answer. “A solid room, but a weak ceiling. This architect was a real genius.”
“What do you need?”
“I need you.”
“What?” Logan’s voice softened.
“Your exoskeleton. We need a way to make it so you can kick us a way out of the ceiling.”
“Oh. Right. The ceiling.”
“Help me.” She jumped off the bed and started lifting it on its end.
Logan came over and pushed with her. The bed rested uneasily on one end. “Now what?”
“Climb up.”
Logan waited a moment. “We were in bed together, you know?”
“Logan, really. No time.”
“I’m just saying. I wish we could do that more often.”
She smiled. “Me too. Now go!”
Logan climbed up the bed. He lay on his back, placing his feet against the ceiling. The exoskeleton pushed forcefully against the ceiling. It took Logan two impacts, but a hole appeared in the ceiling. “We’re through!”
“Go! I’m right behind you!”
Logan climbed through the hole he created and found himself in a room full of television screens and audio equipment. “Must’ve been where Ames was watching us from,” Logan said. He turned and saw Max’s hands on the floor, climbing up. Logan looked around the room. The door was open. “This will be much easier. And open door.”
“Don’t heave that breath of relief just yet. There’s only two doors out of this place, and chances are, one of them has been blasted.”
They ran out the door, Max leading the way. She could only guess that they were on the north side of the building. The demolition must’ve started on the South side, but it wasn’t taking long to get here. “This way.” The stairs led down, and Max hoped that they were somewhere near the back door. She could hear Logan following behind her and she felt relieved to know that once again, she had avoided passing the virus to him.
At the bottom of the stairs, Max looked in all directions. The blasts had reached the hallways to the left of her, making that direction impassable. “I hope this is the way. We don’t really have a choice.”
They ran down the hallways, the blasts threatening to puncture their ear drums. A blast broke through the wall directly behind Max and she heard Logan grunt. “Logan!” She turned and saw him struggling to keep up! “Move!” she shouted.
“I can’t.”
“No! Move it, Logan. Now!”
His face was pale, but he continued forward, stepping over the debris, wincing with each step.
Max looked around quickly, and saw a rug on the floor. She grabbed it and threw it around Logan. Throwing him over her shoulder like a potato sack, she ran, digging her legs into the floor, pushing herself along. The door she’d seen from the outside was only less than ten feet before her. She ordered her legs to move, to get them out. With the detonations pounding in her head, she reached the door.
She turned the knob. It was locked. “No!”
Logan groaned.
She tried to kick at the door, but with Logan on her shoulders, that was a daunting task.
“Let me do it,” he grunted.
Max set him gently on the ground, and once again, he used his exoskeleton. The door cracked under the pressure, and Max pushed Logan out the door, just before another blast hit where she’d just been standing.
She lay next to Logan listening to the both of them breathe. She rolled him onto his side, careful to keep her hands on the rug. He smiled at her.
“We made it.”
“Don’t we always?” she smiled back.
Logan closed his eyes a moment. “I was really scared in there,” he said quietly.
“What do you mean?”
He looked at her. “I thought you were really gone. I thought you’d strangled yourself. I thought I’d lost you.”
She fidgeted under his gaze. “I thought you winked at me that you understood.”
“I did. I did. I just…it was scary to see you hold perfectly still, no breathing for that long. I guess you have some skills I didn’t know completely know about.”
“Oh, well, I guess I never told you how I escaped from Bruno the first time we met. Held my breath at the bottom of a pool so he’d think I’d drown.”
“Good plan.”
“Did what I could.”
“I’m really glad that you weren’t dead. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Max looked away. “Logan-“
“Don’t even tell me that we aren’t like that. There is only one reason that we aren’t like that. If it weren’t for the virus, we would be in bed together every night and every morning.”
Max laughed. “I’m not a machine, Logan.”
He smiled. “That was exactly what I meant, but I’d enjoy some of that too. I just, I just want to be with you,” he said as he began to push himself off the ground.
“You hurt?”
“Nothing I can’t handle. I think I just had a piece of a concrete building fall on my back. But other than that, I’m fine.”
She sat up with him. “Well, good.”
“You ready to go home?”
“Yours or mine?”
“Well, before I was rudely kidnapped, I think I was actually planning to make dinner. And I know how much you love my cooking.”
“I just can’t resist a man who knows his way around a kitchen.”
Logan stood, wincing a little as he did. “Well, let’s get out of here.”
Max stood and they both started walking toward her motorcycle. “This is going to be tricky.” Logan got on first and Max covered him again with the rug. She climbed on behind him, ensuring she wasn’t touching him anywhere.
“You know, you got deep in there near the end.”
“Whatdoyamean?”
“That whole, ‘my life is a tv show’ thing.”
“Oh that? Just adding to the drama.”
“If your life were a TV show, do you think we’d end up together?”
She laughed once. “I imagine it would be a lot like it is now. I mean, what's a good TV show without a little sexual tension?”
“Yea, I guess so.”
“You all set?”
“I’m ready if you are.”
“Well, let’s head to dinner. Until the next episode.” She fired up her bike and they cruised down the the road to the high-rise district of Seattle.
Author:
savannahjanPairing: Max/Logan
Word Count: 3604
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Uh...none, I don't think. Unless you don't know what happens with White's family.
Author's notes: This was written for the August ficathon. I wrote this for
tartanshell. My prompt was "Max and Logan end up in bed together." I hope this satisfies.I don't own 'em, but I wouldn't mind having them over for a visit.
Summary: In order to get information from Max, Ames kidnaps Logan and sets an elaborate trap.
It's time like this that I wish I had a D.A. icon. *sigh*
Ames paced the small room, gloating over the body laying on the only furniture in the room: a small bed. The hands of the victim were tied at the head and the feet were also restrained at the end. The struggling had gone from violent and desperate to pathetic with gasping breaths.
“Are we done?” Ames cooed sarcastically.
The figure thrashed weakly at the sound of Ames’s voice, making growling noises, trying to speak through the gag blocking any sound.
Ames laughed and reached over to remove his bait’s blindfold. “Oh, Logan, is it? Or do you prefer Eyes Only? Don’t worry. You’re not the one I want. But, once she knows you’re missing, I have no doubt 452 will rush over here in some little black outfit to save you. She seems to be fond of you. Something I don’t understand,” he spoke conversationally as he took a seat at Logan’s feet. “I mean, she may be the shortcut, cheap knock-off version of the real deal, but even her superiority, generic as it is, should be above you. I guess she has a weakness for lost causes.” He leaned forward. “In fact, I’m counting on it.”
He stood up and moved to the door. “You won’t be alone long, I guarantee that,” he said over his shoulder as he walked out, the sound of metal closing behind him.
***
Max wasted no time following the directions on Ames’s note. She growled to herself about the cowardice of White’s actions involving Logan. But, she knew it had been a strategic move. After all, exploiting a target’s weakness had practically been Manticore 101. And here she was, walking into the trap set especially for her. “Lydecker would be so disappointed,” she muttered.
She moved silently along the roof of the building Ames had specified, hopping to find Logan and get out without even seeing Ames, but that seemed unlikely. The building was literally a cement block with no windows. “What architect puked up these blue prints?” Two doors, a front and a back were the only openings she saw in the minimal time she had to do recon before the roof lit up like those pictures of the Vegas strip she’d seen in books.
“452, would you care to join me in the drawing room,” Ames slurred.
“Where’s Logan!”
“Follow me.” Ames turned and walked downstairs on the side of the building.
Max followed cautiously, looking for an ambush, but she followed Ames inside the building and into a small room without incident. She sensed no immediate danger in the room, but still remained standing, though he’d indicated a place for her to sit.
“Spill it, what do you want?”
“Oh, we’ll get to that. But first, the answer to your first question?” He used a remote to turn on a small television.
Max had to concentrate in order to show no reaction to the sight of Logan restrained on a bed. Revealing weakness in front of the captor would only make the situation worse. “I had no idea you were into the kinky stuff, Ames. I had you pegged as the lights off, hit it and quit it, kind of guy. This reveals a whole new you.”
“I thought you’d be more concerned for his well-being, seeing as it is because of you that he’s in this predicament.” He clicked the remote and the screen went black. “So, now that you’ve gotten in your verbal attack would you like the answer to your next question?”
Max remained silent, but perched on the arm of the chair indicating a willingness to listen.
“You took something of mine,” Ames started.
“Your pride? Self-respect? Fashion sense?”
Ames slammed the table beside him. “My son!” he shouted, his eyes wide in anger.
Max sat with no reaction to the outburst.
Ames’s shoulders rose and fell with a cleansing breath and he continued. “You were a part of kidnapping my son. You know where Ray is. That is what I want. His location.”
She shook her head. “And what’s Logan got to do with that?”
“Think of him as motivation for an honest answer.”
Max’s head was abuzz, running escape scenarios. None seemed viable. “Sorry, Ames. I have no idea where the kid is. We aren’t pen pals. I dropped him off at child serves and walked away,” she smiled.
His face reddened, and he spoke through clenched teeth. “If that were true, I’d have found him by now.” He straightened up and loosened his collar. “But, I expected this from you. No worries. I have even motivation.”
Max tensed, but realized it was too late when she felt a tiny prick in her neck. Somehow, he’d hit her with something. She felt limp.
“Not fast enough, 452,” Ames moved toward her.
Max tried to move.
“Don’t worry, I need the info more than I want you dead. Right now, anyway.” Ames stood above her. “You know, it took me this long to realize it, but I read something very interesting about you in you Manticore file.” He bent his face close to hers. “Have you received all your shots, 452? I’d hate for you to give a virus to your friend,” he hissed.
Max felt her eyes getting wet before the room went black.
***
“Max. Max, wake up,” a voice tried to penetrate the darkness that consumed Max’s consciousness. She pushed through it, willing her eyes to open.
Through blurred vision she saw a face directly beneath her. And panic overcame any self-discipline she’d ever had brainwashed into her. She thrashed, scrambling to remove any contact she was making with Logan. “I can’t! I can’t!” she was close to screaming.
“Max!” Logan’s voice attempted to command the ex-soldier above him.
“She paused and tried to focus on him. Now she noticed that she was above him, but making no contact with him. “What the hell?”
Logan smiled awkwardly. “I don’t think you’ll believe me.”
Max tried to look around the room, but couldn’t see much. Though, as her faculties slowly returned, she realized what was going on. She was suspended above Logan. A shirtless Logan, she noticed, feeling heat redden her cheeks. “So…”
“I was hoping you’d have the plan,” he said, looking directly into her eyes.
Before Max could speak, the lines suspending her slackened, dropping her inches closer to Logan. Logan’s eyes grew wide and Max braced her body, hoping foolishly her mental power could stop her from falling toward Logan. The drop halted, but Max saw something equally upsetting. A knife was standing on Logan’s stomach, directly beneath her chest, ready to pierce her skin once she’d fallen onto Logan.
She could hear Logan’s gasped breaths and heard an intercom click on. “And that’s how the game is played. Every ten minutes, I drop you two inches. The way I see it, you have about half an hour to tell me where my son is.” The intercom clicked off.
Max knew that Ames probably had the room tapped, so they’d have to communicate carefully.
“So that’s what this is about,” Logan said.
“Afraid so. I tried to tell him, but that guy’s a hard sell.” She remained suspended above him in silence for a moment and then heard Logan laugh haltingly. “What?”
He swallowed his laugh and said, “The many times I’ve pictured you this way, it was in a very different situation.”
“Logan, I don’t think you truly appreciate the situation we are actually in. If I get the urge to sneeze, you die. If Ames’s little contraption malfunctions, you die.”
He sighed. “I know. So, what’s the plan?”
She gazed around the room the best she could, but nothing jumped out as any great help. “So, how tied up are you?”
“Pretty secure from what I can tell.”
“You remember our friend with the camera?”
“Yea…what about him?”
“Don’t you always keep that thing he gave you on your person?”
Logan’s eyes grew wide with recognition.
“So you have it now?”
He nodded.
Suddenly, Max felt herself dropping.
The intercom kicked on. “This isn’t an exercise in escape Houdini-style. Where is my son?” It clicked off.
“Max-“
“I know, I know! I’m working on it.” She calculated, strategized, but nothing was coming. Two more drops and Logan would die. Not to mention, she’d have a knife through the chest. Her eyes brightened. “I’ve got nothing. Manticore didn’t exactly prepare me for this scenario.”
“What?”
“And we can’t tell him where Ray is,” she whispered.
Logan’s mouth gaped. “Max.”
She bit her lip. “Logan, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry this happened.”
His eyes softened. “We’ll get out of this. Just think.”
“Logan, just stop. If I start to cry, Ames won’t have to continue with the torture. It’ll be death by teardrop for you.”
She saw Logan struggling to loose his arms. “I’m not giving up,” he grunted.
She glared at him pointedly. “I’m not asking you to,” the words came out deliberately.
He paused. And Max saw what may have been a wink, but to anyone else, just a twitch of the eye. “You fought your whole life to give up now?”
“Logan, I’m so tired of fighting. Sometimes I feel like my life is a TV show where every week I’m fighting either for myself or the ones I love. And that much action takes a lot out of a girl.” She dropped her head, feeling the restraint pushing on her throat.
“Oh, Max,” Logan sighed. “You’re really done?”
“Yes.”
“Even if I were to believe this, if you give up, and let Ames win, I die too,” he said, tearing up.
Max lifted her head. “That I’ll never give up on. Which means, you’re going to have to do something for me.”
“What’s that?”
“If I die, the virus dies with me. You’ll have to help that happen.”
“Max, I can’t.”
“Hey, I fall, we both die. You help me, I die, but you may still have a chance.”
Logan shook his head. “Not much of a chance without my transgenic friend to help me escape.”
“You’ll think of something, I know it. We don’t have much time.”
“Let’s just say I’ll go along with this. What exactly am I agreeing to do that will help you kill yourself?”
“We don’t have many options. So I’m going to strangle myself,” she rushed through the words, forcing them out.
“No-“
“Yes. I just need help. I need you to use Camera Guy’s gift to get my feet loose. If I let them hang, I’ll strangle. Even my arms can’t hold me up forever by themselves.”
“This is ridiculous!”
“Hey rich guy, saving the world from a penthouse,” she paused and smiled at him, “It will be ok.”
The silence filled the room like smoke.
“Max, I love you,” Logan said softly. “I hate that it is taking this to make me say it, when I’ve had to many better chances.”
“It’s still nice to hear,” she said softly.
They remained silent for a moment. “This is usually where the guy kisses the girl.”
“There’s never been anything usual about us.”
“That’s true.” He looked away a moment before looking her directly in the eye. “You are so beautiful. Please. Don’t give up.”
She shook her head. “I don’t see another way. Do it now.” She closed her eyes and let her head fall. She could hear Logan struggling to loosen the exoskeleton. She heard the restraint break off the bedpost. Max strained against her restraints in order to help them break. The link on each ankle broke as they worked together.
“Max?” Logan panted.
She looked up.
“Is this it?”
She smiled at him. “Logan, don’t give up. Don’t make this a waste,” she looked into the blue eyes she’d come to depend on and relaxed her entire body, feeling the rope tighten around her throat.
She used all the discipline Lydecker had ingrained into her to control her breathing. She realized Ames wouldn’t let this go that easily. It had to be real. She had no idea how much time had passed, but she knew if she moved before the final drop that there would be no other way out of this. She could hear Logan breathing as he attempted to play the mourner, maybe struggled to get lose. Come on Ames, just do it!
After what was felt like half an hour, Max’s lungs began to pulse with her heartbeat. She didn’t know how much longer she could pull this off.
The intercom clicked. “452, this is pathetic. Sacrifice never achieves anything. Just tell me where Ray is.”
Max didn’t move.
“Ames! Let her go! She’s strangling! Release her! Please don’t let her die!” Logan sounded like he was crying.
“Well, I suppose I could do that. After all, if I drop her, you both die anyway. And it is obvious you’d both rather die than give me what I want. You hear that, 452, if there’s still the slightest breath in you, that virus is alive and kicking, and you are about to kill your darling Logan.” He paused. “One last chance. Tell me where he is, or that Manticore virus finally gets its chance to do its job.”
“Ames! You aren’t going to get Ray back. We don’t know where he is! Just stop this! Stop it now.”
“I knew you were pathetic, but this is just stomach-churning. Any last words, 452? Nothing to say to me?”
Logan was kicking his feet, wrestling with his arm restraints.
“Fine. It looks like I’m going to get one of the things I’ve always wanted. 452 is about to become an autopsy report.” The intercom clicked off.
“Max?” Logan whispered.
The ropes fell and Max drew a quick breath before pushing off her right foot, to turn and land beside Logan, rather than on top of him.
“Max!” Logan gasped.
“Not now!” She reached her hands toward the knife and cut the ropes off her hands. She immediately rolled out of the bed, worried some part of her would touch Logan, allowing the virus to run its course. “Don’t. Move,” she ordered. She carefully removed the knife from its mount and went to setting Logan’s arms free. Don’t touch. Don’t touch, she chanted in her mind.
She moved quickly away from Logan as soon as he was free and stood ready for what would be coming through the door.
The intercom came on. “Oh, 452, now I’m really angry. But I’m afraid I can’t stay around to watch. Building demolition is wearisome.” His laughter was cut off when the intercom turned off.
“Demolition?” Panic soaked Logan’s words.
“We’ll be outta here before that happens.” Max scanned the room, but the only way out was the door. “Metal door, who makes this stuff!”
The two stared at each other when they heard small explosions from somewhere in the building.
“Time to go,” Max said as she moved to the door. A weakness. Come on, old building. Don’t let me down. But nothing around the door was letting them out. And Max could hear the explosions getting closer, and felt dust from the ceiling falling on her. “Is that dust?”
She rushed and stood on the bed before Logan could answer. “A solid room, but a weak ceiling. This architect was a real genius.”
“What do you need?”
“I need you.”
“What?” Logan’s voice softened.
“Your exoskeleton. We need a way to make it so you can kick us a way out of the ceiling.”
“Oh. Right. The ceiling.”
“Help me.” She jumped off the bed and started lifting it on its end.
Logan came over and pushed with her. The bed rested uneasily on one end. “Now what?”
“Climb up.”
Logan waited a moment. “We were in bed together, you know?”
“Logan, really. No time.”
“I’m just saying. I wish we could do that more often.”
She smiled. “Me too. Now go!”
Logan climbed up the bed. He lay on his back, placing his feet against the ceiling. The exoskeleton pushed forcefully against the ceiling. It took Logan two impacts, but a hole appeared in the ceiling. “We’re through!”
“Go! I’m right behind you!”
Logan climbed through the hole he created and found himself in a room full of television screens and audio equipment. “Must’ve been where Ames was watching us from,” Logan said. He turned and saw Max’s hands on the floor, climbing up. Logan looked around the room. The door was open. “This will be much easier. And open door.”
“Don’t heave that breath of relief just yet. There’s only two doors out of this place, and chances are, one of them has been blasted.”
They ran out the door, Max leading the way. She could only guess that they were on the north side of the building. The demolition must’ve started on the South side, but it wasn’t taking long to get here. “This way.” The stairs led down, and Max hoped that they were somewhere near the back door. She could hear Logan following behind her and she felt relieved to know that once again, she had avoided passing the virus to him.
At the bottom of the stairs, Max looked in all directions. The blasts had reached the hallways to the left of her, making that direction impassable. “I hope this is the way. We don’t really have a choice.”
They ran down the hallways, the blasts threatening to puncture their ear drums. A blast broke through the wall directly behind Max and she heard Logan grunt. “Logan!” She turned and saw him struggling to keep up! “Move!” she shouted.
“I can’t.”
“No! Move it, Logan. Now!”
His face was pale, but he continued forward, stepping over the debris, wincing with each step.
Max looked around quickly, and saw a rug on the floor. She grabbed it and threw it around Logan. Throwing him over her shoulder like a potato sack, she ran, digging her legs into the floor, pushing herself along. The door she’d seen from the outside was only less than ten feet before her. She ordered her legs to move, to get them out. With the detonations pounding in her head, she reached the door.
She turned the knob. It was locked. “No!”
Logan groaned.
She tried to kick at the door, but with Logan on her shoulders, that was a daunting task.
“Let me do it,” he grunted.
Max set him gently on the ground, and once again, he used his exoskeleton. The door cracked under the pressure, and Max pushed Logan out the door, just before another blast hit where she’d just been standing.
She lay next to Logan listening to the both of them breathe. She rolled him onto his side, careful to keep her hands on the rug. He smiled at her.
“We made it.”
“Don’t we always?” she smiled back.
Logan closed his eyes a moment. “I was really scared in there,” he said quietly.
“What do you mean?”
He looked at her. “I thought you were really gone. I thought you’d strangled yourself. I thought I’d lost you.”
She fidgeted under his gaze. “I thought you winked at me that you understood.”
“I did. I did. I just…it was scary to see you hold perfectly still, no breathing for that long. I guess you have some skills I didn’t know completely know about.”
“Oh, well, I guess I never told you how I escaped from Bruno the first time we met. Held my breath at the bottom of a pool so he’d think I’d drown.”
“Good plan.”
“Did what I could.”
“I’m really glad that you weren’t dead. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Max looked away. “Logan-“
“Don’t even tell me that we aren’t like that. There is only one reason that we aren’t like that. If it weren’t for the virus, we would be in bed together every night and every morning.”
Max laughed. “I’m not a machine, Logan.”
He smiled. “That was exactly what I meant, but I’d enjoy some of that too. I just, I just want to be with you,” he said as he began to push himself off the ground.
“You hurt?”
“Nothing I can’t handle. I think I just had a piece of a concrete building fall on my back. But other than that, I’m fine.”
She sat up with him. “Well, good.”
“You ready to go home?”
“Yours or mine?”
“Well, before I was rudely kidnapped, I think I was actually planning to make dinner. And I know how much you love my cooking.”
“I just can’t resist a man who knows his way around a kitchen.”
Logan stood, wincing a little as he did. “Well, let’s get out of here.”
Max stood and they both started walking toward her motorcycle. “This is going to be tricky.” Logan got on first and Max covered him again with the rug. She climbed on behind him, ensuring she wasn’t touching him anywhere.
“You know, you got deep in there near the end.”
“Whatdoyamean?”
“That whole, ‘my life is a tv show’ thing.”
“Oh that? Just adding to the drama.”
“If your life were a TV show, do you think we’d end up together?”
She laughed once. “I imagine it would be a lot like it is now. I mean, what's a good TV show without a little sexual tension?”
“Yea, I guess so.”
“You all set?”
“I’m ready if you are.”
“Well, let’s head to dinner. Until the next episode.” She fired up her bike and they cruised down the the road to the high-rise district of Seattle.
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Date: 2007-08-30 03:43 pm (UTC)For now, I just wanted to say YAY, and thank you! :)
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Date: 2007-09-04 08:50 am (UTC)Again, thank you so very much for writing for me. I really enjoyed this story! I love what you did with the prompt--totally not what I expected, really creative and fun.
I like how you incorporated the virus and made Logan kick a little ass (or ceiling) with the exo. I love that they got a chance to talk at the end (and on the bike together, yay!), and the meta about life being like a TV show was really funny.
*applauds*