Dark Angel Reverse Bang: "Blood Junkie"
Art Title: Blood Junkie
Artist: rhapsodean
Rating/Warnings: PG-13, blood needles, unprofessional medical procedures
Fic Title: Blood Junkie
Author: ladyarcherfan3
Parings/Characters: Alec, Logan, Max, others, (canon amounts of Max/Logan)
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 for blood, needles, some swearing
Word Count: ~5,110
Summary: One morning, Logan’s legs give out, and he sees the only way to fix it is with another transfusion of transgenic blood. Luckily, he finds a willing volunteer with Alec, but does Logan ask too much of him? Set after Freak Nation.
Notes: Many thanks to rhapsodean for her awesome art, I hardly feel that my fic warrants it. And thanks to denyce for her quick and excellent beta work - the final product would not be nearly so palatable without her help.
Blood Junkie
The first few times it happened, Logan managed to ignore it. He, like everyone, was under a hell of a lot of stress, so if it took him a while to get out of bed in the morning, legs stiff and reluctant to move. It only emphasized how tired he actually was, and who was going to say or deny he he wasn’t tired. Then there was the area in and around Terminal City really wasn’t particularly user friendly for the most part. There had been a crack in the pavement he hadn’t seen and nearly fell over, if Joshua hadn’t been there to catch him. Not everyone had been gifted with transgenic grace. Or at least that’s what he told himself the first time, and the second, but then the platitude wore thin.
He wanted to be near and spent most of his days and nights in TC, helping wherever he could, but it never seemed like enough. Max for her part, despite her capable lieutenants Alec and Mole, shouldered the blunt if the responsibility of trying to run a nation of transgenics confined to a toxic filled sector Seattle. However it wasn’t long before the strain of leadership started to show. The only times Logan saw her standing still was when she was bent over a list of logistics or watching the newest broadcast of what the government was planning to do about the transgenics.
So far, there hadn’t been any moves either towards a peace agreement or outright violence, but being caught in a limbo wasn’t any less stressful. All Logan wanted to do was to pull Max into his arms for a hug so she could forget her troubles for a least a few minutes. Although the thought and logistics of having to find a haz-mat suit for that sort of gesture would just piss Max off with a blatant reminder of the virus. He was almost grateful that Max had been too busy to stop and pay attention to him. It was something he was reminded of despite Max’s apparent change of heart right before every went to hell at Jam Pony.
Everything changed the morning Logan couldn’t lie even to himself. Ironically, it was sunny and bright, probably the nicest day that Seattle had seen since the Jam Pony incident, possibly the sunniest day of the year so far. Opposed to the glumness he woke up to. Logan sat on the edge of his bed, bathed in sunlight, staring down at his legs that had refused to support him.
He had gotten back to the house well after midnight, as he had decided to use the next few days to prepare a few more Eye Only broadcasts, which needed to happen. Before he had left TC there had been an unofficial agreement that he shouldn’t spend all his time at TC - Max reminded him how Sketchy and OC had to leave due to the toxic waste. Logan figured and argued the point that he probably had more immunity thanks to the transgenic blood boosting his system, even though there was no real proof.
Clearly, that theory wasn’t as sound as he would have liked.
After massaging the muscles, hoping he only had to get the blood flowing, he flexed and tried again. Tremors ran up and down his legs, but they held his weight. With one hand on the wall and a keen sense of where all the sharp corners of furniture were, he took a few shuffling steps. It felt like he’d been running stairs the day before, the muscles fatigued and twitching, but he was up and walking.
There was a sudden shuffling noise from the main floor of the house. “Hey, Logan, you up?” Alec’s voice called.
Logan took a deep breath and counted to five. “Yeah, just give me a minute,” he called down the stairs.
By the time he got out to the kitchen, the fatigue had passed out of his legs a bit; apparently they had needed to warm up. Walking into the kitchen, Logan smile when he heard the sounds of percolation. Alec had made coffee.
“Hey Logan! You don’t mind, right?” he gestured to the coffee maker. “I mean, I figured you’d want some too.”
“No, yeah, thanks.” He scrubbed a hand over his face then shuffled over to the living room and his computers. They were all booted up and running before the coffee was ready. It was then that Logan finally realized there was a question he should probably ask. “So Alec, What are you doing here?”
Alec appeared in the doorway with a mug gripped in both hands. “Bringing you coffee?”
Logan couldn’t help feeling suspicious and drew the word out, “Why?”
Alec gave Logan his coffee and shrugged. “Max asked me to check in on you.”
“I’ve been here for a while, and have been back and forth from TC for almost a month now. She never had you check in on me before.”
“Yeah, well…” Alec wandered further into the living room, towards the bookshelves that Joshua had mostly emptied since his exodus to TC. “She said you looked like shit, and wanted to make sure you were doing okay. Maybe she’s worried and doesn’t want it to be the same problems Sketchy had with radiation poisoning.”
Feeling anxious, Logan shifted his weight too fast. He felt the ache and immediate delay in his legs, but ignored it and pulled himself back over to the desk. “Tell her I’m fine. And that she doesn’t have to worry about me. She’s got more important things to deal with.”
Alec snorted. “That’s what I told her. At any rate, I left a bunch of that coffee for you. It’s some really expensive blend, and it’s good - better than the cheap stuff you drink. I better go. Have fun with.” Alec nodded to the computers then drained his mug and headed back towards the front door.
Logan didn’t know what to think took a quick sip of his coffee to cover his indecision. Surprisingly, it was good - really good. “So wait,” he called after Alec as he disappeared into the kitchen. “Max literally just sent you over to check on me, and to bring me coffee?”
Alec called out from the kitchen, “I told you. She knew you’d be up all hours doing your thing, and figured that you’d want something stronger to keep you going.”
“This is a really expensive blend. There wasn’t a better use for it on the black market?”
Alec’s head appeared through the kitchen door. “I didn’t say I gave you all of the coffee. Trust me, I put most of it to better use.” Without a backward glance he called, “See ya, Logan.” A few seconds later, the front door slammed.
For a moment Logan wondered how Alec was planning to get around in broad daylight when the entire city was on high alerts for transgenics. Then just as quickly he dismissed it and took another sip of his coffee. Alec had gotten to the house, there was no reason to think he couldn’t get back. He wasn’t a super solider for nothing.
The rest of the day passed without incident. His cyber investigations turned up nothing more than what had been shown on the new casts for the past week. Nothing was happening. Max had sent out several invitations to set up meetings in some neutral location, to the local, state and national governments, but either the overtures had been ignored or turned down with flowery apologies. The excuses all boiled down to the same thing - no one wanted to make the first move.
With nothing to go on, Logan had to be careful with his broadcasts. He didn’t want to inflame public option too much for fear of driving violent action towards the transgenics. But he also wanted to make sure a positive image of the transgenics stayed in the public’s mind. With a quiet sigh, he tapped the last few buttons, adjusted the webcam, and began.
“Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. The cable hack will last exactly sixty seconds. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and it is the only free voice left in this city…”
By the time he was done, the interior of the house was gloomy; he hadn’t bothered to turn on any lights when he’d gotten up that morning, and he’d been too absorbed in his work to do so later. Then his stomach growled demanding food. Meals hadn’t been at the forefront of his mind at any point of the day. Pushing back the chair, it rolled across uneven floorboards, rattling a little, before he stood.
For several heartbeats, nothing happened. His legs felt tired, a little stiff, but he had been sitting all day, so that wasn’t so strange. A rueful smile tugged at his lips. Whatever happened that morning must have been a fluke.
“Nothing to worry about,” he said, and walked slowly to the kitchen.
As his feet hit the linoleum, his entire lower body went numb. Before he could react, he crumpled, legs useless, arms flailing. On his decent, there was one moment of clarity where he realized that he was alone in the house. There was not one to fall for help, or anyone expecting him back in TC for a few days, and then his head hit the doorjamb, and everything went dark.
When he came to, it was completely dark. His entire body ached. Or at least what he could feel did. He fought back a flutter of panic and despair at the painfully familiar lack of sensation from the waist down. With a grunt, he managed to sit up and brace against the same door frame that had knocked him out. An exploratory touch to the back of his throbbing head uncovered no blood but a massive goose egg.
“Great. Fantastic,” he muttered. “Right. You’ve done this before. You survived. You can do this again.”
Resigned and momentarily calm, Logan considered his immediate options.
The house wasn’t that big, and he could scoot his half useless body around fairly well, as long as his head decided to play along and not explode. He landed more or less in the kitchen, but the chairs around the table weren’t terribly comfortable, if he was going to wait out a long time for some form of rescue. Besides, his phone was still on the desk right where he’d left it in the morning, prepping for his broadcasts. If he made it there, he could then make it to either the couch or the easy chair in the living room.
The phone and the prospect of comfort decided for him.
The one thing that eventually took the forefront of his thoughts as he pulled himself back to his desk was that how dirty the place was.
“Guess I’ve never swept,” he puffed, just to fill the silence. “Not sure if Joshua was much of a house-keeper either.”
His arms were trembling and sweat had soaked through his shirt by the time he managed to reach the desk. The cell phone was near the edge and he didn’t have work hard to get it. With a satisfied grunt, he flipped it open with his thumb automatically and went to scroll through his contact list. And stopped. There was no light on the screen, no response to the button jabs; his cell was dead.
“Oh, are you kidding me?” he snarled.
He shoved the phone into his pocket, then scooted around the desk and scrambled through the tangle of cords at the base and eventually found the charge cord. It would take at least a few hours to charge it and he was exhausted and frustrated. Tired, he slowly dragged himself across the floor to the couch, grimacing as dirt and grit ground into his hands. Finally, he reached the couch, and pulled and wiggled to prop himself up, and using the last of his upper body strength, tugged his legs up as he settled down.
After a moment, he prodded his thigh with a finger. When there wasn’t even the hint of a response from the nerves, he let his head flop backwards.
Around him, everything was amplified. Outside, a car alarm went off and someone shouted out a string of expletives. A spike of something he hadn’t felt in a long time cut through his chest. Loneliness and despair swelled through him as the numbness seemed to spread through his whole body. Logan knew that he just had to wait for the damn cell phone to charge. Still, in the dark, alone, knowing that he couldn’t reach out to anyone, couldn’t affectively defend himself - at that exact moment, in the pitch black, Logan couldn’t deny he was afraid.
“Logan!”
The front door slammed shut and Logan jerked awake. It took several seconds, but he realized that he was still on the couch, sunlight was filtering through the paint streaked windows, and Alec’s voice boomed through the house once again.
“Yo, Logan, where you at?”
“Uh, in here!” He scrubbed a hand over his face and tried to sit up straighter.
Alec walked into the room, brows flicking up when he took in the scene. “Long night?”
Logan was certain that he would be able to keep himself calm while he explained the situation. It wasn’t like he hadn’t faced this issue before, but as soon as he opened up his mouth, words just poured out.
“I don’t know what happened, exactly, but my legs gave out. I think the effects of the blood transfusion from Joshua wore off. Or maybe between the stress and the possible exposure to toxins-”
“Probable, not possible,” Alec interjected.
Logan ignored the interruption and steamrolled over him and continued. “I have no feeling at all. It’s just like before, I can’t feel anything.” Even Logan heard the panic as his voice shot up several octaves.
“Okay, take it easy,” Alec said, hands coming up in something halfway between comforting and warding, as if he wasn’t quite sure how to react. “Where are your robo legs?”
Logan grimaced. “Back at TC.” At Alec’s lifted eyebrow, he continued, “I didn’t want to wear them without reason. Besides, the transfusion was working. I figured if I’d need them, it’d be at TC. I never expected this…”
Alec huffed something close to a laugh. He tossed a glance around the house. “Well, what are the other options? You probably don’t have a wheelchair around anymore, huh?”
“Sorta. I did at my old place. Now…” Logan pointed toward the desk and the wheeled office chair.
“Funny.” Still, Alec grabbed the chair and hauled it over towards the couch. “At least we can get you around the house for now.” Alec glared at him pointedly.
Logan heard the real unspoken question in Alec’s gaze. Swallowing, he answered, “Blood transfusion.” He tried to say it confidently and not as a question.
“Didn’t that take a while to work last time?”
“Yeah, but this is basically a refresher, right?”
Alec finally conceded and shrugged. “Alright. I guess I owe you for the last time when you needed a transfusion.” He glanced around. “Don’t think I’ll be arrested this time, so Max won’t have to track down Joshua to cover for me.”
Instead of laughing at the joke, Logan blanched at the thought of Max finding out. “Max! You can’t tell her. She’ll just freak out and worry then blame herself.”
“You don’t have to tell me. She barely sleeps unless I make her. I’m considering tying her to the bed, which is not nearly as fun as it could be.”
Logan blinked away several images that popped into his head and the strange rush of jealousy that went with it.
Alec pushed the office chair closer to the couch then braced it with a foot. “Is there any medical equipment here?”
“Yeah, in the bathroom.”
“Cool. You want help or can you get on this yourself.”
“Just don’t let the chair roll or the seat spin.”
They managed to get into the kitchen without any mishaps, and Alec found the IV equipment for the blood transfusion. As they sat a bit awkwardly at the table, arms connected by the narrow red tube, Logan looked up suddenly.
“Why did you show up this morning? I didn’t really have plans to come back to TC yet, I didn’t think Max would need me -something didn’t happen, did it?”
Alec shrugged a shoulder; his eyes flicked across the room. “Dunno. Just had a feeling that I should. Besides, I didn’t have anything to do this morning other than I had to get away from Max for a while.”
Logan managed to refrain from responding. The burn in his chest and belly that had started weeks ago when Max had said that she and Alec were together came back. He took a deep breath and pushed it away. Max may have been trying to push him away, but clearly she didn’t mean it. At the moment Logan couldn’t deny Alec was being very helpful, so he left it alone.
After Alec pinched off the IV and put everything away, Logan pushed himself around the kitchen by pinging off the cupboards and the table. The rush of pins and needles back through his legs as nerves woke, the pain nearly drove him to tears, but he didn’t rush to stand up. The last thing he needed to do was fall on his ass in front of Alec.
“So, we good?” Alec asked as he hesitated at the front door.
“Yeah, but just don’t say anything to Max, please. If I don’t show up at TC tomorrow morning and you’re still free…”
“Don’t worry about it. Use your cell phone instead of just sitting in the dark if your legs give out.”
“It was dead and I had to charge it…”
“Figures. I’ll see you later, Logan.”
The house suddenly got very quiet.
The next few days developed a pattern. Alec would show up in the morning. He’d donate a bit of blood at Logan’s request, and then head out again. Logan went through his old routines, using exercise to get his legs moving again. Every day that went by he felt stronger.
About a week after the first incident, Logan finally felt better and back to one hundred percent. He decided it was time to finally resurface and make an appearance at TC.
The next morning, he made his way to TC. Arriving, he went straight to the command center, where he nearly with Dalton, who sprinted out the doors.
“Whoa, hey, what’s going on?” he asked as they both recovered their balance, Dalton notably quicker.
“Uh, nothing really. I just get to go along with on the raid, and have to make sure the bikes and van are fueled up.” Then he darted away.
“Five minutes, Dalton!”
He looked up to see Alec step away from the huddle and take a few steps towards the retreating X-6. Logan had to repress a wave of concern as he saw Alec’s face clearly. He was ashen, with faint bruises around his eyes; there was a slight hitch in his stride, as if he was too tired to care about how he moved.
“Hey Logan, good to see you up and around,” he greeted him.
“Are you okay, Alec? You don’t look so good. You should have said something yesterday…”
“What? I’m fine.”
They both paused as Max strode across the room and joined them. “Logan! Got caught up on all those broadcasts you wanted to make?”
“Yeah, yeah, just takes a bit longer than it did with my old set up,” he replied, trying for levity.
It didn’t quite work, or Max just took it upon herself to feel guilty. “I’ll help you get a better set up as soon as I can. It’s my fault White’s goons shot up your equipment, left you homeless…”
“Max, you need to stop,” Logan stated quietly but firmly. He almost reached for her shoulder but stopped in time. She was wearing long sleeves but her hair was down; no need to risk it, not right now. “It’s my choice to be in this fight with you, okay? It’s not your fault.”
Beside them, Alec shuffled his feet and gave a fake cough. “Sorry to break this up, but we have a job with a timeline that needs to get started.”
Even as he finished, Mole called out, “Hey Princess, we ready to go yet?”
“You talking to me, or to Alec, cuz I’m not going out to the field on this one?” she shot back, bringing a wave of laughter in response.
“Ha ha,” Alec sniped, and then shouted, “Let’s roll! Bikes and van to the side gate in two minutes!”
In the flurry of the departing raiders, Logan found himself next to Max, staring at the computer screens. Dix rambled off inane babble as he hacked into street cameras and hover drone footage to follow the progress.
There was an unusual pall of tension between the two of them as they stood there, watching and listening to the raid. Logan was incredibly conscious of his own stability, nervous that the blood transfusions would weaken and his legs would decide to give out; even though he felt stronger than ever. Max had one arm wrapped around herself, the other at her side, fist opening and closing. Her eyes were glued on the screens, but when she spoke it was to him.
“I was worried about you, you know.”
“When?”
“This week, when you didn’t come back, and you barely answered my calls… I wasn’t sure what to think.”
Logan shrugged carefully. “I knew you had a lot on your plate. Then I had to make sure I dealt with the Eyes Only stuff as a first priority.”
She huffed out a short breath. “Yeah, I know. But still… at least Alec said he checked in on you a couple times.”
“He brought me coffee once.”
“What? Oh, yeah, that gourmet stuff? Good, right?”
In the beat before Logan could answer, there was a burst of shouting and a crackle of gun fire from comm links, followed closely by Alec’s voice.
“Ah, shit.”
There was a muffled thud, and then Dalton’s voice.
“Alec? Alec, you okay? Mole, hang on!”
Max snapped to attention and sprang toward the computers. “Dix, give me a visual!”
“Can’t boss, they are still inside the warehouse, there are no cameras that I can hack into to see there.”
For several long heartbeats, it was nearly impossible to figure out what was going on as the noise all blurred together. Then Mole’s growl managed to rise above the rest.
“Where’s he hit? Dalton, I need an answer, how bad is it?”
“Uh, he’s not.”
“What?”
“There’s no blood,” Dalton’s voice continued, “He just keeled over.”
“What the hell.” Mole grunted and then said, “Base, we’re coming back, objective achieved, one casualty, hostiles in pursuit.”
Max pushed up to the computers and grabbed the intercom. “Roger that. Get everyone back here ASAP.” Then she spun away and crossed her arms, only to turn and focus on the computer screens again. Dix had managed to find the right cameras and started following the group as they erupted from the warehouse. Logan felt guilt and fear tangle in his belly as he watched Mole throw Alec’s limp body into the van while others tossed in their boxes and bags of stolen goods. Dalton jumped on a motorcycle and tore off in one direction as the van sped off in the opposite. Mole grabbed Alec’s bike, fired off a couple of rounds from his sawed off shotgun at the security guards that appeared at the warehouse door, and then sped off in another direction.
“Looks like they’re getting away clean,” Dix said quietly.
Max swore under her breath. Logan looked at her, puzzled. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong? Alec collapsed in the middle of an op! If he was cutting his tryptophan ration to make sure we didn’t run out, and then went out on a mission compromised…” she cut herself off with a frustrated snarl. “That stupid ass.”
“He was cutting his tryp’?”
“That’s what this op was getting. Some of us are still having problems with seizures. Alec is on the lower end from what he’s told me, so he only needs the tryp’ once in a while, but with all the added stress here, he could have been compromised.”
The guilt roiled in his gut again. “Can we talk?” He glanced around the crowded command area. “Privately?”
Max’s eyebrows went up and then together hard. “Okay. Let’s go to my office. Dix? Let me know when they’re back.”
“Will do boss.”
Once inside Max’s little side office, she shit the door. It wasn’t much bigger than a broom closet and had a table with a battered laptop on it. Max pointed at one of two chairs opposite hers. “Sit.”
He settled onto the rickety chair slowly, both out of fear that it would give way, and at the sudden real prospect that he had to admit his weaknesses and mistakes to Max.
One, it hurt to know that his own selfishness had cost Alec his health; it also meant that he was going to be adding to Max’s burden, which went against everything he had been working to prevent. Taking a shaky breath, Logan pushed past his roiling thoughts told her everything.
When he was done, Max dropped her head into her hands and took a long deep breath. “Logan. I get that you were worried about me, but really, you can’t hide this stuff from me! I care about you, and want to be able to help you too, as much as I can-”
The door of the office opened, and a pale but conscious Alec appeared. “Dix said you wanted to see me?”
“And you!” Max stood and jabbed her finger at him, “You go around, never mentioning what’s happening with Logan, compromising yourself, and then go out on a mission? Do you know how lucky you are that no one died because you couldn’t tell me that both you and Logan were less than one hundred percent?”
There was a long moment where Alec didn’t move, eyes wide and dark in his white face, and then he dropped down onto the chair next to Logan. “Sorry. Still not one hundred percent.” Though his voice was far from apologetic.
“I still can’t believe you!” Max said. “You risked the op because both of you were too damn stubborn to let me in!”
Alec threw his hands in the air. “What did you expect? You’re going crazy with everything we have to do here. You can’t figure out how the hell to deal with whatever your relationship is with Logan, so I didn’t want to distract you more. Besides, there wasn’t much to tell. I more than paid back for that time you guys needed me and I got arrested.”
Alec stood up and waved at the air between Logan and Max. “You guys sort yourselves out. I’m going to go get some food and try to beat up Mole for all the abuse I know is coming my way because I passed out.”
Logan found his voice. “Wait, so that whole thing with you and Max… it wasn’t really a thing?”
“God, no,” Alec replied, face scrunching up. “She came up with that and got me tangled up in it before I knew what was going on. When I tried to tell you, you didn’t want to hear it. So I just had to keep dealing with all that bullshit on top of everything else.” He flicked his gaze over to Max. “Which is one of the other reasons I didn’t tell you, I figured I’d save you the trouble of dumping it on me.”
“So you and Max-”
“Christ, Logan, get over it. No, there wasn’t anything between us. For some dumb reason I want to stick around and help, but there isn’t much more than that. Think about it. I have her dead brother’s face - and did she explain how we actually met? Trust me, the breeding program doesn’t exactly make for a happy sort of introduction. Like said, I decided I like both of you, which may have been a mistake, cuz look where that got me. Stuck between the two of you, being used.” With that, he left the room.
It was silent for a few seconds. When Logan managed to turn away from the closed door and look at Max, she was still staring down at the desk.
“We messed up,” she said finally. “We stopped talking to each other, and were just talking at each other.”
“And we have a friend who we took for granted.”
“Yeah. We need to do something to make it up to him.”
The door flew open again and Alec stuck his head inside. “And for the love of God, will the two of you just pull your heads out of your asses and figure things out? That’s all I need. Don’t add stress. Just in case the two of you were thinking about doing something else.” He disappeared again.
Logan laughed, feeling the weight of the room lift. “Well, that solves that.” He looked back over to Max. “So, do you have time to talk?”
She smiled. “I have to debrief with Mole in a few minutes, but after that I can find time.”
“Good.” He stood up and felt the strength of his newly cured legs. If something ever happened to him again, he wouldn’t go and sap out the strength of his friends. There were means at his disposal to make sure he was an asset and not a burden on those he cared about. Smiling, Logan was determined to find a way to thank Alec. He knew friends who were willing to literally give their blood to another was someone he wanted to keep as a friend and not take that friendship for granted.
“You wanna come with?” Max asked.
“Yeah. I think I should be there to explain to Mole why Alec passed out, so he doesn’t get on Alec’s case too much. It’s the least I can do.”
“Fine, but don’t be surprised if Alec gets upset. He likes to fight his own fights.”
“He’s just going to have to learn that he has friends willing to back him up.”
Fin.
Artist: rhapsodean
Rating/Warnings: PG-13, blood needles, unprofessional medical procedures
Fic Title: Blood Junkie
Author: ladyarcherfan3
Parings/Characters: Alec, Logan, Max, others, (canon amounts of Max/Logan)
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 for blood, needles, some swearing
Word Count: ~5,110
Summary: One morning, Logan’s legs give out, and he sees the only way to fix it is with another transfusion of transgenic blood. Luckily, he finds a willing volunteer with Alec, but does Logan ask too much of him? Set after Freak Nation.
Notes: Many thanks to rhapsodean for her awesome art, I hardly feel that my fic warrants it. And thanks to denyce for her quick and excellent beta work - the final product would not be nearly so palatable without her help.
Blood Junkie
The first few times it happened, Logan managed to ignore it. He, like everyone, was under a hell of a lot of stress, so if it took him a while to get out of bed in the morning, legs stiff and reluctant to move. It only emphasized how tired he actually was, and who was going to say or deny he he wasn’t tired. Then there was the area in and around Terminal City really wasn’t particularly user friendly for the most part. There had been a crack in the pavement he hadn’t seen and nearly fell over, if Joshua hadn’t been there to catch him. Not everyone had been gifted with transgenic grace. Or at least that’s what he told himself the first time, and the second, but then the platitude wore thin.
He wanted to be near and spent most of his days and nights in TC, helping wherever he could, but it never seemed like enough. Max for her part, despite her capable lieutenants Alec and Mole, shouldered the blunt if the responsibility of trying to run a nation of transgenics confined to a toxic filled sector Seattle. However it wasn’t long before the strain of leadership started to show. The only times Logan saw her standing still was when she was bent over a list of logistics or watching the newest broadcast of what the government was planning to do about the transgenics.
So far, there hadn’t been any moves either towards a peace agreement or outright violence, but being caught in a limbo wasn’t any less stressful. All Logan wanted to do was to pull Max into his arms for a hug so she could forget her troubles for a least a few minutes. Although the thought and logistics of having to find a haz-mat suit for that sort of gesture would just piss Max off with a blatant reminder of the virus. He was almost grateful that Max had been too busy to stop and pay attention to him. It was something he was reminded of despite Max’s apparent change of heart right before every went to hell at Jam Pony.
Everything changed the morning Logan couldn’t lie even to himself. Ironically, it was sunny and bright, probably the nicest day that Seattle had seen since the Jam Pony incident, possibly the sunniest day of the year so far. Opposed to the glumness he woke up to. Logan sat on the edge of his bed, bathed in sunlight, staring down at his legs that had refused to support him.
He had gotten back to the house well after midnight, as he had decided to use the next few days to prepare a few more Eye Only broadcasts, which needed to happen. Before he had left TC there had been an unofficial agreement that he shouldn’t spend all his time at TC - Max reminded him how Sketchy and OC had to leave due to the toxic waste. Logan figured and argued the point that he probably had more immunity thanks to the transgenic blood boosting his system, even though there was no real proof.
Clearly, that theory wasn’t as sound as he would have liked.
After massaging the muscles, hoping he only had to get the blood flowing, he flexed and tried again. Tremors ran up and down his legs, but they held his weight. With one hand on the wall and a keen sense of where all the sharp corners of furniture were, he took a few shuffling steps. It felt like he’d been running stairs the day before, the muscles fatigued and twitching, but he was up and walking.
There was a sudden shuffling noise from the main floor of the house. “Hey, Logan, you up?” Alec’s voice called.
Logan took a deep breath and counted to five. “Yeah, just give me a minute,” he called down the stairs.
By the time he got out to the kitchen, the fatigue had passed out of his legs a bit; apparently they had needed to warm up. Walking into the kitchen, Logan smile when he heard the sounds of percolation. Alec had made coffee.
“Hey Logan! You don’t mind, right?” he gestured to the coffee maker. “I mean, I figured you’d want some too.”
“No, yeah, thanks.” He scrubbed a hand over his face then shuffled over to the living room and his computers. They were all booted up and running before the coffee was ready. It was then that Logan finally realized there was a question he should probably ask. “So Alec, What are you doing here?”
Alec appeared in the doorway with a mug gripped in both hands. “Bringing you coffee?”
Logan couldn’t help feeling suspicious and drew the word out, “Why?”
Alec gave Logan his coffee and shrugged. “Max asked me to check in on you.”
“I’ve been here for a while, and have been back and forth from TC for almost a month now. She never had you check in on me before.”
“Yeah, well…” Alec wandered further into the living room, towards the bookshelves that Joshua had mostly emptied since his exodus to TC. “She said you looked like shit, and wanted to make sure you were doing okay. Maybe she’s worried and doesn’t want it to be the same problems Sketchy had with radiation poisoning.”
Feeling anxious, Logan shifted his weight too fast. He felt the ache and immediate delay in his legs, but ignored it and pulled himself back over to the desk. “Tell her I’m fine. And that she doesn’t have to worry about me. She’s got more important things to deal with.”
Alec snorted. “That’s what I told her. At any rate, I left a bunch of that coffee for you. It’s some really expensive blend, and it’s good - better than the cheap stuff you drink. I better go. Have fun with.” Alec nodded to the computers then drained his mug and headed back towards the front door.
Logan didn’t know what to think took a quick sip of his coffee to cover his indecision. Surprisingly, it was good - really good. “So wait,” he called after Alec as he disappeared into the kitchen. “Max literally just sent you over to check on me, and to bring me coffee?”
Alec called out from the kitchen, “I told you. She knew you’d be up all hours doing your thing, and figured that you’d want something stronger to keep you going.”
“This is a really expensive blend. There wasn’t a better use for it on the black market?”
Alec’s head appeared through the kitchen door. “I didn’t say I gave you all of the coffee. Trust me, I put most of it to better use.” Without a backward glance he called, “See ya, Logan.” A few seconds later, the front door slammed.
For a moment Logan wondered how Alec was planning to get around in broad daylight when the entire city was on high alerts for transgenics. Then just as quickly he dismissed it and took another sip of his coffee. Alec had gotten to the house, there was no reason to think he couldn’t get back. He wasn’t a super solider for nothing.
The rest of the day passed without incident. His cyber investigations turned up nothing more than what had been shown on the new casts for the past week. Nothing was happening. Max had sent out several invitations to set up meetings in some neutral location, to the local, state and national governments, but either the overtures had been ignored or turned down with flowery apologies. The excuses all boiled down to the same thing - no one wanted to make the first move.
With nothing to go on, Logan had to be careful with his broadcasts. He didn’t want to inflame public option too much for fear of driving violent action towards the transgenics. But he also wanted to make sure a positive image of the transgenics stayed in the public’s mind. With a quiet sigh, he tapped the last few buttons, adjusted the webcam, and began.
“Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. The cable hack will last exactly sixty seconds. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and it is the only free voice left in this city…”
By the time he was done, the interior of the house was gloomy; he hadn’t bothered to turn on any lights when he’d gotten up that morning, and he’d been too absorbed in his work to do so later. Then his stomach growled demanding food. Meals hadn’t been at the forefront of his mind at any point of the day. Pushing back the chair, it rolled across uneven floorboards, rattling a little, before he stood.
For several heartbeats, nothing happened. His legs felt tired, a little stiff, but he had been sitting all day, so that wasn’t so strange. A rueful smile tugged at his lips. Whatever happened that morning must have been a fluke.
“Nothing to worry about,” he said, and walked slowly to the kitchen.
As his feet hit the linoleum, his entire lower body went numb. Before he could react, he crumpled, legs useless, arms flailing. On his decent, there was one moment of clarity where he realized that he was alone in the house. There was not one to fall for help, or anyone expecting him back in TC for a few days, and then his head hit the doorjamb, and everything went dark.
When he came to, it was completely dark. His entire body ached. Or at least what he could feel did. He fought back a flutter of panic and despair at the painfully familiar lack of sensation from the waist down. With a grunt, he managed to sit up and brace against the same door frame that had knocked him out. An exploratory touch to the back of his throbbing head uncovered no blood but a massive goose egg.
“Great. Fantastic,” he muttered. “Right. You’ve done this before. You survived. You can do this again.”
Resigned and momentarily calm, Logan considered his immediate options.
The house wasn’t that big, and he could scoot his half useless body around fairly well, as long as his head decided to play along and not explode. He landed more or less in the kitchen, but the chairs around the table weren’t terribly comfortable, if he was going to wait out a long time for some form of rescue. Besides, his phone was still on the desk right where he’d left it in the morning, prepping for his broadcasts. If he made it there, he could then make it to either the couch or the easy chair in the living room.
The phone and the prospect of comfort decided for him.
The one thing that eventually took the forefront of his thoughts as he pulled himself back to his desk was that how dirty the place was.
“Guess I’ve never swept,” he puffed, just to fill the silence. “Not sure if Joshua was much of a house-keeper either.”
His arms were trembling and sweat had soaked through his shirt by the time he managed to reach the desk. The cell phone was near the edge and he didn’t have work hard to get it. With a satisfied grunt, he flipped it open with his thumb automatically and went to scroll through his contact list. And stopped. There was no light on the screen, no response to the button jabs; his cell was dead.
“Oh, are you kidding me?” he snarled.
He shoved the phone into his pocket, then scooted around the desk and scrambled through the tangle of cords at the base and eventually found the charge cord. It would take at least a few hours to charge it and he was exhausted and frustrated. Tired, he slowly dragged himself across the floor to the couch, grimacing as dirt and grit ground into his hands. Finally, he reached the couch, and pulled and wiggled to prop himself up, and using the last of his upper body strength, tugged his legs up as he settled down.
After a moment, he prodded his thigh with a finger. When there wasn’t even the hint of a response from the nerves, he let his head flop backwards.
Around him, everything was amplified. Outside, a car alarm went off and someone shouted out a string of expletives. A spike of something he hadn’t felt in a long time cut through his chest. Loneliness and despair swelled through him as the numbness seemed to spread through his whole body. Logan knew that he just had to wait for the damn cell phone to charge. Still, in the dark, alone, knowing that he couldn’t reach out to anyone, couldn’t affectively defend himself - at that exact moment, in the pitch black, Logan couldn’t deny he was afraid.
“Logan!”
The front door slammed shut and Logan jerked awake. It took several seconds, but he realized that he was still on the couch, sunlight was filtering through the paint streaked windows, and Alec’s voice boomed through the house once again.
“Yo, Logan, where you at?”
“Uh, in here!” He scrubbed a hand over his face and tried to sit up straighter.
Alec walked into the room, brows flicking up when he took in the scene. “Long night?”
Logan was certain that he would be able to keep himself calm while he explained the situation. It wasn’t like he hadn’t faced this issue before, but as soon as he opened up his mouth, words just poured out.
“I don’t know what happened, exactly, but my legs gave out. I think the effects of the blood transfusion from Joshua wore off. Or maybe between the stress and the possible exposure to toxins-”
“Probable, not possible,” Alec interjected.
Logan ignored the interruption and steamrolled over him and continued. “I have no feeling at all. It’s just like before, I can’t feel anything.” Even Logan heard the panic as his voice shot up several octaves.
“Okay, take it easy,” Alec said, hands coming up in something halfway between comforting and warding, as if he wasn’t quite sure how to react. “Where are your robo legs?”
Logan grimaced. “Back at TC.” At Alec’s lifted eyebrow, he continued, “I didn’t want to wear them without reason. Besides, the transfusion was working. I figured if I’d need them, it’d be at TC. I never expected this…”
Alec huffed something close to a laugh. He tossed a glance around the house. “Well, what are the other options? You probably don’t have a wheelchair around anymore, huh?”
“Sorta. I did at my old place. Now…” Logan pointed toward the desk and the wheeled office chair.
“Funny.” Still, Alec grabbed the chair and hauled it over towards the couch. “At least we can get you around the house for now.” Alec glared at him pointedly.
Logan heard the real unspoken question in Alec’s gaze. Swallowing, he answered, “Blood transfusion.” He tried to say it confidently and not as a question.
“Didn’t that take a while to work last time?”
“Yeah, but this is basically a refresher, right?”
Alec finally conceded and shrugged. “Alright. I guess I owe you for the last time when you needed a transfusion.” He glanced around. “Don’t think I’ll be arrested this time, so Max won’t have to track down Joshua to cover for me.”
Instead of laughing at the joke, Logan blanched at the thought of Max finding out. “Max! You can’t tell her. She’ll just freak out and worry then blame herself.”
“You don’t have to tell me. She barely sleeps unless I make her. I’m considering tying her to the bed, which is not nearly as fun as it could be.”
Logan blinked away several images that popped into his head and the strange rush of jealousy that went with it.
Alec pushed the office chair closer to the couch then braced it with a foot. “Is there any medical equipment here?”
“Yeah, in the bathroom.”
“Cool. You want help or can you get on this yourself.”
“Just don’t let the chair roll or the seat spin.”
They managed to get into the kitchen without any mishaps, and Alec found the IV equipment for the blood transfusion. As they sat a bit awkwardly at the table, arms connected by the narrow red tube, Logan looked up suddenly.
“Why did you show up this morning? I didn’t really have plans to come back to TC yet, I didn’t think Max would need me -something didn’t happen, did it?”
Alec shrugged a shoulder; his eyes flicked across the room. “Dunno. Just had a feeling that I should. Besides, I didn’t have anything to do this morning other than I had to get away from Max for a while.”
Logan managed to refrain from responding. The burn in his chest and belly that had started weeks ago when Max had said that she and Alec were together came back. He took a deep breath and pushed it away. Max may have been trying to push him away, but clearly she didn’t mean it. At the moment Logan couldn’t deny Alec was being very helpful, so he left it alone.
After Alec pinched off the IV and put everything away, Logan pushed himself around the kitchen by pinging off the cupboards and the table. The rush of pins and needles back through his legs as nerves woke, the pain nearly drove him to tears, but he didn’t rush to stand up. The last thing he needed to do was fall on his ass in front of Alec.
“So, we good?” Alec asked as he hesitated at the front door.
“Yeah, but just don’t say anything to Max, please. If I don’t show up at TC tomorrow morning and you’re still free…”
“Don’t worry about it. Use your cell phone instead of just sitting in the dark if your legs give out.”
“It was dead and I had to charge it…”
“Figures. I’ll see you later, Logan.”
The house suddenly got very quiet.
The next few days developed a pattern. Alec would show up in the morning. He’d donate a bit of blood at Logan’s request, and then head out again. Logan went through his old routines, using exercise to get his legs moving again. Every day that went by he felt stronger.
About a week after the first incident, Logan finally felt better and back to one hundred percent. He decided it was time to finally resurface and make an appearance at TC.
The next morning, he made his way to TC. Arriving, he went straight to the command center, where he nearly with Dalton, who sprinted out the doors.
“Whoa, hey, what’s going on?” he asked as they both recovered their balance, Dalton notably quicker.
“Uh, nothing really. I just get to go along with on the raid, and have to make sure the bikes and van are fueled up.” Then he darted away.
“Five minutes, Dalton!”
He looked up to see Alec step away from the huddle and take a few steps towards the retreating X-6. Logan had to repress a wave of concern as he saw Alec’s face clearly. He was ashen, with faint bruises around his eyes; there was a slight hitch in his stride, as if he was too tired to care about how he moved.
“Hey Logan, good to see you up and around,” he greeted him.
“Are you okay, Alec? You don’t look so good. You should have said something yesterday…”
“What? I’m fine.”
They both paused as Max strode across the room and joined them. “Logan! Got caught up on all those broadcasts you wanted to make?”
“Yeah, yeah, just takes a bit longer than it did with my old set up,” he replied, trying for levity.
It didn’t quite work, or Max just took it upon herself to feel guilty. “I’ll help you get a better set up as soon as I can. It’s my fault White’s goons shot up your equipment, left you homeless…”
“Max, you need to stop,” Logan stated quietly but firmly. He almost reached for her shoulder but stopped in time. She was wearing long sleeves but her hair was down; no need to risk it, not right now. “It’s my choice to be in this fight with you, okay? It’s not your fault.”
Beside them, Alec shuffled his feet and gave a fake cough. “Sorry to break this up, but we have a job with a timeline that needs to get started.”
Even as he finished, Mole called out, “Hey Princess, we ready to go yet?”
“You talking to me, or to Alec, cuz I’m not going out to the field on this one?” she shot back, bringing a wave of laughter in response.
“Ha ha,” Alec sniped, and then shouted, “Let’s roll! Bikes and van to the side gate in two minutes!”
In the flurry of the departing raiders, Logan found himself next to Max, staring at the computer screens. Dix rambled off inane babble as he hacked into street cameras and hover drone footage to follow the progress.
There was an unusual pall of tension between the two of them as they stood there, watching and listening to the raid. Logan was incredibly conscious of his own stability, nervous that the blood transfusions would weaken and his legs would decide to give out; even though he felt stronger than ever. Max had one arm wrapped around herself, the other at her side, fist opening and closing. Her eyes were glued on the screens, but when she spoke it was to him.
“I was worried about you, you know.”
“When?”
“This week, when you didn’t come back, and you barely answered my calls… I wasn’t sure what to think.”
Logan shrugged carefully. “I knew you had a lot on your plate. Then I had to make sure I dealt with the Eyes Only stuff as a first priority.”
She huffed out a short breath. “Yeah, I know. But still… at least Alec said he checked in on you a couple times.”
“He brought me coffee once.”
“What? Oh, yeah, that gourmet stuff? Good, right?”
In the beat before Logan could answer, there was a burst of shouting and a crackle of gun fire from comm links, followed closely by Alec’s voice.
“Ah, shit.”
There was a muffled thud, and then Dalton’s voice.
“Alec? Alec, you okay? Mole, hang on!”
Max snapped to attention and sprang toward the computers. “Dix, give me a visual!”
“Can’t boss, they are still inside the warehouse, there are no cameras that I can hack into to see there.”
For several long heartbeats, it was nearly impossible to figure out what was going on as the noise all blurred together. Then Mole’s growl managed to rise above the rest.
“Where’s he hit? Dalton, I need an answer, how bad is it?”
“Uh, he’s not.”
“What?”
“There’s no blood,” Dalton’s voice continued, “He just keeled over.”
“What the hell.” Mole grunted and then said, “Base, we’re coming back, objective achieved, one casualty, hostiles in pursuit.”
Max pushed up to the computers and grabbed the intercom. “Roger that. Get everyone back here ASAP.” Then she spun away and crossed her arms, only to turn and focus on the computer screens again. Dix had managed to find the right cameras and started following the group as they erupted from the warehouse. Logan felt guilt and fear tangle in his belly as he watched Mole throw Alec’s limp body into the van while others tossed in their boxes and bags of stolen goods. Dalton jumped on a motorcycle and tore off in one direction as the van sped off in the opposite. Mole grabbed Alec’s bike, fired off a couple of rounds from his sawed off shotgun at the security guards that appeared at the warehouse door, and then sped off in another direction.
“Looks like they’re getting away clean,” Dix said quietly.
Max swore under her breath. Logan looked at her, puzzled. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong? Alec collapsed in the middle of an op! If he was cutting his tryptophan ration to make sure we didn’t run out, and then went out on a mission compromised…” she cut herself off with a frustrated snarl. “That stupid ass.”
“He was cutting his tryp’?”
“That’s what this op was getting. Some of us are still having problems with seizures. Alec is on the lower end from what he’s told me, so he only needs the tryp’ once in a while, but with all the added stress here, he could have been compromised.”
The guilt roiled in his gut again. “Can we talk?” He glanced around the crowded command area. “Privately?”
Max’s eyebrows went up and then together hard. “Okay. Let’s go to my office. Dix? Let me know when they’re back.”
“Will do boss.”
Once inside Max’s little side office, she shit the door. It wasn’t much bigger than a broom closet and had a table with a battered laptop on it. Max pointed at one of two chairs opposite hers. “Sit.”
He settled onto the rickety chair slowly, both out of fear that it would give way, and at the sudden real prospect that he had to admit his weaknesses and mistakes to Max.
One, it hurt to know that his own selfishness had cost Alec his health; it also meant that he was going to be adding to Max’s burden, which went against everything he had been working to prevent. Taking a shaky breath, Logan pushed past his roiling thoughts told her everything.
When he was done, Max dropped her head into her hands and took a long deep breath. “Logan. I get that you were worried about me, but really, you can’t hide this stuff from me! I care about you, and want to be able to help you too, as much as I can-”
The door of the office opened, and a pale but conscious Alec appeared. “Dix said you wanted to see me?”
“And you!” Max stood and jabbed her finger at him, “You go around, never mentioning what’s happening with Logan, compromising yourself, and then go out on a mission? Do you know how lucky you are that no one died because you couldn’t tell me that both you and Logan were less than one hundred percent?”
There was a long moment where Alec didn’t move, eyes wide and dark in his white face, and then he dropped down onto the chair next to Logan. “Sorry. Still not one hundred percent.” Though his voice was far from apologetic.
“I still can’t believe you!” Max said. “You risked the op because both of you were too damn stubborn to let me in!”
Alec threw his hands in the air. “What did you expect? You’re going crazy with everything we have to do here. You can’t figure out how the hell to deal with whatever your relationship is with Logan, so I didn’t want to distract you more. Besides, there wasn’t much to tell. I more than paid back for that time you guys needed me and I got arrested.”
Alec stood up and waved at the air between Logan and Max. “You guys sort yourselves out. I’m going to go get some food and try to beat up Mole for all the abuse I know is coming my way because I passed out.”
Logan found his voice. “Wait, so that whole thing with you and Max… it wasn’t really a thing?”
“God, no,” Alec replied, face scrunching up. “She came up with that and got me tangled up in it before I knew what was going on. When I tried to tell you, you didn’t want to hear it. So I just had to keep dealing with all that bullshit on top of everything else.” He flicked his gaze over to Max. “Which is one of the other reasons I didn’t tell you, I figured I’d save you the trouble of dumping it on me.”
“So you and Max-”
“Christ, Logan, get over it. No, there wasn’t anything between us. For some dumb reason I want to stick around and help, but there isn’t much more than that. Think about it. I have her dead brother’s face - and did she explain how we actually met? Trust me, the breeding program doesn’t exactly make for a happy sort of introduction. Like said, I decided I like both of you, which may have been a mistake, cuz look where that got me. Stuck between the two of you, being used.” With that, he left the room.
It was silent for a few seconds. When Logan managed to turn away from the closed door and look at Max, she was still staring down at the desk.
“We messed up,” she said finally. “We stopped talking to each other, and were just talking at each other.”
“And we have a friend who we took for granted.”
“Yeah. We need to do something to make it up to him.”
The door flew open again and Alec stuck his head inside. “And for the love of God, will the two of you just pull your heads out of your asses and figure things out? That’s all I need. Don’t add stress. Just in case the two of you were thinking about doing something else.” He disappeared again.
Logan laughed, feeling the weight of the room lift. “Well, that solves that.” He looked back over to Max. “So, do you have time to talk?”
She smiled. “I have to debrief with Mole in a few minutes, but after that I can find time.”
“Good.” He stood up and felt the strength of his newly cured legs. If something ever happened to him again, he wouldn’t go and sap out the strength of his friends. There were means at his disposal to make sure he was an asset and not a burden on those he cared about. Smiling, Logan was determined to find a way to thank Alec. He knew friends who were willing to literally give their blood to another was someone he wanted to keep as a friend and not take that friendship for granted.
“You wanna come with?” Max asked.
“Yeah. I think I should be there to explain to Mole why Alec passed out, so he doesn’t get on Alec’s case too much. It’s the least I can do.”
“Fine, but don’t be surprised if Alec gets upset. He likes to fight his own fights.”
“He’s just going to have to learn that he has friends willing to back him up.”
Fin.