Illegitimi non carborundum

Title: Home for the Holidays
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don’t look a thing like James Cameron

Summary: Five Christmases Max and Logan never spent together and the one they did.
Author’s note: For fauxcynic in BBWW's Secret Santa fic exchange with my deepest apologies. I was desperately hoping one of these snippets would turn into a full fledged story but alas, none of them did. Hope you enjoy them anyway. They are for the most part, embarrassingly sweet.


Home for the Holidays
or Five Christmases Max and Logan Never Spent Together (And The One They Did)

(The One with the Cale Family Dinner)
Logan fiddled with his tie. The Cale family Christmas was his least favorite holiday tradition. Uncle Jonas drunk on eggnog as his Aunt Margo looks down her nose at him and his chosen profession. It was a small blessing that she didn’t know he spent most of his time working on Eyes Only related projects. Somehow Logan suspected she’d approve of that particular venture even less.

“The tie is fine,” a voice teased from behind him. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“You don’t know my family,” Logan said. “They’ll be looking for anything they can to take you down.” He affected a shrill feminine voice. “Why Logan, that tie clashes horribly with your eyes.”

Max shook her head. “You’re being stupid.”

Logan wheeled himself around so he could get a good look at her. The dress Max was wearing a sleek, dark blue and falling just down to her calves. Her hair was down up in some sort of complicated knot, just enough hanging out to cover up barcode. Original Cindy had done her make-up. She looked beautiful, radiant.

He smiled up at her. “You know we don’t have to go to this thing.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Really,” Logan said, liking the idea more and more as he thought through it.

“But I got all pretty. You said you were going to show me off,” Max said, leaning in closer to him so he could feel her breath on his cheek. “What would we ever do instead?”

He kissed her. Or maybe she kissed him. It was soft and sweet and over entirely too soon. The sensation, the novelty of such actions was still new and every touch sets his misfiring nerves ablaze. Logan opened his eyes and gave her a sleepy, happy smile. “Oh, I can think of a few things.”

(The Obligatory One with the Zombies)
“Christmas night of the living dead,” Logan deadpanned.

Max leaned over his shoulder to stare out the window at the lurching masses of the hordes of zombies. “You have got to be freaking kidding me.”

Logan sighed as he wheeled himself into the next room. “I’ll go get the flame thrower.”

(The One where Logan’s Snowed In at Crash)
“Spending my Christmas in Crash wasn’t exactly what I had in mind,” Logan said.

“No way in hell you getting out of here,” Original Cindy said. “This is what we get for pissing away Christmas Eve in a bar.”

Logan looks mournfully at the white out outside. “I’d been hoping Max would show.”

OC raised an eyebrow. “Boo, she was looking to crash at your place tonight not kick it in a bar with us.”

Logan shook his head. “Figures doesn’t it. Me and her always getting our signals crossed. Sometimes I feel like it just isn’t meant to happen.”

“If Original Cindy knows one thing it’s that you and Max are meant to happen,” she shrugged and crossed her arms. “So how about you quit your moaning and try and enjoy Christmas.”

Looking up at her, Logan smiled. “Buy you a beer, Cindy?”

“Damn straight you’ll buy me a beer, money bags,” Cindy said. “It’s not every day I get to kick it with Max’s newest squeeze. You know what else? Original Cindy’s going to get some details for once.”

Two hours later, Logan and Original Cindy were sitting in a quiet corner of the club talking and joking like they were old friends. “So,” Original Cindy said abruptly, “You and Max done the horizontal tango yet?”

Logan snorted beer out through his nose.

(The Unexpected Pre-Series AU)
There was a kid in the Cale household.

That was wrong because there hadn’t been a kid in the Cale household since Bennett went to college. But now twenty-two year old Logan Cale was back at his uncle’s house for the obligatory family dinner and there was a kid there.

She was ten years old if he had to guess. A slender little thing with dark hair and almost black eyes. He stares at her when he opens the door, half afraid he’d gotten the wrong house but no one was this ostentatious after the pulse except for the Cale family. “Hey there,” he says lightly, not quite sure how to talk to kids. “Who would you be?”

She looked at him, suspicious and a little sullen and said, “Max.”

“Right,” Logan said and pushed his way inside. “I’m Logan.” He swallowed. “Do you know where my Aunt Margo is?”

The kid disappeared down the hallway. Logan watched her trying to remember if he’d ever looked that graceful as a kid. He was pretty sure that at ten years old he’d been an impossibly loud tangle of limbs and noise. Then there was something dark on the skin of her neck under her hair. Something he couldn’t quite see.

His Aunt came down to greet him a few minutes later. “Logan, darling, it’s been such a long time.”

She made a move to kiss his cheek but Logan didn’t return the gesture. “There’s a kid in the house,” he said. “Since when is there a kid in the house?”

“Maxine?” his Aunt said briskly. “We’ve adopted the poor thing. She had some sort of trauma—lost her parents in the Pulse. It’s the charitable thing to do. Especially so close to Christmas.”

“A publicity stunt,” Logan extrapolated. “Aunt Margo, this is a kid here. A living, breathing human life. You can’t do things like this! It’s just not right.”

“I assure you, Maxine is must better off with us.”

“I don’t think I’m actually related to you,” Logan moaned and didn’t speak to either her or Jonas until dinner time.

The actual dinner was an odd affair. Logan sat between Bennett and Max, eating the delicious meal with the minimum required dialogue. His Uncle wanted him to join the family business but Logan already had plans with the Pacific Free Press. It was his chance to make a difference.

Max was suspiciously quiet for a kid. Logan remembered Bennett at that age, how he’d talked a mile a minute and how he’d never shut up. There was something different about this kid. Something he couldn’t put his finger on.

After dinner he found Max sitting on the steps in the foyer, staring out the window. Logan sighed, sat down next to her and said, “You know, Margo and Jonas adopted me when I was twelve. I guess that makes you my kid sister.”

She turned to look at him with impossibly huge eyes. “I already have a family,” she said sullenly.

“Me too,” Logan said. “Mine died. Nowadays I take what I can get and it looks like you’re a part of that.”

Max pursed her lips as if considering the sentiment. Logan shook his head. “You know, there’s a basketball rim outside. That always makes me feel better.”

“I don’t know how to play,” Max mumbled.

“I can teach you. That’s what big brothers do after all,” Logan reached out impulsively to ruffle her hair. “Merry Christmas, kiddo.”

(The One with the X-5s)
Max didn’t like surprises. She didn’t like the parade of vaguely familiar faces spotted through the crowd at Crash. It sent her nerves on edge. They could be Manticore. They could be Reds. A dark haired kid smiled and tipped his beer in her direction.

Panicking now, Max scanned the crowd until she caught sight of Logan sitting in the back of club at a table by himself, smiling. She edged herself over to his table and sat down. She was wound tight, ready to snap. “Logan,” she said. “There’s something going on here.”

“I talked to Zack a few weeks ago,” Logan said without preamble. “He had some funny rules but...”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Max demanded. “When did you talk to Zack?” She blinked. “More importantly, why did you talk to Zack? Zack hates you!”

“I was thinking about what you told me at Thanksgiving. That’s the holidays aren’t the same without family. And I figured, you know, ‘tis the season. There were some ground rules though. Big public place with at least three exits. At most three of the escapees together at once. You know precautionary measures. Someone might get worried if they spotted a reunion of kids with barcode tattoos.”

“The-they’re here?” Max stammered. “All of them?”

“All of them,” Logan confirmed, a smile on his face.

Max sat there for a moment, unable to move. This was her family splayed out at her fingertips. Her childhood rediscovered. She leaned over impulsively and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thank you,” she said softly. “Thank you so much.”

Logan flushed and muttered, “Merry Christmas, Max.”

(And the One They Did)

“I can’t believe we’re on a stakeout on Christmas Eve.”

Logan glanced sideways to Max, before returning his gaze to the binoculars. “Crime doesn’t stop just because of the holidays. These are the kind of guys who would dress up as Santa and steal candy from small children.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Max muttered, adjusting the collar of her cat suit. “You know I always thought Santa was kind of sketch to begin with. I mean what’s the dealio with the whole ‘sees you when you’re sleeping’ routine was kind of creepy.”

“A lot of children’s stories are creepy,” Logan said absently. “I mean Santa’s not half as bad as the tooth fairy.”

“Christmas isn’t about Santa anyway,” Max said, propping her head on her hand and staring at Logan playfully. “It’s about the food.”

“The food’s already done,” Logan said. “Just needs cooking. It will be there when we take these guys down.”

Max huffed.

Logan quirks a smile. “At least it’s good company.”

“I’d rather have good company and food,” Max teased.

In the warehouse across the street, there was a sudden flurry of action. Logan set his face. “Hey, looks like it’s starting. You know what you’re looking for?”

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” Max said, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she pushed the car door open. “We save the world and then we’ve got food, right?”

“Sounds like the perfect night to me.”

***

Merry Christmas everyone.