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last01standingTitle- Pocketful of Lies
Part- 4 of ?
Rating- PG-13
Summary- After hearing a news report on the disappearance of Eyes Only, Max is slowly drawn into the mystery of what really happened to Logan Cale…[ML]
Disclaimer- I do not own Dark Angel
Parts- 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
CHAPTER FOUR
Max could feel her insides freeze, every organ suddenly brittle and filled with ice. One touch would do her in now; shatter her into a thousand tiny pieces that no one would ever be able to reassemble. “Logan’s dead?” Her voice sounded far away like it was someone else speaking entirely. There was no way she could be that calm, that distant.
“It took me by surprise too,” Dalton said quickly. “But it seems like that’s the truth. I managed to track down some footage of the shooting.” He reached past Max’s shoulder to grab a DVD casing. “I asked Stat to take a look at it and he says he’s ninety-six percent certain that the video hasn’t been altered and you know how accurate those probability guys are.”
Before she could stop him, he’d put the video into the disc drive and the footage of the shooting suddenly appeared on the monitor. To her shock she recognized it. Hell, she’d seen the original broadcast. The scene had practically been seared into her brain. The witness, Lauren, fleeing the scene… Cale’s body guard shot down… Cale pulling, the kid out of the backseat before getting shot in the process... The kid pried from his limp fingers. She’d watched it in Jam Pony, half a step away from heading to the hospital herself. Telling Cale off for playing the hero but…
The whole time she’d been sure Cale had survived. The fact that he might have laid there bleeding until there was nothing left hadn’t even crossed her mind.
“Take a header into the deep end when the pool's empty, you're going to go splat.”
“Dalton,” her voice said, her mouth on autopilot while her brain figured out how to cope. “Is there any possibility that Cale could have faked his death?”
“Thought you might ask,” he replied, though he had the good sense to tone down his excitement at his find. “But if he faked it the guy’s either a shape shifter or a genius. Obit said he made it to the hospital, died in surgery. The doctor, Samuel Carr, was quoted saying he’d just been too far gone. He was buried…”
Max’s mental functions came to a screeching halt upon hearing the name. “Sam Carr?”
“Yeah,” Dalton said sounding confused. “You’ve heard of him?”
His questions fell on deaf ears as Max began moving away at a nearly superhuman speed. She bumped into Alec as she was leaving but didn’t stop to talk.
“Max?” Alec called after her. “What happened with Logan?”
She didn’t turn around. “Logan’s dead.”
She was going to get some answers.
***
When the shock seeped out of her bones the rage crept in to replace it, white hot and all-consuming. She was angry with Dalton for his cavalier attitude, his eager to please smile and also a little bit because it was easier to kill the messenger. She was angry with Alec for having the gall not to be alright, for each and every one of his stupid issues that kept him from being the confidant she so desperately needed. Most of all she was angry with Logan Cale for getting his scrawny ass shot up in the first place and then dying on her. Not to mention he’d had the nerve to hang after he’d kicked it. What she didn’t understand was why he’d felt the need to hang around someone he’d barely known.
Slowly, she forced herself out of her mental snag and looked up to realize her feet had brought her to Sam Carr’s office. She had no idea exactly when that had happened.
“Mrs. Eastman,” the receptionist said amiably and, not for the first time, Max wondered why her alias was a married woman. “What brings you here?”
She blew past the receptionist and into the hallway running into Sam as he left a patient’s room.
“Max?” he said in surprise. “Is everything alright? I just saw you yesterday.”
Her fingers twitched. She stared at his neck. She restrained herself. “Sam, we need to talk.”
“Of course,” Sam said calmly, gesturing towards an unoccupied room. “Let’s go somewhere with a little more privacy.”
She followed him to a room as Sam checked the hallway to see if anyone had noticed the exchange and shut the door. “What seems to be the problem?”
“Tell me about Logan Cale.”
Sam blinked. “It’s been a while since I’ve heard that name. What do you need to know?”
“You were his surgeon.” It sounded like an accusation even to her own ears. When she thought about it, it was an accusation. “They brought him for you to fix.”
“And Logan died on my operating table,” Sam said openly though his voice was tinged with detached regret. “Not everyone has your recuperative powers, Max. When a normal human is shot, nothing is ever routine. Even if he had survived it’s likely he would have suffered from paralysis…”
Logan looked up at her, voice guarded. “Not in any pain...the good and bad news of a blown-out spinal cord.”
“By the time he got to me he was just too far gone. One bullet punctured a lung, a second hit an artery and the third had lodged itself in his spine.”
Max felt her eyes slide out of focus. She could have sworn he’d been wearing a vest. It should have caught most of it… “You’re sure he died?”
“You can never quite forget the ones you lose. I’m a neuro-surgeon, but I wasn’t equipped to handle the other injuries. The hospital just couldn’t spare the extra staff.”
“But you’re sure?”
He leveled his gaze on her. “Yes Max, I’m sure. Do you have any particular reason for asking? Why now? This happened years ago.”
“I…” The room twisted before her, Sam’s face distorted. Gotta pull yourself together, Max, you’re better than this. “I’ve been seeing him.”
Sam looked genuinely confused. “Seeing him as in…”
“I talked with him yesterday at Crash,” she admitted softly. “Is that even possible?”
“I’m inclined to say no,” Sam allowed, “but then again I did meet your clone last year so I don’t doubt it’s possible. Could it be Manticore related? A… what did they call it in those old movies, a doppelganger?”
The idea grounded her. Clones, she could deal with but ghosts and insanity were completely out of her league. “Thanks Sam,” she choked. “This has helped a lot.”
“There must be a reason you’re seeing this guy. You’ll figure it out.” He let out a light laugh. “And if not, there are some decent psychologists around here I could put you in touch with.”
Max gave him a sickly sweet smile. “I think I can figure this out on my own.”
***
Max went to Crash with the full intention of getting completely plastered. She had no idea just how much alcohol it would take but she was prepared to find out. It didn’t even matter if an ordinary saw her chugging a bottle of vodka. But instead she saw Original Cindy as she entered the bar and they wound up at the foosball table. Max won game after game. Sketchy bought the first round. And for a while, things were great, things were normal.
Sketchy ruined it halfway through their second pitcher of beer. “So anyone know what’s going on with Alec? He’s seems off, lately.”
“Off? Try a different planet.” Original Cindy added.
“He’s got problems,” Max snapped. She wasn’t nearly drunk enough to get into this. “He’ll get over it in a few days. He always does.”
Sketchy opened his mouth to say something but seemed to change his mind. “This wouldn’t be one of those; I grew up in a test tube things, would it?”
“How am I supposed to know?” Max ground out, “I’m not his mother.”
Sketchy’s eyes dropped to the floor. “Ya know what, I’m gonna go get us another round.” He grabbed the empty pitcher and started making his way to the bar.
Cindy gave her a look. “I know Sketchy’s a dumbass and all, but you don’t have to take the boy’s head off.”
“I know,” Max said, chagrined. “I’m sorry. It’s just that all of a sudden there’s a lot of stuff going on and I’m not sure on how to deal.”
“You want to talk about it, boo?” When Max evaded her friend’s eyes and Original Cindy let out an irritated sigh. “Looks like Alec ain’t the only one with issues. If you feel like having a good time, Original Cindy will be around, but if you want to wallow in your issues, feel free to spare me your savage mood swings.”
“Cindy…” Max pleaded but her friend had walked away.
“Did I miss something?” A voice asked from her side and she didn’t even have to turn around to recognize the speaker.
“Cale,” she said curtly.
“Max,” he replied the vague hint of a smile in his voice.
“Go away.”
“Max,” he persisted. “We need to talk.”
She turned around to look at him and for a moment, was struck speechless. Logan fixed her with what under normal circumstances would have been a charming smiled, but he was missing a tooth, maybe a molar somewhere in back. At least, she hoped the blood filling his mouth was from a missing tooth and not something more serious. She’d thought he looked bad the last time she’d seen him but this time he looked even worse.
She was suddenly overcome with the urge to touch him, make sure he was still there, make sure he existed. But when she reached for him, he deftly rolled himself a back and out of her reach, an unreadable expression on his face. “Don’t worry, Max. I forget sometimes too.” The way he said it spoke of a past history, something hovering at the edge of reality that didn’t exist, but maybe, just maybe should have.
“Logan Cale’s dead,” she told him flatly. “It happened three years ago. A shooting in the street.”
Had she ever seen Cale in a wheelchair before? Her brain suddenly snagged on that fact. Hadn’t he been walking? Why…
“You’d know if I was dead.” He said and gave her another one of those blood filled smiles.
“Why? How would I possibly be able to tell if you were dead or not?”
He looked like he’d be better off dead, she mused, she hadn’t seen anyone look that bad since a Manticore interrogation.
His right eye gleamed strangely from behind his cracked glasses. The left was swollen shut. His voice was low and filled with a raw emotion that made Max’s heart lurch. “Because I knew when you weren’t.”
| 5 |
Part- 4 of ?
Rating- PG-13
Summary- After hearing a news report on the disappearance of Eyes Only, Max is slowly drawn into the mystery of what really happened to Logan Cale…[ML]
Disclaimer- I do not own Dark Angel
Parts- 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
Max could feel her insides freeze, every organ suddenly brittle and filled with ice. One touch would do her in now; shatter her into a thousand tiny pieces that no one would ever be able to reassemble. “Logan’s dead?” Her voice sounded far away like it was someone else speaking entirely. There was no way she could be that calm, that distant.
“It took me by surprise too,” Dalton said quickly. “But it seems like that’s the truth. I managed to track down some footage of the shooting.” He reached past Max’s shoulder to grab a DVD casing. “I asked Stat to take a look at it and he says he’s ninety-six percent certain that the video hasn’t been altered and you know how accurate those probability guys are.”
Before she could stop him, he’d put the video into the disc drive and the footage of the shooting suddenly appeared on the monitor. To her shock she recognized it. Hell, she’d seen the original broadcast. The scene had practically been seared into her brain. The witness, Lauren, fleeing the scene… Cale’s body guard shot down… Cale pulling, the kid out of the backseat before getting shot in the process... The kid pried from his limp fingers. She’d watched it in Jam Pony, half a step away from heading to the hospital herself. Telling Cale off for playing the hero but…
The whole time she’d been sure Cale had survived. The fact that he might have laid there bleeding until there was nothing left hadn’t even crossed her mind.
“Take a header into the deep end when the pool's empty, you're going to go splat.”
“Dalton,” her voice said, her mouth on autopilot while her brain figured out how to cope. “Is there any possibility that Cale could have faked his death?”
“Thought you might ask,” he replied, though he had the good sense to tone down his excitement at his find. “But if he faked it the guy’s either a shape shifter or a genius. Obit said he made it to the hospital, died in surgery. The doctor, Samuel Carr, was quoted saying he’d just been too far gone. He was buried…”
Max’s mental functions came to a screeching halt upon hearing the name. “Sam Carr?”
“Yeah,” Dalton said sounding confused. “You’ve heard of him?”
His questions fell on deaf ears as Max began moving away at a nearly superhuman speed. She bumped into Alec as she was leaving but didn’t stop to talk.
“Max?” Alec called after her. “What happened with Logan?”
She didn’t turn around. “Logan’s dead.”
She was going to get some answers.
When the shock seeped out of her bones the rage crept in to replace it, white hot and all-consuming. She was angry with Dalton for his cavalier attitude, his eager to please smile and also a little bit because it was easier to kill the messenger. She was angry with Alec for having the gall not to be alright, for each and every one of his stupid issues that kept him from being the confidant she so desperately needed. Most of all she was angry with Logan Cale for getting his scrawny ass shot up in the first place and then dying on her. Not to mention he’d had the nerve to hang after he’d kicked it. What she didn’t understand was why he’d felt the need to hang around someone he’d barely known.
Slowly, she forced herself out of her mental snag and looked up to realize her feet had brought her to Sam Carr’s office. She had no idea exactly when that had happened.
“Mrs. Eastman,” the receptionist said amiably and, not for the first time, Max wondered why her alias was a married woman. “What brings you here?”
She blew past the receptionist and into the hallway running into Sam as he left a patient’s room.
“Max?” he said in surprise. “Is everything alright? I just saw you yesterday.”
Her fingers twitched. She stared at his neck. She restrained herself. “Sam, we need to talk.”
“Of course,” Sam said calmly, gesturing towards an unoccupied room. “Let’s go somewhere with a little more privacy.”
She followed him to a room as Sam checked the hallway to see if anyone had noticed the exchange and shut the door. “What seems to be the problem?”
“Tell me about Logan Cale.”
Sam blinked. “It’s been a while since I’ve heard that name. What do you need to know?”
“You were his surgeon.” It sounded like an accusation even to her own ears. When she thought about it, it was an accusation. “They brought him for you to fix.”
“And Logan died on my operating table,” Sam said openly though his voice was tinged with detached regret. “Not everyone has your recuperative powers, Max. When a normal human is shot, nothing is ever routine. Even if he had survived it’s likely he would have suffered from paralysis…”
Logan looked up at her, voice guarded. “Not in any pain...the good and bad news of a blown-out spinal cord.”
“By the time he got to me he was just too far gone. One bullet punctured a lung, a second hit an artery and the third had lodged itself in his spine.”
Max felt her eyes slide out of focus. She could have sworn he’d been wearing a vest. It should have caught most of it… “You’re sure he died?”
“You can never quite forget the ones you lose. I’m a neuro-surgeon, but I wasn’t equipped to handle the other injuries. The hospital just couldn’t spare the extra staff.”
“But you’re sure?”
He leveled his gaze on her. “Yes Max, I’m sure. Do you have any particular reason for asking? Why now? This happened years ago.”
“I…” The room twisted before her, Sam’s face distorted. Gotta pull yourself together, Max, you’re better than this. “I’ve been seeing him.”
Sam looked genuinely confused. “Seeing him as in…”
“I talked with him yesterday at Crash,” she admitted softly. “Is that even possible?”
“I’m inclined to say no,” Sam allowed, “but then again I did meet your clone last year so I don’t doubt it’s possible. Could it be Manticore related? A… what did they call it in those old movies, a doppelganger?”
The idea grounded her. Clones, she could deal with but ghosts and insanity were completely out of her league. “Thanks Sam,” she choked. “This has helped a lot.”
“There must be a reason you’re seeing this guy. You’ll figure it out.” He let out a light laugh. “And if not, there are some decent psychologists around here I could put you in touch with.”
Max gave him a sickly sweet smile. “I think I can figure this out on my own.”
Max went to Crash with the full intention of getting completely plastered. She had no idea just how much alcohol it would take but she was prepared to find out. It didn’t even matter if an ordinary saw her chugging a bottle of vodka. But instead she saw Original Cindy as she entered the bar and they wound up at the foosball table. Max won game after game. Sketchy bought the first round. And for a while, things were great, things were normal.
Sketchy ruined it halfway through their second pitcher of beer. “So anyone know what’s going on with Alec? He’s seems off, lately.”
“Off? Try a different planet.” Original Cindy added.
“He’s got problems,” Max snapped. She wasn’t nearly drunk enough to get into this. “He’ll get over it in a few days. He always does.”
Sketchy opened his mouth to say something but seemed to change his mind. “This wouldn’t be one of those; I grew up in a test tube things, would it?”
“How am I supposed to know?” Max ground out, “I’m not his mother.”
Sketchy’s eyes dropped to the floor. “Ya know what, I’m gonna go get us another round.” He grabbed the empty pitcher and started making his way to the bar.
Cindy gave her a look. “I know Sketchy’s a dumbass and all, but you don’t have to take the boy’s head off.”
“I know,” Max said, chagrined. “I’m sorry. It’s just that all of a sudden there’s a lot of stuff going on and I’m not sure on how to deal.”
“You want to talk about it, boo?” When Max evaded her friend’s eyes and Original Cindy let out an irritated sigh. “Looks like Alec ain’t the only one with issues. If you feel like having a good time, Original Cindy will be around, but if you want to wallow in your issues, feel free to spare me your savage mood swings.”
“Cindy…” Max pleaded but her friend had walked away.
“Did I miss something?” A voice asked from her side and she didn’t even have to turn around to recognize the speaker.
“Cale,” she said curtly.
“Max,” he replied the vague hint of a smile in his voice.
“Go away.”
“Max,” he persisted. “We need to talk.”
She turned around to look at him and for a moment, was struck speechless. Logan fixed her with what under normal circumstances would have been a charming smiled, but he was missing a tooth, maybe a molar somewhere in back. At least, she hoped the blood filling his mouth was from a missing tooth and not something more serious. She’d thought he looked bad the last time she’d seen him but this time he looked even worse.
She was suddenly overcome with the urge to touch him, make sure he was still there, make sure he existed. But when she reached for him, he deftly rolled himself a back and out of her reach, an unreadable expression on his face. “Don’t worry, Max. I forget sometimes too.” The way he said it spoke of a past history, something hovering at the edge of reality that didn’t exist, but maybe, just maybe should have.
“Logan Cale’s dead,” she told him flatly. “It happened three years ago. A shooting in the street.”
Had she ever seen Cale in a wheelchair before? Her brain suddenly snagged on that fact. Hadn’t he been walking? Why…
“You’d know if I was dead.” He said and gave her another one of those blood filled smiles.
“Why? How would I possibly be able to tell if you were dead or not?”
He looked like he’d be better off dead, she mused, she hadn’t seen anyone look that bad since a Manticore interrogation.
His right eye gleamed strangely from behind his cracked glasses. The left was swollen shut. His voice was low and filled with a raw emotion that made Max’s heart lurch. “Because I knew when you weren’t.”
| 5 |
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(no subject)
7/10/06 07:49 (UTC)Anyway, still loving it, and looking forward to the next chapter. But good luck with the other WIP and the applications.
(no subject)
7/10/06 16:21 (UTC)Glad you're enjoying it. I'm hoping I can get back to this fic after the long weeked. Most of the colleges I'm applying to are on the common ap which should speed things up quite a bit...
(no subject)
7/10/06 10:40 (UTC)(no subject)
7/10/06 16:23 (UTC)(no subject)
10/10/06 23:18 (UTC)(no subject)
14/10/06 13:26 (UTC)Btw
(no subject)
17/10/06 21:52 (UTC)