"Why would you do that Logan?" Max shouted pushing Logan away. "You knew I wasn't ready for that. You knew I didn't want that."

"Max, I'm sorry..." Logan was bewildered as he played with his glasses.

Max sat up and braced a hand on the headboard before she willed herself to stand.

"What are you doing?" Logan asked, coming to her side and bracing her arm.

"Don't touch me!" Max said harshly, effectively making him let her go.

"I didn't mean...I'm sorry."

"Just get away from me Logan, I can't deal with this right now."

"Fine. If that's what you want...what are you doing?" He followed her movements as she struggled her way around the bed and headed for the door.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going after him."

"He'll only hurt you. You realize that don't you?" Logan asked to her back. She stilled and visibly stiffened.

"Alec would never hurt me."

"Maybe not on purpose, but one day he will. He might not mean to, but it will happen."

"Who do you think you are? What are you all of a sudden omniscient?"

"We're talking about Alec here. You don't have to be psychic or all-knowing to understand how his brain operates. He'll get bored of you, he'll move on, and I'll be there to pick up the pieces." Logan let out a low sigh, being more dramatic than was necessary.

He was planting seeds of doubt in her mind, he knew it, she knew it. It was a low blow but the only thing he had left. He could pretend he wasn't hurt, pretend it didn't bother him that she could care less for his feelings and what she was doing to him, but they both knew the truth. They knew he was barrelling towards desperation and pulling out all his cards.

"Alec loves me," she told him quietly not bothering to turn to face him.

"He may think he loves you Max, but how can he truly understand love? He was born in a lab and raised by the mothering and affection of guards who trained him to be a killer. He couldn't love you...at least not the way I do." He breathed deeply, came to her side.

"Logan...he and I...we're one of the same," she told him sharply. "You may not want to dwell on it. You may want to pretend it's not the truth, but we can't deny that I'm born and bread from the same place as Alec was. If that makes me incapable of love too, then you're right he can't love me like you do. He can love me better...because he accepts what I am, he doesn't want me to hide it like you."

"Max...that's not what I'm saying. You're misinterpreting my words." Logan blew out a frustrated breath.

"Am I?" She asked rhetorically as she made her way into the hallway, steadying herself on the railing of the staircase.

She took the steps slow, still drained from the blood loss and trauma her body endured over the last day and a half.

"Alec?"

"You don't have to explain, Max," he said coming from behind her. She turned to face him. "I understand. I knew what I was getting myself into. I should have known that things weren't over between you and Logan."

"There is nothing..."

"Max, I said you didn't have to explain." He held out his hand and she stopped, surprised by the flush of his cheeks, the dampness of his eyes. "It's simple to figure out, and I was stupid to think you could love me."

Max looked at him sadly. She wanted to wrap her arms around him, hold him so close to her but she didn't; couldn't.

"Don't look at me like that. I don't need your sympathy. It's true, isn't it? Because if I'm wrong tell me. This is your final chance Max, Do YOU love me?"

Behind them they could hear Logan shuffling around the base of the stairs invading on a very private moment and not being the least bit discreet about it. Max looked from him to Logan and back to him again. Alec defeated, shrugged his shoulders and made his way to the door. "You know where to find me, so don't." With that Alec walked out the door, sure that would be the last time he would see her. He hadn't anticipated that she may follow him.

"Alec!"

"Max, I know now that you were only with me, because you couldn't remember Logan. I don't hold it against you, but I'm not going to lie. It hurts. Fuck, it hurts like hell, but I'm not going to beg you to be with me, if that's not what you want. So go! Have a nice life!"

"Don't do that! Don't you dare act like what we have doesn't matter."

"That's not what I'm doing. I'm letting you go, Max. You're free to be with whoever you want. I can't stop you from loving Logan, and I most certainly can't make you love me."

"You're wrong Alec!"

"Wrong about what?"

She braced herself, saw the glimpse of trepidation flicker in his eyes and tried to ignore her shaking hands before she spoke. She wanted to tell him how she felt, right there, right then, but the words wouldn't come; not the ones she wanted anyway. "I...I did remember Logan, even before that night. I lied to you and I lied to Logan. I didn't mean for any of this, but I didn't know what to do. I never expected to fall for you. In a million years, I would never have guessed how gentle and how sincere you could be. I couldn't tell you I remembered Logan, because you would have backed away. We said, it was sex, a mistake, but not to me. To me, it was so much more, and that was because of you. Because you made me feel things, see things in a completely different way. I was scared, don't you see?"

"I never said it was a mistake." Alec told her sadly and turned away.

That was true, it was always her that called things off, made it seem that what they were doing, what they meant to each other was wrong. "I know." She said sadly, hanging her head in shame. " I need time to figure everything out. Can you give me that?"

"I'd give you anything you asked for Max, you know that," Alec confessed meeting her eyes.

"Then I'm asking."

"Okay." He sobered and turned to hitch a ride back to the city with Joshua.

Max turned back into the house to deal with Logan. "I never meant to hurt you, I just can't hide how I feel, or how I don't feel anymore."

Logan nodded and fished for his keys in his pants pockets. "I hope you know what you're getting yourself into." There was a hint of bitterness in his tone but Max let it roll off her back. "Come on, I'll drop you off at your place."

Max looked down at herself. "Give me time to change?"

"Sure."

Back at her apartment Max stewed over the turn of events. She hugged her pillow to her body as she stretched restlessly in bed where Original Cindy insisted she stay for the remainder of the night. Logan was taking the news surprising well and she suspected it had to do more with a certain blonde than it did maturity. Maybe Logan had come to realize that he didn't have to win at everything and that in some ways he wanted Max more for the fact that he was competing with Alec than anything else. Asha was good for Logan; more suited for his ideals. Maybe with a light nudge he would finally realize it too. "Ugh! But what to do about Alec?" Max groaned, hardly realizing she had spoken out loud.

"You know what you have to do Boo," OC chimed from the doorway as she passed by on her way to the bathroom.

Max scoffed, if she knew what to do she wouldn't be lying in bed talking to herself, she would go to Alec and- and what?

Tbc........

Ok, now that Logan is basically out of the way and the truth is out there, all that is left is the reunion, I guess. So the question I pose to you all is: what do you want to happen?? Seriously, this fic has operated based on suggestions and comments from reviewers and since you review and read this fic I thought it only fair to ask you for suggestions for what you want to happen. So let me know and I will write it. :)