Saying Hello 2: Saying Goodbye

By Erin Cale

Disclaimer: Dark Angel is not mine. Please don't sue.

Warning: Shippier than the last one.

Feedback: Please! I love constructive feedback. Anything else will be immediately trashed. But (as with the last one) once the ideas started flowing, I didn't have time to go back and revise. So please review.

Summary: Sequel to "Saying Hello". Max must deal with another of her siblings, as well as the fact that she could very well lose Logan in the process.

By Erin Cale

"Don't try to fool me Logan. I gave you that number for emergencies only." V Logan's smile immediately faded. After a moment, he replied, "It is an emergency. We need to get you and Max out of Seattle."

Jondy's face momentarily showed her surprise before she was able to regain her composure. "What makes you think I even live here?"

"It's not important," came another voice. Jondy turned around to face the new arrival. "Zack?"

Her brother looked from her to Logan and back again. "Lydecker's replacement is searching for us, you and Max especially, because you know who he is." Zack jerked his head at Logan. "They've got wanted posters up everywhere with photos of you two."

"How did they get those?" Jondy exclaimed.

"Apparently somebody put a camera on Lydecker. When you killed him, you dislodged it, so whoever it was doesn't know about Logan... yet."

"Good. Do we have an ID on the replacement?"

Zack turned his gaze to Logan again, this time obviously expecting something. Logan wheeled over to his computer and began to open a file. Within a few seconds, several windows had popped up, displaying the requested information. As the computer loaded the picture, Jondy took a deep breath, preparing herself for something horrible. But none of her Manticore training prepared her for who the picture finally depicted.

"Kevin."

***

V "They chose an X5 as Lydecker's replacement?"

"He's old enough, he has all the training he needs, he knows how we think because he's one of us and he hates us for leaving him behind," Zack explained.

"But he forced us to do it." V "That's not what his bio says." Zack pointed to a window on Logan's computer. Jondy scanned it, automatically picking out any important words.

"So he does. What now?"

Logan answered before Zack even had a chance to open his mouth. "You and Max need to get out of town. Zack's already prepared a place where you can stay for a while."

"And exactly how do you think you're gonna get Max to go?"

"That's why you and Zack are here. I was thinking that you could talk-" Jondy raised a hand, silently telling him to be quiet. After listening for a moment, she mouthed the words, Max is coming. Zack hid while Logan shut off his computer. Jondy headed off to the kitchen, Logan following a second later.

***

Max had been picking Logan's lock, as usual, when she had heard Jondy say, "And how do you think you're gonna get Max to go?" She hadn't heard Logan's reply because she had been pondering the reasons why Jondy would be there and what it was that Jondy had been talking about. She looked in the computer room as she entered the apartment. Nobody there. She headed for the kitchen next.

"Get me to go to what?" She asked as she entered the kitchen and sat down next to Jondy. Logan's mouth dropped open and seemed to twitch as he tried to think of a suitable answer.

"Actually, Logan wanted to ask you out on a date, but he didn't know how to put it. So he was gonna run what he was gonna say past me, but you came in," Jondy said.

Max looked at Logan. He was flushed with embarrassment. All of a sudden, Max felt a presence behind her. She started to turn, thinking the person was Bling. Before she caught sight of the individual, she felt a needle being injected into her arm. She was out before she could so much as gasp.

***

"That's how you planned on getting her to go?! I can't believe I allowed myself to get talked into this," Jondy exclaimed, glaring at Zack as he sat in back with Max's unconscious body. It was the first sentence she had spoken since leaving the apartment.

"You know she would never have come willingly. She's perfectly fine with risking her life to stay with her friends. And if Kevin finds either of you, he's going to find out who the X1 is. Then nobody will be able to stop Manticore."

Jondy sighed and turned to Logan. "Did you know about this?"

Zack replied for Logan. "Actually, he wanted us to talk with her, convince her to go."

"At least one of you is kind." Zack gave her an unreadable look, but she ignored him and again addressed Logan, "What is the number for Jam Pony?"

Logan handed her his cell phone. "It's in the memory."

"And what's the name of her friend that works there?"

"Original Cindy," he replied.

Jondy found the number and dialed it. "Hello, to whom am I speaking? Ah. Well, Mr. 'Normal' I would like to talk with the young woman who delivered a package to me a couple of days ago. I believe she was called Cindy."

"Original Cindy," Logan whispered.

"Original Cindy, sorry. You will? Thank you sir." She handed the phone to Logan. "He's getting her now. You know her, you explain."

Logan took the phone from Jondy and waited until Cindy picked up. "Hi Cindy, this is Logan. Yeah. Max, Zack and I are getting out of town for a while. No, I don't know how long. Yeah, she needs you to cover for her. Thanks. Bye." He put the phone away just as they pulled up to a checkpoint.

A guard motioned for them to open their trunk. Logan complied immediately. Carefully Zack, Jondy and Logan watched the guard to make sure he didn't steal anything. Finally, after 5 minute of searching, the guard waved them on.

"How much farther?" Jondy asked.

"About 17 miles," Logan replied.

"Good." She went back to watching the road.

"You want some music?" Logan asked.

"Sure. I know this radio station that plays good music all the time." Jondy hit the power button and pressed the tuning button until she found her station. As soon as the song came on, she joined in. "Your beauty is beyond compare, with flaming locks of auburn hair, ivory skin and eyes of emerald green..." She paused and said, "Now you're going to know why I changed my name to Jolene." She started in with the chorus, "Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, I'm begging of you please don't take my man."

"Country," Zack spat distastefully.

As Jondy paused to take a breath Logan interrupted. "I had forgotten how beautiful your voice was."

"Thank you. As I recall, you're not so bad yourself."

Logan smiled briefly. "I'm out of practice. It's been a long time."

"We'll have to fix that when we get to your 'safe house'."

Logan smiled again, but said nothing.

***

Max woke up to the sound of someone pacing. Opening her eyes carefully, she observed Jondy moving back and forth, her partially-feline DNA obviously at the forefront.

"Damn him!" Jondy growled.

"Damn who?" Max asked, sitting up slowly.

"Ahh, sleeping beauty awakens." Jondy looked out the window at the pouring rain. "Our brother, that's who."

"What did Zack do this time?"

"He's locked us in here while he goes off to save Tinga."

Max filed the last bit of information away for later use. "Haven't you tried kicking down the door?"

"I would have already if I didn't know what he put out there. He put bombs under the walkway and surrounding the house. He also set up some guns outside that are triggered by the door opening. Once that happens-" Jondy imitated shooting a gun, "boom."

"So if Kevin finds out where we are and comes to get us, he's fried. And if we go out there, we're fried."

Jondy shrugged, "Basically."

"Well, maybe we could find another way out," Max said, holding her head as she thought out the possibilities.

"Right. What are we going to do, jump through the roof and fly away?"

"We could try, couldn't we?"

Jondy finally turned to look at her sister. "Oh, you're not serious."

"I'm not?" Max's eyebrows came together in mock confusion. "Coulda sworn I was."

"First of all, you just woke up from being knocked out by Zack. Second of all, Kevin has people looking for us."

"In case you haven't forgotten, they're looking for us in order to get to Logan." Max glared at her sister.

"Well in case you haven't forgotten, going to Logan now would be signing his ticket back to Manticore."

Max's look changed from one of anger to one of sadness. "I just have a feeling that something is going to happen to him if we're not there."

"Girl, that's called love." Jondy sat down next to her sister and put her hand on Max's shoulder. "Listen, if you're really that... apprehensive about his welfare, I'm willing to help you get out of here."

***

"Brin, Liz, Robin, Sean. I have selected you to be my team for the retrieval of the X1 that Lydecker spent much of his life searching for."

"Permission to speak, sir?" Brin stepped forward a little.

"Granted."

"You have additional information as to where he is located?"

"Yes. X5-452 has been reported to appear in the high-rise district of Seattle several times in the last year. I believed him to be living there, so I sent a team out to do reconnaissance. Now that they've confirmed that he does live there, I'm taking you in to retrieve him."

"Yes sir," Brin replied and stepped back in line.

"Good. The vehicle is already outside."

***

Max and Jondy climbed through the window and silently landed in his living room. "He shouldn't leave that window open," Jondy whispered. Max didn't answer as she crept towards the doorway to his computer room. Hearing squeaking behind her, she whirled around in her fighting stance.

"What are you two doing here?" Logan exclaimed.

Jondy answered first, "We had a feeling that something was wrong."

"Well, as you can see everything is fine. You two shouldn't be here." Almost as one, Jondy and Max lifted their heads and listened to something Logan couldn't hear.

"Looks like we should be," Jondy said, getting into her fighting stance as well. Now Logan could hear something. It sounded like one person was outside his door, another was in his living room... Logan gave up trying to figure out where the sounds were coming from and quickly wheeled into his computer room. Opening a drawer, he pulled out the gun that he was, only a few months earlier, going to kill himself with. Now he was going to use it to save his life and those of Max and Jondy. He loaded it and hurried back to his companions.

They each seemed to be listening to a different sound. Their eyes moved so quickly as to become blurry to Logan's all-too-human ones as they furiously tried to see what was causing the disturbances. He raised his gun and pointed it out in front of him. Almost immediately, he heard a noise above his head. His gun was knocked out of his hand by a woman dropping out of his ceiling. It skidded across the floor and finally came to a stop under his table.

Max would have taken a shot at the woman who had attacked Logan, but she was held back by another of the intruders. Swinging around, she barely blocked a punch to her stomach. Hazarding a quick look at Jondy, Max saw that her sister had her own problems. Three more X5s were landing painful blows to Jondy's body. Jondy tried to fight back, but against two of her own she was starting to fail.

Max knocked her attacker to the floor just as Jondy hit the ground, her head making a hollow sound as it hit the corner of the table. Out of the corner of her eye, Max saw another X5 drop out of the ceiling and take Logan hostage. Now the choice was between helping her sister or her friend. Seeing that her sister's attackers had turned their attention toward her, she ran forward, launched off the wall, and flipped over her attackers. Because of their revved-up DNA, they managed to catch her in mid-air. She took advantage of their move and brought her feet down against two of them, knocking them onto the floor. The third caught her leg as she swung at him and flipped her to the ground. Turning her head, she saw that her first attacker was picking herself up off the floor.

"Robin!" Max turned her head toward the voice, as did those of the intruders. Jondy was on her feet, her head bleeding profusely as she held the gun in slightly shaky fingers. The X5 holding Logan looked up at the sound of her name. "Even if you were my best friend, I will kill you." Max's mind remembered an incident back at Manticore, when Jondy had saved Robin's life. The two had been friends from then up until the escape. Now here she was, threatening to kill her once-best friend. Her attackers picked themselves up off the floor as the tense silence continued. Robin let go of Logan and stepped away. She looked at Jondy for a moment, then charged at her.

Jondy fired, the bullet hitting Robin square in the chest. Robin's body collapsed as Jondy's senseless hands managed to put the gun on the table. Seeing her vulnerability, two of the X5s swung at her. Both punches were deflected, one by Zack and one by Tinga. As Max's attacker left her to fight the newcomers, Max saw her chance. She flipped to her feet and whipped around to land a solid blow on her attacker's leg. Her attacker fell to one knee and she was about to kill him when she heard one of the intruders call out, "Retreat." The four remaining X5s hurried out of the apartment. Jondy's legs weakened and she was about to collapse when Tinga caught her.

"What happened?" Tinga asked.

"Long story," Max replied. "How did you know we were here?"

"Educated guess. When I returned to the safe house to get you and I found you were gone, I figured you?d be here," Zack answered.

Max returned her attention to Jondy, who was still bleeding from her head wound. "Do you think she'll be okay?" Max asked Tinga.

"I don't know. She's hurt pretty badly."

Jondy heard the voices, but couldn't understand what they were saying. All she could think was that she had killed her sister, her best friend. If she was going to die, then she felt she deserved it for doing what she had done. The eyes started to close of their own accord and she barely managed one last look at Robin's body before they finally closed.

***

"Now you need to move. Kevin knows where you live and who you are. You need to move somewhere else and change your identity," Jondy said, her bandaged head barely hidden under her hat. She waved to the waiter for more coffee, then turned her attention back to her companion.

Logan shook his head. "I can't."

"Why not?" Jondy asked, calling his bluff.

"I... I just can't, that's all."

"Logan, if you want to keep Max safe, you have to get out of Seattle. I've got a summer house you can stay in until you get more permanent arrangements."

"A summer house? You?" Logan asked, obviously trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah. I came up with something, got a patent for it. You know."

"Ahh." Logan fell into a contemplative silence. Finally he said, "Alright. When do we leave?"

"As soon as possible. If I know Kevin, he'll be back with an entire army."

"Okay. Do I have time to say my goodbyes first?"

"Of course. I'll be waiting for you outside your apartment." The waiter brought their check and Jondy put a twenty down on the table. "Come on."

The two friends left the restaurant and got into Logan's car. The ride back to Logan's apartment was silent. They finally stopped the car and took the elevator up to his floor. Jondy helped take a few things down to the car then stayed there while Logan paged Max for the last time.

When Max got there, she saw Jondy waiting in Logan's car. She smiled at her sibling, but Jondy only gave her small wave in return. Worried by Jondy's reaction, Max hurried up to Logan's apartment.

"Logan? Logan?!" Max yelled. Logan wheeled out from his bedroom with a sad look on his face.

"I'm here."

"What is it? And why do you have that look on your face?"

"Max," Logan began, motioning for Max to sit down on the couch, "I. don't know how to put this, but I'm going to try. Jondy thinks I should move out of Seattle."

Max was speechless for a moment. When she finally managed to get something out, she could only say, "Are you going to?"

"I have to." Logan put his hand under her chin and forced her to look at him. "I don't want to be a danger to you."

"I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself," Max whispered, her voice almost pleading.

"I don't want to take a chance, not with you." Logan and Max moved closer, as if drawn together by some cosmic thread. Their lips touched sweetly, a gentle goodbye. When Max pulled away, she took a moment to memorize his face, his gorgeous eyes, his cute glasses, the beginnings of a beard.

"Here," Logan said, handing her a package. "I want you to have this. But I don't want you to open it until you get home." She held the package in her trembling hands. He looked at her one last time. "Goodbye." With that, he wheeled out of his apartment and into the elevator. Max moved into the living room and watched as Logan's car drove away. When it had finally moved out of her field of vision, she started home.

It took only a few minutes to get from his home to hers, but to Max it seemed an eternity. By the time she had gotten into her apartment and collapsed on her bed, she had totally forgotten about his package. Picking it up from where she had dropped it, she carefully opened the paper that it was wrapped in. She gasped when she saw the picture frame that was hidden inside. For the photo, he had picked one that had been taken at his cousin's wedding. He was sitting in his chair in his tux and she was in a chair beside him with her head on his shoulder, obviously acting the part of Logan's girlfriend.

As she looked at the picture, she remembered what Jondy had said. Girl, that's called love. She curled up on her bed and fell into a rare nap, with the picture frame right next to her.

end