Broken
Chapter One
Notes- VERY first shared VMFic. I'm going for making it into a mystery so don't let Logan/OFC throw your guys off, this is just the beginning! It will be LoVe, at least to some degree! Constructive criticism is encouraged.
–
Today marks the first day of our last year at Hearst. I guess it's no surprise about half of us have our futures planned ahead of us and the other half are just going to wing it. We were always an odd little bunch.
Take Mac, computers have always been her thing, and Dick was born into realty, so when he took over Casablancas Real Estate and bought Kane Software, I guess it was only a matter of time before he offered the company up to his girlfriend. They've been dating about a year now. The sparks flew earlier on but it took them both a while to get past their issues, namely the ones Cassidy left behind for them to work through.
Wallace got ahead of his engineering classes finally, and after two very successful summer internships, he's looking to be working for a major airline next year. Couldn't be any prouder of him, and he's been made well aware that he's gotta get me some airmiles to take a vacation after this four-year massacre they call a hundred-thousand dollar education.
Duncan's back in California, now that both of the Mannings are long gone, he's gravitated toward his father to a degree but he lives with his little girl, Lilly, in San Diego. Looks like he just plans to be a stay-at-home dad. But the job seems to suit him. It's something Jake would never have pushed for him to do back in high school.
After my internship at the FBI things didn't really work with Piz, especially with all the conflicted feelings for Logan. The FBI doesn't seem to work either, for all that wanting to get away, I feel like I need to stick around here to work. So I've been studying to stick with local law enforcement. Even if I have to set up some kind of office of my own. That'd be cool right? Sheriff Vs Sheriff. Legalities be damned!
As for Piz, he's still set on becoming a DJ. There's not a lot to say there, because not very much has expanded or changed with Beaverton.
And then there's Logan. We spent the entire year after Freshmen year trying to figure one another out better, then another year trying to be friends. But we never took it another step further again. I think my insecurities plus his own finally formed into genuine forcefields around us. We added to the gang last year, a transfer from Santa Barbara named Tesla Spencer. Her dad was a detective, her brother is a P.I., so we hit it off pretty fast. I guess that sort of figures, Logan jumped on her within weeks of her joining us for our Junior year at Hearst.
Yeah that's weird to say. But at this point, there's really no sense in dwelling. The rumors started last month, whispers at the Hut that became celebrity news and Hearst radio talk. Today it was confirmed for much of the school, who didn't dare believe it when they heard it. When the pictures hit , even. Logan walked onto campus with Tess' hand in his, and her little but obvious bump walked on right along with them. This wasn't my confirmation, when the wildfire started Logan met up with most of us for coffee and dessert. It was one of those nights of reckless passion, and she refused to get rid of it.
Being the gentlemen he was, Logan wasn't going to force the issue, and he wasn't going to abandon the mother of his child. I spent about a weak off the net and living off of CD's in the car. When I didn't have to be anywhere I was curled up in bed with Backup wondering if I had pressed the issue, made the first move, I'd be the one. . .Well that's silly, and I know that. I'm not ready to be a mother and despite his romantics, I know maybe better than him that Logan isn't ready to be a father.
But now school's back in and I'm in supportive friend mode. We all had lunch together, me, Logan, Tess and Wallace and Mac and Tess's bump. Parker declined the invite, she was hopeful when Logan and I didn't get back together after a year that he might have decided he was in love with her after all, so she spent that second year trying to win him back only to be crushed last fall at the news of his hookup with Tess.
I've only got a few classes this year because of summer courses last year and this past summer, at lunch we all chatted about classes, and how Tess was due right around Christmas time. I worked up enough voice to ask if they knew they sex since she was about five months along, and Tess just smiled to herself a little, Logan looked at her. . .I've never seen that look on his face and he told me, "We don't want to find out before he or she arrives."
I never would have pegged him to be so. . .a part of it. But I'm glad he's not leaving her to do the hard work herself with just his money to help.
–
Veronica had left shortly before the end of the lunch period to get to her last class of the day early. Wallace and Mac soon followed and Logan nodded a goodbye to him as he chewed down the potato chip in his mouth, wiped his hands and then his mouth on a napkin and spoke with food still in his mouth but he swallowed halfway through the sentence. "So I have class until four, do you wanna maybe hang out here after yours and wait for me?"
Tess' paused in patting her face with her compact's powder applicator, covering the area of makeup wiped off by her own napkin a few moments before. She wasn't obsessed with beauty, partciularly before the pregnancy, but the rise in hormones saw a rise in agitation and thus breakouts, so she tended to conceal the spots out of embarrassment. She was naturally soft on the eyes, a departure in Logan's taste, dark brownish/red hair, wide blue eyes. Thin lips, and a soft smile. Freckled on her arms and back but only a couple on her face. She shrugged a little, not so much indifferent as. .kicked back.
"I haven't got anything better to do, I can wait for you or just take the bus."
"I don't want you taking the bus," He told her sternly, but not harshly. His voice protective but gentle. "Too many random strangers grabbing at your belly. No one needs to be touching you, could be any kind of crazy person on those buses. We'll go home together."
Tess sighed and stood slowly, still getting used to the added weight and girth on her petite frame. Leaned to kiss him softly on the cheek. "Then I'll wait for you."
The baby had changed them. They'd started out hot and wild, sure to burn out by summer before Tess came to him in May with the paper from her doctor's. She'd asked them to make a printout of the pregnancy test results for him. Logan had taken three days to himself before offering her marriage, which she declined, explaining she wasn't interested in using the baby to get at his money and she wasn't trying to force him to help. She just wanted him to know, in case he did. He didn't get back to her until some time part-way through June. So she trusted his word was genuine.
They were calmer now. Logan had been in panic mode for a few weeks even after he came to her to offer his help as the baby's father. And that itself had never come into question. Nevertheless, Tess gave blood samples to three different labs, along with hair samples from Logan to confirm his paternity for his own reassurance. She'd gotten the lab names from Veronica, so she knew they could be trusted. Logan refused to look at the results, and Tess didn't see any reason. The only person who had seen them was Veronica herself. The issue was dead within days of starting.
Logan escorted her to her class and then went to join his own, and at around four her met her in the college library to take her books and lead her outside to where the Land Rover was parked. He opened the door and she climbed in carefully, buckling below the bump before setting her bag on the floor by her feet, straps high and stiff so it was easy to grab from there. Logan was soon sitting next to her and he reached into the backseat to set their books on it before leaning for a gentle kiss. "You feeling okay? Was everyone nice?"
"Everyone was nice." She promised, settling into the seat as he started the SUV up. "I have to go to Santa Barbara this weekend but I can drive there and back."
Logan looked at her apprehensively. By now he knew Tess as a girl who really could take care of herself but nonetheless, he had to worry. The beginning of the pregnancy was rough on him, but come the fifth month she wasn't sick or sore or always tired and now the baby was moving on occasion and despite not really being able to feel it under his hand, or face, Logan tried, every time she mentioned it or made the 'ooh!' sound.
"I dunno, Tess, I mean, what if you go into early labor behind the wheel or somethin'?" It was meant playfully and he grinned at the look she shot him before sighing. "Just you know, call. As you're leaving and don't hang up until you pull in at your dad's. Are you staying at your dad's?"
"Yeah, in my old room. Mom's there." Logan looked at her briefly with surprise before addressing the road again and she nodded. "Yeah that was our reaction, anyhow I'm supposed to be doing dinner with them and the brother type and I figure I'll stay the weekend since I'll be lugging my big fat self around the city. ."
"You're not fat, Tess. You're perfect. The fetus thanks you for letting your gut get basketball round so he's got room to not be AS bunched." Sometimes he said something like that and inwardly, Tess melted at the sweetness behind it. She got him, on an automatic level that most people didn't, which was why it was easy for him to love her and to just like her on a relaxed level. The relationship was far from perfect, but their quirks made it bearable.
Tess smiled and dropped her gaze shyly, smiled at him again and patted his hand on the gearshift before looking out the windshield. In that split second that it took to do that Logan looked to smile at her as her face scrunched into terror. "Look out!"
Instinctively he swerved the car, and it flung in a circle before there was a sickening groan and crashing noises as the SUV flipped. It rolled in the dirt and vegetation on the side of the road before it was still. When Logan came to, the door on his side was being ripped off and he looked up at the men in suits that had come to save him and he thought for a brief second, that they were safe. His heart flipped in his chest when he realized what had happened and immediately jumped to try to look around the car, the air filled with dust. "Tess. . TESS! Get the fuck off of me! Tess! My girlfriend. . .my girlfriend you have to. . .she's pregnant, please. . ."
"It's all right sir, we already got her out, she's safe. She's okay. You have to come with us." Hearing that she was safe was enough. Logan let them pull him out and soon he was unconscious again.
–
Veronica was moving down the corridor at a furious pace, her feet landing heavily as she walked. She had already visited the nurse's station and was almost to the door of Logan's hospital room, paused when she was just outside of it and took a deep breath. It was a private suite so there was an actual door, and she opened it and smiled at him before stepping in. "Hi, I got here as fast as I could. Are you okay?"
He was sitting on the side of the bed fiddling with his phone, and he nodded. "A few stitches, but they wanna do a CAT scan. FUCK." Slammed his phone into the bed and ran his hands over his face. "They block phone reception and they won't talk to me about Tess. I swear to God if. . ."
"Okay." Veronica quickly grabbed his shoulder. "I will go and see about Tess but you just relax and don't rip your stitches, okay?" He nodded, though he looked displeased with her suggestion. And with a sigh Veronica held up a finger to signal she wouldn't be long before she found herself at the nurse's station again.
"Hi, sorry, can you tell me where Tesla Spencer is? What's her condition?"
The nurse typed her name in and looked at the computer a moment. "She's in a room on maternity, her condition is stable."
Veronica sighed with relief. "And her baby? Does it say anything about. …?"
"Stable as well."
Veronica managed a smile and nodded to her. "Thank you, very much." She returned to Logan's room and paused as he looked up at her, studied the anxious, hopeful look on his face. Then she smiled and said, "Tess is okay, so is the baby, I think they're just monitoring them to make sure everything stays strong and normal and whatnot."
"Yeah, good." Logan coughed nervously, clearly feeling awkward discussing the baby with just Veronica there. "Hey can you go check on her while I wait to get discharged? I don't. .she shouldn't be alone."
With a sad glance Veronica nodded and left, took another deep breath and took an elevator up to maternity, before she found out Tess' room number and went to make her visit. She knocked twice before walking in, and the difference in her room and Logan's was damn near staggering. Smaller despite the machines keeping track of the baby's vitals, dingy, it smelled. Veronica smiled. "How you feeling?"
Tess was laying back in the bed, her tummy exposed for the electrodes stuck all over it and she smiled tiredly at Veronica. "If this is just a close call visit, I really don't look forward to the birth. But really, I'm okay. Have you seen Logan? Is he. . .?"
"A few bruises, handful of stitches, but he's just fine. He's gonna come up as soon as he's discharged and he asked me to wait with you." She took the only chair, near the bed and looked at the baby's heartbeat before looking into Tess' face. "You got lucky today."
Tess just smiled a little, ran her hands gently over her roundness. "Yeah I did, hate to miss out on a kid this great, haven't even gotten to meet her yet." She paused, closed her eyes with a little smile. "She's moving."
Veronica looked up at her and opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't for a moment. Finally mustered, "May I?"
Tess nodded and let her place a hand on the warm skin. "You can't feel anything from the outside yet but sometimes it feels like she reacts." They stayed like that a moment, but nothing happened. Tess sighed. "She stopped."
Veronica withdrew her hands. "You know, I never thought Logan. . .I never would have imagined he'd be so excited to become a father."
The other girl shook her head. "He's not, he's terrified of that, he just loves the kid." They shared a glance before Tess smiled at her. And they were silent as they waited for Logan to get there, just the loud thumping sound of the baby;s heartbeat in the room. Veronica remembered Meg, much further along than this when she'd seen her in the hospital. The look in Duncan's eye that read that he needed to be there and doing the right thing.
Maybe it was a guy thing. Or a rich guy thing. She never did figure it out, but if there was one thing Veronica could be glad for, it was that Logan had knocked up a nice girl like Tess and not a girl like Madison.