A/N: Not mine. This is what happens when I'm bored: My muse takes over and decides I want to explore new characters.
We found ourselves sitting next to a window at a diner soon after we'd left from where we'd been, staring up at a larger than life version of the girl otherwise known as "WeepingWillow17". I didn't know why I had agreed t ocome along inthe first place. There were other things that I could have been doing. But the truth was that far from wanting to be alone, I wanted to be with people. And if it was only me and Logan, then it was only me and Logan. I was at the point where I didn't much care anymore.
"Y'know, back in the day, I doubt there was anyone who'd have thought up something like this." Logan's voice broke into my thoughts, and I looked at him, idly fiddling with a straw wrapper.
"Goes to show that things just keep on getting worse," I said. He gave me an amused look.
"Either that, or things are getting too easy for kids to pull off when they're bored," he said.
"Gee, whatever happened to reading a book?" I asked dryly. The amused look returned.
"What's the fun in reading a book when there's a chance to send the cops chasing after their own tails?" There was an almost annoyed note in his voice that I didn't miss. I wondered what exactly about this case had bothered him, and decided it was best left for him to tell me. I didn't want to ask. After all, we hadn't been partners for very long. I didn't want to pry.
"I suppose there's always the thrill of national fame," I said, finally. Logan gave me an appraising look, and then nodded, slowly.
"Guess you could call that an advantage." He paused for a moment, and then sighed. "D'you think they really meant anyone to die?"
Now there was a loaded question. I myself doubted that they'd really meant anyone to die, and not only because it was what we had been told. No...something about the whole thing had told me that no one had really been meant to end up dead. It had just happened...a freak accident born of something that was supposed to have just been a practical joke. Mind, it was a joke that had had the NYPD scrambling for answers, to find our so-called victims, and their so-called kidnappers, but still...It was, to put it shortly, the naive desire of someone to find something to spark some kind of excitement in an otherwise dull life.
"No," I said. "No, I don't think they meant anyone to die." The words came out more harshly than I'd meant them to, as if I were challenging him. Daring him to question my opinion. I felt my face going red and looked down at the glass in front of me.
"Hey," said Logan, sounding almost amused, "It's all right. I was just asking." He trailed off for a long while and then spoke again. "What was it like on the task force?"
I gave him a startled look. This had been our fifth case together as partners, and he'd never once before made any indication that he knew where I had come from, or why I had come. Even so, I didn't doubt that he did know, solely for the fact that Captain Ross and I had come at the exact same time. There had to have been some hint of suspicion there.
"It was...interesting, to say the least," I replied, after the initial shock had worn off. "Not like Major Case."
"Can't have been too many cases like this," said Logan, smirking faintly. I shook my head, and stirred my drink with the straw in it. We were off duty, but I hadn't felt like drinking anything stronger than soda. He, on the other hand, had a bottle in front of him.
"Money laundering's not as glamorous as some people might think it is," I said wryly. "Made me wonder why people even bothered, if you catch my meaning."
He did, and laughed. "Lot of things out there to make us wonder," he said, vaguely. I offered up a half-hearted smile and took a sip from my glass.
"You ever wonder why you do this?" I asked.
Another one of those questions, in which there was no wrong or right answer. He could say yes, he could say no, and either way, he'd be right, because it was him, and no one else.
"Yeah," he told me, "I wonder every day. Used to think the only reason I came in was because my dad was a cop, too, but then I figured I liked it well enough, so I stuck around. Department probably wishes they'd gotten rid of me, though."
I found it amusing, in an ironic sort of way, that he could say this with such a candid air, but then, that was Logan, and I doubted he really cared one way or the other what the department had to say about him. I, on the other hand, did. I wondered if maybe that was why Ross had stuck me with him in the first place, and decided I didn't want to know.
"You think you'd have done the same?" I asked, referring to the case. "If you'd been pretty much sheltered for your entire life, I mean."
"Nah," said Logan, "I'd have found one way or another to liven things up. Used to get told a lot that I didn't go looking for trouble, it just found me. Apparently, nothing's changed."
Again with the candid air. It was as if he no longer cared what he was saying to me. I wondered briefly if it meant he finally trusted me, but didn't want to try my luck with that one. I got the impression that there was more to what he was saying, and waited. After a few minutes, he spoke again.
"You know, you grow up in a cop's house, there's not much you're sheltered from," he said quietly. "You ask me, most of the time, parents have good intentions, but what they don't seem to know is that their desire to keep their kids away from the world is doing them more harm than good."
"You learned this the hard way, then?" I asked, and he laughed, again, but the sound was a lot more bitter than it had been.
"I wasn't sheltered," he said. "Not one bit. In fact, I guess you could say that I learned sooner than most that the world can be a lot colder than you expect it to be."
I wondered what he meant, but didn't want to ask. Instead, I took a fry from my plate and dipped it in ketchup before eating it, and pushing the plate towards the middle of the table, in some sort of peace offering, though there hadn't really been anything between us to warrant such a thing. He looked at me, and then took a fry, smirking.
"Trying to bribe me, Wheeler?" he asked. I shook my head, unable to keep from laughing, myself.
"Nah," I said. "Just not as hungry as I thought I was."
"You'll grow out of it," he said, as if an appetite was something one acquired. I shook my head at him.
"How can you eat like that?" I asked. "Seriously. Don't you ever worry about having a heart attack or something?"
"Don't tell me you're some kind of health nut."
"Are you kidding me? I'm the farthest thing from a health nut. Probably wouldn't make it through the day without some form of sugar. Either that, or caffeine. Guess it's just the way I'm wired."
"Wired, huh?" said Logan, smirking at me again. I rolled my eyes. He'd been giving me a hard time about my red hair and freckles since we'd become partners. I'd gotten used to it, choosing to ignore him rather than telling him to shut up. Figured that when we'd been partners for a while, then, I'd tell him to shut up. But for now I'd ignore him.
"Yeah, wired," I said. "Got a problem?"
He looked at me with raised eyebrows, and then shook his head, leaning back and laughing. It was a side of him that I hadn't seen before, and I wondered how often I'd be seeing it. Hopefully more often than I saw any other side. I gave him a sideways look, and he looked back at me.
"What?" he asked.
I shook my head and took another fry. "Nothing," I said. "It's nothing."
He shrugged, and continued eating. Apparently, not knowing whatever it was that I was thinking made no difference to him. I found this amusing for some odd reason, and only barely bit back the desire not to laugh. He was definitely something. More experienced, perhaps, than all my other partners had been, considering they were closer to my age than he was, but at the same time, there was still something about him that told me that he knew he didn't know as much as he thought he did, and as much as he acted like he did.
So I continued to look at him, relieved when after a while, he still hadn't noticed that I was doing so, because he was still busy finishing what was left of my food. Again, I found myself wanting to laugh and only just barely managing to hold back.
This was definitely going to be an interesting partnership.