--Chapter 2: Coming to Neptune--
Logan opened the door to the presidential suite that he and Dick shared in the Neptune Grand Hotel. Dick was sitting on the couch. "Dude, you leave for like a week and don't tell me you're going? I almost called the police."
"No you didn't," Logan countered. "I had to run an errand." Lauren stepped out from behind the wall so Dick could see her.
"An errand that involved bringing home a beat-up chick?"
"A beat-up chick who happens to be my sister, Lauren. Ren, this is Dick."
"Is that a name or a title?" Lauren mused.
"Dude, I thought Trina was your sister." Apparently Dick hadn't heard Ren, or was choosing not to.
"Ren is my other sister--she's been living in Boston, but as of late, finds herself homeless. She's gonna stay with us for a while, okay?"
"You can't just be bringing in random chicks off the street to live here. It's bad enough you let your girlfriend in."
"You got married to a girl you knew for two days once, remember?"
"Dude, why you gotta be bringin' that up?"
"Not your finest hour?" Lauren asked.
"You have one drunk trip to Vegas . . ." Lauren laughed briefly at his desperation, and Logan quickly steered her toward his room. They dropped Lauren's bags and went back out into the living room.
"Hey, we're gonna go get some food, wanna come?" Logan offered.
"Nah, I just ordered some. Thanks though--good to know you're still thinkin' about me." Logan was not in the mood to deal with Dick's sarcasm, so he grabbed Lauren's hand and pulled her out of the room. Once they were in the hall, he slowed his pace, but still held onto her hand. She looked at their hands, then gave Logan a strange look.
"I'm not five, Logan--I'm not gonna get lost."
"Oh, sorry." He dropped her hand.
"It's okay," she assured, smiling up at him.
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Heavily laden with shopping bags, they stumbled into the room once again. Dick was gone, probably out to a party. "I can't believe you bought all this." Lauren went into Logan's room and dropped all of her things.
"Hey, I've got the money; I might as well spend it on someone who deserves it right?"
"Well, I don't know if I deserve it." She replied, coming back out and sitting down on the couch.
"Of course you do; you're my sister." He sat down next to her; she smiled and kissed him on the cheek. Then she picked up the remote and turned on the TV.
"So how many channels do you get on this thing?"
"Like fifty I think." He put an arm around her.
"Fifty?" She flipped through the channels, finally settling on one that was playing the movie Dr. Strangelove. "Ooh, I love this movie."
"Really? Me too," he smiled.
An hour later, Lauren was finding it hard to hold up her head. "It's only 11:00," Logan protested in surprise.
"Maybe here, but I'm still on Boston time," she reminded him. She stretched out on the couch, laying her head on his lap. "Plus, I don't think I've ever eaten that much food in my life." Logan laughed, then reached over, grabbed a blanket and spread it over her. Lauren was out like a light, so much so that she didn't respond at all to the knock at the door. He gently put a hand under her head, slipped out, and placed a pillow beneath her to lay on instead. Logan hurried to the door before whoever was there decided to knock again. He opened it to find a sassy blond.
"Hey, I was gonna call you tomorrow."
"Well, I just ran into Dick, who said you were back from your secret excursion. So, I decided to surprise you." She kissed him, then pushed past him and into the room, stopping when she found Lauren on the couch. "Huh . . . did Dick leave something on the couch?"
"No, she's mine."
"And she's there because . . . ?"
"I'm redecorating," Logan responded sarcastically, moving to sit on the edge of the couch.
"I probably would have gone with a nice throw and a couple pillows, but a girl works too I guess." Ignoring her, Logan kissed Lauren's forehead. She opened her eyes slightly.
"Hey, there's someone here I want you to meet." He brushed her hair back from her face as she yawned. She looked past him to the small blond standing in the walkway.
"Is that Veronica?"
"No this is Parker," he answered. "Parker," he turned to look at her, "This is Lauren . . . she's my little sister." Parker stood looking shocked for a second, and finally found her voice.
"Can I see you in your room for a minute please?" He obliged, standing and following her into the other room. He closed the door, but Lauren could still hear them arguing. "This is why you disappeared for almost a week?"
"Yeah, I had to go to Boston to get her."
"Boston? You had a sister living in Boston that no one knew about?"
"Including me; my mom never told anyone about her, but I was listed as her next-of-kin, so when she had nowhere to go, her social worker called me."
"How do you know she didn't just see you on TV and forge her own papers, listing you as her next-of-kin?"
"Parker, you think after what happened with my brother that I would be that stupid again?" He was getting a little irritated with her. "She had a picture, like an actual photograph, of me in her wallet that my mom had sent her in a letter explaining her birth. I have her birth certificate that lists my parents as her parents, and on top of that, I had a DNA test done while she was unconscious . . . she's my sister."
"Okay." Parker hated being chided. "I just didn't want you to go through all that again." He nodded, softening.
"Do you want to come meet her?"
"Sure," she smiled weakly, following him back out into the living room. Lauren was sitting up by the time they got to the couch. "So Logan tells me you're from Boston," Parker said, attempting to make small talk. "What's that like?"
"The weather is cold most of the year, and as for people--they're the same everywhere: some are great and some you gotta watch out for. Unfortunately, I got stuck living with a lot of the latter." Now that she was up close, Parker found it hard not to notice Lauren's cuts and bruises, and even harder still was not staring while Lauren talked. To Parker's shame, Lauren acknowledged this. "It's okay; you can ask about them if you want," Lauren assured.
"What are they from?" Parker ventured tentatively.
"The last of a long chain of abusive foster homes," Lauren answered matter-of-factly. "This one just happened to claim the lives of both my foster parents--finally giving my social worker a reason to call Logan. The stitches come out on Monday. Then they won't look quite so bad, but getting it done is not gonna be a good day."
"I'm taking you for ice cream after that, remember?" Logan confirmed. "Then we're just gonna hang out--movies and room service." Lauren smiled weakly at him and nodded. He placed a reassuring hand on her arm and she returned the gesture. After just this few minutes, Parker knew that something about Logan had changed. And she'd better get used to this girl, because Logan wasn't going to let her go.
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They sat in the waiting room, all three of them. Lauren looked nervous but resigned--as if she'd done this more than once before. Dayna, the Physician's Assistant, came out and called Lauren's name. Because it was just a simple procedure, both Logan and Parker would be allowed to follow her back. She was given a gown because of the stitches on her side, back, and shoulders that needed to come out along with those on her right hand and forearm. Parker made Logan wait outside for a moment, and Lauren was glad that Parker had insisted on coming; it was much easier letting Parker help her out of her shirt and into the gown. Logan came in and helped Lauren up onto the table as Dayna entered with a rolling table holding scissors, disinfectant, gauze, and a few other tools meant to aid in the procedure. "Where would you like to start?" Dayna asked Lauren.
"How about with my hand--that's probably going to hurt the most." Dayna nodded. Logan sat down next to Lauren and held her left hand as Dayna disinfected her right. Parker watched as the woman began removing the stitches.
"Wait, aren't you supposed to numb it or something?"
"I can't have any kind of pain killers or anesthetic unless I need to be unconscious," Ren explained. "Over the years, my body built up such a tolerance that it wouldn't do any good. They'd have to give me a dangerous amount for it to have any effect."
"Oh." Parker was stunned and couldn't think of anything to say. Dayna set back to what she was doing, and Lauren squeezed her brother's hand tightly, clenching her jaw against the pain. Stitch after badly sewn stitch, Dayna pulled them out, wiping up the small amount of blood that escaped with them.
"Did a four-year-old put these in?" Dayna commented.
"Pretty close," Lauren returned through her teeth. "Murphy's an intern who will probably stay that way for a while." An hour and a half later, Lauren was free of stitches and covered with bandages. And Parker had a whole new respect for this girl who'd taken so much pain without crying, or even so much as a whimper for that matter.
Logan went to pay the deductible as Parker helped Lauren back into her shirt. They started down the hall slowly, meeting Logan on the way out the door. It took much longer than it should have, but they finally made it back to the car. There was nothing wrong with Lauren's legs, but that many stitches all at once had wiped her out. She sat sideways in the backseat, leaning against her left side--the only spot that hadn't needed stitches.
"What flavor do you want Ren?" Logan asked as he pulled out of the doctor's office parking lot.
"Boring," she replied.
"Boring?" Parker asked, confused.
"Vanilla it is," Logan answered, knowingly.
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They made it back to the hotel in slightly higher spirits than when they'd left--the ice cream definitely seemed to make Lauren feel better. Dick was on the couch when they opened the door. "Dude, you're just in time for BloodRayne." He seemed proud of it; Lauren on the other hand, had other thoughts.
"You mean the cheesiest and most low-budget vampire movie ever made--including Nosferatu? I think I'll be out on the balcony for a while."
"I think I'll join you," Parker said with a slightly disgusted look toward Dick. Logan started to follow them, but Parker stopped him. "Uh-uh, girl-time--you stay with 'Frakula' over there." Logan looked at Lauren, and she nodded that she would be alright. The girls went and had a seat outside while Logan sat down on the couch.
"Dude, it's probably not the best idea to let your girlfriend and your sister hang out . . . they're gonna start talking about you."
"Thanks Sherlock." Logan seemed mildly irritated, but not at the fact that Parker and Lauren were talking. He could tell that Parker still didn't quite trust Lauren, and he was almost certain that she was trying to find something to prove that Lauren wasn't really his sister. The thing was, he already knew she wouldn't find it, and he didn't like that Parker was pushing her. He knew what it was like to have to talk about being abused--it brought up every memory of every beating you ever got--and he knew how many beatings Ren had endured.
"How long have you known about Logan?"
"A couple years; I got the letter right before Lynn died."
"Why didn't you look for him?"
"I told my social worker not to call him unless she had to--I didn't want to be a burden on him; he's only two and a half years older than me. I mean, who was I to expect anything from him?"
"What was different about this time?" Parker tried to sound like she was making small talk.
"Well, since both my foster parents died it was either find a new couple who was willing to nurse me back to health, or take a shot in the dark and see if Logan would. I guess Gale was tired of having to relocate me all the time and decided to try my last blood tie."
"How many foster homes have you been in?"
"Eleven total; two since I learned about Logan, and I only spent six months in the last one." Ren was getting a little irked by Parker's questions. It seemed like she was digging for something, or she was just really nosy, Ren couldn't decide. "How many homes have you lived in?" Ren countered.
"Just one; my parents are still together." Parker took the hint, but it was too late.
"I'm getting a little cold; I think I'll join the guys after all." Lauren stood up, went back into the room and sat down next to Logan on the couch. Parker stood watching the two of them through the glass for a second, then made her way back to the front door.
"I'm gonna head out; I've got some errands to run."
"Okay, I'll call you later." Logan seemed slightly surprised but unsympathetic.
"Later Parker."
"Bye Dick." She turned and walked out nervously.
