Logan walked through the airport, clumsily dragging their luggage behind with one hand and carrying Veronica in his free arm. She had fallen asleep while they had been standing in line twenty minutes earlier and had since stopped holding onto him. Cradling her and wheeling their luggage was quite a trick. But through what Logan assumed could only be sheer force of will, he made it with both Veronica and their bags onto the plane. She finally awoke as he placed her down into her seat next to the window.
As soon as they were seated, a little boy began kicking Logan's seat at every opportunity. Logan was too weary to even bother to turn around and glare at him. They both sat in silence for most of the plane ride, each absorbed in their own questioning yet unspoken thoughts.
Logan's late night disappearance was driving Veronica nuts. Even worse, it occurred to her that Logan knew that it was worrying her. And for him to choose to let her worry rather than explain his whereabouts assured Veronica that whatever had happened the previous night was terrible. They would not arrive to where they were "vacationing" in Australia for close to fifteen hours. That was far too long to sit and chew over all the possibilities for where, when, and why. However, even though she was furious that she was being kept in the dark, she loved him more than she could bear. Unfortunately, on the Veronica scale, mistrust outweighed love. She had seen too much. She knew too much. She didn't know how to wholly trust someone without questions or motives. To Logan, that was one of her biggest faults.
By the time they were halfway through the second in-flight movie, Veronica's head was resting on the window, deeply asleep. She had been sleeping a lot more these days, Logan noticed. He attributed it to the medication her doctor had prescribed for her. It worried him. To his knowledge, Veronica never slept peacefully. But those pills made her sleep so deeply, she hardly moved while she slept. She didn't seem anything like herself while sleeping. Peaceful, sweet, all out of fire and spite for the world. He didn't know what to do with this kind of Veronica. It seemed like she was almost dead without that fiery hurt hanging about her that had been so much of what defined her for the past few years since Lilly had been murdered and her life took a downward spiral.
While he watched her sleep, he fretted about the night before. He wasn't sure what to tell her about where he'd gone. He knew that if he didn't tell her anything, she would only get angrier at him. By the same token, telling her could hurt her more and would probably only make her do something stupid. No, he decided, it was better to just take her away and let Keith try to take care of it. It wasn't their responsibility anymore.
Veronica told him to wake her when the plane landed, should she be asleep. He nudged her until she woke. "We're here."
"O-okay." She was just barely awake and he could tell she was fighting to wake up completely instead of going back into her hibernation.
They deplaned quickly and Logan picked up their bags at the baggage claim. Luckily for him, the parents of the annoying little boy who sat behind him offered to help get them from the belt. There was no way Logan could while still carrying Veronica, as he had to do everywhere they went. Thank God she's still skinny and petite.
"That is so sweet of you!" the boy's mother exclaimed as he pointed out to her which bags were theirs. "Is she okay, though?"
"Yeah, she just can't walk… pregnant," he explained bashfully.
"Your first?" she presumed with a knowing smile.
"Yeah. I just hope my wife can make it through this." He had no idea why he was revealing his worries about something he hadn't even discussed with Veronica about to a complete stranger.
She nodded, understanding. "Well, good luck to the two of you. She's a very pretty girl."
"Thanks." He got a handle on the bags somehow and began to walk off with them when the lady stopped him, shaking her head.
"I'll get those, sweetie. You get your wife." He let her take the bags back from him and follow behind as he took the semi-conscious Veronica to the entrance of the airport where he immediately saw a bearded man in a large hat holding a cardboard sign up with the name 'Mars' scrawled in... was that Duncan's handwriting?
The man hurried toward Logan and gathered the bags from the kind lady. He appeared a bit harried at the sight of Logan carrying Veronica. He recognized the man as soon as he had gotten close enough for Logan to see his face, but it still threw him off. Although, Veronica's request to go to Australia for their trip didn't seem like such a random choice, after all. He didn't appreciate the way Duncan stared down at Veronica's relaxed face like she was Sleeping Beauty and he somehow fancied himself her prince.
"Logan," Duncan managed by way of greeting.
Logan nodded in acknowledgment, afraid to use his name in public. Duncan led the way outside to a waiting cab. They said nothing to each other in the taxi, reserving all conversation and the inevitable questions until they had reached the house Duncan was renting and gotten inside.
"Is she okay?" came Duncan's first question as the entered the house.
"She's pregnant and been having some problems. We uh…got married, you know." He giggled, feeling the full force of a long night, the longer flight, and the strain of running into his former best friend on another continent. "She's my wife," he added as though his first mention of it wasn't enough.
Duncan swallowed hard before showing him to the guest room. He watching as Logan tucked Veronica in under the covers and gently kissed her forehead. It wasn't an easy scene for Duncan. Boy, had Veronica moved on quick.
"So, do you mind telling me why we're here. I'm assuming you asked her to come," Logan began as soon as he'd closed the door on his sleeping wife.
"They have my daughter."
"Who's 'they?'"
"I don't know. But she's been kidnapped. I had just buckled her into her car seat in the back of my car while I was loading some stuff into he trunk. When I went the shut the door, she was gone."
"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll find her, man."
His face twisted with pain and he made himself change the subject, knowing that Logan wasn't the one he needed to get the information to. "Is Veronica going to be okay?"
Logan smiled sadly. "I don't know. I hope so. The doctor keeps telling me that her body just isn't taking it well, like she can't handle it or something. She's been on bed rest off and on for weeks."
Duncan's ground his teeth in an effort to keep his comments to himself.
"Logan?" Both men turned to where they heard Veronica's questioning call.
They went back to the room Logan had put her in.
"Hey," Duncan said by way of greeting but didn't move closer to her from the door.
"How long have we been here?"
"Not long," Logan answered.
Veronica looked between Duncan and Logan as if she were a kid that got caught with her hand still stuck in the cookie jar. "I'm assuming Duncan filled you in?" she asked her husband.
Logan nodded uncomfortably. He wanted to talk to her about this very awkward situation that she had gotten him into but wouldn't in front of Duncan.
"I- I didn't know you were really sick," Duncan put in, "You shouldn't have come."
Veronica ignored his concern and asked, "Do you have any clue who took her?"
"Someone must have put this in my mailbox yesterday." He produced a note from his pocket and handed it to Veronica.
Killers shouldn't have kids. Kids should have Christian homes.
