Response, reaction and Pizza
A/N: picking up exactly where we left off and scene!
"We'll um yea; it's kinda hard to explain away your entire facial bone structure changing back and forth in front of me." Veronica had gone into some sort of shock absorption mode. No screaming, no running, no digging all over her person for a cross. I can handle this. Vampires, creepy crawlies, don't even compare to Mrs. Kane on a bad day.
"Spunk, and clever." Angel smirked in Logan's direction. "I like her."
"I'm glad you approve dad." Logan said, a teasing smile made his face almost cherubic.
There was a pause. No laughter and an "ex-nay" motion from Lorne doing his best to be not-too-obvious.
"Umm, Lucy wanna es-plain?" Logan looked to Lorne and then to Angel.
"Funny you should mention me being a dad." Angel gets a flash of a smile to come up on his features but his face wants to brood.
"Umm but you're kinda dead right?" Veronica found her voice, of course using a question as her vehicle.
"That would be true; except for a little prophecy…well actually was it a prophecy?" Angel looked at Lorne for clarification.
"Angel cakes when isn't there one…and this one had several, I know you only remember one but his birth was actually for told as well as the other part." Lorne's voice drifted off into a grave whisper.
"Right, so I um hooked-up-with-my-evil-ex-and-somehow-thanks-to-the-powers-that-be-had-a-kid-and-she-had-to-dust-herself." He waited a beat feeling foolish and embarrassed. "His name is Connor by the way."
"Strong, Irish name." Logan commented.
Veronica stood quietly watching the exchange between the two. Marveling at the deftness of Logan's words. He knew just what to say, like he knew Angel for all his life. Like a son (or a daughter) took care of his (or her) father now and again.
"Yea, I wish you could have seen him as a baby, you would have been a good babysitter" he held for a beat "I think." Angel said looking at Logan.
"Would have?" Logan didn't push but Angel was getting a bit too vague for even him to follow.
"He's about seventeen now, it's a thing, he was taken through a portal and raised in a very un-fun hell dimension." Cordy offered walking in on the conversation, saving Angel some of the trouble of talking about it.
"I see." Logan said trying to take it all in. He looked to Veronica, who hadn't faltered yet.
"Is he human?" Veronica asked, genuinely curious.
Angel smiled. "Yea he is, yet he's super strong, and a great hunter. He's, he's just having a little trouble adjusting to being here. You know?"
"Well how many people can say they're well adjusted huh?" Logan said offering a small smile.
"Not too many. Believe us we know, we come from a whole town of people who aren't exactly well adjusted." Veronica said. Trying to be supportive and finding she was going overboard as she saw Logan connect with someone that wasn't her. It gave her warm fuzzies.
"So are you guys hungry?" Cordy chimed in giving everyone a moment to recover.
"Yea" Logan said looking to Veronica warmly and then back to Angel. "Starved."
Gunn and Fred had come back from a trip to a magic shop for spell supplies just in time to help decide pizza toppings.
While waiting for the pizza Angel excused himself and disappeared up stairs. Logan and Veronica gave each other matching quizzical looks
"He's going to see if he can get Connor to come down and eat with us." Fred clarified.
"Oh, so we meet the fabled Connor at last." Veronica quipped.
"At last? What you talkin' about? You've been here less than a day." Gunn said playfully.
"Yes but very much of the discussion has been about said son." Veronica said. "Oh and rightly so, but now I'm curious." She smiled at Logan who just winked at her in appreciation.
"So Veronica you said you dad is a P.I?" Gunn said stretching out on a piece of lobby furniture.
"Yea, Mars investigations. I do a lot of secretarial work for him; sometimes he uses me on jobs. I do some of my own work on the side…it's kinda a calling now." Veronica answered, putting her guard up only slightly.
"Calling?" Cordy inquired.
"Yeah, I helped solve a murder of someone very close to us." She looked at Logan for a brief instance. "And while I was doing that people in school just kinda came up to me looking for help. Sometimes it was a small thing, a lost dog or whatever but there were other things that mattered a little more." Veronica looked at the group who seemed to be more than mildly impressed with her accomplishments and then to Logan, who looked enthralled, and in love. She blushed, and casually got up and sat down next to and partially on top of him.
At that moment there was a knock on the doors. "Food!" Fred shouted excitedly. She followed Cordelia to the door, anxious to bring the pizza-ie-goodness in.
"I love you." He whispered, his lips skimming the soft shell of Veronica's ear. His voice vibrating on her skin. She felt her skin flush, prickling as it went and her pulse race, then all of the sudden it clicked.
She turned slightly to look him directly in the eye. "I love you too Logan." She felt all the blood in her body shoot up into her face, and then rush down her veins and pool somewhere near her stomach.
It wasn't the first time they said I love you, but it's the first time they felt love, in every inch of their being.
Angel smiled to himself as Connor followed him down the stairs. His boy was in love. Well Logan wasn't his but he had been there for him when things had gone to shit so in a way he was kind of, sort of his boy. He cared for Logan, he felt the need to protect him, and praise him. It was like, fatherhood, but it was a not as painful as when he tried to think of Connor in the same way.
It hurt less, and at the same time, it hurt some because he knew that this wouldn't last. Logan couldn't stay for more than a few weeks, maybe a precious month or two. He couldn't though, pick Logan as his son and ignore his own, trying not to brood they made their way down stairs.
TBC
A/N there are like four spellings for Connor did anyone know that? I think this is the least popular one... so should I got back into ever chapter and fix it?