Hello! I hope all of you are having a wonderful day :) Here is Part I of the two chapters I will be updating today. I hope you like them. To be honest I'm not really a fan of these two chapters, Logan's and James' backstories, but they needed to be told. So I hope you semi-enjoy them at least! Thanks all who reviewed, and I would really like more reviews for these two chapters!
Hope you enjoy and thank you for reading!
Oh, P.S. there is a mild curse word in this chapter...I'm not sure if any of you would be insulted by that so just be aware :) (hint: it's the "h-word"...hahaha, I'm not sure if any of you consider that a curse, but I do so...hahah :) )
"I always wanted to be a doctor," Logan started, looking at his hands that were resting on the table. "You know, when kids are first introduced to the world and to the opportunities that would face them in the future, so many things affect how they act. I was always a small kid, usually the shortest in the class and most definitely the skinniest. But I was good at things. I could climb the rope in gym class and ace every test that came my way. And it was fun and it all made sense to me. There was always an answer, and sure, maybe you had to research or hunt around a bit, but in the end, there was always an answer.
"So then I got older and outgrew the little toy doctor's bag and supplies that my parents gave me when I was young. And I moved so I changed schools and somewhere and at some point, school became less about being friends with everyone and became making friends that wouldn't hurt your social reputation. And it just didn't make sense to me, because I always thought who cares if you like to read and who cares if you do this or that. Just be nice and be yourself and everyone can be friends with everyone.
"Well at that time I was the new kid and I was awkward. I liked going to school because I liked learning, and that made be the social pariah with the other kids in my class. And I was strong and athletic enough that could have helped my popularity, but I fell into a lake when I was younger and got asthma, so I became that wheezing kid who was made of bone and skin. But like I said, I could still do things. I could play sports well and do the things that made everyone else popular, but no one really seemed to care about that because I was still a nerd. And it just didn't make sense.
"So then I got older and made enough friends to get by in high school, but I discovered that my true friends were math and science."
James scoffed at this statement and Logan laughed. "It's true!" Logan claimed, smiling. "Anyway, I liked science and math because they had answers, and things could be explained. Just because my social life as the weird kid in school didn't make sense to me, it didn't mean that I didn't have any answers, because science and math gave me answers.
"So, like I said, I always wanted to be a doctor when I was a kid. It started with that little doctor's kit and grew into an interest for knowing answers and things making sense, which then kindled the fire of a love for science and math. So I studied medical journals for fun, and I subscribed to doctor magazines. I read everything about being a doctor that I could get my hands on. I just loved the thought of being a doctor, of studying enough and doing enough research to help me help others by finding the medical answers that people were looking for."
Logan paused and took a deep breath. "Now here comes the harder part," he thought to himself before continuing.
"So I got a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins University. I was going to major in Biology and Chemistry and follow the Pre-Med concentration. I had it all figured out, which impressed enough people that my freshman year, when I was 18 years old, I had an internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I helped doctors and nurses and I was learning so much that they would usually send me down to the Emergency Room to help out with the simpler procedures when there was an overflow of patients.
"So one day the hospital gets a call saying that there was a car accident, and while there weren't any casualties, there were a lot of people coming in with minor injuries just to be checked out. So I'm going from patient to patient, seeing if cuts would need stitches, helping to stop some bleeding, whatever was needed, when I come across this guy. And he reeks of alcohol. I was 18 and a goody two shoes so I had never drank any alcohol before in my life, but even I knew that this guy smelled like some hard liquor. So I wave one of the policemen over to do a breathalyzer test, to make sure that he wasn't so drunk that he could get alcohol poisoning and would need his stomach pumped or whatever, and his alcohol level was 0.07, just under the legal limit of alcohol you're allowed to have before you can't drive.
"So the Emergency Room had calmed down a bit and I'm waiting with the police officer and this nearly drunk guy and the policeman tells me that this guy is extremely lucky that he can't be charged with a DUI, because he's the one who caused the entire accident. And I'm a bit in shock because this was a massive car accident that involved a little less than ten cars. I saw some injured people come in with cuts that were so deep that they needed stitches, and here was the guy who caused the whole thing and he didn't even have a scratch on him. He was brought in because he seemed a little dazed and maybe he had a concussion. But he didn't—he was dazed because he had been drinking.
"I'm staring at this guy, not believing that he caused the accident, when the police officer receives a call on his radio to keep an eye on this guy and arrest him after he's checked out by the doctors because he's actually wanted for attempted murder and armed robbery in Northern Virginia."
James' eyebrows shot up in shock. "You're kidding," he said incredulously.
Logan shook his head. "Unfortunately I'm not. So anyway just as this radio call is coming in, a stretcher is wheeled into the ER with a little girl on it, with a paramedic on the stretcher with her giving her CPR. She had been in the car with her mother when the nearly drunk guy went into her lane of traffic and crashed into her car. She was fine one second and then she suddenly just passed out. She stopped breathing, and then her heart stopped and the paramedics rushed her in as soon as they could, but it was too late."
James stared at Logan, horrified. "What happened?" he asked quietly.
"Apparently she had internal bleeding. She was in shock from the accident and she didn't realize the pain until it was too late and she died."
Logan paused. Even after ten years, this little girl's death still got to him. He looked at James and continued his story. "And I just didn't get it. I wanted to be a doctor because things made sense. I wanted to solve problems using logic and science, yet here was something that I couldn't explain. Why did a little six year old girl die because some drunk guy crashed his car into hers? Why did this innocent girl die and the man who caused the accident walk away without a scratch? And what affected me the most was this guy was a wanted criminal. He robbed a gas station and shot the cashier, leaving him for dead. He was wanted by the police, yet the police didn't do their job. They didn't catch this guy and they didn't protect the innocent. I always wanted to understand everything and receive solid answers for all of my questions, yet here was something I couldn't answer and I couldn't explain."
"So you decided to become a police officer?" James asked when Logan didn't continue with the rest of the story.
"Well, yeah," Logan said hesitantly. This was the first time he was telling anyone about this, about the poor little girl who died because some guy decided to drive after drinking alcohol. "But…well…okay. So this girl is dead because of this idiot who is completely unharmed. And this guy could have been arrested earlier, could have been stopped from killing this girl if only the police had done their jobs. And I know now that things aren't that easy, that police officers work so hard but sometimes the bad guys get away. But then, when I was 18, I wanted answers and explanations, and I wasn't getting any. And I was so mad and confused about all of this. For once, I couldn't think of a logical explanation or an answer to why this happened."
"So you became a cop because of the little girl?" James asked quietly when Logan hesitated.
Logan smiled softly, but there was no humor or even happiness on his features. "No," he said. "The girl's death itself didn't make me want to become a police officer. It was afterwards. Her mother called her husband, and he brought the girl's two little brothers and older sister to the hospital. And the mother and father started to cry, and this caused the two younger brothers to cry. But the sister, the older girl, she didn't make a sound. She was about nine years old and she just had this stoic look on her face. And…and I don't know how I knew, but I just looked at this girl and knew that she wasn't in shock. She wasn't emotionless because she was still trying to process what had happened. I knew when I saw her face that she understood what had happened, and she wasn't showing any signs of understanding because she knew that her life would never be the same again. She woke up that morning and she had a sister. Then, the next thing she knows she doesn't.
"And seeing such a young girl completely thrown off course, going through such a traumatic moment…it just hit hard, James. And it hurt. Here I was, so obsessed with finding answers and explanations, yet here was a situation where there weren't any answers or explanations. No matter how hard I tried I would never be able to understand why this little girl had to die and change her family's lives forever, while the criminal who caused the accident made it out without a scratch. It didn't make sense and I blamed the police for a time. They didn't do their job, and because of that, a criminal killed a six year old girl. So the best thing for me to do, I decided, was to become a police officer. If I did that I would get a chance to stop the crime that could lead to more pain and suffering. I became a police officer to help stop criminals and to help protect the good people who don't deserve to be ripped from the lives that they are living, like that poor little girl."
James was silent as he let Logan's story sink in. He had no idea that Logan was traumatized so much that he became a police officer to stop more crime from being committed. The whole wanting to be a doctor thing made sense though. Since he became Logan's partner, James heard more random medical factoids than he had ever heard before in his life. He had always thought that Logan was just weird, but apparently these facts stemmed from the years of studying he had done when his dream was to be a doctor.
"I'm sorry," James said, unsure of what else to say.
"Yeah," Logan nodded, his eyes filled with unshed tears at the memory of the life lost that day when he was 18. "I can't forget about her…them, about the girl who died and her stoic sister and her devastated family. I think about her and them every day, and it gives me the courage and the strength to always do everything that I can to find out the truth, to find justice."
James nodded. He understood why Logan had decided to have this heart-to-heart with him now. This was Logan's way of telling James that he trusted him, and that James should trust him too. And that this trust should include letting one partner follow leads or investigate cases that the other partner didn't necessarily believe in or agree with. James still wasn't convinced that Carlos was anything but guilty, but Logan shared his shocking past with him in hopes of helping him understand why Logan needed to look into this case more. He needed answers, and he needed James to understand this.
"That's what partners are, James," Logan continued to speak as if he knew what James was thinking. "They trust each other and know when to lead and when to follow. And they do this without question. After I became detective, I was partnered with Camille Roberts. She was the veteran detective and she thought that her experience made her right all of the time. We would investigate and if I started to suggest theories or say something that opposed her analysis, she would slap me—"
"Slap you?" James asked, definitely not expecting Logan to say that.
Logan laughed. "Yeah, she would slap me, right across the face. And then she would laugh about it or joke about it. And I mean at first I didn't really care because she didn't do it that often. But then as I got more experience with cases and started the see things differently than she did, she slapped me more and more. So I confronted her about it and asked her not to do it again."
"How did she react?" James asked.
"Well," Logan said, a smile beginning to form on his lips. "She slapped me again."
James laughed and said, "You're kidding!"
Logan shook his head. "Unfortunately, no," he said. "So she got mad at me and we got in a fight, if you want to call it that. So later that day we got a call from headquarters saying that someone just saw some guy dumping a dead body. Camille and I arrived at the scene before backup and we heard gunshots coming from this creepy old storage facility so we ran in. There were only two of us, so we were supposed to stick together, guard each other, like we learn at the police academy. So I went first and Camille was behind me, but she decided to split up without telling me. I heard a noise behind me and assumed it was Camille, or that she would tell me what it was, but she wasn't there. So next thing I know, this huge guy jumps me. We're fighting and I'm doing as well as I can but this guy is huge. So he has a gun and he shoots me three times. Backup came a few seconds later and took him out."
"Wait, you were shot three times?" James asked with wide eyes. "How do I not know this?"
"He shot me three times, but he didn't hit me," Logan explained. "He shot me in the chest and I was wearing a bullet proof vest so it hurt like hell and I fractured my sternum, but I was fine. So Camille and I were chewed out and yelled at for separating, but we caught the guy and no one really got hurt so it didn't go on our records."
"What did Camille say?" James asked.
"She apologized, but," Logan shrugged, "I just couldn't trust her. So I told her that I was going to ask to be partnered with someone else and she decided that she would rather just leave Baltimore and put it all behind her. So she did, and I was partner-less for less than a month and then I got paired up with you." Logan smiled.
"Yeah, lucky you," James said, smiling back at his partner.
"And I trust you, James," Logan said.
After Logan finished his stories, James hoped that he wouldn't have to tell his. He hoped that Logan would forget that he hadn't heard James' story and just forget about it. But James was not so lucky. Upon looking up from the table, James saw Logan's patient and expecting face. He knew he had to tell Logan how he came to become a police officer.
He nodded at Logan. "I guess it's my turn then?" he asked as casually as he could, but just thinking about his past made him anxious.
Logan smiled that reassuring Logan smile that James needed, but hated that Logan gave him. It would be easier to just refuse telling Logan about his past if Logan wasn't so nice and supportive all of the time.
"It may help to get it off of your chest," Logan said, smiling gently.
James was silent for a minute, and Logan was almost certain that his partner was going to refuse to tell him anything. But then, James began to speak.
Hope you liked it! James' backstory will be up soon too, so be sure to read that. Warning about James' story though...it has a bit more of a mature theme than Logan's so just be aware. Thanks for reading and please review!
