Logan/Sam one shot to show how they could have gotten together. Canon up until sweeps in May, 2008, (except Sam does not have a cane.)


Kisses

The grand reopening party for The Haunted Star was in full swing.

Logan leaned on the bar, studying the people around the room, and feeling detached from all of them. They all belonged to someone but lately-now more than ever-Logan felt he belonged to no one. Not like he cared though.

He cared about nothing, not even himself. He'd been burned too often by caring. His heart was on lockdown. At least that is what he had told himself after his last girlfriend, Lulu Spencer, dumped him.

He watched as she stood next to the guy who had replaced Logan in her bed- that rich prick Johnny Zacchara. Logan would have loved to slam that guy into a wall and just keep slamming till the smirk fell off Johnny's face. But Logan wasn't going to actually waste his energy by going after the mob prince. Being with Lulu would be punishment enough for Johnny boy. It had been for Logan.

He looked back toward the bartender and motioned for another drink. When he got it in his hand, Logan glanced back at Lulu again, knowing he was a damn glutton for punishment but not being able to stop himself, and that is when he caught sight of Maxie grabbing Johhny and kissing him, as Lulu watched with her tongue falling out of her mouth.

Logan swallowed hard as something in the vicinity of his heart shattered. That's odd, he thought as he watched Maxie, who had for a few crazy nights last fall been his, pull away from Johnny and smiled, her face glowing and her eyes tempting Johnny to want more. I was sure I couldn't feel a thing anymore.

He headed for the door, bumping hard into the back of Lucky Spencer as he passed him.

"Hey! Watch it, why don't you?"

"Go to hell," Logan muttered. He darted around Sam McCall, who was just walking in, and their eyes met for a second but then he sidestepped and headed for the door.

XXXXXX

Sam, dressed exquisitely in a floor length gown with her hair pinned up, raised an eyebrow at her on- again, off- again lover Lucky. "What was that all about?"

"I don't have a clue. He's a menace. Just ran into me and acted like I did something to him." Lucky shook his head in disgust then leaned closer to Sam and touched her arm. "I didn't know you would be here tonight."

The way he said those words, as if he was a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, immediately put Sam on edge. If Lucky was feeling guilty there was only one reason behind it. Her eyes scanned the room and landed on Elizabeth Webber chatting up Luke Spencer. Sam looked back at Lucky just in time for him to admit what he already knew. "I brought Elizabeth here but...its not a date. I need her to run interference with my father. He has a soft spot for her...I'm sorry. I didn't realize you wanted to come."

But somewhere inside of herself, deep down and buried, Sam knew the truth. Even if Lucky had known she wanted to attend this event that wouldn't had made any difference. What Liz wanted, Liz needed, Liz felt, Liz said...that is what was most important to Lucky. Sam couldn't trump his ex- wife in his heart, no matter how hard she tried. But she pushed that truth down this time like she did every time in the past- because it wasn't something she wanted to face. Instead she focused on Lucky's smiling face and tender eyes...and she let herself believe his lie. She smiled and played the understanding almost girlfriend as he crossed the room and went back to the woman she could never really replace.

Sam played roulette for forty minutes until she had won a huge pile of chips. Smirking at Ric Lansing she said "You should know by now I always come out on top."

With a devious grin, he admitted "That you do."

Sam cashed out and then looked around the casino for Lucky but she couldn't find him. She decided to step outside to get some air. She walked out onto the dock and froze in place when she spotted Lucky and Liz kissing.

Sam crossed her arms over her chest and cleared her throat. Lucky broke away from Liz. Apologies darted into his eyes. He tried to explain that it was a good bye kiss, that they were finally letting go, but Sam was past the point of believing him. Maybe he thought him and Liz were done...but everything she saw said they weren't.

"Why would you let go?" she asked with her voice shaking with a throat clogging mixture of tears, anger and pain. "You love her."

"Sam, listen-" Lucky said

"Have her. I hope you two are very happy together but I know you won't be," Sam sneered at him before hurrying past them with tears streaming down her face. She silently berated herself for ever caring at all about Lucky.

Hadn't she learned her lesson by now? Caring was for suckers.

XXXXXXXXX

Logan Hayes was acting like a madman. He knew it, could feel how out of control he was by the way his cheeks burned and his heart raced and his hands shook, but he just didn't care. He guzzled whiskey straight from the bottle as he paced on the docks. Every once in a way he would yell some hate filled words at the night sky.

"Screw this whole damn pitiful town!"

"I'll second that."

Logan's angry eyes shifted to the stairs and caught sight of Sam McCall, looking like a goddess in the moonlight. She looked too perfect to touch at first, but then he took another look at her face, saw a familiar sort of misery resting there, and realized she wasn't just a gorgeous face he had watched on TV or seen on the arm of a hitman. She was just another miserable person in this miserable town where nothing good ever lasted. "Go away."

"You own this dock now?" Sam asked "Don't give me crap. I'm not in the mood." She walked close to him and said "Let me have some of that."

Not waiting for him to answer, Sam grabbed the bottle and chugged some down.

"Damn," Logan breathed out under his breath. "You drink like a pro."

"Its my best event." She sighed- pushing out a frustrated breath. "So, this is where the real party is tonight, huh? The docks?"

"Yeah, but the band packed up right before you got here," he joked.

"Figures," she said. "You don't have anywhere else to be?" The way she asked it clearly said that was pretty pathetic.

"Does it look like it?" he growled, while drinking down more whiskey. He wondered how much he would have to drink to forget he ever knew Cooper Barret and ever slept with his best friend's girl, and ever loved her and ever lost her. To forget Lulu and Johnny and Iraq. To forget his life. He wasn't there yet, so he drank some more. "What about you, doll? You get all dressed up to stroll the docks alone? Some guy stand you up?"

"What you think I can't get a date? I can get whatever man I want, Logan."

"Goody for you."

Not in the mood to be put down, Sam stepped right in front of him and stared him down. "You should be so lucky as to be my man."

"Not interested, darlin." But his eyes danced with desire and a drunken recklessness that screamed You better run while you can.

Sam wrapped one arm around his neck. Tilting her head to the side, she whispered "Liar," and then she brought her lips to his in a wild kiss, tasting whiskey and tobacco on him, before she pulled away. "Any...man...I ...want."

Sam spun on her heels, a wide smile curving over her lips, and walked away. He called after her "You have a nice night there, doll!" in his snarky, you don't effect me in the least tone, even though he was still quivering from the kiss she had laid on him.

Sam called over her shoulder. "You too, solider."

The End