Lean On Me

Chapter 52

Friday November 23 2007

Lucas was steaming mad as he waited in Kelly's diner for Brooklyn to show up. When she walked in the door she gave him a quick hug and then he said "We have to do something to convince Georgie to get away from that asshole!"

"Luc...lets sit."

They had been e-mail buddies, after dating in high school, and were pretty good friends. They sat at a table together. Brooklyn slipped out of her coat and then said "You got to calm down. I know you love her-"

"So this is on me?"

"Lucas-"

"She's way too sweet for a guy like that! Sex bet! Do I need to say more?"

Brooklyn let out a short breath. She looked Lucas dead in the eyes. "When is the last time she was ever happy?"

"Brooklyn, I know-"

"When?"

"I know that but Logan hurt my two other cousins....now you want me to sit back and watch him go after Georgie too? How long will she be happy? And when he's used her up and spit her out what will be left?"

"We don't even know him."

"So you're okay with this? Really?"

"I'm great with seeing my best friend excited for the FIRST time in over a year."

"I can't let him hurt her. Not Georgie."

"She's not a baby. And she's not stupid. If you treat her like either she'll just end up hating you....not Logan."

Just then a man came walking in with a crooked grin on his face. To Penny he said "Hey there, darlin. Cup of joe."

Brooklyn tensed but didn't say anything. She opened a menu. "So have you eaten?"

Lucas hissed out "Nice try," and then was on his feet. "Hey, you! Are you Logan Hayes?"

"Who's asking?"

Brooklyn jumped up. "You don't want to go there, Lucas. Come on. Let this go for now. Innocent until proven guilty, what about that?"

Lucas looked back at her.

Logan asked "What did I miss here? You got some kind of problem with me?"

Before Logan knew what was happening Lucas had punched him. Logan fell to the ground. Just as Logan was about to jump up and beat the living daylights out of Lucas, Brooklyn jumped between them, holding Logan back.

Logan yelled at her "Get off me! Your boyfriend is a DEAD MAN!"

"Wait. Wait. Wait. Come on, boys. We're not doing this."

Mike came running out of the kitchen with a bat "Now what's going on out here?"

Lucas yelled at Logan "You're aren't fit to even look at Georgie let alone touch her!"

Logan stilled. Breathing heavily he shook his head "What the hell do you know about me and Georgie?"

Mike said "Lucas take this outside. Don't do this in your mother's diner."

"Oh freaking great!" Logan said. "You're the cousin they all go on about, huh? Georgie, Maxie and Lulu. Well I can't say good to meet you. It looks like you've heard all about me."

"Stay away from my family. All of them. Or else that punch will be the first of many."

"Not gonna happen," Logan said.

Brooklyn turned to Lucas. "Okay, enough! You said what you wanted to. Just leave. Georgie is not going to thank you for this."

Lucas told Brooklyn "If you care about her then tell her the truth. She can do so much better." He grabbed his coat and slammed out of the diner.

Brooklyn turned to Logan and smiled. "Hi."

"And you are?" he asked, in his harsh little 'Don't fuck with me' tone.

"Play nice. While Georgie will get over Lucas not liking you...cause its a guy thing with testosterone and all that junk...if I don't like you, you've got real problems. But lucky for you," she smiled "I'm thinking about joining Team Logan. Convince me."

"You got a name, doll?"

"Sorry. Brooklyn Ashton...the best friend."

Logan sighed and fingered his bruised jaw. "Well I don't know what you want to hear. But I don't plan on hurting Georgie."

"Good. See that you stick to that plan, okay? She's really excited about you. Don't make her regret that. Because the only thing worse than being unhappy for so long....is being happy for a short time just to lose it all again. If you can make her happy, Logan, then do it. Don't let anyone stop you."

"I don't intend to."

Brooklyn smiled. "I knew I would like you from the moment she sent me your picture."

"She sent you my picture, huh? When was that?"

"You really wanna know?"

"If it ain't breaking any confidences."

"The day you moved to Port Charles."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

She heard from her mom that Maxie worked at the boutique in the Metro Court so Serena went to go say hello to her old childhood friend. With a smirk she walked toward the counter, caught Maxie's eye, and said "Damn, you're skinny! I hate you."

"SERENA!"

Maxie rushed around the counter to hug her. When they were kids Lucy and Felicia could not have been tighter which meant that there were plenty of sleepovers for the kids at each other houses.

Maxie pulled back. "Where did you get this skirt?"

"Paris."

"And you didn't bring me one?"

"Like I want Mac calling my Mom." She mocked his voice "Serena is corrupting Maxie again. Did you see how short that skirt was?!"

"Then Lucy would argue that I corrupted you by talking you into buying it. Which I so would have if I was there. You've got the legs for this look."

"You think? That's what I told Johnny- this guy I met- but saying it and believing it are two different things."

"Johnny Zacchara?"

"He said you two are friends. Just friends, right?"

"One date. A few kisses. Then he slept with Lulu. So delouse him before you go there. Just saying."

"What do you think of him?"

"He's moodier than I am. But with a father in a mental hospital what do you expect? Listen I would love to chat more but, as you can see, this place is a madhouse. Call me though. Lucy has the number. And we're in the book. You have to catch up with Georgie too. How do you feel about yoga?"

Serena made a disgusted face.

Maxie said "Me too. But Georgie is a fan. You can suffer with me." Maxie gave her a quick hug. "You're home for a while right?"

"Yeah. I need to get to know Logan."

"Oh....well....we'll talk about him next time. Just remember I knew you first! Don't take his side just because he's your new brother."

"This sounds like some story."

"Its not pretty but its so over now. Bygones!" Maxie gave her a little wave and went back to work.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Brooklyn gave Logan a ride home. As they pulled up to his house he said "Well it was good to meet ya. Thanks for the ride."

"No problem."

He turned and looked into her dark brown eyes. For a long while he had wondered about this girl, and now here she was sitting in front of him and he had to pretend it wasn't any big deal. "I'm guessing you're gonna be going back to the city after this weekend, huh?"

"Yep. But I'll be back for a week between Christmas and New Year. Maybe we can all hang out then. I haven't met Spinelli or Cooper yet but I've heard a lot about them too."

"Georgie's kept you up to date huh?"

"Every little detail."

"And you still don't hate me? That's pretty open minded," Logan said.

He liked her. But she had good genes so he had always expected to like her. Not to mention Georgie had freaking fantastic taste and had picked this girl as her best friend.

Brooklyn said "My ma taught me to be open minded but not so much that my brain falls out. So don't think I'm giving you any free pass to hurt my best friend. I don't care how you are to anyone else that you know. Just be good to her and we're cool."

Logan nodded.

Brooklyn said "Now get inside and get some ice on that jaw."

"Will do. Later, doll."

"See you around, Logan."

When she came home for Christmas, one way or the other, the truth had to come out, even if Logan had to push the issue. Cooper loved being noble. He was being noble about his family, about Logan, about Serena- who Logan could tell he wanted by just looking at the way his eyes lit up over her- and he was being noble over Maxie. All that being noble was going to get him no where fast, Logan felt. Because noble men died lonely and miserable so much more often than selfish men- who always find someone to warm their beds, no matter how sinful it is.

Nobility be damned. Family and love were all Logan Hayes gave a good damn about.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lulu thought she managed to sneak into the mansion and see her father without running into Sarah or Dillon but she didn't quite make it off the property. As she was climbing into her car outside, after creeping out the patio door from the den, Dillon came walking out of the mansion.

He stopped short when he saw her there. Her eyes drunk him in. He wore a blue shirt and tie, black pants, and a black wool coat with a scarf looped around his neck. Her silly little girl heart raced at the sight of him.

"Hey," she said, looking over the top of her car.

"Uh...hey. I was just heading out to the gate house to see Ned. He's home for the weekend too," Dillon told her. "Did you stop by to see me? Everything okay?"

"Just came over to check on my Dad. Make sure he's taking his medication and not giving Alice too much hell about his diet."

"Cook would stop feeding Luke if he dared complained to her. So better that he does take it out on Alice."

Lulu nodded. "You look nice."

Dillon walked toward her. "Oh this? Yeah. Well. The Metro Court has a dress code right?"

"Not that is really enforced."

"In a town full of gangsters who would have the guts?"

"Carly."

They both laughed.

Lulu said "I should go." She threw her purse in the car.

"Lu..." He touched her arm.

She looked at him. For a long moment their eyes held.

He said "You don't have to avoid me just because-"

"I kinda do....for now."

"If you're doing that for me...like you told me to take the movie for me...don't. Instead of making sacrifices for me....let me decide how much I can handle being to you."

He was the only man she had ever made sacrifices for her in her life. The only one. So she asked him "How much can you handle right now?"

"I don't know. But I don't want to turn my back on you."

"You've never done that." Lulu looked down "Look," she sighed "I respect the fact that Sarah is wearing that ring on her finger. That....she's gonna be your wife. And....yeah...I do hope that you and me get back to a good place but we have to be straight with each other. Right now you belong with her....and I need to just get myself together. When you're married and I'm not such a disaster then we can be cool again."

"I want to be cool with you now," he said in a desperate tone.

"Well," she joked softly "I wanted a boyfriend named Elvis. We can't always get what we want."

"That certainly couldn't be more true when it came to us." Dillon smiled tearfully. "I guess they're rolling the end credits now and we've come to another one of our sad little good byes."

"There's always the sequel where we're both so over this."

"Sure. That happens in every sequel, right?" Dillon asked.

"You're the expert. You tell me."

"Sequels usually suck."

"There are always exceptions...somebody gets the story that legends are made out of...don't they?" she asked as her voice broke.

"Somebody, sure," Dillon promised Lulu.

She didn't say anything back. She just got in her car and drove away, as memories of them played in her mind like on of Dillon's favorite black and white movies.

(Funny how time and distance change you.

The road you take don't always lead you home.

You can start a love with good intentions

and you look up and its gone.

So we treat our love like a firefly

like it only gets to

shine

for a little while.

Catch it in a mason jar

with holes in the top and run like hell

to show it off.

Oh promises we made when we'd go walking

that's just me and Charlie talking) (Miranda Lambert)

Note- Logan's thoughts about Brooklyn refer to how he knows that Cooper is Ned's son but it is a secret from everyone else because Cooper does not want Jerry going after the Ashtons, Quatermaines, etc.

Logan learned about Cooper's parentage during the war, when they shared stories of their fathers and realized they lived in the same town, which bonded them immediately. Later all the life and death action made them brothers and now Logan wants his brother to be able to claim Brooklyn.