Logan was worried about Maddie. In all honesty, he had been worried about Maddie in some capacity for the last seven years or so, but the current situation left the others behind in the dust.
Maddie had spent the last two months trying to convince everyone she was fine, and it was incredibly obvious to Logan that she was not.
First, Maddie's hands started shaking the minute she started to talk or even think about Alaska. She tried to hide them. She was even pretty good at it. But Logan saw them all the same.
And then there was the fact that he woke up every morning to find Maddie on the floor outside his room. She tried to pretend she slept there intentionally, but every once in a while, she startled when he woke her, and Logan knew that wasn't where she had gone to sleep.
Logan had actually been wondering how long it would take the renowned faculty of the Gallagher Academy to start asking questions. Logan was certain they had known for a long time. Otherwise they didn't deserve to teach here. But so far, no one had said anything.
Maybe that's what the Headmistress wanted to speak with Maddie about, Logan thought optimistically. It definitely wasn't about the woman who had tailed them through Roseville.
Logan took a deep breath and forced himself to consider the possibilities. He was the First Son, after all. Perhaps their tail had simply been a very intelligent member of the papparazzi.
Logan would have given anything to sit in on that meeting, but he'd been banished back to his room, a victim of Maddie's withering gaze.
As Logan turned the corner of the faculty hallway, a shiver ran down his spine, and he was instantly on alert. Maybe it was just because this was the first time he'd been alone in a long time. But something didn't feel right.
As Logan cautiously rounded the corner to his room, he caught sight of a tall young man with dark brown hair, who was absentmindedly staring out of Logan's very small window.
Perhaps the most unsettling thing about this particular unsettling moment was that Logan recognized the man: he'd been out of place eating his ice cream in Roseville, but somehow, he looked right at home and totally at ease inside the walls of the Gallagher Academy.
Logan slowly, carefully, reached for a candlestick on the bookcase near the door, which Logan had intentionally placed there to use if he needed a weapon. He never answered the door without the candlestick in his hand. A steel dagger that was more heavy than sharp was also tucked under Logan's mattress. Logan had filched it from a suit of armor in a rarely frequented hallway. He doubted anyone would notice.
"That's not what I would choose," the man said quietly, as if he could see Logan's every move through the back of his head. "I can think of about fourteen ways to kill you with that once I get it away from you, which, no offense, doesn't look like it would be that hard."
"What would you recommend I use instead, Mr. Goode?" He asked apprehensively.
The man laughed, but didn't turn around, and for a moment Logan questioned his analysis of the situation.
"Fishing Line," he responded. And Logan couldn't tell whether or not the man was serious, but Logan suspected that if he spent enough time at the Gallagher Academy he could learn a lot of nefarious uses for fishing line. "You can keep it on you, so you're never without a weapon, like you are right now."
"What are you doing in my room?" Logan asked. His other hand moved to rest gently over the place where his panic button hung, just underneath his sweater.
Zachary Goode turned around and considered Logan.
"Nostalgia," he answered, then paused a moment. "Also, no one trusts you."
Logan laughed a little, but it sounded forced even to him.
"Sorry," Zach said with a shrug. "But you have a reputation. And no one's going to be breaking into, or out of, the Gallagher Academy while you're here."
"That's fair," Logan nodded. "But that doesn't explain why you were babysitting Agent Cameron's class this afternoon. I wasn't even supposed to be there."
Zach turned away from him and resumed staring out the window, although Logan was sure he was still being watched.
"You do have a nasty habit of showing up in places you aren't supposed to be," he said calmly. "Besides," he continued. "My father called in a favor."
There was an unusual inflection in the way Zach said the word "father," so Logan pushed him on it.
"Your father?" He asked innocently.
Zach nodded, without turning around. "Townsend."
Logan tried not to let the surprise cross his face, but he didn't do a very good job. He considered the man he'd seen in the hallway, and now that he knew the truth, he could see the dramatic resemblance between them.
"Abby's pregnant," Zach said quietly, as though he was still processing the news and simply needed to say it out loud.
"Wow, that's exciting," Logan said cautiously, in a way that sounded like a question.
Zach shrugged. "She's not an international terrorist, so at least his taste is improving."
Logan knew better than to ask any follow up questions about that particular topic. He'd read all about Catherine Goode and the Circle of Cavan, and he knew enough to extrapolate.
"My dad never calls me at all," Logan said quietly. "He barely even talked to me after Alaska. He just shipped me off here and told me I was going somewhere I'd be 'adequately supervised.'"
Zach bit back a laugh.
"Don't worry," he said. "They get over staring at you eventually."
"That's reassuring," Logan responded.
"If you think I'm taking my eyes off you for more than eight seconds ever again, you've got another think coming."
Logan spun to see Maddie standing in the doorway, her hand on her hip. Out of the corner of his eye, he also saw Zach start a little, then turn toward Maddie in a more controlled manner.
Maddie pinned Zach Goode with her most intimidating stare. "Since you're too old to be a student, and not old or permanent enough to be a teacher, I think you'd better tell me who you are and how you came to be at Gallagher today."
Zach chuckled as he studied her. Personally, Logan thought that was ill-advised.
"Well," Zach said almost reverently. "Madeleine Manchester."
"I know my own name, thanks," Maddie snapped. "But I'm still waiting for yours. Don't you know how rude it is to leave girls waiting on you?"
Zach stepped forward and extended a palm. "Zachary Goode," he said calmly, shaking Maddie's hand firmly. "Former student, current CIA operative."
Logan saw the recognition dawn in Maddie's eyes, but only because he knew her so well.
"And how did you come to be here today?" She asked, without faltering.
This time, only Zach's eyes laughed. Then he looked at Maddie very seriously, as if he knew exactly what kind of girl she was. As if he had plenty of experience being questioned by girls like her.
"My father is Edward Townsend," he started, and Logan couldn't help but notice the same strange inflection on the word "father." "And Joe Solomon is an old, old friend. My father asked me to help Abby chaperone your class today, and I like an excuse to visit Joe. He doesn't get to go out much, seeing as how he's been dead for seven years and all."
Zach paused and smiled at Maddie. "I suspect you'd know a little something about that," he said gently.
"How do you know who I am?" Maddie continued, unimpressed.
"Spy," Zach said, pointing to himself. "I think you'll find a lot of people in our community know exactly who you are."
Logan thought Maddie's face paled at least two shades, as she mumbled, "that doesn't sound like a good thing."
"Well, you did save the President's son and defeat an infamous Russian terrorist leader using a flint necklace and that mouth of yours," Zach said. His tone was full of the same admiration that colored almost all of the Gallagher Academy rumors.
Maddie rolled her eyes. "People always seem to forget the part of the story where I had a pretty big knife. You'd think a bunch of government operatives would pay better attention to detail."
Zach laughed again, and Logan got the impression Maddie reminded him of someone, a little sister, perhaps. Or a girl he'd known back when he was sixteen.
"I'll be going now," Zach said, easing toward the door. Logan saw Maddie briefly consider forcibly detaining him, but in the end, she stepped out of the doorway and let him pass. "Ms. Manchester, it was truly a pleasure to meet you. Clearly Logan is in excellent hands."
The moment Zach Goode left the room, Logan saw Maddie's shoulders collapse in relief and exhaustion. And Logan finally understood what he'd failed to see for so long: that bubbly, overly girly Maddie was mostly a defense mechanism.
"Mad," he said quietly, pleadingly. He reached for her hands. She buried them in her pockets and turned away. But Logan wasn't taking no for an answer any longer.
He crossed the distance between them and placed his hands on Maddie's shoulders. He felt her tense under his fingers and avoid his gaze, and Logan casually considered the fact that Maddie was perfectly capable of killing him in at least 25 different ways if she wanted to. But that didn't stop him from gently tracing his fingers down her arms and slowly extricating her shaking hands from her skirt pockets.
Maddie made a half-hearted attempt to pull her hands away, but Logan didn't let go. Instead he held her trembling fingers cupped in his own, and tilted her chin up until their eyes met.
"Mad Dog," he said gently. "Please stop trying to hide this from me."
Maddie stared at him silently, and for once, Logan had no idea where her head was at.
"You've saved my life so many times," he said softly. "Please let me at least try to return the favor."
The silence between them was heavy, there was no other way to describe it. And then, out of nowhere, Maddie jerked her hands from Logan's and buried them in his hair. Her mouth burned against his, and Logan allowed her to part his lips with her tongue as he moved to cup the small of her back.
"Mmm...Mad," Logan mumbled against her lips. "What are you doing?"
She pulled away, looking mildly annoyed, and Logan instantly regretted his question. "I'm changing the subject," she said firmly. "I thought that was fairly obvious."
Logan laughed, and pulled her back into his arms. "In that case," he teased, "I approve of your new selection." He kissed her again, slowly, and this time he tried to let all the feelings flow through him, hoping he might telepathically pass them to Maddie without any need for further words.
Logan felt Maddie relax into him, and a rush of warmth flowed through him. He could still soothe her with his body, if nothing else.
Eventually, she pulled away, and stood at arm's length. Logan ached to draw her back to his embrace, but he could see from her face that they were about to have a serious conversation.
"Ok," Maddie said firmly. "I'm ready to talk about what happened today."
Logan nodded, and waited for her to continue.
"Do you know the person who was following us?" She asked. "And I don't mean 'do you know her name,' I mean 'have you ever seen her, even for a moment, anywhere else in your entire life."
Logan stared at her blankly. "I can't tell you," he said. "I didn't really see her today. I only got a glimpse or two, once I realized why we were having the grand tour of Roseville's best attractions."
Maddie was silent for a moment, as though she was narrowly forcing down a strong desire to choke Logan with her bare hands.
"That's bad, Logan," she said, and Logan thought Maddie was setting her expectations pretty high for a girl who hadn't wanted him to take even a single spy class. "How do you expect to prevent another Alaska from happening unless you notice everything and everyone?"
Maddie leveled her signature glare at Logan as she said "You need to know more. You need to be coming to my covert operations classes. And you absolutely cannot leave the grounds again."
Logan wanted to argue that Maddie wasn't his mother, but he knew better. So he nodded slowly, hoping that Maddie could ultimately be made to see reason.