Inspired by the movie Life As We Know It

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Nothing Comes For Free

Georgie and Logan, GH

Chapter Seven

May 2016

"You need to get your son the hell out of my daughter's house," Mac told Scotty.

"No knock, commissioner? What if I was in here with a client?"

"Do you think I give a damn about you or your corrupt clients? I wouldn't darken your door if it was not an emergency. Your kid has shacked up with mine and it has to stop. So, act like a father and convince him to give up all rights to my grandkids. It would be for the best. My family can't take another hit right now. Tell your kid to back off before I back him off."

Scotty stood up. "Whoa! Whoa! I don't even know what you're going on about. Fill me in."

"Logan is living with Georgie and the kids- Maxie and Cooper's kids."

"Logan is back in town? Since when?"

"About a week now. Georgie was gonna sue for full custody, after Maxie and Cooper left the kids to both Georgie and Logan, but she's changed her mind now. Says it would be too hard on the kids to go through a custody battle. She's probably right. But there is no sense in those kids getting used to Logan around when he has a life back in Texas. Tell him to go back to it- now- before I have to get involved."

"Just what are you threatening to do, commish?"

"Whatever it takes to protect what I have left of my family."

"I am sorry for what happened to your daughter and son-in-law. I really am. I lost my oldest years ago. I ain't over it yet. I doubt I ever will be. I also lost Logan years ago. I screwed up when he found me. Made him hate me. He won't take advice from me now."

"I should have known you wouldn't step up. I thought I'd give you the chance to do this the easy way- for Logan. Cause if I got to protect my grandkids from him it won't be pretty."

"Maybe he is just what those grandkids needs."

"How would you know? You just said you don't even know him." With that, Mac walked out.

Scotty sank back into his chair. Mac had looked rough, sounded worse. He never heard the commissioner talk that way but he also had never watched Mac mourn one of his children.

It was changing that man- and not in a good way.

Scotty wasn't close to Logan but he figured he owed him at least a head's up that Mac Scorpio had him in his crosshairs.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Mr. Hayes, you have a visitor," a security guard said to him, over the phone.

"Really? Who'd come visit me? I barely know anyone in this town anymore."

"He says he's your father: a Mr. Scott Baldwin."

Logan groaned loudly. "Send the bastard up but if you hear gun shots, don't call the cops. I'll need a shovel and an alibi."

"Yes, sir."

Soon Scotty was knocking on the front door. Logan opened it.

Scotty said "So the rumors are true. You're living with little Georgie Jones."

"She ain't so little anymore, trust me. What made you haul your old sack of bones out here? I know it ain't me. You never had no use for your baby boy."

"Here we go. Open with a throat punch. You get that from me."

"I get nothing from you and I don't got time for you neither. Hit the road, jack." Logan started to close the door.

Scotty pushed at the door and came inside. "You're wrong if you think I have no use for you. Only after you left town did I realize how stupid I behaved. It was all fear, really. Lucy made me see that. I was scared you were really my blood because if I accepted that you were than I had to accept that I threw away a letter that would have changed all of our lives. Not just you and me, but my daughters and your mom and Lucy, too. We were on and off for years back then. She would have loved you better than I ever could have. I cheated you out of everything you deserved...my last name, your family, your home. I couldn't believe you were mine because I couldn't believe I did that to anyone."

"Newsflash: you did that to someone, your own flesh, your baby boy."

"Hey, I didn't know, okay?"

"Excuses, excuses. Fine, you've cleared your conscious. Now go and let me get back to raising my family."

"Your family? That sure happened fast."

"Cooper is dead, man. He's dead. He ain't coming back. All I got left is those kids so you are damn right they are my family. Them and their crazy, angry, pretty aunt is the only family I got that I claim now. You are not wanted or included so take yourself back to the mainland and stay there."

"I can't do that. You may not be my baby boy anymore but you are my son still. I came to give you a head's up: Mac Scorpio wants you out of here and it sounds like he'll do whatever it takes to make it happen. You know that guy used to be a mercenary? You may see the squishy, family man, commissioner but I remember when Mac was a trained killer who never let the bodies be found. Watch your back, boy."

"You're off your nut. Mac is not gonna throw me in some unmarked grave."

"Excuse me?" Georgie asked, from the stairs. "What are you accusing my father of this time?"

Scott said "Just what he told me to my face he plans to do: get Logan out of here whatever it takes. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news at this delicate time in your life."

"Mac is just trying to protect us all," Georgie said. "I'll talk to him."

"So you're not on Team Mac?" Scotty asked. "You two in this together?"

Georgie and Logan shared a look.

Logan said "You take that one, darlin."

"Yes, we're in this together now."

Scott smiled. "Glad to hear it. Well, I'll be on my way but I won't be a stranger. We have a lot of time to make up for, son."

"I ain't your-."

"Yeah, you are, like it or not," Scott said, before hurrying out the door, making sure he got the last word in."

Logan balled his fist. "That man drives me nuts! The nerve of him. Just coming in here and butting into my life. He can go straight to hell on the express train."

"That is what I sounded like the day you moved in here."

"Do not make me laugh right now. I'm seriously pissed that he thinks we can build a relationship when he treated me like garbage under his shoe back when I wanted him in my life. It nearly killed me to tell him I was his son...thinking he wouldn't want me...and then he didn't." Logan turned his back on Georgie. He tried to even his breathing. "Screw him."

"Hey," she touched his shoulder. "People make mistakes. He sounds like he realizes what a huge one he made and how much he lost. You can't get that time back but if you still want to know the man who made it possible for you to be here, even just a little part of you wants to know him still, don't completely close the door. I have my own Daddy issues. My biological father I can not call my real dad. My real dad is a man who used to be a killer and gave all that up for three little girls who needed him and a woman who didn't know how to be a Mom. Mac is my hero...and you are going to be that for LJ and Frankie. You're going to be the Dad Scott never was for you. I can see it already. You're a better man than him. If you let him in your life, it just proves that."

Logan turned and pulled Georgie into a hug. They stayed that way for a long moment before he let her go. With a nod of his head, because he was too choked up to speak, he hurried up the stairs.

She watched him go and wondered how, in just over a week, she came to believe it was a good thing to have him around to help with the kids. But she did believe it now.

Georgie was starting to count on Logan. If he left now, she'd be okay. But if he stayed a while longer... she might not be able to say that still.

It sent a chill down her spine. She was starting to need him. A very dangerous thing, indeed.