Chapter 17: Bombs and Burns
*****Now*****
Veronica screamed, "Logan!" Moving quickly, she ran toward the SUV. She saw two students and yelled, "Call 9-1-1!"
Was he in the car? As she approached from the passenger side, it was apparent that the SUV was in flames. He often parked between two lines, so no other car would get too close to ding his black SUV. "Oh, God!" she cried, stopping to empty her stomach as the horror hit her.
"Veronica?" a voice called. She turned and saw Xander in his work clothes.
"It's Logan's SUV," she said, rising to her feet.
Xander went to the driver's side and saw a body on the ground with the door open. "I think he's over here!" he called out. He pulled out his work walkie talkie and called it in. "We have a burning car and an injured student in the south parking lot. We need help."
"Copy," a voice said back.
Xander could see that the back of Logan's shirt was burned. "I don't want to move him in case there's a spinal injury," he said.
"Is he alive?" Veronica asked, her eyes filled with tears.
Xander grabbed his hand, checking his pulse and nodded. "Yes, I can feel a pulse," he told her. "The explosion must've knocked him unconscious."
"Thank God!" she exclaimed.
Other students were pouring around.
"What do you think happened?" Xander asked.
"There was an explosion, so I think it was a bomb," Veronica said.
"Seriously?" Xander said in dismay.
They heard sirens, and Veronica let out a breath. She reached for Logan's hand—luckily, it wasn't burnt. "Help is coming, Logan. Hang in there," she said.
Xander pulled out his phone and called Willow. "Will, can you let Dick know that he needs to get to the hospital because Logan was in an accident. . . His car exploded. . . I know. . . I'm with Veronica at the school. . .Okay. See you."
"Willow is going to let Dick know," he told Veronica.
They soon heard sirens and watched the fire department and ambulance pull up. Luckily, Veronica saw Leo as the deputy on duty. She told him what she knew, and he established a perimeter to keep students back.
Logan was loaded face down onto a stretcher, so Xander flagged down Oz, who he noticed coming out of a building. "Oz, will you drive Veronica to the hospital?" he asked.
"Sure," he said.
"I can drive," Veronica said.
"Maybe, but you're upset, and we don't need any more accidents," Xander said.
"I don't think this was an accident," Veronica said.
"Either way, give your keys to Oz," Xander said. "Oz, call me when you need me to come pick you up."
Veronica grumbled but obeyed. "Fine," she said, handing them over.
She led Oz to her car, and he started the car and pulled out of campus parking. "Which way is the hospital?" he asked.
Veronica was surprised at his question but told him. "You don't live in Neptune?" she asked.
"No, San Diego with my grandmother," Oz answered as he drove to the hospital.
When he didn't supply anymore, Veronica looked at him in bemusement. They drove in silence to the hospital. Worry for Logan distracted her, so Veronica appreciated the quiet.
"Thanks, Oz," she said as he got out of her car with her.
"No problem," he said.
"You don't have to go in with me," she said.
"I know," he said, following her anyway.
Veronica smiled at the man but kept up her brisk walk to the front desk in the ER. When she asked about Logan, the nurse told her that he was being seen by a doctor now.
"Sit in the waiting room, and I will let you know when there's an update," the nurse said.
Veronica went to the waiting room, and Oz followed. "You don't have to stay," she told him.
"I know," he said, sitting down in a seat anyway.
She stared at the man a moment, trying to figure him out. Then she shrugged and sat down next to him. She pulled out her phone and texted her dad and Mac, telling them what was happening.
It was ten minutes before Dick arrived, looking frantic. "What the hell happened?" he asked Veronica.
"We don't know for sure," Veronica said. "I was talking to him, and we said goodbye and went to our cars. His exploded. Since it's not a full year old, I suspect a bomb."
"Who'd put a bomb on his car?" Dick asked.
"I can only think of one possibility. Who has he had conflict with?" she asked.
"You mean besides you and your boyfriend?" Dick asked.
"Piz and I broke up in May, and he's happy in New York—ask Wallace," Veronica said.
"That guy he beat up—the Russian dude," Dick said.
"That's what I was thinking, too," Veronica said.
Willow and Tara arrived. Oz watched in silence, observing the group interaction. He found it very strange that the extremely shy Tara was the first to hug the taller guy, who Willow called out to.
"Dick! How's Logan?" Willow asked.
"We don't know yet," Veronica said. "His back looked pretty badly burned."
"You can help with that, right?" Dick asked, looking at the girls.
Veronica looked confused. "How could they help with that?" she asked.
Tara and Willow exchanged a glance, and Willow said, "Oh, I have this old remedy—this salve thing that I made. It's great for bruises and burns."
"He's in the hospital. I doubt there's anything you could do that they aren't already," Veronica said dismissively.
Oz was nearly shocked to realize that the Dick guy seemed to know the girls were witches while Mac's best friend did not. Interesting.
Willow finally noticed Oz. "Oz? What are you doing here?" he asked.
"He drove me here," Veronica said. "Xander insisted."
"What she said," Oz said.
"Who's he?" Dick asked, looking at the stranger. He had red hair like Willow, so he came to an incorrect conclusion. "Will, do you have a brother?"
Oz looked amused at his question while Willow looked horrified. "No! I'm an only child. Well, except for Logan's sister, who is my biological sister. Oz was my first and only boyfriend," she explained.
"Really?" Dick asked, looking at Oz with real interest. "So were you so bad that you ruined her for guys or so good?"
Oz lost his smile and gave Dick a cold look, standing to his feet.
Dick wasn't sure how a short dude could look intimidating, but the guy's stare creeped him out. Before he could say anything, Willow began yelling. "That's just wrong, Dick! How could say such a thing? Oz was the perfect boyfriend nearly all the time! He had some issues to work out and left town. I met Tara, and when he came back, things between us weren't the same," Willow said, giving him a disgusted look.
"I hope your friend is okay," Oz said to Veronica. "Don't be quick to dismiss Will's salve. She's got some real magic in that stuff."
"Thanks for driving me," Veronica said as he said goodbye to Will.
After he was gone, Willow was still glaring at Dick. "Do you know how hard it is to get any kind of negative reaction from Oz? He's the most zin guy you will ever meet."
"That was my impression," Veronica said. "But leave it to Dick to be a real dick."
"He didn't mean any harm," Tara said. "He just saw two short redheads and came to an erroneous conclusion."
Dick grinned and put his arm around Tara's shoulder. "That's exactly it! You so get me!" he exclaimed.
Tara smiled up at him while Veronica rolled her eyes. "Surely, she's not that naïve?" Veronica asked Willow.
Willow shrugged. "She's known some really bad guys, so her bar is low," she said.
"Hey, is that an insult?" Dick asked.
"Sweetie, if you can't tell, then it wasn't that much of one," Willow said, smiling at him.
Veronica didn't understand the dynamic between the three of them, but it was clear that Dick was genuinely friends with both women. It kind of disturbed and confused her out.
The doctor came into the waiting room, breaking up the conversation.
"Is Logan going to be okay?" Veronica asked.
"He's got some really bad burns on his back and a concussion," the doctor said. "He'll be in a lot of pain the next few days, but if infection doesn't set in, he should be okay. His emergency contact is a Dick Casablancas. Is that you?" He directed his question to Dick.
"It is. His parents are dead, and his sister lives out of state," Dick said. "This is Willow, his sister's sister."
"He is in the burn unit. Burns can turn infected very quickly, so he can't have any visitors for twenty-four hours," the doctor said. "You can call his room to speak to him in about a half hour and see him through the window." He directed them to where he was.
They all went to find him. Veronica asked the nurse if he was conscious.
"He is. By the time the doctor arrived, he had regained consciousness," she told them. "They are still applying his bandages, so you can go sit in the waiting area on this floor."
"Can you tell him we're here?" Veronica asked.
"I will. When they are done, I will come and get you and will open the blinds to his room, so he can see you. If you want to call him, I will put his cell phone on speaker phone," she offered.
"That'd be great," Veronica said.
"Was his cell phone on him during the explosion?" Willow asked.
"It was found in his front pocket," the nurse said. "Although the screen is cracked, it still works."
They sat in the waiting area an hour. Deputy Leo came in, though, and asked to speak to Logan first. Once Logan gave his statement to Leo, the nurse came and got them.
When the blinds were opened to his room, they could see that Logan had been placed on his stomach on the bed. Bandages covered his back, and the hospital sheet covered his lower back. The nurse was speaking to him, and he nodded, turning his head toward the window. He lifted a hand and waved; relief filled all of them.
Veronica pulled out her cell and called him, putting it on speaker phone. "Are you okay, Logan?" she asked. The nurse had answered the phone, putting it on the table by his head with speaker phone on.
"Not really," he said.
"Dude, I can't believe your car exploded," Dick said.
"Me either," Logan said.
"Do you remember anything?" Veronica asked.
"I remember getting into the car, and then there was a slight delay when I turned the key," Logan said. "I had a bad feeling and jumped out of the car just as it exploded."
"That's a real miracle, dude," Dick said.
"What made you think something was off?" Willow asked.
"Dick and I watched movies over the weekend where the guy planted a bomb in someone's car," Logan said.
"Dude!" Dick said. "Scarface and Mission Impossible. Classics."
"Scarface was made in the 80's and Mission Impossible in the 90s. I don't think either could be considered a classic," Veronica said.
"Does that matter?" Logan said, annoyed at her. She always had to be right. Normally, he found it amusing, but he hurt too much to be amused now.
"No, I'm sorry," Veronica said. "Does it hurt?"
"More than you can possibly imagine," Logan said. "My head hurts a lot, but the burning in my back is agony."
"Aren't they given you something?" Willow asked.
"Yes, morphine. Imagine how badly I'd feel without," he said. "When they peeled the clothes off of me, it was the most painful thing I have ever felt, and I was beat regularly by my psychotic dad. The clothes were stuck to my back."
All of them felt equal amounts of horror and sympathy. Tara, especially, felt his pain as she was more sensitive to it. She whispered to Willow that she'd wait in the waiting room.
Willow nodded and squeezed her hand before she walked away.
"I'm sorry," Veronica said, tears choking her voice. "This is my fault. If I hadn't provoked Goyra to begin with this wouldn't have happened at all."
"I'm the one who beat him up—not you," Logan said.
"We won't let him get away with this, dude," Dick said. "Willow will put a hex on his or something. Or Buffy will beat him up really bad."
Logan smiled. "That'd be nice," he said. His eyes closed; it was clear that he was wiped.
"Logan needs to rest," the nurse said. "Come back tomorrow, and you can visit again."
"Goodbye, Logan," Veronica said. "We will be back soon."
"Bye," Willow said.
"Take care, dude," Dick said before Veronica hung up. The nurse closed the blinds, though, so they couldn't look at him longer.
They were silent as they walked to get Tara. "How did Oz get home?" Veronica asked since he had driven her in her own car.
"He probably had Xander take him back to campus," Willow said.
"I will catch up with you guys later," Veronica said.
"Are you going to talk to your deputy friend?" Dick asked. "Find out if it was a bomb?"
"Yes, the rat snuck out before I could ask him," Veronica said. She waved goodbye and walked to her car. Before getting into it, they watched her bend down and look under it.
"She's probably looking for a bomb," Willow said.
Dick looked frightened at the thought. "That's messed up," he complained. "Will you be able to help Logan?"
Willow nodded. "Once they allow regular visitors, Tara and I will go him and boost his healing," she said.
"You can fix him?" Dick asked.
"Not exactly," Willow said. "That kind of magic is beyond us, but we can help him heal faster."
"We can help with his pain and scarring," Tara said.
"That's something," Dick said. "What about the hex?"
"We don't do hexes," Willow said. "That's dark magic."
"Well, teach me how to do one!" Dick insisted.
"The guy is human, Dick. The police will get him," Tara said.
Dick snorted. "Not likely in this town," he said. "If Mr. Mars was still in charge, maybe. But not with Vinnie as sheriff."
"We will be ready if something happens again," Willow said. She needed to make him and Veronica protection charms.
*****Joyce's Gallery*****
Buffy picked up Dawn from school and was taking her to their mom's gallery. Dawn was complaining about school.
"The way they divide the school into 09ers versus everyone else is insane," Dawn said. "Freshmen, though, have no status at all unless they are children of millionaires."
"That's crazy," Buffy said.
"I did make one friend, though. Her name is Lauren," Dawn said. "We're lab partners and in English together. Luckily, we have lunch at the same time, so I didn't have to sit by myself. She introduced me to a few people."
"I'm glad," Buffy said. Dawn had been excited to leave the hellmouth as she knew things were much safer for Buffy. Neptune High School, though, was turning out to be a disappointment.
When they made it the gallery, their mother's boyfriend Keith Mars was there.
"Hey, Mom," Buffy said.
"I'm going to tell Buffy. She'll make you go," Keith said.
"That's not fair," Joyce said, glaring at him.
"What's up?" Buffy said.
"Your mother has been having headaches off and on for the past week," Keith said. "I told her to get them checked out."
"I told him that it's just a headache," Joyce said.
"When my throat kept hurting two years ago, you made me go to the doctor," Dawn told her mom. "It was just a sore throat but no fever."
"And it ended up being strep," Buffy reminded her.
"Fine, I'll waste time and make an appointment," Joyce said. "I haven't picked a new PCP yet, though."
"You should go to Veronica's. She really likes her," Keith said. Keith's phone beeped, and he pulled it out, reading the text message. "Veronica says that Logan Echoll's car exploded on campus. He's hurt badly."
"Oh, no!" Buffy exclaimed. "Is he going to be okay?"
"She says he's alive but his back is burnt. They're waiting for the doctor," Keith said.
Buffy pulled out her cell to call Willow.
"What would make a car explode?" Dawn asked Keith.
"Not very many things," he said. "A leak in the gas line. A bomb."
Dawn's eyes widened. "You think someone planted a bomb?" she asked.
"Now, let's not start rumors," Joyce said.
Keith shrugged. "It's possible. Logan's dad was a murderer. He has some enemies, and of course, his constant desire to beat up guys on my daughter's behalf hasn't won him any fans," he said.
Buffy stepped closer and closed her phone. "Willow will keep me posted. I have to go to Gabe's for an hour or so. Then I'll swing by the hospital to see Logan," she said.
"Will you be home for dinner?" Joyce asked.
"I'll try. Save me a plate 'cause you know I'll eat it!" Buffy said with a grin.
"Dawn, start your homework," Joyce said.
"But I'm starvin'!" Dawn complained.
Joyce opened up her register. "Here. Go get a snack across the street and bring me back a coffee," she said. "I want a receipt."
"I'll see you guys later," Buffy said.
"Thanks for picking her up and bringing my car back in one piece. Do you need me to drive you to work?" Joyce asked.
"No. I'm going to run there," Buffy said.
"Seriously?" Keith asked in surprise. "It's two miles at least."
"I know. Not much of a challenge," she said with a grin.
After she left, Keith said, "Your daughter isn't typical."
"You don't know the half of it," Joyce said with a smile.
As Buffy was leaving the shop, she sensed she was being watched and looked around. Not seeing anything, she shrugged. If someone was watching her, they'd reveal themselves sooner or later.
*****Chapter End*****
