AN: this turned into a longer chapter than I anticipated, so that's why the delay.
Chapter 140
March 15th, 2022
"Em? Are you dressed yet?" Rory called out, from the doorway of the living room, having left Em to get ready on a Tuesday morning in her bedroom.
Generally the girl was pretty good at brushing her own teeth and picking out her own clothes, usually just requiring minor adjustments to make sure she was dressed according to the weather. When it came to her colors not matching - Rory didn't really bother, she wanted Em to be happy, and this was certainly an aspect in which she saw no need in limiting her. Plus, she got some pretty cute pictures from those times that she'd been especially brave in her choices.
"Breakfast is ready!" she added, not hearing back from Em.
Logan was just pouring both of them a cup of coffee in the kitchen, shrugging slightly as Rory glanced a look towards him, as she was wondering why she wasn't responding.
"I better go check," Rory shrugged, hoping desperately that this wasn't another one of those times where Em had decided to wash her dolls in the sink so the bathroom was full of foam or gotten carried away with toothpaste.
It was funny with 4-year-olds - being 4 was a big step up from 3, behaving almost like adults compared to the latter, but every once in a while one was reminded by the fact that she really wasn't that yet, almost taking Rory by surprise.
Rory made her way upstairs, bracing herself from anything from Em having not gotten up at all when she'd woken her ten-fifteen minutes ago to an overflowing sink. In the old place this would've been so much more difficult to happen since the place was so much smaller, Em never being more than two steps from her. But so far - most of the time - Em was well trusted with behaving well and doing what was expected from her.
"Em?" Rory asked as she peeked through her daughter's bedroom door and saw the girl still in bed. Not asleep but not eager to get up either.
"I don't feel well, mommy," came a weak voice.
"What's wrong? Where does it hurt?" Rory inquired worriedly, sensing Em's forehead with her palm at the same time to check whether she had a fever. She didn't feel hot, warm - maybe.
"My head hurts, and my tummy," Em replied, snuggling into her pillow more.
"Maybe your stomach is just hungry?" Rory suggested, optimistically, hoping it really was just that. The girl hadn't exactly eaten much last night at dinner, but that may have been because the food had been a little unfamiliar to her, Logan having made Tom Yam Goong.
The girl did look a little pale, and definitely less energetic than she was on most mornings.
"Alright, but can you at least try to brush your teeth and maybe we can see if you feel like eating anything. I have the thermometer downstairs," she instructed, hoping that once she got some food into her she'd feel up to going to school. Rory had a big test today, which all of her seniors were supposed to take. She was in charge and she really didn't want to call in sick.
Em nodded, unenthusiastically, but climbed out from under her blanket.
"She's feeling a little under the weather," Rory commented to Logan as she finally was allowed to take a sip of her by-now luke-warm coffee, after having assisted Em in at least getting her teeth brushed and get changed into something other than her pajamas, and walked her downstairs..
"Anything serious, you think?" Logan asked with some concern. He hadn't really seen Em sick much, recalling just a few brief occasions from fall, but then he hadn't been living with them yet. So he hadn't really seen it up close.
"I don't know, she doesn't seem to have a high fever, but she's saying her head hurts and her stomach," Rory explained and already began to text the usual babysitter. She hadn't caught Em outright lying to her about being ill before, hence she didn't really consider it an option, giving her the benefit of a doubt, but there had been a few times where her aches had just come and gone too, Rory putting these things down to growing pains in most cases or muscle ache when Em had been especially active. But her stomach and head were certainly a different story.
"I have a couple of meetings but I can keep an eye on her if necessary," Logan replied, seeing Rory groan at a negative response from the babysitter that she sometimes used.
Em was now at least giving eating a try, not that she showed great enthusiasm.
"I don't know… you have work to do," Rory hesitated, knowing well what it was like to try to work when Em was home with her. Sure, she'd usually get something done, when Em was reading or watching TV, but her ability to focus was never quite the same. There'd be requests for snacks, games, cuddle sessions, which was totally adorable, and if she really was sick - this also included anything from vomiting and reminding her to blow her nose to medicine administration, which Logan certainly didn't have a lot of experience with, and frankly she felt a little guilty to put it on him.
"I'm telling you - it's okay, we'll be fine. Just leave me the number of her pediatrician and her info just in case, and we'll be fine," Logan assured, the girl looking borderline fine to him. How hard could it be? He'd babysat Em before and usually the girl had just read, watched TV, played her own games, being fairly used to alone-play, or asked him to join her. And there was Loki around too, which certainly helped entertain her.
"You're sure?" Rory asked, feeling guilty and relieved at the same time. She was already running a little late already, and it was not like she had a plan C. She'd felt Em's stomach just in case earlier and nothing seemed to be causing a sharp pain either, as one might in case of infections.
"Yes!" Logan confirmed.
As Rory left, Logan made sure Em had what she needed around the couch, and helped her put on one of her favorite shows to keep her company, and headed for his study for his morning conference call with his team.
During his call he kept the door ajar, the sound of the cartoon and occasional sound of Loki's paws or the two of them interacting indicated everything to be in order and he didn't really feel he needed to worry.
As he emerged, needing to both stretch himself and take Loki out for his break, he found Em eager to join him.
"I'm not sure - are you sure you feel well enough?" Logan asked. He was only going to go into the back yard, not anywhere far. It was not like he was going to leave Em home alone, leaving the longer walk Loki would eventually require for the time when Rory got back from work.
"I feel okay," Em replied, sounding indeed a lot more chipper.
"Okay, but let's check your temperature to be sure," Logan replied. He didn't know a lot about sick kids, but this felt like something he could at least rule out. "And you're sure your stomach doesn't hurt anymore?" he inquired.
Em shook her head, allowing Logan to place the thermometer under her arm. For the first time he'd thought that perhaps indeed the kid had learned to lie and had just wanted a day off from school, for whatever reason. It was not like he'd never done that. But still he remained tentative.
The thermometer beeped, indicating a perfectly healthy 98.4.
"Well alright then," Logan agreed, and they got dressed and headed to the back yard. He watched so Em wouldn't do too much running or jumping, but it was a little challenging considering Loki even seemed to prefer to play fetch with her instead of him by now. But still he made sure they took turns after a while and Loki focused on what they actually came out there to do.
"I'm going to have another meeting soon, this one might run a little longer," Logan informed Em once they returned inside and had given Em something to drink, hoping it'd tide her over until lunch, and fixed a cup of green tea for himself.
This meeting went indeed over - and it wasn't just one with partners but prospective clients he was speaking with. In that situation the setting in the living room having grown rather quiet and replaced with some noises coming from the kitchen, Logan was already growing rather impatient to get back to Em and see what was going on. He could only hope there was nothing worse wrong than Em having grown a little hungry.
"And I'll have my marketing director send you a list of what we can offer, you can think things over," Logan said to his client he was in the meeting with, hoping to sum things up.
It was however, the next second he heard something crash onto the kitchen floor. Thankfully, no cries of pain or screams follower - if anything it had sounded like a bag of cereal or cookies falling to the floor. The worst he could imagine was having to clean up that mess, but still - since Loki was there he couldn't help but to worry. The dog would eat pretty much anything and there were several things dogs were better at to stay clear off.
"Alright, I'll get back to you," his client said, thankfully, and Logan couldn't get up fast enough. Normally he would've always worked his magic and at least gotten some preliminary deal from his clients, but this time… he hadn't been at his game, having to worry about Em.
"I'm sorry," Em's scared-looking eyes stared back at him, holding the dog partially while leaning him onto a chair.
"It's okay," Logan replied, not liking the fact that Em seemed a little scared of him. "Did Loki eat this?" he asked, seeing a pack of Cheerios on the floor, having fallen so that most of its contents was scattered around the tile floor.
Em shook her head. "He wanted to but I got a hold of him," she explained to Logan.
"It's good you did, I'm not sure his stomach would appreciate Cheerios much," Logan replied, and picked Loki up and closed him in his study for a moment, against Loki's cute little whines.
They cleaned the cereal up, and Logan continued to make Em some sandwiches, realizing she must've been hungry, before releasing Loki again. Logan figured hunger was a good sign of health usually, which at least allowed him to relax on that part. In the back of his head he kept making lists of what he needed to get done concerning his work however, having stormed off from his meeting without making his usual notes. He had a good system that worked, like sending e-mails to his employees straight away so nothing was forgotten about. In this moment, this honestly felt like a challenge, a deviation from his norm.
"So how's it been going in school?" Logan inquired, hoping to engage with the girl a little. And he did also wonder maybe the girl had some other reason than actually being sick to want to stay at home like this.
"Okay," Em replied briefly.
"Any new friends?" Logan tried again.
"No," Em said, biting into her sandwich.
"Who are your friends anyways?" he continued.
"There's Katie, Nora, Emma, Liam, Jared..," Em listed and went on explaining a little what they were like. Her best friend title seemed to rotate throughout the weekdays, but what did become clear from this discussion was that she had something going on with one of the teachers. "We don't like Mrs. Connely, she's always telling us what we can't do, Ms. Patrick lets us do everything," Em pointed out, referring to her and Katie at that moment.
"I'm sure she doesn't let you guys do everything?" Logan argued.
Em shrugged, adding, "Pretty much," not really elaborating much.
"Does anything fun ever happen at school? Are there any events like dances or plays? Or pranks?" Logan inquired, innocently.
"We had a Christmas party, and I guess we sometimes do plays. I don't like it. Most of the kids don't really read very well," Em explained, giving the impression that that was the reason why she didn't enjoy preparing for plays. "Liam did a prank once where he put a toy cockroach on Ms. Patrick's chair," Em added.
"Did she scream?" Logan asked, already chuckling lightly. It was such an innocent prank to be honest and it made him think back to his own school days. Until 4th grade, he'd actually been at one school, a local private school, which was much like Chilton really, which wasn't a boarding school, but it was towards the end of that that he'd really gotten his courage to try some things. He now knew essentially that he'd just been bored, most of his skills being beyond those in his class. Supposedly all those private tutors really were good for something, perhaps even too much.
"Yeah," Em laughed as she recalled that time.
"One time me and my friends wrapped plastic film around the teacher's chair, we were supposed to have a test and the man ended up being all flustered in his face trying to unwrap it. The chair was squeaky, so each time he turned it to unwrap it it made this funny sound and he was a big round guy too," Logan described, recalling the man looking a little like a hobbit. He didn't want to give Em ideas, naturally, but he felt like comparing stories, even if they were several years apart, was a fun way to bond.
"Did you get into trouble?" Em asked.
"Nah, they didn't know it was me," Logan replied.
"What else did you do?" Em inquired, excitedly.
"There was this one time we put food dye in the water cooler," Logan said and began to explain what it had been like to drink green water and pretend it gave them superpowers. "And then this one time we locked the teacher out of the classroom, and one of my classmates pretended to be the teacher until the teacher went to get the spare key, and taught us about what his father did for a living - something about computers. It was really funny," he continued, enjoying seeing Em so captivated about his stories. Surely they'd talked before, but it had always been rather neutral when it came to topics, nothing too personal.
After they finished their lunch, Logan was about to head back to his office, knowing he had e-mails to write.
"Would you play video games with me? Or snakes and ladders?" Em asked, clearly not wanting to be left alone again. Sure she had her books, but she wasn't used to sitting around all day without actually being entertained.
Logan felt bad for her, but again in the back of his mind that list of things needed doing.
"I just need to send this one e-mail. In 15 minutes? Okay?" Logan suggested.
Em had classic puppy dog eyes herself, but she seemed happy enough with that answer. It was not like she wasn't used to Rory having things to do.
Naturally his inbox had begun overflowing again and besides sending the quick response to Sean, his marketing director, he ended up replying on a few more. It was more like 20 minutes than 15 when Logan returned but Em's time-telling skills were limited to a full hour so he figured she wasn't mad yet.
"Animal crossing or Snipperclips?" Em asked, having already chosen two games she wanted to play with him.
"Just give me a sec, I need to go to the bathroom first," Logan replied, and headed towards the foyer where the downstairs bathroom was.
Em let out a deep, demonstrative sigh, letting herself fall back into the couch.
Logan wasn't given peace for long as then his phone rang as he emerged, causing Logan's to answer it reluctantly.
"Ugh…," Em groaned in disappointment. Frankly, seeing Em annoyed at him was refreshing even, because he did feel his guilt at this moment. He had promised. But until now, Em and him had been just friendly, and Logan honestly hadn't figured out yet whether it was because Em was still treating him like a stranger, like a guest almost, or whether she actually was this happy-go-lucky kid, who didn't complain much. Of course, Rory's presence always seemed to help a lot too. Though he'd seen a share of temper-tantrums when they'd been doing things while Rory had been home too.
It was Sean, his marketing guy, on the phone with some further questions. And since this was a little time sensitive he naturally took his time on the call as he sipped the barely warm green tea, he'd forgotten before. Logan was still on the phone when he returned to the living room and tried to pick by mouthing her preferences to Em which game to play. He didn't know a lot about these games that he'd bought for her as he'd insisted on buying them a game console.
He was almost about to sit down, as the call ended when he noticed Loki making a weak whiny noise by the kitchen door, indicating he needed to be let out.
"I'm sorry, I got to take Loki out again," Logan explained with a sigh.
"But you promised!" Em said, disappointedly, and was becoming notably a little frustrated.
"I have to take him out, or we'll have a big puddle on the kitchen floor. We wouldn't want that, would we? I'll try to be quick," Logan replied, despite knowing there was rarely telling how long Loki would take.
Logan headed out, grabbing just his coat and slipped on some sneakers that he often used for these quick outings - it was just the backyard he was going to.
But it was as he was about to come back inside, he was caught by surprise with the kitchen door being locked.
It was as he saw Em on the kitchen window making faces at him, he realized Em had locked the door from the inside.
"Em! Open this door right now!" Logan demanded. But Em just laughed. He realized well enough that it was his own fault for giving her ideas, but his annoyment quickly grew into panic as he realized he didn't have his keys with him, nor his phone, which was still sitting on the couch where he'd left it.
"I'm going to need you to open this door right now!" he said sternly again, but Em just kept hopping around the place, laughingly. This was truly the first time he'd ever seen Em behave like this.
His mind went through a million scenarios - from anything that could happen to Em inside, all alone, and how mad Rory would be if he'd let this happen. Was he actually going to sit out there until Rory got home?
"Em, I need to get Loki back inside, he's going to get cold," Logan fibbed, hoping the girl's love for the dog would help. But it didn't.
He tried pretending that he was going around the house to ask the neighbors to call her mom, however as he quickly realized there weren't any other cars around really, so there wasn't anyone to really ask. Most of the neighborhood consisted of working people as far as he knew. And he really didn't want to get the cops involved.
So he returned to the back door, banging on it.
"Em! This is not okay, Em!" Logan objected. "Open this door right now!" he ordered. "Open this door or there'll be no TV and no candy for a week!" Logan threatened, not really thinking about it.
Em stuck out her tongue by the window, indicating she had no intention of complying - apparently seeing Logan upset was kind of fun too.
"You can't do that! You're not my dad!" Em said.
"There'll be no walking Loki either!" Logan added, becoming increasingly frustrated.
At that note, Em pretended to pout and walk off, put on some loud music on the TV and pretended to not hear Logan knocking.
Logan realized he needed to do something or this could take a while. While the kitchen door had a glass arch on the upper part of the door that he could see in from, he knew this would not be the way to really get inside. What he could use was the half glass paneled door in the sunroom a.k.a. Rory's study. So he toop Loki to his lap, just so he wouldn't get hurt by the glass, and got ready to use the garden gnome, which had been by the back steps since before they moved, and trash the window with it, when he noticed the key stuck underneath the gnome. He sighed with relief at the sight of it. The key worked for the door in Rory's study, regaining him access to the house, thankfully.
"Em! Just wait until your mother gets home," Logan warned the little girl, switching the TV off.
The girl was in shock, not knowing how he'd gotten in.
Hearing her disrespect him had hurt him more than he realized before, her words still ringing in his mind. Sure he knew he wasn't her father, but surely he had some say in what went on in this house. He just wasn't really very sure about the fine line of these things. He'd never really needed to discuss this with Rory before. Was it okay for him to punish her by revoking privileges?
"Something could've happened! What if you'd gotten sick and I was stuck outside? Em, you can't do things like that! I didn't tell you those stories so you could put yourself in danger, do you understand me?" Logan spoke, trying to calm himself too. It was the first time ever, he'd actually gotten upset over something a child did, let along someone as cute and innocent looking as Em.
Em simply pouted, hiding herself in the corner of the couch.
"Go to your room!" Logan ordered, not knowing what else to do.
Em marched upstairs in a hurry, eager to get away from the embarrassment she was feeling. "I hate you," she called out as she was already upstairs and banged her door shut.
Logan sighed, not knowing how to really deal. After a glass of water, and making sure that also Loki got his water and food, he returned to his study to finish up what he'd been doing before.
After an hour or so, still at least an hour to go before Rory got home, Logan was growing concerned of the silence upstairs. Besides, he didn't want that relationship to just stay like that. He at least figured he'd need to talk to Em. So he headed upstairs and carefully knocked on Em's door.
"Can I come in?" Logan asked.
"No!" came a swift response. At least the girl was alive - he thought, needing something positive to focus on.
"I'll just sit out here then," Logan replied, and took a seat on the hallway floor, his back against the wall by the door.
"You realize why I was upset, right?" Logan asked, hoping to engage her. "You're too young to be at home on your own. Something could've happen - you might drop something dangerous, hurt yourself or get sick, and nobody could come and help you. Or what if there was a fire? I'd get in trouble, as would your mom…," he continued. He knew it was his carelessness too - having gone out without his keys and phone, but still - he'd expected more sense from Em. "Had it been raining, Loki might have gotten an ear infection," Logan continued, unsure if this was helping at all. He didn't have these tools to have this talk - was he supposed to scare her? Guilt her? Reason with her? Make her promise, she wouldn't do it again?
It was after a lengthy pause Em's little voice asked, "Are you going to tell my mom?"
Logan thought hard what to do. In a way he wanted to become friends, good friends, with this little girl, but at the same time - this seemed significant enough to tell Rory. Also he'd already made a mental note to make sure to always have one key hidden somewhere in the backyard, just in case, but figured he'd need to hide it better, the gnome feeling a little obvious as he thought about it.
"I won't if you will," Logan replied, knowing it'd be the best he could do. He could not tell Rory about how she'd teased him or how he'd called out for not being her dad, or how long this had taken. But he did feel he needed some clarity in how much or if at all he had power to punish her. He'd only really ever heard Rory punish Em by not allowing her to play video games or taking her home sooner from the playground or supermarket than originally intended if there was something.
Em groaned.
As Rory got home, Logan announced her that Em had something to tell her and the girl did admit to doing something stupid. Rory was mostly focused on Em's health, however, still believing the girl must've been sick even though Logan was pretty sure this was just her testing them. Maybe the girl really was learning new, and not so admirable, traits. He briefly recalled Honor's kids having a phase where they'd begun lying a lot.
Em returned to play with her things.
"So how was it really?" Rory asked him. Em had told her about locking him out and how it had been funny, but pretty much left it at that.
"Frightening, I got more upset than I'd like to admit," Logan confessed. "I told her no TV, no candy and no walkin Loki for a week," he added. "I know I probably shouldn't have… but I was pretty mad. It could've been dangerous," he added, despite having not gone into great detail about the length of time he'd been out there. It must've been nearly 15-20 minutes. He figured it was better not to tell about having told her stories of his pranks either - he knew he'd be blamed for giving her the idea, and he was doing plenty of scolding himself on his own. It didn't seem vital.
"She's never done anything like this," Rory exclaimed, still in disbelief. "Are you sure this wasn't just something she did by mistake?" she asked.
"No, she didn't do it by mistake," Logan assured.
"But I do think the punishment is a bit much," Rory added, reluctantly choosing to trust him.
"Well I'm sorry, it caught me off guard, but I do think there should be something. But then again I don't even know if this is something I have a say in? What happens the next time something happens? And if my word doesn't apply now, how will she believe it in the future?" Logan explained, leaving Rory with a lot of things to figure out.
AN: So I am not sure if I am happy how this turned out. I honestly took like 2 days to read about various mischeif kids have done to get inspired... and it was really hard to figure out something that Logan would actually get mad at.
But please - tell me what do you think of this!
