Lucy had been six months pregnant when Logan took her to Minneapolis for the first time. He'd tried to push it back for as long as he could, not because he didn't like his parents, but because he knew that they could be intense. He'd lied for the first couple of months, claiming that Lucy's morning sickness usually lasted the whole day, and it wouldn't be very easy for her to get on a plane for such a long trip. They'd been understanding, initially, but ever since she'd gotten past her fourth month of pregnancy they'd really started pushing.
And eventually Logan had run out of excuses.
"I want to apologize in advance," Logans said, as he pushed their luggage through the terminal.
"You've done that over a dozen times already," Lucy said, looping her arm around his and grabbing a hold of his hand. "Relax, I'm sure you've got nothing to worry about," she said, pressing a kiss against his knuckles.
Logan looked at her for a long second before sighing. Maybe she was right.
She wasn't right.
His parents had always been kind of a lot to deal with. Because of the nature of their careers, they never had a lot of free time to spend with Logan, which made them overcompensate whenever they actually got to see him. The result was always some very confusing family quality time, during which his parents tried to cram a year's worth of parenting in forty-eight or so hours. Logan had made his peace with it, but every time he had to introduce someone new to them his anxiety flew off the charts. His parents had the capacity to jump from congratulating and over-hyping the smallest of achievements to a half hour lecture about the dangers of missing meals.
As he said, they were a lot.
To her credit Lucy had managed to keep up with them remarkably well. She was good at following the conversation, no matter how many times it jumped and looped around. She always had something to contribute, when his parents made it obvious that they wanted her input. She even managed to stop Logan from rising to their bate and get into pointless arguments with them.
Still, the look of relief that took over her face the minute his bedroom door closed behind them, was unmistakable. Logan heard her groan softly, as she faceplanted on his old bed. He chuckled and moved around it, to lift their suitcase on his desk, before unzipping it.
"So…?" he trailed off.
"I'm okay," Lucy's voice reached him, muffled by the bed's cover. Logan chuckled again.
"Sure," he said, taking out of the suitcase some shirts. He walked to his closet and started tidying them, his eyes trailing over to her ever so often.
"I'm okay," Lucy repeated, sensing his gaze. She pushed herself on her elbows and drew in a deep breath. "They're just-"
"Exhausting?" Logan cut her off.
"Excited to see you," Lucy said instead. Logan scoffed and she turned around to look at him.
"Right," Logan said, taking more clothes out of the suitcase.
"You were being too mean to them."
"And you were being too lenient."
"I wasn't," Lucy said, causing him to raise his eyebrows at her. "I wasn't!" She insisted. "Did they have a lot of questions? Sure. Did they hardly let either of us get a word in the edgewise? Yes. Was your father very insistent that we name the baby Philip after him? Absolutely! But -"
"You know you are just proving my point," Logan cut her off. Lucy scowled at him.
"But, as I was about to say, before you so rudely interrupted me," she said, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear, "They were like that, because they don't see you a lot. And they hardly know me, so of course they have questions," she said, giving a shrug of her shoulder.
Logan crossed his arms over his chest, looking at her. Something was pressing against his chest and Logan didn't like the way it felt. He didn't like the way his eyes burned and how scratchy his throat felt. He didn't like how Lucy seemed to be taking his parents side instead of his, or how petulant that thought made him out to be. He fixed her with a chalenging look, but when she didn't back down Logan thought; fuck it.
"The first time I brought a girl home, they wouldn't shut up about how that was the very first time that I'd showed interest in anything other than school and hockey," he said. "They stressed it to the point where my father loudly wondered what was so special about this particular girl that made me take an interest in her."
Logan paused long enough for her to intervene, but Lucy bit on her lip to keep from reacting. So, he pressed on.
"Before our college graduation mom and dad invited the guys for a celebratory diner. It was going extremely well, until Kendall decided to tell them that he had not been drafted for any of the NHL teams, so he was going to try out for a music career. To which my mother said that after everything his poor family had gone through with his father's death, Kendall should pursue a more stable career path, so that he could take care of his mom and sister."
Lucy, who by that point had sat up on the bed, pressed her palm over her mouth, her eyes widening. Still she remained silent. Logan felt something bubble in the pit of his stomach. He didn't know what it was, but it apparently made him relentless and Logan kept going.
"When I first brought Jo here to meet them my dad couldn't shut up about how much we'd enjoy living in New York after graduation, just the two of us. Mind you, we were still in our sophomore year in college, we hadn't even thought of having this conversation yet. But my dad said it so many times, that at some point Jo had had enough and told him she'd no intention of moving to New York. My dad then pointed out that it would be wiser to break up sooner rather than later, because it would just be easier."
"Oh my god," Lucy's voice was muffled, but he still heard her. Having proved his point, Logan went back to taking clothing items out of their suitcase. "Still, they were very nice with me," she said and it somehow felt like a chalenge.
"Nice? When?" he asked an edge to his voice, as he whirled around to look at her sharply. "When they practically said we are irresponsible for having a child without being married or when mom predicted we'll end up asking for money to raise said child since we are both irresponsible and not good at dealing with money?"
"They were just worried-"
"Don't," Logan warned, pointing a finger at her. "I'm done making excuses about them. I just want to get through this weekend and then not see them again for another five years."
"Logan, you don't mean that," she said, a sympathetic smile on her face. The bubbly feeling in his stomach spilled, filling his body and forcing itself out of his mouth.
"How would you know?"
"Because, I know you," she said simply.
Logan scoffed. He hadn't meant to, it just happened. Lucy's soft smile dropped, as did her shoulders. He saw her blinking rapidly and she pushed herself off the bed.
"I uhm," she cleared her throat. "I'm gonna go get some air," she said, swiftly heading to the door.
"Luce, wait-" but the door had already closed behind her.
Logan cursed under his breath, balling the sweater he was holding in his hands and throwing it on the bed. He ran his fingers through his hair, his head dropping between his shoulder blades. Ire was still bubbling in his gut, hot and acidic, but it was now coming from and pointed at himself. He had stupidly let his parents get the best out of him and on top of that he'd taken his anger out on Lucy.
On Lucy who was pregnant and currently walking around an unfamiliar house, with his parents set loose in it.
Logan sighed deeply, righting himself. He knew that when Lucy got upset, she needed her time to calm down and then talk about it. But they weren't home, and Logan didn't like the idea of her wandering around alone. He took a breath and was about to go look for her, when something inside the suitcase caught his eye; wrapping paper.
Perplexed Logan reached for it. He picked up, turning it around in his hands as he looked at it. It wasn't heavy, and he could tell it was some kind of cloth. Logan frowned at it; this was clearly a present and since he hadn't put it in there it was safe to assume that Lucy had. He tried to remember if he'd forgotten of some occasion, maybe their anniversary of something, but they'd gotten together in late autumn and now it was the middle of summer. Maybe Lucy had gotten something for his parents… But clothes? Maybe a blouse for his mom? Should he open it?
His curiosity winning out Logan tore at the paper, throwing it to the floor. A small sound came out of his mouth when he saw the jersey he was holding. It was green and white, the "Wilds" logo stitched over the chest area. Logan turned it around in his hands, to find his name printed on the back, with his old varsity number underneath it.
Logan turned it around again and something dropped to his feet. He gently let the jersey on the bed and bend down to pick it up. Only for a strangled noise to make it past his lips when he saw he'd picked up a baby-sized hockey jersey. It was identical to his, but instead of his name it said 'Liam Mitchell' on the back. Logan could feel the tears blooming in his eyes and he tried to cough, to clear his throat, because something was choking him up. When that didn't help, Logan laid the baby jersey on top of his own and rushed out of the door.
He quickly made a mental list of spots in the house he'd have to check for Lucy, but as fast as he'd come out of the room, he stopped. There was a window nook by the staircase, where Logan used to perch when he was younger and listen to music, whenever his anxiety was too much for him to handle. Lucy was sitting on it, her legs crossed in front of her, one of her hands stroking her belly, while the other was used as a pillow to lean her head on. Logan saw the tear stains on her cheeks and contemplated kicking his own ass for making her cry, but his need to comfort her was stronger than his need to kill himself, so he went for the first.
He cleared his throat, alerting her to his presence, before approaching.
"So, I know I've already apologized for my parents' behavior," he said, stopping a safe distance away, in case she didn't want him near her, "But I forgot to apologize in advance for my behavior around my parents."
Lucy looked at him, her brown eyes red-rimmed and her nose puffy. Still, even in this state, she looked beautiful enough to make his stomach twist.
"I guess I forgot that they tend to bring out the worst in me," he said, breaking the eye contact, because that admittance was too much even for him. He cleared his throat, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "I mean, I didn't forget," he started again, stealing a look at her, "I know how I can be when I'm around them... that's why it took me so long to introduce you to them; I didn't want you to see this side of me."
"Logan," she said, and her voice sounded smaller than he'd ever heard it. He looked up to find her gaze already locked on him. "You don't need to apologize, I overreacted."
"No, no," he said adamantly, shaking his head. "I was being a jerk, taking my annoyance out on you. It's just very hard to control myself, when they are around," he said and again, he could feel the back of his eyes burn.
"Hey," Lucy said, reaching a hand out to him. Logan looked at it unsure, but she wiggled her fingers encouragingly. He gently wrapped his own around them and she pulled him forward. Logan climbed on the alcove next to her. Lucy squeezed his fingers; "I know all about having a complicated relationship with your parents, okay? I get it."
Logan took a breath.
Something eased inside his ribcage.
He brought their entwined fingers up to his lips and kissed her knuckles.
"Do we really have to spend the whole weekend here?" She asked, tilting her head on the side.
"It's actually three days, we took Monday off for this," Logan reminded her, and Lucy slapped her free hand over her forehead.
"I forgot about that!"
Logan snickered.
"Hey, I can book us a hotel room, if you want."
"What and prove your parents right about how irresponsible we are with our money?" She asked, making him laugh again. "No, we'll be fine. We still have like, seventy-two hours?"
"And counting," he said, and she took a deep breath.
"We'll be fine."
"We'll be fine."
And they were.