Chapter 8

Friday night was party night, at least technically, it was. Veronica had Mac and Parker carpooling with her, so all three had arrived at once, and greeted Logan's sweet little bride. Veronica was surprised at Parker's calm, kind gestures and tone of voice. Had expected her to have a harder time after the abrupt end of her pregnancy, especially since Tess was also carrying Logan's child. But the tall blonde was almost charming, and that eased a lot of Veronica's tension. By the end of the first hour she found herself kicked back on the couch in the suite with a beer, remembering all the many times she and Logan had done this together.

After that train of thought was kicked, she went and got cake and chips and tried to mingle with people other than Parker and Mac (which was surprisingly difficult, considering she didn't even KNOW Tess' friends). Time ticked by, and the next time she looked at her watch, it was 8:15, about 15 minutes shy of her pre-planned time to leave. Tess had hunkered down on the couch nearby and some of the girls, including Parker, were bent over her pressing their palms to her belly, waiting to feel the baby kick, making amazed faces whenever they did.

Her mind, however, was focused on leaving, and she got up to dump her drink in the kitchen area, returning with freshly washed hands and a new resolve, only to see Tess' brother standing in the living area with his hands in his pocket and his eyes crinkled happily as Tess told him about Hawaii, and Veronica found herself standing in the doorway, watching them interact with a smile, suddenly. She hadn't ever known that sibling camaraderie, and it was always such a wonderful thing to watch a pair that didn't hate one another chat.

Soon Tess was shoved to her feet (with some help) and hurrying to the kitchen, and Shawn turned his head as she neared her new friend. Veronica smiled and playfully stepped wide of the doorway, making Tess laugh. "Thanks for the confidence boost!"

"Go on, play coy, Miss MILF." She retorted before walking over to Shawn, his own steps leading him halfway to her, and suddenly there were butterflies and they were both looking at the ground with grins painted on their faces.

"I uh, figured I'd stop over. I managed not to get completely smashed…"

"At a Logan party, that's a big deal." Her hand found his, and her fingers danced across the back of it. "What. . ."

"Is this?"

They laughed together, Veronica sighed. "Yeah, I don't mean to sound cliché, but…"

"This is a little scary fast." Shawn ended once again, and Veronica was amazed at how well he had caught her thoughts, maybe there was some twisted truth to the psychic thing, although she still didn't believe in the mystical magic voodoo aspects.

"I'm not complaining, I just want to do this right, I have a bad track record and I figure maybe I just didn't try hard enough all those times."

Shawn was quiet, a notorious womanizer with some lack of people skills might laugh her off, but something struck a chord. He understood her, he couldn't say that about a lot of women. He wet his lips before telling her softly. "Well, maybe you inadvertently tried too hard."

A throat clearing jarred them from their blissful wonderland, and they looked to Tess, grinning with her eyebrow raised and a frozen pineapple in her arms. She winked at Veronica, who blushed, and then she tossed the fruit to her brother. "Get this, 100% Hawaiian. Paid a pretty penny to get it here intact, so thank your brother-in-law when you see him again."

Shawn's face was lit up like a Christmas tree. "I feel so LOVED!"

The girls exchanged funny little glances before bursting into laughter, and Veronica lead Shawn, and his pineapple, out to the cars., before returning to say goodbye to Tess and drag Mac and Parker, both jabbering about having felt the baby.

Logan had wrapped the party up early, wanting to avoid an abundance of throw up and drunken antics. Sure, the partier in him told him fuck it, the point of this night is to NOT be responsible, but a larger part of him was a happily newlywed who just wanted to go curl up with his wife in bed. Sober enough to drive (and not get caught and breathalized), he'd driven home and parked a few floors lower in the garage than usual. He was just out of his Xterra and heading for the stairs when he caught sight of Veronica in the garage.

"Hey hey," At his call, her head snapped up and she gave him a small smile, and Logan noted she looked a little bit uneasy. He approached, but froze a little when he saw Parker catch up to her. Parker noticed him too and grew silent. Dropped her gaze completely, and Logan pushed past a wave of anger. Tess was too nearby for him to get into it with her right then. "How was it?"

"Not bad, actually kind of nice," Veronica's voice had that 'let's all get along' tone to it, and Mac appeared with a giant smile.

"Hey, you!"

"Hey!" They hugged, and lingered a moment longer than they would have if Logan had been completely sober and then they stepped apart.

"You look great."

"Fatherhood suits you well," There was a familiar air to the conversation when Mac said that, and Veronica smiled to herself. Mac continued. "There's still a couple people up. But I don't think more than two."

"Friends from Santa Barbara, I think they just wanted to stay as long as possible," Veronica added before stepping over for a hug. "She's. . .probably one of the nicest girls you've dated."

Logan snorted. "Compared to who, Caitlin? She was probably the only truly mean one."

"I guess if we take dating to mean actual dating, I'll give you that."

Parker seemed to twitch at that, and Veronica took a deep breath, stepping back from him, but Logan had clearly become incised by the little motion. "What's your problem?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You, with your little faces and shit, what the fuck is your problem?"

Veronica was hurrying between them as Logan stormed forward, her hands grabbing his arms, she didn't think he would hit her, but it was the surefire way to get his attention, and she shot a glare at her in response. Parker's arms had crossed defensively. "Well you forgot one bitch that you dated, didn't you? The one you left high and dry and pregnant? Here you are playing house, where the hell were you when they had to aspirate out baby out of me?"

"We never had a fucking baby, Parker, you're out of your MIND!"

Veronica glanced at him, and couldn't back her up, despite knowing how wrong he was, because if Logan was this defensive, he had no idea. Parker looked at her with watery eyes and Veronica cleared her throat. "We should go, and Logan, you should go sleep it off. Okay? This isn't good for anyone."

"Uh, um." Mac was stumbling, her gaze dropped and Veronica looked at her before she, Logan and Parker looked to the doorway of the garage, where Tess was standing. She was holding a plate wrapped in tin-foil, hands shaking rapidly. Logan moved immediately to her and she snapped herself out of his reach.

"Don't, don't."

"Tess, don't listen to Parker. . ."

But Tess' head was spinning with thoughts and Mac hurried to take the place as she leaned back against the wall. She remembered the night he had come in late, and a little drunk, he'd said he'd passed out in Parker's room. He'd passed out and now Parker was saying she had been pregnant, too….

Veronica moved to her, waving Logan out of her way. And she pulled her into a hug that even surprised herself. "I know this…doesn't sound good, I know you come from a smart family so you're putting two and two together but…this isn't how it sounds. Logan honestly didn't have sex with her." She kept the baby's paternity to herself, because right now, that wasn't something she needed to hear. And she felt Tess relax considerably, held her a few more minutes before rubbing her back and releasing her.

Tess' face was wet with tears and she looked at him, and squeaked out. "Logan…"

Before she could continue he had her swept up in his arms off of her feet. He didn't say anything else, and Veronica opened the door to the stairs and elevator for him, he paused on his way in and nodded his thanks to her with a grim smile before he headed to the lift.

Veronica turned to face Parker, who was giving her the evil eye, arm still crossed, and shaking now. "You…"

"Parker, what happened to you sucks. It's sad but I know you and Logan didn't have consensual sex, and Tess is not a mean person, you can't risk her baby's life because you lost yours, that's not right or fair or anything like that." She took a deep breath when she realized she had raised her voice. "We'll handle that, but I need you to let Tess have her baby in peace. Please."

Parker nodded slowly, biting her lip before she took a breath. "I'm sorry I just. . He was. . .he didn't even care!"

Veronica glanced to Mac before reaching to rub Parker's back too. "Parker was. . .he awake? When the baby was conceived?"

"I don't. . .he had to have been if it happened, I honestly don't remember being awake…but it happened."

"Let's get you home," Mac chimed softly, to which Veronica nodded before leading them to her car.

Logan carried Tess from the elevator and through the suite door, never stopping for much of anything. Her friends had left, and he was grateful not to have to kick them out. Just carried her into the bedroom and plopped her ever-so-gently into the satiny sheets, kicking his shoes before he quickly dipped to follow, pulling her in close to his chest.

She cuddled up against him, breathing calmly, very much on purpose, with Logan rubbing her shoulders. "I'm s-…"

"Shh," He told her, shaking his head. "You don't need to, I'm not upset at you."

And that was what was so easy to love about Logan, no matter how clueless he could be about emotion, he always seemed to understand hers, even without needing to blame the pregnancy. He ran his hands through her hair, smiled down into her face. She smiled back, fingers moving to caress his jaw. "You're good to me."

"I'm off to a good start then, don't ever let me become an asshole to you, okay? You're a good person. I'd like for you to never become an alcoholic."

Tess sighed, shook her head. "Only if you insist. I just want you to be happy."