A/N: Takes place before Guy Talk chapter 3, Coupling and Uncoupling
Beth was working late for Talbot so Mick was hanging out in Logan's basement. Mick had been wondering if he should ask Beth to move in. They had been together for only six weeks but already it seemed silly to live apart. Mick didn't talk much to Josef just now about his relationship with Beth. He was pretty sure Josef and Simone were going to crash and burn soon. The four of them had had some good times and still got together but it wasn't as comfortable as it had been. Meanwhile, Mick realized that although he had known Logan for several years, it was a business relationship and he didn't know much about him personally. They had exchanged basic info like: Mick born 1922, turned 1952, and Logan born 1947, turned 1975.
Mick offered up that he had been born and raised in L.A. "How about you?" he asked Logan.
"I'm from Topeka," Logan replied. "And please don't say it."
"You don't know what I'm going to say."
"I can guess."
"I was going to ask how you got out of Topeka." Mick paused a beat. "Because obviously you're not in Kansas anymore."
Logan shook his head in disappointment. "You had to say it, didn't you? I expected better of you, Mick."
"I'm not the man to pass up that cliché. But it's a legitimate question: How did you leave the ... Midwest is it? Out there in the center somewhere?"
"Exactly in the center. I went to Harvard in '65 then stayed on to get my masters and did some assistant teaching."
"Is that where you got turned?"
"Yeah, my roommate the first year hooked up with a vampire chick and got turned a few years later. We saw each other occasionally and eventually it seemed like a good idea so I got turned, too."
"That was it? Suddenly it seemed like a good idea?"
"I was a little drunk," Logan admitted. "But there was definitely informed consent. I had thought about it for years."
"Did you stay on at Harvard?"
"Sure. A bunch of us were into computers so we worked at night a lot anyway because that's when we could get time on the big machines."
"Any regrets?"
"Only once, a few months after I was turned. Bill went to Albuquerque to start a company and I realized I couldn't go with him."
"Bill?"
"Gates," Logan said as if that were the only Bill worth knowing in his world.
"You know Bill Gates?!"
"Not now. But we were at Harvard at the same time. He was younger than me then."
Mick looked at Logan with amazement. "You could have been rich and famous."
"I'd also be 60 and probably dead in 20 years."
Mick had to admire Logan's laid-back attitude. "How did you end up in L.A.?"
"It got harder to pass after a few years. I didn't go home much but I couldn't avoid it forever and my family was going to notice me not aging. I faked my death and switched coasts."
"You didn't mind doing that to your family?"
"It was better that way than just disappearing. They were good people but we weren't close. My brother and sister were 15 years older. My mom was 40 when I was born. Sometimes I wondered if my dad was my dad."
"Really?" Mick was reminded of the few days when he thought he had fathered the child raised by his friend.
"I was different from everyone else in the family. But who knows? Long time ago now."
"Any of them still alive?"
"My sister is. My brother died last year and my folks have been gone for 25 years."
"My family was gone before I was turned. I'm not sure if that makes it easier or not. How about Kali, what's her story?"
"She was born in 1900 and turned in 1926. Her parents died in a flu epidemic when she was three so she was raised in an orphanage. Her real name is Callie spelled C-A-L-L-I-E but she changed it to K-A-L-I when she became a Cleaner because Kali is a Hindu goddess of death and destruction. Cool, huh?"
Mick was surprised by this wealth of information. "I figured you were too busy with other activities to talk."
"We talk. In between. What about Beth?"
"Born in 1981. I saved her from my ex-wife when she was four."
"I heard about that. Kind of sick, man."
"That's Coraline."
I meant you waiting for Beth to grow up."
"Why does everyone think that? It's not like I was watching her every minute. Years would go by. I checked a few times to see how she was doing."
"And now you're sleeping with her."
"She's 26. And I didn't think of her that way until we met again. It was a protective thing before. I felt guilty because my crazy wife traumatized a little girl by wanting to have a vampire child."
"What was she ... 300 then? Maybe her biological clock was ticking."
"It wasn't funny."
"Not then. But everything turned out okay so it's a little funny now."
"I burned Coraline."
"Should have had a pre-nup. You could have got divorced instead."
"You're not going to discuss this seriously, are you?"
"Nope. Because you didn't kill her after all. You've had a lot of good luck, Mick. Lighten up and enjoy it."
Mick thought about that. Josef had told him basically the same thing for years and Beth had said it a few times as well. But he heard it this time because he was finally ready to believe it.
"Thanks, Logan," Mick said, making a decision. "I've got to go see a girl about a penthouse."
