(A/N): We're back with Amelia, Nolan, Logan, Jules, Annette, and Marta (though Marta isn't mentioned, the poor thing).

Trigger Warnings: Yet another set of my characters has a poor relationship with one or more of their parents... what else is new? I'm not sure it quite qualifies as abuse (at least what can be interpreted from this chapter), but it does leave a bit of a bad taste in the mouth, so beware. If anything, it's verbal/psychological in nature.

October 19th, 1967

Amelia

"Do you think Nolan is 'marriage material', Ms Rochester?" Logan emphasised my title- the way it demonstrated the fact that I was as of yet unmarried- pointedly, but in a very different manner to how our Mistress or Master would. It didn't sound like an insult, coming from Logan- merely a curiosity. Maybe both of them were a type of judgement, but Logan's seemed to be more along the lines of 'how are you not married yet?', rather than, 'what must be wrong with you to not be able to convince a man to marry you?', so I didn't feel the urge to snap at him the way I usually would when presented with such a question. With Logan, it almost felt like awe- or maybe as though he was impressed with our fortitude for not having given in and just eloped already. I kind of enjoyed it.

I folded my arms over my chest, despite years of training screaming in my ear that it was improper- waspishly whispering, more like- and leveled Logan with a disapproving look that immediately made him falter somewhat guiltily. Hm... I'd have to remember that one. "Do you think I think Nolan is marriage material, Mr Lovett?" Logan blinked, then he shrunk a little, clearly suddenly rather unsure of himself. He checked Nolan's reaction but Nolan just stared right back at him, face mostly blank. I say mostly, because there was a hint of a rare smirk playing at the corner of his mouth- not long ago, he likely wouldn't have been quite so secure in the outcome of this conversation, but I had put in a lot of long, hard hours convincing him that I wanted to marry him to get to this point.

"Uh..." He hesitated, glancing between Nolan and I a few times before eventually giving up and deciding to focus on trying to assess me, alone, now. "I don't know," He said finally, lifting a hand halfway before obviously thinking better of it. Then obviously following up that thought by thinking, 'sod what I was taught', and bringing that hand up again to rub the back of his neck somewhat self-consciously. "I've been told I have a tendency to see what I want to see- which is rarely ever the cold hard truth." I saw Jules shake her head as if she didn't believe that was entirely correct, but I don't think anyone else noticed. "I'd hate to attribute some sort of emotion to you that you aren't feeling, Miss Rochester." I had a feeling that this time, his use of my surname and preferred title hadn't been intentional, let alone pointed; I think he'd just slipped back into formality because it was an old, comforting habit.

"Amelia," I reminded him, and he blinked as if he didn't know why I was telling him- as if he didn't realise he'd called me anything else. "I've been told," I said, carefully mimicking his phrasing. "That I need to be less obvious about what I'm thinking; that my inner monologue is written across my face at all times, and I need to learn to control it." Nolan frowned very, very deeply. "Then again, no one has ever been able to read me quite as easily as my mother- thank Merlin- so I suppose you can't be blamed for not thinking I'm an open book."

Logan barked out a laugh that had a surprisingly bitter edge to it. "Oh, mothers- can't live with 'em..." He trailed off, leaving the rest up to interpretation.

"I want to hear what you think, Logan," I told him, and he snorted.

"That's a first." I didn't feel great about that, honestly. Sure, he could be a bit... much, but by the way he said it, I could tell he meant it. That he felt like that was true, and fitting, and not sad in any way, because it was just a fact of life. No one listened to him, because he wasn't worth listening to- or so he thought.

Jules looked just as concerned as I felt, and the corner of Annette's lips twitched downward as if she was none too happy about this, either. I shook my head, partially to clear it, and partially to disagree. To disapprove, at least. "I think you're more insightful than you let on, Logan. I think your input is more valuable than you give yourself credit for." His mouth popped open, gaping briefly before he snapped it shut with a click of perfectly straight and pearly white teeth- a loss of control, followed by a regaining of such. Even after his mouth was closed, though, a muscle in his jaw jumped, and he blinked rapidly for a few seconds as if some particle of dust or dirt had found a new home in his eye, and he was doing his best to dislodge it without bringing it to our attention. Either that, or he was blinking back tears.

"...what?" He croaked, and Nolan smiled softly before- and as- he stepped over to Logan, cuffing him gently on the shoulder. Almost as though he was attempting to comfort him, in a very manly, blokeish way... which certainly wasn't the way I was accustomed to seeing Nolan comforting people, since typically, he was comforting me.

"I think you're worth listening to," I reiterated, and he didn't seem any less shocked to hear it the second time around. He glanced back at Nolan as if to ask him without words whether I was for real; Nolan nodded, and Logan turned back to me. "For the record, Nolan knows how I feel on the subject- and I, him- so nothing you say should have any sort of negative impact, if that's what you're worried about. We're- pretty solid." Nolan nodded again, which was gratifying.

Logan still hesitated, but I thought it had less to do with us and more to do with him. "Just..." 'Just'? "I'm not exactly... the best judge, when it comes to... love, and all that." Oddly enough, Jules looked like she disagreed. "I talk shit, and people tell me to shut up- sometimes I do." It was a strange statement, and even stranger for the fact that Logan almost seemed ashamed as he said it. Not ashamed that he rarely shut up, but ashamed that sometimes he did.

"How are you supposed to know when to stop talking, if no one ever listens to you?" He looked... shaken. Shaken, and touched.

He tilted his head toward Nolan, though his eyes never left my face. "I'd ask where you found her, but I guess I already know the answer to that." Nolan looked unbearably proud of himself- or, more likely, of me.

"Merlin, I hope not," I said, and Nolan's lips tugged downward, halfway to a frown before he realised what I was actually referring to, and his lips rolled in an attempt to hide his grin. A failed attempt. Normally, I knew Logan would have jumped on that without hesitation, but now, he barely seemed to register it. I took pity on him, and told them. "I was breaking in a new pair of boots." The fact that they were heels went without saying. "I caught the edge of an uneven paver and went arse over tit into the lavender bushes." I wouldn't typically have been so vulgar, but I thought if anything would snap Logan out of his stupor, it would be that- and I was right, for the most part.

"Let me guess," He drawled with some difficulty. "Montgomery came to your rescue, and you both fell head over heels the second your eyes met."

I shrugged loosely, shooting Nolan a smile that made him flush guiltily. "Of course," I agreed easily. "After he managed to stop laughing his arse off, that is."

(A/N): For the record, Nolan felt REALLY bad about laughing- even before he had romantic feelings for Amelia.

While I have been hinting that Logan had hidden depths before this, this chapter is where a few of the more detailed headcanons (well, CANON canons, I guess, since he's my own original character) were formed/fleshed out.

Also, Amelia's comment about spending 'lots of long and hard hours' with Nolan wasn't meant to be an innuendo in any way, but BOY does it sound like one.

I finished writing chapter 669 yesterday, which is as of yet unnamed, but I have temporarily deemed 'dorm party' (and it isn't even any of the dorms you're thinking of). It was a bit of a bitch to write, unlike the previous chapter, 668, which was quite fun, despite being a Sebastien chapter (though I'll begrudgingly admit he had some good lines). I also finished loading all the 2025 chapters into the doc manager and adding italics in/back in, since I can't italicize in notepad, then when I put them in google docs, even if I italicize them, when you copy them over to the doc manager, the italics go away- which means I manually had to add them back in. For all 56 chapters.

Also also, we just passed 300k views, so that's nice.