Logan and Marie, Sunday evening

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

Backdated to Sunday. Marie and Logan go out for a bite to eat. He tells her a bunch of things she didn’t want to hear but really needed to.

Marie looked around the restaurant a bit warily before turning her attention to the menu in her gloved hands. Besides the mission to South America, this was the first time she had left campus since Cain’s post in the journal system. Gloves in the middle of a New York summer were pretty unusual and generally garnered a fair amount of attention and she hadn’t been eager to see if the recent news would affect the stares.

Looking up, she smiled at Logan, feeling herself relax a little. “Angelo introduced me to this place,” she said conversationally. “Doesn’t look like much from the outside, but they sure know how to manage some good ol’ home cooking.”

Logan sat across from Marie, hat jammed down low over his eyes. Place smelled good, and he was hoping the food tasted as good as it smelled. Marie, on the other hand - she didn't smell so good. She was tense, volatile, and seemingly ready to pop at a moment's notice. He vaguely wished he could smoke in here, but this was her idea and he wasn't going to push the NO SMOKING regs that far.

The waitress came over and took their order, quickly returning with their drinks. Marie took a sip of her sweet tea, casting another glance around as she set the glass down. “Can’t believe summer’s already over. Then again, it’s been busy enough.”

Logan drank deeply of his beer, still letting Marie take the conversational lead. As tightly-wound as she was, she'd start talking if he was just patient with her. "So how was South America?" he asked, breaking his silence. Give her a little nudge on the talking front.

“It went well, all things considered.” She propped her elbows on the table, resting her head on her hands. “Was good to get out and do something, y’know? Instead of being all cooped up here, just stewin’.”

"Stewing about what?" he asked, not-at-all innocently.

Marie shot Logan a mildly disgusted look. “Like you don’t know.” She let out a sigh and pushed the thoughts of home out of her mind. “Anyways, don’t need to talk about that anyways. Just gotta move on and leave it in the past, because that’s all it is now.”

Logan didn't let her sit there and just shoot looks at him. "Spit it out, kid." he urged her.

“What’s the point of dwelling on it?” She paused as the waitress set their food down on the table. “Nope, better to just concentrate on school, teachin’ and the team.”

"Because it's eating you up, kid. Plain to see if you know how to look." he countered mildly, taking another hefty swallow of his beer after he spoke.

“Ah’m just not busy enough yet. Once Ah have enough on my mind, Ah won’t be bothered by it.” She shrugged and smiled weakly. “Ah’ll be right as rain in just a bit, you wait an’ see.”

"Bullshit." he said, then ate a few bites of his food. "Don't kid a kidder, kid. The more you push it back, the more you ignore it, the more it's going to sit there and burn."

She raised an eyebrow at him. “You gonna lecture me on avoidance Logan?” She stabbed a piece of okra. "That’s kinda funny. What next? Scott gonna tell me that Ah’m working too much and need to take a vacation?"

Logan smiled thinly at her. "Take it from someone who's been there. It'll make you crazy." he said, then polished off his beer.

“But what else can Ah do?” She pushed around the food on her plate for a minute before setting her fork down. “Ah don’t even know where to start.”

"My suggestion is to just pick something and go after it." he said. "Follow it as far as it goes."

“Ah’m not the roaming type.” Marie frowned because even as she said the words, she felt a tugging deep down that suggested otherwise. “Don’t really see how Ah could follow up besides going out there and trying to track her down.”

"Could start there." he said. "Or you could decide that while it'd be real nice to know who you are and all that shit, decide that your life started from the moment you got fucked and make yourself someone you can be proud of from that point forward."

She leaned back in the booth, turning her head to the side. “Easier said than done, but Ah know Ah don’t have to tell you that.”

Logan nodded to Marie and took a few more bites of her food. "You decide what you want, I'll do what I can to help." he told her, as simply as that. "Could go bat your eyelashes at Remy, get him and his bunch to put out some feelers for the old bat."

Marie’s expression darkened, remembering the last time she’d asked Remy for a favor. “Guess Ah could check in with Marie-Ange, see if she’s found anything new. Couldn’t hurt to just keep an ear open, in case anything comes up…”

Aha, seems that the Mississippi Muskrat had already got a full taste of the Cajun's charms, and choked on it. He couldn't help but grin a bit at that. Hear it told, Remy'd fuck a snake if somebody held it out straight for him. "Could do that, too." he agreed.

She nodded, her eyes unfocusing as she organized her thoughts. “Yeah, Ah think…Ah think that’ll work for now. Nothin’ too active, but you’re right Ah gotta stop ignoring it and pretending it’ll go away.”

Logan nodded. "Ignoring it won't make it go away, no matter how much you might want it to. And speaking of going away, what's the deal with Ramsey?"

Marie coughed as she almost choked on a sip of tea. “Well…” Oh G-d. speaking of avoiding… “…Ah dunno.” The problem was she did know, she just couldn’t bring herself to face it yet.

"Whaddya mean, you don't know?" Logan asked. "You like that kid or not?"

She smiled, those there was a hint of sadness in it. “Ah do. He’s real sweet and treats me better than Ah deserve.”

"Better than you deserve?" he asked, with just a hint of warning in his voice. "You wanna explain that one to me?"

“It’s not like Ah’m the easiest person to date,” she pointed out matter of factly. “But that’s not really the point. Ah just…Ah don’t know if it feels right.”

Logan scowled at Marie around a few forkfulls of food, but let it pass. "Not right to string him along." he said, aware of the irony of what he was saying. ~I miss you, Jeannie...~ he thought wistfully.

The scowl on her face mirrored Logan’s. “Ah’m not stringing him along! It’s complicated.” She knew they needed to talk, but she also was scared of losing one of her friends.

"How are you not? Bet you lunch here you've been ducking him since we came back." he said. "Bet he's called, emailed, left you a couple of notes."

“No,” she protested. “Ah mean, Ah haven’t had a chance to see him since goin’ to South America, but it’s not like that. Ah’m not ignoring him and we were still hanging out before this last mission.”

"Haven't had a chance, or have you been purposefully avoiding him?" he pressed.

She frowned, not wholly sure. “Ah have not been avoiding him.” Not purposefully at least. “Ah’m gonna go talk to him soon, Ah am.” She pushed away her plate, the turn in conversation causing even one of her favorite dishes to look unappetizing.

"Soon as in ... today?" he pushed. "Don't let it linger, kid."

“Maybe,” she said, not wanting to commit. She signaled the waitress for the check, suddenly feeling claustrophobic in the restaurant.

"No maybe. Get off the fence and _do it_." he urged. "Don't keep putting it off. Not fair to you, not fair to him."

Marie fell silent, knowing that she couldn’t disagree with him, but not wanting to put her thoughts at that moment into words. Throwing a handful of cash on the table, she rose and walked out of the restaurant. Fair had never been in her vocabulary anyways.

Logan followed her out of the restaurant and to where his bike waited. "Get pissed if it helps, but you know this is the right thing to do." he said casually.

“Ah know,” she said. “And Ah’m not mad…Ah’m just worried.” She climbed onto the back of the bike behind Logan.

"Fair enough." he said, kicking the bike into very loud life. "You'll do fine. Ramsey's a good kid, he's not gonna kick ya when you're down."

She knew he was right, but it didn’t make her feel any better. This situation was exactly why she’d been hesitant to get involved with Doug in the first place. Closing her eyes, she let the wind wash over her and the sound of the motor drown out her thoughts.