Logan was completely mesmerized by the gentle ripples that fluttered across Marie’s eight and half month pregnant stomach. Over the past few months, Logan would spend the early morning hours staring at Marie’s stomach. He’d watch their baby’s activities, talking softly to it so as not wake Marie.
“I hope you like your room. Your Momma, Uncle Ron and me spent a lot of time working on it,” Logan murmured, running his fingers over Marie’s stomach. “It’s your Momma that picked out how we did your room. She has this friend named Jubilee who’s an artist and your Momma managed to convince her to come up here and paint a mural on your walls. There’s this amazing mountain landscape on all your walls. Then your Momma and I spent another day putting glow-in-the-dark stars on your ceiling. It’s almost like being outside. All it cost us was your Momma promising this Jubilee person that she could be your Godmother. So don’t be surprised if you end up with all sorts of yellow outfits.”
“Ya better not be insultin’ Jubes,” Marie mumbled sleepily, sinking her fingers into Logan’s hair.
Logan pressed a kiss to Marie’s stomach then slid up the bed so that they were face to face. “I wasn’t insulting your little friend. I was just telling the baby about its room. Nothing insulting in that.”
Marie buried her head under Logan’s chin, snuggling up close to him. “As long as your not insulting her.”
“I’m not,” Logan assured her, pressing a kiss against the top of her head.
The two of them laid there in silence for a few minutes. Marie had snuggled as close to Logan as possible with her largely protruding stomach. Logan hand his hand on her stomach, lightly running his fingers across her skin. Since her movements were limited because of her enlarged mid-section, Marie now went to bed in a bra and panties with many layers of blankets rather than the many layers of clothes she would normally wear.
“Do ya really hafta go t’ work today?” Marie murmured, brushing her lips against his chest.
Logan rolled his eyes, chuckling quietly to himself. “I couldn’t stay home yesterday and I can’t stay home today.”
“What about tomorrow?”
“Sorry, darlin’, but Cal’s only gonna let me miss work when you have the baby,” Logan informed her. “And since it’s still inside you, I have to go to work.”
“Please, Logan,” Marie pleaded, turning her wide brown eyes on him. “Ah have a real bad feelin’ an’ Ah want t’ keep ya at arm’s reach today. Surely Cal can understand that.”
“Marie, we have this conversation every morning. You’re overreacting,” Logan told her, running his thumb along her lower lip. “Besides, Kurt and Kitty will be here around ten so you’ll have company and won’t have time to worry.”
“But what if somethin’ happens t’ ya?” Marie demanded, tears filling her eyes.
Logan wrapped his arms around Marie, holding her tight against him. “Nothing is gonna happen to me. I’m gonna go to work like I do every morning. I’ll ignore Ron’s constant demands about when Jubilee is coming back up. Then I’ll call ya at lunch, go back to work and be home in time for dinner. Same as I do every other day.”
“Doesn’t mean Ah hafta like it,” Marie mumbled against his chest. She then raised her head, a knowing smirk on his face. “An’ yer just lucky that it’s Kurt that’s comin’ up an’ not Scooter. He still wants t’ kill ya fer that stunt ya pulled at the weddin’.”
Logan did his best to look innocent, all the while knowing that he was failing miserably. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, darlin’.”
“Oh so ya had nothin’ t’ do with the dildo Scooter found in his bag?” Marie asked, humouring him. “The one that had ‘Big Scooter’ written in black marker on it. Yer completely innocent o’ that?”
“Completely,” Logan said, barely able to contain his grin. “I would never do something so mean to your brother. Sure the guy probably has a puny baby dick, but I would never point it out in such a blunt way. I mean it’s not like I hid a camera in the bridegroom’s room at the church and took pictures of his little baby dick for Ron to put on his website.”
Marie moaned and buried her face against the pillow. “Please tell me there’s no pictures o’ mah brother’s dick on the Internet.”
“I’m afraid I can’t answer that,” Logan said with a grin as he rolled out of bed. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna grab a quick shower before I head off to work.”
“Logan! Promise me there’s no pictures o’ mah brother on the Net!”
Chuckling to himself, Logan jogged down the stairs. There were no pictures of Scooter, let alone ones on the Internet, but it was fun to mess with Marie’s head. He had to keep himself amused somehow.
“Hey there, Boris!” Logan said when he spotted the rottweiler waiting by the front door. Once Marie’s stomach had begun to expand, Boris had stopped his wake-up calls. He would wait patiently by the front door for someone to come out and let him out. “You know, big guy, pretty soon there’s gonna be a little person around here making all sorts of noise. Hope you have ear plugs.”
“Ah heard that, Logan!” Marie called from their bedroom.
“Your toilet, Monsieur Boris,” Logan said with a flourish, opening the front door for Boris. Once the dog had trotted outside, Logan called after him, “And no going to Martha’s today!”
Catching sight of the clock in the kitchen, Logan rushed into the bathroom. He had spent too long talking to the baby that morning and was running behind schedule. Still, as he was washing his hair, Logan found the time to sing whatever song was currently stuck in his head.
“I see your red door and I want to paint it black. No colours any more I want them to turn black. I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes. And this would be the part that I forget the words,” Logan sang as he lathered his head full of suds. Jerking his head in time with the music, Logan held the shampoo bottle up to his mouth to use as a microphone as he began to reword the Rolling Stones song since he couldn’t remember the real ones.
When he left the bathroom holding a towel around his waist, Logan was back to the original lyrics. “No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue. I could not foresee this thing happening to you. If I look hard enough into the settin’ sun. My love will laugh with me before the mornin’ comes.”
The sudden applause caught Logan off guard. Logan spun around to the front door, the towel dropping from his fingers in the process. Standing in the doorway were Kurt and his girlfriend Kitty. A full three hours early. Cursing under his breath, Logan quickly grabbed the towel and covered himself up again.
“We got... we got an earlier flight,” Kurt informed Logan, barely able to contain his laughter. “Logan, you remember Kitty.”
Logan nodded at the blushing woman before turning his glare back on Kurt. “Marie, your brother’s here!” Logan shouted, not taking his eyes off the smaller man.
“Tell him t’ go away. Ah’m sleepin’!” Marie called down.
Logan merely rolled his eyes and headed upstairs. “Marie, come deal with your brother before I’m forced to hurt him,” Logan called as he trudged up the stairs.
“Then tell him an’ his girlfriend not t’ sneak up on ya,” Marie mumbled, her voice sounding like it was muffled by a pillow.
Which, once he reached their bedroom, Logan discovered it was. In an attempt to block out the noise from below, Marie had drawn a pillow over her head. It apparently wasn’t working because she had heard what Logan said clearly enough.
“You know you’re going to have to entertain them when I leave, so you might as well get up now,” Logan informed Marie as he began sifting around in the closet for a shirt to wear.
“What happened t’ our humourin’ the invalid policy?” Marie muttered, lowering the pillow enough so that Logan could see her eyes.
Shirt in hand, Logan flopped down next to Marie on the bed He rested his head on her hip, one hand massaging the small of her back while his other rested on her stomach. “You’re not an invalid, darlin’. You’re pregnant. And your brother’s downstairs right now and he’s already seen more of me naked than you have today so I’m gonna leave before I’m forced to do something drastic.”
When he tried to get up, Marie grabbed onto his arm, attempting to hold him in place. “No leavin’. Ya hafta stay right here with me.”
“I’ve got to work, Marie,” Logan insisted, trying his best to remain strong and not give in. He had already been late for work two times that week and it was only Wednesday. Ron was having a field day with it, teasing Logan to no end. Of course, all Logan had to do was remind him of the pager his new girlfriend had gotten him and the other man shut right up.
“Ya’ll call me at lunch?” Marie prodded, raising a hand and burying her fingers in his hair.
Lifting his head, Logan crawled up the bed so that he and Marie were lying lengthwise against each other. “I’ll call at lunch. Twelve o’clock exactly. Promise.”
“Ah’m countin’ on it,” Marie murmured, leaning forward to brush her lips against his. “Now Ah suggest that ya get dressed else yer gonna be late again.”
Logan rolled his eyes and kissed Marie again before sliding off the bed. If she was pregnant twenty times, Logan didn’t think that he’d be able to figure out how the strange pregnancy hormones worked. One minute she was his normal Marie and in the blink of an eye she was someone he’d never seen before. She either became SobbingMarie, OverEmotionalMarie, PissedOffMarie, ComeWithinAHundredFeetOfMeAndDieMarie or IfYouLeaveI’llNeverForgiveYouMarie. There were a few others, but Logan hadn’t figured out names for them.
As he dropped the towel and pulled on his boxers, Logan could feel Marie’s eyes on him. Knowing that she was watching him, Logan gave his ass a quick shake before pulling the boxers up.
“Yer such a child, Logan,” Marie giggled as she headed towards the stairs.
“You know you love me!” Logan called after her, reaching into the drawer for a pair of socks.
“Ya just go on believin’ that!” Marie shouted back.
Grinning to himself, Logan quickly finished getting dressed. It was his goal to get to work on time. Only a few more weeks to go then Marie was gonna have the baby. In a few weeks he was gonna be someone’s father. Even though he loved the idea of being a father, on a more practical level, Logan wasn’t sure what type of father he would make. Most father’s had a lifetime’s worth of experience to draw from. Logan had just over a year and a half worth of living that he could remember. Logan just hoped that he wouldn’t fuck the kid up too much. With Marie for a mother, though, Logan didn’t think that he could do too much damage to the kid.
“I’m outta here, darlin’!” Logan shouted as he charged down the stairs. “Cal’s gonna massacre me if I’m late again!”
Making a quick side trip to where Marie sat on the couch, Logan knelt down in front of her. He pressed a soft kiss against her stomach which was now covered by one of his t-shirts.
“See ya later, kiddo,” Logan told the child moving about inside. Logan then lifted his head so that his eyes were even with Marie’s. “I’ll see you later, darlin’. Behave yourself while I’m gone.”
Marie cupped his face in her hands, drawing him in for a kiss. “Try not t’ speed too much today, sugah. It would really suck if ya wrecked yer bike,” Marie murmured against his mouth.
Grinning broadly, Logan kissed her again. “Nice to know that you care more about my bike than me.”
“Yer bike doesn’t make me fat when Ah ride it,” Marie teased, her lips hovering a hairsbreadth away from his.
Logan couldn’t help but laugh at that. He kissed Marie one final time before rising to his feet. Before either of them had a chance to protest more, Logan said a quick goodbye to Kurt and Kitty before jogging out the door and towards his bike. He was still early enough that he would only have to go ten miles over the speed limit in order to get to the shop with seconds to spare. It was better than Monday when he’d gone a full thirty over the limit and still gotten there late.
Flipping up the kickstand, Logan revved the engine to life. Logan released the brake and was off, tearing down the road that led into town.
Still singing in his head, Logan wasn’t paying too much attention to the oncoming traffic. He was staying in his lane and as long as they stayed in theirs they wouldn’t have a problem. Logan was just getting to the third verse of “Paint It Black” when an oncoming truck did something that he never would have expected.
Barely thirty yards in front of him, the van swerved suddenly, blocking the entire road. The sound of screeching tires filled Logan’s ears as he continued speeding towards the van. Reacting purely on instinct, Logan turned his bike to the right, flying across the road and into the forest beyond. However, because of the snow, Logan had forgotten about the ditch. The front tire of his bike lodged itself in the ditch, stopping instantly.
However, Logan’s body didn’t stop as easily. He flew from the bike, sailing into the forest beyond. Logan’s shoulder bounced off a tree trunk, altering his course and sending him spinning. Logan eventually came to a stop in the snow, his right shoulder throbbing.
“Hey, runt! Where the fuck are ya!”
At the sound of the voice, Logan’s eyes went wide.
He knew that voice.
It was....
Shit! It was the voice from his nightmares!
The psychopath who had just run him off the road was the same person who had done it in his nightmares. Or, more precisely, the man who had run him off the road the night of his accident.
With a renewed source of energy that he hadn’t even known he’d possessed, Logan struggled to his feet. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he’d be damned if he just lay there. Hiding wasn’t an option. The snow would show his tracks, making it impossible to hide.
“Runt, get the fuck out here and act like a man!”
So he was just going to have to stand and fight.
Right arm hanging uselessly at his side, Logan picked up a large tree branch. His vision was imparted by a large gash on the left side of his forehead, leaking blood over his eye. Either way, Logan wasn’t about to go down without a fight.
A large man dressed in dark brown leather pants and a huge cape-like coat with furs on the shoulders appeared before him. His blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail and his dark feral eyes were trained on Logan.
“You’ve gotten soft, runt. I’d never have been able to get this close to you in the past,” the blonde man snarled.
Having no clue what he was talking about, Logan simply waited for the man to get within range of the branch he was wielding. When the man stepped forward another five feet, Logan lashed out, intending to smash him in the head and knock him down.
Logan’s blow never connected. The other man simply grabbed hold of the branch and tore it from Logan’s grip. Without the use of his right hand, there was little Logan could do and before he had a chance to retreat into the forest, the other man slammed the large branch upside his head.
Then everything around him went black in an instant.