Who: Bay/Pitch and Logan What: Bay comes to talk with Logan, but Pitch wants to talk to her more Where: Island Detective Agency When: Following this Warnings/Rating: Pitch creepies.
Bay honestly had no idea what Logan was talking about. Keys? Doors? Of course she had keys to get into the door at her apartment, but she was definitely talking about something else. Maybe there was a chemical leak in the office, some sort of gas, or carbon monoxide that was making her talk crazy. His foot pressed down a little harder on the gas pedal, his SUV revving forward as he made it back to the office in record time and with a loud squeal of tires.
There was no one in the parking lot, but that didn't mean a whole lot to him. Could still be a chemical spill. He got out quickly and he was halfway across when his steps faltered, a half second too long between steps. Just enough for Pitch to take control. His steps were softer then, like a man not quite used to his bulk, to being just as tall, but lean as a sheet of paper. He entered the building slowly, the rubber heels of Bay's shoes masking the sounds of his footsteps.
Bay not knowing about him was imperative. The other man knew nothing of his key nor about the door worlds, except for the one time when they were switched and Bay found himself on the other side before Pitch could wrest control back. This girl threatened that. And there she was, sitting at her desk like a good girl. A less than sweet smile crossed his face as he entered and began to walk over to her. "Feeling all right, Logan?" He asked, his voice lilting over the syllables in ways that Bay's voice normally didn't.
Logan was too caught up in her own panic to notice anything different about Bay. She had never spoken to anyone on the journals (who wasn't brand new) who didn't know at least a little bit of what was going on. How could Bay be writing in his journal and not realize that everyone else on there was different. Had he not received a key with his journal? Had he thrown it away accidentally and never crossed over? Logan didn't know how she was going to broach the subject with her boss when he finally came in, but she had a feeling it was going to be even more awkward than usual. Logan knew how it must sound to an outsider. She had just never thought to think of Bay as one.
Oh god he was going to fire her for being crazy, wasn't he?
She was busy formulating the best way for her to make her case without losing her job when the voice made her jump. God, Logan. Way to not hear the door open. "Um, yes," she squeaked quickly, before clearing her throat to speak at a more human decibel. "I'm okay, just... confused." Her expression grew worried for an instant. "I hope you didn't rush over just for me."
"Of course I did," he said as he leaned close, his footsteps far too light for a man his size. "You see," Pitch started as he picked up one wild tendril of honey dark hair and wound it between his fingers. "You put me in a very difficult position, Logan." Lifting the strands up, he sniffled at them before letting them fall back down again, apparently having found what he wanted as he leaned over her, both hands coming to rest on the desk, effectively hemming her in. "He doesn't know about me and I want to keep it that way. You telling him what you did -- that's a problem for me."
Bay offered no resistance to him, but Pitch didn't quite know how to control a body so much larger than his own. Not taller, they were of the same height, but he did not have Bay's mass nor musculature and where Bay purposely never loomed over Logan if he could help it, Pitch did exactly that. "In a few minutes, I am going to walk out and he will walk in. You will convince him of whatever you need to and then you will never mention the doors or the keys again. Not to him, not in his presence, not where he can see. A smart girl should be able to do that."
Logan opened her mouth to apologize, but the words never came out. Despite what felt like a several foot advantage over her, Bay had never invaded Logan's personal bubble in any way, let alone loom over her in a way that made her want to shrink away and curl up. His physical presence was so large and overwhelming that she sat frozen for a moment, watching wide-eyed as he toyed with and sniffed a lock of her hair. "I... what... how?"
Logan's mind tried furiously to figure out what was going on, and the only thing that seemed to make sense was that Bay's alter had taken over his body to threaten her. Well mission accomplished, because she was terrified. "Who- who are you?" she asked, pushing back into her seat and as far away as she could from the hulking man. "Why don't you want him to know? People talk about it all over the journals." The problem with spending most of her teenage years in a hospital was that Logan had never developed the self-preservation instincts that most normal people had. That meant she didn't know just when she should have shut up for her own good. "How can I hide something so big?"
There was an odd quirk to Bay's mouth, almost a smile, but nothing nearly as friendly as Pitch let her move. He couldn't smell her fear like this, but he could see it in her eyes and that was almost enough. Almost. Leaning forward, he placed both hands on the arms of her chair and loomed in until their noses were almost touching.
"I'm the Boogeyman." He waited for that to sink in before he leaned in further, his cheek sliding against hers as he sniffed her again, the edge of his nose running up the line of her jaw. "Boo."
She was able to keep in the squeak of fear that was threatening to escape, but Logan couldn't hide the chill the shot through her spine when she felt his breath on her skin. Her head was pushed as far against the back of her chair as it could go, which was in turned pushed against the wall. She was utterly and completely trapped.
Logan sat frozen as she registered his words, not doubting their truth for even a moment. Whoever - whatever - she was talking to had thrown off Bay completely, and even Logan wasn't naive enough to think the thing caressing her jaw with icy tenderness was less than pure evil. To her credit, she didn't jump at the 'Boo', but she trembled visibly, betraying her fear through the thin layer of composure she had been trying to put on.
"I -- I don't think he'll believe me," she said, her voice small against the massive figure looming over her. "He'll know I'm lying."
There was something about being this close to her, to feel that little tremble that never happened in dreams. Whether it was simply lost in the unconscious world or whether it couldn't be fully expressed by the sleeping body, Pitch didn't know. What he did know was that it was good to be this close, to see it, feel it, smell her fear on her like a waft of perfume.
"Be convincing." He sniffed her once, a long slow inhale that had Bay's nostrils flaring so very close to her ear. His lips pulled back into a smile that Bay never wore, predatory and sharp white against the tone of his skin. "Or don't you want to be his precious little girl Friday? He's very interested in keeping you safe." He pulled back enough to flash that smile at her. "We wouldn't want to disappoint, would we?"
Even without the threat underlying his words, the smile alone would have been terrifying. The cold hard malice was unlike the kind warmth Bay normally exuded, and it brought home just how unmatched Logan was in this situation. In a fight-or-flight situation, her limbs refused to do anything more than just sit there. Bay had made her take a few self-defense lessons sure, but she couldn't use them on him, even if she had had the presence of mind to try. The only way she would get out of this situation was when the Boogeyman let her out. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she could feel Bigby growling, but that was just about as useful as she was.
"No, we don't." She said quietly, staring at those teeth, unwilling to look him in the eyes. "I'll-- I'll try to be convincing. I'll lie." Whatever it took to get Bay back.
"You don't want to fail me." There was no threat following that one as he reached out and spun a loose tendril of her hair around his finger. "I'll see you soon, Logan," he promised, satisfied that she would do what he told her to do. If she didn't, she'd get another visit from him, but she might just get one anyway. He was in that type of mood and she got such a delicious look in her eyes when she was terrified.
Leaving her pressed into her chair, he walked out, even his gait different as he returned to the car and pushed Bay to the forefront --
-- And wasn't he just here? Shaking his head, Bay climbed out of his SUV again and started walking across the parking lot to the office. Was it a carbon monoxide leak? He'd had those alarms installed but when was the last time he'd changed the damned batteries on the things? No, wait, those were the ones that let out that annoying squeal that set his teeth on edge the moment the batteries got low. He opened the door -- and nope, no alarm, no squeal.
Maybe a gas leak? He sniffed, but didn't smell anything. There wasn't a smell outside either, so gas leaks were temporarily crossed off the list.
Maybe she hadn't eaten. Low blood sugar could cause those same symptoms, but his brows drew together as he spotted Logan behind her desk. "Are you all right?"
Logan kept from flinching when he played with her hair again, but didn't reply to his goodbye. Partly because was desperately hoping she'd never seem him again, soon or otherwise, and partly because she was terrified that she would. She stared after him unblinkingly as he walked out the door, still too shaken to fully wrap her mind around what had just happened.
He was back before she could bring herself to move. Her eyes went wide for a second, afraid that the boogeyman had remembered something else he needed to scare her with, but one look at the expression on his face told her that the man who had just walked in was different. This was Bay. She could see it in his shoulders and she could see it in his eyes and she could see it in the look of concern on his face. This was Bay. This was the man who had no idea what he was sharing a brain with. This was the man she was going to have to lie to.
I have to lie to a man who sees through lies for a living. No matter how much faith the Boogeyman had in her, she was far less certain. Still, she had to try.
"Me? Yes, I'm better now." Her voice was still a little unsteady from the terror that was finally leaving her body, but she pushed through. "I think I had something weird for lunch."
That line between his brows deepened as he watched her, noted the unsteady tremor of her voice, but the only alarms in their small space that were going off were the ones in Bay's head. "You sure? Have you eaten since lunch today?" Maybe it was low blood sugar or something similar. At least she wasn't talking about doors and Bigby and keys, but that didn't mean he was any less concerned as he came over for a closer look. She was pale, not flushed.
"Stay here, I've got half a sandwich leftover from lunch. You can eat that and then go home." It was a half of one of the two subs he'd gotten for lunch and he'd kept the other half in case he felt like snacking on something later. Heading towards his office, he re-thought that as he grabbed the half-sub out and a bottle of water. "I'll drive you home. You have someone that can come with you to pick up your car in the morning or will I need to pick you up?"
"No, I haven't." It was the truth, even if an irrelevant one. If Bay was worried that Logan was acting strange because of a lack of food, then she knew she had to let him continue thinking so. Even if it meant not stepping away from the desk when he came close to look at her, even if it meant staying at the office longer to assure him she was okay when all she really wanted to go was run to Passages and let Bigby take charge for a while. Anything to keep Bay Bay and not the Boogeyman.
"Umm..." Logan couldn't think of a lie fast enough to keep Bay in the room, and he was back with a bottle of water and the sub before she could string something together. Playing along it was, then. "You don't need to drive me home. I'll just eat the sandwich and I'm sure I'll be fine." Logan made a show of peeling the paper away from the sandwich. It wasn't that she didn't want to get into a car with Bay - well she didn't, but she'd get over that - but that she couldn't ask him to drop her off at Passages if he drove her home. "Don't worry about me. I'll eat the sandwich and I'll order that chinese food for you to eat later."
"You sure?" She was acting a little off, but she'd been acting strange earlier too. This was just a continuation of that, Bay was sure. "It's no big deal to drive you home. We could stop by Five Guys if you want." Mmm Five Guys. Best burgers in Vegas, if you asked Bay, and they'd surely give even a tiny thing like Logan enough to eat.
"I'm pretty sure I can handle ordering my own food if you don't want to pick something up," he said, grinning as he leaned against the opposite of her desk so he wasn't looming over her. It was too easy to loom over her and most of the time it left him feeling like he was going to fall over and squish her. Teasingly he added, "You'll have to wait to practice your storytelling until next time."
"No, really, it's okay." She attacked the sandwich with a little more fervor. The mention of Five Guys made her pause, but only for a moment. "I'm not going to have room for Five Guys after this sandwich. But now I'll be stuck dreaming about those fries all night long."
Logan took a moment to swallow the massive amounts of sandwich she was shoveling into her mouth. "I know you can handle ordering food, but you won't get all the freebie extras they give me." Still, she pulled out a few flyers from her desk drawer and passed them to him. "There's more in the drawer if you don't want any of the usual places." Her pulse jumped at the mention of storytelling; she had been hoping the talk of food would have been distraction enough from what she had said before. "I'll make it something good, something out of one of my comic books."
"Yeah? You a big comic reader?" Bay knew what they were of course, but George had never allowed them in the house, beyond the Sunday funnies that could be found in the newspaper. No, his childhood had been all chapter books and museums, science and mathematics. There had been no room for flights of fancy or superheroes and so Bay had done without. Not even now did he read comics, but he saw the movies and enjoyed them. It didn't hurt any that the uniforms were molded to them, every line of muscle visible until they took the uniforms off -- and yeah, Bay liked a eye-full just as much as the next man.
Not that he would have said as much to Logan who was currently wolfing down what remained of his sandwich. "What kind of freebies do they give you?" He asked, eyebrow half cocked as he took the menus from her. Figured that she had to fight about how hot she wanted the food, but they were willing to stuff her little body as much as they could.
Logan nodded in confirmation, her mouth too full of sandwich for words. Comics and movies were what her brother brought for her during those long months at the hospital, and still the lens through which she looked at much of the world. "Oh you know," she paused, covering her mouth as she swallowed the last of the sandwich, "extra sides and stuff. I guess I've ordered often enough to become a valued customer or something." Sounding like a young girl made restaurants doubt her ability to handle spice, but not enough to run off repeat business.
"If that's all you need from me tonight, I'll head out?"
"Hmph." If they were giving her all those extra sides, he was definitely going to have her order next time, but since he'd mentioned Five Guys, he was thinking more and more about their burgers over Kung Pao Chicken. Bay gave her one last look over, one eye squinting to make sure she seemed all right and then nodded. He'd been fine, but he was still concerned about her.
"You have my cell number in case you need it? I'll be here for a bit if you get into trouble." God knew he didn't want to have her crazy talking again. Maybe he should stock up on snacks in the future so it didn't happen again. Bay liked her, she did good work, but he didn't want her talking about doors and shit in front of clients.
Logan held still as he examined her, eyes wide and innocent in the fervent hope that he'd buy it. She almost exhaled her relief audibly when she passed inspection, covering it up with an enthusiastic nod. "Yeah, I'll call if something comes up, but hopefully I won't need to." She grabbed her bag, her journal and her phone hurriedly, throwing them into the bag over her shoulder. "I'm... sorry if I scared you. I'll try to stay away from weird foods next time." Without waiting for Bay to think of another reason to worry about her, she stepped out of the office and into the warm night. Her pulse slowed as she walked towards her car, and as the adrenaline left her body memories of the creature she had just encountered rose to the surface. There was no way she was getting any sleep tonight.