Who: Logan, Laura and Leliana What: Leliana lures Logan to meet his daughter When: A few days ago, before the spider Where: A cafe rating: PG-13 warnings: child prostitution mentions
Beer would be what would attract Logan, and burgers to perk this young one up - the perfect trap, really. Leliana had retrieved Laura in a timely manner, chatted some about her nugs and her recent pinterest endeavor to distract her from the darkness of her dreams. Soon the beach came to view, foamy waves hitting the shore and the air smelled salty.
It had an outdoorsy patio area with its own bar, and that’s where Leliana got them a seat - a table that could easily sit four, but only three spots would be used. “Order anything you want, my treat,” she said softly, giving her a pat on the shoulders and opening up the menu.
Leliana ordered herself a margarita. It was necessary. And checked her phone to see if Logan was anywhere near.
Nugs made little sense and Pintreset made even less, but Laura attempted polite conversation. It was a good distraction, and her stomach rumbled as she sat at the table. She glanced at Leliana. It was apparently impolite to complain about owing someone, and she thought it best just to accept generosity. Apparently normal people liked to help other people, who knew?
Logan had texted her Sorry, ran late. Squirrel thing.
Only in Orange County would the excuse of ‘squirrel thing’ made some kind of sense, though she’d make a note to actually poke about what kind of ‘squirrel thing’ he was referring to. Did he have squirrel pets? Was he getting mauled by them? The possibilities were endless, and now Leliana was stuck imagining all kinds of possible scenarios involving them.
“A friend’s supposed to stop by,” she began gently, eyeing Laura. “He’s got claws in his dreams, too. And here, actually. Perhaps he could give you some insight?”
Laura had been turning through the menu, though her motions froze when Leliana spoke. “He has claws too?” She looked up from the menu, staring at the woman. Her wrists flexed, the ache only worsening. “Are they like…” She looked around, then picked up a fork and knife and positioned them in her fingers between her knuckles. “This?”
Quite an example for comparison. And very accurate, she’d give her that. Leliana nodded, a chuckle singing from her lips. “Something like that, yes. I am not entirely sure how it works, but someone who knows what you may be going through too…” And not to mention this someone being her father, well, he was the right person for the job? Likely, he’d grumble and groan and glare at her for putting him in this position, but Logan was stubborn and sometimes needed a not-so-gentle shove.
Putting the utensils down, Laura frowned again, unsure on if she could trust this person or not. But Leliana seemed to trust him. If only she could smell deception. “I wish I could smell better, like I dream about.” She hadn’t meant to say that outloud.
Logan pulled up, swinging off of his motorcycle and looking into the restaurant to see if he could see Leliana. Then his nose picked up an oddly familiar smell, and he squinted. “Sneaky woman.” He pushed the door open and entered.
He actually came! Good. Otherwise she’d have to hunt him and drag him by the ear, and even though she was void of all kinds of nifty little super powers, Leliana was efficient at what she did. She would find him. “There he is,” she said, elbow nudging Laura, and she waved those slender fingers of hers in his direction.
With a coy smile, of course.
Leliana was the kind of person that could probably drag even Logan by the ear and he would only grumble a little bit. Logan came over, hands in his pockets. He stood near an empty seat, and shot Leliana a look.
Laura watched him come over, a mixture of anxiety and curiosity twisting in her gut. She kept her face impassive, but Logan could smell something like slow simmering panic. He sat, slowly, and rested his hands on the table. “Hey.”
The girl looked over at Leliana, and rested her hands in her lap. “Hello.”
The hidden message behind that look was well received, thank you, but Leliana’s wry smile continued to shine on. “Laura, Logan. Logan, Laura. We were just getting our drink orders in, and I was just telling her about those claws of yours. She dreams of something similar, and I was wondering if maybe you could provide some insight? Since she’s so new to this. And young.”
What was that? Passive aggressive tugging on Logan’s heart strings? Very likely.
"Yeah." Logan flagged someone down to bring him a beer, then leaned back in his chair and studied Laura. To her credit, she didn't shrink under his gaze, though she shifted a little uncomfortably. He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but there was a brief flash of sadness and regret in his eyes. "What do you dream about, darlin'? You don't need to give me details. Jus' tell me what you're comfortable with."
Laura tilted her head, trying to think of how she wanted to phrase things. She opted for the blunt approachin. "I am a thing, I was made. They used me to kill. Then I escaped."
Well, that was a very blunt summation of dreams, Leliana supposed, bringing her fingers to awkwardly scratch her temple. Her job was supposed to bring them together; at least, that’s what Laura wanted. To track down family and she did, though whether or not Logan would confess that he was very much her father was something still to be seen.
Though she’d let Logan handle this. While Leliana sipped her margarita, looking between both father and daughter, though the man got the more pointed end of her stare.
“Remember anythin’ after that?” Logan asked. His beer arrived and he picked it up like it was a comfort food. Which it really was.
“Yes.”
“Don’t want to talk about it, then?”
“Yes.” Just the thought made her skin itch. She hadn’t gone that far to survive, though if it weren’t for Leliana, she wasn’t so sure she wouldn’t have. Which only made the itching and crawling feel worse.
“Fair enough.” Logan looked around, making sure no one was paying attention. Then he held up his fists, three claws protruding a few inches out and then sliding back in. “Yours in the dreams, they’re metal, aren’t they.”
“They took them out, coated them, and put them back in.” Laura was staring at Logan’s hand. “You know me.”
“Yeah.”
Laura ran through assorted scenarios in her head, and then looked at him more closely. “They.. made me from you.”
Logan nodded, lowering his hand to the table. “And here, your mother was involved in some bad shit, but I don’t think you were made. Not that it makes a difference, you’re a person, whether genetically engineered or not.”
“You were born,” Leliana contributed, and from her understanding, not pieced together in some tube with strange fluid and wires and hi-tech machinery, or whatever kind of technology was used to make a clone. Her phone vibrated against the table and quickly, she flipped it over to see who it was - and she was about to ignore it - if the person in question didn’t need immediate contact. Person in question being Gale.
Eyes flashed to Logan, a knowing look. “I’m going to step aside, I need to make a phone call. A friend had a…night. Why don’t you two order, and order me a veggie burger with sweet potato fries - I will be back in just a second, oui? Do not worry. You will be safe with him.” A squeeze went to Laura’s shoulder, another look to Logan, and she rose to step outside the restaurant.
“Veggie burger.” Both Logan and Laura said the words at the same time, with the exact same facial expression and disgusted tone of voice.
Logan rubbed the back of his neck as Laura turned to stare at him with piercing green eyes. “Well.”
Laura rested her hands on the table, looking down at her drink. She waited until the waiter had come and gone to put in their order. “You are my father.”
Well, she was a smart girl and it was pretty obvious at this point. Logan nodded. “Yeah.”
“You are not what I expected.”
“What did you expect, darlin’?”
“Someone taller.”
That got a laugh out of him. “Seriously?”
“I do not know what I expected. Mother never told me about you. And then I was in the system, and then I was alone.”
“I’m sorry. You wouldn’t have been, if I’d known.”
“You dreamed about me,” Laura said, lifting her gaze. There was an accusatory note to her voice. “You know I existed there, you could have looked for me here.”
“And invite you into this madhouse?” Logan shook his head. “I did go sniffin’ around for Sarah. Couldn’t find a trace of her. Trail had gone cold. How the hell Leliana found you an’ we couldn’t, I’ll never know.” And he knew better than to ask. “If figured, if you were around, you were better off than… dreamin’ the shit you’re dreamin’.”
Laura turned her head back towards her drink. “I do not yet know if you were right. I sometimes wish I had gone to another state instead.”
Yes, veggie burger. Nothing wrong with wanting something light, and Leliana never had much of an appetite. She ate like a bird. She’d be picking off that meal throughout the day once she boxed it to take it home, just watch.
And as promised, she did return. Not like she’d abandon them both, considering she’d been the link that brought them together, but it’d taken awhile since Gale had an interesting night that needed some therapeutic discussion, and Leliana wanted to be there. Even if it was just through the phone.
“Back,” she announced, trying to gage the situation between the two before settling back down. “My apologies. Work related. Did we order?”
“Your fake burger is on the way,” Logan joked. It ellicited a small smile out of Laura. Bonding through being carnivores.
“You’re here now,” He told Laura. “We can’t change that, or turn the dreams off. Believe me, we’ve tried.”
“Does it get better for me?”
Logan nodded, after a moment’s thought. “There are ups an’ downs. Some real big downs. But it does get better. It’s like climbing a mountain. Sometimes you stumble, maybe even fall. But you catch yourself, and you keep climbin’ an’ eventually you reach the top.”
Laura decided to take that at face value. It meant more bad things were coming, but there was hope. “So I am not a prostitute forever?”
He shook his head. “You get outta that.”
“I am too young, I do not really understand what is happening. I feel sick when I wake up.”
Oh, yes. Bond at Leliana’s expense, she’d let the two get away with it just once. It was easy to detect the growing sense of comfort between them anyway, and she watched them interact with a curious brow. Things had been said in her absence. Hopefully things that could help Laura. Could help both of them, maybe.
Biting her lip to repress a sigh, a hand went against Laura’s back, offering a soothing rub. “It will not last forever. You simply...came to an interesting place, and this is what it tends to bring. But you will be stronger for it. It does not last forever.”
“Thank you,” She told Leliana. “I was not that desperate yet.” At least here she was older, but that didn’t make her feel any better. She’d only brought it up because she’d needed to get it out there. Voice it. Know that it would some how be okay.
“Ain’t somethin’ you need to worry about now, or ever,” Logan promised her. “Your body, your rules.” Somehow, that seemed important especially for her.
Food hit the table shortly, and Leliana’s in particular looked lovely, thank you. Judge her vegetable infused patty all you want, she’d eat it gladly with her pile of sweet potato fries. “And you know, if you ever do run into any unwanted trouble, Logan and I are rather adept to taking care of it.”
Cleaning up messes without leaving a drop of proof. Making people disappear. All in a days work.
The sweet potato fries were acceptable at least. Laura in particular was looking forward to them. She ate for a moment in silence. “I hope that I will not need any of that kind of help. But I think I will be capable enough eventually.”
“Don’t go popping those too soon,” Logan warned.
Laura looked down and realized she’d been massaging her wrists.
The claws, Leliana assumed, slowing chewing on a fry as she watched Laura. A physical change like that couldn’t be painless, though she wasn’t an expert, she didn’t know what to expect. Exactly why luring Logan into his easily set trap had been a focus.
“She is a mini-you,” she told him. “And only you know what she will go through. Your presence would do her well, I believe.”
“It aches.” Laura sounded like the eighteen year old teenager she was. It made a smile cross Logan’s face.
“The ache won’t go away, but it’ll be easier to deal with. But if you’re like me, then the healin’ ain’t gonna catch up right away. You pop those, you could bleed out.”
Laura nodded, and forced herself to relax her wrists.
“You got a place to stay?” Logan asked.
Excellent advice. Keep those claws inside or else you run the risk of bleeding to death. That was news to Leliana, but she learned something new around these parts every day. “She’s staying with a woman. Furiosa is her name?” An interesting one to boot, but Laura seemed comfortable where she was. Now if she wanted to change, that decision would always be up to her.
“Don’t know her.”
Laura wondered how long before she could unsheathe her claws. It was like an itch that was hard to ignore. “She is a good person. She picked me up when I was hitchhiking and bought me a hamburger. She...was trustworthy. I had a knife in case she wasn’t.”
Logan nodded. Violence was sometimes necessary.
That didn’t seem particularly out of the ordinary. Laura had to defend herself somehow in case something did happen, no? She had the right to, but Leliana had been thankful she didn’t run into that sort of trouble on her adventure across the states. “Well, I am very glad we broke the ice here. You two seem to get along very well.” Another chomp out of those sweet potato fries, as she delivered Logan a stare that translated plainly to I told you so.
“So how bland is that thing,” Logan said, gesturing at the veggie burger while his own juicy meaty manly burger dripped obnoxiously. Because men liked manly meaty things. Though that’s vaguely homoerotic if you think about it.
“My cholesterol is thanking me, if you must know,” Leliana insisted, playfully flinging one of her fries at his direction with a quiet chuckle. Yes, yes, keep judging, they could continue to adorably bond over the fact that she was proudly devouring a faux burger. Like father like daughter, she supposed.
“I assume that is less of a problem for us,” Laura mused. “When I can….heal, anyway.” She wasn’t sure if she looked forward to that or not. While part of it felt normal, it also meant there was no returning to the Way She Was Before. It as frightening. Would it make her a killer?
“Pretty much.” Logan took a bite of his burger, chewed and swallowed. “When it kicked in, fixed up a tooth that was causin’ me a lotta trouble, repaired my liver, and gave my lungs new life. That was nice.”
Laura just raised an eyebrow at him and shot a look at Leliana, as if to say This is my dad?