The Accident

At the end of a somewhat quiet street, a fire raged out of control. It had started on the second floor but no one knew just how. The entire upstairs had been engulfed in flames that now inched its way downward to the first floor. A window at the back of the house, on the second floor, blew and gave the already heated blaze more fuel to completely break down and burn to cinders the brand new baby bed the family had just finished setting up. A nice white-siding, two-storey house that the small but growing family had only purchased several months prior was now on the verge of being non-existant. The walls had been colored black with the smoke and orange with by the flames. What had been the green and fertile front lawn was now being turned to mud and ruin by the many spectators and emergency crews.

A total of four police cars, two firetrucks with seven firefighters each, two ambulances with three medics each, all with red and blue lights lighting the end of the street had become the center of attention in the wee hours of the morning on a Tuesday. One fire hose was there for controlling the blaze so that it didn't spread to the neighbouring homes and yards while the other was there to put out the fire.

With only a few months to spare in her pregnancy, the mother stood safely outside and watched as her home burnt to ashes. As she was in her early 30s, the wife and mother now stood alone and visibly aged 10 years. The police had told her that her husband and oldest daughter were still lost in the engulfed home. A pink bathrobe and bare feet was looking to be the only thing for the woman to hold onto. It had been the middle of the night when her husband woke her up and ushered her outside, screaming for their sleeping daughter to wake up and follow. Making the trek down the stairs alone, she glanced back several times to find her husband gone and no sign of the daughter or family dog, Vince. Frantic, she had grabbed the portable phone on the small table, by the door, and ran out as she dialed the three simple numbers.

Neighbours and friends gathered to comfort the woman who had never stopped screaming the names of her family, or yelling at the police to find them.

Three firefighters had already been dispatched into the home to rescue any survivors but only one had come out holding a lifeless young girl in his arms. Black boots trudged through the soaked lawn to hand off the small, limp child to Logan and Zeke, who stood in the distance of the ambulance. Both were covered in soot and the fireman coughing and struggling to stay upright from his own intake of smoke as he handed the girl to Logan, yelled over the noise and commotion that the child was found on the floor, in the room next to where the fire had started.

"I got her! Thanks, Jack!" Logan cradled the limp body in his arms and quickly turned to place her on the grass, facing away from the blaze. "Z, go get the bag! I'll do her here!" Clearing her airway and starting CPR, Logan focused on saving the girl's life instead of what was going on around him. "Come on, darlin. Breathe. Please breathe." By the blue on the girl's lips and lack of avail, Logan feared the worst. He hadn't heard the footsteps or paid attention to the calm, well-dressed man who knelt down across from him. He didn't have to look up to know who it was or why he was there. Logan paused as he was tired but didn't bother to look anywhere but at the girl in front of him. "Why is it that I can't seem to get rid of you?" Taking a moment to breathe before he started with the chest compressions again, Logan spoke again to the figure sitting calmly still. "You can't have her. She can't be more than 12 years old, at the most. Her parents just lost their house. I won't let you give them something else to lose. They deserve to have her live."

Remy kept his eyes on the child who was still not breathing. "We all die, Logan."

Logan growled. "Correction, people die. You've never even taken a human breath, have you?" He hissed it before he could control himself.

The insult hurt him deeply but Remy only brushed it off and kept his focus on the girl between them.

What happened next was something Logan hadn't expected. The only thing Remy had said to him was "move" and Logan backed off. He watched as Remy slowly flattened his right hand on the girl's stomach and closed his eyes. Logan blinked and on the next breath, the girl coughed and sputtered, releasing small clouds of black and gray smoke with every exhale she forced out. Logan looked up to finally see Remy's face and shivered. "What the Hell did you just do?" Time had frozen around them, like before on the street, even the girl was moving extremely slow while they seemed unaffected. It hadn't made sense to him just why the calm man in a black business suit had done the opposite of what he claimed to be there for.

"My assignment was for two, here. Only one may stay if the reason is just." Remy had said it without tone or final look to Logan. He was gone within seconds of finishing, leaving Logan to rejoin real time and help Zeke put the girl on the gurney and escort her to the ambulance.

Logan learned later what Remy had meant. The daughter was saved from the flames but just barely. The father had lost his life while trying to rouse his child and trying to save valuable papers and trinkets from the house. The dog was later found burnt to a crisp under the brand new baby bed. With the flames inching closer and surrounding him, the small scruffy animal found himself backed to the wall with no chance of escape.

~~~~

Logan walked tiredly into Corey's hospital room and found Sharon sitting in the chair beside the bed and resting her head on the white knit linen blanket. He paused in the doorway and took in the scene. He had felt the same way Sharon had; worn with worry and exhausted from not knowing the outcome of their son's dangling life. Walking over to lightly place his hand on her shoulder, Logan spoke her name softly as not to frighten her.

Sharon Abbott picked her head up and looked at him with bleery, tired eyes. She had taken the day off of work but still managed to dress as a professional in black khaki pants and a white blouse"They ran more tests on him, today. The more he stays asleep, the worse the chances are for him waking up. Why isn't he waking up, Logan?" She allowed herself to be pulled to her feet and embraced by the only man who had stayed by her side, even after being told he was not the father. The few boyfriends she had, after Logan, had never lasted long due to knowledge of either Logan or Corey. Had Logan preferred women, she would have posed the question to have their semi-union be legal.

"I don't know, darlin. The doctors have that part under control, I just bring the patients to them." Still locked in the embrace, Logan whispered over her shoulder calming words while watching the heart machine attached to the young boy in the bed. He still wore his dirty, smokey clothes from the early morning fire and wanted to just lie down and forget about everything for a few hours. Pulling back to look at the equally tired woman, Logan paused a moment. "Why don't I take you home so you can get some rest, and I can change and get some rest and we'll meet back here, later tonight? I think we can both use the time off from the world."
A nod was all Sharon could offer but it was not completely what she wanted.

Logan put his arm around her and guided her out of the room and down the hall to the elevator. He agreed with her that home was not where he wanted to be when their son's life was hanging in the balance but it was where they needed to be to make sure they could take care of Corey as well as themselves. As the doors opened, they stepped in and doors closed again, Logan was embraced again and left to only hold the frail, shaking woman.

"Thank you, Logan. I couldn't do this on my own." Sharon let the words soak up the tears that ran down her cheeks and into the soot-covered material she clung to.

There hadn't been much for Logan to say but nodded just the same. In fact, Logan didn't speak again until they were out of the elevator and in Sharon's car with Logan driving her home. "Uh, have you called Tim? He should know about his son, even if his agenda didn't have time for Corey in the first place." It wasn't the time for Logan to bring up Corey's biological father but he felt Timothy Franks was entitled to know about his son's worsening condition.

Sharon shook her head as they exited the hospital parking lot and headed for the freeway. "He hasn't wanted to see Corey since his fifth birthday. Every year of no call, no show, he solidifies his masculinity as a mouse. Tim doesn't care about anyone else but himself."

"Got it." Logan stopped himself from going any further as Sharon had expressed her anger toward her ex-boyfriend. He focused on the road in front of him and left Sharon to doze and lazily watch the surrounding cars from the passengar seat. A sigh left him as he thought back to his early morning excitement with the calmly, well-dressed young man that miraculously saved the young girl from dying; something Remy had seemed not to have ever done before.

When next both Sharon and Logan knew, they had pulled into the driveway of Sharon's home and sat there in silence before getting out a full five minutes later. Logan was the first out of the car and walked around to the passengar side to open the door and help her out of the car and into the house. He had escorted her inside and into the bedroom, closing blinds and locking doors and windows all the way. As they made it to her bedroom and she sat down on the edge of the bed, Logan helped her out of her thin windbreaker and helped her to lie down and get some rest. "I'll uh, call ya later to see how yer doin, before we go to the hospital. Just relax, darlin. You're no good to Corey or yerself if you keep running yerself down." Logan sat on the side of the bed and looked down at her. For the time of morning, closing the blinds had given the room a darkness he had hoped for but hadn't let the two of them separate.

The smokey musk from Logan's clothes filled the air between them as he leaned in closer for a parting kiss. He really wasn't expecting her to grab hold of his shirt and pull him down to lay next to her on the bed. Logan obliged but hoped it wouldn't lead to something he couldn't enjoy as well. "Sharon, I-- Listen, darlin, I'm not--"

"I know." Sharon halted him from completing his explanation. "Logan, I just need someone to help me feel alive, right now. Corey adores you and eventhough we're not really together, I want you to be apart of our lives. Please? We're still young and if I lost Corey, I might lose both of you....." her voice trailed off as she stared into his clouded blue eyes.

Logan had to think for a moment before he said anything. Weighing his thoughts and answers before voicing them to an extremely fragile woman who was asking him to do something out of sympathy, rather than love. He could tell from the look in her eyes that she was depending on him to be there for her, all the way, if possible. However, sex was the last thing on his mind for such a vulnerable time. Plus, he couldn't seem to stop thinking about the spicy Cajun that he told himself he despised. "Sharon, darlin, I don't want this to happen if all it's going to be for is sympathy. I love you, too, but this isn't the time for rush decisions. Whatever happens with Corey, I'll be here no matter what. We were friends before Tim came along and we'll be friends however this turns out. Okay?"

Sharon averted her eyes but nodded. "At least stay with me for awhile?"

A sigh and then a nod before Logan moved himself up onto the bed, placing his back against the tall, wooden headboard and letting her rest her head on his chest as she curled around him. As he soothed her to sleep, Logan's thoughts carried back to the night he and Remy made love in his bed. His memory hinted at the soft touch Remy's skin had offered and the heated feel of the inside of his body as Logan moved in and out of him. Not wanting to admit to himself that his thoughts were turning him on, Logan cleared his throat quietly and closed his eyes to rest himself.

~~~~~

Logan stood beside Corey's bed and watched the boy sleep with tubes and wires going in and out of him. Sharon had been too sick and weak to attend her son's vigil so Logan had gone instead. The small room crowded with teens and adults who knew Corey and bestowed good thoughts on the comatose teen. It was heartwrenching to hear stories from the boy's friends as if he had never known Corey or his mother but Logan stood there with an inviting smile and listened to each individual, thanking them as they left.

When the last of the friends had left, Logan sat down on the bedside chair and sighed in exhaustion. A full two hours he had spent listening and talking to friends and parents and giving them support eventhough he knew Sharon needed to be supported as well. Closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead with his right hand, Logan suddenly felt a presence and looked up at the figure in the doorway. "Sorry, I didn't know Corey had so many friends."

The woman nodded calmly and stepped forward, her flowing colorful pastel robes swishing softly in the movements. Her long, straight lavendar hair blew in an invisible breeze as she came to stand beside the bed. "Friend, no. Know him, yes." Her sapphire eyes blinked as she smiled softly.

"Who are you?"

The woman slowly looked down and Corey and then back to Logan before she answered. "Thete has been removed from this assignment. I am to finish what he has started. I am here so that you may give your goodbyes to the child." Her voice held no tone at all but spoke volumes of misery to Logan. Her cool, deep eyes showed an ocean of her long life at her job, showing the onlooker that she intended to complete her assignments where Remy had let them slip into extensions.

Logan seemed puzzled at the name she had given him. "Thete?" He hadn't placed the name or where he had heard it before but it had sounded eerily familiar to his ears and lips. "LeBeau. Yer here to take over for the kid, right? Well, darlin, I told him, now I'm tellin' you, it ain't happenin."

A calm sigh with a small smile of admiration. "It is not your choice or Thete's who lives or dies in this world. He was sent here to complete an assignment and he did not. With every step against destiny, this boy suffers from being able to complete his destiny. Thete has warned you not to interfere with this and you've chosen to disregard him. Before this evening is done, the boy will come with me to where he is supposed to have already been. I will allow you to inform his mother and have her pay her respects but, do not interfere again." The woman had not glared nor raised her voice at Logan but the sentiment was made perfectly clear.

"What happened to Remy? What do you mean, he's been removed? Look, this kid is a good kid. He doesn't deserve to have his life taken away because of one foolish accident that he didn't cause or contribute to." Logan growled but quickly regretted it as the look on her face seemed to frighten him eventhough she made no threatening moves or looks against him.

"As I have said, Thete has been removed from this assignment due to his negligent actions in this situation. For that, he has been reprimanded and punished. He chose his fate but you do not have to follow." For the first time in ages, sorrow entered her voice. She had loved the young man she saved from the stones of Stonehenge and thought of him as a brother and lover soul but felt deep anger in him as she revoked his privelages and carried out his damning sentence.

Logan had been unable to reply or even form any words on his lips or mind. He felt himself slowly sinking back into the chair as the shock of her words washed over him. His ears heard her speak but his brain didn't register her words as she disappeared from the room. Logan was finally having to come to terms with Corey's terminal decision. As he had a thought to possibly delay or change the outcome, he looked up to find she was gone. Now the task came to tell Sharon she had to let go of her son. But, how?

Continued.