The Accident

Lying down on the motel room's bed, Remy stared at the ceiling and listened to the silence around him. The feel of the material against his back and hands had reminded him of rich texture of Logan's bed. He inaled the scent that had never left his nose of the shorter, burly medic. Remy had wanted the moment to last for alot longer than just a night, he wanted a lifetime. His eyes slid closed and the inhales became deeper.

She stood in the middle of the room. Pastel lavendar hair blew straightly with a breeze that seemed to be only where she stood. Lavendar bangs swept neatly to one side as her thin, youthful face grew harder with every second that he didn't come to attention at her presence. "Do you wish me to revoke your assignment?" Her long thin arms now folded across her chest and a toe tapped beneath her fresh pastel robes. Her hair caped around her arms and back as her mood steadily increased in anger.

Remy sat up and blinked his eyes, disbelievingly at her. "No," he shook his head. "I will handle this assignment." The features of the motel room fell away and left only vast darkness with the two inside it. Light came from somewhere above and only illuminated where they stood. He shuddered at the coldness from it. "I know I broke the rules but-" He was hushed as she began to speak.

"There is no but. You knowingly broke the rules to take on mortal form, and then allow yourself to be seen and touched by them. Not just one, but several. This is inexcusable. You are in penance, Thete, not a position to chose your bidding." She was the only one who reminded him who he really was, or had been. She spoke his name to snap him back to reality of his employment. Her tone of voice held back the anger but allowed her scoldings to escape on a more caring level. Throughout the centuries she was the voice of reason as he needed it. "You are no longer a mortal. Might I remind you of where I might place you if this happens a next time?"

The screaming pained sounds of Hell closed in on Remy. "No. I will complete my assignment." Hanging his head, Remy's mind fell on Logan and the shared embrace between them. He didn't like being reminded of what his job entailed. "I may have complications with the parents."

She tilted her head as the recognization of sorrow overcame him. "It is a part of life, Thete. In time, they will come to understand that it is for the better. Not all things end in a happy way." Leaning forward and raking a hand through his aurburn hair, she smiled. "You have only five days to correct your selfishness and complete your assignment or you will not be dealing with my judgement." Blood red lips came to his temples as she kissed and recited the chants the Priests in flowing black and emerald robes once screamed into the air around him. Her thin hand disappeared into her robes and emerged with a small, rectangular glass vial filled with dark, thick, red elixir. "When it is complete, drink this and stand before me once again to choose your fate. I warn you, Thete. Choose false and there will be far worse torment than Hell at their hands."

Remy nodded and bowed, closing his eyes and reopening them to his motel room. The bed behind him and the door to the right, the window was left, with the curtains drawn, and had captured his attention. In his hand lay the vial in which he carefully tucked away into his left jacket pocket. Walking over to the peer out of the swept aside curtain, Remy stared out at the wet, near morning town. His job was not to interfere but to wait and observe. That was the part he hated.

A long, hard yawn escaped him and finally giving it up for the next night, went to bed. Wrapping himself up in his warm blanket, he curled himself up, though fully clothed in his suit, and shut his eyes in the peace of the early morning.

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Logan rolled over, the next afternoon, and found himself alone in the bed. He sat up and looked around for the missing youth. "Remy?" The apartment was quiet and empty. Logan sighed and threw the covers off of himself before getting up. The very last thing on his mind was putting anything on, and with the way the sun shone in, it was very easy for people across the street to see everything he wasn't wearing. Running a hand through his dark mop of hair, Logan went out into the livingroom and turned on the television to listen to the news while he fixed himself some cereal and coffee.

A note on the kitchen counter grabbed his attention as he retrieved a plastic bowl from the cabinet above the sink. His eyes glanced over it and noted the unique handwriting:

Logan,

I am sorry I cannot stay to see you in the daylight.
This is not easy for me to do, and so late in the
events. Perhaps we will see each other again soon.

I hope you understand.

Remy.

Logan replaced the note to its spot on the counter and went back to fixing his cereal. He had come to expect such impersonal notes from one-night flings but he thought he had seen the last with Remy. His heart sank deeper as he tried not to dwell on the words of the note as he put the milk back into the refrigerator.

"....and, power is back on, for some people, after a long night of brutal storms that slammed our city. The power outage effected more than 150 homes and businesses during the night......" One news anchor rambled on before turning the spotlight over to his co-anchor, a beautiful blonde woman in her mid-thirties. It was evident that the female anchor was the more awake of the pair, and had more exciting news than her co-anchor.

Sitting down on the sofa with the bowl of cereal, Logan shoved a spoonful of flakes into his mouth and chewed as he seemed detached by the news of a missing poodle and the elderly woman who pleaded for people to help find her companion. As he shoved another spoonful into his mouth, the phone rang. "Yea?" Swallowing the mouthful after chewing and listening to the other end, he had forgotten he was to come in early that day. "Sorry Cora, my power went out in the storm, last night. Yea, I'm about to hop into the shower and get down there." He choked on his last swallow as she told him that there was a string of calls due to downed street lights and homes that were still without power. "Give me 25. I'm on my way." Hanging up and standing up to click the television off with the remote before seting his bowl down beside the sink, Logan hurried into the shower and then threw his uniform on. As he ran to leave, he detoured into the kitchen and poured himself some coffee for the road.

Rushing down the stairs, not waiting for the elevator, Logan's cell phone rang from a number that he rarely ever saw. "Yea, Z?" He pushed the door to the parking level open and headed for his truck. Logan and Zeke had been almost twins, sharing feelings, thoughts, experiences, and running late.

"Hey, just got a call about some kids draggin' on a back road. I'm downstairs, get down here and let's go." Zeke figured he would beat Logan to the punch at driving in already frustrated traffic, and then meeting up only to be late to a severe scene.

Logan shut his truck door and turned around to head back to the elevator. "Give me a minute. I'm at my truck, now." Logan ended the call and hurried up to the main floor lobby and out to jump into the waiting ambulance. "Thanks, Z."

Zeke hit the lights and siren and pulled out into traffic. "The good thing is that the scene is only a few miles down the road from you. The bad thing is, I get a funny feeling this won't be a good day."

Cam had popped out of the back with a greeting to Logan before telling Zeke that he had finished doing the log updates from the busy past few days. "Never expected door-to-door service eh, Logan?"

A deep breath from Logan as he tossed Cam a blank look.

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Logan hopped out of the passenger side of the ambulance and quickly surveyed the scene. Slamming the door shut and hurrying over to the car, he barked orders for the other two to check on the victims that were outside of the wrecked car. Turning to the lead detective and asking the man coming towards him what had happened, Logan had already had some sort of idea before the man answered. He stared at a flashing tail light as the detective went through his notes. His eyes came across the two teenaged boys sitting on a curb, in the glow of a police car's tail lights, just passed the wreck.

"Witnesses from the mall down the road, said these two kids," waving a hand at the scratched and dazed teens behind the car, "and three others, were draggin' down the road with another car. The driver was killed on impact while two more were thrown. They landed over there." The detective pointed to the direction opposite of the police cars and ambulance. "Your driver's taking care of them."

Zeke stood up from crouching over one of the boys and turned to look over his shoulder for Logan. "Chief!" Zeke waved a hand in the air, acknowledging that he wanted Logan to join him. "You need to see this!" He went back to crouching over the boy and checked for a pulse that was fading as the seconds ticked away.

"What do ya got, Z?"

"You'd better have your phone in your hand, Logan." The sullen driver looked up at his friend and tried to make it as easy as possible on Logan as he could. "Sharon shouldn't have to hear it from the E.R. techs."

Logan's heart pounded in his chest like a freight train. He couldn't breathe or move but, he had to know what the driver had noticed about one of the boys on the ground. "Just tell- no. It ain't." Logan sniffed at the air that thickened in his nostrils. A cold shiver ran down his back as he brought up the courage to look down and see the face he had told himself not to see. "Corey." He sank to his knees and looked the barely conscious boy over out of habit. "Did you check the other kid out?"

"Yes. I radioed for a copter. They'll be okay, if we can get them to the General in time."

Logan nodded absently. "Keep an eye on them, I'm gonna check on the driver." Standing up and reaching for his phone, in his pants pocket, Logan took it out and quickly dialed Sharon's number. "Darlin, Logan. I need you to call me back, right now. You won't like it but, I got news you won't want to miss." Hanging up and walking back over to the car, Logan went around to the driver's side and knelt down. As the car was on its back and the windows, plus the windscreen, had been mostly broken out, Logan reached through and tried to humanly open the door before getting frustrated and finally using his claws to slice the door off its crushed hinges.

The door fell back and Logan moved out of the way to lay it down, he then tended to the boy inside and made sure the driver was deceased before standing up and waving Cam over to help him. "The other two gonna survive?"

"Yea, they already gave the cops their statements. Detective Simmons is about to take them down to booking. They're just shook up and a bit bruised. They're gonna be worse when their parents find out." Cam glanced up and over to where Zeke was now helping the second medical team with the two boys who were thrown. "Corey?"

"Z said he's breathin." Reaching in and unlatching the seat belt, Logan let the driver's body rest on his as he and Cam worked together to get the driver out of the overturned '87 gray Cadillac. "Let's get him to the morgue." Logan stared at the young man who had barely hit 17, and shook his head at the wasted youth and carelessness of adolescence that had nearly cost four more innocent lives, including that of his son's.

Cam nodded and helped get the body onto the board before silently loading it into the ambulance. "Chief?"

"Yea, kid?" Logan was already tired and weighted down from worry but had decided to listen to the rookie's thoughts.

"He'll be okay. I know it." Cam had sat down on the bench, in the back of the ambulance, and turned to face Logan as the older man hopped out of the back and readied to shut the doors.

Logan didn't answer. The shock had caught up to him and he felt the air in his lungs was being sucked out each second he dwelled on the thoughts of the accident. For once in the past few days, Logan found himself not thinking at all about Remy, or where he was and why he was nowhere in sight at the scene. He had only wanted to redo the day over and make sure Corey wasn't one of the victims, but he found the past events etched in permanent ink. Without a word, Logan slammed the doors shut and walked around to climb back into the passenger seat before telling Zeke to drive. A heavy sigh escaped him, and the tightness of reality made his chest and head pound with such force that he just wanted to scream and rip something apart but he found he was only ripping himself apart over something that was out of his control altogether.

Continued.