Title: Unconditional
Author: sharonmjl47
Rating: NC-17
Category: Movieverse./ AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and no one. Sad, isn’t it!
Feedback: Please, bad or good. If no one tells me it’s bad, I won’t know!
**********************

Marie Sutton walked to her ten-year-old son’s room and knocked on the door. “Warren, come on. You’re going to be late for school.”

“Coming, mom.” She shook her head, he was probably too busy playing with his lizard. He had a small Geko in a tank in his room. He was obsessed with reptiles, snakes, lizards the whole lot. She didn’t mind him having the lizard as long as she kept it away from her. It was her present to him when they moved into the apartment.

She went back into the small kitchen to finish his lunch. The apartment was small. The living room and kitchen/dinner were all in together, and it only had two small bedrooms and a bathroom. But it was theirs, their safe place, their haven, and it was nothing to do with her ex-husband.

They had been married for eight difficult years. She was only 18 when she married him, thinking he was the best thing in the world. A tough man, but one she thought loved her. He was a member of a rich well known family who lived and owned a string of night-clubs and casinos in central New York. What could be better for a young girl? After a couple of months he changed and she figured out who he really was. A drug dealer, a dealer in girls and nothing but a sick twisted bully.

He abused her by hitting her and taunting her, making her feel weak and feeble. He had kicked her, smacked her into walls and even once he had broken four of her fingers. He had complete and utter control of her and managed to do what ever he wanted to her, because she was afraid, afraid how far his violence would stretch.

She had imagined what could happen, he could rape her, stab her, shoot her, there was no end of possibilities of what he was capable of. Once she had Warren her fears had doubled. She kept her mouth shut, did as she was told and made sure Warren was always out of the way.

She had sex with him, sometimes it was the only time he would be nice to her. But it was never good, never enjoyable, she always had fear in the back of her mind that it could turn nasty at any moment, she could never relax. So she simply just lay there while he pawed her and got what he wanted. She was grateful if was never too often, she could count how many time during their marriage that they’d had sex. He wasn’t really interested after a couple of years, she knew he had other woman for that.

Even during and after she was pregnant he still hit her, still taunted her. She would be sick sometime, her stomach churning in pain and disgust. She would cry and he would hit her for being weak, for being nothing. She only stayed out of the fear.

It was only after years of being treated like nothing that she finally had the strength to stop it. He had been shouting at her, telling her how stupid she was, why was she even there, she wasn’t worth anything. All she had done was push him away when he’d tried to kiss her.

Warren had come home from school early and had seen his father hit her for the first time. He had tried desperately to defend her, as best a seven-year-old boy could. Ethan had never hit him, but without a second thought he backhanded him. She watched in horror as her innocent little boy was carelessly flung across the room.

Marie knew right there that she had to go, had to get away. She grabbed Warren, ran to her car and drove to the nearest police station. They took photos of her bruises and told her Ethan would be dealt with. But he wasn’t. The cops were bought off, the pictures disappeared and he was never charged.

She did however manage to get a restraining order declared against Ethan and divorce him. Ethan’s parents, who she and Warren actually quite liked, sued for access and they were given it, one day a fortnight, provided that Ethan was never there and Warren was never near him. Ethan also had to give her some money each month, but it wasn’t much, and if he didn’t pay, she didn’t ask for it, she had too much pride for that.

She was broken out of her memories by Warren bounding into the room. She loved the amount of energy he had. He grabbed his lunch bag and put it into his backpack. She was certain there wasn’t another boy in the world as sweet as he was. He was so loving and caring and she absolutely adored him. “I’m ready.”

She looked him over. He was a good looking child, thankfully not looking too much like his father. He had short brown hair and lovely blue eyes, he was average height of a ten-year-old.

“Ok, honey, you got everything: bag, books, pencil case?” She got her car keys, and they walked to the door.

“Yeah, yeah. Oh no, gym stuff.” He took off to his room again and came back a second later with his gym bag.

“Ready now?”

“Yes.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. The last three years had been really hard for both of them, but they had got through. Things were different; she was different. She had a job, her own apartment, and she had taken self-defence classes. She was strong now, inside and out.

After the third attempt, her car started, and they were off to school. It wasn’t far, but she hated the idea of him walking on his own. She was protective of him, but after what they had been through, she had reason to be.

She stopped outside the school, and he gave her a kiss on the cheek. “See you later.”

“Bye, sweetie. I’ll be here to pick you up, ok?”

“Yeah, bye.”

She sat in the car and watched him walk into the school gate just as the bell rang. He met with his friends, and they all ran into the main door. She sat there a few more minutes until she was sure he was definitely inside. She knew half the time she was just being paranoid, but then she thought what if one day she didn’t check and something happened? It wasn’t worth thinking about, and it wasn’t worth the risk.

She drove off to work with a smile on her lips and after a while was singing happily along with the radio. She was still singing when she pulled in round the back of Roly’s Diner. She parked her car and went in.

In the back room, she changed into her uniform - well a bowling style shirt and an apron that she wore over her jeans - and went out to start setting up for the day. Most of the customers that they had were either Yellow cab drivers or cops, so all were courteous and tipped well, which suited her as they pay was only just enough to cover her rent and groceries.

She worked everyday of the week from just after nine until three, when she would go and get Warren from school. And each one of those shifts she worked with Jubilee. She was the chef’s daughter, the same age as Marie, 28, and over the last two years or so, they had become very close friends.

The morning had been slow. Marie and Jubilee were leaning on the counter talking. “So this guy comes in, and he’s like, what time do you finish, and I’m like, please, does a cop’s badge and a beer belly look like it works for me?”

“Jubes! You’re evil. Can’t you let them down gently?”

“No. You know what they say - I like my men how I like my coffee: dark and strong, none of that cream and sugar crap.” Marie laughed, and Jubilee looked out into the small parking lot. “Although I could be swayed by that.”

Marie looked up to see two plain-clothed cops get out of a black SUV; she could see their badges on the belts. One wore chinos and a dark NYPD sweater and funny-looking shades.

The other - she caught her breath. God, he was handsome. Tall, broad shoulders, a little rough looking, but she could see he was a nice guy. He was wearing tight jeans. Tucked into them was a plain light blue shirt. He had an Indian belt buckle on and then a suit jacket over the top.

She took in his face: square jaw with a little stubble, dark hair and she couldn’t quite see his eyes, but she bet they were beautiful. They were still outside, discussing something over the top of the car. “Jubes, why don’t you take a break? I’ll serve them.”

“I’m not tired. I’ll serve them.” Jubilee smiled sickly sweet at her.

“No, *really*, I’ll see to them.” Because she wanted to see those eyes.

“But I know them.”

“What?” Marie couldn’t believe her ears.

“Yeah, they come in the evenings, when you’re not here. Shame. The big guy’s Detective Howlett, Logan, and the one in the shades is Detective Summers, Scott. Why don’t you run along and fill up the coffee, while I serve them.” Marie gaped at her best friend and laughed, slapping her on the arm.

“Bitch.”

“Sure am, sister.” They both laughed that time.

The bell on the top of the door went, and she could hear them as they came in. She had her back to the door while she filled the coffee machine back up. She could also hear Jubilee fussing over them. She smiled and shook her head. Turning slightly, she could see their reflection in the mirror behind the counter.

The taller one, Logan, took off his jacket and hung it on the high stool behind him. The shirt he wore was thin, and she could see all his muscles as he moved. He had a tan colour gun holster that went across his back, so the gun was tucked under his right arm. Thanks to Ethan, guns made her nervous, but he looked like he would be careful with it.

Suddenly, he looked at the mirror and looked directly into her eyes. She was right; they were beautiful: a soft hazel colour surrounded by a slightly darker colour. They bored right into her. He smiled at her and sat down again; she blushed and looked away, swearing softly under her breath.

She finished with the coffee machine and went back into the kitchen, not daring to look in his direction again. She ignored Hank the chef and went straight to the fridge, taking out a can of soda. She pressed it to her head and fanned herself with the other hand. She had never looked at or been looked at like that. He made heat rise in her body that she thought had been gone a long time ago.

Jubes walked in and laughed at her. “God, he’s had an effect, hasn’t he!”

“Shut up and place the man’s order!”

“Hank, the two lovely cops out front would like, 6 oz. steak, fries and salad for one and the other would like the BBQ chicken with veg and sweet potatoes.” She turned back to Marie. “He asked me your name.”

“What? Did you tell him?”

“Of course I did. Oh shoot, I forgot to get them their coffee. Would you do it?”

“Jubes, I’m not falling for that.” Marie crossed her arms in front of her.

She ran past Marie towards the back room toilet. “Sorry, when a girl’s gotta go!”

She smoothed down her hair, took a deep breath and walked out to the front counter. “You guys need some coffee?” He immediately looked up, and their eyes locked. Her stomach flipped, and she had to remember to breathe again.

“Yeah, thanks.” She put two large mugs in front of them and picked up the large jug of coffee from the maker. She filled the mugs, trying not to look at his face. She kept telling herself he was just another customer.

As they ate their lunch and chatted about cop stuff, she busied herself with catering to customers and clearing tables. She glanced his was every now and then. A couple of times, he caught her eye and smiled at her. She smiled back and tried to pretend she just happened to be looking that way and wasn’t looking at him on purpose.

She was taking an order from another customer when she noticed him stand and put his jacket back on. The one Jubes had said was Scott stood as well. They paid Jubilee, who flirted shamelessly, and they turned to leave. Scott went out first, but just as Logan was going through the door, he turned and winked at her. She smiled and turned back to her customer. She had to ask him three times what he wanted, because she was too busy watching Logan get in his car and drive off.

At five past three, she kissed Jubes goodbye and walked to her car. She didn’t bother to change out of her uniform; she wanted to take it home and wash it. She always did on a Friday, as she didn’t have to wear it again until Monday.

Running late, she raced across town and arrived at Warren’s school just as the bell rang. She waited as groups of children came out and filtered away. As she watched, the flow of children began to get slower until no more came out. She got out of her car and walked into the school. He had been late before, usually when he got into trouble.

She walked into his classroom to find his teacher, but someone else was there clearing up. “Hi, is Mrs. Filch here?”

“No, she’s away today and tomorrow. I’m the supply teacher Miss Reader. Can I help you?”

“Yes, um, I’m Warren Palmer’s mother, is he here or in the gym or something?”

“No, his father picked him at lunch time.” She noticed the way Marie went pale and started to worry. “He said it was prearranged. Are you telling me that this wasn’t prearranged?”

She put her hand over her mouth. “Oh God! No, it wasn’t. We have a restraining order against him, he’s not allowed anywhere near me or my son. How could you let him leave?” She sat down on the nearest desk, a thousand awful things running through her mind.

“I’m sorry I didn’t know, Warren went willingly.”

“Of course he would, he’s scared stiff of the man! He would do anything he said. Oh God, no!”

She got up and ran back to her car, screeching away from the school as she picked up her mobile phone. Ethan’s number was on her speed dial. He picked up after a couple of seconds.

“Yes?”

“Where’s my son, you son of a bitch?”

“Sorry, baby, I should have mentioned it earlier, but I didn’t want to. I’m going on a little trip, and Warren is coming with me.”

“You are not taking him anywhere, don’t you…”

“I can do whatever the fuck I like, and I will. You’re never gonna see him again, baby. Oh and by the way, you’re dead!” He hung up, and she started to sob at the wheel.

She threw her phone on the passenger seat as she pulled into the Police Precinct parking lot. She immediately ran up to the front desk. The cop behind it looked up with a lazy expression and was very blunt with her. “Whaddyaa want, Miss?”

“My son. It’s my son. His father has kidnapped him. Ya have to help me, please, before it’s too late!”

*************END OF PART ONE

Title: Unconditional 2/?
Author: sharonmjl47
Rating: NC-17
Category: Movieverse./AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and no one. Sad, isn’t it!
Feedback: Please, bad or good. If no one tells me it’s bad, I won’t know!
**********************


There was no one with her. After she had explained what had happened, the police officer behind the main desk had ushered her in here, got her a cup of coffee, and said he would be back with the officer in charge of missing persons. That was 40 minutes ago.

The coffee that the cop had put in front of her had gone cold a while ago. She sat in the room, silently staring at the cup. She was numb; she couldn’t think past the fact that Warren was gone, with him. What was going on? Where had they gone? What if he was hurt, or dead? No, no, she couldn’t think like that. What if he was injured and left to die on his own? What if he was scared and alone.

“Ms. Sutton?” She never noticed the man beside her; she just kept starring at her polystyrene cup. “Ms. Sutton?” It wasn’t until he pulled a chair to sit next to her and touched her arm that she noticed him. “Marie?” She jumped. “Hey, it’s ok.” She looked at him a little confused. “Detective Howlett, Logan. You remember from the diner?”

She nodded but still didn’t understand why he was there. She looked across the table in front of her. Detective Summers was leaning against the wall. “Are you in charge of missing persons?”

Logan shook his head. “No, we’re not. Tell me what happened today.” He was a little gruff with her, but he needed to get her to talk.

“I went to pick up Warren – that’s my son – from school, but he didn’t come out. I went in to the school to see where he’d got to and a substitute teacher said that his father had picked him up at lunchtime. She said no one had told her about the restraining order, so she let him go.”

“Your ex-husband is Ethan Palmer?”

“Yes.”

“There’s been a long running investigation into your ex-husband’s nightclub and casino businesses. It’s a murder investigation, and we’re homicide detectives.”

“You’ve been investigating him? Is that why you came into the diner?”

“No, we go in there a lot. I didn’t know who you were.” Her glistening eyes, ready to cry, made him take a softer tone.

“Homicide?”

He nodded. “A number of girls over the last few months and our undercover officer have been murdered.”

“You think Ethan killed them?”

“Yeah. We can’t prove it yet, but we think that, yeah. We also think he’s been trafficking people, the girls.” He noticed that she didn’t look shocked by that and wondered if she would be shocked to find out they were young girls of 12, 13 and 14 years. “The desk cop said you called him?” She nodded, tears slipping down her face again. “What did he say?”

“He said he was going on a little trip and that he was taking Warren with him. He said, oh God… he said that I would never see him again. What did he mean by that? Because if he means that he’s gonna hurt him… I can’t...” Her voice broke with emotion.

“Shh, it’s ok. Do you have any reason to believe that Ethan would hurt the boy?”

“Yes, he has done before. That’s why we left him. Warren saw him hit me, and he tried to stop him. Ethan didn’t think twice; he hit him. So yeah, Ethan would hurt him if he got in the way.” Logan glanced at Scott who squared his jaw in disgust.

“Ok. Look, we’re in the process of getting search warrants for his house, casino and club because of the murder investigation. We’re now incorporating your son’s kidnapping into that investigation. We’re going to hit all three at the same time. With any luck we’ll find him and your boy.”

She nodded and wiped her face. “Sorry. He’s all I’ve got. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to him.”

She hadn’t noticed that Summers had left the room until he came back in. “Logan, we’ve got the warrants. Grady is taking a squad to the club. Morris and Fuller have the casino, and we’re taking the house.”

“Ok, let’s go.”

Logan stood up, and Marie stood up with him. “I’m coming with you.”

“That’s not a good idea.”

“I’m not staying here.”

He put his hands on his hips. He was getting annoyed, she could tell. “Ms. Sutton, I don’t think…”

“My name’s Marie, and I’m coming with you.”

He smirked at her boyishly, and even with the situation as it was, she couldn’t help but smile back. “Marie. It’s not a good idea.”

“He’s my son, and the first person he will want to see is me.”

Logan sighed. “Ok, but you stay back and do as I tell you.” She nodded and followed him to their car.

She sat in the back of the SUV biting her nails while she watched around ten police officers storm Ethan’s house. They brought out two of the servants in handcuffs, but no one else. After around ten minutes, Logan and Scott walked out of the house. Logan holstered his gun and walked to the SUV. She jumped out to meet him, her mind racing with every horrible possibility.

As he approached, Scott went to one of the patrol cars, but called to Logan first. “I’ll make the call for the coroner.”

She looked at Logan and shook her head, all the colour draining from her. “Why do you need a coroner? No…NO! Not Warren!” He caught her as she tried to pass him and go into the house.

He pushed her back against the SUV roughly. “It’s not your boy. Easy.” She broke down into sobs and fell into him crying. He didn’t really know what to do, so he just held her to his chest while she shook and cried uncontrollably. After a couple of minutes, he found himself gently stroking her hair.

“I’m sorry. I was just so scared and when he said coroner, I just thought…”

“I know. It’s ok. This is hard, I know. We’ll find him. Marie, look at me…” He put his hand under her chin and lifted her face. “We’ll find him.”

“You promise?”

He stared into her eyes, almost getting lost in the deep brown colour. “Yeah, I promise.” She pulled away from him shyly and wiped her face again.

She gestured passed him into the house. “Who… in there?”

“Palmer’s parents. They’ve been shot.”

“What? Katharine and Peter? Why? Why would someone kill his parents, for god’s sake? Ethan took over the family business from his father just before we got married; Peter was a bit of bastard, but why would anyone…?”

“One of the servants said that Palmer packed up a load of money and some papers, then tried to leave with the boy. His parents wouldn’t let him, but he forced the issue.” She put her hand over her mouth. Ethan had killed his own parents. She felt sick. Warren could have seen the whole thing. “I need a picture of Warren. We’re gonna check the airports and borders.”

“I have tons back at the apartment.”

“Ok, we’re go there to get a couple while Summers waits for the coroner.”

She nodded and got into the passenger seat of the SUV while Logan told Scott where he was going. He got in and pulled off, noticing her faraway expression.

“You know what gets me the most?”

“What?” He glanced at her and then back to the road. He was telling himself to listen to her rather than look at her. She was so beautiful.

“He’s never paid that much attention to Warren. I don’t know why he would even want him. He only ferried him out at his big parties: ‘Oh this is my son, my heir.’ That kinda crap.”

“Yeah, I know the type. My dad was the same. He couldn’t care less if me or my sister was there or not, not unless he wanted to play the good father act for his friends. In the end, he left us with my Aunt once our mother died. He died a couple of years ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why? Not your fault.”

“My father’s dead too. Car accident, two days before I married Ethan. I should have taken it as a sign; my dad never wanted me to marry him. On the day, all Ethan could do was ask, why wasn’t I smiling?”

Logan thought about what she said and stored the information away. Then he shook his head. “What the fuck did you see in him anyway?”

“He was charming. He spoilt me, presents, flowers, and I fell for it. Soon found out the truth, though.”

He stopped the SUV outside her apartment building. “Was it that bad?”

“Yes, and I thought it was over, but it never is with him.” She took her keys out of her pocket and opened the door. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

He held her arm and stopped her. “You might want to get changed.”

She looked down at herself. She had forgotten she had her uniform on. “Right, thanks for pointing that out.” She blushed and went to her apartment.

She opened her door and left it open while she ran into her bedroom. She got out a tin of photos from under her bed and chose the best two. The first was a picture of Warren outside in the sun; she had taken it a couple of months ago when they had gone to the local park with some of his friends and their mothers.

The other was his school picture; she ran her fingers over it and sighed, wishing she could hold him tight. She held the pictures close to her chest, the emotions swelling up in her again. She shook her head.

“Not the time to cry.” She put the photos in the back pocket of her jeans and took off her apron and shirt, throwing them on the bed. She pulled out a black vest top and pulled it over her head quickly. Next she took off her boots and put on her sneakers, then brushed her hair out loose.

As she walked out of the bedroom, a large arm swung into her, and she was roughly thrown backwards into her bedroom. She screamed and tried to get up, but the man pushed her again, and she landed in the centre of her bed. He caught her hands easily and sat on her legs. She got a good look at him for the first time.

He was huge, tall and broad, shaggy blond hair and a nasty look in his eye. She knew him instantly: Victor Creed. He worked for her ex. “Mr. Palmer said to send his apologies, but you gotta die!”

He clamped one huge hand around her throat and began to squeeze. She tried desperately to get him off, but he was simply too big and strong for her. He was shutting off her airway, and her face was getting redder while she struggled to get him off.

Logan was sitting in the SUV, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. “How fucking long does it take to grab a couple of photos?”

He got out of the SUV and walked into the apartment building. He walked up the stairs one flight and looked up and down the corridor, unsure of which direction to go in. He heard a woman scream and immediately drew his gun and ran in that direction.

He turned round the corner and saw her door open. Running straight into the apartment, he saw the big blond man trying to strangle her. He knew if he tried to shoot him, he might shoot Marie instead, so he quickly holstered his gun and grabbed the man by the shoulders, hurling him off of Marie. “GET THE FUCK OFF HER!”

The man spun on his feet and punched Logan in the stomach and then in his face. Logan fell to the ground with a groan, and the blond man ran out of the apartment. Logan got too his feet and ran into the hall. The man was obviously gone, so he ran back to Marie who was lying in the middle of her bed coughing and holding her throat.

He got on the bed and made her sit up. “Shit! Marie, you ok? Marie?” She nodded but kept coughing and then she started to cry. Logan held her to him, rubbing her back and sighing with utter relief that she was ok. “Let’s get you outta here.”

“Why would he want her dead?” Logan and Scott were standing next to the coffee machine in their open office. Marie was sitting next to Logan’s desk with his jacket around her shoulders. She was holding a cup of steaming coffee in her hands but hadn’t touched it. He could still see the marks on her neck; they were slowing turning from red to blue.

Logan shook his head. “Either she knows something and she’s not telling, or she knows something but doesn’t know it means anything, and Palmer wants her dead before she’s realises and tells.”

“What about this Creed guy?”

“He’s worked for Palmer since he got out of prison 6 years ago. His arrest sheet makes interesting reading: assault, attempted murder, attempted rape. Nasty son of a bitch.”

“She was lucky. Shouldn’t she be in a safe house or something, not here?”

“Scott, I’m not letting that woman out of my sight again. While I was looking up Creed, I looked her up too. She was in and out of hospital while she was married to Palmer: broken wrists, most of her fingers.”

Scott nudged him on the arm. “Jean always said you liked the damsel is distress.”

He smiled. “Let’s leave my sister out of this one, shall we?”

“So, not only are we trying to find Palmer and the boy, we’re now trying to keep her alive, too?”

He smirked at Scott. “You know me. I like to complicate things.” Logan and Scott turned as their Captain called them into his office.

************END OF PART TWO

Title: Unconditional 3/? Reunited
Author: sharonmjl47
Rating: NC-17
Category: Movieverse./AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and no one. Sad, isn’t it!
Feedback: Please, bad or good. If no one tells me it’s bad, I won’t know!

**********************

“First off, what the hell is that woman still doing here? She should have been placed in protective custody hours ago.” Captain Markham was your stereotypical overweight policeman with a perspiration problem. The only difference was he had an expensive suit, Rolex watch, and a nice set of rings on one hand.

Logan sat in front of his desk on one of the chairs. “We can’t just let her go home when the son of a bitch is trying to kill her.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now anyway. The FBI is getting involved.”

Scott sat on the corner of Markham’s desk. “Why?”

“The two servants from the house this morning. They were being transported to FBI headquarters for questioning when the car was ambushed. They and the two cops in the car, all dead.”

“Shit!” Logan stood up and went to the window of the office. He watched Marie silently drink her coffee. “So we got nothing: no witnesses, no one to actually place Palmer at the house or at the club when our agent got murdered last night. Nothin’.”

“We can tie him up with hearsay and red tape for months, but we’ve got nothing concrete. Unless she knows something or the boy saw something?” Markham joined Logan to look at Marie. When she saw them, he turned his back and went back to his desk.

“She doesn’t know anything, and if she does, she doesn’t realise it. She just wants her kid back.”

All three men turned as Markham’s phone rang. He picked it up. “Markham.”

“Ok, I’ll send them to join the patrol already there. If there’s only three of them, they won’t need backup.” He put the phone down and looked at Logan and Scott. “A patrol at the airport has spotted them in the underground parking lot. They have the boy and look like their going to charter a private jet. Get over there now. Take the mother. She can handle the boy once you have him.”

“Yes, sir.”

Logan was first out of the office and over to Marie. “Marie, he’s been seen at the airport. He has Warren. You’re coming with us.”

She put her coffee on Logan’s desk and took his jacket off, giving it back to him. As they left the office, he put it back on, noticing with a smirk that he could smell her a little on it. He liked it and briefly wondered if he had ever liked that kind of thing before he met her.

Markham watched them leave and then picked up his phone again. Getting a scrap of paper out of his pocket, he dialled the number on it. When the phone was picked up at the other end, he spoke quickly. “There’s a patrol watching you. Howlett and Summers are on their way. Deal with the patrol and get out of there before they arrive.” He listened to the person on the other end speak. “I want her dead. She’s a liability, and you should have taken care of her years ago. I still have no idea why you let it go on this long.”

He went to the window, and, looking out, he watched Logan and Scott help Marie into Logan’s SUV and speed off. “Just kill her, and be done with it. I don’t care about the kid… He would have fetched a price, but it’s not worth it anymore. I don’t care. Dump the boy or the next move we plan will be from the inside of a cell!” He hung up and rubbed his hand over his face nervously.

They pulled into the underground lot and parked behind the patrol car. Gunfire was already being exchanged. Logan turned to Marie in the back seat. “You do not leave the car.” She nodded.

Scott turned to Logan “Why aren’t we calling for back-up?”

“Markham’s orders. He says we’ll be enough.”

“Hope he’s right.”

Logan quickly took his jacket off again, and he and Scott got out of the SUV to join the pinned uniformed officers behind the patrol car. They ha parked the SUV on the neighbouring ramp to prevent anyone else from coming into that area of the lot. Marie watched nervously from inside the car, but she couldn’t see much from inside. Slipping out of it silently she crouched just beside, partially obscured by the barriers, so she could see the events unfolding below. She prayed that Warren was ok.

Two men, one of them Creed, were shooting at the patrol car. She could clearly see Creed; he was taking cover behind a green car shooting from around its back bumper. The other man she didn’t recognise was two cars back doing the same. She couldn’t see Ethan or Warren.

She watched Logan and Scott give the two other cops some instructions. Then as the cops covered them with fire, Logan and Scott moved in opposite directions obviously in an attempt to box in Creed and the other man. She found herself watching how Logan moved: athletic, dominant and full of confidence. She bit her lip and told herself now was not the time for such thoughts.

Scott was moving in from Creed’s right and Logan to his left. From the back seat of the car, Marie could see the whole thing. Something out of the corner of her eye moved, and she turned her head.

She saw Ethan dragging Warren away from the cars towards the garage elevator. Ethan had his hand over Warren’s mouth so he couldn’t shout for help. His eyes were wide with fear, and he was struggling to get away. He was still in his school uniform and had his backpack on.

Neither Logan nor Scott had seen them, Ethan had managed to sneak round behind them. She looked from Logan to Ethan and tried desperately to think what to do. She made up her mind; she jumped out of the SUV and ran towards Ethan. “WARREN!”

Logan heard her shout, and as she got close to Palmer and Warren, Palmer raised his own gun to shoot her. Kicking himself for not seeing Palmer behind them, Logan turned and moved quickly, grabbing her around the waist. They landed on the ground behind a truck, bullets missing her narrowly. She had landed on her back and he on top of her in a tangle of legs. Their faces were inches apart, and he couldn’t stop himself. He kissed her. Quick, hard and passionate. She returned it but blushed when they broke apart a second later.

He sat up and pulled her with him, then shoved her behind him. “Next time I’m cuffing you to the fucking steering wheel!” She shrieked and put her hands over her head as another hail of bullets hit the side of the truck.

“YOU’RE FUCKING DEAD, BITCH!” She cringed at Ethan’s words. Warren could hear and see everything, in addition to the fact that his own father was using him as a human shield.

Scott ran up behind Marie and crouched down for cover, speaking to Logan. “Got one in cuffs, but Creed got away.” His voice was a whisper. Logan nodded.

Logan whispered back. “Palmer’s behind that Blue Plymouth next to the elevator. He’s got the kid.” Scott moved round the other side of the truck to get to the other side of Palmer. Logan edged forward so he could see round the front of the truck. Then he shouted to Palmer, “PALMER, YOU CAN’T GO ANYWHERE. WE HAVE YOU PINNED. LET US HAVE THE BOY.”

There was silence. Logan could hear Marie breathing behind him. She was so scared, and he found himself hating that she felt like that and wanting to do anything to make her smile again.

He turned to her and pointed his finger at her. “You do not move, understand?”

“Yeah.”

“I mean it this time.”

“Yes, ok. I won’t move.” Logan stood up and nodded at Scott. Both of them moved slowly towards the Blue Plymouth, guns raised. They got close, and Scott gave Logan the signal to move in. Scott went round one side of the car and Logan the other.

Marie crept to the edge of the truck so she could see, her curiosity and fear for her son getting the better of her. She saw Logan and Scott move in around opposite ends of the car. Then she saw Logan scan around by the elevator while Scott bent down behind the car.

Logan was walking back to Scott when he stood up. Marie gasped. He had Warren, and the boy’s arms were wrapped around his neck tightly. Marie got up and ran to him. Logan holstered his gun and rolled his eyes at her. “You don’t take instruction well, do you?”

Warren was looking around for her immediately and as soon as he saw her, he struggled away from Scott and ran to her. She fell to her knees and held him to her as tightly as she could, afraid that if she let go it would be a dream and he would be gone again. “Mommy!”

He was crying into her neck, gripping her clothes with his small hands, while she stroked his hair and kissed his head. “It’s over, baby. It’s all over. I’m here. I’m here!” She didn’t even notice the tears of joy and relief freely tumbling down her cheeks.

Logan smiled. As he looked at her hug her son, he truly felt his chest tighten. He didn’t know what the feeling meant, but he knew he liked it. He felt something so strong for her, and it scared him. Scared him to think he could actually feel something for someone other than just a basic need or urge to have sex. It excited him as well.

Scott noticed the look on his partner’s face, chuckled and rolled his eyes muttering under his breath, “Dig a hole. The man’s going down.”

The parking lot had been roped off with police tape and a forensic team had been brought in to search Palmer’s car and surrounding area. The man that they had managed to handcuff was being searched and questioned by Logan and Scott. All they had got out of him was that his name was Mortimer.

Scott had him face down over the hood of the patrol car while he searched his pockets. Logan was leaning on the car next to him, smoking a cigar. “So, you don’t know anything?”

“No, man, all I know was that he wanted his son, and then they were getting on a plane. I don’t know where to, I swear. Hey, watch the suit!”

“And you expect me to believe that, *Mortimer*?” Logan chuckled at his name.

Scott spun Mortimer round so that he was facing him and Logan, hands still cuffed behind his back. “I dunno, man. I’m not exactly let in on the info. I just hold the gun. Know what I mean?”

“I’m getting tired of this.” Quicker than the man could register, Logan punched him in the stomach. He doubled over in pain and started to cough.

“LOGAN, what the hell are you doing?” Scott grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “If you get another assault charge, Markham will have your badge.”

Logan brushed off Scott and continued to talk to the man. “Remember anything now, *Mortimer*, you little toad?”

Mortimer spat at Logan. “Fuck you, pig!” Logan punched him again, this time in the face. He spun around and landed face down on the hood of the patrol car, blood coming from his nose, and as he lost consciousness, he sunk slowly to the ground.

Scott threw his hands up in defeat. “Just great!” While Scott helped the uniformed cops put an unconscious Mortimer in the back of the patrol car, Logan stomped off to see Marie. “Logan, LOGAN!” Scott gave up and got out his cell phone.

She was sat in the back of the SUV with Warren lying on the seat with his head on her lap. He had fallen asleep a little while ago, and she was gently stroking his hair, thanking God or whoever would listen that he was safe. Logan and Scott had asked him a few questions about what happened at his father’s house, but luckily for him, the boy hadn’t seen anything.

Logan leaned on the car doorframe, watching her tend to him. He had his arms crossed over his chest and a contented smile on his lips. He fidgeted a little when she turned to talk to him, scratching the back of his head almost shyly.

“I don’t know how to thank you.”

He shrugged his massive shoulders. He could think of a few ways, but none were appropriate. “It’s what we do. I know how you’d feel without him.”

“Have you got kids?” She secretly hoped he would say no, because chances were if he said yes, that meant he had a wife or girlfriend.

“No, I got a niece. Scott's, even though he’s an ass, we’ve known each other since college. Joined the force together, and he ended up marrying my sister Jeannie. They’ve got a little girl; she’s nine, Ellie. Red hair, blue eyes and cheeky as hell. So I know what it’s like to want them to be safe.”

“We’re still not safe though, are we?” She looked into his eyes and had to look away again. It was dark now and the lights in the parking lot made his eyes evermore intense, and they held a hint of danger. Which, she was embarrassed to admit, excited her.

“No, darlin’, you’re not. You’ll probably be put into protective custody until we can catch him.”

“I understand.”

“Marie, about earlier… I didn’t mean to overstep the mark when I kissed you…”

She met his eyes. “It was nice.” He leaned into the car and put his hand on the seat behind her head.

“Yeah?” He was so close to her lips, he could feel her breath when she spoke.

“Yeah.” His mouth closed on hers. She put her hands on his chest, and he brought his other hand up to cup her face.

Scott was by the patrol car on the phone. He snapped it shut and turned to the SUV to see Logan half in the back of the car kissing Marie. He saw the look of utter trust in her eyes as Logan pulled away from her, trailing his thumb over her bottom lip as he did. “Great, just great. He finally falls for someone, and she’s got more baggage than an airport check-in.”

He walked over to the car and called to Logan to join him for a moment. When they were out of Marie’s earshot, Scott spoke. “Were you kissing her?”

“Don’t start, Scooter.”

“Logan, she’s involved in the case, and you can’t…”

“I know she’s involved in the case, and I can’t, but I couldn’t help it.”

“That’s gonna be your excuse when Markham tears you down a strip or two? You couldn’t help it? Just like you couldn’t help hitting a suspect!”

“Don’t be an ass.”

“You’re unbelievable!”

“Why, thank you, Scott. I never knew you cared so.”

“Just shut up and listen...”

“To think I actually *let* you marry my sister.”

“Logan!”

“What?”

“I’ve just spoken to Markham. He said that there has been a contract put out on her.”

“Fuck! Guess the fucker wants her dead, no matter what.”

“Yeah, he probably figures he’s got nothing else to lose now he’s been caught on CCTV shooting at cops, even though that’s still all we’ve got on him.”

“Shit! What’s the boss say?”

“He wants you to take her and the kid to the safe house in Westchester. Keep them safe for the night. Then the FED’s are gonna pick her up for questioning sometime in the morning. They’re convinced she’s seen something or knows something she shouldn’t.”

“I’m convinced of that, too. Ok, I take them, but I’m taking them to mine. I never liked that safe house: too many entrances and exits. What about you?”

“His exact words were, ‘You have a wife and kid. Go home to them and let Logan get shot.’”

They both laughed, and Logan slapped his friend on the back. “Nice to know the man gives a shit.”

“I’ll let him know you’ve disobeyed another order!” They both laughed again.

*************END OF PART THREE

Title: Unconditional 4/?
Author: sharonmjl47
Rating: NC-17
Category: Movieverse./AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and no one. Sad, isn’t it!
Genre: A lot of things.
Feedback: Please, bad or good. If no one tells me it’s bad, I won’t know!

**********************

She walked back into the kitchen after looking around Logan’s small apartment again. He had told her to look around, to make sure she felt comfortable and safe. It had one large bedroom with a bathroom attached. A kitchen/diner, which lead, open plan, to the living room. There was a fire escape from the bedroom window to the alley behind the building; she made sure she knew how to get the window open.

Warren was happy. He was currently loving Logan’s PS2 in the living room. Logan was drinking coffee and looking out the kitchen window. He turned when she walked in. “He’s happy enough.”

He handed her a cup of coffee, and she stood next to him to put sugar in it. “Good.”

“Thanks for having us here. I know it’s probably not your idea of fun.”

“Nah, it’s ok. You were kinda out of options. You’ll be picked up in the morning by Federal Officers. They want to ask you about your ex.”

“I don’t know what I would be able to tell them that they don’t already know.”

“When you were with him, did you see him deal or anything? Where there ever people he’d do business with at the house?”

“Not at the house. I saw him talk and exchange *briefcases* with a lot of people at the casino. There was always a party there: women, drugs the whole lot.”

“Why didn’t you testify against him? You could have put him away for years.”

“I couldn’t prove any of it. Every party he had could be explained away for legitimate purposes – promotion, that kind of thing. His father was a personal friend of the mayor, for Christ’s sake. Nine times out of ten, the casino’s function room was full to the brim with judges and senators. His family has always been well-respected and well-connected. Who was I gonna tell?”

Logan looked at his coffee and then back to her as she carried on speaking.

“Apart from anything else he scared me to death…” She looked at the floor. “Some days he hit me so much, I couldn’t remember my name, let alone what I’d seen. After I had Warren, I never went to the casino again, and people very rarely came to the house.”

“You’ve got no idea why he would want you dead?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure I want to know.” She looked at him for a moment, then put her coffee down. “There was one guy who Ethan didn’t like me knowing about. I never really thought about it much until now. I remember watching the man leave once; I was upstairs and saw him through the window. He was there with his daughter, I think. She looked so miserable, bored. He gave Ethan a briefcase. It was full of money… I saw it later on. Then he put his daughter in the back of his car and left. I saw his face pretty clearly ‘cause he looked up at the window. I smiled, but it obviously didn’t make a very good impression.”

“Why?” Logan knew instantly what she had seen. A sale.

“Ethan… he, um, later on he told me I was nosy, and then he…” Her eyes filled with tears, but she managed to keep them in. He pulled her to him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and he kissed the top of her head. Logan wanted to kill him, rip him apart. He couldn’t understand how anyone could abuse such a lovely and beautiful woman.

He brought her face up so he could look her in the eyes. “He is never gonna hurt you or Warren again. I’ll take care of you.”

“I know you will. I don’t know how I know, I just do.”

“Yeah.” He cupped her face and kissed her, gently lowering her jaw with his thumb and slipping his tongue into her mouth.

She pulled away and blushed at the intensity of his kiss.

“Sorry, I’m pushing.”

“No, you’re not. I just don’t do this. I… I’ve never been with anyone else. My experience with *him* wasn’t exactly good. So this is a little scary, and the situation isn’t exactly perfect, you know. I’m not sure that starting something with you while my ex-husband is trying to kill me is a good idea.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. I just can’t seem to keep my hands off you.” He stared at her a little more. “When this is over, I would like to… would you like to go out?”

She smiled brightly at him. “Yeah, I would.” He gently bent his head to her again and kissed her quickly. She blushed again. “You need to stop doing that.”

“What - kissing you?”

“No, making me blush.”

“I like it.” She giggled and moved away from him picking up her coffee again. “You… I mean, I’ve seen women before, victims of violence, you seem so together.”

“I was a basket case, right after we got away from Ethan. I was a mess. I had counselling for about a year. Apparently I should still be having it now, but I got through as much as I was going to with the counsellor. The rest I’m determined to do on my own. Having Warren gets me though. Knowing there’s someone else, I have to get over it because it’s not about me, it’s about him.”

“You should be proud of yourself. I know its very hard, different people deal with things differently. I admire anyone, man or woman, whose willing to admit they need help and accept it. That’s usually the hardest part and the most important.”

“I am, but I still have days where I just want to cry. I don’t want to be around people, and I’m scared of how I’m gonna cope. I tell myself all I have to do is get through that day and hope tomorrow is better. It usually is.” She took a thoughtful sip from her mug. “It did help that I had a relationship with someone last year. It didn’t last more than three months, but it got my confidence back, you know. Made me feel like I can be with someone without having to worry that they’re going to give me a slap if I say something they don’t like. It re-built my trust a little, in people, men.”

He was about to kiss her again because she was so wonderful, so brave. The silence was broken by a knock at Logan’s door.

“Are you expecting someone?”

“No. Take Warren in the bedroom, and shut the door.” She immediately put her mug down and ran to Warren, pulling him away from the Playstation and into Logan’s bedroom. She shut the door and sank down against it to try and listen.

With his gun behind his back, Logan looked through his peephole on his front door. He sighed and rolled his eyes, holstering his gun and opening the door. “Marie, it’s only Scott.”

She came out of the bedroom looking a little pale, but she smiled at Scott anyway. Warren ran straight back to the games console and began playing again.

“What the hell are ya doin’ here?”

He was carrying a cardboard box and took it straight into the kitchen and put it on the breakfast bar. Logan and Marie followed him. “Well, I was telling Jean about Marie and Warren and that you had to look after them for the night, and she started fussing and insisting I come over with this.”

He began taking things out of the box. “There’s a fresh t-shirt and sweater and some nightclothes for you, and the same for Warren.” He placed them on the counter. “I have a girl, but the clothes for Warren are plain, so he won’t notice, and they should fit. She’s tall for her age. Jean also sent some leftovers.”

“Wow! She didn’t have to do all this.”

“I think she was afraid Logan would let you starve.” He handed Marie a large pan filled with leftover vegetables and cold chicken wrapped in saran wrap.

“Hey, tell her I resent that.”

“Warren, come get something to eat.” He ran in from the other room and sat up at the counter, Marie instantly thought that he must be really hungry if he came away from the PS2 so easily. Then she thought about it, the poor kid couldn’t have eaten all day.

Logan got a couple of plates and cutlery out and helped her dish out the food for her and Warren. Then he moved the box out of the way. Scott smiled at the sight of Logan in the kitchen with a woman. He decided it suited him and secretly hoped that after everything, Logan and Marie would work out. “Ok, I better go. I’ll see you in the morning, yeah?”

“Yeah, I’ll walk you out.”

“Night, Marie, Warren.”

“Night, sir.”

“Night and thank you again.” She kissed him on the cheek, and he blushed and fidgeted, making Logan laugh.

Logan walked with Scott to the front door and opened it for him. “Thank Jeannie for me, will ya?”

“Yeah ok. Jean was a little concerned about something else as well.”

“Let me guess - don’t take advantage?”

“She’s right, Logan. I know you’re attracted to her, but this isn’t the time to be making any kind of move on her.”

“Well, you can tell her from me that my sex life is none of her business… And I know. I’m not that much of a bastard.”

Scott laughed. “She say anything?”

“She was telling me earlier about this man she saw at the house once. She said he had his daughter with him, and he gave Palmer a briefcase full of money.”

“Could be nothing.”

“Palmer and the guy saw her looking, so he gave her a beating for it. I’m betting she saw him selling that girl but doesn’t realise it.”

“Jesus. So he really is dealing in underage girls. Shit! Did she say how old the girl looked?”

“No, I didn’t ask.”

“How about I come over before those FBI guys get here in the morning? I’ll bring the photos of the five dead girls we found. I’ve got the file at home. If that little girl she saw is one of them, we could have the reason why Palmer wants her dead? All we have to do is identify the guy she saw.”

“Good idea.”

“Have you told her about these girls?”

“No, she’s had enough to think about. Maybe later or in the morning.”

“Ok, see you then.”

He closed the door on Scott and walked back into the kitchen to eat something with Marie and Warren. He hadn’t really thought about it, but he was hungry. He sat next to her and ate some of the chicken. She kept glancing at him, the same way she had in the diner earlier that day.

Once Warren was finished, he went back to the games console. Logan helped her clean away the plates and cutlery and dry them up. He kept smiling at how normal it was, him and her, just being normal like they did the dishes together all the time. He decided he could live with this.

Logan went into his bedroom and got an inflatable bed out of the closet. It was bright pink. Warren walked in as he was blowing it up with a foot pump. “This be ok for you, bub?”

“Is that a trick question?” Logan looked the kid up and down, unsure if he was joking or not.

“Why? I never had any objections from my niece when she stays over. ”

“Well, your niece isn’t going to object, because she’s your niece. If she was your nephew, then trust me she’d object.”

Logan looked at the bed, then back to Warren smirking. “Well if she was my nephew, I would probably have bought a blue one. Does it matter?”

“I’m ten.” He said it like it explained everything. “It matters.”

Marie had obviously heard their discussion; she stifled a giggle then called out to Warren from the bathroom. “Warren, you be grateful and say thank you to Detective Howlett.”

Both Warren and Logan looked towards the bathroom and then back at each other. “Thank you, Detective Howlett.” Warren’s voice was deadpan, and the disgusted look on his face said everything.

“Warren, come get washed up for bed.” He wandered to the bathroom, and Logan chuckled as he finished pumping up the bed, laying some blankets and a pillow on it for him. He resisted the evil temptation to put Ellie’s ‘My Little Pony’ blanket on the top.

Once she had Warren asleep she changed into the nightclothes that Scott’s wife had given her: a camisole top and cropped pyjama bottoms. Then went back to the living room where Logan was putting his own pillow and another blanket on the couch.

He had changed and was wearing only a thin pair of sweatpants. He had his back turned when she walked in. She let her eyes roam over his tanned and muscled back. There was a light covering of hair, and she bit her lip, wanting to touch him and find out if it was soft. She stood watching him, smiling at his body.

“You gonna stare at my ass all night?”

She jumped; he hadn’t turned round to look at her. “How did you…?”

He smiled and gestured to the stereo system in the corner. The cabinet it sat on had glass doors, and she could now see his reflection. He could see her staring at him all along. “Sorry.”

He turned and walked towards her. “I don’t mind. Stare all you want.” The front view of him was even better than the back. She thought he looked like someone off of the fire fighter calendar Jubilee had on the inside of her work locker. Smooth tanned skin, big shoulders and wide muscular arms. He obviously worked out a lot - an awful lot.

He got close to her, and she backed up against the wall. “I’m not gonna hurt ya, Marie.”

She blushed and looked at her feet. “I know. Just I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“We’re not doing anything.” Even though he wanted nothing more than to pick her up and kiss, lick and nip every inch of her skin.

She bit her lip and gently put her shaky hands on his tight stomach, smiling at the feel of his skin. “What if I want to do something?” She slid her hands up to his chest and then onto his shoulders.

Both were breathing hard as she pulled his head down for a kiss. He couldn’t keep his hands off of her. He gripped her hips lightly, but still letting her take control of the situation. She turned and pressed him into the wall behind them. Again, he slipped his tongue into her mouth, and the kiss intensified.

One of his large hands roamed over her back while the other gently cupped her breast, and he ground his growing erection into her. She gasped into his mouth, and he nipped at her lips, then her throat and shoulder, moving her camisole strap out of the way to do it.

Her hands traced an unknown pattern over his chest and up his arms. She couldn’t get enough of the feel of his skin. She raised her thigh until it was level with his hip, and he rubbed himself against her again, both of them moaning at the friction it caused.

Moisture began to gather in between her legs, and she felt like her skin was tingling at his touch. She wanted more of him. She wished she could draw him in somehow. He had nipped and licked his way back up from her collarbone to her lips again, and she gripped his hair holding him to her.

He broke the kiss panting. “Marie, we shouldn’t. I can’t.”

“I get it. Ethan, he…” She pulled away slightly, feeling rejected and emotional.

“No, it’s not him.” He nipped at her bottom lip.

“What then?”

“You’re wearing my sister’s pyjamas, and it’s more than a little weird.”

They both laughed, and at that moment, Warren woke up and called for her. She smiled and gestured to the bedroom door. “I should…”

“Yeah.” He kissed her one last time. “Night, darlin’.” She slipped away from him and went quietly into the bedroom.

He attempted to adjust his sweatpants around his erection. It was uncomfortable. He sighed and got under his blanket on the couch, first making sure his gun was secured under his pillow.

His desire was soon dampened when he thought about could happen to her and Warren over the coming hours. They we’re both still in incredible danger, he had made a promise to keep them safe and he was determined to keep that promise. He sighed, now knowing he wasn’t going to get to sleep anytime soon.

************END OF PART FOUR

Title: Unconditional 5/?
Author: sharonmjl47
Rating: NC-17
Category: Movieverse./AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and no one. Sad, isn’t it!
Genre: A lot of things.
Feedback: Please, bad or good. If no one tells me it’s bad, I won’t know!
**********************

She was the first awake in the morning. She hadn’t slept so well, Warren kept waking up in the night. He was scared, having a couple of small nightmares, she had wondered when the events of the last day would catch up with him. In the end she had put him in bed with her and now he was sleeping heavily.

Looking at the clock next to Logan’s bed, she realised it was just after 5am. Warren was still asleep beside her. She smiled down at him, got up and got dressed, putting on the plain green t-shirt and matching long-sleeved jersey that Logan’s sister had given her, and went into the living room to find him.

He was sprawled on his stomach on the couch. He had kicked the blankets off sometime during the night, and she had a perfect view of him. He turned over in his sleep onto his back and scratched his chest like a big grizzly bear.

She stood behind the couch and put her hand out tentatively. She just lightly touched his chest. He suddenly grabbed her wrist and turned himself, bringing her with him. He had her pinned underneath him in a second, her wrists either side of her head against the couch. “Jesus!”

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to…. I’m sorry.”

“Darlin’, the one thing you don’t do is sneak up on me.” He could tell straight away from the look on her face that he had scared her, so he instantly let got of her wrists.

“I wasn’t sneaking. I’m sorry, really… I…”

“Shhh, it’s ok.” He silenced her with a kiss and she relaxed.

“Mmmmm, ok, I was sneaking a little!” He chuckled and sat up, taking her with him so she straddled his lap.

He traced her bottom lip with his thumb; his face was serious as his eyes took in every part of her face. “You’re so beautiful.” She took his hand and kissed his palm lightly. He was looking at her so intensely she could feel her heartbeat all the way through her body.

He sighed and pulled her to him, burying his face in her chest, and she was instantly worried by his reaction. “Logan?”

He pulled away and looked at her again. She could see his eyes glistening with unshed tears, pain and fear. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me. I haven’t felt like this before about anyone. I don’t….Marie, I don’t feel, period. The closest I get is Jean, Scott, and Ellie. And even then I make sure it’s at a distance. There’s too much to worry about, too many variables, too many bad things that can happen to someone you care about. I’ve seen it all, so it’s… it’s easier not to care.”

She touched his face lightly. “Logan, it’s all right.” She was so close to tears. She had known him less than a day; he was so confident and so strong. Now he was so vulnerable and unsure.

“I been with a lot of woman, Marie, even had a couple of short relationships, but I still never felt anything. It was just gratification, lust, nothing more. You, you’re different. I wish I… I could pour myself into you some how, so you could see how much this hurts, you could see my thoughts and how I feel. You got me wanting you here, you and Warren and… being with me. You got me scared, Marie.”

He brought her face down to his, and her lips were almost touching his as she whispered. “Scared of what?”

“Scared of what could happen to you. What if I can’t protect you?” He touched her lips with his fingers again. “Most of all, I’m scared of what the fuck I’m gonna do when I wake up tomorrow and you’re not here.”

She started to cry, and he wiped her tears away with his fingers. “But, I could be. I could be here with you. I want to be here with you.”

He kissed her, and their emotions spilled over, taking over their hands and lips as they gripped, nipped and caressed each other feverishly. Realising that what they felt for each other outweighed anything that they had ever felt before, even the severity of their situation.

He wanted nothing more than to lay her on her back and rip her clothes off, but he knew that he needed to hold back, be gentle with her. His hands moulded her hips, thumbs rubbing her hipbones, making her squirm in his lap. Her hands gently caressed his jaw and throat. His lips crushing and crashing against hers as their tongue performed a private dance of their own.

Her chest was heaving against his as he moved his hips up to meet hers, feeling the heat from her through the denim and cloth. He slipped his hand from her left hip up under her top to cup her breast over the cotton fabric of her bra. A small feminine moan escaped her throat, she couldn’t help it. She loved the way he made her feel, so beautiful, so full of worth. He noticed her reaction and he groped her more firmly, tweaking her nipple into a firm bud.

She slid her hands down to the waistband of his sweats, and he grabbed her wrists stopping her. “Wait… we... we can’t, I don’t have any rubbers.”

She smiled into his lips. “I’m fixed.” He took her lips quickly, and his hand practically flew to the fly of her jeans. He stood up and pushed her jeans down along with her panties. Then, grabbing the creamy flesh of her thighs gently, he lifted her up and sat back onto the couch.

Kissing her furiously with his fingers tightly secured in her hair, he felt her free his erection from his sweats and then grasp it lightly. She stroked it a couple of times, making him hiss and moan at the amazing sensation. They broke their kiss. Then, meeting his eyes, she raised herself up and sunk onto it with a soft gasp.

Their frantic kissing and tearing at clothes had screeched to a halt the minute he entered her. He held her hips lightly and rocked into her. She gasped again and again, her open mouth almost touching his. Her eyes locked with his. She knew how he felt: exactly the same way she did. She could see it in his eyes… Less than a day, and he loved her.

For a brief moment he thought he was dreaming. Did he really have this woman in his arms, half-naked and slowly grinding her hips up and down his cock? He did. God, he really did, and he knew she cared about him, the same way he cared about her. Using his hands on her hips, he sped her up a little bit, and she began to moan. “Good?”

She was unable to speak. She just nodded and buried her face in his neck. He held her body to him, feeling every gasp and moan against the now sweat-slicked skin of his neck. Her hands had been grasping the back of the couch, but now they were gripping his wide biceps, and the more she moaned the deeper her nails dug.

He put one hand on the side of her face and brought it to his, kissing her hungrily. She began to buck wildly in his lap, then moaned, gasped and squeaked into his mouth as she came apart, her world turning black, leaving only the strong hot feeling coursing through her flushed body. Feeling her insides contracting around him. Two strong thrusts later, Logan joined her, moaning loudly and bouncing himself against her.

As he came down from his natural high with a big smile on his lips, he felt her begin to shake, and then she began to sob into his shoulder. He lifted her face to look at him. “Hey, what did I do? Did I hurt you? Darlin’, I’m so sorry, this was too much.”

She giggled, wiping her face. “No, sorry. Christ, how pathetic am I?” He looked a little confused, and she laughed at him again. “I haven’t had sex in nearly three years, and that was the first time. You know, that… I’ve, you know…”

He smirked smugly and kissed her quickly. “You do wonders for my ego, darlin’.”

She laughed and rested her forehead against his, whispering into his face again. “Shut up you smug bastard.”

They rearranged their clothes and then lay down on the couch, snuggled under his blankets, legs tangled. Her head was on his bare chest, and she kept fiddling with his chest hair, loving the softness of it. Neither of them had spoken. The silence was comfortable and understanding.

“You ok?” He was stroking her hair, feeling the silkiness of it and trying to process that he practically told her he loved her.

She carried on swirling her finger in his chest hair. “Mmmm, very. You?” She shifted slightly to look at him.

“Yeah. Tell me about yourself. I want to know everything about Marie Sutton.” She rested her chin on his chest to look at him. “Indulge me.”

She chuckled. “Ok. I was born May 5, 1979, in my Grandmama’s house in Meridian, Mississippi. My mother never made it to the hospital. She said I was too quick for her. I don’t have any brother or sisters. I don’t have any aunts or uncles. I was an only child to a couple of only children.” She chuckled again, and so did he.

“Where’d you go to school?”

“Don’t you have this in a file or something, listed under ‘wife’?”

“Probably, but I want to hear you say it.” He was looking at her intensely again, and she smiled shyly.

“I went to Crestwood Elementary School. My teacher was a big fat woman called Mrs. Penfold. She was really nice. Then when I was eight we moved to New York. That’s why I don’t have much of an accent anymore.”

“I can hear it in there - sexy southern drawl.” He fiddled with her hair, and she giggled at him again.

“My dad got a promotion, and we moved for that. My mother went back to Meridian after he died. She didn’t want to be around here anymore, or around me, I think.”

“Why you?”

“She seemed to think that Ethan had something to do with dad’s death, said it was too much of a coincidence. Dad didn’t want me to marry him, so according to her, Ethan had him killed to prove a point.”

“Surely he would have bragged about it to you, a show of control, that kind of thing?”

“That’s exactly what I said to her. I didn’t know what he was like then either, so naturally I defended him, but she wouldn’t listen and moved.”

“What did your father do for a living?”

“He was an accountant. That’s how I met Ethan. Dad had been doing the family books for a couple of years and Ethan worked there for a little while.”

Logan suddenly had a bad feeling that at least part of what Marie’s mother had thought could be right. If her father found out something about the family accounts, then it was possible that Ethan could have had him killed to keep him quiet and ensure that he had Marie. “Come on, it’s nearly eight. I need to shower and get dressed. Why don’t you fix Warren some breakfast? I think there’s some pancake mix in the cupboards somewhere. I keep it for Ellie.”

“Oh, ok.” She was little surprised at his sudden change of mood, but he was right. They needed to get organised.

He untangled himself from her, kissed her quickly, and took his pillow and blanket into the bedroom with him; he dumped them on the bed, grabbed his clothes and went into the bathroom.

She followed him into the bedroom and gently woke up Warren. He stretched and smiled at her. Then his face fell and he looked at her in horror. “Earl! I forgot about Earl. We have to go back for him.”

She sighed, putting her hands on her hips. “Warren, the lizard will be fine. I’ll call Jubes later. Maybe she or Hank can go and get him or feed him for you, ok? We have to stay safe right now.”

“Mom, please. He’ll miss me, and then he’ll get depressed, and he might die, or he won’t eat for Jubilee or Uncle Hank. What if he tries to escape and hurts himself?”

She looked at his face and sighed. “Ok, we’ll talk to Detective Howlett later, and see if we can swing by home to pick him up. But if he says no, then no, means no. Ok?”

“Ok.”

“Baby are you sure your ok, I know that all this has been way too much to handle?”

“I’m ok, I guess I just want to get back to normal. Get over stuff, like we did before.”

“Ok sweetie,…” She ruffled his hair. “You’re a real good boy. Come and get some breakfast. Then you can wash and get dressed.”

Logan had a quick shower, washed his hair, and cleaned his teeth. He briefly wondered about shaving, but then decided against it. He really did have the time. He put on fresh underwear, socks and jeans, did his belt up, hooking his Indian head in place, and walked into the living room just as he was pulling a thin black t-shirt over his head.

Marie caught sight of his chest just before he got his shirt on. She had to bite her lip and turn away before she said something she shouldn’t in front of Warren. She was still a little giddy. She’d had sex for the first time in years, and not only that - it was fantastic, loving sex.

Logan walked up behind her and kissed the back of her neck before Warren noticed. She shuddered a little and tried to hide her bright smile as she carried on cleaning the breakfast things. “So, how’d ya sleep, kid?”

Warren looked and smiled at Logan. “Good, you know, once I was out of the girl’s bed.”

“You’re not gonna let me forget I have a girl’s bed here, are you?”

Warren flashed a very cheeky grin. “Nope.” He looked at his mother who was putting Logan’s plates away and then back to Logan. “Detective Howle….”

“Logan, call me Logan.” Warren smiled brightly, like Logan had just given him the key to his house.

“Ok, Logan. Can we go back home and pick up Earl?”

He raised his eyebrow at him questioningly. “Who the hell is Earl?”

“He’s my gecko. We left him at home, and I don’t want him to be alone.”

“You have a lizard named Earl?”

Marie sat next to Warren and stroked his soft brown hair lightly. “Yeah, he’s really cute and nice. He doesn’t bite or anything. Can we please?”

The look on the boy’s face was pleading, but Logan shook his head. “Sorry kid, you can’t go home just yet. Is there someone you can call to swing by and feed him for ya?”

“I can call Jubilee. She’s a friend from work.” She kissed Warren on the top of his head as he leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands, looking completely dejected. Marie smiled, got up and walked to the bathroom.

“If he dies from loneliness, it will be your fault,” Warren mumbled.

Logan sat down opposite him. “Ok kid, you’re ten, which means in my book you’re old enough to be spoken to like an adult.” Warren lifted his head up; Logan thought that would get his complete attention. “You know what your father’s like?” Warren nodded, a grim look on his face.

“Right now the only thing he wants is to hurt your mother. Me and you, want to keep her safe, right?” He nodded again. “So I need you to trust me. I know that’s hard, you hardly know me, and it’s a lot to ask, but can you do that?”

“You got a gun?” His voice was quiet, but Logan could tell by his body language that he felt brave and extremely protective of Marie.

“Yeah.”

“So, can you protect her?”

“Yeah, absolutely.” Logan couldn’t believe that he was eye to eye with a ten year old and the kid had more guts than most of the rookie cops he had seen. “If we go back for *Earl*, it might put you and your mom in danger, so the choice is yours. Earl… or your mom? I don’t want you to say what you think I wanna hear, I want you to make the choice. What’s it gonna be kid?”

He went quiet briefly reminded of the danger they we’re all in. “Mom.” There was no hesitation or regret in his voice, and Logan was pleased. He smiled at him and patted him on the shoulder.

“Good. All you have to do is trust me, Warren, and we’ll all get through this.” Warren nodded with a confident smile, as he watched Logan get up and put on his gun holster, then check the weapon and secure it in the holster.

“You like her, don’t you?”

Logan was completely blindsided by his question. He opened his mouth a couple of times to speak, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. Warren sat there staring at him with a smug ‘you’re-busted-for-fancying-my-mom’ expression on his face. Eventually Logan was saved by his cell phone ringing.

“Yeah?”

“Logan, get the hell out of your apartment now! Creed and two others just went into your building.”

“SHIT!” He stuffed his phone into his pocket, grabbed his jacket and then he grabbed Warren by the arm, pulling him to the bedroom. He picked up his jeans and top and threw them at him. “Quickly.” Warren did as he was asked and shoved his jeans on over his shorts, threw his top in his backpack, and put on his fresh t–shirt and sweater, then shoved his backpack on his back.

“MARIE.” Logan shouted for her, and she came straight out of the bathroom, her hands in her hair putting it up. “We gotta go, right now!” Warren had got his trainers on and was finishing lacing them up.

Logan pushed up his bedroom window and helped Warren out onto the fire escape. While Marie grabbed her shoes and was following Warren out, Logan put on his leather jacket. He had one leg out of his window when he heard his front door burst open with a loud shout.

They were halfway down when a hail of bullets from a machine gun rattled metallically down the fire escape. Marie screamed and huddled in a corner. Logan noticed that Warren had more sense and kept running down. He caught Marie around the waist and made her keep going.

Scott was already at the bottom. He lowered the ladder and helped Warren. Next Marie and Logan jumped off. More bullets fired their way as they ran to Scott’s car, a blue BMW 3 Series. Marie hurried Warren into the back while Scott jumped in to drive and Logan got in the passenger seat.

“What the fuck is going on, Scott? How did they know she was with me?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know?” Scott hit the accelerator and took off with a loud screech of tyres.

“I know we weren’t followed. I made sure, real sure. Did you tell anyone?”

“No, only Jean, and she wouldn’t have said anything to anyone.” He turned a sharp corner, and Marie had to brace herself in the back so she didn’t squash Warren against the door. “Who else knew?”

“Only you, Jean, me, Marie and Markham.” He turned to the back. “You said something earlier about calling a friend to take care of the lizard, did you? Did you call anyone?”

“No, no one.” She was trying to put her trainers on without falling off the seat.

He turned back to Scott. “So, if none of us told anyone and there isn’t anyone that Jean would or could tell, then that only leaves one person.”

“Markham? You have to be joking?”

“There’s no smoke without fire. Maybe he’s connected somehow.”

The realisation suddenly dawned on Scott. “We’ve been set up.”

Logan rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in the air, his voice thick with sarcasm when he spoke. “No! Ya think?”

*****************END OF PART FIVE

Title: Unconditional 6/?
Author: sharonmjl47
Rating: NC-17
Category: Movieverse./AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and no one. Sad, isn’t it!
Feedback: Please, bad or good. If no one tells me it’s bad, I won’t know!

**********************

Thanks to Scott’s fast driving, they fled to an abandoned industrial warehouse near Gowanus Bay docks. They were only a few miles away from Logan’s apartment building next to the park. They arrived without being followed or running into anymore trouble. Logan and Scott knew that the warehouse was safe. An attempted drug deal had faltered here a few months back, and the whole place had been cleared and roped off.

Scott had been on the phone to his wife in the car. He had made sure that she hadn’t told anyone about who Logan had at his apartment, and then he told her to take their daughter to his cousin Bobby’s in Boston and stay there till he contacted her. He had told her he loved her and then passed the phone to Logan. Logan told her to be careful, and after a long pause when she was obviously talking, he had promised to bring Scott back to her in one piece.

Warren sat on some old boxes with his backpack between his legs and his handheld games console happily beeping away. He was unaware of his mother’s torment. Marie watched her son, trying to assess if he was really all right or just trying to act it for her benefit. She had tried very hard to reassure him in the car, telling him that he was safe now, everything would be all right. While she watched him play his game, she paced around him silently and truly hoped that it would be.

Scott had given her some photographs of young girls to look through to see if she recognised any of them. First one was a little Asian girl with cocoa skin and a wide smile. A pale red-haired girl with cute freckles. A girl with brown eyes and jet black hair in a neat little bob, and a Chinese girl with long straight hair that travelled down her shoulders as she sat smiling for the camera.

She looked at the last picture in front of her. A pretty blond girl, huge blue eyes and a brilliantly bright smile. The pale blue sweater she wore matched her eyes. Marie noticed that on the back of each picture was their age, a date and a place. Two of the girls were 13, one was 14 and the other two were 12 - all dead. Her stomach felt tight each time she looked at the pictures. They shouldn’t have died so young, life cut short. Guilt stab at her also, Ethan was responsible for this. She had trusted him in the beginning, they had a son together, but he was nothing but a monster.

Marie looked at Scott and Logan; they had been just outside the main door of the warehouse for the past half an hour or so, talking. By the looks of things, they were trying desperately to figure out what the hell was going on and how their police Captain was involved.

“This doesn’t even make sense. Why would Markham be involved with someone like Palmer? I know the family is connected, but it just doesn’t pan out, yeah cops get bought, but how did Palmer get him involved in the first place?” Logan paced in the sunlight, puffing on his cigar and letting the smoke fill his lungs in an attempt to calm himself. It wasn’t working.

“We must be missing something. Let’s go through what we know, and go from there.”

“We know the only other person who knew where Marie was, was Markham, and we also know that it’s not procedure for him to tell anyone else that for at least 48 hours. We know that Palmer wants her dead, and he willingly uses Creed to do it. We know that Marie’s father used to be his accountant, and then he had a car accident and died. Maybe that’s part of it. We know Marie saw him possibly sell a girl to some unknown guy. We know he’s sick, and he’s selling little fucking girls to equally sick fucking perverts, who use them. Then they disappear, and we find them dead. We know he likes to hit his wife. I know I wanna find that piece of shit, stick three six inch blades in his chest, and rip his…”

Scott put his hands up in front of Logan. “Hey, hey, calm down. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this wound up.”

“Doesn’t it wind you up? You’ve got a daughter for fuck’s sake!”

“Yeah, it does. Has from the start. Every time we’ve found one of those girls, I’ve imagined that it could have been Ellie. But this is a case, Logan. Something I do at work, and separate from home. Otherwise I’ll go crazy. You will, too, if you don’t sort it out.”

“It’s her. I can’t think past the thought of him hurting her, getting his sick fucking paws on her.”

“You did sleep with her, didn’t you?” It wasn’t a question; Scott already knew the answer by Logan’s body language and his attitude towards her. “It’s – what – twenty-four hours, but… you love her, don’t you?”

“Can’t help it. She’s… got something, and it just catches me.”

Scott rolled his eyes at the dreamy look in Logan’s eyes. “Ok, moving on. What do we know about Markham?”

“He sweats like a June bride.”

Scott chuckled, seating himself on the top of an old oil drum. “Apart from that. I don’t think I actually know anything about him.”

“I don’t think anyone really does. He was transferred to us from Seattle six years ago. That’s all I know.”

“Did he request it, or was it just done?”

“Just done, if you believe the grapevine.”

“He’s not married. I asked him once. He said he didn’t get on with women, but hey, who does?” Scott chuckled again.

“He’s shit at poker. Every time we play a few hands at Grady’s, someone manages to clean him out,” Logan laughed, throwing his cigar on the floor and crunching it under his boot.

“You guys do that, what, once a week?”

Logan shrugged. “They do it about twice, three times a week. I only go occasionally. I got better things to do than sit there and lose my money. Why?”

Scott smirked. “Would you say he had a gambling problem?”

Logan smirked too, catching on instantly. “Ahh, like one that he would need to go to a casino for. Right, ok. So if he goes to Palmer’s casino that would connect them.”

“Maybe he owes Palmer a lot of money, so Palmer gets him to give over information in exchange for wiping out his debt.”

“Nah, it doesn’t fit. Markham’s not short of money, Scott. Have you seen his car, his suits, and the jewellery he wears? Beside doesn’t he come from money or something, his father? It has to be something else.”

“Like what?”

“Scott, if we knew that we wouldn’t be standing here discussing it. We’d be kicking his fat sweaty butt.”

“There’s an image I can live without!”

“Who’s got a fat sweaty butt?” Neither of them had noticed Marie walk up to them. She smiled at Logan, and he instantly calmed down. Scott noticed the big sigh he took and the way his shoulders relaxed the minute Logan knew she was near him.

“No one, darlin’.”

She handed a photo to Scott. “This girl. I saw this girl at my husband’s house. It was um… the year before I left him. July, I think. She left with a man. I don’t know who he was. I’d never seen him before, or since.”

“Ok, thanks for looking at them. I know its hard.”

“What is the date and place on the back?”

Scott sighed. “It’s the date that they went missing, and the last place they were seen. These pictures were supplied by the girls’ families.”

She looked back at Warren to make sure he was still playing his game and not anywhere near the conversation. “Did… did Ethan kill this girl?”

“Not personally, but he is connected to her death.”

She frowned at Scott. “How is he connected?”

“Ms. Sutton, I‘m not sure you want to know.”

“Please. Marie.” He smiled at her. “Yes, I do. He’s the father of my child. I know it probably none of my business, but I want to know exactly who he is, what I was involved with and… our son, I… I just need to know.”

Scott nodded, shot a glance at Logan, and decided to tell her everything. “It’s almost certain that he’s been trafficking these girls. Orchestrating their kidnapping from their families. We know of some that have been taken abroad and then sold into prostitution, the porn industry, or as… personal sex slaves, maybe even ferried out at parties to please guests. So far, only these girls have been found – dead – but we know there are others. Maybe still in the trade or have been shipped overseas. We just don’t know. Most probably, Creed has been doing to killing, all of them were found in roughly the same area and in the same *condition*, it fits his M.O. It’s unfortunately a lot of guessing and hearsay, but we know Palmer is behind it, the source from which these children are coming.”

Marie sighed and closed her eyes in horror, her pained emotion evident in her voice as she spoke. “So, that poor little girl was sold for sex, then killed when she wasn’t useful anymore?”

“Yes. All the girls found showed signs of physical and sexual abuse.” He raised the photo in his hand. “She was raped, repeatedly. She was beaten by someone more than three times her size, and then they slit her throat. She was 12.”

“Could I have stopped it, her…?” She couldn’t go on, say it.

Logan wrapped an arm around her. “Darlin’, you didn’t know, and why would you?”

“But I saw him, Logan. He sold that child right in front of my eyes, and I didn’t do anything. I thought it was innocent. That she looked miserable because she was bored, not because she was being abused. She wasn’t crying. She didn’t have any bruises. I just didn’t know!”

“She may not have known where she was going, what was happening. She could have been convinced she was being taken home or brainwashed somehow.”

She pushed away from Logan slightly and looked at Warren again. “He was trying to take Warren out of the country. You don’t think…?”

Scott shook his head and looked at Logan for help. “Darlin’, I don’t know. You said yourself he never bothered with the boy. So it’s possible, but I don’t know.”

She wiped her eyes with a shaky hand. “How could a person do that to his own son?”

“How could a person do that to anyone? People are unbelievable sometimes.” Scott noticed Logan was staring at his shoes, eyebrows knit together in concentration.

“I mean, fair enough, you want to have sex and you have a few little kinks, but… not kids, not innocent little kids that can’t fight back. It’s just wrong.” She felt a chill run up her, and she wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her arms.

“I know it’s not any kind of consolation to their families, but we’re catch those responsible, make sure that they pay for it, one way or another.”

Logan was still stood looking at his boots while Marie and Scott talked. Then he paced in front of them a little. He stopped and looked at Scott, about to say something, but then he shut his mouth, sighed and paced again. “What, Logan?”

He stopped again. “Do you still have some of the Christmas party photos on your phone?”

“Yeah, why?” Scott had his hands on his hips and was utterly confused as to why Logan wanted those pictures now.

“Give it here.” Scott noticed that most of the colour had drained from Logan’s face.

Scott rooted in the inside pocket of his jacket and passed his cell phone to Logan. Logan opened it up, found where the photos were stored, and began to flick through them. He stopped, getting the image he wanted. Then he looked at Marie. She looked worried and confused; so did Scott.

“I can’t believe I‘m about to do this… suggest this.” He took a deep breath and then blew it out loudly, realising that if he got the answer he wanted there would be no turning back for any of them. He passed the phone to Marie. “The guy in this picture: do you recognise him?”

She took Scott’s phone from Logan’s shaking hand and instantly gasped and put her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God… he’s…”

“The guy with the girl at Palmer’s house?”

“Yes.”

“I need you to say it, Marie. All of it.” His tone was serious and held a hint of danger.

She turned the phone around and pointed it away from her. Scott saw the image for the first time. “This is the man I saw at my ex’s house. He gave Ethan a briefcase full of money and left with that little blond girl.”

“Shit!” Scott rubbed his hand over his face and pinched the top of his nose like he had just eaten really cold ice cream. “This is wrong, Logan. There must be a mistake. There is no way that… Shit!”

“It’s what the lady says, Scott.”

“But, it can’t be, he’s… Jesus, he’s…”

Marie stepped forward in between them. “Who is he?”

“Our Captain. Simon Markham, Marie. He is the guy who we’ve worked with, for, for six years.” Scott paced with his hands on his hips. “God. I can’t believe this. Logan, that man has been in my house, shook hands with my wife, your sister…” He took a long pause, horror filling his face. He looked like he wanted to be sick. “Met my daughter, joked with her a little.”

He clenched his jaw and walked off, heading for the BMW. As he walked, he took his gun out and checked it was loaded, then replaced it. Just as he opened the door, Logan caught up with him and shut the door again, Marie was close behind. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to kill him.” He tried to open the door again, but again Logan stopped him.

“Scott, calm down. You can’t just…”

“Calm down? Are you crazy?!”

“Scott, I’m on your side.” Logan grabbed his arm again as he tried to turn away.

“So’s my appendix, but scientists have proved I don’t need that either!” Logan chuckled, and Scott sighed, then looked at him pleadingly. “He told me she was pretty, Logan. He stood in my house watching her play in the garden, and he told me she was pretty. What was he thinking when he said that, Logan? What sick little images did he have about *my* little girl?”

Logan nodded. “Ok, we kill him, but we can’t just swan in there and shoot him. We have to figure the rest of this out, and we have to report it. For once, we need to go by the book.”

Marie touched Scott on the arm, and she could see the agony in his eyes as he calmed and leaned against the side of the BMW. He looked at Logan. “What about that Officer from internal affairs you dated last year? Do you still have her number?”

Logan jerked his head towards Marie. “Ya mind?” She giggled. Even Scott smiled.

“Logan, we don’t have time to worry about your philandering. Can you call her, see what info they have on him? Maybe they’re already investigating.”

He rolled his shoulders and got out his cell phone. Scrolling through, he found her number, and as he walked back into the sunshine just outside the warehouse, she picked up.

**************END OF PART SIX

Title: Unconditional 7/?
Author: sharonmjl47
Rating: NC-17
Category: Movieverse./AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and no one. Sad, isn’t it!
Feedback: Please, bad or good. If no one tells me it’s bad, I won’t know!

~ Indicates thoughts ~

**********************

“Where the hell have you been? Grady and me have been trying to contact you for the past hour. Your phone’s been out of range.” Her tone changed from annoyed to concerned. “Logan, someone reported gunfire at your apartment building. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I had Ethan Palmer’s ex-wife and kid with me. Creed and a couple of his guys tried to take me out. Listen, I was calling ‘cause I need some information on Captain Markham.”

“That’s another reason I’ve been trying to call you. IA has been investigating him. We know he’s involved with Palmer and your investigation. We sent officers into his apartment just over two hours ago, but the place was empty. We found child pornography on his computer, some bondage equipment, four boxes of indecent photographs of children, and a diary with details of bank deposits and meetings. It’s gone into a full-blown manhunt. The whole force is up in arms. Haven’t you been listening to your radio?”

“Jesus! I’m with Scott. His has been out of order ofr a couple of days, it’s apparently on maintenance’s list of things to do, they haven even got a spare, how dumb I that! Betsy, tell me what’s been going on with Markham. I need to know.”

“I’ll tell you what I can.”

“Thanks, darlin’.”

“Don’t ‘darlin’’ me. I’m still pissed at you for last summer!”

“Bets, not now.” He could hear her rustling some papers.

“Uh, whatever! We’ve had him under surveillance for a year now. It’s been running alongside the Palmer investigation that you and Scott have been running. We know he’s been taking trips abroad and depositing large amounts of cash in an offshore account. When the bodies of those girls turned up and your undercover cop was found dead, we moved up the investigation and were in the process of applying for warrants, but it takes longer when it’s an ‘upstanding member’ of the force! Sick bastard, more like.”

“Why didn’t Internal Affairs get us involved?” Logan turned around and looked at Marie who was talking to Scott. He couldn’t help but smile as he looked at her, she really was beautiful.

“It’s procedure, Logan. Who was to say that you weren’t in with him as well? Telling you and Scott would have tipped him off. IA investigations are kept secret and low key for a reason Logan, it’s to keep everybody safe.”

“Betsy, listen, I have a witness who saw him hand over a large amount of cash in exchange for an underage girl, one of the dead girls.”

“Please don’t tell me the witness is the ex-wife or the child?”

“Ex.”

“Shit! She’s in real danger, Logan. We know Markham tipped off Palmer at the airport yesterday, and my Cap is convinced that Creed is working for him rather than Palmer.”

“Shit, this just gets worse. Markham said that the investigation was being taken over by the Feds because Palmer’s servants got whacked. Is that true?”

“He never called them, Logan, or passed over any other information. The servants were on their way to FBI custody, but that’s only because someone higher than Markham requested they be put in FBI custody due to our Internal Affairs investigation. But unfortunately Markham had all the information necessary to make sure that those two people never made it to their destination, they were after all the only people who saw Palmer murder his parents. Have you and Scott got the wife and kid?”

“Yeah. We’ll keep them safe, but Creed just keeps coming.” He wasn’t going to tell her that they planned on finding Markham.

“OK, but don’t give me any locations. Just check in every 2 hours.”

“Ok, thanks, darlin’.”

“I still haven’t forgiven you.”

“Yeah, yeah, you know you can’t resist me,” he chuckled.

“Neanderthal!” The line went dead as she hung up.

Scott and Marie had been leaning against the hood of his BMW while Logan talked on the phone. “So, he’s had a lot of women?” She knew she shouldn’t be asking this, but she was more than curious: she was positively itching to know.

Scott fidgeted slightly and put his hands in his pockets. “Marie… I think that’s probably something you should discuss with him.”

“But I’m asking you. You’re his brother-in-law. You know him.”

“Yeah, I do know him.” He was watching Logan walk the same line, up and down, while he talked on the phone. “One thing I will say is that he’s never, and I mean never, shown anyone affection like he does you.”

“Whaddya mean?”

“Touch. He doesn’t touch people. Like holding your hand, touching your hair, your lips…” Scott blushed a little and smiled. “He’s different with you. He touches you.”

She smiled and looked back over at Logan. “Good to know.” She stood up and turned around. Warren was still sitting on the boxes playing on his game console. “That boy will turn into Super Mario if he’s not careful.”

Scott followed her gaze and chuckled. “Ellie’s the same. She’s got one of those virtual puppy games. It’s super-glued to her hand, I’m sure of it.”

She turned back to him frowning. “I know that this is your thing and you both said that Ethan is the one behind this, the one making this happen, but Ethan’s not smart enough. I’ve known him a long time, and he may be a bastard, but he’s just… dumb!”

“What are you saying?”

“My father told me that Ethan’s father didn’t want him to take over the business because he knew he couldn’t handle the responsibility. So he packed him off to work for *my* father as a trainee accountant. That’s how I met him. He lasted three weeks before my father had to fire him. He told me that Ethan was simply just too stupid and lazy. At the time my head was in the clouds, so I just didn’t believe him.”

“So you think someone else is in charge, and Ethan is just - what - doing the trafficking?”

“That makes more sense to me. I just can’t imagine him waking up one day and saying ‘Oh I know, I’ll traffic people for money today’!”

As she finished her sentence with a small laugh, Logan rejoined them. “Markham is on the run. Internal Affairs found a whole load of stuff at his place. Indecent photos of kids, downloaded child porn, bondage stuff, as well as evidence of money transfers and laundering.”

Scott looked at Marie. “So you could be right.”

Logan’s eyebrows drew together. “Right about what?”

“Marie was just telling me she thought Palmer was too dumb to be doing this by himself.”

She smiled at Logan shyly, and he smirked. “Basically what Betsy... um, I mean Officer Braddock, just told me. She said that Creed is working for him rather than Palmer. I can’t believe it.” ~Nice going asshole, tell her the names of all the women you’ve slept with, why don’t you?~

Scott shook his head and sighed heavily. “If they know all this stuff, why don’t they ever tell *us*, let *us* in on the information occasionally?”

“It’s procedure, Scott.” Logan crossed his arms in front of his chest, and Marie had to look at Scott, because the way the action made the muscles in his arms more pronounced threatened to turn her knees weak.

“Screw procedure!”

He wagged his finger at Scott. “Finally! You’re thinking like me, buddy.”

“Logan, the day I start thinking like you is the day I start to worry.” Both men laughed, and Marie smiled at their easy friendship.

“How the hell are we supposed to find him?”

“I have no idea.”

All three of them were now leaning on the hood of Scott’s BMW, Marie in between them, looking out into the docks, watching the water and the boats. “All properties and places associated with Markham will have been checked out already.”

“And all the ones associated with Palmer, apparently. They even contacted the cops in Vegas and checked out the casino there.”

“Why? He doesn’t even own that casino; his father just has shares in it.”

“Darlin’, they check out everything, even if it’s loosely related to him.”

“Oh.”

“Marie, do you know of any other property that the family owns? One where he would be able to retreat to easily?”

“They have a cabin at Lake Michigan, an apartment in Chicago…”

“We had those on file; they would have been checked.”

“What about the warehouses and storage places, where all the gambling tables and slot machines are stored and repaired?”

“Checked,” both Logan and Scott replied together. By this time, they were feeling really deflated.

“You can’t think of anything else?

“Well, no, there isn’t anything else.” She began to check places off with her fingers, talking to herself more than anyone else. “The cabin, apartment, Vegas casino, New York casino, Zero One night-club, Lizard Lounge Club, the boat….”

Logan and Scot looked at each other over the top of her head. “Whoa, whoa, darlin’… what boat?”

They stood up and moved in front of her. She looked from one to the other and made an embarrassed face. “His boat. I must have mentioned it before, or it must have been in your file.” The minute she’d said it, she knew that she hadn’t mentioned it. If she was honest even she had forgotten about it.

“There’s no mention of your ex owning a boat.”

“Well, it’s not really his, though I guess it is now.”

Both men looked more than a little impatient. “Whose is it?”

“His mother’s. She was originally from Coney Island and had a shitload of her own money. Her parents apparently had a lot to do with the development of Coney Island Beach. She had a boat near there.”

Scott and Logan looked at each other again. “If it’s in her name, her maiden name, Scott, then it wouldn’t show up on any of Palmer’s files or his father’s.”

“Markham has had access to all the same information that we have, so he would know that it’s not on file, not listed with all the other properties. He’d know that no one would be looking for it, because no one knows about it.”

“They could be there, Scott, trying to get out of the country on that boat.”

They turned back to Marie who was now biting her thumbnail. “Where?”

“Um, East of Coney Island, ur… Barren something. There’s a sports fishing marina called Deep Creek. We went there once. There was a boatyard, driving range, tennis courts, and it had mini golf. I played with Warren and kept out of his way.”

Logan laughed. “Hang on, you can’t mean directly opposite the Floyd Bennett Field?”

Scott was now softly chuckling.

“I don’t get it. What’s so funny? What’s the Floyd Bennett Field?”

“Barren Island is the Floyd Bennett Field. It’s an abandoned air field that the NYPD now uses as their Air Operations Unit. If you see a police helicopter flying around New York, that’s were it came from. If they are on that boat, he’s sitting directly across from a mountain of police officers.”

Logan knocked Scott on the arm. “What better place for Markham to hide? Right under everyone’s noses.”

The two men were now facing each other, quickly working out a plan of action. “It only takes about 40 minutes to get to the other side of Coney Island from here. We get there, find the boat and …”

“No, we’ll need some backup, Logan. We should call Braddock and get her to send it…”

“We won’t need backup. Markham wants to get away with as little fuss as possible; I bet money he’s only got Palmer and Creed with him, according to Betsy they know that Markham tipped Palmer off at the airport yesterday, so chances are he knows they know and that’s why he’s on the run. Palmer’s running because of his parents and the airport yeterday. We can call Betsy when we’re there. Then we have plenty of time to get Markham before the cavalry arrive.”

“Ok. It will be quicker if we take Ocean Parkway right down to Coney Island …”

“No, we need to take Flatbush Avenue. It goes right through to Barren Island.”

“Just because you want to avoid Coney Island.” Marie had noticed one flaw in their plan and decided that she should point it out.

“So? I don’t like Coney Island.”

“I had noticed.”

“Um, guys?” Marie tried to interrupt, but Logan’s barking voice cut her off.

“Bite me, Scooter!” They were really close to each other; there wasn’t that much of a height difference, but Logan still managed to tower dominantly over Scott.

“God, you have avoidance issues.”

“Avoidance?”

“Uh-hum?” She tried coughing to get their attention, but it didn’t work.

Scott put his hands on his hips. “Yeah, it means…”

“I had a college education asshole. I know what it means!”

“Thanks to me! Come on, admit it, Mr. Football-Scholarship!”

“A lot of people who go to college because of a sports scholarship get through.” Logan poked Scott in the chest to drive his point home.

“Come on, Logan, just once admit that if I hadn’t helped, you would have failed nearly all your classes except football.”

“OK, I admit it, but you would never have gotten your hands on my sister if it weren’t for me, so we’re even!”

Scott shouted in Logan’s face. “AND that’s why you hate Coney Island!”

“Yes, ok, I hate Coney Island because every time I think of it, I have an image of you boning MY LITTLE SISTER!” Logan shouted back.

Marie put each of her little fingers in the corners of her moth and whistled as loudly as she could, instantly stopping Logan and Scott in their tracks. Both of them made pained faces and tried to protect their ears. She waved at them, gestured to Warren, who was looking at her, also painfully holding his ears, and then gestured to herself. “Remember us?”

**********************END OF PART SEVEN

Title: Unconditional 8/?
Author: sharonmjl47
Rating: NC-17
Category: Movieverse./AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and no one. Sad, isn’t it!
Feedback: Please, bad or good. If no one tells me it’s bad, I won’t know!

**********************

“Remember us?”

They both had the decency to look embarrassed, caught out for their childish bickering. Marie wondered, as she looked at their sheepish faces, how on earth the two of them had become friends in the first place. They were so different.

“Fine, you two have a plan, that’s great. But while you’re storming the castle and killing the bad guys, where are Warren and I gonna be?”

Logan rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Scott, who shrugged his shoulders. “Um, we need to find somewhere safe for you to stay while we wrap this up.” He looked at Scott again. “Any ideas?”

“No. We can’t leave them here. We can’t take them to your place or mine. We could take them back to the precinct, but I don’t know if Markham had anyone else in on this. It might not be safe… I can’t think…”

“The diner!” They both looked at her. She was bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet, happy she had come up with the solution. “It’s always full of cops. Taxi drivers sometimes, but mostly cops. Who in their right mind would attack a diner full to the brim with police officers?”

“Good idea, darlin’. Let’s go.” They moved to the car, and Scott opened the driver’s door. Once again Logan stopped him. “I’m driving.”

Scott let go of the door and rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

Scott moved round to the other side. Logan caught her arm before she opened the rear door. He smirked, and his lips came in quickly taking hers and making her moan. His free hand came up. He swept it across her collar bone and round behind her neck into her hair; she moaned again. He pulled away, sucking on her bottom lip as he went. Her lips glistened and reddened at the contact. She smiled shyly and turned away to Warren. He wanted to growl, shout, howl, sing at the feelings she gave him and the pure sexually energy that she brought out in him. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this happy and this turned on just from kissing someone so simply.

“Warren, get in the car. We’re going.” Warren looked up and watched Logan and Scott get in the car. He grabbed his bag and ran to the car where Marie got him in and tried to put on his seatbelt, but he batted her hands away frowning and mumbling that he was old enough to do it himself.

She tried to explain what was going on. “Logan and Scott are going to take us to the diner. We’re going to stay there for a little while, ok?”

“Ok. Are they going to get dad?”

Marie visibly winced. “Yeah, sweetie, they are.” She pulled him close to her, kissing the top of his head. “Warren, your dad isn’t a very nice man, and he’s been hurting people, innocent people…”

He moved to look at her face. “Like when he kidnapped me?”

“Yeah, like that. So you see, they’re going to arrest him.”

“I don’t have to see him again, do I? I don’t want that, mom.”

“I know. You won’t have to see him again. I promise, this will all be over soon, and we can go home and get on with our lives. You can get back to school and….”

“Arrr mom! I kinda like being off school.” He peered at her shyly trying to make her feel better, then he looked down again. “And I want to just be with you for a while.”

She smiled at him knowingly. “Ok, maybe you can have a little time off, but you’ll have to go back eventually, young man.”

He hugged her close and whispered to her. “Love you, mom.” She bit her lip and closed her eyes, momentarily overwhelmed with emotion and love for her little boy. He was so brave, and despite only being young he understood, completely and utterly.

Logan had listened to what she had said to her boy and found himself getting wound up by it. The kid was so with it, so together. His own father had been bad, but he hadn’t put him and Jean through half of what this kid had been through. Logan was still angry with his father, still not willing to let anyone close just in case they deserted him like his father had. He had never blamed his mother. She couldn’t help getting ill; she couldn’t help not being able to hold on any longer. But his father - he could have been there for them; he could have taken an interest instead of leaving them with their Aunt and leaving Logan to pick up the pieces for Jean. He had never dealt with losing his mother or being abandoned by his father. He had just buried it so he could help Jean.

He sat agitated in the car. The diner where Marie worked was less than five minutes drive from the docks, but they had got stuck in the lunchtime traffic. He knew why he was getting upset: he was jealous. Jealous of a ten-year-old boy, for having someone who gave a shit. “Why now, why now, does every person in Brooklyn want to be on the same road we do?” Logan’s patience was wearing thin, and he had leaned on the horn more than once in the last five minutes.

He looked at the traffic ahead: gridlocked. Looking to his left, he could see the park. The diner was just on the other side. He looked ahead again and then back to the park. You weren’t allowed to drive through the park; the road was purely for park services only and at this time of day it could be dangerous to people. But hell, this was an emergency.

He put the car into reverse and backed up about half a foot or so, narrowly avoiding the vehicle behind him. “Logan, what are you doing?”

“Put the light on the roof, Scott. We’re taking the park.”

“Logan, you’ve got to be kidding. There’ll be people everywhere!” The car lurched forward as Logan took off through the park road. After a lot of cussing, Scott got the magnetic red police light on the top of the car and flicked it on.

They raced through the narrow winding road through the park, Logan concentrating fiercely on the road ahead and the obstacles in his way. Joggers, mostly woman in twos, darted out of the car way. A dog walker with five Afghans on leads dove out of the way onto a patch of grass. As he fell, he let go of the dogs, and they all ran in different directions. There were people in suits just trying to enjoy the sunshine on their lunch breaks; they moved as far aside as they could and stared at the BMW with disdain as it roared past. A few graced Logan with some choice language and hand signals, but he was too caught up in steering the car to notice.

Warren sat in the back of the car hanging on to the seat, a huge grin plastered on his face. As Logan narrowly missed a girl on roller skates and she sailed sideways into a rather prickly and vast-looking rosebush, he laughed. “Cool!”

Marie glared at Warren but then had to secretly admit that it was very exciting. They exited the park, and the tyres screeched at the change of road surface. As they pulled into the small parking lot of Roly’s Diner, Scott flicked off the light and replaced it into the car. “You’re completely crazy, Logan. You could have killed about forty people just then.”

“Oh relax, would ya? We’re here, aren’t we?” He turned to Marie in the back seat. “I’ll take you two in and make sure it’s all clear…” He looked at Scott, determination written all over his face. “Then we’ll get moving.” Scott nodded.

Marie took him round to the rear entrance, and they went in that way. The minute she walked in, Jubilee spotted her. “MARIE!” She rushed her with a hug. “Oh God, I’ve been so worried. I tried calling, like a thousand times. In the end, I went to your apartment, but it looked like you haven’t been there at all.” She noticed Logan behind her and looked back at Marie with raised eyebrows.

“I haven’t. Look, this whole thing is really complicated, and I’ll explain later. Warren and I need to stay here for a while.” She looked over at Hank who had just come through the doors into the back room. Logan went through to the front to look around. “Is that alright?”

“My dear, it is fine. You are one of the family, and young Warren here - I have a surprise for you.” He went out and came back in with a small plastic aquarium.

“EARL!” Warren grabbed the tank and set it down on the floor, inspecting Earl immediately.

Jubes laughed. “I went to your apartment, and I saw it in his room, looking bored and hungry, so I brought him back here. Though I’m getting to think it always looks like that.”

Logan came back in and rubbed her arm. “I’ll be back for you when this is over and done with. You be ok?” She took in his face; it was wrapped with concern and uncertainty.

She smiled up at him, trying to reassure him. “Yeah. We’ll be fine, go.”

He was about to kiss her, but he caught Warren looking at him from the corner of his eye. “Hey kid, you mind if I kiss your mom?”

Warren shrugged with a smile on his face. “Nah, ‘bout time someone did.”

“Warrmmmmmph!” She forgot what she was about to say, all words impossible as he once again took her breath away with nothing more than a perfect chaste kiss. “Be careful.” She breathed the words out as he pulled away.

“My middle name, darlin’.” With that, he was out the door and gone. She blew out a breath that she hadn’t realised she was holding and smiled as the heat rose in her cheeks.

Logan got back to the car and found Scott rummaging around in the trunk. “What ya doing?”

“Seeing what we got. There’s about five clips for each of us and a shotgun, but I don’t have any shells for it.”

Logan laughed. “You have a shotgun in your car, but you can’t ever use it because you don’t have any ammo? Scott, that’s just great. Priceless in fact! What kind of person keeps a shotgun in the car, but not the ammo?”

He was still laughing when he heard the diner door go, and he saw Marie running towards them. “What, everything ok?”

“Yeah, I’m coming with you.”

“No!” Both men were adamant.

“Yes, I am. You have no idea what the boat looks like or whereabouts in that marina it’s moored. By the time you’ve trooped around the whole thing looking for it, someone would have shot you both! So I’m coming.” She hated the idea of leaving Warren behind, but she was torn. Warren was safe for now, he was with Hank and Jubes and a diner full of police officers. If Ethan was dumb enough to try and get to him then he would be in for a deadly surprise.

Scott sighed. “Logan, she does have a point. If she can at least point it out from the boat yard, then we have a better chance of getting closer before we’re seen.”

“No, no fucking way am I having you in danger.” He couldn’t live with himself if anything happened to her now.

“I’ll stay in the car. I swear on Warren’s life that I won’t willingly get out of that car, I promise. You really think I want to be stuck in the middle of a shootout?”

He stared at her for a minute or two, then looked at Scott. He sighed. “Fine, but you stay in that car, Marie. I mean it. I can’t tell you enough how much you need to stay in that car!”

“I will. I promise.”

He sighed and rubbed his hand over his face; he was getting too old for all this worry and strife. “Get in the front. Let’s go. I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this!” She got in the car, while Logan got in to drive, and Scott shut the trunk and jumped in the back.

As he drove at an even pace, this time he watched her bite her fingernails and fidget. He kept looking at her out of the corner of his eye. He wanted to tell her to relax, to breathe a little easier, but he knew she wouldn’t. The outcome of the next couple of hours would determine whether or not she spent the next few years looking over her shoulder and waiting for Palmer to come and get her.

He decided to put a reassuring hand on her knee instead. Then he moved it with a huff once he spotted the ‘you’re-whipped’ look he was getting from Scott in the rear view mirror.

Marie smiled to herself when his hand landed on her knee. She hoped that she wasn’t just fanaticising, but she was sure that he felt very strongly for her. She chewed on her thumbnail: what if she really was imagining it? Every time he looked at her, she thought she could see it wasn’t just sex or infatuation, let alone the things he had said to her this morning. But there was still a little nagging feeling in the back of her mind. Once the excitement was over, he wouldn’t be interested anymore; it would be over. Feeling tears suddenly well in her eyes, she turned to look out of the window and kept them under control. After all, it wasn’t like he had actually told her he loved her. But he had, in so many words, said that he wanted her to live with him, be with him, her and Warren. She cursed herself for being so unsure. One minute she was so certain of his feelings as well as her own, and then she felt it all slipping away from her.

She sighed. Her son needed to be the priority right now. Thinking about whether or not she had a future with Logan shouldn’t be at the forefront now. She hoped that she had made the right decision to leave Warren at the diner. She definitely didn’t want him to go along, but she did feel guilty leaving him. No matter how much he said that he understood or that he was fine, she knew the last two days had been very hard for him. His own father had tried not only to kill her, but also to take him and possibly force him into some kind of sex work. She still couldn’t get her head around that, not only had she almost lost her son, but she had almost lost him into the child sex industry.

Leaning her head against the window, she watched the houses, apartments and offices roll past her without interest. She was so wound up, so awake and alert. If this went the way they wanted it to, she would be free. She would never have to worry about Ethan again. Whether he would be looking for her, waiting for just the right time to kill her. All she could think is that if something happened to her, what would happen to Warren?

Logan slowed the car. They had been driving for about forty minutes and had arrived at the small marina. “We’re here.” He drove past the entrance and turned the car around, driving back towards it and pulling into the boatyard next door. He parked the car in the corner of the yard, slightly hidden, but with a good view of the moored boats.

“Ok, darlin’, you’re up. Which one is it?”

She leaned over to his side of the car and looked out of the window. She was so close to him, he could smell her. She had obviously used his soap and toothpaste this morning, and he decided that he kind of liked the smell of him on her. He had a brief image invade his thoughts about her naked and rubbing herself with *his* soap.

Her arm rushed against his chest as she raised it and pointed to the left. “It’s the big one over there, the one with the huge blue canopy.”

Logan nodded and took her hand, shaking himself out of his naked thoughts. “Ok, you’re gonna stay here?” Scott was getting out of the car and to the trunk to get the spare rounds for their guns.

Logan knew from previous experience that she wouldn’t stay in the car; she would let her curiosity get the bettor of her, and she would get hurt for it. He couldn’t let that happen, not now. Not now he knew he was in love with her.

She smiled and nodded at him, all too innocently. “I promise I’m not going anywhere.” She didn’t notice him reach to his right side. She simply watched his face, mesmerised by his intense gaze.

“I know you won’t.” He brought his right hand forward and snapped the cold metal cuff onto the wrist he was holding, then yanked it towards him slightly, and wrapped the other cuff round the steering wheel.

“LOGAN, no! Come on, you have to be kidding?” She rattled the cuffs slightly, and the smile faded from her lips. “Oh my God, you’re not kidding. You’re really going to leave me cuffed to the fucking car!”

“You’re staying right where you are. And be quiet. You’ll get us shot.”

“Logan, you can’t do that. I’m not going anywhere!”

He opened the door and got out, leaning back down to kiss her quickly. “I know you’re not, darlin’!” He shut the door and took his spare rounds from Scott. Scott looked at Marie who crawled into the driver’s seat and started pulling on the cuffs, cursing loudly.

They quickly crossed the boatyard to a small hut that served as the marina office. Scott spoke to the man inside, explained that they were NYPD and there to arrest a dangerous criminal. He was soon running off to his car and leaving as quickly as possible.

Logan and Scott stood in the empty office and watched the boat that Marie had pointed out. The boat was a huge three-cabin yacht, and Logan wondered how many people were hidden on it. There was no movement on the top of the boat by the canopy.

“What do you think?” Scott was close to Logan, and they looked out through the window.

“I’m still hoping he’s only got Creed and Palmer with him. That yacht is big enough to get a load of goons on.”

“If we can get close enough, we have a chance at surprising them.” Outside the office was a wooden platform that led out onto two interlinking jetties. The yacht was on the outer jetty furthest away from the wooden platform.

“Yeah, *if* we can.” He pointed to the far jetty. “Look, if you take that jetty out to the boat, use the small yachts and fishing boats as cover. I’ll take the water and try and get up onto the boat.”

“Is that a good idea?”

“Hey, I was on the swim team,” he replied, giving Scott his best smug grin.

Scott huffed at him. “You only joined the swim team to impress Elaine Flank!”

Logan turned to him. “Worked, didn’t it? I had her panties nailed to our dorm wall within a week of seeing me in a pair of speedos.”

Scott chuckled at the memory of what they used to do in college. Every time they had sex with a girl, a conquest, they would take their panties as a token and nail them to their bathroom wall. Logan’s was the left wall, Scott’s the right, and by the time they graduated, you couldn’t see the tile on Logan’s side. He also remembered the day they left. They stood in the bathroom for about an hour trying to decide what to do with all the panties nailed to the walls. In the end, they decided to leave them where they were, a bit of a challenge for whoever had the room after them. “Maybe I should enlighten Marie to your old ritual.”

Logan was still looking out of the window. “My old ritual? Tell her, I’ll tell Jean you used to do it as well. Just before you met her, we were level-pegging.” He turned, took off his badge and threw it on the table. Scott did the same. “This could go badly.”

Scott smiled and adjusted his red shades. “I know.” He held out his hand. Logan took it and shook it with a chuckle. “Let’s do it then.”

Marie watched from the car. She saw them enter the little office hut and then the man leave and head for his car. She turned back to the cuff around her wrist. She had been trying to pull it over her hand but couldn’t, and her wrist was already red and scratched from her efforts.

She looked back at the hut just as Logan and Scott headed out. Both were slightly hunched to give themselves the best cover possible, and both had their guns drawn. Scott took the farther jetty and used the small boats for cover. She watched Logan shed his jacket and holster his gun. His t-shirt was stretched over his muscles, and she smiled, biting her lip. Using his vast upper-body strength, he silently lowered himself from the wooden platform into the cool water of the marina.

From her position in the car, she couldn’t see either man anymore and decided to go back to concentrating on getting the cuff off her wrist. As she swore softly to herself and was about to give up, the car door open quickly and a large hand clamped over her mouth, forcing her head back against the headrest. “Need some help with that, bitch!” She stared up into Creed’s evilly dark eyes and wished that she had stayed with Warren.

***********END OF PART EIGHT

Title: Unconditional 9/?
Author: sharonmjl47
Rating: NC-17
Category: Movieverse./AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and no one. Sad, isn’t it!
Feedback: Please, bad or good. If no one tells me it’s bad, I won’t know!

**********************

Logan swam across to the far jetty, and, taking a massive breath, he ducked under it and came out the other side of Palmer’s boat. He came up for air and shook his head off like a wet dog, water rippling off his muscles. He couldn’t see Scott from where he was, and he couldn’t see the BMW with Marie either. He smirked to himself; she was probably still grumping over the cuff on her wrist. Then he frowned, wondering if it was the right thing to do. It probably didn’t make her think that he trusted her. He shook his head again, groaning at his own thoughts. He couldn’t be thinking about this now. If he was honest, this was all about her, keeping her safe, saving her, because ultimately she would save him. She would make his life better, worth living. He would have to do some serious making up, and he knew it.

There was a buoy hung over the side of the boat. Logan reached up and pulled himself up with it. He was then able to listen at a small window in the side of the boat. He could hear Markham and Palmer talking, but not Creed. He couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but at least he knew they were both there. He gently lowered himself back into the water.

He moved around to the front of the boat and tried to look down the jetty to get a look at Scott’s location. He spotted him behind a small rowboat and signalled to him to try and get closer. Thankfully for Scott, the marina was well-packed, and he had plenty of cover. Scott moved out from behind the small boat and silently helped Logan get up onto the jetty.

“Palmer and Markham are inside on a lower deck. I don’t know where Creed is.” Logan kept his voice very low, almost a whisper. Scott did the same when he spoke back.

“I haven’t seen him, but the bastard can’t be far away. Let’s get up on that boat before he comes back, and we have a three-to-two situation.” They checked the jetties behind them and slowly climbed up the boat’s ladder onto the deck at the rear.

*********************************

Meanwhile, Marie tried to struggle to the other side of the car to get away from Creed, but he leaned his body in and blocked her against the seat. He took a key out of his pocket and undid the cuff on her wrist. She briefly wondered how he would have the key for it when they were Logan’s cuffs, but didn’t have much time to think as he grabbed her wrists and dragged her roughly out of the car, making her fall to her knees before he hauled her up and after him. She figured that Markham must have some kind of master key, or did cops all carry the same cuffs so they only needed one key? And why was she thinking about this now?

She shook herself as Creed walked towards the wooden platform that led to the boat jetties, dragging her along. She tried to struggle free, but she realised that he was as strong as Logan if not stronger and that worried her more than a little. As he dragged her past some small boats that she had seen Scott use as cover, she wondered if – no, when - it came to it, would Logan or Scott be able to take him?

Panic began to creep into her mind as he spoke on his walkie-talkie: what if Logan and Scott couldn’t pull this off and it all went wrong? What if one of them got hurt? Scott was married, he had a child, this could go horribly wrong. What if Creed or Palmer or even Markham decided to kill her right there and then? She wouldn’t stand a chance. She knew basic self-defence, but it was nothing really – quick boot to the family jewels and run, not a lot more.

She yanked on her wrist. Creed turned and pushed her up against a mooring pole. Her head hit the pole, and it made a metallic ring. She winced at the pain. “We can do this the easy way, which is you come with me and let me blow your brains out, then I dump your body over the side of that boat. Or we can do it the hard way.” He got close to her face. “Which is I beat you around first.” He ran a large finger down the side of her cheek. “Ethan says you like that. Sure I can find other things you like just as well. Make you scream my name, or even better,” he got right in her face, “beg me to stop.”

She closed her eyes and cringed at the plain innuendo of his words. Then, quicker than he could register, she brought her knee up and hit him as hard as she physically could in the groin. He doubled over in pain, and she managed to scramble away from him and run along the jetty. Seeing the boat not that far ahead of her, she kept going, hoping that she could make it before Creed caught up with her. But she looked behind her to see his position and slipped on the wet jetty. She got to her feet, and she screamed as Creed grabbed her by the hair and smashed her face into the wood jetty.

Logan and Scott crept round the deck of the boat to the main door to the inside living room. They could hear low voices and then the crackle of a walkie-talkie. Logan held up his hand and three fingers, a gesture that they should bust through the door on three. He got down to one when he heard a woman shout in pain.

Gun raised, he spun round just in time to see Creed smash Marie’s face into the floor of the jetty. “NO!”

It was all the distraction and warning that Palmer and Markham needed. Scott shouted to Logan. “GO!” Logan jumped over the side of the boat onto the jetty, landed square on his feet, and started off in a dead run towards Creed.

Palmer burst through the door on the boat and knocked Scott backwards. He managed to get one shot off before Markham kicked the gun out of his hand and hit him over the head with a chair. Scott shook it off and got to his feet, blocked Markham’s next punch, and hit him in the stomach. Markham’s overweight frame buckled under the punch, and he stumbled backwards inside the boat.

Scott looked over at Palmer. He was doubled over, holding his stomach and whining in pain. Blood covered his hands. Scott gave a snort and followed Markham into the boat. He was bent over a cabinet, desperately trying to shove bullets into his gun. “A little tip. Join this century, and get an automatic!” He grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him round, punching him hard in the face when he was level with him.

With his added weight and low fitness, Markham was out of breath and no match for Scott. Two more hard swift punches to his face, and Markham was facedown and unconscious, blood pouring from his nose and eyebrow. Scott took out his cuffs, pulled the man’s chubby arms behind his back, and secured the cuffs tightly. If it were anyone else, he would have admitted that he’d done it a little tighter than was probably necessary. “You have the right to remain unconscious!” He didn’t notice that Palmer had moved, not until he felt the heavy chain snap around his neck and pull tight in Palmer’s grip. Scott choked and reached for the chain that was beginning to cut into his skin.

***********************************

Logan fired his gun and hit Creed in the shoulder. Creed fell heavily on the jetty and rolled away from Marie in pain. Logan ran to her and turned her over. He was so focussed on her that he didn’t think twice about turning his back on Creed. “Marie! Baby, please look at me!” She weakly opened her eyes; there was blood coming from her nose and her lip.

A sharp kick in Logan’s back brought him back to the realisation that Creed was still there. Logan stumbled forward, and as he landed on his front, his gun slid out of his hand and completely out of his reach. He turned over on his back as Creed gripped Marie’s hair and pulled her flush against him. Logan sat up and was about to get up when Creed held a knife to her throat. “Stay down, runt!”

“Let her go. We don’t need her to settle this.” He slowly got up and put his hands up as a gesture for Creed to calm down. Marie was scared stiff.

“You know what? You’re right.” With that, Creed relaxed his grip on Marie and pushed her into the water. She made a small splash, and the cold water seemed to wake her up a bit because she gasped and managed to cling to the side of a small boat.

Creed launched himself at Logan, the knife in his hand cutting Logan’s right bicep and running blood down his wet arm. They fell back, Creed on top trying to get the knife across his throat. Logan struggled, with his arms keeping the large blade just away from his skin.

Logan got a hand free and hit Creed in the stomach, giving him a chance to get to his feet. When Creed stood, Logan kicked him in the chest and then in the face. Creed went down and fumbled at his ankle, getting out a small gun, but before he could raise it at Logan, Logan grabbed it and turned it back on Creed. As they fell to the ground again, the gun went off.

*********************************

Palmer pulled the chain tighter and tighter as Scott got weaker. He pushed Scott forward until he was virtually lying on the floor of the cabin. Scott’s face was dark red, his mouth constantly open, gasping for air. He had one hand on the chain trying to loosen it, and the other was scrabbling around on the floor trying to find the gun that Markham had been trying to use a moment ago. He couldn’t find it, and finally his world turned black.

Once Scott felt limp, Palmer let go of the chain and dropped it to the floor, just as he heard a gun go off. Clutching his injured stomach, he staggered outside the boat cabin. He looked down the jetty and saw Marie trying to get up out of the water. He watched Logan stand up and moving away from Creed. He could see the growing dark patch of red on the jetty. Palmer looked around him frantically. If he was to survive and have any kind of life he needed Marie dead, she knew way too much and he knew that Logan would probably kill him if he saw him. He quickly found Scott’s gun behind him and got off the boat.

****************************************

Logan stood up and turned around; his adrenaline was pumping wildly. Marie was half up on the jetty out of the water. He smiled; she was ok. A little shaken and hurt, but she was ok. He was four or five strides from her when she made it up and stood up, shaking slightly from the cold. He looked at her face and smiled. He was about to say something when he looked past her slightly and saw Palmer on the jetty pointing a gun at her. “GET DOWN!” He quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her behind him onto the jetty as three shots broke the silence.

The first hit Logan in the left thigh. He shouted and fell to his knees. The second hit him in his chest, and the third in his right shoulder. He fell back coughing and bringing up blood. Marie screamed his name and crawled to him, trying to get him to focus on her.

“Logan… please...” she began to sob. His blood was all over her hands, and it was soaking into her jeans. “No, please no!” She didn’t hear Palmer approach until he got a handful of her hair and dragged her away from Logan and up the jetty a few yards. Logan painfully rolled onto his side, moving his head so he could see her. He couldn’t move. He could feel his blood slowly filling one of his lungs, and he coughed and spat blood onto the wood.

Marie sobbed harder as Palmer pushed her to her knees and rested the gun at the back of her head as he spoke to Logan. “You get to watch her die. Then I get to watch you die. So it’s win-win, asshole!”

Marie screwed her eyes shut as tight as she could. She jumped as the gun fired, but it wasn’t Palmer’s gun. It was the one Scott was holding. The hand holding her hair suddenly relaxed, and Ethan fell to the ground with a loud thump.

Scott had shot him from the deck of the boat. He got off the boat and ran to Palmer. He had hit him between the eyes; Palmer hadn’t had time to blink. He laid there, his lifeless eyes open to the sky. Scott ran to Logan and called to Marie who sat on her knees in shock. “You ok?”

She nodded, coming to her senses and crawling back to Logan. He was coughing and moaning in pain. Scott got up and ran back to the boat as fast as he could. Thirty seconds later, he ran back with what looked like a large tablecloth. He ripped it in half and then half again. He gave a smaller piece to Marie. “Here…” He took her hands, put the cloth in them, and held them against the wound in Logan’s shoulder. “Press it as hard as you can.” She nodded frantically, pushing it into Logan’s wound and sobbing again as he winced and coughed at the excruciating pain.

He wrapped the other small piece around Logan’s thigh and tied it in a tight knot just above the wound. Logan jumped as he pulled it tight. “Sorry, buddy.” The last piece of cloth Scott bunched up and put it over the gun shot wound on Logan’s chest, and he pressed hard with one hand. His other hand he used to fish around in his pocket and pull out his cell phone. He dialled 911 and spoke quickly. “This is Officer Scott Summers of Unit Xavier-fifteen-thirty. I’m at Deep Creek Marina on Barren Island. I have an officer down, repeat officer down. Three GSW’s to the chest, shoulder and leg. He is in need of immediate medical attention. Inform Office Elizabeth Braddock of our location, and that we have apprehended Simon Markham. Yeah… ETA?...Thanks.”

He snapped his phone shut and dropped it on the deck, not caring where it went. “They’re on their way, Logan, just hold on for me, ok?”

Marie was still crying. She bent her head, gently kissing the side of Logan’s paling face. He was blinking slowly and having trouble swallowing. His vision swan, making the world around him blurry, but he knew she was there. He could feel the softness of her lips against his skin; he could feel her with him.

Scott tried to think of anything he could do that would help, but there wasn’t. He wasn’t medically trained, and he had no idea what to do other than apply pressure to the wounds and hope the paramedics got there in time.

He was cursing them to hurry after five minutes when he heard the wail of police and ambulance sirens. He took one of Marie’s hands that was on Logan’s shoulder and put it on the cloth on his chest. He noticed briefly with a sinking feeling in his stomach that the blood had soaked through to his hand; he knew that wasn’t good. “Keep the pressure on. I’ll tell them where we are.”

“Ok... pressure, ok.” She watched him run off and then looked back to Logan’s face. He had closed his eyes. “Hey, you have to stay awake, Logan please.” He weakly opened his eyes. “That’s it, stay with me. We have so much that …we need to do.” She spoke to him softly, sobbing with her words. “We haven’t even been on a date yet, and I want Warren to get …to know you, so… you have to stay awake.” Her light sobs became heaving great sobs as she carried on talking. “I’ve only just found… you, Logan, …d …don’t leave me, please, now!”

“Shhh… don’t cry.” He reached up and touched her lips with his thumb, just like he had done so many times over the last couple of days. She noticed how much his hand shook, and she took it in hers, closing her eyes to kiss it. His hand relaxed and slipped out of hers. She opened her eyes to find his closed. Panic took her as she look at him – his face, his chest, she watched it, waiting for it to rise, but it didn’t.

“SCOTT!”

Scott took off up the jetty, running as fast as he could, his jacket flapping around his elbows as he did. All he could think was that Logan had to be ok. Logan annoyed him a thousand different ways a thousand times a day. He was a major pain in the ass, and he could be a complete prick at times, but apart from Jean, he was the only person in the world he trusted - his best friend, family.

Two paramedics and a handful of police officers, some in uniform, some plain clothes, were coming across the car park towards him. He stopped and waved his arms. “OVER HERE!” As the paramedics were level with him and he was just about to tell them about Logan’s condition, he heard Marie scream his name. He turned to her and watched frozen to the spot as she lowered her head to Logan’s chest and cried his name. The paramedics and a female police officer ran to her and moved her out of the way so that the paramedics could look after him. One did chest compressions while the other put a mask and breathing bag over his mouth to make him breath. Marie collapsed onto the officer but refused to be taken away from him. His blood was all over her. Scott just stood and watched from afar, afraid that if he went back he would hear something he didn’t want to.

He knew he should move, should go back and comfort Marie, the same way that he would be comforting Jean and Ellie later on, but he couldn't. Couldn’t face it. Someone touched his arm. He turned and saw Betsy. She rubbed his arms as she spoke gently to him. “Where’s Markham?”

Scott gestured towards the boat. “In there. He’s cuffed.” She nodded, signalling to the officers waiting behind her. They ran past them, past Logan and Marie straight to the boat. Noticing his neck, Betsy tried to look at it, but he moved her hand away. “It doesn’t matter now.” He rubbed his hand over his face and finally turned away from the devastating scene in front of him.

**************END OF PART NINE

Title: Unconditional 10/10
Author: sharonmjl47
Rating: NC-17
Category: Movieverse./AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and no one. Sad, isn’t it!
Feedback: Please, bad or good. If no one tells me it’s bad, I won’t know!

**********************

Scott stared into the fridge and sighed. He was tired. The last month had been hard, more emotionally than physically for him, but it was still hard. There had been a lot of explaining to be done, mountains of paperwork and countless sleepless and restless nights. Most of those nights had been spent sitting beside Logan’s hospital bed, listening to the unsettling sound of machines beeping and whirring to keep him breathing until he was well enough to do it on his own. It had been awful to sit and watch and wait for any sign that Logan was alive. Jean came everyday but couldn’t stay more than fifteen minutes each time; she found it too hard and begged Scott to stay in her place. He had, and spoke to Marie most days.

About halfway through the second week, he’d been asleep in the armchair and when he had woken up Logan was slowly regaining consciousness and trying to pull out his ventilation tube, he was too weak to manage it and the doctors did it for him. After a while of rest he was grumbling and swearing at the nearest nurse that he was fine and didn’t need all the scaffolding.

Scott grabbed the bottle of beer in front of him and called to his daughter. “Ellie…” She ran in from the garden, her red ponytail swinging happily behind her. “Here, take this to your uncle and tell him to quite moaning.”

“Yes, daddy.” She laughed as she ran back out to Logan with his beer. Scott looked at them through the window. Logan was sprawled on a sun lounger in his normal jeans. Because of the hot sun, he had taken his shirt off and laid there bare-chested. The only difference was the walking stick propped up by his side and the heavy strapping across part of his chest. He had taken off the simple cloth sling his arm had been in.

They’d picked him up from the hospital that morning. He shouldn’t be out yet, but he had insisted he’d had enough and discharged himself. He hated being poked and prodded and examined, ‘till he had just said, ‘Right that’s it, let me out!’ He had complained and moaned all the way from the hospital. He was tired, aching, and he hadn’t even seen Marie. He had spoken to her and Warren on the phone several times, but he hadn’t actually seen them. Scot had heard him talking to Marie about their future and what they wanted.

She couldn’t go to the hospital, they had been kept in a safehouse, while Markham was brought to trial. Internal Affairs had insisted on it being done quickly, given the nature of the case and the potential fallout for the police force if the press got hold of the details. Scott was positive that was another reason Logan wanted out of the hospital today: the trial had been held over the past two weeks and now it was all over. Even though it was very unusual for it all to be completed so quickly, it was finally over and done with. Marie and Warren were safe.

Markham pleaded not guilty and refused to answer any of the questions asked him. Unluckily for him, the goon that Scott and Logan had arrested miraculously remembered everything he had heard while working for Markham, Palmer and Creed. Markham had been on a trip to Vegas when he met Palmer; he had still been working in Seattle and had gone for the gambling and his taste for young girls. He had known Creed for around 10 years. Creed found his girls for him, for a fee, and got rid of them when he was finished. Palmer saw an opportunity to make money, and Markham basically exploited that for his own end. They worked together, using Creed to find the girls and in some cases little boys too, then farmed them out to the porn industry overseas or for sex, and Markham could get his kicks for free, saying he was ‘breaking them in’ for what was to come.

The court was a closed court, but the judge and jury were disgusted. Scott had given evidence, and a statement by Logan was read to the Court, as well as a statement taken by a social worker for Warren. With all that combined with the testimony from Marie and the goon, Markham was given a life sentence with no chance of parole.

Scott had sat there through the whole thing, and he had hugged Marie afterwards. She had asked after Logan, and they had talked about his recovery and how he was getting pissed off being in hospital. Soon after, she was taken back to the safehouse to collect Warren and all her things.

Their police chief had come to the hospital and given them both a severe dressing down for their actions. For taking a witness, i.e. Marie, to the scene of a crime and endangering her life, for leaving another vulnerable witness unguarded, i.e. Warren, for taking off their badges and going after Markham, for going after Markham period, not requesting backup or even informing Internal Affairs of their plan. Scott knew they were both lucky not to have to face disciplinary action. God, they were both lucky to be alive. The chief had decided to be lenient as Markham was brought down and his organised paedophilia was over.

Scott sighed again, but smiled as a delicate pair of hands encircled his waist from behind. “Hey, penny for them?”

“Just thinking about things and how they could have turned out very differently.” He turned and kissed his wife gently.

“I got my brother and my husband back in one piece. It turned out fine to me.” They both turned towards the front of the house when they heard the car pull up and the horn honk. She smiled, practically bouncing in front of him, and he rolled his eyes. “You distract him, and I’ll get the door.”

Scott huffed and walked out into the garden to hear Ellie giggling uncontrollably while Logan tickled her. “Uncle Logan, no more! Please!”

“Logan, put her down. You’ll tear your stitches out, for Christ’s sake.”

Logan put Ellie the right way up, and she laughed as she ran off to play on her swing set. Logan stretched and held his arm. “Scott, my chest is just sore. The rest of me feels fine.” To prove his point, he circled his arm over his head. He winced a little, but the pain was minimal. “See, no problem.”

Scott shook his head and picked up Logan’s shirt, tossing it at him. “Put your shirt on. We have visitors.”

Logan put his shirt on and started to button it up. “Visitors. Who?”

Scott never got to answer. Jean’s voice cut through and called to Ellie, “Ellie, you have a visitor.”

Logan chuckled. “Oh, she’s got a friend round to play, huh? Guess you don’t want me to give her mother a show. I mean, I wouldn’t want her fawning all over my injuries. You know, the ones I got saving the world.” He chuckled again at his own joke.

Scott crossed his arms and frowned. “Logan please, you couldn’t even save yourself.”

“Oh, I don’t know. He did a pretty good job before he got himself shot!” Both men turned at the sound of a female voice.

Logan smiled, revealing his teeth in a dazzling and genuine smile of relief and happiness. “Marie!” He limped the three steps it took to get to her and winced as he wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to his chest.

Scott wandered inside as Marie spoke into Logan’s chest. “Are you ok?”

She untangled herself from him, and she couldn’t help her gaze from sweeping over his large frame. He noticed and smirked, stepped back a little, scratching the back of his neck. “I am now, darlin’. Where’s Warren?”

“He’s inside, Jean wanted him to meet Ellie.” He smiled at her then frowned and ran his finger down and through a white streak of hair that was now framing her face.

She gasped slightly, and her eyes darted to watch his finger and then back to his face, blushing furiously at the fact that an ‘almost’ touch from him could make her gasp. “Let’s just say I’m never letting Jubes do my hair again.” The white streaks framed her pale face and looked exotic against her shining brown hair. She had straightened it, it shined and hung close against her shoulders perfectly.

He nodded. “I kinda like it.” He brushed his fingers through it again. When they ran out of hair, he held them close to her and traced up her collarbone to her neck and then her cheek, before slipping into the back of her hair. His other hand fiddled with her jacket and finally came to rest on her hip, pulling her towards him. Her eyes were glued to his as he caressed her hair, and then she smiled as he gently traced her bottom lip with his thumb. “We kinda need to talk, don’t we?”

He watched as she bit her lip and nodded. He wanted to be her teeth; they were lucky. They had her plump, wet bottom lip trapped between them. He watched as it was gently released. He couldn’t stop himself: he kissed her quick and hard, the grip on her cheek and hip increasing with his desire.

She pushed on his chest. “Mmm… yeah.” He backed away from her just as Warren ran out into the garden.

“Hey mom, look, Ellie has a PSP just like mine, and it can connect with mine, and we can play Super Mario against one another and …. Oh hi, Officer Howlett.”

“Hi ya, kid. How ya doing?” Logan smiled down at the boy, who beamed up at him, hero-worship evident on his little face.

Warren stood up straight and squared his shoulders a little. He wanted to look big and strong for Logan. He knew how much he liked his mother, and he certainly knew how much she liked him, so he wanted him to stick around. “I’m good, sir.” Logan looked at Warren and then back to his mother. He smirked, and then he slung his arm across the boy’s shoulders and walked him to the sun lounger to sit down. Marie held back but watched them closely. He sat down, wincing a little, and Warren sat next to him.

“You alright, sir?”

Logan chuckled. “Quit the ‘sir’. I keep telling you to call me Logan.”

Warren smiled. “Ok. Logan.”

“Last month or so has been a little crazy, hasn’t it?”

“A little.”

Marie sat down the other side of Warren and out her arm around him.

“But you ok with everything? Understand why it all happened the way it did?”

Warren shrugged. “I guess. Mom explained about my grandparents.”

“I’m sorry Warren, I really am. I’m sorry that we couldn’t stop that, couldn’t help and ….end this quicker for you. There was a lot of things that your father shouldn’t have done, but it’s over now.”

“Mom said that you saved her life.”

Logan smiled and didn’t really know what to say. “Kinda, yeah. I promised, remember?” Marie looked a little puzzled when she heard him say that. She hadn’t realised that they had had any kind of conversation where Logan could promise him anything.

“Yeah, I remember. You said before that you wanted to stick around, are you still gonna?”

“Straight to the point, huh, kid? Look, I know it’s been just you and your mom for a while, but I would like to be around as well. I want to be in your life. But me and your mom have to make sure you’re ok with that.”

Warren looked quickly at his mother, then back to Logan. “She likes watching movies on the couch, what about you?”

“Movies are good. None of that romantic stuff though.” Warren shook his head and giggled. “I would like to get to know you a little more. We could do stuff together, if you wanted. I know you said before you liked some sports and bikes?”

“Yeah, I like bikes, but mostly I like lizards and reptiles. But not spiders.” He pulled a nasty face at the thought of spiders. Marie smiled brightly at the two of them, liking the way they got on easily.

“Nah, spiders aren’t a good thing, not so keen on them myself. But hey, did you know that there is a reptile house uptown and a zoo? We could do that, maybe take Ellie, or you know, do it as a guys’ day out.”

Warren wrinkled his nose. “Ellie’s kinda clingy.”

Logan chuckled. “Yeah, she’s a little too much like her mother. Give her a week, and she’ll be picking out drapes and matching cushions!” Warren looked confused at his comment. “Never mind.”

“Are you gonna move in with us?”

Logan was slightly taken aback and smiled when Marie fielded the question. “We have talked about it, but we wanted to wait until we were back home before any permanent decisions were made.”

“Warren. I would like to be around all the time. Is that what you want?”

Warren shrugged. “There’re no more bad guys, are there?”

Logan sighed. “There’s always gonna be a bad guy, kid, but that’s what guys like me and Scott are for, to make sure they get caught and that they don’t hurt the people that we care about.”

“Mom gets lonely, and she cries sometimes. She thinks I don’t know, but I see her.” Marie was completely stunned and put her hand over her mouth; she thought that she did a good job of keeping her emotions a secret from him. “So I guess it would be ok with me, if you were there with us. She’d be happy…” He shrugged again and hugged his mother tightly. “So would I.” Warren buried his face in Marie’s shoulder and she kissed him on the top of his head. He then untangled from her got up and stood in front of Logan, looked at his mother, then back to Logan and took a deep breath. “I’m only ten. I know I’m kinda small, but, if you hurt her like he did, I’ll…I’ll find a way to...”

“Warren!” Marie stepped forward and was about to tell him off for being so rude when Logan put his hand up to stop her.

“No, Marie, he has a right to defend you.”

She sat back down so she was facing him at eye level. “Warren honey, I would never put you in that position again. I love you. And I’m never ever going to let that happen again. I know - I know I didn't always protect you, but I promise you from now on, with everything I’ve got, I will always. Warren, honey, I'm sorry for everything, I really am. Logan is not that kind of man. He's a good man, and he's not going to hurt me. He's not going to hurt either of us.”

Logan smiled at Warren and chuckled, proud of his boldness. He held out his hand to Warren. “You give me a chance to prove I’ll look after the two of you, and we have a deal?”

Warren took his hand and shook it with a brilliant smile. He kissed his mother on the cheek, then without another word, he ran back off into the house and back to his game with Ellie.

“Logan, I am so sorry. He has never been that cheeky to anyone….” Marie was completely astounded at her son’s words, she felt in a lot of ways ashamed of herself. She had willingly put her son in a position of danger by staying with a man that abused her. No wonder he thought that making threats was the way to resolve things, but she promised herself that it would all change, they would have a good life, a fresh start.

Logan took her in his arms again. “Hey, it’s fine, really. I don’t have a problem with it. The kid has every right to defend you. You’re all he has, Marie, and he’s not willing to lose that or let anyone else hurt you. You should be proud of him for it. A lot of kids would have disappeared into a little shell never to be seen again. He’s dealing with it, I do think that maybe a lot of it is all bravado and a month or so down the road he’s gonna flip out, but your amazing with him and he’ll be ok. He’s a good kid, darlin’.”

“I am proud of him, very proud.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “So, now that you and my son have life worked out, maybe we should talk?” He chuckled and sat back down on the lounger. She took off her denim jacket and sat with him.

“The big talk, huh?” He winced a little as he tried to sit comfortably.

“Yeah, the big talk.” She fiddled a little with the hem of her brown sweater. “Actually I’m not so sure that we need to have ‘the talk’. We pretty much have it sorted out. I still want you to move in, if you want to.”

“I want to, we can’t really move into mine anyway I’ve only got one bedroom, so unless you want to sleep on the couch…”

“I don’t have a problem with your couch…” she smiled cheekily and bit her lip. “In fact, I think it’s kind of comfy!”

He smirked and nodded at her. “Kinda partial to it myself. It’s nice and bouncy!”

She blushed, clearing her throat in an attempt to ignore the heat pooling at her centre at the mere thought of what happened on his couch. “Seriously though, I think getting a completely new place would be too much upheaval for Warren.”

“You’re right.” He took her hand and rubbed the sensitive spot in between her thumb and forefinger.

She cleared her throat again, complicated sentences failing her. She stuck with simple ones. “So, you definitely in with us then.”

“Look Marie, I’m not good with the amazing romantic conversations. I’m kinda blunt, and that’s about it. Trust is a big thing, *the* thing with me, and I have more than a few issues with it, but I will always be honest with you.”

She frowned a little, she knew there was something else bothering his thoughts. “There’s a ‘but’ coming, isn’t there?”

“Yeah.” He turned and sat straddled across the lounger. “Like I said to Warren, there’s always gonna be a bad guy, and I can’t help but think that living with me and this job isn’t ever going to be easy for you…”

“Hey, it’s my choice. I want to be with you. Warren wants to be with you.” She was smiling, and she was pleased that she sounded so confident and sure of herself. She had spent a lot of time over the last month dissecting how she felt about him. Now that she was here with him, she knew she loved him, unconditionally. She’d also spent a lot of time thinking about the effect all of this could or would have on Warren. She knew he needed someone who he could trust, someone who could provide stability, and she knew that Logan would stick around.

He leaned forward and kissed her, gently slipping his tongue into her mouth and savouring her taste, a taste he had missed. She pulled away from him and blushed at the reaction he brought out in her. She cursed herself. She really needed to stop all the blushing; it was starting to piss her off!

His heart felt tight, realising he did love her. “Like I said before, I don’t really do feelings and stuff, but I hope you know how I feel about you. Marie, I want this for keeps, and I’ll say it, I will, but I …..”

She touched his face. “I know. Trust is a big thing. I trust you, Logan. Let’s start there, ok? And as for the job, I think as long as you at least attempt not to get shot, I’ll be happy!”

“Trust me, I did not plan on getting shot. It really wasn’t high on my agenda, darlin’.” He leaned in close to kiss her again, but she stopped him.

“For something that wasn’t high on your agenda, sugar, you sure did a good job of it.”

He chuckled again. “Did you just call me, sugar?” He looked like a Cheshire cat that had just been given a big bowl of cream.

“Possibly. It’s a southern thing!” She flustered a little as she spoke.

He got close to her and nuzzled in her neck, pretending to ‘growl’ a little. “Well, I like a little bit of southern comfort!” He nipped her neck for good measure, making her skin come out in goose bumps.

“Get off, you big ape!” She pushed him away, her face sobering up. “Since we are being honest, there is one thing I should tell you that I haven’t and probably should have mentioned at some point over the last few weeks.”

“Ok, shoot.” He kept a hold of her hand.

“You remember when we…uh, you know on the couch?”

He chuckled at her blushing face. “Yeah!”

“Well, I said I was ‘fixed’. Well, I am, but…I…” She blew out a big breath. “Logan, I’m ‘fixed’ because after Warren, I can’t have children.”

He stroked her face and smiled; she could see a little sadness in his face. “It’s ok, darlin’. We got all we need.”

She giggled and kissed him quickly. “Ok.” He caught her bottom lip as she pulled back and sucked on it before letting it go. She giggled again. “So keep it like we agreed, a week for Warren to get settled again, and then you move you stuff in?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey!” They both jumped and turned to see Scott leaning on the back door frame. “When the two of you have stopped necking like a couple of horny teenagers, lunch is ready.”

Logan flipped him the finger. “Whatever, Scooter!”

“Why do you call him Scooter?” Logan looked at her and then Scott and smirked.

Scott pointed an angry finger at him. “You ever tell anyone that and I’ll repeat a few choice nicknames you’ve had, one of which may sound scary, but it’s nothing more than a small stinky weasel!” When both Logan and Marie started laughing at him, he huffed and went back inside.

As they agreed, a week later he arrived on her doorstep with Scott and Ellie in tow, helping him move his stuff in with hers. Most of his furniture he had sold, other stuff he put in his garage lock-up with his old motorbike, but his couch and matching armchairs he had kept. Marie had insisted: one) because it was in far better condition than her suite, and two) she said it was bouncy!

They were moving stuff here and there. Warren and Ellie spent most of the time in Warren’s room on his game console, and Scott and Logan bickered and laughed like a couple of children. Marie kept giggling at them. By lunchtime, Jubes had turned up to help. She flirted shamelessly with Scott, and he either had the good grace not to mention it or he really didn’t notice.

Jubes had brought some beers with her. She and Marie went into the kitchen to open them up while Scott and Logan moved the couch, again.

“Girl, you need to stop flirting with him. You know he’s married.”

Jubes took a swig of beer. “So, I know. Who cares?”

“Jubes, no offence and as beautiful as you are, his wife looks like a fricking supermodel.”

“Marie, my chica, there are statistically eight women in the world that look like supermodels, and eight million that don’t. Even if she is amazing-looking, I bet she has huge ears, or stinky feet, or she’s secretly an evil homicidal maniac who wants to obliterate the world into tiny little iddy biddy bits!”

Marie took a sip of her beer and pointed the neck of the bottle at Jubes. “You worry me, you really do.”

Scott poked his head into the kitchen. “Hey, the kids were getting kind of bored. I was going to take them for ice cream. You don’t mind, do you?”

“No, of course not.”

Jubes butted in. “Can you give me a lift to the diner, if you’re going past it?”

“Yes, of course.” He turned and went back into the living room to pick up his jacket and keys.

Marie pointed at Jubes again. “DO NOT grope him in the car with the kids.”

She put her hands up in defence. “Ok… I’ll wait till they get out.”

“Jubilee!” Jubes ran from the kitchen to catch up with Scott and the kids.

Walking back into the main room, a strong pair of arms appeared around her waist. “Hey, sexy.”

“Hey yourself.” She turned in his arms to kiss him. He nuzzled her neck and licked the soft spot just behind her ear. Then she hissed as he nipped it. “Mmmmm… Logan we should try and get some…ugh yeah, right there!”

He picked her up, her legs wrapping around him instinctively, and walked into the bedroom while nipping and kissing her neck. When he felt the bed against his shins, he let them both fall onto it with a bounce.

As he raised himself up to take her mouth furiously, the radio that had been playing all day started to play a dance song with a heavy bass beat. Somewhere in her brain she recognised it, and she felt like it was matching her racing heartbeat.

Sliding her hands up his t-shirt felt like heaven. He stopped kissing her long enough for her to get it over his head. The second it hit the floor, he was back to her mouth, then kissing her along her jaw back to her neck. His hands pulled apart her thin purple blouse and cupped her fleshy breasts, causing her to moan loudly against his cheek. He smiled, marvelling in the feel of her as well as the feeling being with her gave him.

She lifted up, and he sat back on his heels while she took off her blouse and then slowly her bra, keeping eye contact all the time. His chest was heaving up and down; she touched his chest where he had been shot, nothing more than fading yellow bruises now and an angry looking scar. She smiled; he had done that for her. Nearly died for her.

When she lay down under him again, he just looked his fill at her. She watched as his eyes roamed over every inch of her chest, face and neck. He smiled and lowered himself slowly so that he could lick her nipples. He sucked and licked on one until it went firm in his mouth, then he swapped to the other until it did the same.

She moaned and writhed under him as he nipped and licked his way back up to that perfect spot behind her ear. She tried to stop him by pushing her face against him, but he knew she liked it. Slipping one hand into the back of her hair, he yanked her head back out of the way, so he could suck on her skin and mark it to his heart’s content.

He heard her gasp and briefly wondered if it was too much after everything she had been through. He probably shouldn’t be rough with her, but then her body arched into his, and he could feel the heat of her core through all the denim, and he knew it wasn’t too much. It was just enough.

Her hands skimmed down his chest and began to open his jeans. He had kicked off his shoes ages ago along with his socks, so when she pushed his jeans down, he got them the rest of the way off without any trouble. He let go of her hair and her breast and undid her jeans, yanked them off her toned legs taking her panties with them without breaking their steamy kisses. She hadn’t had shoes on all day so it was easy.

He slid down her body, kissing all the way. When he reached her triangle of soft curls, he nuzzled into her and sucked hungrily on her clit. She arched into him, nearly off the bed, and gasped his name. She had never had this done to her, and her naivety was leading to curiosity. She sat up so she could see what he was doing. She watched as he sucked and licked at her, sending shockwaves through her every time he got her clit. One hand held her up off the bed, and she had the other one buried in his unruly hair, holding him to her as her hips bucked onto his lips and tongue uncontrollably.

She gave a sharp shout and collapsed onto the bed when she couldn’t hold off her orgasm any longer. She lay there panting and smiled hazily as Logan kissed his way back up to her lips, moaning when his lips met hers, and his tongue pushed hungrily into her mouth.

Gripping her thigh, he smiled against her lips as he positioned himself between her splayed legs. He pulled away from her lips. He wanted to ask her if she was sure, if this was definitely what she wanted, but the words never came, and he could only stare into her eyes. She smiled gently and wound her arms around his neck, pulling him back for another kiss. She raised her thigh to brush against his skin, and he couldn’t hold back any longer. One thrust, and he was in her completely.

He stayed still for a second or two and then begun thrusting into her sharply, his rapid breath making her lips hot. His hand found its way back into her hair, gripping her so her head was tipped back and he could lick her throat. The other hand was on her thigh; he slid it forward to her hip and dug his fingers in as he brought her hips back to meet him.

She dug her fingers into his biceps and screamed his name as she came. He moaned loudly into her neck and slammed into her one last time before collapsing onto her, both of them breathing heavily.

Logan rolled to the side and took her with him. She snuggled closer and kissed the top of his nose as he spoke. “I didn’t mean to be like that.”

“How did you mean to be, then?”

“Slow, careful with you. I don’t ever want to hurt you, and I sure as hell don’t want to scare you.”

She slid on top of him and straddled his groin. “I love you. And I trust you. Slow and careful’s nice, but that was damn good, too. I want to experience everything with you Logan, good and bad and there’s gonna be stuff that’ll hurt and stuff that’ll scare me, but I trust you, with all of it.”

He quickly switched their positions so he was on top again. “Good. ‘Cause I love you, too.”

He kissed her, and she could feel his erection start to build next to her thigh. He was about to kiss her when the door opened and Scott’s voice called out. “Hey, we’re back, got snow cones for everyone! Hello?”

Her eyes went wide, and they both flew off the bed in search of their clothes, in unison saying the same thing. “SHIT!”

********END