Logan was parked on the side of the road waiting for Marie, as had become their routine over the last five months. Now that she was heavily pregnant Logan had extracted a promise from her friends - one afternoon when they had snuck over to visit unknown to their teachers - that one of them would drive Marie to and from the roadside, so she didn't have to walk. Her doctor had prescribed bed rest but Marie, being her usual stubborn self was refusing to bow out of school just yet, she was confident that, as she still had a month to go, she was going to see out the couple of weeks until the end of the term.
The car that was coming down the driveway now, at the time he was expecting Marie, was unfamiliar though. So he was surprised when the car stopped, and Marie got out, waving back into the vehicle before she rushed across the road with a beaming smile lighting up her face.
"Hey babe," Logan greeted her, with a quick kiss, before he helped her into her seat, the truck wasn't the easiest vehicle to get into when you had a massive baby belly he had noticed. He made his way back to the driver’s seat, and waited until Marie had her seatbelt on, before he swung the truck around and pointed it in the direction of home. The car that had dropped Marie off pulled out too, heading in the same direction.
"Who's that?" Logan asked curiously, nodding behind them.
"Okay, don't freak out... that's my parents," Marie said, so nervous she was holding her breath waiting for his reaction.
Logan paused for a moment. "Uh, okay... they're coming back to our place I take it?" he clarified, as calmly as he could. Meeting his teenage baby mamas' parents had been the last thing on his mind today, actually ever, but it looked like he'd have to get used to the idea quickly.
"Yeah," Marie replied, still nervous, "I'm sorry, I know I should have asked, but the Professor was all like, 'you can move back in and stay with your parents', and Jean was being a bitch, and I just blurted out that they could stay with us while they're in town, and--"
"It's okay Marie," Logan interrupted her with a soft smile. "Baby, they're your parents, they're welcome at our home, and you are welcome to invite them, and anyone else you want, I'm not your keeper for gods sake, you don't need my permission," he added with a wink, reminding her of the time Scott had used that exact same line but for literally the opposite reason.
"So, you're okay with it, you're not mad?" she asked, starting to sound relieved.
"I am perfectly okay with it, it's going to be an interesting dinner but I'm definitely not mad," he assured her, squeezing her hand reassuringly.
They made the trip at a slightly slower pace than usual; Marie's dad was a slow driver and Logan didn't want them getting lost and thinking he was trying to ditch them on purpose. When they got to the house, he pulled the truck into the garage, watching as the silver sedan pulled into the space on the driveway. He headed inside to unlock the house, while Marie went out to start showing her parents around. She had a thriving vege garden that she was immensely proud of, and they had already earmarked a spot for a future playground for baby once she was old enough. Logan was in the process of fencing the little play yard with a pretty white picket fence, not the type he ever thought he'd own but Marie had giggled and called it cute, so he gave in.
Once they had seen the outside of the house, Marie led the small group insid, via the patio off the living room. Logan was waiting in the kitchen, where he had completed his usual afternoon routine of fixing Marie a snack, to get his first good look at them. They looked older than he had been expecting older, probably mid-fifties. Both well on their way to grey, the womans long dark hair had been braided before being arranged in a low bun, the man was very obviously balding.
"So, um, that is the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, and... this is Logan," Marie was saying, interrupting his musing by tucking herself under his arm as she nervously chewed her lip. "Logan this is my momma, Eileen, and my daddy, Owen," she added for his benefit.
"Nice to meet you," Logan greeted politely, the odd feeling of nervousness punching him hard in the gut, as he tried to ignore the evaluating stare of the man he was offering his hand. He almost breathed an audible sigh of relief when his handshake was accepted; so far so good.
Marie's mother on the other hand was regarding him with an odd look, somewhere between critical and amused. She raised an eyebrow when he in turn offered his hand to her, before with a quick glance at Marie she laughed brightly, knocking his hand aside and hugging him. "That's the proper way to greet your momma in the South," she informed him when she pulled away.
Marie audibly sighed, sagging against him heavily in relief when she realised her mother at least hadn't written him off immediately. She was terrified her parents would object to Logan too, she had just gotten them back, she didn't want to lose them again over this. Tears pricked at her eyes as Logan pulled her tight against his chest, murmuring to her that everything was alright.
"You worry too much baby," he said with a grinned, knowing she could probably tell that in spite of his light tone he was still easily as nervous as she was. "Now eat your snack so you've got room for dinner later," he added, nudging her toward the table.
"I am totally going to blame you for me being fat once this baby is born, you're overfeeding me Logan!" she laughed, though she accepted the plate of food too; she was a little peckish.
Once everyone else had drinks, and Marie had directed him to bring a plate of cookies she had baked on the weekend, they began catching up, and getting to know each other. They chatted surprisingly contentedly, and politely, Marie doing most of the talking as she recounted her trip north from her former home. She opted to give her parents the full details of her trip, hoping that what came after wouldn't seem like such a monumental event. After hours of meticulous detail, she finally got to the part of her story where she had met Logan, he held his breath and as discretely as he could watched for their reactions.
"... I finally get woken up by the door I'm leaning on getting yanked away from me, and getting smacked in the face by air so cold it froze the spit inside your mouth, and the truck driver’s like 'hurry up and get out'. I'm confused as all heck and I say to him, 'I thought you were taking me to Laughlin City' - where we were was literally an old barn surrounded by beat up trucks and stumbling drunks, in the middle of the forest, I swear the builders had forgone nails and stuck the shack together with ice - and he replied 'this is Laughlin City', like I'm the dumbest chick he's ever met, which let me tell you, right then I was definitely feeling like that, along with a healthy dose of 'I'm going to freeze to death in probably the sorriest excuse for a town I have ever seen'.
"So, I drag my sorry butt inside the one and only building in this seriously confused 'city', only to find the place crammed full of people, which I suppose made sense bring the only building, until you consider it was kind of in the middle of nowhere, mostly everyone is drunk, and it's freezing because there's holes in the ceiling, which I thought was great because it was really smoky, until I realised the smoke was coming from the 'heaters', which were literally barrels full of god only knows what, set on fire, but I guess when you're cold anything will do. It was really noisy too, everyone was yelling and screaming, I managed to squeeze my way through the crowd, which was pretty scary but no one really seemed to notice me, they were all distracted by... someone else..." here she paused and glanced over at Logan with a grin, "Got to admit, I kind of got distracted by him too."
"I take it he wasn't cleaning house in a poker game or clearing a pool table like you'd find in a normal bar?" Eileen asked, trying to remain amused by her daughter's tale, there was no point dwelling on the danger the girl had been in then, it was in the past and she was safe now.
"Uh no, can I tell them?" Marie asked Logan with a grin.
"They probably already know if they spent the afternoon with the geeks," Logan grunted.
"I like the way you tell this story," Eileen added, encouraging Marie to continue.
"Well in that case, he was standing in the corner of chain link cage, knocking back whiskey like it was water, all bare-chested and sweaty, and looking like literally everything you ever warned me against momma," Marie replied, with a giggle at Logan's uncomfortable grin and chuckle, "But then the next challenger climbed in to try and knock the king off his throne, man was a god damn cheat but boy did he ever get what he deserved... he still tried to knife Logan later that night though."
Eileen's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Knife!?"
"Mmhmm, after the fights were over, Logan was sitting at the bar, minding his own business, when the guy came up behind him trying to act all tough, behind him mind you, then tried to stab him in the kidneys," Marie said, shifting around in her seat trying to find a new comfortable spot now that baby had moved slightly.
"Tried to?" Owen asked, intrigued in his own way by his daughters story, even if he still wasn't one hundred percent certain how he felt about the man in front of him.
"Had my angel watching over me that day," Logan replied, with a grin at Marie.
"And I quote, 'No you didn't'," Marie replied blushing as she smiled back.
"Yeah, ignore that asshole, he was just pissed a little girl managed to sneak up on him," Logan replied, recognizing his own words when Marie had been trying to beg a ride from him after he found her hiding in his trailer. Marie laughed, while her mother encouraged her to continue.
Logan noted the fast fading light outside and silently left the group to continue to entertain Marie, albeit indirectly, while he cooked dinner. He also didn't want to be around for the part of the story that involved Marie dying, he could have done without that part.
They ended up talking until well after the time Logan usually coaxed Marie into bed, she was so far through her pregnancy that she was having trouble sleeping. Combined with spending days studying, he was careful to make sure she got as much sleep as he could encourage her to get. Tonight, he was content to let her stay up later, it wouldn't matter if she was late to school tomorrow, Chuck would understand, if he didn't, he could go fuck himself. It wasn't until she yawned, for the third time in half an hour that he finally hinted she really did need to get to bed.
"You sound like my mother," Marie teased.
"Hardly, given your mother's sitting right across the room from you and she didn't say anything," Logan returned, "But seriously darlin, you've got school tomorrow, it's time for you to turn in, your parents will still be here tomorrow but you falling asleep in class is not going to be helpful, on any level."
"Logan's right," Owen said, standing himself, "We really should turn in too, it's been a long, emotional day for all of us, we'll see you in the morning pumpkin." He hugged Marie, as best he could around her belly, before she hugged her mother too, and they made their way to their respective rooms for the night.
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