[2er RPG] The Shepherd [ENG]

Marcus grumbled.
"Was my birthday. I was working in New York, she just started in Seattle. I flew over, she took me to the Needle. We took the photo, had dinner. Apparently, she told Dylan. He asked "Who's this guy?". That's how he knew, I am his dad. He wanted to do it, too, so his mom took him for his birthday."
He stretched his neck, let the bones crackle.
"I thought, maybe we could go. You know, take a photo in front of the Needle, put it to the other two. Maybe visit Dylans grandparents. I don't know. Guess, they would like it."
Marcus appreciated the little distraction, but it wasn't enough to keep is mind from the case. Logan was right. He couldn't find what wasn't there. But he coudn't help himself.
"Why bombs?", he asked out of the blue, "If you want to kill people responsible for something, why would you use bombs that don't really hurt anybody? That's so ineffective. Miller knows this. He has to. He's not making a statement, it's not big enough for that. But he's also not really killing anyone off. It's like he doesn't care, if his target dies. I don't get it. And I am the one who should, since I am thinking exactly like him, from a physical standpoint at least. What is he trying to accomplish with his actions...?"

Logan wasn't sure Marcus liked the topic, but at least he heard a story. "Sounds like Dylan was connected to you in some way from the start. That boy is more mature then we are most of the time..." He took another bite of his food, then nodded. "It's a good idea visiting them. You have any contact with them? How much do they know anyway?" Them blaming Marcus for what happened was a possibility, if they knew why their daughter was dead. But nevertheless, Dylan was their grandson and they had a right to see him every now and then. They didn't have to like Marcus, important was that they love Dylan.
Marcus changed the topic back again, the case was all over his mind.
"Like I said, maybe he's just chasing us around. You know, distracting us from what is really important. Maybe he just picked that guy per chance, or because there where enough people involved with that case to make us wary of that fact, letting us concentrate on this guy instead of focusing on something else, which we didn't see until now." Logan made a short break, thinking of it again. "Well... that was rather specific of me for it just being a hunch, but you know... he lead some kind of bombing squad. You don't just waltz into enemy territory and plant a bomb, then just wander out again. Infiltrating works best if you have your enemy focus on something else. And with the brain of his, I guess he's pretty good at calculating our responses to certain actions. Maybe you should not only rely on your brain working like his, but try to get in his shoes. Imagine you had some great scheme, it doesn't matter what that is, and you don't want anyone to focus on it. What would you do?" Logan talked about it casually, not really thinking much about it, while he kept on eating.
"If you wanna think about something 'till we're there, you could think about that. Doesn't hurt, right?"

"But that's just it. He was part of the system, he knows how all this works. So if I was him and would try to distract from my real goal, I would hide it in plain sight."
Marcus leaned his head back at the window and watched the outside world fly by. Maybe he was thinking in the wrong direction. What if Miller wasn't trying to get revenge, because someone was put in jail? What if he was trying to break someone out of jail?
Marcus opened the case file on his lap and counted the names of the victims and the other people involved in all this.
"You should go faster", he said calmly to Logan, "I think, Miller is planning a breakout."

Logan didn't quite follow. Why pointing them towards the prison if he wanted to do something there. That made no sense to him whatsoever. But Marcus mostly was right with his assumptions. Logan closed the food box and held it towards Marcus, so he could take it while Logan drove. He had the fork still in his mouth and grinned a little, while talking and keeping it between his teeth. "How fast are we talking?" Now he was driving the speedlimit on point, mostly he drove somewhat above, but maybe Marcus was finally allowing him to go full speed, or at least somewhat faster than usual.
Although Logan didn't want to put Marcus in danger again, he made his peace with it. So why not driving to a prison that might explode or something.

Marcus didn't answer the question verbally. Instead, he hit the fancy button that turned on the disco lights and the siren of the car.
"That fast", Marcus said and reached for the handle above his window.
He knew that Logan was an insane driver and he just let Mr. Hyde of his leash.

The prison was about twenty minutes away from where they startet. Logan got them there in nine. Marcus was glad, that he hadn't eaten yet. When they stopped in front of the prison gate, about six riffles were pointed at the car for just about thirty seconds, before an officer came upt to the car. Marcus shoved his badge in the mans face while getting out.
"We need to get in there. Now", he insisted.
The officer did his best to work fast, but he was fat and not the youngest. Marcus hated prison staff. They had high standards for about two years, than they let their people do whatever they wanted to. Which was mostly eating shitty food, drinking bear and getting lazy. If Miller was planning what Marcus thought of, they didn't stand a chance against what was coming.
"Get me your boss", Marcus ordered on his way to the first building.
He refused to give up his weapon and advised Logan to do the same. The officers hesitated, but a badge of the Ministry of Justice was enough to convince them. That and the general aggressiveness of Marcus paired with the big military guy right behind him. Sometimes it was helpful that Logan had a limited wardrobe.
They were escorted to the meeting and surveillance rooms, where the CEO of the prison already awaited them. Private Prison... even worse.
"Would somebody please explain this chaos to me?", the CEO demanded, when Marcus and Logan entered the room, "Since when does the Ministry of Justice just storm into prisons like that?"
The man was tall, but not much more than a stick in a fancy suit. He wore his black hair all the way back, probably to look more expensive and/or cover up a growing bald patch. His little mustache was a joke, his eyes lacked the shadows of a hard working man. A fact that was emphasized by his manicured fingers. Within a second, Marcus decided, that he didn't like this guy.
"Marcus Williams, this is Logan Hunt. We are part of a special task force of the Ministry of Justice. We wanted to talk to one of your prisoners, but we now have reason to believe, that there's gonna be an attempted prison break. We need you to go into lockdown. Yesterday, preferably", Marcus explained.
He didn't even look at this guy. The first glance at him told Marcus everything he needed to know. The surveillance footage displayed on a dozen screens on the opposite wall was way more interesting. Where was Miller?
"Why would I do that? I have no reason to believe, that my system is being compromised", the CEO said and started a speech, sounding like a TV add.
"That's the whole point. You have the best system in prison technology. Unbeaten by anyone. But the nature of a highscore is to be beaten by someone better. Someone's going to break someone out of here, just to prove a point. I don't know when it will happen, but since you have a bunch of high risk inmates, I would prefer to stop this from happening. So, would you please go into lockdown?!"

That fast he said... nice. Logan didn't hesitate much and went full speed in nearly two seconds. Another benefit of this job, they got a really nice car. They eben had manual transmission, so Logan really could go crazy. And he did.

After arriving he was sure Marcus was especially glad to get out of the car, maybe he even was a bit wonky on his feet, but for less then a second. Logan figured he'd need his gun and then followed Marcus. His boyfriend and partner did the talking while Logan put on his most intimidating face and body stance to back him up. Worked like butter. At least until they stood in front of the CEO. There also Logan got explained why he was allowed to race here as if there was a bomb. Well... maybe there was one literally. So Miller may be after some kind of super villain badge of breaking into and out of the most secure prison he could find? Talk about ego...
The CEO of the prison didn't seem to believe Marcus and Logan stepped in for a moment.
"Listen. If you go into lockdown and nothing happens you can dismiss this as an exercise, feel happy about making us look like idiots and go home. But if you don't and there actually is a breakout, I bet you can say good bye to that fancy little prison of yours for good. So, how about letting us do our work and getting the praise for it, hm?" Logan didn't actually know what Marcus was searching for, but he sure did have a plan, and Logan just played along for now. Maybe they weren't such a bad team after all.

Logan had everything under controll. Marcus took advantage on that and went down the three stairs towards the surveillance screens. His eyes jumped back and forth all across the big wall. The four technicians only penetrated his peripheral senses. Which was still enough to get his full attention about details, but they weren't important at the moment.
The CEO kept a close eye on him, followed him even. He continued his TV add, as if that would explain why a lockdown was unnecessary. Marcus ignored that.
"Any new staff members lately?", he asked.
He had to repeat his question, because the CEO was to distracted by his own talking the first time.
"Anyone, not just the guards", Marcus specified.
He still wasn't looking at the man.
"Is he always this rude?", the man asked Logan, now giving Marcus his own treatment.
Marcus head started pounding. He sucked the live feed of twelve different screens showing hundreds of cameras in, analyzed the behavior of way too many people and had to keep up with this douchbag all at once. He was really looking forward to that soundproof bedroom.
With a sigh he turned towards the CEO and poked him in the chest.
"We're from the Ministry of Justice. We have special rights and we are far more upt the line than you. I was nice by asking you to shut down. Now, it's an order. As my colleague said: You can cooperate and get all the praise or you can take the fall cause you didn't listen to the one warning you get."
The CEO looked like someone stole his lollipop. Marcus could read his thoughts: How dare he! Marcus kept his finger right where it was and stared that man right in the eyes.
"Smith. Initiate the lockdown", he finally caved in.
Marcus smiled and let go of the CEO.
"Was that so hard?", he couldn't help himself; he had to be a bit cocky.
His attention shifted back to the cameras. Only a second later, a loud alarm filled every room in the prison. The inmates all went back into their cells, the guards cleared every room, the security systems went into full effect.
"And now? Just because they're in their cells doesnt mean, there won't be an attempt."
"So now you listen to me?", Marcus asked, scanning the cameras and analyzing the behavior of the guards.
There was nothing out of the ordinary.
"How long until the counting's done?"
"We have 178 inmates, 10 guards on duty. They work in pairs and have three floors to cover. Do the math."
The CEO wanted to hinder Marcus, but he did the math and just a second afer the other man had given him the task, he told him the answer and checked his watch.
"Logan, I want you to check on our friend. I still think it has something to do with him", Marcus said, "And you answer my question about your staff. Also, I wanna know how long it takes your people to get the civilians out."

Well, Logan tried his best to mediate between the CEO and Marcus and he figured maybe he was more likely to listen if they threw in some goodies for him. But actually Marcus threatening approach seemed to work better. Logan looked at the TVs for a short time, Marcus would have a headache at the evening for sure, that was just too much information at once. But it had to be, he probably was better then 50 guards each looking at exactly one feed at a time.
The loud noise originating from the lockdown sequence didn't help either, but at least Logan kept calm. Actually... he missed the action too... a little bit at least. Somehow he was motivated for this and he and Marcus worked well together for now.
His partner now looked at him and Logan nodded. "Alrighty!" He asked one of the technicians in the room where his cell was located and got some directions, then went straight there. Logan went for the second floor, cautious to not be shot by any of the guards. Marcus would handle the rest in the control room.
As he arrived at the cell he looked inside and at least saw someone. "Hey Dude. I'm your personal guard today, any clues on what might be going down right now?" He might as well try, right?

The CEO finally cooperated with Marcus and gave him all the information he demanded, while still staring at all the screens. Something was missing. It was way to quite, even with all the tech in this prison.
He saw Logan going through the main hall and up the stairs. For a second Marcus thought, how hot he looked in his casual working mode. All cool leaning against that wall, arms crossed, talking to a criminal behind bars. But he had a job to do, so he continued scanning the cameras.

"I don't know, man", the guy in the cell said.
He finished taking his piss, pulled the flush and came over to the bars. In typical inmate manner, he leaned on the bars. He smiled in Logans direction.
"If you ask me, I'm more a fan of stuff blowing up."
Right in that moment, the wall behind the cell errupted with a thunderous blow, leaving a hole big enough to crawl through. Shrapnels of the wall flew out onto the walkway. A second later, the 'inmate' was gone and another alarm ringed through the hallways.

Marcus send all the guards to that one cell and towards any possible exit. Problem being: This prison was designed to work with minimal staff. That was kind of the deal with all this tech. So there weren't enough people in the building to do that. Marcus shifted plans and ordered a plan of the whole building. He needed to know, where this guy was going. Unfortunately, he had no way of communicating with Logan at the moment, so he had no idea what happened or what to look for.

As soon as the man in the cell finished talking, Logan duck away to the side behind the wall. And after he looked back inside there was a huge hole and the man was gone. "Shit!" The bars prevented Logan to go right after him but at least two guards showed up right after. "Open that!", Logan demanded, shoving his badge in one guards face. Both hesitated for a moment, but moved along when Logan glared at them with his most intimidating face. On the other hand, had he something to do with that, he probably could have gone as he pleased by now.
"Gimme that!", he said snatching the radio from the guards shoulder, while the other one was opening the cell door. "Marcus, Miller blasted a hole in this cell. I'm going in." Marcus wouldn't be all to happy about that, but Logan needed to know where this thing was leading. Logan also didn't have time to fiddle the radio out of this guards clothes, so he just left it where it was and went straight inside the cell after it was finally opened.
"Better close that cell again.", he added, Miller was smart. Maybe he tried opening a new escape room no one would cover. While the guard closed the door behind Logan again, he himself started crawling into that hole. He had no idea how that prison looked like and therefore no idea where he'd land. The hole was barely big enough and he had no means to use his gun in this confined place.
Also Logan wasn't sure if he just talked with Raymond Butcher or if that actually was someone else. Miller... maybe. But that would be crazy right?
The hole wasn't just a hole it was more like a tunnel, but after about two to four minutes of crawling Logan saw a light. There was no way crawling out of a hole carefully... so he crawled as far as he could, then listend for a moment. But the sound of the alarm was way to loud. Slowly he tried looking outside, reaching for his knife instead of his gun for now.

Marcus went though a dozen of blueprints and maps of the surrounding areas. In his head he categorized every possible way he could find. There were to many. He already ordered hepl by the local police but until they were here and blocked every possible way out, the fugitive could've taken about seven routes out already.
He took a step back and looked back at the security screens. He chewed on his thumb, longing for a cigarette.
"Want some gum? It helps against the urge", a relaxed technician said.
He was cheing himself and a quick look about told Marcus that he had a recovered smoker in front of him.
"Sure", he said and took one of the chewing gums.
Weirdly enough, it really helped. Marcus zoned in and tried to think like Miller would. Than he grabbed the radio, connecting him to the local police forces. He coordinated each team, send them to different locations. After that, he set up a feed for Stan, who wasted no time and hacked into the prison systems to bypass any disobedience. The relaxed technician and Stan were a strange team, working almost as if they shared a brain. At least Stan found a new friend. The CEO was everything but amused by the fact, that a random guy with no shirt and a Super Mario tattoo on his chest just hacked into his super secure system and nobody would do anything about that.
Marcus had his master plan within two minutes. But there was no way to tell if Miller would do what he thought. And there was still no sign of Logan.
He got nervous and send someone in to find him as soon as he had the menpower to do that. Thirty minutes. Half an hour without any contact and Logan was in there with a dangerous man.

The former inmate loved this little game of hide and seek. He had waited for the surprise guest. Who would've thought, that he would see this random guy ever again? But when he did, he got interested. What was this man able to do? How far would he go?
Miller was always way ahead of Logan, teasing him with some random noises or a glimpse of his body. He wanted the ex-soldier to follow him. He wanted him to actively feel how he lost this game when it eventually happened.
He knew all possible routes out of this prison and changed plans on the go. Left, right, left, left, maybe right again? They rushed through the intestines of the prison like maggots through a corpse. It was fun. At least for Miller.

Surprisingly nothing much awaited Logan at first. He crawled outside this hole and looked around, getting his gun and also leaving his knife in his hands. If it was Miller he just talked to, he needed to be extra careful.
Could he be bale to remember Logans face? Well of course, if it was Miller, he had the same brain as Marcus. He'd never forget a face. Not that it changed anything...
Logan spun around as he heard a noise behind him. Where the hell was he anyway? There were no cameras whatsoever. For now Logan followed the sound.
After following this man through the insides of the prison, not going anywhere for a while, Logan got kind of pissed. But that was no reason to get less cautious. He knew this guy only played with him, but if they were lucky he didn't had Marcus on his radar. If Logan kept Miller busy long enough, maybe Marcus was able to block all the exits Miller could possibly take.
But this man was hard to read, even harder than Marcus. Logan knew Marcus somewhat, but this guy? He seemed like he acted pretty random, something Logan couldn't imagine Marcus ever to do. Maybe Miller actually did know Marcus was here too...
He wasn't easily tricked but random behavior was something even he couldn't predict.
"Very funny.", Logan stated at some point, leaning against a wall next to a corner. It was annoying to follow tiny little glimpses Miller wanted Logan to see. He knew what he did. "Military got boring and now you play hide and seek? Wanna elaborate why?" He rushed around the corner, his gun ready, although he was pretty sure there wasn't anyone. Again.

"And hold a big villainous monologue until you get me? How boring would that be?"
Miller laughed and changed position again. He chose places, where the sound would travel in different directions, bouncing off of the walls and pipes.
"I'm over here, dummy", he said, then changed again.
Ultimately, he was up on a thick pipe, about twenty meters off the ground. The room was more of a small hallway, really. A small pathway for maintenance crews and the actual pipes. Logan wouldn't land a shot from here.
"Hello, gorgeous", he greated Logan with a wide smile, "How unfortunate, that we can't spend more time together. But I got some appointments to get to. Greet your friend for me, will ya? Oh and: sorry for the kid."
He got up and ran down the pipe into the darkness. The hallway ended five meters to the right, but thanks to the pipe, Miller was able to leave the small room. And now that he didn't care about Logan following him, he was a lot quicker. He vanished within seconds.

Marcus' fist landed inside the wall of the meeting room. It was one of those thin walls, so he didn't break a finger or something. But his not quite healed knuckles started bleeding again.
It was as if he tried to catch smoke with his bare hands! This Miller guy was just so slippery! How long was he here? How did he get inside? How did he get the explosives inside?!
"I want everything! All prisoners activity within the last three months! Visitors, system changes, who pooped when, every conversation, all of it!", he demanded, concentrating on the pain in his knuckles to ignore the growing thumping in his head.
By now, the whole team was informed about what had happened. Andrew got at least limited access to the data about Miller, Stan was already analyzing the footage of the escape. The CEO of the prison was occupied by trying to cover everything up.

Logan saw him for at least three seconds and couldn't do shit. Logan knew he had no chance of getting him up there and Miller knew too. After he vanished Logan kicked the wall next to him as hard as he could. Abd the day actually started good for a change. He really thought they could do it!
Beat he searched for the way back, it took a while until he found another exit than this stupid shit ass small hole and got back outside. He met up with Marcus as fast as he could. Miller was gone, that was for sure... And it probably wasn't worth trying to secure all roads.
Logan sat down - defeated. And he sighed. There was nothing left to do for him and he knew he fucked up trying to solve this case pretty hard. For over a week now.
"I'm sorry...", was all he could say. He stood fucking next to him and didn't even notice it until it was too late. Marcus was angry, Logan could tell. But probably not at him, that was good at least.
"Can I help with anything?", he asked.

Logan had done what was possible. Miller just had a big headstart in this game. They would get him. Eventually. But who knows how much damage tis guy could do until they ended it?
Marcus threw their contact card on the conference table, then gave Logan a sign, that they would leave. There wasn't anything they could do here at the moment and Marcus wanted to see his son. Miller knew them. Somehow, he'd seen them in that ice cream shop. Or did someone inform him? But again: How did that person know what to look for? No, Miller had to have seen it himself.
"Doc Rosemary told me, to take breaks during work, so you're gonna force me to do that, okay?", he told Logan as they got into the car.
He put another gum in. The technician gave him the whole pack.
"And you have to keep every god damn cigarette away from me...", Marcus sighed, "But for now, I wanna go home. Until the data got to the office, we can't do much."

Logan nodded and followed Marcus to the car. This time not even Logan wanted to drive overly fast, he was kind of tired.
"Actually I wanted to stop telling you what to do and what not to do.", Logan smiled half heartedly and drove their car out of the prison grounds and onto the highway.
"But I guess now is break time, the food sure is cold now, but that never really bothered you, right? Maybe you should it something other than those chewing gums."
Logan had questions... many questions. But they could wait, Marcud had enough to think about anyway.
Logan asked himself if the bomb was directed to them... Marcus rather. If this guy wanted to prove something, outsmarting Marcus maybe was something he was after... It was like they were on a giant chess board and Marcus and Miller played their pawns.
Dylan wasn't in danger, right? Was it okay having him live by them? In a few month so much haf happened... if he still turned out to be alright that was a miracle...

"Not hungry..."
He would eat later, when his thoughts had calmed down a lot more. Right now he was just going through everything he got in the last few hours and that was a lot. It felt, like his head was pulsing in sync with his heartbeat and could explode at any time.

They made it back in time to actually pick up Dylan from school, what the little boy happy for two reasons: First, his dads picked him up when he thought he had to spend the evenings after school with someone else. Second, his dads were in working mode so they looked like awesome TV superheroes. All his friends and classmates turned around, when Marcus and Logan stepped out of the car and came over like they were gonna arrest someone. With a wide grin, Dylan hopped over and jumped into his fathers arms.
"Hey buddy. How's school?", Marcus asked and gave Dylan over to Logan, before picking up the boy's backpack.
"Awesome. Everyone's talking about Bring-your-parent-to-school and how cool their parents are, but they're just talking about shop owners and car sellers. Nobody's as cool as you two!
Dylan looked over all the other kids as if he was the lion king and this was his kingdom. Marcus shook his head smiling. This boy was confident!
"Please don't get everyone's hopes high, buddy. I'm not much of a public speaker."
"It's okay, dad. I'll do the talking anyways."

Back home, Marcus watched Dylan doing his homework. Simple little tasks and Dylan didn't need that much help. Not that Marcus was any help at all. He was so inside his own head, he didn't even realize when his boy asked a question. At least the headache went away slowly but surely. And he ate. Someone had to remind him, but he ate.
"You're gonna be there on wednesday, right?", Dylan asked some time later, when he was cuddling with his dad.
"Of course! We just had a lot happen at work today, that's all. Been a bit in my head. But the next two days are going to be paperwork. I'm gonna be there and I'm gonna stay 'till the end. Logan's gonna do all the work, but don't tell him."
Dylan chuckled.

Surprisingly, they spend the rest of the day all together. They started the process of finding a babysitter for Dylan, who wasn't Logan's sister. They put up an online posting and wrote some e-mails. They basically arranged a whole interview day for friday. And because both of Dylans parents were cops, they aggread to send Stand the IDs of those people so he could do a background check on them. Stan was excited. He really liked sniffing around in other peoples business...

Logan had dirt all over his clothes, so he didn't quite share Dylans excitement. Logan wondered how Marcus would deal with the Bring-your-parent-to-school day, but he probably was working at that time, too bad. After Dylan got in the car, they drove home.
There Logan warmed Marcus food up and placed it directly in front of Marcus face. Eventually he ate it at some point. Afterwards Logan took a shower to wash off the prison wall which was partly stuck on him. It was taunting enough as it was.

After he was finished he came back down again and they started looking for a babysitter. Marcus wasn't as parnoid as Logan expected him to be, but still everyone got checked by Stan. And after that was done too, Logan started putting some things out of their bedroom to have everything ready, when some workers came to make this room soundproof. Oh, Logan had all sorts of awkward questions ready for them! Hopefully he'd be at home when they were working to get a chance to annoy them.
Doing something helped a little not getting mad at Miller, or rather mostly himself again. Dylan wanted to help too and Logan let him handle the screws while he was holding everything in place and carried the heavy stuff somewhere else. It wasn't much to do, just some cupboards that needed to be moved away from the walls.
"Are you going to catch the bad guy soon?", Dylan asked out of the blue.
"Well yeah. Now that your father is working on the case."
"Yeah! I'll give him a week, max! Then he's sitting behind bars!" Dylan laughed playing around a little as if he was fighting someone. "You know, I wanna get a police officer too!"
"Really?", Logan asked smiling, although he could imagine tons of other jobs which were a lot better suited for Dylan. He was just a smart boy.
"Yeah! Because when you are old, I'm the one protecting everyone instead of you two."
"Well, it's a long time until then, you know."
"Nah, not that long."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!"
Dylan grinned and Logan shook his head. With a swift move he caught Dylan and lifted him up. "You need to grow up first, little one."
"I'm not little! Let me down!"
"Yeah yeah. We talk again, when you can lift me up." Logan grinned, putting Dylan on the ground again. "Now go help your dad, I'm finishing this up." Dylan nodded, running downstairs.
Getting old, huh? Well... maybe Logan got a little rusty. Maybe 5 or 10 years ago he could've caught Miller down there.

It was weird, to work but to not actually work. Marcus learned an important lesson that monday: waiting isn't hard if you forget that you're waiting. He spent his evening with his family, took a break from work, without feeling guilty. There was nothing to work with. And Dylan seemed to appreciate it.

At night, after he put Dylan to sleep, he laid in a mostly empty bedroom, staring at the ceiling with a small smile on his face. He was a working dad.
He reached for Logans hand and intertwined their fingers.
"This is so weird", he said, "so... normal. We are working dads. We're getting a babysitter for our boy. We're kinda social with other parents."
He turned onto his side, put his arm under his pillow.
"You think we should get a dog? Paint the fence white?"
He laughed quietly.
"What happened to us, Logan? We were badass cops, allowed to bend and break the rules. Now we're dads..."

After this long day Marcus and Logan laid in bed. The room was almost empty which resulted in a strange open sound, almost as if it was echoing inside the room. Logan never liked open places that much.
Marcus reached for his hand and Logan looked at him. The street light outside on the street spent enough light so he could see him. Logan wasn't quite sure if Marcus joked about that dog, but he was pretty sure he was...still.
"Well, we are both... right?", Logan asked and it really was a question. He had the habit always turning his sentences into questions so maybe Marcus didn't notice. Bullshit, he noticed everything. Point was, Marcus hit a spot with saying what he did. As Logan was thinking before... five or ten years ago he may had caught Miller there in the prison. Maybe he even hadn't been so stupid as to speak to him and not even notice it was him. Turning up with absolutely nothing after a week of work was okay, he never was good at that stuff, but there in this prison, that was his moment. And he fucked up. Dylan was right, he was getting old. Fuck... Logan didn't like that thought.
It wasn't only that he didn't catch Miller, it just made it obvious to Logan. Ten years ago he saw comrades die and just went on, now Marcus didn't die and he needed a break from everything all of a sudden. They caught Marcus father and Logan couldn't stop being paranoid about him, another thing which was different and annoying.
Maybe he was too caught up in playing dad and boyfriend, driving Dylan around, cooking, building a home... maybe he actually was getting old and weak.