[2er RPG] The Shepherd [ENG]

Marcus took his time to calm down and then went for the garage. This was clearly a job for a couple of days. The most stuff in here was trash from when they moved here but that had to be sorted and everything. Also, they've put all the things from Dylans mom in here. This would be a lot.
Marcus just scanned through everything to get a picture. And he found one. Two actually. There was one of Dylan and her at the Space Needle. They looked so happy. And right underneath it, there was another one he didn't expect to see. It was the same picture, but there was no Dylan. Instead, he, Marcus, stood there, arms wrapped around Christine. This was years ago. He compared the two pictures, then it dawned on him: She did that on purpose. This picture of him at the Space Needle was around Dylan all his life. That's why he knew, who Marcus was when they first met.
"Christine... you really thought about everything, hm?"
He shook his head and took the two pictures back into the house and put them up on a wall. Initially, he wanted to put some art above the little cupboard thingy in their dining room, but he scratched that. This would be their family wall. They would put up all the pictures here. Maybe they should make a trip to Seattle and take another picture in front of the Needle?
For the rest of the day, he sorted through a couple of boxes, taking it all in and making a plan. There was a lot of emotional attatchment around here...

Finding a parking spot at this school was hard! Usually, he was early and got one, but not today. He got cought up in his work in the garage and lost his sense of time. He wasn't late. But he had to park down the street, which slightly bugged him.
When he reached the school, he saw his boy looking for him. When Dylan saw him, he ran right into his arms.
"Hey buddy", Marcus greeted the kid with a big hug, "How's school."
"School was okay, but it's gonna be amazing next week", Dylan said.
"Why?"
"It's 'Bring your parent to school'-Day!"
He gave Marcus a piece of paper with all the detailes.
"And I have the coolest dad in the world, so I'm gonna be a star!"
Marcus laughed and set his boy back down so they could walk over to the car. He did notice the looks he got from Laura Burge, but he chose to ignore them. She was clearly waiting for him and not only for her kid. It was kinda sketchi and Marcus didn't have the mental capacity to deal with that right now. Maybe he could catch her next week on this parent thing. That had to be enough for the moment.
"I started going through your moms stuff in the garage. You wann a join in and help decide what to keep and what to do with the other stuff?", Marcus asked when they reached the car.
"Sure", Dylan said but his usual joy about everything faded a little.
No wonder, it was only three months. He did good, but no one would say anything, if he still needed some time to process. Maybe this garage-thing would help to close things up.
"I found this picture of you two and the Space Needle", Marcus started.
"We went there on my birthday", Dylan explained, "I saw that picture of you two there and wanted to do that as well. But I'm scared of hights, so we didn't go up there..."
"That's okay. It's boring anyways. And the food isn't that good."
"Mom said that, too."
"You know what?"
"What?"
"Your mom took me there for my birthday, as well."
They laughed and talked about silly little things, Christine would do. It was nice, talking like this.
"Where's Logan?", Dylan asked when they came home.
"He's working. We got a new case. I'm gonna stay at home for a couple more days, though."
"Why? You two work better together."
"It's complicated grown-up stuff. But you're okay with staying at home alone a couple of hours or hang out with a babysitter?"
"Sure. Did that a lot when I was with mom. She had to work a lot as well."
"I know. What about looking for a cool babysitter this next week, hm? I mean, you have to like them, too, since you spend your time with them."
"Yep. They have to like comics! People who don't like comics are weird."
"I know, right?"

At the hospital, Logan asked for the shopowner and his wife and soon was led to a room in the intensive care section of the hospital. He waited outside for the nurse to get the woman. Hospitals weren't Logans favorite places, especially lately... When they brought Marcus in, Logan waited in the stupid waiting area for what felt like days, without information. They weren't married or whatever and it took Mike a little to do his thing and let them ignore whatever rules there were. But he had to wait and wait and wait and didn't even know if Marcus was still alive, if he hadn't been, Logan didn't know what he had done. He knew he was overprotective... he always was, since he can remember, but... Marcus almost died and two days ago he just... almost died a second time. He was so far away... and Logan didn't want that to happen again. Dr. Rosemary started something to help Marcus, by cracking open his wall, behind which he hid what happened years ago. And again... Marcus acted like that didn't happen. Just like he acted as if he didn't almost die, as if his brother was no serial killer, as if his father didn't try to get into his head and possibly had achieved just that, even if only a little bit. Logan never tried to stop Marcus from anything or get him to do anything, like taking his pills. He'd only suggested if and Marcus sometimes listened. But after what happened and how Marcus behaved since then, how could Logan watch and say nothing? If Marcus was to be hurt in any way, that would be on him. He wasn't wrong here, right?

"Mr. Hunt?"
"Huh?" Logan looked up and noticed he clenched his fists. Before him stood the nurse and the shopowners wife.
"She's ready to talk to you now."
"Ah yes. Thank you." Logan looked at the woman which seemingly just recognized him.
"Ah! You are the young man who pulled him out there! Thank you so much! You want to know how he is?"
"It was nothing...", Logan smiled and nodded a little. "Yes and if it's possible I'd like you to answer some other questions too." He pulled out his badge and showed it to her for a short time. "Would you like to get a coffee and talk outside?"
The woman looked at the document a little bit confused but then nodded. Logan got him and her a coffee and suggested sitting outside in the hospital park. He figured she was by her husbands site all the time, some fresh air surely would do her good and it was a beautiful day. They set on a park bench near the entrance, so she was comfortable near her husband still. Logan didn't pressure her and waited a little. She took a sip of her coffee...two...three...four... then she looked up.
"Thank you for getting him out of there and... I guess your friend did manage these zones... thank him too, will'ya?"
"Sure, I will. So... if you don't mind me asking, how is he?"
"It's..."
"You don't have to answer that."
"No, it's alright, you have the right to know, you got him outta there at least. He didn't wake up yet, but the doctor said that is normal and he has to heal. He had surgery multiple times... I don't know much about it though... and his skin... well... The doctor said he didn't know if he's gonna survive though... he is not the youngest anymore, you know...? I sit by him everyday and read to him the articles he'd like from the paper. I don't know what else to do..."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be... you are here to investigate what happened, right? But I thought it was some gas explosion... we always had our inspections early I can't believe something like that happened there and then there was this woman... I didn't see her for long, I went into the icing room to get some replenishment, I guess that's why I almost didn't get hurt..."
"Mhh... it wasn't a gas leak, but please don't talk to any reporters about it."
"Why?"
"Because to find who is responsible for that, we need to be discrete."
"Are you something like FBI...? Frankly I never heard the name of your organisation before."
"Something like that. Listen, you don't have to answer right away, but does the name Raymond Butcher sound familiar in any way?"
The woman looked again a little bit confused, then started thinking.
"Oh yes! You mean he is responsible? I thought he was in jail!"
"He is, don't worry. But maybe this attack has something to do with it."
"You mean.... my husband was a target? I... people got hurt..."
"It isn't your fault, but please, if you can tell me anything about this man..."
"Well.... not much. My husband is one reason he got convicted. He was an eye witness at the time, he saw him run away from the crime scene and that was what he told the jury. We didn't know the man, he saw him the first time there and we were on vacation. It was coincidence he just happened to be there at exact that time. And I didn't see him. Never. At the time of the hearing I stayed here to look after the shop. It was a short statement and he was allowed to drive home afterwards. We only heard in the news that he got convicted at last. I.... don't think I can tell you any more than that. Sorry."
"No, it's plenty. Thank you. And what about the name Amanda Huarez?"
"Huarez...? No... that doesn't sound familiar. It was her... right? She caused the explosion."
"Right."
"Well.... as I said... I didn't see her much, because I went to the back, my husband wanted to attend to her I guess... but she had a strange look on her face. That's why I remember her... I got a bad feeling... that sounds crazy."
"No it doesn't."
"Right... you sat at the window right? You didn't get hurt? What about that little boy?"
"We didn't get hurt. We just got outside when the explosion happened."
"Then you went back in to help us...? You are like a hero..."
Logan heard that the third time now and he didn't get used to it.
"I just did what I thought was right... anyway..." He pulled out a card with his number on it from his pocket and gave it to her. "If you can think of anything that might help, call me. And if your husband wakes up and feels able to talk, you can call me as well. But no pressure."
She took the card and nodded, Logan stood up. "I hope he feels better soon. Thank you for your help." They shook hands and then Logan took of.

That didn't really help Logan... at all. He went back to the office and wrote a short summary. He lacked new clues, Stan and Sara didn't report anything. What would Marcus do... he couldn't magically create some of his own... Where would he look? He sure would find some crazy connection. Logan decided to read all the files he got again... maybe he could find something, or Stan and Sara came up with anything meanwhile. Andrew would be back tomorrow, so that could help too. He needed to keep this case from Marcus...

Logan overlooked time and so he went home pretty late. He was tired himself... but he figured it was better to drive home. Maybe Marcus was up for a little talk today or tomorrow. The Ex-soldier drove home, left his bike outside the house and went inside. It was past 10 PM already, Dylan was already in bed and Logan headed to the kitchen. There where no leftovers, so he just got some bread, cheese and sausage. He ate directly in the kitchen at the counter. Meanwhile his thoughts kept on circling around this case and Michael L. Miller.

"Our mission is to escort them, so that's that.", Logan sighed after his comrades didn't stop complaining. "But... why? Why do we work with them?"
"Because we are told so. Why do you complain now? How many people died because of us and suddenly you complain, because we have to work with the brits? It's an order like any other."
"You should stop being such an idiot Logan."
"Idiot? Me?"
"We just want to know what this is about."
"You never wanted before. Just like me, so we all are idiots, that's why we get paid and that's why we got that mission."
"You absolutely don't care about anything, do you? This could be some major mission and we don't even know."
"Listen. This isn't some action movie and even if it was, our mission is to escort them and not to ask stupid questions about the whys and whats. If it was an action movie, you'd get killed just for thinking like you do now. So pray this isn't."
"But we don't know anything about them."
"Stop! How much did we know about any other human being we interacted with. These are ones we actually should NOT kill and suddenly you ask all kinds of questions. What about the ones you killed. You wanna know anything about them? I bet they aren't so different. They all have family, a wife, children, parents who want them to come home safely. So do the brits and so do we. What else do you want to know? You never asked why we killed any of them, but now you ask why we don't kill? What the fuck?"
Silence. A long silence followed. As if nobody knew before that any human being was more or less the same and that they killed a lot of them without knowing the reason. Well... Logan didn't care much and because he didn't ask any question, ever, he had this job. And the others should be the same, what changed?
The silence was broken when the door to their little room was opened and the ones they spoke of before, entered the room. Followed by their own commander which better didn't hear what they were talking about. Logan who calmly had leaned against the wall now straightened up like the others and looked at who came inside. And short after they where introduced to Michael L. Miller. A british soldier, of whom they didn't know anything. Logan didn't care much about him and this man seemed the same. A short look on all of their faces was everything they got before the mission briefing.

Marcus' and Dylans evening was pretty boring. They did exactly the same things as in the two months before, when Dylan adapted to live with his dad and Marcus adapted to living in a house with a kid his boyfriend. Homework, games, Dinner, the usual. Dylan couldn't shut up about next week and how cool he would be afterwards. They even started to go through Christines stuff. Marcus was careful in his choice of work though. He got a simple, small box out of the garage and into their living room. That thing was filled with stuff Dylan made. So it was relatively easy to go through. Dylan wanted to get rid of half the things inside the box, saying it looked dumb or ugly. But Marcus liked dipping his toes into the creative past of his son. In the end, they found a middle ground. They got rid of the half Dylan wanted to throw away but they hung up everything else. Now, there was a picture of a superhero on their fridge and a handprint made out of plaster when he was born was standing in their dining room. There was more all throughout the house.
"Dad?", Dylan asked, slipping underneath his blanket.
"Hm?"
Marcus closed the curtains. They just checked, if anybody was in here - there was not, of course.
"Do you miss mom?"
Ouch. He sat down next to Dylan, a comic already in hand. He had to think about that.
"I don't know, to be honest. I haven't seen her in eight years, you know? I mean, we were friends but... I don't know. It's compülicated grown-up stuff, you know? I kinda do miss her, though. She was a great person."
"How did you two meet?"
"At highschool. I wasn't a cool kid like you. I barely had andy friends and because of how I looked, people often picked at me."
Dylan nodded, as if he understood. He probably did.
"But your mom liked it. She thought it was cool. And she didn't care about what other people thought. We became close friends. Really close, if you know what I mean."
Dylan chuckled. He probably didn't have The Talk yet, but he understood the principle of love. At least a bit.
"Our plans were different. I went to New York and she to Seattle. We weren't great at keeping in touch. She had to study a lot and I had the craziest working hours, we were in different time zones... it was a lot and eventually, we broke up. But I thought about her every once in a while. She was always there, you know? She never left me, even if we were miles away and not talking."
"Do you think it's the same now?"
"Of course. I don't know what happens when people die, but I refuse to believe that there's nothing. Something has to be there. So yes. I think, your mom is just far away. And one day, when you are old and wrinkly, you will see her again."
Dylan said nothing. He just snuggled in and stared into the distance for a minute. Marcus watched him thinking. It was interesting. You could almost see the wheels turning. Then, Dylan demanded to read the comic and went to sleep twenty minutes later.
Marcus spend the rest of the time until Logan came home by cleaning up. The boy went straight outside to the trash bins. For a second, he stood there and stared up into the sky. No stars. The city was to bright to see them. When did he last see them? He never took the time to just look up and watch. Not since he had learned what light polution was when he moved to New York. There are no stars in New York. Only street lights.
With a sigh he wandered back in and made some tea, since he didn't want to screw up his newly found sleeping schedule right away. with that, he sat at the dining table doing nothing. He waited for Logan to come home, not knowing if he really wanted to talk about that stupid argument they had or just see him and tell him that everything was okay. Funny enough, he had absolutely no problem to fight with other people or suspects. But he never liked it, when he had to fight with people he liked. Or loved. He was a softy in that department.
When Logan came home, he seemed distracted and went straight into the kitchen. Marcus waited another minute, then he got up and followed.
"I would ask, how your day was, but we're not talking about work", he said and put his cup into the sink, before turning around and looking at Logan.
"Dylan is okay with having babysitter as long as they like comics. Shouldn't be that hard to find, right?"
He stopped. That wasn't helping. That was not, what they should talk about. Should they talk at all?
Marcus made the two steps to Logan. He loved the fact, that the soldier was taller than him. he always had a thing for tall guys... He took Logans hand, without looking up to his boyfriend.
"Let's go to bed. Was a long day."

Logan didn't notice Marcus until he said something. He turned his head and grumbled nodding something that should resemble an approval. He couldn't talk about work... although he really had wanted to. But, Marcus shouldn't work and shouldn't know anything...yet, so he kept quiet.
"Yeah...", he mumbled as an answer to both statements, Dylans babysitter issue and the going to bed thing. Marcus didn't look at him again, but at least he touched him. That was progress, right?
Logan looked at his bread which he took only a few bites of. "Go on ahead, I'll join you in a few." Logan started eating quickly and put the cheese and sausage back in the fridge meanwhile. Afterwards he went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. He didn't want to fight now, for more then one reason. He was tired and he didn't want to let Dylan hear any of what they might discuss. Maybe they got loud or whatever, better the boy wasn't home.
After he was finished, he joined his boyfriend in bed. He slipped under the blanket and reached out for Marcus, cuddling him and holding him in his arms.
"We can have a break from fighting tonight, right...?"

"How about just stopping to fight?", Marcus answered, placing his head against Logans chest, "I don't like fighting with you."
He closed his eyes and allowed himself to enjoy the company of the man he loved. This whole thing was so stupid. But that's what happened when two strong personalities - and stubborn ones - have different opinions. They had to clash at some point. And both of them were right, which only made it worse in some way. But Marcus was willing to let that bullshit rest.
"We're both right in some way and we're both wrong in another. Let's leave it at that, okay? I'm tired."
He made himself comfortable by snuggling into their blanket and intertwining their fingers. They both had their work cut out in the morning.

When Marcus suggested they just should stop fighting, Logan thought about why exactly he was somehow mad at him. But for now nothing much came up, maybe he was just tired, or him being mad was stupid to begin with. There was only one thing Logan had to think about over and over again and that was Marcus almost ignoring what happened to him in only a few weeks. But that was more likely an issue Dr. Rosemary was able to solve. Maybe Logan should just keep on backing Marcus up with whatever he wanted to do, instead of getting in his way and treating him like a child. Logan had to always look out for his siblings, he knew he was overprotecting sometimes... Leia got annoyed with him pretty often actually. Sometimes he couldn't help it.
"Alright. I'm sorry... I didn't mean to march over you like that..." He even would have let him go to work again... but he delayed making decisions for now. He didn't know how Marcus was doing at all... he wished he would have. But he couldn't think about it any more. He just wanted to close his eyes and hold Marcus for a while, just feel that he's there. So he did, keeping himself from sleeping a little longer, to listen to Marcus breathing a little.

"It's okay", Marcus said, "I'm sorry for behaving like a four year old."
He closed his eyes and tried to sleep. It was surprisingly easy to do that. And he slept a healthy amout of hours. But he still got up 'to early' at 5.30am. He stayed in bed, though, and watched Logan for a while. No prejudices whatsoever. He just admired Logans beauty. That was the bright side of noticing everything. It made the world so much more ugly, but sometimes there was beauty.
His ear twitched a little, when he heard Dylan coming down the hallway. With a slight nod he told the kid, to hop into bed with his dads for a while. They still had time.
Dylan crawled up to Logan and snuggled in, Marcus lay down again and they just were there for a long moment. It was peaceful. That was nice.
About twenty minutes later, Marcus send Dylan downstairs to make some coffee, while he was softly waking Logan with a kiss.
"C'mon big boy. Ya gotta work."

Logan woke up when the bed shook a little and soon after he felt something worm pressing against his chest. He grumbled a little, more asleep then anything else and took the little body in his arms. His hand reached for Marcus on the other side.
What felt like a second later, Dylan struggled himself out of Logans heavy arm and left the room, Marcus came a little closer. He knew he had to get up now... but he didn't want to and just pretended to be not awake yet. He just twitched a little and moved his head more into the pillow, although he knew Marcus wouldn't let go. So he just decided to make him to a little while.
Logan put his arm around Marcus and just pressed him down, next to him on the mattress.
"Work doesn't run away... And I'll work better if I'm not tired like hell."

Marcus chuckled. Logan was such a kid in the morning.
"That's what coffee's good for. We got about two minutes before Dylan's gonna become impatient."
Besides everything he said, Marcus didn't try to move. But Logan wouldn't get more than those two minutes. As long, as Marcus wasn't welcome in the office, he would make Logan work for two. Just six more days.
"Daaaaaad! Coffee's readyyyyyy!"
"You heard him. C'mon, get up."
Marcus freed himself from Logans hug and got up.
"Breakfast isn't going to wait for you this time."
He left the room and headed down to make said breakfast. As usual, Dylan sat on the kitchen counter next to the coffee machine, waiting. As soon as his father entered the kitchen, he started to talk about his latest dream. They got weirder every week and Marcus asked himself, if Dylan just made them up to entertain him. But it was possible that he really dreamed about that stuff, because this little boy had an imagination Dr. Seuss could only dream about.

Logan didn't really listen to what Marcus said, he was already drifting away into sleep again. He heard Dylans voice from downstairs and soon after Marcus got out of Logans grip and went to the kitchen too. Logan neede a few more minutes turning in bed, before he fought himself out of his blanket and into some fresh clothes. He wasn't sure if Marcus was not angry anymore or if he just was tired of fighting. Or maybe he figured Logan would concentrate on finding this guy more, when he had less on his personal plate.
However, Logan went downstairs too and Dylan gave him a big mug of coffee. Logan took a sip, then sat down and lay his head on the table.
"Mornings are the invention of Satan... or some other evil being...", he murmured into the wood without looking up. Normal working hour should just be between 11 AM at the earliest until 8 PM... Logan could live with that. And before moving in with Marcus, Logan always was in the office around that time... now he was there at 8 in the morning... how terrible.

"Well, technically, it's an invention of God. He made the day, he made the night, so made the morning. Satan came later."
Who would've thought that there was a use for his bible studies, his aunt forced him to do. It was not a great use but it was additional knowledge to use in some way. Couldn't hurt.
Marcus put a plate with fresh pancakes in front of Logans head.
"C'mon. Eat. It helps. Good for your blood sugar. ANd don't pretend that it's the hardest thing in the world, I make you do it pretty much every day. So I know you can do it."
Dylan sat down with his own badge of pancakes and inhaled them, as usual. Marcus stayed with coffee and started cleaning the kitchen, as usual.

Logans only answer was a short grumble, then he raised his head slowly and started eating.
"I'll never get used to that... getting up early...." The pancakes were good as usual but eating was annoyingly exhausting at the moment. maybe it wasn't just the time, but the work he had to get to. Logan had absolutely no clue where to begin with searching for this guy. And if he couldn't think of anything not only would Marcus go to work again... which Logan still believed was a bad idea, but he also gave Mike a reason to be cocky. He only agreed to that because he was sure Logan couldn't do much and if he failed he was able to shut him up for good. At least when Marcus was the topic. Maybe Logan was overthinking this, but that's what he believed.
After eating one of the pancakes he didn't want anymore and stood up to get ready for work. "Not hungry...", was his explanation.
Sonn after he was off to work and although Andrew was back, he didn't had much of a clue. This guy didn't know about the bombings apparently and he also told Andrew he didn't know this Miller guy. At least he said so and Andrew believed him.
The ex-husband of the woman with the bomb also didn't know anything. Andrew was discrete, he didn't tell him what actually happened and for him it was like she just had an accident and vanished from his and their daughters life in a flink. There was also no clue to be found.

This kept on for the rest of the days and Marcus probably was extra hyped to finally get to do some work. Logan came home the day before, still not knowing anything about Miller and being noticeable down about it. Dylan already was in bed, Logan had tried until 11PM to finally find something in all these files, but finally he gave up and came home. Tired he fell into bed, but his thoughts still circled around this case. Well... there wasn't anything he could do about that now anyway... Marcus and Mike got what they wanted anyway and all Logan did was giving Miller time to vanish from their sight again. "Fuck..."

"Language", Marcus reproved his boyfriend.
It was one of those father-instincts he learned in the last few months. It was okay, as long as it didn't happen in this house or around Dylan.
He rolled over and put his head on Logan's shoulder. He knew, that there was barely any progress in the Miller case. But his hiatus was officially over. He just had to work quickly, that was all. Luckily, if you could say that in this situation, Miller wouldn't go underground for very long. They would get him eventually.
Marcus had done great occupying himself througout the week. He organized the garage, put upt the pictures with Dylan and managed to get rid of a couple of things. They donated it to some organizations which could use them. Marcus made sure, Dylan was okay with everything. They went to doc Rosemary, so he could talk to someone professional about it and apparently, everything was okay. Marcus himself went three times to doc Rosemary. He figured, since he had nothing else to do and it was Logans best argument against him working, that he should do something about it. And on top of all of that he managed to find a company which made rooms soundproof. Next week a guy would come over and check everything out. The week was actually productive in so many ways...
"We're gonna get him. We always get them."
He caressed Logans chest, painting small circles. It was kinda nice to be the one comforting the other for once.

The next morning, Marcus made pancakes as usual, while Dylan brought some coffee up to Logan.
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!", he shouted, jumping up and down on the bed, after he put the mug down on a sidetable, "You need to got to work! So you can have an eye on dad! Wake up!"
He repeated this little jingle over and over and over again, until Logan finally moved. Then he jumped off the bed and ran back downstairs.
It was confusing to Marcus to see his boy so excited about him going back to work. When he asked, Dylan replied that a superhero has to catch the bad guys in order to be a superhero.
"Just remember to come to school on wednesday!"
"Sure. I mean, I am the guy who's driving you over."

They dropped Dylan off at school, then headed straight for the office. It felt good, being back. Everyone greated him, as if he was their last straw in this case. It was kinda weird.
Marcus ordered all the files and a complete recap of all they did the last week. Then he gave out orders to schedule him meetings with all witnesses and victims and relatives and stuff, before retreating into his office. He plopped down on the ground and spread out all the files, getting straight into workmode.
Two hours later, he came back, looking for some coffee. At this point, he had memorized everything in the files. But talking to him wasn't an option. He was so deep in his own thoughts, that he functioned on autopilot. He was looking for a pattern. And he was onto something. You could tell by him sitting down on Stan's couch instead of going back into his office.

Logan ignored Dylan as long as he could and asked himself why he needed to go to work with Macrus. He wouldn't be any help anyway, so it was more then enough if he came later or not at all. Somehow he got up, reached for his coffee and drank it in bed, before moving down and eating something. Marcus was hyped too, although he probably didn't even notice that himself, and the ex-soldier watched the two of them being happy about Marcus going back to work. He certainly was not, but he decided to keep out of this from now on. If Marcus thought it was good for him and he seemed rather happy about it, why should Logan be overprotective about this? Marcus was an adult and he would know if it got too much for him.

At work it wasn't any less frustrating. Marcus started working like usual, closed himself away and Logan couldn't do anything. After two hours Marcus came outside again, thinking about something. Logan sat at Andrews table at the time and sighed.
"If he finds something in under 5 hours, I'm going insane..."
"You know he thinks differently... that's why Mike keeps him around so much and allowed you to give him one more week. He can't loose him."
"Still... I worked a week on this... found nothing."
"Don't be like that..."
"I know..." Logan sighed and stood up. "Well, if someone needs anything, I'm in the training room. Got nothing better to do anyway..."
Andrew nodded briefly and Logan walked away. Sitting around having nothing to do and watching Marcus solve this case in record speed was the worst. In the training room he could at least do something.

Everyone was expecting Marcus to just look at the files and solve everything on the spot. But he didn't. All Marcus was doind was collecting information and filtering it until he found something. He was faster at it than most people. But he couldn't find what wasn't there. He shot Stan some ideas he should take a look at, but that's about it. Now he got why Logan was so frustrated at this case. It seemed as if they really had to wait for another attack. Which bugged Marcus, because he wanted to save everyone at every given moment.
So he joined Logan in the trainign room, after Andrew told him, where he was.
"I need your side", Marcus said, as he held the punching bag, "What did you do the last week? How did they seem to you? The people you talked to, I mean."

Logan was surprised when the door to the training room opened a few minutes later. He just started to put off some steam, but he didn't mind Marcus joining him.
"I wrote a report every day and I'm sure you read them.", Logan answered not pausing his punches or kicks. "The shop owners wife didn't know anything, she just was confused. Bringing this prison dude up confused her even more and the statement her husband made at court wasn't much of a deal for her either. She wasn't even present and her husband went home on the same day again. The colleges of this woman also didn't seem to know anything. She was normal, missing her child which lives at her ex-husbands. Apparently she was a nice person, I don't think anyone of them has to do with this. Andrew talked to the rest, you have to ask him. He is better in reading people then I am anyway and he was present when I went to the bank too. And I didn't do much else, Stan got the peoples list of who had anything to do with this other case and well Miller got all of them now, although the shop owner isn't dead...yet. His wife didn't know if he'd wake up again. And Sara didn't find any information about Miller, as if he never existed in the British military, which is kinda strange. At least there should be people in the US who heard of him. Like me.
As for possible targets, I'd say the hospital or the prison where this guy is. Can't think of anything else but I didn't even get the motive. Maybe he's just chasing us around or something."
That was Logans brief summery of the last week. He got stuck pretty soon and every direction he went seemed to be a dead end. He just needed to kick the punching bag extra hard one time now.
"Anything else I can help you with?"

"Well. You can go to prison", Marcus said without a flinch.
But then he started smiling.
"I asked Stand to get us a meeting with this guy. I wanna know, why Miller is so interested in him. Thought, we just ask. Andrew's gonna persuade the British Embassy to give us more about Miller. It's clear, that he's black ops, but that doesn't save him from law enforcement. especially if he's behaving like a dick. And if it's a big conspiracy or something, we only have more reason to stop him, 'cause he's working against the States. Can't see a reason for the brits to do something like that, but what do I know about politics?"
Marcus let go of the punching bag.
"You drive. I get lunch for us", he said, leaving the room.
Armed with chinese take-away food, they sat in the large SUV and were on their way out of the city to the prison. Marcus stared out of the window, as usual, but he wasn't sleepy. In fact, he slept pretty well since he had those extensive sessions with doc Rosemary. Not perfect, but it was a considerable good night sleep. With a soundproof bedroom, it would be even better, for sure.
"You know", he started, still looking outside the window, "I'm doing better. You were right, I had to work out some things. I still am. But I'm doing better. And Dylan is, too."
He lifted his head from the cool glass and reached for Logans free hand.
"We're good, aren't we?"

"You are so bad at joking!", Logan smiled after his short confusion. "What about the great Marcus and Andrew team, suddenly I'm in? I guess I'm the better driver though..." He wasn't actually, he just was faster. Working for the gouvernment helped with speed tickets. As long as Dylan wasn't around Logan didn't care much about speed limits.

Logan used the time Marcus needed to get food to get a short shower. He could have gone for some more punches, but driving a little did the trick too.
Marcus sat next to Logan guarding the food. He wouldn't give it to him until they were on the highway... but it smelled so good...
Marcus reached for his hand and Logan shortly looked at him. "Wenn then it wasn't all bad what I did. Still I'm sorry. We are good, I'm not angry at you. If anything I have to apologize. I'm sorry I'm so tense lately. I just was never so scared like that. Put me back to war, send me to kill some psycho, I don't care. But I absolutely cannot loose you." Logan sighed and took a turn left, before driving onto the highway. "But I will if I keep butting in your buisiness like that so I won't." He grumbled a little, maybe he said too much. "Okay enough with this, we are on the highway, I'm allowed to eat now right?"

"Sure. But no chopsticks."
Marcus looked through the white plastic bag for Logans food and gave it to him. He trusted Logan, that's why he was allowed to do that. Otherwise he wouldn't even smell the food. Andrew was allowed to eat while driving as well, but he never did.
Marcus leaned back and looked out of the windshield. His thoughts wandered back to Miller. The key to getting this man was to understand him and his motivations. Why was he targeting people involved in the case with this other guy? As soon as they knew the answer to this question, they were on Millers tail. Marcus had a feeling though, that the man wouldn't talk. Or he knew as much as everyone else which would only make it more complicated. Miller was a clever man. Marcus knew how his thoughts worked. But he knew something else: Miller had the helper syndrom, just like him. Which meant he had a weakness they could use against him.

"Yeah, I know." Logan took his food and placed it between his legs, while opening it with one hand. No chopsticks Marcus said... well, whatever. He took the plastic fork, opened the box and held it in the hand e also placed on the wheel, while he ate with the other. He even drove a little slower.
"Aren't you gonna eat?", he asked Marcus who was lost in thought again. Driving had the effect that Marcus was quieter than usual, staring out the window.
"How about you stop thinking for a while. As long as we don't have any more info, you won't find anything new. Let your brain rest a little." Marcus wouldn't probably stop thinking unless he had something other to think about.
"By the way. I noticed the pictures, obviously. Dylan seems very happy about seeing his mom every now and then. The picture he took with her at the Space Needle, she took with you too. That's kinda cute."