2/13

[spanningyears]

There's a club in Darrow, Firetrap, it's called. Somebody thinks they're really funny.

But there's a whole theme: guys juggling and twirling and swallowing fire, drinks served en flambe...

It's just a pity that the owner's not as devoted to safety procedures as he is the theme of the place. Just maybe if he was, the place wouldn't be a smoldering pile of rubble now. It's the little details.

Logan's almost done with a 48 hour shift when they get the call that the place has gone up. It's looking like this will be the last run before he gets a couple of days off, and, not that he's one to brag about it, but he's more than a little impressed with his timing.

No, scratch that. He's definitely going to brag about it.

But maybe his head just wasn't in the right place tonight, more focused on those days off ahead of him than on the actual job in front of him when they get to Firetrap. One of the guys on the truck with them tonight gives them the all clear, says the club's been completely evacuated, only, this lady nearby is shouting about a friend of hers still being inside, while Lieutenant Diaz holds her back, tries to calm her down.

Logan's definitely not thinking. Because they've barely got the hose hooked up— he's supposed to be paired up with Jeffries— and the next thing he knows, he's racing inside without the right gear on. He gets out okay, after finding this twenty-year old half passed out in a booth near the back and dragging her out, but he's coughing, his throat and lungs practically on fire themselves as he pukes his guts out in the street.

Next thing he knows, he's waking up at Darrow General with an oxygen mask on his face, and he doesn't know which chewing out he's dreading more: the Fire Chief's, or his in case of emergency contact.

It's starting to look like his days off probably aren't going to go off like he planned.

Comments

[chasingthestorm]

We should probably come with instruction manuals, me and Logan. The entire thing would be what to do in an emergency.

Frankly, it's a miracle I haven't received a call like this sooner. For almost a year now, my life in Darrow has been comparatively quiet, even peaceful. Logan and I have been getting along like a normal couple, which is to say like people who don't almost get killed once a week. Sooner or later, one of us was going to fall off the wagon.

Veronica Mars isn't a fan of paperwork. She's not a fan of being made to hang around the nurses' station while they make her answer questions and fill things out, giving worry time to build into frustration. So her boyfriend's a firefighter. So that literally means running into the fire. Leave it to Logan to find a way to make that more dangerous.

She knows the drill when it comes to hospitals. Keep your voice down. Be calm. Don't excite the patient. Bullshit. Hurrying into the room, seeing Logan lying there, she shakes her head, briefly dumbstruck. "You couldn't take one minute to make sure you were actually ready to walk into a burning building? Really?"

[spanningyears]

He only pauses for a second before he's pulling the mask off of his face to talk, the words scratching out of his throat. It's part of the whole smoke inhalation thing: he gets the raspy voice for a couple of days. Now maybe he can do all that prank calling he's been putting off for the better part of a decade.

Silver linings.

"Great, thanks. A day. Two tops, I think. Yeah, I'm happy to see you too," Logan says, answering a barrage of questions that Veronica didn't actually ask. He was sure that he was going to get off easy, and the fact that Veronica jumps right to the lecture is pretty much what he was expecting. Anything else, and he might have wondered if his girlfriend had been replaced by a slightly less spunky counterpart.

[chasingthestorm]

"Put that back on," Veronica says, exasperated. Not only is he stupid enough to rush into a burning building, he doesn't have the sense to follow doctor's orders. She wouldn't expect anything else, but that doesn't mean it's not frustrating. Logan never seems to have his own best interests at heart, even now, even when she'd hoped he'd outgrown it. They're adults now. They're better at this. Not always by much, but they're smarter, steadier. Or they should be.

"I can't believe you sometimes. Did you even think, Logan?" She shakes her head, huffing out a sharp breath. What is she supposed to do? One of these days... "You could have gotten yourself killed."

[spanningyears]

"So I don't even get to explain myself?" Logan asks, and he replaces the mask just after he says the words, because he's got a feeling that Veronica might just do it herself if he doesn't. Never mind that explaining himself probably isn't the easiest thing, in his current condition.

It all probably looks worse than it is, he thinks. From what a doctor told him, he'll only be stuck at Darrow General for a day or two.

[chasingthestorm]

"You can explain yourself later." Right about now, Veronica thinks she could choke him herself, given half a reason. She wants at least to pick up a pillow and hit him with it, not because she wants to hurt him, but because she needs to do something. It's like a burning in her veins, the need to move, to do. She's never been good at standing around and waiting.

She's breathing too fast, jaw aching from clenching it too hard, as she sits on the edge of his bed. This close, she could reach for his hand. She wants to. Instead she curls her fingers in the sheet tight. "For now, though, no. For now, you do whatever the doctor says."

[spanningyears]

There's a quip on his tongue, and Logan actually hesitates before making the joke. He gets that Veronica's pissed off, and he gets why. He knows that back in Neptune— or some version of Neptune, at least— her dad's still recovering from his accident. Logan knows that even if they don't really talk about it, Veronica's probably still freaked out about it.

But there hadn't been a lot of time to consider any of that, in the moment.

"He says jump I say how high," Logan replies, the quip making its way into the conversation anyway.

[chasingthestorm]

She can't look at him. Not yet, not right now. If she does — Veronica isn't sure, doesn't yet know if she'll shout or break down. He's so fucking cavalier, like it doesn't matter that he's all she has of home or that it took them years to get this chance. Just throw it away, who gives a shit.

"Well, I'm glad it's a joke to you," she mutters. He's never cared if he lives or dies. She's the one who has to worry, she's the one he keeps pushing into this position of being some raging bitch because she thinks he's not entirely disposable, and it's bullshit. It's always been bullshit.

[spanningyears]

Logan phrases it as a joke, a flippant remark, but it's not how he really feels about this whole thing. He's a long way from having a death wish now. Maybe nine years ago, but now... now he's not looking to die.

He's quiet for a long moment, wanting to say a lot, but knowing he's not going to get the chance until he's out of the hospital. There's a lot they probably need to talk about when it comes to all this, but they haven't, not yet.

"Look, Veronica," he says, and he hazards taking the mask away from his face and whatever understandable grief Veronica might give him about it, "I know it's not a joke. I know what I did. And I'm sorry I freaked you out, but what was I supposed to do?"

[chasingthestorm]

"Take half a minute to do it right," Veronica says, exasperated. "You could have been killed, Logan, and then how were you gonna help them?" What about her? It's stupid and selfish, but she keeps thinking it over and over. If she's not careful, she'll say it. Whatever she has going for her here in Darrow, though, he's the most important part. There's no way they fought through everything they've been through for her to lose him like this.

[spanningyears]

He opens his mouth to say something, but then thinks better of it, quiet for a long moment before he speaks again. This isn't supposed to be them anymore. It's been a long time since Logan was looking to put himself it the line of far just for the hell of it, a decade since he's been that reckless.

And in a lot of ways, it's not any more dangerous than the hundreds of times he was in a cockpit, but that's probably a conversation for another day. One thing Logan has learned, is how to pick his battles, at least.

"Okay, it was stupid. It was stupid and I got lucky, I know that," Logan says, and he already got that much from the Fire Chief.

[chasingthestorm]

Veronica is riled up enough that even that's frustrating. He should have known before he put himself in danger, before he wound up in the hospital. He's not going to get her to give up just by admitting she's right. The whole thing is exhausting. His job is dangerous. Her job can be, too. They don't need to create extra risks.

"Yeah," she says quietly. "It was and you did. I don't... I just don't want something to happen to you, alright?"

[spanningyears]

He frowns, realizing he's almost on the other side of a lecture he gave Veronica a long time ago. It makes him wonder, if they'd never ended up in Darrow, when this kind of conversation would have come up. On a normal day, fighting fires in Darrow's nowhere near as dangerous as the flying he would have done while he was deployed.

But out of sight and out of mind go hand in hand, don't they? There's probably a difference between all that and getting a call that he's in the hospital.

Logan sits up a little more, reaching for Veronica's hand.

"Next time... it's full gear or no-go," he agrees.

[chasingthestorm]

Veronica squeezes his hand, not quite looking at him yet. Voicing her thoughts and feelings is always awkward for her. Even with him, it's difficult, and he knows her better than probably anyone else in Darrow, so it's not as if those things are likely to come as a surprise to him. It's just one thing she never managed to grow out of. Maybe it got easier to share, but she's never been good at it.

After a moment, she thinks better of just speaking, instead turning to sit more fully on the bed, shifting up to be beside him. "Good," she says, "because I will murder you and no one will find the body."

[spanningyears]

"Don't doubt it for a second," Logan replies, and it's not lost on him, that admitting something like that isn't as easy for Veronica as it is for him. Never has been, not ten years ago, and he's sure it isn't now either. It's a compromise on her part, so maybe he can stop trying to play the damn hero like he can make the fire department the same as the navy.