[Logan] You Look Like..

[Scarlet Rose Harris]

Scarlet sat in the back of the cab trying to get all of her thoughts together as her heart raced. She’d told him to drive, just drive. But now where was she going? ‘ Ma’am?’ he asked again and Scarlet nodded, acknowledging that she had heard him. “ Just give me a second,” she said as she licked her lips and brought her hand up to her forehead where she could feel it bleeding still above her eye. She didn’t want to go to the hospital. Shane was on tour. Ryan and Madeline had just gotten back together recently, she really didn’t want to invade on that privacy. Mandi.. there was Mandi. Scarlet reached down into her clutch and took her phone out, calling Mandi several times, each time getting her voicemail. Scarlet sighed and looked out of the cab window. A city of millions and she had no one to go to. She closed her eyes and coughed, giving the address for Logan’s place. Of course she had somewhere to go, it was just the most painful thing ever. During the ride she sat back, her hands shaking from what had just happened. Since when had Zack become someone that carried a gun? And got into fights.. and why were two guys trying to shove her into a car? Was Zack with them. Her head already hurt bad enough from the hit and now it was just hurting more from the headache she was getting.

The cab came to a stop and that was when Scarlet realized she had no cash with her. She never carried cash in her clutch cause she would forget it somewhere. Zach had everything. She sighed, trying to think. She couldn’t ask Logan to pay for it. “ I’m.. so sorry” Scarlet said, but quickly reached up and began to take out her diamond earrings. They were worth far more than this ride could have cost, but she was just so thankful to be away from everything that had just happened. But Zach was fighting them. And she’d left him alone. What if he wasn’t with them, what if she had just left him to die basically. Scarlet handed her earrings to the cab driver, not pausing to listen to him protest before she slammed the door and ran up to Logan’s front door. She took her phone out, trying to call him but cursed as it went to voicemail. His beloved car was there,… he had to be. “ Logan!” she screamed out, still scared out of her mind. What if they had followed her there? She needed to get inside. She brought her hand up to the door, smacking it as hard as she could as she screamed his name to try and get him to come to the door. It felt like she was hitting her hand against the door, screaming at the top of her lungs forever, but it was probably only a few seconds and suddenly the door was opening. Signature Logan standing in his doorway with sweatpants and no shirt. Scarlet rushed inside, sort of forgetting that she looked like a bleeding trainwreck with her dress ripped at the side. “ Oh my god, Logan” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. Now that she felt semi safe, the tears just started to come from her eyes, making it harder for her to try and explain to him. She stepped back from the hug, letting him adjust to the fact that she was there, rubbing his hands over his eyes as he asked her what was wrong. Scarlet shut the door and sniffed, trying to talk through the tears so she could explain everything.

“ There were these two guys and they tried shoving me in a car, and I don’t know who they were or what they wanted, and then out of nowhere the one pushing me in the car hits me..And I look around and Zach has a gun. He had a gun, Logan. And I don’t know if they followed me here, or what they’re doing but I didn’t know where else to go. He was fighting them but he had a gun. I didn’t even know he knew how to use one, I have no idea who he is. Why are they trying to do this?” she blurted out him all very quickly while trying to wipe away the tears. “ I thought he cared about me, and..” she sniffled, trying to take in quick breaths before she stopped and looked around the living room she was standing in. Scarlet looked over bother of her shoulders, continuing to sniffle as she wiped her eyes from all of the tears and finally turned her attention back to Logan. “ Logan, where is all of Blake’s stuff?” she said, trying to force her shallow quick breaths to deepen so she didn’t look like a hyperventilating buffoon as she cried. It was strange, how she could be going through a persona life crisis. Someone just tried to kidnap her. She ripped her favorite dress. Her head was bleeding. Zach wasn’t who she thought he was, and she still didn’t know who he was. But now that she looked at Logan he looked like he hadn’t slept in days, and just looked exhausted. And whatever she was going through suddenly seemed so minor in comparison. Her pain she could deal with, had dealt with, Logan’s was a different story.

Dress

[Logan Chase Renner]

Logan took in Scarlet’s appearance, dressed ripped, head bleeding just above her eye, clearly in a panic. He was half asleep as it was, but unable to find sleep anyways. He was awake in that, I feel like I’m sleep walking way which made him question if he was dreaming this. But no, he was being ridiculous. Definitely awake. Before Scarlet had shown up on his door step Logan had been in bed for at least three hours and had found no sleep whatsoever. He’d been lying awake, trying to push his thoughts from his head, clear his mind so that maybe he could get enough sleep to be awake at the studio tomorrow. But then that made him think about how at the studio tomorrow he was NOT going to be working with Joel like he did every day. Again. Logan got so used to being with Joel every day, working on his career, giving him all his attention for hours on end. Logan treated Joel’s career like his own, living through Joel in some ways. And now Joel was lying in a hospital bed and Logan was left, not sure what to do with himself. It felt weird finding other things to do. He thought about sitting down and writing some music like he used to, but for what purpose? He used to write music for himself but he hadn’t given much thought to his own music career lately at all.

The whole Joel situation had been rough on everyone, which was mostly why Logan and Blake hadn’t exactly announced that they’d gotten a divorce. It was weird to think they weren’t married anymore when they had been so happy. And Kenzie was the biggest blessing either of them could have ever asked for; if anything she had brought them closer. There was only one thing that Logan felt had ever been a strain on their relationship, and that had been Scarlet. As happy as he was with Blake and loved her, he knew he still loved Scarlet after all these years. He’d waited so long for her, holding out, hoping that one day she would finally realize she was ready to be in a relationship. Logan knew she loved him, she just had so much going on and Logan understood she needed time. But eh more time that passed, the more he was convinced it just wasn’t meant to be. If she wasn’t sure yet, then when would she ever be sure? He’d moved on, that was when he’d met Blake. And all this time later, even after having convinced himself he’d moved on, he still had that what if feeling in his mind, what if Scarlet came to her senses earlier? All those years together, knowing her since they were five, it felt like they had been meant to be together. Logan couldn’t bring himself to be in a marriage with Blake when it felt like his mind was straying, always wondering, what if? It broke his heart to end their marriage, but it was something he and Blake both knew he had to do. If he was going to be married to Blake, he wanted it to be all or nothing. Blake deserved all of him, not just 90% and him still wondering what it would be like if he was with Scarlet. He didn’t know if things would work out with Scarlet, hell she was beginning to look more and more comfortable with her boyfriend Zach, so who’s to say nothing might come out of it? But Logan had to at least tell her how he felt. He had to get it off his chest and see once and for all. Maybe now his gut instinct would be right, or at least he could close the door on that chapter of his life at last and be able to move forward knowing 100% he was with the right woman.

Logan had been awake for hours, thinking about Scarlet and how he knew he was still in love with her. He wondered if she had really finally come to the conclusions that she loved him too, and thought it was too late. How would he approach her now that she was dating someone else, Hi Scarlet, I know I married someone else and didn’t wait for you and you are with someone new, but I just got divorced and I think we should give things another try? Who did that? Everything felt wrong, and like he was walking on thin ice here. But at the same time, in his heart it felt right. He was doing what he felt he needed to do, so that he could have peace of mind. Scarlet was his first love, his first everything. They were like that couple in high school everyone wished they could be. The guy everyone wanted to date, the girl every guy wanted. But they had been so much more than that. They’d depended on each other, needed each other, and were each other’s rocks, best friends. Everything. Scarlet had been his whole world back then. And all of the things that made her Scarlet, he’d accepted, he loved her regardless, held her hand through everything, understood her like no other person had or ever would. And in the end, all of her baggage had still held her back, tore them apart, wouldn’t allow her to just let go and be with him. She trusted him, but she hadn’t trusted herself. Hadn’t trusted that life wouldn’t rip him from her. Instead she’d done it herself, trying to protect herself. And ever since it’d been a long time of looking at each other and wondering what they could have been, knowing they still loved each other deeply. What kind of life what that, doing nothing but wonder about Scarlet when he was married to Blake, had a baby now. He couldn’t give himself to women in parts, no more dividing himself in halves. He wanted to give himself to someone entirely. Whoever that was deserved it, Scarlet and Blake both deserved his honesty. Scarlet deserved that chance they both needed; Blake deserved to be treated with respect, not to string her along when he was having thoughts of someone else. He still loved Blake, he did. Enough to still wonder what the hell he was ruining a good thing for. They had a beautiful life, beautiful marriage, and beautiful daughter. Logan had never been so confused in his life.

And now he was, divorced, alone in this big house that had felt so full and now seemed so empty, with Scarlet in his arms. It’d been a while since she’d been there, but felt so natural and familiar. After hours, days, weeks of being on his mind, her she was, rushing to him like she used to, trusting him like she always had. "You're okay, just breathe. I don't think anyone followed you," he added, looking out the window. It was quiet out on the street. He let her go, half wishing he could just go on holding her for a little bit longer, but he listened to her as she explained about her attackers and Zach with a gun and not knowing who Zach even was. She was crying and practically hysterical, Logan looking at her sympathetically, trying to understand so he could at least try to do something to fix it. He knew it was wrong to feel a little hope when she indicated she felt like Zach was some stranger, since that could not be good for their relationship. Before he could even offer her any words of consolation, she had taken one look at her surroundings and asked where Blake’s things were. Logan gave a small sigh, knowing this was the part when he told her something that might be exactly what she’d been dreaming of. “We uh… Bake and I are divorced.” He paused, at a loss for words, feeling an over whelming amount of exhaustion, physically, but mostly emotionally. He was so mentally spent. “We haven’t really announced it, what with Joel and everything… didn’t seem like the right time. It was quick.” He looked back at her head, still bleeding, “I’m sorry, can I do something about your head? You’re bleeding,” he said out of concerned, leading the way to the kitchen and found a clean cloth and some other thing for the cut on her head. He sat her down in a bar stool and automatically starting tending to her cut, “Where the hell were you tonight? You haven’t noticed anything before, your sure you never seen Zach with a gun, or with… suspicious looking people… has he ever rushed off anywhere, acted strangely… have you ever thought he was keeping something from you?” Logan question calmly, trying to get a grasp on the Zach situation. For all they knew, it could have been a freak thing, your average muggers and Zach just so happened to carry a concealed weapon that Scarlet didn’t know about. He listened to Scarlet try to remember anything strange but his mind kept going back to her being here and the way his thoughts were just minutes before she knocked on his door. “Do you sit and wonder if things were different, if we’d still be together?”

[Scarlet Rose Harris]

Scarlet touched her fingers to forehead before she brought them down quickly and looked at them, though she wasn’t really processing that she was bleeding. And her phone was vibrating in her clutch, but now that she was aware of it, it’d been doing that since she had gotten into the cab. She vaguely remembered her dad calling her multiple times. What could possibly be going on that he would want to call her so much? Unless.. well unless he already knew about what had happened. But how could he possibly? Scarlet took in a deep breath and sighed, focusing her attention back on Logan. Whatever her father was doing wasn’t her concern right now, she had much bigger things going on. Like why in the hell would someone want to kidnap her. And why couldn’t she trust the one guy that she had let her walls down for recently? Scarlet shook her head slightly, trying to push out those thoughts so she could concentrate on Logan as she looked up at him, waiting for him to explain where Blake’s stuff was gone. There were a handful of things that she expected to hear him say. They bought a new place and she was moving her stuff. Hell, some crazy fan robbed them. But she felt frozen in place as he said that they had divorced. She opened her mouth to say something, but what in the hell could she say? Finally? He looked like an absolute wreck over it, there wasn’t any sense in rubbing it in. And it didn’t matter anyways, before she could say anything he was bringing the attention back to her head and she instinctively touched it again, licking her lips as she nodded and followed him into the kitchen. He wasn’t exactly New Yorks’ finest medical professional working on her, but it was better than nothing. Scarlet set her clutch down on the island, sliding quietly into the bar chair. It felt so strange being here now. Logan alone. Empty house. Blake was this thing that kept Scarlet from being selfish, saying what she wanted, acting on it. And here was Logan, alone. Hurting, clearly. But for some reason she didn’t really feel like she should be elated, in their home she still felt like the other woman. And she hadn’t even done anything with him, what sense did that make.

Scarlet sat still, letting Logan work on her cut and did her best not to wince, though it hurt like fucking hell. At least he was trying to be nice and help her. Though, that was typical Logan fashion. He fixed everything it seemed like. People hardly fixed things for him. Oh, lightbulb. After he patched her up she was going to make him something to eat. Someone probably hadn’t cooked for him in a while. Okay maybe killing his taste for food forever wasn’t the best option. But she could order in for him. She lowered his eyes, looking down at the body that she’d admired for years. He had to subconsciously show his body off like that. No one was naturally that cold temperature on their lower half, and warm on their upper to the point where they needed to wear sweatpants on their legs and nada on their upper half. Tease. If anything, at least he was a good distraction from what was going on in her life. It was easy to push aside the idea of kidnappers and psycho killer boyfriends when Logan was sitting in front of you. Then again, was Zach even really her boyfriend? She could feel herself questioning every single thing he ever did, said, didn’t say. Scarlet closed her eyes and narrowed her eyebrows in concentration after Logan asked her about Zach’s behaviors. “ Ow!” she said, reaching her hand up quickly, but she did her best to keep her mind on Zach. “ We were at a banquet for my dad, he was asking about you actu- but.. anyways.. Well.. yeah.. actually he, ran off a lot. I never really knew what he did with his personal time. His gadgets don’t match his apartment. I’ve never even heard him mention having a gun.. And I’ve never really met any of his friends…” she said, pushing away some of the leftover tears that were still streaming down pretty steadily. She took in a few more breaths, trying her best to just.. focus. But now that she felt safe she realized she felt all sorts of other things. Hunger. Thirst. Exhaustion. Scarlet looked away from Logan and looked over at the sink, wondering if it would be rude to Blake’s aura here or something if she got up and got a glass of water.

Scarlet looked back at Logan, tempted to ask him if she could steal a bottle of water from him. But apparently he had completely different things on his mind because when she focused her eyes back on his devastatingly handsome face she was frozen in shock at what he asked of her. “ Logan..” she said, starting to slowly piece everything together. At least, she thought she was. She curled her fingertips delicately on the silk fabric of her dress as she looked over Logan’s shoulders at the vacant home. And that’s when it all sort of hit her. Why did people lie to themselves, to each other.. so damn much? Why was Zach lying to her about who he was? Why did she lie to herself about what she wanted? She wanted Zach but she wanted this too. Why had Logan lied to himself about whatever it was that he felt? Her heart ached as she looked back at him and gave a slow shrug of her shoulder, just trying to find a word, anything that could fill the silence. But nothing added up. If she kissed him right now, it would look like it was because he was available. Like she had been waiting at the sidelines. But it was so much more than that. She had no idea who her boyfriend was. But here was Logan. Confessing more to her than he ever had just by that statement ever since Blake walked into his life. Blake showed up and it was like he completely shut down that part of his life, at least vocally to Scarlet anyways. And now he was semi admitting that she had been on his mind lately. But since when had Scarlet ever cared what anyone thought, about anything? Instead of finding anything else to say, or bring up, she stood up from the barstool and took the few small steps closer to Logan before she wrapped her hands around the back of his neck. She licked her lips absent mindedly as she moved towards him slowly, allowing any time he wanted to sort of back away from her. Every other kiss they had ever shared was quick, rushed, confident, passionate. But if they kissed each other now, it came with so much more meaning behind it. They were at different points in their lives, grown, wiser.. and kissing each other only meant bringing back every single feeling that they’d shared in the past. At least, that’s what she assumed it meant. She’d brought one of her free hands from the back of his neck where she rested her hand over his jaw, tracing her thumb over the edge of his lips. Curves she wouldn’t be able to forget since their first kiss when she was seven. She leaned into him completely, closing the small distance that was between them, resting the silk fabric of her dress against the smooth skin of his chest. Scarlet brought her lips to his, forgetting about the tear in her dress, the blood in her hair. All that mattered was the overwhelming softness of his lips and the fact that he tasted exactly the same as he had in high school, exactly the same as he did every night she snuck out of her window, every night she kissed him under the docks in Malibu, each kiss when their friends left the room- till eventually they didn’t care who saw, when they were eating fudge bars from the ice cream truck and she pretended to only kiss him so she could get the ice cream off his lips. He tasted like everything that was sweetness and excitement, spontaneity and a little bit of danger all rolled into one. Scarlet kissed him, growing a bit more eager as she brought her fingers to his chest, trying her best to contain herself from crawling into his chair.

[Logan Chase Renner]

Logan worked on Scarlet’s injury letting her gather her thoughts and think about what he’d asked. Had Zach ever given her any reason to be suspicious that she just hadn’t noticed before? By the look on her face, she was beginning to realize that Zach had probably kept some amount of stuff from her. Logan cleaned up the cut on her head, apologizing when she said ow, but listened as she recounted the different signs she’d missed over the months with Zach. It didn’t sound like she really knew much about the guy after all. Imagine thinking you know someone and it turns out they’re like a complete stranger to you. Logan didn’t know what to tell her, it sounded like Zach was meddling in something he shouldn’t. Maybe he was in a gang, or government, or a mob, or just a criminal. He definitely wasn’t anything Scarlet had been expecting, that much was clear. Logan saw her look over at the sink, stopping what he was doing. He wasn’t being a very good host. Blake was usually good at that… “Sorry, did you want something to drink? I should have offered...” Logan moved to the sink and grabbed a glass to fill up, asking her the question that’d been on his mind for weeks. Logan slid the glass onto the counter next to her, watching her the way she was watching him. Remembering the things that she did, their childhood, teen years, everything they’d been through, everything they had been. Every kiss, every lunch hour spent together, all the weekends and summers, all of it. Scarlet was getting closer, and the closer she got the faster the old feelings were rushing back. The way her waist felt like this, when she was standing this close and he had his arms around her. The way her hair fell over her face when she leaned in like this. The same lip gloss she always wore… even after all this time.

Logan kissed her back, finding all the familiar things about her body welcoming. Every question he had about them, wondering what they had missed out on, wondering if things had been different, if they might still be together. His questions weren’t exactly answered, but he was sure of one thing. Scarlet hadn’t needed to speak to answer his question. She’d kissed him, she felt the same. They had unfinished business they needed to sort through. They needed to give themselves a chance, the chance that they missed out on to see for sure if this was meant to be. Logan wouldn’t be able to ever love another woman wholly until he knew for sure. But this… there was something right about this. Standing in his kitchen kissing Scarlet… felt right. Logan had his arms around her waist as if it were the most familiar thing ever; he’d grown up watching that waist grow curves after all. Logan backed her out of the kitchen and into the living room, ignoring anything his brain was saying and just doing whatever felt right. This was what he’d been waiting to do, right?

[Scarlet Rose Harris]

Scarlet felt her back arch instantly as Logan wrapped his toned arms around them. Logan wrapping his arms around her felt as natural as the sun rising and it seemed like after all of this time, things were finally going to turn out the way they were supposed to. There was a part of her, telling her to stop, telling her that she loved Zach. But who the hell was he even? He’d held a gun tonight. There was a beast inside of Zach that she’d never been aware of, but this.. the way Logan touched her, the way his skin felt against her own.. that she was very aware of. Scarlet wrapped her fingers tighter into his hair, kissing him eagerly as he pulled her away from the kitchen. He’d gotten divorced, and within a minute of telling her that he was asking her about whether or not she’d thought of him. If she hadn’t played some part in their divorce, that would be the last thing on his mind. Scarlet smiled against his lips for the first time that night. She couldn’t be mad that he hadn’t waited forever. She couldn’t be mad that he married another woman and had a baby. She wasn’t without faults. Scarlet stood with her hips against his own , dropping her hands down to his chest as she took in deep breaths, focusing on each of his features she’d ever fallen in love with.

“ I should have.. never let you go,” she said quietly, though there wasn’t really any reason to speak up in the silence that filled his home. “ And I am very aware that letting you walk away from me was the biggest mistake of my life. I thought that having you would be the scariest thing I would ever face. But then I lost you and I never thought..” she said, stopping herself short. She never thought what exactly? Should she even be spilling this much information out to him? “ You got a divorce because.. of me..” she said, looking up at him for confirmation. Scarlet licked the corner of her lips, dropping her hands slowly from the soft skin of his chest. “ I have a proposition,” she said, deciding that all of the things she had worked out in her head must be true. “ Move in with me…. If we want to try this, we can’t do it with you here. I know I probably sound crazy and you never thought you’d hear me say these things but.. come just.. try with me. Just try, and see what happens. Let me love you the way I should have when I was younger.. Let me have you.” she said with a look of plea in her eyes. Scarlet stood on her toes, placing her hand against his cheek as she kissed him tenderly before she stepped back, dropping the straps of her dress off of her shoulders so that she could lower it completely. “ Have me ” she said a bit shakily. Double entendre aside, it was true. She wanted him to have her. She wanted to have him. And not just in the boudoir sense. It wasn’t often that Scarlet laid all of her cards out on the table, and if she did she never offered the full deck. But here she was, for the first time in her life, placing all of herself out on a silver platter for Logan.

[Logan Chase Renner]

The things that Scarlet was saying were like every worry Logan ever had were going out the window. The wondering if getting divorced was the right thing to do, if Scarlet would still want him, if they would find that everything they gave up they could get back. He hadn’t been sure of anything, not even knowing if putting all his eggs in one basket was going to pay off. But here was Scarlet admitting that they should never have ever even broken up. Logan didn’t think so either, which was why they were both in this situation. It was why he was divorced and why she couldn’t be in a relationship with someone else either at this point. Both of them couldn’t shake the other from their mind. She was right, she should have never let him go. He couldn’t even count the number of times he laid awake at night in high school, wondering what it was about him that she wasn’t sure about, half hoping he’d look over and she’d be there knocking on his bedroom window. Eventually he’d come to the conclusion that it was just Scarlet not being ready for a relationship, but maybe she would have been if he’d been the right guy. Always wondering ever since then why he hadn’t been the right guy. But he couldn’t seem to stop loving her anyways, even after all this time. Scarlet asked him, confirming her own thoughts, if it was her that was the reason he was divorce. He wasn’t going to lie to her, that wouldn’t be right. At this point he owed her the truth. Logan watched her, nodding slowly, “It isn’t your fault… but I just…” he paused, trying to find the words to make her understand, “I couldn’t be in a marriage and still wonder about us. All I can ever think about is what if. I just… think we deserve a try too.” He just wanted her to understand it wasn’t her fault, but it was their history that made him think they needed a chance for themselves. He wanted her to understand he did it for both of them. Neither of them would be able to move on anyways.

Scarlet told him she had a proposition for him, and he grinned slowly, “Oh yeah?” He was not expecting her to suggest he move in with her at all. She really had completely turned around. But she was right, it would be easier on both of them not to be here. This was his house with Blake. They didn’t need that looming over them. He shook his head, in so many ways what she was saying was so obvious. Of course she could love him, of course she could have him. She’d never lost him, never not had him. It just took both of them this long to realize that they’d never lost each other. Just taken a detour really. “Scarlet,” he said, raising his eyebrows as she slid the straps of her dress off her shoulders, “You’ve always had me. You had me at ‘Hi, I’m Scarlet can you pass me the scarlet crayon? No not that one, that’s red. SCARLET.’” He laughed. “When I was five I did not know what scarlet was. I found out pretty quick,” he smirked, sliding her dress down over her hips where it fell at her feet. Scarlet was like every light thought he’d ever had, before he was stressed and running a music label, before he had to act like an adult because as it turned out, age wise he apparently was one. She just took him back to every crazy, fun, memorable moment he had growing up. They’d had such a perfect childhood as far as the two of them went. Sweet, fun, depended on each other. There when she needed him. He remembered every time he had to pick up the pieces and put her back together, savoring in the sweet moments when she’d just smile and run into the surf, screaming like crazy and just being happy with everything they’d ever been through. He loved that Scarlet, so complex, but so alive. She was the person who always put the biggest grin on his face back then. And he was finding, if he just let her, she could still be that person. Logan pulled her back closer again in his arms, holding her against his chest, her face just inches from his. She’d laid out every card she had for him. And he knew at this point, with the way his thoughts had been the past few weeks, he’d be an idiot not to pick up every one of them. He knew what he wanted. It wouldn’t take much to just lean in that tiny bit and kiss her again, but he couldn’t stop the words from leaving his mouth, telling her quietly, but quite honestly, “I still love you, Scarlet.” And it scared him. It scared him that his own emotions could run so deep, wild, could be dormant for so long and within minutes it was as if they were as alive and real as ever. He felt like they were diving in head first, and scary as it was, it was also exciting. And right.

[Scarlet Rose Harris]

Scarlet felt the air passing her lips in hollow breaths as she whispered back quickly, “ I’ve always loved you, Logan,”. Instantly she closed the small inch of space between them and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him in tightly for a kiss. Every ‘first’ they’d had together flashed through her mind quickly. First kiss, first ‘date’, first dance, first time they slept together.. which was her first completely. First broken heart, first time they held hands, first time he wrapped his arm around her shoulders at the beach, the first time she played with him on the playground, offered to share her lunch with him, first game of ‘ I’ll show you mine if you show me yours’, first secrets they kept for each other, the first time he climbed into her treehouse.. which coincidentally was the same location as one many of the previous firsts. Scarlet leaned into him, eager to get any taste of his skin as she could. They’d slept together plenty of times, far more than she’d slept with anyone else, but this time was just different. This time they were grown, more in tune with who they were and what they wanted to be. Even if it was scary, at least they had some sense of direction and even after all of this time, she still found herself magnetically pulled towards him. Scarlet gripped her hands tightly against the sides of the trademark sweatpants that always seemed to cling to his hips until she could forcibly pull them down without leaving his lips. It was strange to think of how often she had daydreamed about this, how many dinners she’d avoided looking him in the eye because of the thoughts that ran through her mind, and now here she was, getting to live it out. At least one more time. Hopefully he meant everything he said, but even if he didn’t- one more night with him might be worth every night of the rest of her life.

Scarlet kept her head perfectly still against the bare skin of Logan’s chest as she watched his stomach rise and fall with each breath. After everything that had happened to them, how could this still feel so perfectly normal? He had a child. Had been married. Someone had tried to kidnap her tonight, and yet.. none of that seemed to matter right now. The only thing that mattered was that she still had each trace of his skin memorized, and he seemed to remember just as much as her body as she did about his. Which seemed ridiculous. She had spent hours, days, forever basically thinking about him, trying to remember. There was no way he had put in that sort of dedication. Not when he was with someone else. Scarlet traced her fingertip softly over his skin before she leaned over him, wrapping the sheets of the guest bed around each of them tightly as she wrapped her legs carelessly around his own and leaned down to kiss him again, not caring enough to try and tame her blonde hair that had fallen over her shoulders. He’d been able to give her so much of so many different things. He had the wild side, where they would sleep together whenever they wanted to basically- during school, after football games when she still had her cheerleading uniform, after his baseball matches when he had those ridiculously attractive pants on, when they were hanging out with Shane and Ryan and would sneak off for a few minutes. Then there was the side of him that balanced everything out. Holding her when she was upset, knowing that every time she got up to leave a room was her trying to flee when she was scared, agreeing to watch her favorite Disney movies, he’d even country hopped with her a time or two when she felt stressed enough to try and get away. He knew her. He knew how she liked to be kissed and when she wanted to be kissed. He knew what she said her favorite movie was, and what the truth of what it actually was. He could probably recite to you the only acceptable brands she would wear, that she would rather be naked than in lingerie, that she could never make a batch of cookies because she always at the cookie dough, that she tried to be adventurous and carefree, and live every moment to the fullest- even if it was because she was constantly scared that each moment was going to be her last. But right here, in his arms? It could be, and she would have no reason to worry about it at all. Scarlet tensed in the kiss, stopping as she heard the front door start to open followed by footsteps. She opened her mouth, wanting to ask if it was Blake, but not necessarily wanting to ruin that moment either.

Instead Scarlet put her hands against Logan’s chest and pushed herself away from him until she stood from the bed, leaving him with the sheets before she went down the hall to his room and stole one of his shirts before sliding it on over her small frame. Scarlet narrowed her eyebrows as she heard the pair of voices and then felt a panic rise into her chest. Whoever it was from that alley, of course they hadn’t been alone, they’d obviously sent someone to finish the job and now she put Logan in danger. Scarlet came out towards the entry way quickly and then stopped dead in her tracks as she saw Zach standing there with another tall blonde, who seemed to be looking around the house with just the slightest amount of being impressed. “ Zach…” she said , taking a slight step back. She still wasn’t sure who he was or what he wanted, and the fact that they were standing in Logan’s place right now didn’t exactly make her feel any better about who he might be.

[Zachary Adam Pierson]

Scarlet was at Logan’s place. Delilah may not have recognized the address but Zach sure did. Of course Scarlet would go running to Logan, ex-boyfriend, good friend; the works. Zach had never really gotten many details but the gist of it was clear. They’d broken up because Scarlet couldn’t commit. Zach wondered if they’d ever really been over each other. He saw the way Scarlet looked at the guy. Didn’t exactly like it, but he was married so Zach figured he had no room to worry. Logan seemed decent enough to stay faithful to his wife, they just had a baby too. Maybe Scarlet and Logan had loose ends, but they were ancient history right? High school stuff? Zach and Delilah showed up at Logan’s place, it looked quiet around here. Zach noticed Blake’s car was gone at first glance. Delilah mentioned something about it being a nice house, Logan had a nice car, yadda yadda. Yeah, Logan had a lot of friggin money, good for him. He could probably buy Scarlet all the things she’d ever want. Zach looked at Delilah skeptically, “Can’t we just kick the door in? It’d take me all of two seconds.” He didn’t really care about the door, like he said, Renner had money, he could replace the door. But Delilah shrugged, saying she thought the house was too nice to just kick in the door. Zach shrugged; let her pick the lock if it made her feel better. He just wanted to get inside, make sure Scarlet was here and see that she was safe. Maybe talk some sense into her. On the ride over Zach had been thinking about what he was going to say to her. He’d have his ass handed to him if he told her the truth but the more he thought about it, the more he didn’t care. Yes the family had been good to him, Scarlet’s dad had been generous. Zach felt like he had a purpose in life, something he didn’t have when he was in school. He had no idea what he was going to study, didn’t know what direction he wanted to go in for a career. Basically just lost in life, not knowing what the hell he was meant to do. But the family, they’d taken him in, gave him a purpose, given him protecting Scarlet as a simple job to do. Had he been stupid to fall in love with Scarlet. Probably. Did he regret it? Not a bit. He put himself in danger, his family, Zoe, Scarlet, but the way he looked at it, if Zach had stayed in school, Scarlet would have still been targeted. The difference now was at least she was alive and scared of him, rather than never knowing each other and maybe her being dead by now.

So yeah he was an idiot for mixing work and play, but if he hadn’t let himself get to know her, hadn’t crossed that line between his job and his heart, he wouldn’t have found out that he was capable of loving Scarlet and all of her baggage didn’t matter. He was good for her, let her be herself, moved at her pace, never pressured her. Sure he hadn’t known her since kindergarten, but he knew her. The problem was that she just didn’t know him, or so she probably thought. He wished he could tell her it didn’t matter, that the secrets weren’t what made him, him. Everything that made him Zach, the guy, the boyfriend, he’d shown her and let her in. The other stuff, the stuff she didn’t know, that was some other guy he barely knew himself. The guy she knew was the real Zach, not someone who normally killed people. Delilah opened the door, commented on how gorgeous the house was. Zach still didn’t even know that anyone was here, Logan and Blake could have taken her car somewhere, maybe no one was home. But some of the lights were on. Zach hadn’t been here a lot but he’d stepped foot inside a few times for Sunday dinners. Enough to notice a lot of missing things. Things that were trademark Blake. The place looked like a bachelor pad. Zach couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right here. Had Blake moved out or something? Someone was definitely here though. Scarlet’s shoes were by the door. Upon further inspection her dress was laying on the floor by the couch, and a pair of guys sweatpants. Zach felt his stomach turn over, but he didn’t want to admit what he thought was going on here. Delilah was asking a lot of questions, but Zach didn’t answer. He looked up when he saw Scarlet, dressed in what looked like one of Logan’s tshirts and her hair completely messed up. She looked just as awkward as he felt. He knew what they’d been up to, obviously, and she knew that he wasn’t an idiot and had quite easily put that together already. He opened his mouth to say something, he had wanted to make sure she was in one piece, that’s why they were here. But now that didn’t even seem to matter to him at the moment because he felt like someone had just ripped his heart out, stomped on it a few good times, thrown in on some train tracks to get run over, tossed it in a blender, you name it. He couldn’t even breathe for a second as he felt how angry he’d become. “What the fuck, Scarlet? I come here to make sure you’re not dead and in one piece, and you greet me like this?! You run off to some other guys bed?! What the hell? On what planet did that seem like a decent thing to do, huh?” Zach threw his arms down, pacing the floor, he couldn’t even look at her. He’d risked his life for her, killed for her. She hadn’t even given him the chance to explain anything, just jumped into bed with the first person she could find to comfort her because she was freaked out. Did she care that he was just as freaked out, just as scared? He was fucking terrified, worried out of his mind. And she apparently didn’t give a shit. He was such an idiot to fall in love with her when she didn’t even return the feelings. And how could she? If she loved him surely she would not have been so quick to move onto the next guy. Stupid, stupid idiot. He felt so foolish to think she would ever love him. What could he really give her anyways, a semi decent life paid for by the New York mob and dirty money? Did he really think a guy like him would ever have a chance with a girl like her? Idiot. He felt like vomiting. Or breaking something. Or sticking his knife in the back of someone else’s head. He’d never been so angry, hurt. Disappointed. Betrayed. Such an idiot. Oh yup, and then there was Logan walking in adjusting the waist band of his basketball shorts like he just pt them on seconds ago, which he probably did. Standing there all bewildered that there were people in his house, asking what was going on, standing by Scarlet all protectively. Well fuck that, he didn’t know the first fucking thing about protecting Scarlet Harris, he’d never have the guts or the balls to kill someone. Not that Zach was particularly proud of it, but at least he knew he could do what he had to.

“Well that’s just great Scarlet, very charming. Clearly I’m the idiot here for even thinking whatever was going on with us was real, you have your own agenda. What was I, just another one of your faux boyfriends, something to tide you over until you got what you really wanted? Well, congratulations, looks like you got everything you wanted.” He said balling his hands into fists and then letting them go, trying to calm down. Maybe he was over reacting and she had some sort of explanation. Maybe it was possible they both had some explaining to do? Though his gut was telling him otherwise. He looked over at Delilah, feeling defeated, his pulse beating loudly in his ears. All he wanted to do was protect her, be the fucking knight in shining armor, be the guy that saved the day, and maybe she’d understand he did it because he loved her. Well, nothing ever worked out like the movies.

[Delilah Scott Kingsley]

Lilah put her hair up in a ponytail and gave an annoyed sigh as she looked at the Renner residence. Getting into a house was not a problem. But doing it the fun way? Breaking a window, kicking in the door.. well that caused damage. And this house was just so beautiful that it sort of made you feel guilty about ruining any part of it. She made a disgruntled look before she walked up to the front door and went to work on the locks instead. Fine, she could get inside the boring way. After messing with it for a few seconds she pushed the door open and stood to the side to gesture for Zach to go in first. Why hadn’t this dude taken Scarlet somewhere away from his home, to authorities of some sort? I mean, don’t get it wrong. She was glad he didn’t. That just required more covering up, but it was just strange. What could have seriously gotten in the way of something that important? Lilah followed Zach inside and lifted her eyebrow as she looked around and shut the door behind her. She let out a low whistle before she shook her head and spoke out in a sing-song voice, “ Swaaaanky,” she said, running her fingers across the marble that was on the table in the entry way and made her way further into the home, continuing to ask Zach question after question with no response.

Lilah chewed on the inside of her cheek, trying to wonder why exactly they weren’t downstairs talking. Or why the lights were out. And where was the little country singer? Didn’t people say she was all domesticated and shit? If someone was upset in her home, where were the cookies? Where was the hot tea? Lilah scoffed, unimpressed by the reputation this girl had built up for herself and not one dessert or comforting food was in sight. But as she looked towards the living room she stopped and tilted her head, noticing the dress that Scarlet had been wearing was laid against the floor in a careless pile. “ Oh…” she said quietly, before she looked back at Zach without pressing any further. She coughed uncomfortably before she licked her lips and then looked up as Scarlet came into the room. This was the closest she’d ever been to her sister and she had no intentions of telling her who she was. Nor did she have any desire to. She looked over Scarlet with a lifted eyebrow. Mens shirt, bare legs, messy hair. “ OOOoohhh..” she said more clearly. She lifted her hands and gestured towards the situation. “ Awkward.” she said before she dropped her hand down to the side and walked away from them, distracting herself with looking at the rest of Logan’s house. When she looked up she saw that Logan had joined them and grinned brightly, bringing her hand up in a wave. “ Hey there,… Delilah Humphrey,” she said, offering her hand out to shake his hand with the fake name she used in public. She licked her lips, noting how he protectively stood in front of Scarlet and then took in a deep breath, hearing Zach speak out towards Scarlet. Well yeah, he had every right to be pissed off. She supposed she would too if she had ever been in love with someone. Poor Zach.. having feelings.. She watched him and gave a gentle, almost pitiful smile before she cleared her throat and looked back at Logan. “ What kind of molding is this?” she said, pointing towards the ceiling before she made her way towards the kitchen and picked up an apple from his bowl of fruit. She took a bite and chewed on it a bit before she held her hand in front of her mouth so she wouldn’t chew rudely in front of him. “ You should show me around, this place is phenomenal. And they’re a little.. busy..” she said, waving Zach and Scarlet off. Lilah took another bite of her apple before giving Logan a concerned look as she started to walk away. “ You should really up your security system. Your lock is easier to get into than Pamela Anderson’s pants,” she said, swallowing a bit of her apple as she looked around his home.

[Scarlet Rose Harris]

Scarlet held her breath as she looked at Zach and tried to judge the way he was looking at her. Had he ever even looked at her like he loved her? She narrowed her eyebrows slightly, trying to imagine every instance they had spent together. Was it fake? Who was he? Why was he spending time with her. Why did he have a gun? And how in the hell was he standing in Logan’s house. “ Who.. are you?” she asked at first, ignoring him yelling about how she had ran to another man’s bed. Yeah. Maybe she had, but it wasn’t just some other guy. It was Logan. It was someone who had always been completely honest with her, and right now that meant absolutely everything. But as he continued with scolding her basically she stopped and widened her eyes. “ Excuse me?” she said, finding herself forgetting that she had no idea who he was and having concern with that, and going back into the groove of fighting with the guy she thought had once cared about her. “ Don’t you even dare talk to me about what is and isn’t real, Pierson.. is that even your real name? Is Zoe your sister?” she said before she gasped and looked at Logan, pointing in his direction. “ Is Zoe interning at the label because you’re keeping tabs on all of us?”. She moved closer to him, feeling her muscles tighten with anger as she got closer to him. Forget Logan and whoever that blonde chick was, this was personal now. “ You don’t get to fucking tell me that I wasn’t real. I let you in. I told you things I never admit to anyone. I opened up to you in every way that I could and I tried. I actually tried. I didn’t run to ‘some guys bed’. I went to Logan. And he was honest with me. And you know who hasn’t been? You. So don’t tell me that it wasn’t real for me, because I’m not the one that was pretending. I was real. You were fake. I’m not the one throwing out surprises here tonight, Zach. You own a gun? What the fuck IS that? Who owns a gun?! And even if you do, why have I never seen it? Why have you never mentioned it? How do you know how to fight? What do you do with your free time when we aren’t together. You don’t have school. You don’t have a job that I’m aware of. You’re pulling out guns. You’re fighting these guys. You are breaking into a home, with some slut I’ve never seen before. And you want to tell me that I was the one that faked any of this? I loved being with you. I loved who I thought you were and I let myself fall for someone for the first time since Logan walked out of my life. So you can sit there and say this is my fault if you want to, but this is all your fault. You’re the one that chose to lie to me. You’re the one that had plenty of opportunities to come clean to me about WHATEVER the fuck this is.. and look.. you still haven’t. You bust in here and yell at me about my behaviors and demand that I explain them when you haven’t done that for MONTHS. So you don’t get to yell at me. You don’t get to tell me that what I felt wasn’t real. I don’t even know who you are. I never kept a damn thing from you.” she said, finally noticing how fast her heart was beating and how she had to catch her breath from yelling at the top of her lungs at him for so long.

Scarlet took in deep breaths through her nose, keeping her eyes locked on Zach as she tried to even remotely understand what was going on through her brain right now. But with that all she could think of was how all of that yelling had hurt her head- actually hurt her head. She brought her hands up to the cut that Logan had cleaned up and sighed, pushing hair away from her face as she dropped her hand to the side. “ I am not perfect. And relationships terrify me. You knew that going into this. I told you how I felt about my father. What happened with my brother and mother. How I…. honesty is all I’ve got. What I felt for you Zach, was love. You can think I’m horrible for doing this with Logan, but you kept a part of yourself from me. That’s not fair. I gave you everything, all of me. The good and the bad, trying to trust that you would love me enough to see through all of it. You only gave me a version of you that you thought would keep me around. And for what? Why are you in my life?” she asked, her voice much softer now then when she had been yelling. “ He didn’t lie to me…” she said, as a final stance as to why she had done what she did, about why it was important, why it had happened.