The Lies He Spoke

FIVE

He breathed in unsteadily.

"She's not so bad, Logan," Elijah said gently.

Logan knew. "I'm worse, Elijah. I'm the problem. I'm not - I can't be what she wants me to be."

Elijah finally approached the bars and took Logan's wrists in his hands. "Listen to me, Logan. You are not a problem. And Olivia doesn't want or expect you to be anything except just be there. She doesn't need you to hug her or watch movies with her or even always be on time to pick her up. She just needs to know you're there."

Logan shook his head. He couldn't do this. The only reason he and Olivia were even on acquaintance terms was because when they were mad at each other Elijah forced them both to fix the problem.

"I don't think I can-"

"Alright, that's enough," barked the gruff voice from outside the jail block. "Time's up."

Panic gripped Logan. This was too soon. He hadn't had enough time, not to talk to his brother, not to prepare for whatever would happen next, not for going back to face his younger siblings with nothing. He held out a hand. "No, no, wait - just give me another minute-"

From inside the jail cell, Elijah gave him a little push. "Go, Logan," he said. "Please."

"No, I'm not leaving you here!" Logan protested as the security guard wrapped his hand around his arm and began hauling him away. "Let me go - stop - stop it, you asshole - get the fuck off me - Elijah!"

The security guard managed to dump him onto the floor outside the jail block and slammed the door shut behind him.

Logan lay against the cold tiles, exhausted. The tiles smelled like disinfectant and immediately started causing a pounding behind his eyes. It was nearly four am. They had been up all night at the police station while Elijah was booked for the murder of the U.S. Marshal who had been assigned their case.

That in and of itself made no sense to Logan. Who would believe that Elijah would kill the Marshal? John Hendricks had set up a whole new life for them, away from anything that could hurt them. They wouldn't just kill him. They needed him.

"Logan?"

At the sound of Blake's voice, Logan put his hands over his head as if that would block out the sound.

"Logan?"

"What?"

"Are you okay?"

Leave it to Blake to worry about everyone else when everything was going to shit. "I'm fine," Logan muttered.

"Did he...did he say anything?"

"No. He just acted more and more like an asshole until I wanted to strangle him."

Olivia and Blake had already talked to Elijah, but Logan had wanted to talk to him alone. He had thought that if it was just them, Elijah would tell him what was really going on.

Clearly, Elijah was only set on making this harder for himself.

"Come on," Logan said wearily. He pushed his elbows underneath him and shoved himself off the floor. "Let's just go home."

*****

The trial was a quick disaster.

Elijah pleaded not guilty, but there was too much evidence against him.

There was DNA. There were fingerprints. There was an eyewitness with eyesight so bad he couldn't see two feet in front of him much less a man sneaking around in the dark. The witness said he clearly saw Elijah scurrying across the road that night.