The Lies He Spoke

NINE

*****

Long after she went to bed, she laid awake in her room, trying to decide if Elijah would be disappointed. Was this what he wanted? Was this what he meant? Had she done a horrible job? Was she supposed to ask Logan what the problem was even if he got angry?

And what if he actually told her the problem and she still didn't know what to do?

Frustrated, she threw the blankets off and went to get a glass of water.

On the way there, however, she saw the bathroom light glowing underneath the doorway and stopped just outside, debating. Logan was probably just in the bathroom or brushing his teeth or something.

She got a glass of water and got back into bed and lay there for another half hour, watching the minutes tick by on her clock, straining her eyes for any hint of life outside her room. The bathroom door did not reopen.

Olivia got out of bed again when the time turned midnight and stood in front of the still bright bathroom door, chewing on her lip and bouncing on the balls of her feet. She shoved her hands in her pajama shorts pockets and tried to muster up some nonexistent courage.

"Logan?" she called, her voice too loud in the quiet, dark hallway. "Are you in there?"

There was no response from inside.

She knocked on the door. "Logan?"

When there was no response, Olivia tried the doorknob and the door easily swung open. She stuck her arm inside and was just about to turn off the light because Logan had probably just forgotten to do it before he went to bed, when she saw him, sitting on the edge of the tub. His head snapped up when he saw her come in. Her hand froze on the light switch. 

"Oh," he said wearily. "What're you doing up?"

"Um..." Olivia scooted a little further into the bathroom once she saw he was decent. She wondered what the hell he had been doing in there. "I couldn't sleep. I just thought you forgot to turn off the light. You?"

Logan sighed. "Yeah," he said. "Couldn't sleep either."

From the looks of him, he probably hadn't slept in days. But Olivia didn't tell him that.

"We can...stay up together?" she suggested.

Logan shook his head. "Go to sleep, Olivia."

"What about you?"

"I'll go to sleep later."

He was silent, probably waiting for her to go, but Olivia steeled her nerves and stood in front of him. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Did something happen today?"

Logan sighed. "Just Elijah," he said, his voice dropping.

"Did you go to see him?"

"Yeah."

Olivia remembered the way Logan had backed away from Elijah the first day they were able to see him, his awful mood that persisted all through the next day after he talked to Elijah. "Sounds like it went badly."

"It did," he said, his voice cracking. "Just please go, Olivia."

"I'm not leaving you here."

A strangled, half-sob, half-laugh escaped him. It sent a chill down her spine. "You know, I said the same thing to Elijah. And I left him there."

"You didn't leave him there," Olivia insisted. "We're not going to let him stay there."

He didn't reply.