4.7--A Family Visit

Lachlan is gone a lot more than usual, especially the last couple of days.  Dasia chalks it up to him meeting a girl - something she's quite nervous about - but she trusts him enough to give him his space.  Harlan, on the other hand, is a bit annoyed at his cousin's lack of presence.  Lachlan is his one and only friend and suddenly being alone is - boring.  So, he concocts random potions in his room.  Hey, who knows?  Maybe he'll somehow create a miraculous cure, or a stink bomb he can use during the next assembly at school...

...or he can accidentally mix two combustible liquids together and blow himself up.  Anything to break the monotony.

While Harlan takes his sweet time taking a bath...

...Ellis is greeted by an unexpected visitor.  Against every initial impulse of letting him rot outside her door until he finally gets the hint, she hesitantly let Logan into her home.


"What are you doing here?" She asks sternly, glancing upstairs to where her son was hopefully so wrapped up in whatever he was doing that he couldn't hear them downstairs.

Logan knows that his anger isn't justified; that if anything, Ellis's consternation of his impromptu arrival is warranted, but he goes on the defensive anyway.  "I'm here to see my son."


"No."  Ellis spits.  "You don't have that right.  You can't just waltz back in here after promising me that you would be regular figure in his life, only to leave him again.  He needs a father, Logan, not a disappearing act."


Logan frowns, letting his anger fade to guilt.  "I promised that I'd visit when I could, Ell.  Work has been tough lately and I've barely had time to go home, let alone see my kid."


"If work is more important than your child, then maybe it's better that you just go."  Ellis lets the words fall from her mouth, full of venom.  When Logan looks at her, truly hurt, she sighs. "Logan, you have to understand where I'm coming from."

"I do.  More than you know."  Logan says, shaking his head.  "Look, I know I don't deserve a second chance - but can you at least let that decision be Harlan's?  Can I talk to him?  Please?"


Ellis grinds her teeth in concentration, letting the silence hang between them.  "I'm supposed to protect him from this."  She whispers.  "From these situations.  If you break his heart, Logan, I'll..."


Logan grabs her hand.  "I know.  And trust me, there's nothing you can do to me that I won't do to myself if I don't pull through this time."


"Don't make me regret this... again." She chides.  He nods sternly and she motions to the couch.  "Harlan is upstairs, but he should be down soon to get help with his homework.  You can wait in the living room."

Ellis leaves Logan alone to wait until Harlan comes downstairs.  The kitchen was far enough away from Logan, but close enough for her to see the stairs when her son would make his inevitable appearance.  


As soon as she see's Dasia enter the house and glance toward the living room with a confused expression, she ushers her sister into the kitchen.  "Is that Logan?"  She asks skeptically.  "Why did you let him in?"


Ellis bites her lip in frustration.  "I don't know."  She says slowly.  "He says he wants to see Harlan.  And he wants to speak with him and let him decide whether he wants him in his life or not.  Watcher knows, I wanted to slap him in the face and tell him to leave - but I agree with him.  Harlan should be the one to send him away if he so chooses, not me."


"He's a child, Ell."  Dasia raises her hand to her sister's shoulder, squeezing softly.  "Are you sure he's ready to make that decision on his own?"

Ellis pats her sister's hand nervously.  "No.  I don't.  But I don't think I have the right to deny him that either.  What should I do, 'Sia?  I still have time to send Logan away, to pretend like this never happened."


Dasia smiles weakly.  "I'm just as clueless as you."  She shakes her head.  "But I'll be there with you through it all.  You know that."

Harlan finally emerges a few minutes later.  Ellis manages to intercept him before Logan and inform about what is going on.  Harlan listens in confused contemplation the entire time - making Ellis a bit worried that her son isn't entirely grasping the situation fully. But before she can ask any further questions about his preparedness, he heads toward Logan, who has been waiting in the background patiently.


"Logan."  Harlan nods, extending his hand toward his father.  


Logan glances at his son sadly.  He couldn't expect him to hug him and call him 'dad,' after all these years.  Could he? "Son."  He answers, shaking his child's hand like he's a business partner rather than family.


Harlan releases his hand and they both stand there in silence. "I, uh... understand you have some homework that you need to do."  Harlan nods.  "Would like me to help you with it?"  Harlan shrugs and grabs his homework from the kitchen table and sits on the floor.  Logan immediately follows suit.

At first, there's no conversation.  Harlan just starts working on the problems, occasionally scratching out an incorrect answer.  Logan makes a few poor jokes to fill the silence and Harlan smiles, but there's still no words uttered on his end.  At least not until Logan realizes that Harlan is doing math far beyond his age group.  "Is that trigonometry?" He asks, confused.

Harlan turns and nods.  "Yeah.  I tested into College Mathematics this year.  I'm good at Science too."  He says, confidently.


Logan laughs.  "You must have gotten that from your mother's side.  My side has only been good at business and, well... being generally unambitious.  So why do you need help with your homework then?"


Harlan smiles.  "I don't.  I just like spending time with mom."


"I'm sorry, kiddo."  Logan looks down at his hands guiltily.  "For not being there, I mean.  Things were hectic and I got my priorities screwed up."


Harlan frowns at his finished homework.  "Will you be here tomorrow?" He asks.


"I will.  I'll be here for the next two days."


"Will you take me out to dinner tomorrow after school?"


Logan smiles at that.  "Sure thing, kiddo."


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Longest and probably most uneventful chapter of the legacy, but there you have it.


Logan is going to be playing an interesting role coming up (assuming I get the necessary pictures), nothing too fancy, but it's obviously heavily tied to his "relationship" with Harlan.  


Aaaand... this is where I say I'm getting back into the swing of things legacy-wise - but that would be a lie.  I'm trying to keep on a schedule (ha! right) as much as I can, but school keeps rearing it's head and messing up with anything that's, well, not school.  


Next up should be Lachlan's adventures, which I'm excited to reveal over the coming chapters. :D  Although I have to play through some portions to get there, so...