:January 16th, XX47; Thursday.

:BIG TWIST.

•~~~~•

It wasn't anything but normal for Logan to wake up in his bedroom to his 6 AM alarm on a day he was supposed to go to work... and yet, there was absolutely nothing normal about that morning.

Logan rubbed his eyes and glanced over to his side, just to see both his husband and his son asleep, as the latter had slept in their bed with them last night. Logan reached to his nightstand to turn off his alarm, and he sat up, sighing whilst staring at the two. The alarm hadn't woken them up... he wasn't surprised that they were that tired.

He seemed to have two options, then- one, wake both of them up and pretend this is a completely normal day, or two, call in sick for all three of them and go back to sleep.

He chose the latter. All in all, he was still recovering from murdering his sixth person, and now that his son had a body count himself... they all couldn't pretend everything never happened. He went ahead and called in sick for all three of them, but by the time he put the phone back down, both Joe and Patton had woken up, likely from his talking. Joe was the first to sit up, obviously feeling a bit awkward sleeping in the same bed as his parents at the age of seventeen, but also because of the reason he was there in the first place. Logan handed him his glasses, and Patton grabbed his own. No one said a word for a few moments.

"...Joe, could you go and get your phone?" Logan then asked.

Joe grumbled. "Why? Are you gonna ground me?"

Logan sighed. "Grounding is often times not a very good parental technique for punishment and usually only teaches the child to be sneakier with their actions, so no. I want you to text Oliver and tell him you're not coming into school because we're staying home today. I've already called in sick for all of us."

"...Oh. Okay."

Joe stared at both his parents for another moment, and then he climbed out of the bed, leaving the room and walking over across the hall to get his phone. Patton frowned and scooted closer to Logan.

"What are we gonna do..?" He mumbled, leaning against him.

"I don't know. I'm not sure. But... I think we should have a talk with him."

"Wait, you mean you wanna tell him that we... watered in high school?"

"Oh, goodness, no. We just have to make sure he doesn't do that again- or... succeed in it, I suppose is the right wording. I think I might have needed a day away from work myself, though..."

"I think we all just need a day to breathe, Logan."

Logan frowned. "I'm so sorry, Patton."

They still hadn't talked much about Susan. But what was there to say? "I know. It's okay. We're gonna get through this."

Logan just wished he could be there for his husband to lean on him in that moment- figuratively, at least. Patton was dealing with both his husband and his son trying or succeeding in murdering people. He obviously needed some support. But the problem was Logan needed someone to lean on himself, and that was immediately going to be Patton, yet he felt guilty doing so since Patton needed someone to lean on himself... and the cycle just continued from there.

Joe then came back into the room, and his parents looked his way. He stood in the doorway.

"Is there anything else you wanna talk to us about, Joe?" Patton asked after a moment.

"Is there anything you wanna tell me?" He flipped the question back on them. Logan sighed.

"...Are you truly able to talk to dead spirits, Joe?"

"Yeah. I can. But it's not his fault I did what I did. He was the one trying to get me to leave the scissors in the bathroom. Literally locked me in there and begged me to re-consider."

Logan glanced over at his husband, and they made a mutual face of not being sure whether or believe that or not. Joe groaned.

"Look- I get that you two hate him because he's a serial killer and he dated dad in high school, but-"

Patton coughed. "Wh- where did you hear he dated me in high school?"

"Uh, he told me..?"

"What else did he tell you?" Logan's eyes widened.

"I don't know, everything, I guess? He said his husband got ran over by a car when he was twelve and then he started killing people, and you found out somehow and then he went to jail. What he wouldn't tell me is how he died because we were taught in school he killed himself but he wouldn't confirm or deny that."

Logan was a bit shocked at that explanation, because it implied that Remy never told him his own parents were murderers as well. He glanced over at Patton again.

"So..." Patton began to whisper, "He didn't tell him that we watered in bell? He just thinks that Shade... huh."

"I suppose so... that's not very like him. It's certainly a very large Code Orange but it's not as bad as it could be."

"If you're gonna keep talking about stuff in that weird code you might as well just ground me..." Joe mumbled. Logan turned back to him.

"Joe, are you sure there's nothing else you want to say?"

"I'm sure. But you guys are confusing me again. I'm just gonna go text him and ask what the hell you're talking about."

"I- Joe, how do you have a ghost's phone number?"

"Sweetie, please don't talk to him. Don't you realize he's not a good person? He's lost track of how many people he's killed! Did he even tell you that?"

Joe stared at them for a moment, gaze flickering between the two of them as his eyebrows slowly furrowed.

"...He did tell me that, but maybe you two should take a look at yourselves if your only child trusts a serial killer more than his own parents."

Joe turned around and left, leaving said parents a bit stunned silent. They didn't say anything for a few moments, they only stared at the now-empty doorway.

"Oh... oh, Logan, he's right," Patton sighed out.

"...He is. That is correct."

"But what can we do to get him to trust us again? Remy is probably gonna tell him now that we-"

"He may not. And if he doesn't, then we have to tell him ourselves."

Patton blinked. "...Tell him that- no! Logan, he can't know that! That would just make it worse!"

"He has to find out eventually, Patton."

"But not now. I- not after what just happened, that's too much for him to deal with all at once!"

"Then... we'll tell him one thing- just one."

"Which one? There's really a lot."

Logan thought for a moment. He looked down to his lap, and then back up to Patton.

"I think he deserves to know how Remy truly died."

Patton raised his eyebrows, but then he sighed. "...Yeah. He does."

Patton's gaze then moved to the doorway, and Logan looked over as well, seeing Joe once more, slowly walking into the room. Logan held his breath.

"So... what did he tell you?"

"Nothing. He blocked my number."

"Oh."

Silence. For a split second, Logan felt bad for him, because he knew that Sage had likely already blocked his number as well. He only had Oliver at this point.

"Is it too late for me to just go to school anyway?"

"Yes. But could you please come here? We... er- you deserve to know at least something, and we're going to tell you it."

Joe looked at his father, and then began to walk over to the bed, sitting on the edge and staring at both of them. "Something? Something or everything?"

Patton sighed. "Just... something. For now. You deserve to know everything, but after what happened last night we just don't want you to take everything in at once."

"Oh. Okay, I guess."

"So, you... wanted to know how Remy truly died?" Logan asked. Joe perked up.

"Really? I- yes, how?"

Logan looked to his husband to give the explanation. "Well, I guess I'll start out by saying that the actual reason I have a bad shoulder and have to use a hearing aid is because he... shot me. In both of those places."

"Oh... jeez, wow. But what does that have to do with..?"

"Well, that was the same night he died, Joe. So..."

Logan placed a comforting hand on Joe's shoulder. The realization washed over him, and he let out a surprised breath.

"You... you killed him?"

"I did. Your father made the note and we blamed it all on himself. Even though he was a serial killer, if anyone would've found out about it, I still would've gone to jail."

"Uhm... wow, okay."

Joe blinked a couple times, eyes flicking between his dad's shoulder and ear and his eyes.

"...I guess I kinda understand why you wouldn't want me to know that," he mumbled. Both the parents sighed, and Joe scooted closer to both of them, allowing them all to share a hug once more. Patton kissed the top of Joe's head, and then they all pulled apart.

"How about we go downstairs and get some breakfast?" Logan suggested. The other two nodded, and they all slipped on a hoodie over the t-shirts they had been wearing to bed, and then made their way downstairs, a mutual understanding passing between them that the day was just going to be spent trying to get Joe's mind back in shape. Joe laid himself down on the couch, and Logan sat next to him while Patton went ahead and made breakfast.

But the latter was only portioning the prepared food when there was suddenly heard a knock at the door. Logan sat up and told the other two he'd answer it, and he began walking towards the door, hoping and praying whoever was on the other side didn't mean bad news.

But, they did.

"Oh- uhm, good morning, officer."

It was a cop. Logan furrowed his eyebrows, hoping that Joe's pride flag couldn't be seen very well from his window. The cop coughed.

"Are you Logan Croft?"

"Yes, sir."

"Alright. I'm sorry to bring this news so early in the morning but I just wanted to inform that your mother has been murdered."

Logan blinked- right. Fake sadness. He let his mouth hang open and he knitted his eyebrows, hoping he looked surprised.

"Oh, I... goodness."

"Yes, I'm very sorry. We're in the process of doing a fingerprint scan at the moment to find the culprit."

"Good, good."

That was all good. It should be fine, Logan didn't touch anything when he wasn't wearing the...

...Wait.

His face went pale at a memory that re-surfaced, and oh, he was in trouble. He was in big trouble. He hoped that his sudden surprise matched his fake sadness.

"I'm very sorry for your loss, sir. I assume you loved her very much?"

"I... yes. Yea- yes, I-I did."

"Yeah. Alright, I'll leave you here. We'll call when we get word about the fingerprint scanning. Have a good day."

"You too."

Logan closed the door. Patton walked out of the kitchen and over to him.

"What's wrong, honey? Who was that?"

He turned around with haste. "It was a police officer, telling me my mother was murdered. But we know that already, that is not the problem."

"Oh?"

Logan grabbed his hands and lowered his voice a tad. "Patton... when I was sitting in the car outside her house, the weapon was sitting in my lap, and I circled my finger over the handle."

"...So?"

"I didn't put any sort of glove on until I was getting out of the car."

Patton's face went white.

•~~~~•
Hey, all! I'm sorry for being gone for so long, I hope you didn't have to spend too much time waiting. I don't really remember getting all the way up to chapter 44, but oh well.

Just glad everything went as planned when I got back😊

See ya in the next chapter!✌️
~Maxx(SanderShipper)