26. Cover Cake

Logan woke up quickly, suddenly and with a killer headache. He was alone in a hospital room with a stinging arm and the smell of rubbing alcohol bleeding through the walls thickly. He stared down at his wrist to see a bandaid over it with a little pool of blood attaching itself to the adhesive.

Logan sat upright stiffly as a woman came into the room. The nurse walked over and held her finger over Logan's neck.

"Heartbeats finally gone down. Good," she said to herself then looked at Logan. "I'm Sam. I've been monitoring you with a doctor for the last few hours. You've been here since three in the morning, it's now eight."

"What happened?" Logan asked.

"You don't remember?"

"Bits," Logan admitted. "I remember throwing up, then it went blurry. I guess I passed out."

"Actually you didn't," Sam said. "You were conscious when your friends brought you here. Incoherent, but conscious. You've been in and out the last few hours."

"Are my friends still here?" Logan asked.

"A couple left, two of them are still here," she said. "They just went to get a drink."

Logan sighed, feeling like shit and wanting all the lights to turn off.

"Alright," the nurse started. "You can leave whenever you want. The drugs and alcohol are almost completely out of your system. The marijuana you took was laced with another, more toxic, drug. Luckily, it's gone now and you were around people when you took it. Could have been much worse. Stop by the front desk and they'll give you a sheet with all your info about what happened. You should be completely fine but if you start throwing up again or become extremely dizzy over the next twenty-four hours come back."

"It was laced?" Logan asked.

"Well you had dizzy spells, vomiting, came in and out of consciousness and you were severely drunk. But as for the drugs you took, yes, they were laced with another drug. You're lucky the amount hidden in the marijuana wasn't more."

Logan nodded. "Thanks," he croaked out.

"Wait till your friend's come back and then you can go," Sam said. "Be more careful next time."

As the nurse slipped out of the room, another person walked in. Logan watched as Maisie walked into the room and stood at the foot of the bed. For some reason he felt apprehensive and guilty as hell. Maisie looked tired, her eyes a little red and a yawn almost falling from her lips.

"Hi," Logan said quietly and Maisie choked out an unamused laugh. "I'm sorry."

Maisie shook her head, eyes blurring up suddenly and Logan leaned forward, wanting to comfort her.

"They said that if no one was with you, you probably would have fallen unconscious and choked to death on your own vomit," Maisie said bluntly.

Logan looked down.

"Is this normal for you?" Maisie asked.

"No!" Logan said quickly. "No, this doesn't happen."

"But..." Maisie looked away, unsure of what to do. She wanted to go up and hug him but for some reason didn't know if she could. She put her hand over his gently instead.

"Maisie..." Logan said.

"I was really fucking scared for you."

"It was my stupid fault," Logan said. "I'll be careful next time."

"Next time? What if no one's there next time. What if you don't listen to any of us?" Maisie asked and Logan frowned. "Because that's what you would have done. You couldn't even stand, Logan, let alone listen to us trying to help you. And I know that if I tried to tell you to stop all this you'd hate me, wouldn't you? This," Maisie spread her arm around the room, "is the one thing you can't give up, isn't it?"

"I can't just snap my fingers and it all goes away, Mais," Logan said.

"And I can't go through this again," Maisie said. "I can't wipe the blood you coughed up off your chin or keep you upright so you don't throw up and die. You don't expect me to do this again, do you? Or has this...has this happened before?"

"No ones asking you to be my babysitter," Logan ground out. "I can look after myself."

"Can you? Can you really? Last time I checked you didn't even know what the fuck was going on until ten minutes ago!"

"It won't happened again, it was a one time thing," Logan said. "It happens!"

"No it doesn't!" Maisie yelled. "It happened because you don't give a shit about yourself. You don't give a shit about someone I love!"

Logan's face fell. He watched as Maisie slowly calmed down and gripped the bottom of the hospital bed. She sighed.

"I told you there was nothing I couldn't deal with or anything I couldn't do when we went on our first date. And I'd never ask you to change or give you any kind of ultimatum. But I can't deal with this side of you. I don't know how to handle it and I don't like the person you become when you do this shit."

Logan looked away and Maisie pulled her jacket tighter around her body.

"I'm sorry, Logan," Maisie said softly and turned around, walking out of the hospital room before she said anything else.

Maisie caught Nick's shoulder as she walked down the hallway and the man stopped, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked.

"You're taking him home, right?" Maisie questioned.

Nick nodded.

"Take care of him," she said and turned from his grasp, walking away.

"Maisie!" Nick called out but she didn't stop until she was out of the building.

Nick frowned and headed into Logan's hospital room, looking at the blond questioningly.

"Something happen with Maisie?" Nick asked.

Logan shook his head and threw his legs over the side of the bed, slowly getting up. "It doesn't matter. I just want to go home."

***

Maisie stood outside her bakery as rain lightly drizzled down from above. The carpet was replaced, and the glass cabinets were restored but the walls were still covered in spray paint. She looked on helplessly at the building and closed her eyes briefly, wanting all of it to just go away.

The cold rain that was hitting the back of her neck suddenly stopped and Maisie opened her eyes, turning to see Bud holding an umbrella over her head.

"The hell do you want?" Maisie asked.

"Sorry about your bakery," Bud said.

"I'm sure you are."

Bud held his hand up. "I'm serious. It's a horrible thing."

"What was it that you wanted?" Maisie asked.

"I know you can't afford to re-decorate," Bud said. "We all know. The place is a wreck and you're young, you have a ton of opportunities to open another bakery up some other place later on. Sometimes, with a case like this, it's easier to let the building be bought out by someone else. You take home a ton of money and someone else can fix up the place."

"Where is this going?" Maisie looked at Bud.

"I have an offer for you," he said. "Or specifically, I have an offer for your bakery."

- Ellie x