A/N: Sorry this update was so long in coming. I got stuck on where to go next, so I decided to end it with this one and introduce baby Logan in another story. Enjoy!
Laying on his back in the dim light of the new morning, Logan watched the ceiling...again. He was becoming overly familiar with the cracks and contours of his bedroom ceiling. She said yes, he mused. She said yes!
He was still amazed. Over the past few years, he had watched Bobby self-destruct until, finally, he got what he had always longed for: a family. A real family. The deep and unconditional love of a woman he adored beyond anyone else. The unyielding love of not just one, but two beautiful children. The guy had it all now, and he was finally happy. And Logan was happy for him. The years between Eames' marriage and her divorce, with few brief exceptions, had been difficult. He had stepped into a friendship with Goren more out of necessity than desire, but it had been a good thing. A life-saving thing. He knew it was their friendship that had slowed Bobby's downward slide into a lonely pit of despair. But he was equally aware that it was his daughter who had pulled him out of it. Maggie. God, if his kid was half the explosion of love and affection that one was...well, he'd die a happy man. He couldn't imagine loving a child more than he loved that one, but they all told him he would. It's different when the child is yours, Mike, Bobby had said. His mind returned to the conversation.
Right, he shot back. You tell me you loved Maggie any less before you knew she was yours.
Bobby had gotten uncharacteristically silent and still as he thought about it. That was different.
How? You didn't know she was yours until that last divorce hearing. And then you had a friggin' meltdown.
That wasn't because she was mine.
Oh, bullshit.
It wasn't. It was...more because I couldn't see how. I didn't remember...I still don't.
Well, I do. And so do the girls.
Goren shifted uncomfortably. We had an audience?
Logan laughed. No, idiot. We know what happened because we saw it building up to that. I know how drunk you were, and I knew you'd never be able to say no to her in that state. She was fed up with everything, even back then, and she really needed you. It was a good thing, and a great thing came of it.
You'll get no argument about that.
So come on. Tell me that anything changed for you when you found out she was yours.
It's different, Mike. In my heart, she always was mine, so nothing really changed for me. Finding out the truth only answered some questions. It never changed how I felt.
I rest my case.
It was Alex, who knew first-hand the kind of love he did for a child that wasn't hers, who had convinced him that it was different. Only Maggie and Tommy were closer to her than her nephew was. He understood how she could have loved Jake as if he was her own, because in a very real way he almost was. But the reality of it was that he wasn't. Until Maggie came along, there was a void inside her that no one but a child of her own could fill. It had caused her a great deal of anguish to think that little girl had not been conceived in love, until she found out that, indeed, she had. The fact that Bobby had given her Maggie had served only to deepen the love she already felt for him.
Logan sighed, returning to the present, to his feeling of overwhelming amazement that Carolyn had accepted his proposal. He had never expected to have what Bobby did. In his own way, he had always traveled down his own road of self-destruction. Lots of girlfriends, lots of booze, lots of one-night stands. Then Eames got married. He had no idea that his self-imposed role as Bobby's caretaker would stop his own downward slide, or that Maggie would give him a more optimistic outlook on life. In a way, she had given him whatever it had taken for him to fall in love, something he knew he had never done before. He had always been certain his mother had destroyed his ability to truly love. Maggie had restored that ability. Not only had he fallen in love, but he had opened himself up to being loved. And, damn...life had never been better for him!
He switched his gaze to the woman curled in the bed beside him. Last night, he had discovered a small swelling in her abdomen that had never been there before. Under that slight bump, life grew. A life he had helped to create. It was amazing and terrifying all at the same time. He was fully responsible for a little life. What this child grew to be, he would have a direct hand in. How frightening was that? But at the same time, he resolved to give this child a life he had never had...a life he was certain he would have had if his father had lived. His childhood dreams had been full of what ifs. And the biggest what if of all was: what if Dad had lived? All his life, he had known on some level that Dad would have taken him away, far from the horrors of his abusive, alcoholic mother. His young life would have been very different. And his adult life, too...perhaps he would never have developed the rage he felt deep inside, the rage he sometimes lost his grip on. Like on the steps of the courthouse...the slip that had cost him ten years of his life and his career. It was Jimmy Deakins who had pulled him from that mire and given him a second chance. He tried very hard not to slip again.
Deakins...oh, God...what was he going to say? Another set of partners stepping into a marriage and a family life with each other. They would be able to live for years on the milk that could be supplied by the cow he was going to have. And it wasn't like they could hide it anymore. Sure it was easy to hide when it was just emotions that had to be hidden. Now...now there were, well, consequences. That little swelling was going to continue to grow until there was no hiding it. A manifestation of love for the world to see. He couldn't help feeling the pride that came with that. A father...he was going to be a father.
Rolling lightly onto his side, he kissed her forehead and let his hand stray across that part of her that cradled a part of him. She stirred, turning her face up toward his to kiss him. "Good morning."
He smiled. Yes, it was a good morning. He found her lips with his and welcomed the new day with love.
fin.