All Over the Place
Logan had been right fearful the other night following his run-in with Diego, easily shaken by the unwanted blast from the past in spite of the bravado he showed during said encounter. Over time, though, that fear had transformed into anger. The nerve of Diego to intimate that Logan was a heartless bastard simply because Francis' death didn't destroy him, the audacity of threatening the things Logan currently held dear in his life. The confusing notion that Logan wasn't worth all the time in the world, yet the vampire was going to put forth as much effort as he could to make Logan's life hell.

The former Watcher was comfortable in knowing a lot of the city's White Hats were now abreast of the situation, grinning at the prospect of Rhiannon or Faith running into the vampire and turning him into a pile of dust. Still, there was an anger swelling within Logan, and he really didn't have much of an outlet for it. He considered buying a punching bag for his apartment, though that wasn't the best idea, considering he was still nursing the arm injury suffered in the fracas at New Year's Eve.

So instead, Logan sat on his couch, pouring through the journals he kept while Francis was his Slayer. He sent the originals to the Council as requested upon his dismissal, but not before making copies of all of them. Logan never expected to actually need these entries again -- he'd kept them purely for sentimental value -- but figuring they might be useful in studying Diego's tendencies, the former Watcher was reading through them all.

A time-consuming process, to be sure; Logan had been reading entries for three hours, and just started the second volume.

It was long past time to check on her boyfriend. Izzy had meant to come by more than a week ago, but fate seemed to conspire against her for a time. Between dealing with supernatural junkies and car wrecks, she just hadn't been able to get away until now, but here she was outside Logan's apartment.

The cross on the door was new, and caused an eyebrow to arch in curiosity. There wasn't any way Diego could get into the apartment without Logan's permission, the cross wasn't going to offer any additional protection and she was sure Logan knew that. He must be more rattled than she'd thought.

Brushing the thought aside, Izzy raised her knuckles to the door and knocked.

So engrossed in an entry, was Logan, that he almost didn't notice the knock on his door. But the sound had reached his ears, so the former Watcher slid a bookmark over the page he'd been reading, shutting the volume and setting it aside on the glass coffee table. Rising, Logan closed the distance between himself and the door, sighing a little in exhaustion. Physically, the bookstore owner was fine, but the fear and eventual anger from Diego's re-emergence had taken a psychological toll on Logan. He'd gone three days without shaving prior to that morning, when glancing at himself in the mirror reminded him of the life he used to lead.

No longer recognizing himself in that way, Logan had grabbed for the razor.

Turning the knob, Logan stepped back and opened the door. His expression instantly brightened when he saw Izzy standing in the hallway, now even more glad he'd shaven. "Izzy," he said lightly. "Hey."

Glancing at the door, the former Watcher glanced at the cross. He pulled it down from the door with a frown, remembering he'd put it up after returning from Wal-Mart that fateful night. Logic told him there was no point in having it on the door, and Logan placed it on the bookshelf to the right of the door.

"Sorry, guess I wasn't really thinking that night. Come in."

Izzy rolled her eyes at him and gave him a peck on the cheek as she entered the apartment. "Poor baby, he's really got you rattled, hasn't he?"

The tech-witch wasn't blithely ignoring the danger, she'd picked up an amulet with the holy symbol of Isis as a way to help with protection against vampires, but she wasn't going to change her ways just because a vampire had taken interest in her boyfriend.

Closing the door, Logan tried to shrug it off. "Actually," he said, "I'm pissed off more than anything now."

The nerve of that monster to barge in and try to tell Logan what mattered to him and the kind of person he was. Diego was nothing but a reminder of the way things used to be, a symbol of who Logan once was. Francis was part of the equation, naturally, but more than anything, Logan looked at Diego and he saw Denver, even Las Vegas to a degree. While the former Watcher wasn't one to want to forget what happened in those two cities, he didn't appreciate having everything shoved into his face.

Particularly considering how well things were going in Chicago.

"How are you?"

"I'm fine," Izzy removed her gloves and sock cap and shoved them into the pocket of her jacket. "I slept for a few days straight after the whole New Year's thing, but I'm good to go now. How's your arm? I've been wondering how that's healing."

"It's getting there," the former Watcher said, wandering into the kitchen and opening the fridge to grab two cans of Coke. Handing one of the cans to his girlfriend, Logan pried his open, grimacing a little at the feel of the muscles in his right arm twinging. "Still hurts when I move it a certain way, or try to use it, but at least I've still got an arm.

"Glad I didn't mutate, too."

Logan took a sip of his soda, partly to take a moment to think of what to say next. Part of him wanted to bring up New Year's Eve, talk about what he said, and whether she heard it, but for some reason, the words just wouldn't leave the former Watcher's lips. Logan didn't know if it was nerves over her answer or the stress stemming from Diego's appearance, but he suddenly found himself a little tongue-tied.

Izzy didn't seem terribly fazed by it all, which Logan understood; she'd never seen or had to deal with Diego. He was glad for that, relieved he hadn't panicked her with his recent bout of drama. In a way, her calm demeanor helped the former Watcher calm some, though he could still feel the venom and anger eating at his psyche.

Another drink of soda tried to wash that down.

"Really impressive what you did that night," he said with a bit of a sideways grin.

"Thanks," Izzy told him, blushing a little at the comment and taking a swig of her coke. "I'd never tried anything like that before, but it managed to work and that's the important thing. I've really had to stretch my skills in a lot of new directions since I arrived here."

"Well," Logan mused, glancing real quick at the stack of books on the table in the other room, "I'm proud of you for it. Who knows how many lives you saved."

The former Watcher could only save three of those who were injured on the beach during the mayhem; most of them were injured so badly their injuries proved fatal. It was a sobering reality -- and yet another reminder of how ordinary Logan was -- one that probably would've bugged the bookstore owner more had he not had to deal with his own injury and soak in the relief at the barrier to Lincoln Park being restored.

"Seems we've both grown a bit since moving here," he mused, staring into the mouth of his can. "Even if there are those who'd like to hold us back."

"This Diego character of yours?" Izzy took another sip of her coke and looked at her boyfriend thoughtfully. "What caused him to come out this way after so long?" What would make him decide to seek Logan out now, more than a year after the death of Francis?

What possible benefit would the vampire get out of it?

"I honestly don't know," the former Watcher mused, frustrated more than anything. Fear was long gone at this point; somehow, having a few Slayers and other assorted White Hats on Diego Watch helped with that. With any luck, Rhiannon would stumble across the Mexican reject and make him a Hoover's midnight snack. Sadly, Logan doubted it would ever be quite that easy.

"I thought he wanted to kill me, but then he goes on about how little I matter and he wouldn't even drink from me when I did kick it." The bookstore owner finished off the rest of his soda, crushing the aluminum can in his hand and grunting when the metal sharpened to a point and cut into his palm. "Near as I can tell, he's got it in his head that I didn't care about what he did to Francis, so maybe he figures by taking away everything I have now, he's teaching me a lesson or something.

"But it makes no sense," Logan added, wiping the blood with a napkin after discarding the soda can. "He's never been obsessed with Watchers before."

Then again, before Logan, there hadn't been any Watchers for Diego to obsess over.

"Well, we'll just have to make sure he gets a short life expectancy, won't we?" Izzy's tone was firm, and she frowned at the blood on his hand from the cut on the coke can. The whole thing was clearly bothering him more than he wanted to admit. "I'm not a Slayer, but I'm not some defenseless bimbo who's never seen a vampire before either. If some Latino Billy Idol wannabe tries anything, they're gonna be in for a surprise."

"Now, what's going on with the store? I saw news reports that there's protesters outside."

"I know you're not," Logan said with a small grin, grabbing Izzy's hand with the one that wasn't cut and gave it a light squeeze. "That's why I called you. Used to be, I tried to handle everything myself -- which was always as disastrous as it sounds."

Turning on the faucet and running his cut under the hot stream -- cringing and hissing in the process -- Logan turned his focus to the protesters camped out in front of Thoth's Library. The crowd size varied, depending on how cold the day in question was, but the former Watcher had to admit it was a little disconcerting to see all of this hub-bub over the rumors that he was employing one of the undead.

Granted, Logan was, but that was sort of beside the point.

"Somehow, word got out I've got a vampire on the payroll," he explained. "So ... cue the extreme right-wing nuts. You know, the ones who have Bill O'Reilly posters above their beds and think Rush Limbaugh is the voice of reason. But, long as they're not violent, there's not really anything we can do. They're entitled to voice their opinion."

At that moment, Logan thought to stay later than usual the next night, see how Avery was coping with the whole thing. He could only imagine what went through the vampire's head at seeing all the venom directed his way.

"Poor guy," Izzy wasn't a fan of vampires by any means, but Avery was a special case. Despite her better judgment she liked the vampire, even if she would never be able to completely trust him, and she didn't like the idea of someone picking on him when all he was trying to do was earn an honest living.

It was like the crazies wanted Avery to go out and snack on someone.

"I'd cast a hex on them to give them a taste of their own medicine, but that would be bad karma." Izzy wasn't a Wiccan, but the threefold rule applied to everyone regardless of belief.

"Yeah, let's not," Logan said with a smirk. "Bad enough the right-wing nuts are on me for employing a vampire. They find out I'm dating a witch, too?" The former Watcher laughed in spite of himself. "I really don't feel like spending hours upon hours explaining how magic isn't Satanism.

"Especially when they can just walk into the store and buy a book to tell them that."

Turning down that interview request from the Chicago Tribune was looking like a better idea by the day. The publicity was already bordering on unwanted; if everyone knew who ran that place, there was no telling the sorts of demonstrations and protests he'd see. Logan had enough things to worry about right now, particularly with the unexpected appearance of Diego; the former Watcher didn't want to fight off the crazed masses too.

Confident the bleeding had stopped on his hand, Logan slipped his arms around Izzy's waist and gave her a soft kiss. They had gone too long without seeing each other since the New Year, even without all the drama going around. It was nice to see her and just be in her presence, and whatever worries the bookstore owner had about things could wait for a later time. Right now, he was as calm as he'd been in almost a week. It was a nice feeling.

"I'm glad I have you in my corner," he said. "Regardless of what's going on."

Izzy kissed him back and relaxed in his arms, slipping her own around his waist. "I'm happy to help, you know that." She would always be willing to help when the cause was right. The past year had caused her to discover things about herself that Izzy would never have imagined before arriving in this dimension.

It was kind of nice being a 'white-hat'.

"Thank you," he whispered, mentally biting his tongue even though there was more he wanted to say.

Why was Logan suddenly so gun-shy when it came to telling Izzy how he felt? It wasn't a matter of the former Watcher not feeling those emotions -- he most certainly did -- but he couldn't seem to bring voice to them. He'd already said the 'L' word once before, hadn't he? Granted, that was in the middle of chaos and tragedy, so maybe it was one of those cliched moments one saw all the time in movies and television. There was no guarantee his girlfriend even heard it.

Still, something held Logan back. Was it bad timing? Was he afraid of saying it, only to find out she didn't feel the same way? Had the events of the past couple years made the bookstore owner more cautious, to the point where he kept something to himself for fear of finding out she didn't feel the same way? Diego would probably construe that as Logan not really caring after all, but ... why did the vampire's opinion matter, anyway?

Why was Logan letting that monster get to him?

"Are you all right?" The strange mood that suddenly came over Logan didn't go unnoticed by his girlfriend, and Izzy pulled back a little to give him a once over. Maybe he wasn't as healed up as she'd thought he was, or had suffered a mental trauma during the New Year's events.

She pulled the rest of the way out of his arms and tried to move him toward the couch. "You look like you're about to pass out, Logan, come sit down."

Logan sat down on the couch as instructed, taking a deep breath and shaking the cobwebs. What was going on with him? He figured it probably wasn't stress from the New Year's debacle -- frankly, in his line of work, getting worked up over that sort of thing was useless and a bit detrimental. He also didn't think it was his arm; aside from certain movements, he didn't feel any pain and could tell the scar was healing nicely. So what was it?

Maybe it was Diego. Maybe the vampire's return rattled him more than the former Watcher would admit -- even to himself. The doubts regarding his relationship with Izzy and the other worries plaguing Logan's mind didn't start until the vampire who killed his Slayer showed his stubbly face. Logan let his fingers intertwine with Izzy's, offering her a weary smile before sinking back into the cushions of the sofa.

"I'm sorry," he said with a sheepish look. "I'm not very good at the tough guy act, am I?"

"That's okay, baby," Izzy soothed and moved to sit beside him on the couch. She squeezed his fingers then released them to run her hands through his hair. "You had New Year's on top of Diego suddenly showing up. There's nothing wrong with being a little stressed out over the whole thing."

"Nothing's going to happen to either of us. Diego's going to be dust or long gone from Chicago before spring, mark my words."

Logan smiled a little, despite his current stress level. He closed his eyes and sighed a little, trying to collect his thoughts -- which seemed to be bouncing around all over the place. Opening his eyes once more, Logan took in his girlfriend's face again. The former Watcher thought himself a strong person much of the time, and even with the bravado he showed against the vampire in their most recent encounter, Logan felt rather helpless.

"I wanted to stake him right then when he mentioned you," she said. "But I was dumb and left my stake here. I don't appreciate the notion that I didn't care about Francis just because him killing her didn't kill me, too."

Granted, it was rough for a while; Logan had his share of demons when he first came to Chicago. But meeting Izzy, and starting up Thoth's Library, killed most of those demons, and he felt comfortable in his own skin. To have someone pop up out of nowhere and throw a monkey wrench into all that made Logan more angry than anything, though he had to admit a certain measure of fear as well.

"He didn't take away my life last time, and he won't do it now."