Thanks Dawn and Meadow for suggestions. I wanted to thank everyone for reading. Don't forget to vote. I appreciate the following!
Enjoy,
Meridian
A rewind as they prepare for the island
~~~~~~~
Alex spent the next few days until they left for the meeting just planning. Logan tried in vain to talk to her and she always was busy.
Logan found himself staring at her continually. He felt his heart breaking when he heard her crying at night. He had knocked on her door several times to try and talk to her and was politely asked to leave. He noticed she didn't smile much and when she did it was forced. Logan just wanted her agony to go away.
"Tomorrow we leave in the morning for the island so everyone needs to be sure to pack tonight." Alex said before getting ready to leave the dining room. She let bitter and controlling become her persona.
Meridian stared at her, "Alex, why don't you eat with us?"
"There is business to attend to and I'm not hungry. Please, everyone enjoy themselves." Alex turned and left the room. After she had left Marcus finally spoke up.
"Logan, you need to make this right even if you two just become friends. We need to be a cohesive group for this meeting." Marcus gave Logan a stare that made him feel even worse than he already did.
"I'm trying and she won't stop to talk to me. She's closed off and cold." Logan said as he chastised himself again for what he had done.
"Marcus, she's hurt. You have no idea what she went through with her fiancé. She fought for six months to carry a child alone and Alicia died in two hours. Bastard didn't even show up to the burial. You have no idea how horrible it was to see her fall apart as they put the casket in the ground. She's avoided letting anyone close ever since. Everyone is going to have to give her time." Trinity was telling everyone to try to get them to back off.
Logan wished the world would open up and swallow him whole. If he didn't feel like an asshole and bastard before he sure as hell did now. He didn't need to look up to tell everyone stared at him with loathing.
Meridian stood up, "I'm going to check on her."
~~~~~~
As Meridian got closer to Alex's room she heard the crying. She knocked and heard her sniffle as she said come in.
"Alex, I really think…"
Alex cut her off before she could even finish. "Please don't push me to just forget what Logan said. I can't."
Meridian sat next to her pulling her close, "That is not what I was going to say. I was going to say give yourself some time. It's not going to heal overnight. If you need your distance from Logan we'll move your room when we arrive at the island."
Alex just sat there crying in Meridian's arms, "Thanks for understanding."
"You're my sister, even if things work out in the future with him you need to work through this. Speaking of that, have you spoke with a counselor?" Meridian brushed the tears from her cheeks.
"I will later. I don't have time right now. We leave in the morning. I have to have everything ready. If I start talking about it babies I'll fall apart. We don't have time for me to fall apart right now." Alex pulled out paperwork trying to immerse herself in work.
"I understand, just promise me you will talk to someone once this has calmed down. Of course you know I am always here to talk to without giving any judgment." Meridian watched her and was seriously worried.
"I will, I have more paperwork to take care of. Thanks Meridian." Alex gave her a hug and closed her eyes as if to escape this situation.
"If you need anything, you call or find me." Meridian kissed her forehead and left.
Alex took some more pain pills. The doctor said it was probably due to her being small and would take some time. The stress of everything overtook her and she fell asleep amongst the paperwork all over her bed.
Logan knocked on her door but didn't receive an answer. He opened it to find her curled up in the fetal position among the mass of paperwork.
He organized the paperwork and tucked her in bed. She didn't know he kept coming in at night to check on her. He was worried. She wasn't eating and clearly depressed and it was his fault.
He had made the mistake of talking to Trinity more about what happened with her former fiancé and it made him feel even more of a bastard. The more he thought about it the more he thought, 'Past or no past what I did was cruel and hurt her badly.'
He found himself slipping into her room when she would have nightmares and be crying. No matter what happened he had to do what little he could do to help her out. He would stroke her hair and hold her hand soothing her until she stopped crying in her sleep. Logan wasn't getting much sleep. You would think as a vampire you would lose the guilt but unfortunately it wasn't fading. The nagging guilt and seeing her hurt face was eating at him. Connor saw him leave her room and pulled him aside.
"Why don't you just let her go? Haven't you done enough to her?" Connor was not hiding his irritation from Logan.
"I can't hear her cry all night. I don't wake her but I've hurt her so much I can't have her crying all night in her sleep." Logan looked at Connor with look of torture in his face that stopped Connor from berating him. "I'm grieving too, this is my fault. I can't place the blame on her."
Connor just stared at him with compassion, "Give it some time just don't give up on her."
~~~~~~
A few hours later an officer showed up to talk with Alex. Logan just stared at him and went to get her. He noticed they walked into a side room.
So this Officer Brandon Jiles was his replacement.
Marcus walked by and noticed the irritation in his face.
Marcus put his hand on his shoulder, "It's going to take time."
