Day 33: Lunch

[tsunagari]

There was a knot in Sai's stomach as he was led back inside to the cafeteria. It was an unfamiliar feeling, and he tried to ignore it. What was it? Was he actually uncomfortable with his decision? He couldn't afford to be. This alliance with Itachi was crucial, and he'd just have to try and make sure the others saw it that way

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[ol_canucklehead]

As usual, Logan had devoured his meal scant minutes after starting on it. He sat back and watched the boy, idly picking his teeth with the fork as he'd done at dinner the night before. It would become a habit before long, no doubt. It was in no way comparable to a cigarette or a fine Cuban cigar, but it gave him something to do with his hands after eating. Listening thoughtfully, he waited until it seemed as though the boy wasn't prepared to add anything else before speaking up again.

"So, yer sayin' this...'Haitian' guy, is wha'? One o' the doctors here? Yer frien' been dragged ta them rooms upstairs a' nigh'?" Those rooms. Those damned rooms. He would gladly let Landel do whatever he wanted to him in exchange for keeping the other patients out of those rooms. Logan caught himself gritting his teeth again, and forced himself to regain some composure. He decided to steer the conversation back toward the Sun Room's bulletin board. "Ya shoul' put a note up, kid, see if anyone else's heard anythin'. If yer worried bout people knowin' who ya are," He glanced over to the table where Parker was engaged in conversation with that damn Brock kid again, even after Logan had insisted he stay away from him. "Then jus' don' leave yer name. Or otherwise, get someone else ta do it, so no-one can trace yer handwritin'. Migh' be worth it." His mind now moved to the original topic of this conversation, that of memory loss.

"Ya sure ya wanna help yer frien' get their memory back, tho? It ain' always a good thing." Logan sighed, closed his eyes briefly, and set the fork down before taking a large swig from his glass of water. "Lemme tell ya a story, kid, one tha' migh' make ya think twice before ya go rushin' off thinkin' yer doin' a good deed." He presed on before Clark could interrupt. "There's this guy, an' ol' guy, mebbe a hunnerd years older than yerself. He had his memories taken from him too. Drove him nuts. All he could ever think 'bout was tha pas', agonizin' 'bout wha' he'd done an' could no longer remember. Fough' his way 'clear 'cross tha worl', tryin' ta fin' answers, tryin' ta fin' out who he used ta be. Well, one day, he did fin' out. Foun' it all out, an' it turns out, tha' once he knew, he really kinda wished he'd jus' left it be. Ain' tha' ironic? Foun' out he'd been used, been brainwashed n' forced ta kill people fer almos' all o' his adult life. An' not jus' bad people, either. Innocen' people. Women. Kids." Whilst Logan hadn't directly implemented himself, the pain, the bitterness, was etched pretty clearly on his face.

"An' now, he spends all o' his days huntin' down tha people who did tha' to him, so he c'n enac' his revenge. 'S'all he's got left ta do, an' every nigh' he sees tha screamin' faces o' tha people he's killed, the people he's los'. He's a broken man, with nothin' lef' ta do but ta keep on doin' wha' he was forced ta do. Ain' no way ta live." He paused, took another gulp of water, and looked Clark squarely in the eye. "Jus' think 'bout tha before ya do anythin' ya migh' regret, bub. Sometimes it's better fer a person ta ferget."

[son_ofkrypton]

Clark wasn't so sure Claire's situation was like this guy Logan was talking about. For starters, Claire wasn't that old (how could someone be that old and be able to do the things he said they could do?), and secondly, she'd just lost a week, right? A week in Landels, in fact. How would it hurt to try to recover that week for her. He was definitely more confused and conflicted about this than he was a few minutes ago.

"So what should I do?" Clark asked. He felt right now like he was out of his league here, like the kid he really was supposed to be and not some alien from some planet he'd never heard of until recently. "My friend's missing a week. She doesn't remember coming here or even meeting me."

The "she" slipped out before he could catch himself. Clark was one more aware that he really did have the worst poker face out there. Yeah, he could put up a notice on the bulletin board and was planning to, but now he wasn't sure what to do now. Maybe he should tell Claire he was looking into this?

[ol_canucklehead]

"Yer askin' fer my advice? Ain' ya been listenin' kid?" The outburst was sudden, and given without thinking. He'd just set himself up without even realising it. Dammit. Gettin' ol'. Logan sighed again.

"Look kid. Jus' do wha's righ'. But...make sure, a' leas' as sure as ya can, tha' it is righ'. Don' make mistakes like some stupid ol' man."

He'd heard the 'she' sure enough, but paid it no mind. Could be anyone of easily fifty patients here, maybe more. "A week o' this? Yer frien' is probably better off not knowin', righ'?" He didn't sound too convinced. On the one hand, sure, it was better to forget a week of abject misery, but on the other, his friend had potentially lost a lot of important information in regard to either getting out of here, or getting to Landel.

"A tha very leas', make sure it's wha' she wan's. Seen a lot o' good kids get burned tryin' ta play tha hero fer tha sake o' some nice young girl. He closed his eyes again. It wasn't only kids who made that mistake, he lamented to himself.

[son_ofkrypton]

That hit way too close to home. Clark couldn't help hanging his head a little. He'd played hero and interfered more times than he could count in people's lives - Lana, Chloe, Pete, among others - and somehow he'd just assumed that it was his business, like just because he'd been born with these powers, it meant he was the one who was supposed to be judging. Logan's words were like a wake-up call, leaving the teenager conflicted and wondering what he should do when he got back home.

What Clark did know was that he wanted to talk to Claire. Soon. Maybe he'd thought he'd had the best intentions trying to do this on his own, treating Claire like she was made of glass. Okay, so that wasn't too far from the truth: Clark sometimes - okay, a lot of the time - felt the world was made of glass or cardboard or something, what with how he had to hold himself back all the time. But this wasn't her physical safety. This was Claire's memories. This was different.

"I'll talk to her," Clark said. He managed a sheepish, guilty smile, as he clarified a little more for Logan: "I don't know if she found something out or not, but she didn't remember meeting me or being here at all. I've been thinking she found something out, but we haven't found any clues so far..."

Clark intended to. He'd only known Claire for a few days, but he did consider her a friend. It was what friends would do: they looked out for each other.

[ol_canucklehead]

As Clark's head dropped, Logan felt bad. What was he thinking? Preaching to some kid he didn't even know? Was this what he'd become? A bitter old man, sitting here thinking he knew everything, carrying on and trying to convince the 'youth of today' to try and lead a 'good life'? In a way, he supposed that was true. It seemed that the opiate of the old was to aimlessly spout their past mistakes to the young in the vain hope that they would actually listen. It would never happen, of course. But he was old. Older than he had any right to be.

Logan smiled. "Jus' don' do anythin' too hasty. Look after yer girl, no matter wha' happens. A good girl's tha mos' importan' thing in tha worl', or a' leas' tha's wha'll ya'll be thinkin' when ya fin' one." His tone was wistful, but honest. He had no idea if the 'she' in question was Clark's 'girl', but a part of him hoped so, despite his own experiences. It was one thing to just stick together, but to have that kind of closeness, well, it could drive a man to survive almost any kind of hardship. Well, almost any kind. He was still surprised that he'd survived through the loss of so many of his loves. He didn't even want to think about the one whose life he'd taken himself. But of course, he did.

[son_ofkrypton]

"She...she's not 'my' girl," Clark threw in, blushing red now. He liked Claire, but not like that! He had Lana, he told himself, and she had to be worried about him and looking for him like his other friends and his family. But he didn't have to like Claire that way to feel like he had to help her. He wanted to help her because it was the right thing to do. "Friends help each other out. Or they're supposed to."

But Logan was right about how it felt to find that special someone. Clark had always been teased by Chloe and Pete for his "crush" on Lana Lang, but he'd always felt that she was that special someone...even if he couldn't get within five feet of her before without feeling sick. But without the kryptonite necklace and helping her through Whitney's death, their relationship had taken a turn for the more serious with his birthday a few days ago. At least Logan knew what it felt like to feel around someone like that - Clark felt bad to admit this, even to himself, but Logan looked like more the loner time than someone to get all romantic.

[ol_canucklehead]

It was all Logan could do to stop himself from bursting into laughter as he watched Clark turn crimson. How funny it was, that he'd started out the conversation with the intent of cheering up the kid opposite him, only to turn once again to the bitterness of his own past, and then have the tables turned when this formerly morose boy was putting a smile on his own countenance. "Sorry. Din't mean ta embarrass ya, kid."

The smile faded quickly however as his hearing picked up on what was happening at Parker's table. It seemed the conversation was swiftly becoming less and less civilised. He watched as Peter's new friend suddenly lunged at the blonde kid with a fork, impressed at how quickly the young man had moved, but grudgingly equally impressed at Brock's catch.

Gritting his teeth again, Logan half-stood before returning to his seat. At least Parker had someone to watch his back, and it wasn't as though Logan should be going around babysitting his roommate all the time. That said, he would step in if Brock tried to land something on Parker, and drugs be damned, it would be a good long time before Brock forgot that if it happened.

He refocused his attention on Clark, and thought ruefully about the young man's last comment. Truer wor's ain' never been spoken. He realised he hadn't said that aloud, and it was only polite to respond.

"Ya got tha' righ' kid. Sometimes frien's're even more importan' than tha' special someone." He looked wistful again. He couldn't even count the times that friends had helped him through the death of a woman he'd loved, there seemed so many. Although still in the back of his mind, a niggling thought was still trying to convince him that he wasn't the sort of person who was deserving of friends. But still they stuck by him. He was thankful for that.