Friday Morning, Hyperion Hotel

[fh_jackass]

Logan was working - no, for reals - at his desk in the reception area of the Hyperion office. He had crime scene photos spread out on the desk - and thank you Kate ever so much for these memorable images - and poring over one of Angel's thick, dusty books, trying to find a match to the cult symbol found at each murder site.

Comments

[needsaparrot]

And that would be a cellphone ringing. ....from somewhere in the room.

[fh_jackass]

Logan was focusing on deciphering the handwriting of some 14th century monk, so it took him a moment to notice the sound. He looked up, frowned, and followed the noise to Cal's cell phone, left on one of the shelves under the reception desk. He picked it up and answered it.

"Hello?"

[needsaparrot]

"...You're not Callisto." Quick on the uptake, the boy is, yes. Not quick enough to actually recognise the voice he heard, though.

[fh_jackass]

"No, I'm Logan," Logan said. He disconnected the phone from the charge cord (it had been plugged in) and sat down at his desk. "Who's this?"

[needsaparrot]

Okay, that made sense. Parker and Bridge had said she was in L.A. with them. "Xander. Hi, Logan. Didn't recognise your voice; it's been a while."

[fh_jackass]

"Oh, hey Xander! What's up?" Logan asked. He'd been a bit out-of-the-loop and didn't know about Xander's disappearing act.

[needsaparrot]

This was one of those rare moments where he actually was quick enough on the uptake. Xander had to sort of kick-start his brain, but it was weirdly depressurizing somehow. In the not-exploding-in-space way.

"I was hoping you could tell me. Cal left me a voicemail last week, and I just got it now. She didn't exactly sound..." He reached for a word and came up with air.

[fh_jackass]

"Sane?"

[needsaparrot]

"I think I was going for 'Like she was planning on waking up the next day' but yours is shorter."

[fh_jackass]

Logan sighed. "Well, here's the short version. She tried to kill me, then she tried to kill herself. She's now in the hospital and being kept away from all sharp objects."

[needsaparrot]

"Crap." Only he pronounced it to rhyme with duck. "She left me a message for Bridge, to tell him she was sorry, but I was hoping I was reading that wrong or-- wait, she tried to kill you?"

[fh_jackass]

"Yeah," Logan said. "She didn't call Bridge directly?"

[needsaparrot]

"No." Which bothered the hell out of Xander, though he could follow her brand of not-so-saney logic. Which also bothered the hell out of Xander. "She must've figured if she actually spoke to him, he'd talk her out of it. Or just lead a cavalry charge over here to stop her."

[fh_jackass]

"Makes sense," Logan said. "If you're going by Cal logic."

[needsaparrot]

"What was the Cal-logic on going after you? She said something in her message about kicking Angel's ass, but she didn't mention you at all."

[fh_jackass]

"She thinks I stole Angel from her," Logan said. "Do you want to come out and visit her? We've got plenty of room if you need a place to crash."

[needsaparrot]

Xander blinked and wiped a hand across his forehead, pushing his hair away from his eye.

"...Why the hell would she think that?"

[fh_jackass]

"For starters, because Angel and I moved out here together and left her behind. And then -" Logan sighed, not wanting to be having this conversation. "Look, it's a long story. But I had nothing to do with their breakup."

[needsaparrot]

"You two were already out in L.A. when I left, though," Xander said, trying to make sense of something that admittedly there might not be any sense to. "She was messed up then, but she wasn't trying to kill people. Or herself."

[fh_jackass]

"She got worse," Logan said.

[needsaparrot]

"I guess." Xander thought about Logan's offer. He'd just barely wrapped his mind around being able to get to Fandom again; it hadn't really registered until now that he was talking to somebody in yet another of the gazillion dimensions he'd been cut off from all this time.

"I'd like to see her, yeah. But I need to talk to Bridge first. He hasn't actually seen me since I got back, and he doesn't even know about her message yet. I think he'd kill me if I went out there without him."

For values of 'kill' >= 'look really hurt and disappointed' which under the circumstances might be a little foot-in-mouthy of a word to use, Xander realized.

[fh_jackass]

"The offer stands," Logan said. "I know a good portal service, too."

[needsaparrot]

...portal service. Right. They had those.

Xander glanced up at his own face in the mirror over the hotel bureau and admitted to himself that possibly the wrapping on his own brain wasn't all that tight yet.

"Thanks. I'll get back with you on that one." He was grateful for the remove of the phone and the quiet of the hotel room, now, and suspected he wouldn't be heading down to town anytime soon. "And thanks for letting me know about Ca--"

Heywaitaminute. "Actually how come nobody does know about Cal? Parker didn't or she'd have told me when I saw her, and neither does Isabel."

[fh_jackass]

"Apparently they didn't care enough to call her recently," Logan said.

[needsaparrot]

Xander frowned. "Dude, you have no idea how with you I am on the bad shit that can happen if you lose track of your friends, but somebody's in the hospital, you tell people."

[fh_jackass]

"I told you," Logan said.

[needsaparrot]

"I called you."

[fh_jackass]

"We've been busy."

[needsaparrot]

Xander opened his mouth to actually say the words 'bitch, please,' then shut it again.

"Somehow I'm guessing you and Angel don't have a lot of roommate compatibility issues," he finally replied instead, with a snort.

[fh_jackass]

"That woman has been making my life hell for months," Logan said wearily. "Oh, and there's the part where she tried to kill me. And I'm not talking a swing and a miss here. There's going to be scarring. So forgive me if I'm not sitting around thinking what I can do to help her in her time of need."

[needsaparrot]

Xander winced. "Fair enough, but there's people back here who deserve to know. Same as there's people who'd want to be told if she'd finished the job on you. Hell, most of 'em are the same people."

[fh_jackass]

"Yeah, I'm sure they'd want to celebrate," Logan muttered.

[needsaparrot]

Xander rolled his eye. "Yeah, Rory'd organize the party, Molly would bring the cake..."

[fh_jackass]

"Okay, maybe not all of them," Logan conceded.

[needsaparrot]

"Hey, at least you could be sure there'd be funny hats."

[fh_jackass]

"Yeah, look, I have a lot of work to get done, so I should get going," Logan said.

[needsaparrot]

"Okay, yeah. I'll give you a call back once I've talked to people--" He wasn't sure which people he ought to talk to before seeing Callisto himself, but he owed it to Bridge, at least. "--and let 'em know what's going on."

[fh_jackass]

"'Kay," Logan said. "The number's in the alumni directory, if you want to call direct."

[needsaparrot]

"Will do." Yet another thing that hadn't worked for so long, Xander ahd almost forgotten it existed. Xander started to reach for the end-call button, then added, "Glad I got to talk to you." Because yeah, even under the circumstances, it was pretty damned amazing to hear familiar voices.

[fh_jackass]

"Yeah, good to hear from you," Logan said, meaning it.