Logan stops in his tracks as he hears a voice that sounds all too familiar. He repeats in his mind, “Please don’t be Seven, please don’t be Seven, please don’t be Seven.”

Logan doesn’t have the bravery to turn around, so he stays frozen in shock. As he’s frozen, he hears footsteps start to walk up behind him. Logan forgot, nobody can ever fully escape the past, right?

“Fuckin’ look at me, man.” He hears as someone turns Logan around. It’s Seven. Of course it’s Seven.

“Seven?” Logan asks, still frozen. Seven raises his eyebrow. “Yeah, it’s not like I stopped existing after you were a dickhead. What did you go to the station for?” “What?” Logan asks, not paying attention at all.

Seven just shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “You fucking heard me, Adler.” “I went because of a case. You know, I own an investigation company now.” “Yeah, everyone knows, man. You’re part of the fucking wonder twins. What about that case? Does it have anything to do with Thomas?” Seven asks, getting desperate.

Logan squints his eyes, wondering what Seven knows about Thomas. “Did you know him?” “Did I know- He was my husband.” “Husband?” Logan asks, not expecting Seven to be married, especially at the age of twenty one.

“Kind of… It was for Thomas, right? You went in there for info on him? Tell me.” Seven demands, getting closer to Logan. Logan gets uncomfortable and starts to back up.

“I can’t just tell you. For you to get that information, you’d either have to be working on the case with the police or you’d have to be working at our investigation company.” “Then hire me. You don’t even have to pay me.” “Seven…”

As Logan keeps backing up, Seven loses his patience and grabs Logan by his shirt. He slams him up against a tree and Logan grunts in pain. He grabs at Seven’s arms but it’s no use. Seven’s taller and is very dedicated to finding Thomas.

“It’s the one thing you can do for me, Logan. I’ll even tell you what happened on the night he left. Just get me in on this fucking case or I swear to god, I will beat your ass in this parking lot.” Seven swears angrily. Logan just looks at him. It really isn’t a good idea to get Seven in on Thomas’s disappearance since they were together. It never mixes well.

Seven just scoffs and throws Logan down in the parking lot. He then kicks Logan while he’s down, making him groan in pain. “Just fucking tell me where he is!” He exclaims, just wanting the love of his life back.

Logan keeps his mouth shut and tolerates the pain. He knows Seven’s only doing it because he’s still mad at Logan. It also doesn’t help that he’s lost Thomas.

Seven kicks Logan a few more times and then gets on top of him. He grabs him by the shirt again and Logan can see the tears in Seven’s eyes. He can see the pain he’s going through.

“Logan… please.” Seven begs. Logan wipes the blood off his lip and nods. “If I hire you, you can’t beat the shit out of people. Okay?” “Yeah, deal.”

Seven removes himself off of Logan and both of them get up. Logan looks at Seven before doing anything.

“You’ve grown up.” “Yeah, started hitting the gym to make sure I could beat your ass one day.” Seven jokes, pushing past Logan. Logan follows Seven as they start to walk back to Adler Investigations.

Both men reach and walk into the building. Seven looks around, astonished. Logan smirks, happy that Seven can finally see that Logan actually made a life for himself.

“You really did all this, huh?” “Yep. Lila and I worked hard to get the money to buy this building. After that, we’ve been doing pretty good.” Logan tells Seven. Seven nods.

“Good. I’m proud of you. What does Henry think about this place?” Seven asks, but Logan ignores the question. He replays the moment Seven said he was proud of him. Logan tries to contain his smile, but it doesn’t work.

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“What’re you smiling at?” Seven asks. Logan shrugs. “Nothing. Uh… My dad thinks it’s cool. He says it’s good that Lila and I have a job that helps people, but if I’m being honest, I don’t think he’s a super huge fan.” Logan states.

Seven shoves his hands into his jacket pocket. “Why?” “I don’t know. I think he just wants us to be safe, but, you know… I can’t die.” Logan reminds Seven as he pulls up a chair.

“What’s the chair for?” “You and I had a deal. I hire you, you tell me what happened the day Thomas left. Come on.” Logan says. Seven looks at the chair and back at Logan.

“So this means I’m hired?” “As soon as you tell me what happened, yes. I need you to forget about your grudges against me though. I need you to talk to me like I’m a professional.”

Seven nods and takes his jacket off, revealing a white tank top with a necklace dangling over it. The necklace seems to have a wedding ring looped around it. Seven throws his jacket over the back of the chair and he sits down.

“Alright. Do your job, sir.” Seven says. Logan shakes his head. “Just don’t call me sir.” “Yes, sir.” Logan sighs and stands in front of Seven.

“Okay. The night Thomas left is the night he disappeared, correct?” Logan asks, interrogating Seven. Seven nods. “Yeah. He left and he wasn’t seen after that. Didn’t come home or anything.” “Okay. Tell me about the night he left.”

Seven takes a deep breath in and a deep breath out, preparing himself.

“It was Thomas’s birthday. He was turning twenty one and we were celebrating it with his parents. However, he never told his parents we were dating. He was scared that they were going to disown him and I always had a problem with him not telling them. So after we leave his parents house, I propose to him. He says yes and he takes the ring, but I ruin the moment by…” Seven trails off.

“Take your time. We’re not in a rush.” Logan reminds Seven. “Yeah, yeah, I know, man. Just-…” Seven takes a breath again.

“I told him that he needed to tell his parents. He got upset and said he couldn’t do that. I got mad and told him he was a grown man and that he’s scared to even live with me because he’s closeted. He got even more upset and started to walk away, not wanting to face our issues. He said that I ruin every good moment we have and I yelled at him, telling him to leave. I’ve done it before, but this time he actually started leaving. I begged for him to come back, but he just kept walking. That’s the last time I saw him.” Seven finished.

Logan breaks the professional act and puts his hand on Seven’s shoulder. “I’m… I’m sorry, man.” “It’s fine. I just want to find him, okay?” Seven says, clearly distressed. He gets up out of his seat.

“So, am I hired, sir?” Seven asks. Logan nods. “Yeah, you’re hired. Since Lila isn’t here right now, you’re helping me with this investigation, okay?” Logan tells him, walking over to his office. Seven nods and smiles. “Yes, sir!” He exclaims, following Logan.

They both enter Logan’s office and Logan pulls out a notebook and pencil. “Do you have good handwriting?” Logan asks. Seven nods. “You know I do.” “Good. I need you to write down everything I tell you so that we can start piecing together what exactly happened to Thomas.”

Seven nods and grabs the notebook and pencil. “Before I tell you any of this though, I need you to know two things.” Logan states. Seven raises his eyebrow. “What are they?” “One, you cannot tell anybody about what’s happening in this case until after the case is closed. Two, you cannot act out or get visibly upset learning about the things that happen and could happen to Thomas. I know he was your husband, but since you’re working on this, I need you to be professional.”

“Yes, sir.” Seven mumbles. “Okay. So, on Monday, July 3rd, 2023, you and Thomas had an argument which resulted in him leaving. After that, he wasn’t seen and he didn’t return. You got that down?” Logan asks Seven. A few seconds pass and Seven nods.

“Okay. Next, a teenage victim of the name Xena Moon was taken three months ago by a kidnapper and thrown into a shack. She was reported to be repeatedly sexually abused. She was introduced to Thomas Ledger after she was there for around two months.” Logan tells Seven. Seven gets upset knowing that Thomas pretty much got kidnapped, but he tries to keep it professional and he continues writing.

“When Thomas was introduced to Xena, the-” Logan stops talking and realizes that he was going to tell Seven what happened to Thomas. Logan holds his hand out, asking for the notebook.

“Here, I can write this part down.” Logan insists. Seven shakes his head and pulls the notebook towards his chest and away from Logan. “No. We had a deal, remember? I’m hired now. I’ll write it.” Seven tells Logan.

Logan nods and sighs. Seven’s a grown man, he can make his own choices. “Yeah, okay… When Thomas was introduced to Xena, they soon found out they were there for the same reason. To sexually please the kidnapper. Thomas was Xena’s replacement. The sexual abuse inflicted onto her was dimmed and instead it all went to Thomas. The kidnapper apparently called them favors. A week or so ago, the kidnapper took Thomas out of the shack which was why Xena attempted and succeeded to escape from the shack. No new news was found about Thomas after that attempt.” Logan finishes.

He turns to Seven to see him gripping the pencil so hard that he could probably break it. Tears fall from his cheeks and land on the notebook paper.

“Please tell me you’re lying…” Seven begs, tears still streaming down his face. Logan just stares at the ground, not knowing if Seven wants to be comforted

“No… No! That’s not- that’s- she’s lying! She has to be lying! He can’t be gon- he can’t be gone…” Seven starts to hyperventilate. He thought he wanted the truth, but maybe he didn’t.

Seven’s knees hit the ground as he starts to sob. “N-no, he can-can’t be gone!” Seven yells with his heart in pain. Logan chooses to take action rather than stand there.

Logan kneels beside Seven, trying to pull him into a hug. Seven pushes him away, practically throwing Logan on the ground. “Don’t touch me, man…” Seven continues to sob. Logan doesn’t listen and he tries pulling Seven into a hug again.

Seven doesn’t have the energy or the power to resist or argue, so he just accepts it. Logan wraps his arms around Seven, pulling him into a tight hug.

“I’m so sorry…” Logan murmurs. Seven cries into Logan’s shoulder with his arms feeling too heavy to lift to be able to hug Logan back.

“He was my everything…” Seven cries loudly. Logan nods and continues to hug and listen to Seven. “He was so sweet… and kind… He didn’t deserve that! He was my fucking world!” Logan can hear the pain in Seven’s voice as he yells that. Logan doesn’t know what else to do, so he continues to hug him.

“I’m so sorry.”