Chapter Text
Logan’s office phone was already ringing when he unlocked his office door. It was the end of the day, and he’s just finished teaching his last class. He’d planned to work for about another hour in his office before picking up Patton from his shift at the hospital and going home together.
He was unsure who would be calling him at this time of day. It wasn’t an office hour, in fact, often times he wouldn’t even be in his office right now. Even if it was a time he was typically in his office, very few people had a reason to call his office phone anyway. Most students simply came to his office hour; colleagues would usually just wait until they saw him next if they needed anything or would come and find him themselves.
Still, receiving a phone call wasn’t completely unheard of, so he set his bag down on a chair near the door and walked over to answer the call.
“Professor Sanders speaking,” he said into the receiver.
“Logan!” the person on the other end of the line said. The way Logan’s name was exclaimed implied that they were currently stressed.
“Remy?” Logan asked, recognizing the voice, but unsure why he would be calling Logan’s office phone.
“Hey, hi, fuck, you really need to get a pager or something,” Remy mumbled. Logan opened his mouth to respond, but Remy cut him off. “That’s not important right now. Have you seen Patton?”
That question made Logan pay attention. Remy should have been the one to have seen Patton most recently out of the two of them.
“I haven’t seen him since I dropped him off at work this morning, why?”
“Uh, so,” Remy said. “He went out for a late lunch since there was some drama here, and, uh, he never came back after that.”
“What?”
“Yeah, and he’s not one to skip even when he probably should. I was hoping you might know where he was or you’d be more… equipped to find him.
Patton was missing? Logan could feel his stomach flip as panic and worry set in at the thought. Rational thought completely left him in that moment; something else took its place.
Something he couldn’t put a name to rose up inside of him, some instinct that he’d had no idea he had. He found himself activating his powers, but not in any way he had before or any way he could understand at the time. There was some confused fumbling in his head that felt like he was trying to find a light switch in an unfamiliar darkened room. Then, his powers put a finger on the metaphorical switch and… something lit up.
He suddenly knew exactly where Patton was, and he didn’t bother to question that fact, at least not for now. He hung up the phone without another word and used his powers in a much more routine way to pull his Bluebird suit to him from the hidden compartment in his briefcase.
He was halfway across the city and breaking into a building before even a hint of rational thought returned to him. He briefly considered the fact that Bluebird was not known for breaking and entering, but at that point, he’d already broken a window. At least the house looked like it might be abandoned anyway. Logan shrugged it off and slipped through the broken window.
Two people were staring at him when he came to stand inside the building. One was Patton and one was…
“Deceit,” he said to the vigilante.
“Bluebird.”
Logan took half a second to process, his mind coming mostly back online at the sight of Patton seemingly unharmed. This was a relatively good outcome compared to what could have been behind his disappearance. Deceit, while a vigilante with a little more blood on his hands than Logan could approve of, wasn’t the type to harm civilians. He was even on the least murderous side of being a vigilante when it came to criminals and supervillains, though he did on occasion exact justice in that way. Patton was never going to be harmed by him. He hadn’t been harmed by him clearly. At least, he was not harmed physically.
However, Logan still felt anger sparking in his chest on Patton’s behalf. Deceit had almost certainly used his powers to get Patton here, though it didn’t look like he was currently under the effects of those. There were medical supplies strewn about which was obviously why Deceit had taken him and he’d likely wanted Patton to have a clear head for that. With most people, Deceit’s powers were not particularly distressing unless he wanted them to be, however, Patton had many, many bad experiences with mental powers at the hands of his family growing up. Logan didn’t even know of all of said experiences. He’d told Logan the ones he could handle speaking about, and the rest were filtering in slowly over the years as he put distance between him and his childhood and worked through past memories with a psychiatrist. The fact that Deceit had used mental powers on Patton filled Logan with rage.
“You kidnaped a doctor,” Logan said, trying and failing to sound calm like Bluebird was supposed to be.
Deceit just shrugged, not noticing the danger. “I do that sometimes.”
“And do you ever think of the possible unintentional consequences of your own actions?” Logan snapped. Deceit appeared taken aback by the question.
“I’m fine,” Patton cut in before either of them could say anything more that would escalate the situation. “No harm done. It’s fine.”
“It isn’t fine,” Logan said.
“What climbed up your ass today?” Deceit drawled.
“Thank you for coming to make sure I was okay, Bluebird,” Patton said before Logan could snap at the vigilante again, “but it was only Deceit and clearly, I’m okay.”
Logan took a few seconds to breathe. “I’ll escort you back to your hospital, Dr. Sanders.”
“Thank you,” Patton said with a professional looking smile. He turned back to Deceit. “Make sure to change the bandages at least once a day until you’re fully healed and take the antibiotics I mentioned.”
“I know how to care for a wound, thank you, doctor.” Deceit said.
“You’re welcome,” Patton said cheerily. Then, he turned to walk over to Logan. It took a lot of effort for Logan not to just grab him immediately. That is not what he’d do with a normal citizen.
Instead, he said, “May I fly you back to your workplace?”
“Yes,” Patton said. “Thank you, Bluebird.”
Logan snatched him up then and flew off with him without another word to the vigilante.