Fatal Attractions

XV

"Touch screen is the end of our world."

"Come on, we've been looking for three hours, why can't you pick one? It's just a computer." Aubrey complained to Logan as he inspected the touch screen laptop.

He looked at her like she had just said Star Wars and Star Trek were the same thing. "Just a computer? I've had that stupid ass HP core processor piece of glory since I was eighteen, and it never let me down. How do you think I felt when I was forced to break it in half? The only thing that had been my stability for seven years, gone. Taken by some sadistic excuse for a snowflake. That was one of the only things that brought me happiness, it's going to be hard to replace." He stroked his chin as he scanned the next computer on the shelf.

I rolled my eyes. "How about we just buy that same computer off of eBay?"

He scoffed, wiping some dust off the keyboard. "I don't want some hand me down piece of crap that could come in the mail and end up being a banana."

I was getting ready to strangle him. "Look, we agreed to pay for whatever computer you wanted, so hurry this up before I regret it."

"Well," He walked through the aisle of computers, stopping at one and pushing his glasses up on his nose to read the tag on one of them. "I'm gonna need a good one if I'm going to help you guys out."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"You know," He looked over at me. "to help you on your missions. I'll be your Alfred Pennyworth, your Jarvis, your male Felicity Smoak."

"No," I said quickly, shaking my head. "You're not doing that."

"Come on," He whined, mostly pleading to Aubrey who would probably be his appeal. "I could help you guys out. I can be your eyes and ears. Think of how much injury you will avoid with me looking out for you."

Aubrey sighed. "I'm going to have to stick with Madisyn on this one. It's too risky. Hypothermia could find you again and we could be in trouble, me and Madisyn, and you of course."

"I swear, I'll put up better firewalls, I'll self destruct my computer if anyone gets close to finding out, no matter how much I love it." He turned to me. "Come on, Madisyn, you told me you couldn't find the bomb that day you lost your contact. I could've saved you some time and told you where it was and how to disable it without it catching fire."

I shook my head. "The answer is no. You weren't supposed to find out about us anyway."

"Please," He whined, pressing his hands together in a praying gesture.

"No." Aubrey said finally, flipping her dark hair over her shoulder as she walked down the aisle of laptops.

I went to follow her when Logan stood in my way and dropped to his knees before me. "Come on, Madisyn, it's my dream to be a superhero, and we both know I'm not good enough in the field, but behind a screen I could do wonders."

I rolled my eyes and went to step around him when he wrapped his arms around my legs, preventing me from walking.

"Please," He begged again, pressing his head against my thighs.

My face burned bright red as an attendant walked by and gave us a baffled glance.

"Logan," I seethed. "Get up, people are staring."

"Not until you let me be your Felicity." He squeezed my legs harder.

He was pretty smart, I had already let myself admit that, but he was just another liability. He left so much margin for error. I looked down at his face that stared up at me, eyes wide, lips pouting, the occasional sniffle. It was the most pitiful and melodramatic puppy dog face I have ever seen, but I caved.