What If? Episode 907

Don't Lie

The softly flowing river wasn't too far from where they set up camp, and it was probably one of the prettiest places that Logan had come up with for one of their weekend trips - though the fall colors might have had more impact on that than anything else. As soon as the tents were up, Scott was headed to the river, more than happy to spend a little time in the quiet woods listening to the birds sing over the water that was bubbling through the rocky little waterfall upstream.

Logan set to gathering firewood and after that, simply found a spot downwind from Scott to smoke as he joined him in fishing. It was about as perfect a start to the weekend as they could have planned.

The first night was spent almost entirely in silence, odd for Scott, but Logan didn't press, knowing that it had been tryouts, and he'd both seen and smelled how anxious the kid was. But - here in the woods he was slowly relaxing.

The next morning was more of the same. Lots of fishing was always on the agenda, and Saturdays were the best in the woods because there was no pressure to go anywhere. By noon, both of them were in much better moods, though the headache Scott had been fighting hadn't eased up in the least. If anything it was getting worse, but when he heard Logan take a seat across from him at the fire, Scott tried to deflect before Logan could ask him anything with that concerned tone that always made Scott feel a little guilty.

"So who had you all growly?" Scott asked, figuring he'd fire the first shot so that Logan would have to spill first.

"New guy," Logan replied. "Tried to start a fight with me. Had to put him on the ground before it got out of hand. What about you?"

"Just ... a little nervous on the tryouts," Scott admitted, though he pointedly left out the fact that his head felt as if the pressure was just building - and he was sure it was going to crack open soon. "Did you get in trouble for the fight?"

"No," Logan said in a purely dismissive tone. "I didn't hurt him. Just dropped him in the mud. No big deal." He poked at the fire, raking a few more hot coals toward where the coffee pot was hanging. "Tryouts. You didn't say anything about 'em. So, how'd it go?"

Scott hedged and rolled one shoulder up. "Pretty sure I blew it. Wasn't ready for dirty tricks during tryouts. I probably should have been but ... "

"Wanna learn some self defense?" Logan asked as he poured himself a fresh cup of coffee. "Might help you learn how to dodge anyhow. Be useful off the ice too."

"Like what? Boxing?" Scott asked but Logan just shook his head.

"No, little more useful than that. Boxing's okay but - usually the guys that get into that tend to think it's the end all be all of fighting. It's not."

Scott was still for a moment, halfway watching him out of the corner of his eye. "So ... if not boxing, then what do you know?"

"On top of boxing you mean?" Logan said with a little smirk, watching the water. He thought about it for a moment. "Martial arts, mostly. A few south american and middle eastern variants."

"Which martial arts do you know?" Scott asked, his curiosity piqued.

Logan frowned then turned Scott's way with an expression of near confusion.. "Pretty much all of them."

Scott's eyebrows went up a bit at that, though he recognized the look as the same one Logan had worn at the airshow before telling them about a CIA mission. So it had to have been right. "Is ... is that how you won all those fights?"

At that, Logan began to smirk. "No. I just hit 'em real hard."

Scott had to shake his head at him and slipped off his log to lean on it, tipping his head back to look up at the sky. It was a perfect turquoise blue that somehow looked brighter still as he looked up through the morning sunbeams as they filtered through the colored canopy above. "It's really nice here," Scott said after a while.