Snake Boy

~ Chapter Nineteen ~

{Possible trigger warnings: swearing, mention of a car crash and two deaths

If I miss something, I apologize and please let me know}

"Logan?"

Logan looked up from his computer as his father stood in the doorway to his room. He'd moved to the papasan to keep researching Dorrian's past, while the boy in question napped leaning up against him.

Dad held up a small sheaf of papers, crossing the room quietly. "I did some digging for you."

"You did?" Logan sat up a little, setting his computer aside. "Did you find anything interesting?"

"I did, actually. That's why I'm coming down here to talk to you."

Oh boy. Something told Logan this wasn't going to be a fun conversation.

"Some of the things I found that connect to this are very dangerous, Logan." Dad said quietly. "I don't want you to get involved in this any more than you are right now."

"But Dad-"

"No. I know you want to help Dorrian, I understand that you feel you've come this far and you might as well see this through, but I can't let you keep looking into this, Fish."

Logan crossed his arms. "Why not?"

His father pinched the bridge of his nose. "People have gone missing after looking into this information, Logan. The circus moves too often to be convicted and it's dangerous. These people clearly are a problem but you will not be able to take them down and I will not let you become a target to them."

"What if I did it anonymously?" Logan asked. He wanted to help Dorrian, and he wasn't going to give up this easy! He did trust his father's judgement, but he couldn't back down yet. "I've done all my searches so far incognito or on private windows, Virgil showed me how to do that ages ago-"

"You'll still have to do something with the information once you've gotten it all put together, and giving it to a task force will bring you into light one way or another. I want you to give me what you've found." Dad said sternly.

Logan frowned. "Dad, c'mon."

"Logan, I'm not joking about this. I'm not letting you keep up with this, it's going to put you in danger." Dad sighed and glanced at Logan's computer. "Please send me everything you have tonight, and then delete it off of your computer."

Logan glared at him sullenly, but his father's expression left no room for argument.

"Fine."

"Thank you, Fish. I'm just trying to keep you safe."

Dad left and Logan was left in silence, glaring at his computer. He debated his options, even though it seemed like he didn't have many.

Dorrian's hands flickered in the corner of his eye. He turned to see them fully and Dorrian repeated the question.

'What happened?'

"Dad wants me to send off all of the information I've found about your past off to his coworkers or some agency or something so I'm not in danger." He sighed. "I don't want to, I think I can find out where this started, and I want to keep going."

'Well.' Dorrian paused and Logan looked from his hands to his face.

The snake boy offered a small, fanged smile and pecked Logan's lips. He flushed and Dorrian snickered.

'If you think you can do it, I'm sure you can. Just be careful.'

"Of course I'll be careful, if I'm in danger it means you're in danger and I don't want that."

Dorrian smiled and cuddled up against him, ending up with his face nuzzled into the back of Logan's shoulder. It was more comfortable than it would seem.

"Go back to sleep, Dor, I'm going to keep working on this."

~~~ Near Midnight ~~~

Logan was starting to slip a little bit, but he didn't want to retire for the evening just yet. He had Dorrian's disappearance articles, but he hadn't found anything about the rest of his family. Were they still alive? Were they missing a son they thought was dead? He felt like he was getting close, and he could feel a strand that was just out of his reach.

He was catching the d*mn thing before he went to sleep.

Click. Scan page. Click. Scan page. Click. Scan- WAIT.

Logan stopped on an article, pulling it up quickly. It was dated about three months before Dorrian had joined the circus, if he was keeping his times in line mentally, and it matched up with the articles about the little boy who had disappeared from Grangville's neighboring town.

The article described a car crash that left a young couple dead and their four year old son missing. Logan skimmed it, catching bits of names. Father, Ethan. Mother, Melody. Son...

"Daniel."

Logan looked down at Dorrian and then at the picture of the parents that adorned the article. It was an old photo, and a bit blurry, but there was enough there for him to see the resemblances in Dorrian's face and the father in the photo. 

This was Dorrian's family.

The article cited the crash as being suspected foul play, but another twenty minutes of searching Google told him that it didn't ever get solved.

Logan's fingers flew across the keys. He began compiling as much information as he could remember, opening tab after tab that he'd saved to various incognito browsers all over his computer. The entire thing was a mess and there was so much open that it was barely running, but if this worked he'd be able to get rid of it all.

He put all of the information into an email, then googled something quickly.

Pasting the Grangeville Police Department 'Tip-off' email into his recipient bar, Logan paused as he looked over the information. He currently had signed off as anonymous, just in case...

Actually, no. To hell with that.

Logan deleted the sign-off. He opened the cold case article again, scanning for officer names.

'To Officers Espinar, Nilsson, and whomever else this may concern' he addressed the email, then skipped down to the bottom of his info-dump again.

'From the desk of Logan Emory, amateur ophiologist and good f*cking person'

Logan smirked and hit send.

{Idk if I'll have a chapter for you guys next weekend, I have a very busy week coming up}