What If? Episode 907

Red, White, and Rescued

As soon as the three travelers had gotten into the car, Logan turned Scott's way and gave him a simple, but confusing request. "Empty out the duffel bags. One piece of clothing at a time. Check the shoes. All the way to the toes."

"What am I looking for?" Scott asked with a frown as he pulled the first duffel bag into the front seat.

"Anything that doesn't belong there," Logan said. He looked angry for a moment, but once again jerked his head Scott's way. "Just look. You'll know it when you find it."

Scott frowned but did as he was told ... and went through every piece of clothing in his bag to find nothing at all. But at the bottom of Logan's bag - there was a small, flat piece of metal about the size of a nickel with a short wire on it. "What the heck..."

"Throw it out the window," Logan said through gritted teeth as he glared out of the windshield. "And make sure there aren't anymore."

Scott simply nodded and did as Logan asked - first whipping the tracer out of the window and then once again going through every bit of clothing - pockets and all searching for it now that he knew what the trouble was. He took the time to carefully fold everything and put it back the way he'd packed his own bag, though it was clear when he stole glances at Logan that his Dad was beyond frustrated.

It was simple, and when Scott thought about it, the soldiers had the opportunity - and they'd only bugged Logan's bag, so it was clear that they thought there was a good chance that Logan would have left him behind. He frowned harder, his jaw locked tightly as he turned to stare out of his window. A defiant sort of fire rose up in his chest as Scott thought back to the not so distant past and how Logan had so selflessly given up rather than risk Scott's neck any worse. Of course, after seeing how they subdued him, Scott was sure that he would have been taken down anyhow. Logan's surrender was purely to avoid Scott any more unneeded pain. Shows what they know, he thought to himself, and for an instant, he could feel the red glow tick up behind the ruby quartz lenses.

He closed his eyes and tried to focus on keeping his cool, counting slowly as he inhaled and exhaled .. until the anger had actually ebbed somewhat.

They'd gotten away, after all. And there were no more tracers. He put the bags back into the backseat and started to relax, watching the scenery go by, thinking to himself on what the best course of action was while K was passed out in the backseat.

"Check hers too," Logan said after Scott clearly looked as if he'd finished his task.

"I don't think ..."

"We still don't know if they were after her too, and considering the exit strategy she had in place, we need to know. Check. I'm sure she'll forgive you," Logan said, his tone more gentle than before. "We don't want them getting her either."

Scott drew in a breath and held it as he nodded his head in agreement, and a few short moments later, he was carefully going through K's bag ... and hating every second of it. Aside from the fact that she'd been his boss, going through the carefully folded ladies' things was not something a young man his age wanted to do without permission. Even if it was his Dad that had told him to do it.

"She's clean," Scott said after he'd done as Logan asked, and on letting the words out, he had to admit - knowing that much had him feeling slightly better in spite of the fact that he'd hated it.

Logan drove for a few hours, the ride almost silent as K simply hadn't woken up yet and Scott didn't have much to say - though he kept looking into the backseat, wondering to himself if her healing wasn't as good as Logan's was. He'd never seen anyone as injured as Logan had been, and it was more than a little jarring to think that his sassy boss could even begin to come back from anything as raw and vicious as Logan had done before Scott's eyes.