Not so Candid Camera - Tag 45825243-t78-a

[open_flame]

She tried to convince herself that she could report to the higher ups about Amy's situation without the use of the cameras the other woman had agreed to have installed in her office. Liz knew it was humiliating from her own experiance and did nothing to make Amy feel like she wasn't being 'babysat', but there was no choice. Amy had already been

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[45825243_t78_a]

Logan had put the camera incident behind him the moment he'd chopped the last one in half. Sure, he should have talked to Liz about it. And part of him had wanted to. But the conversation wouldn't have been pleasant, or the least bit constructive, and Logan had decided to ignore the problem for now - unless and until it came back

[open_flame]

Liz noticed a Black Suit trying to mount a new camera when she walked past Amy's office. She paused before sending up one of her little fireballs to melt the device. The suit nearly fell from the ladder, but Liz just shook her head. She had to admit, it did feel kinda good destroying those things.

She paused near Logan's door, unsure what 'face' to put on. She knew the 'bosslady' act didn't earn her a lot of respect from him and she didn't like being that persona anyway. Same went for the bitchface, the sadface or any of the aspects of her personality Liz she wrestled with each day. Liz decided to just wing it. That used to work very well with Logan. Honesty, just talking without thinking. Maybe it would again.

"Hey." She tapped hard enough on the door and spoke loudly enough he could hear. "Logan, you busy?"

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Glaring at the door, Logan exhaled smoke through his nose like an angry bull, even if he was more surly than angry. Because it was Liz. Because it was anybody. Rather than answering like a normal person, he waited the long length of the exhale before getting up and walking over to the door to open it.

"What?" Still more moody than angry, not unlike a teenager who knows he's done something wrong, but refuses to admit that it was wrong. Preemptively defensive about anything she might throw at him, no matter how reasonable. He really wasn't in the mood for this...

[open_flame]

"Hi." She looks him over cautiously, gauging the mood. Liz seems to remember there were times, years ago, when Logan was happy. Or perhaps she's just romanticizing the times he was 'not cranky'. Either way, she hates adding more negativity to his mood, to anyone's really.

"Uh... just wanted to ...uh...keep you informed about the Amy situation." Liz looks away from Logan's eyes. "Someone damaged the cameras we had to set up to monitor Amy, and the replacement just...well...spontaneously overheated." Her use of the word we isn't meant to lump Logan in with her. Far from it. It's more a round about way of telling him she didn't have much of a choice

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It's not a conscious decision to keep her out of his room, him lingering in the doorway the way he does. It's more that he'd need to take a step back for her to come in, and Logan and taking steps back - in any way - is not a good combination. Liz is right about one thing: he's been better. Before the Fae War; before he got his memories back. Now more than ever, it's up and down. Seems harder for him not to fly off the road at every turn these days. But he manages, mostly. And he'll be better again, at some point. But, at times like this, it's a battle.

He hears her out, jaw clenched - but at least he doesn't interrupt her. It gets increasingly hard to maintain his scowl when confusion begins to set in. What exactly is she saying? He expected her to be angry - he wouldn't have blamed her, really. He knows what he did, and he'll accept the consequences. What he wasn't expecting was a thank-you, and he doesn't know what to make of it

[open_flame]

Liz's eyebrow goes up. He really thinks she's spying on Amy. "I won't be able to report her progress to IA and our contacts within the government, no." She corrects him, an edge of annoyance in her voice.

Logan, to his credit, had never messed up around here at a level anyone took notice of. Maybe he doesn't understand what it is Liz does for the 'special' agents for that reason. "You think I was spying on her?" Liz asks, shifting her weight as she folds her arms. She doesn't know how to react to that and it takes more than a few moment for her to put words together.

"Logan, who do you think is ultimately in charge of this organization?"

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There's something incredibly amusing about the fact that Logan is on the good side of the balance, when it comes to messing things up for the BPRD. Not something he'll ever realize, and even if Liz told him outright, he wouldn't believe it. He's not in any way a goody two-shoes. But he's - usually - a pro, and while he enjoys a good fight, he's - again, usually - beyond that phase where he'll pick a fight with just about anybody, just for the hell of it. Perfect, he is not, and less so of late, but he's not an idiot.

Reporting progress is spying, surely? Clearly the one requires the other - and that in itself is wrong. It's not that Logan doesn't understand that there may be pressure from the top, even if he hadn't really thought too much about that before... What he doesn't get is why Liz gives in to it. Still, he's thinking enough that he actually bothers to answer her question, rather than telling her where to shove it

[open_flame]

Liz just shakes her head, a sad smile growing. "You really think the most powerful nation in the free world would let one man and one woman head up the defense of it's people from all the weird shit and not have their hands in it?" She looks at Logan with nearly helpless eyes. "Jack might be the Director. I may be the Liason...but we have to answer to someone, too."

Liz sighs and leans herself against the wall near his door. "Amy screwed up, Logan. She pulled a gun on a civilian and a knife on a fellow agent while within this facility last year, she went AWOL before the war, she..." Liz looks down, swallowing hard. "I can't trust her, Logan. But I can protect her. I will protect her, even if it's from herself. I can do everything in my power to make damn sure she still has something after everything else falls apart."

She actually sniffles before looking up at him again. "I have been where she is. I have almost lost everything that mattered to me because I lost control and did something stupid. We all have. That is my job. I make

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Logan knows that Amy did some bad things. And he understands - as he would for himself - that those have consequences. Of course they want to keep an eye on her. He's not objecting to the basic principle. It's more the manner in which they - or whoever made the decision - chose to do it that he thinks is wrong. Treating her like a child is disrespectful, and it's not going to help. Amy has to want to change - and she does. So what exactly is the fucking problem?

Fine, so there's pressure from the higher-ups. He gets that. Throw them a bone, sure. Promise them something, especially if it's something they can't check on later. Logan isn't angry with Liz, and he's not assuming her job is easy - though he may think it's easier than it is. He does, however, disagree strongly with her methods in this particular case

[open_flame]

"Like what?" Liz looks at him with that helpless expression. "This is the way it's done, Logan. I screwed up and they threw me in a fireproof cell. Jack messed up and they kept him dead for I can't even remember how long. Red...got locked in his room all the time." She exhales, her frustration and exhaustion clear.

"What would you do to help her and make sure she's not going to hurt someone, Logan. We have normals here. We have kids here." Liz shakes her head. "I have to think about more than what makes Amy happy. I have to think about the safety of this entire organization. If she can't follow the little rules, how am I supposed to have faith she can follow the big ones like 'don't get pissed off and kill your team mates in a fit of empathy induced rage.'"

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"Cameras an' blood tests ain't gonna keep that from happenin'. Ain't gonna do anythin' but make her feel cornered an' more likely to lash out." Or so he assumed. That's how it would be for him; he knew that much. And if Amy and him weren't the same, they were enough alike, he thought, in this.

There was no easy solution to this. Liz had been around; she had to know. Having special powers also meant a risk to your surroundings, always - that was why so many people hated mutants. Was it right? No. Were they wrong to be afraid? Not entirely. It was just the way it was. Play with fire, people were gonna get burnt.

"End a' the day, you're just gonna have t' trust her. An' trust that there's enough people around that can take her down if she crosses the line."

[open_flame]

"You think I don't know that?!" Liz would have reacted in the same way Logan's suggestion. She has in the past, and she was only a child. Caging an animal never works, but sometimes training them does. And sadly, that's essentially what Amy is to Liz now. She's not her friend, she's not someone she even wants to be around, but Liz will protect her agents, all of them, with everything she has in her.

She decides then that this isn't the kind of conversation you have where other people can hear. Liz moves closer to Logan, dropping her voice. "I can't trust her. It's not just what the Feds want, she..." Liz's eyes state to glitter with tears. "When she first started here, she pushed Jack so hard he lost control of a part of himself that needs to stay in control...just to see what would happen if she did. She almost ended my marriage. She could havedestroyed this organization." She says roughly, her own memories of how badly she fucked up in Pittsburgh inching a little to close to memories. Liz swallows back the tears that threaten

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It shows how much Logan likes Liz that he lets her talk, and talk, even if none of it changes his opinion in the slightest. Only when she tells him about Amy beating up her son - Trev? - in a hospital does Logan's expression change from its usual quasi-defensive indifference to something less impartial, the furrow of his brow deepening slightly. He did not know that, and he's not sure he approves. But he doesn't have the facts, and for now, it's not his fight.

"No." Simple answer for a simple question. Had Amy attacked Kitty, for example, Logan would not only stop trusting Amy, but he would do her some serious physical harm to boot. No questions, no considering; that would be the end of it. "But I ain't the one runnin' this joint."

Not that Logan could do better at separating personal feelings from professional duties, and there was no doubt that the two overlapped in this case. The point was, Liz chose to take Amy back. And if that's the choice she made, she should stick with it. "Ya don't want her here, don't have her here. But

[open_flame]

If Liz had been 'herself' at the time, and hadn't had something more pressing like her son's rehabilitation from his addiction on her mind, she would have done just that. No one messes with her children. Ever.She winces at the accusation she's puling rank by simply doing her job. Liz feels she's done a very good job at NOT doing that or making the matter personal in spite of the history she and Amy had. If it was Manning in charge, he would have found every single bit of dirty laundry Amy left and made damned sure it was held over her head forever. It's what he did with Liz, and Red and Jack and everyone else. Even Broom

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"That is enough. That's the point."

While Logan would never want to take full responsibility for what Amy does - apart from anything else, that's no one's job but Amy's - he will, if that's what it takes. He appreciates Liz shielding Amy, in her own way, but he still feels there are limits to how much Amy needs to be babysat. There's a fine line between keeping an eye on someone and being pointlessly controlling. With the cameras and the blood tests, Liz has crossed that line. Though Logan isn't really angry at her anymore, he still doesn't agree with what she's done.

It's not that Logan thinks Liz is pulling rank, but she's using her position as an excuse to do something that in Logan's opinion doesn't need to be done. What she should be doing is use her position as an excuse to not do all of that. Screw pressure from above. Liz has the power to protect Amy, and she's only done half a job of it so far

[open_flame]

To be fair, Liz requested Amy have an psychological evaluation and set up counseling if the doctor advised it, and undergo screenings to make sure she wasn't drinking on the job. It's nothing more than they'd have requested of a an employee with a history of substance abuse...like Liz had to do after the whole mental hospital incident. Whatever else Jack requested of Amy is on his head.

"Have you ever been in rehab, Logan?" Liz tilts her head when he tells her Amy's doing fine. "Ever been on probation or anything like that?" She doesn't wait for him to answer. "After Pittsburgh, I was in prison. Then Broom pulled some strings, got the charges dropped, and..." She tenses thinking about that. "I left anyway. I knew I couldn't do it by myself so instead of being angry and resentful to the people here that tried to help me, I got the help I needed. For me. For them. So I could be a functioning member of the team again. I was gone almost a year