Logan would like to lie to himself about this, he would like to soothe his guilty conscience by telling himself he couldn't have known. But when that call came, the pieces slide into place with sickening ease. On some level, he'd known she was faltering. And he'd still failed to figure out what was wrong in time.

He'd seen what looked like fear in those big, brown eyes of hers, and he'd told himself it was grief. All so that he could give himself permission to leave Marie to her own devices. How could a broken man like him help a bright, intelligent young girl like Marie?

The question haunts him still, especially now that he knows the answer. He's seen it in black and white, in Marie's messy scrawl. He knows now that she'd needed a lifeline to hold onto. He knows she'd needed someone to notice her, to really see her pain and help guide her through it. Logan never experienced Marie's unique brand of hell, but he's skated a little too closely to the edge of sanity more than once, and he's always found his way back. He could've helped her. He knows he could have saved her, if only he'd noticed in time.