”Where is he?”
“Uh… Mrs. D’Ancanto…” Jerk.
“It’s Marie, Gary. And I would like to know where my husband is. He told me he was working in the new tunnel. Want to know something funny? When I went there, they said that they haven’t seen him in three weeks. Told me to come and see you.” I’ll fucking kill him. Both of them. As slowly as possible.
“Marie… It’s a little complicated…”
“Terraformers on the surface have some complicated situations to solve. You… Your only problem right now is to find a way to convince me not to rip out your lungs and dismember Logan. He promised, you both promised to me, that he wouldn’t go back there!” Three weeks. Three fucking weeks! In Xavier’s Pass! Sixteen hours a day, I hardly ever see him, and when I see him, he’s tired, torn up and beaten.
“I was going to reassign him to the new site, but after Jeff died, Logan insisted coming in here. I tried to talk him out of it. I don’t even know what’s the deal between you two and this place, but…”
“What’s between us and the Xavier’s Pass stays between us. But remember, if anything happens to Logan down there, I’m holding you responsible…” Bastard has the good sense to pale a bit.
“I tried to talk him out of it, I tried. He wouldn’t listen. Told me he owed it to Jeff.” Explanations. He sure is full of those now, but what about when he has to come to me and tell me that Logan has been crushed under twenty tons of sand and loose rocks? I have seen his clothes. There hasn’t been a day he wouldn’t have come home with blood on him.
“If it’s any consolation, this part of the tunnel has gone quite smoothly. We’ll break through some time during this afternoon, and from thereon it’s just some finishing touches. Coating surfaces, hauling out rest of the debris…”
“Show me.” I know they have surveillance cameras down there. Recording every move, just in case something goes wrong, so that they can later review the situation and determine what happened and why.

No automated drill, just five men in front of sheer rock wall, one of them wearing a harness, carrying the heavy power drill, pushing his way through the wall. Two men hosing the drill and the rock with cold water. Two men just standing and waiting to replace any of the three in case some of them tire out.
“Logan? Take a break. I need to speak with you,” Gary speaks to the inter-com. One of the men, the one carrying the drill taps his helmet, and then I can hear his voice from the speakers.
“I’ll be up there in a few minutes.”

Gary’s leaving the connection open. Logan’s camera is following him through the corridors. He looks tired and annoyed, fiddling with his harness and kicking small loose pebbles on his way.
“I hope this doesn’t take long. Guys are worn out. It was my turn. I just took the damn drill…”
“Come on, Logan. You already pull triple shifts. Don’t hog that damn machine all the time. Let John have some fun, too,” Gary tries to laugh, his eyes shifting between the screen and me. Logan adjusts the harness and turns off the light mounted on its shoulder piece. I know he would like to tear off the damn thing, forget the drill and force his way through with his bare hands, but he can’t do that. Even here we can’t reveal who we are. What we are.

“Cut the connection, Gary. Don’t want to break your little spy when I get in to the elevator…” Cameras are small round orbs floating in the air, using magnetic fields. Logan has complained about them several times. If the guy operating them isn’t sharp enough, eventually they end up lying in a broken heap on the floor, because worker they have been following has stepped to an isolated zone. And that worker must return to surface immediately to fetch a new camera.

“Fine. Now that he can’t hear us anymore… What do you want me to do?” Gary turns to me again. I would like to tell him to move Logan to some other site, but I guess that’s out of the question now that Logan’s determined to pay some kind of debt, real or imaginary, to Jeff.
“Go to lunch. I need to speak with him.”
“Okay. Just… These equipments are very expensive. Try not to break them in the middle of your ‘conversation’.”

“What did you wanted to talk about… What the fuck are you doing here?” Nice to see you, too, honey…
“I think it’s time for us to have a little chat.” And stop with that fucking eyebrow. I know you have several other facial expressions.
“A chat? Kid… Marie. I have to go back to work. Can’t this wait until I get back home?” So that you can crawl in to bed and sleep while I’m having that conversation alone? Think again, mister.
“No. This can’t wait. You fucking lied to me.”
“I didn’t. I’m not clearing that collapse. I’m drilling a new tunnel.” Fuck you. You can’t squirm your way out of this.
“In here. At Xavier’s Pass. Why?”
“I’m the best there is. And Gary needs me here. And I owe it to Jeff and his family.”
“You owe shit to some hypocrite jerk…”
“I was supposed to be working that day! I was supposed to be with him down there! We both would have gotten out of there just fine if…”
“I’m so fucking full of this shit! Since when did you got so fucking noble? Since when did you thought it would be alright to abandon me?”
“Abandon you? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Do you really think I could go on alone if you died? Alone! Century after another one, always alone!” I’m not going to cry. Not now. It would ruin everything. I’m more than a fucking teary-eyed little girl screaming for attention. I’m not going to cry.
“Maybe you would have been better off if you never met me…”

“Mrs. D’Ancanto! Mrs. D’Ancanto! Shit… Marie!” Let go of me! Let go of me before I hurt you! I have to go after him! Let go of me!
“Marie! You can’t go down there. It’s too dangerous.”
“And you let him go back there? When he already survived it once, you’re pushing him back in to that hell?” Fuck you Gary, drop dead!
“He asked it. I tried to stop him, but he told me he’d quit working for me if I didn’t let him do it. I can’t afford to let him go.”
“I’m sorry about this, Gary.” No, I’m not. His head makes a nice sound when it smacks against the wall. Key card? Where is it, where is it?

“Marie! What the hell are you doing down here? Did Gary let you in? I’ll fucking maim him for this!”
“Leave Gary out of this. This is about us! About you and me!”
“What the fuck do you want from me? I can’t just turn my back…”
“Yes! You can!”
“Oh, for Christ’s sakes… Jack! Take the hose! And you… You’re coming with me…” Owowowoww… I had forgotten how strong he is. He’s always so gentle with me, but now his grip is practically crushing my arm. Back to the elevator? If you think you’re getting rid of me by just tossing me out…
“Stop that. Don’t want to knock you out.” Really? Doesn’t look that way from where I’m standing. Or not standing. More like running so my hand won’t get yanked out of its socket.
“You’re hurting me!”
“Good. Maybe you’ll listen more carefully what I have to say…” Uh… This is starting to bring up some bad memories. I don’t like that blank look on his face.
“Logan… Let me go.”
“No.” One elevator coming up.
“Inside.” Hey! No need to push me! These walls are kind of hard and… What the hell are you doing? What the fuck… That’s a kiss. Sweat, exhaustion, dust, Logan.

“Logan? What are you…”
“Shut up, darling. Just shut up.” Uh-oh… Haven’t seen that look on his face ever before. Eyes all dark. Deep enough to drown me. No smile. No grimace. Just unreadable, blank face, covered to black and grey smudges. Hair stiff and grey from the dust. Clothes underneath the harness plastered against him like a second skin. Skin made out of blood, sweat and concrete. Something hard is digging against my stomach when he leans closer.
“Sorry… Have to get this fucking piece of shit off…” He fumbles a while with the straps before he manages to open them, and the harness falls to the floor. And again he’s kissing me, his tongue laving against mine. His stubble is kind of scratchy, but I’m not about to complain. We haven’t kissed in months. Not like this. Hell, we haven’t kissed like this in centuries. Logan’s practically eating me alive.

“I won’t leave you. I won’t let him win. But this is something I have to do. For Jeff. And for us,” he whispers, leaning his forehead against mine.
“As long as I keep shivering and shying away from his name, Xavier has won. It may very well be a fucked up way to think, but…” I just have to kiss him. His hair feels gritty in my hands when I comb my fingers through it. Like sanding paper. Small sheets of plaster fall from his clothes when we move and they’re crunching under the heels of our shoes, covering the floor of the elevator to brownish dust.

Soft ping pulls us a part. Door slides open. Gary’s standing there, and he’s looking quite pissed off.
“I don’t give a damn about how important that fucking conversation was, but…”
“Gary, watch your tone. That’s my wife you’re speaking to.” Logan puts his hands on my shoulders and pulls my back against him.
“I’ll come home as soon as this shift is over. Our conversation isn’t over yet…” He whispers, lips just inches from my earlobe. I can feel him turning his head, to look at Gary, before he turns his attention back to me again.
“We traded some harsh words down there. I think we should make it up before we go to sleep…” I haven’t blushed in years. I thought nothing he does could make me blush anymore, but when I feel his tongue trailing the side of my throat while his hands pull me more firmly against him, right under Gary’s eyes… I’m suddenly so fucking hot. Mostly from arousal, but there’s some embarrassment, too. We haven’t made out in public for decades.
“I’ll be waiting for you, honey…”

She fucking knows better than this. Not to tease me when I’m this wound up. She knows it. Yet she goes and pulls a stunt like this. I’ll fucking wring her neck. As soon as I have fucked her to next week, that is. She won’t know what hit her. She won’t be able to walk straight after I’m through with her. She won’t be able to do much else than beg for more. Out of the way, Shirley. Daddy’s going to get your mommy back home…

I have to say that the last shift was absolute torture. I could still taste her on my lips, feel those small hands against my scalp and chest. At the end of it guys kept telling me to loose the drill, because I sure as hell wasn’t going to need it, my own drill would have probably been enough. At first I was laughing with them, but after first couple of hours that joke got pretty old, and on top of it Gary kept pestering me, threatening with the union and all kinds of hells for letting Marie in the tunnel. Letting her? I wasn’t the one upstairs with the key card!

So… One could say I was a bit ticked off when I got home. And horny as hell. Waiting for making up with Marie. Place was quiet. She had been in earlier, but she had left few hours ago, scent was getting cold already. There was a note on the fridge door. ‘Come and get me.’ Come and get me?

Out of all the possible places in this Station she had to choose the sleaziest shithole she could find. This place doesn’t even have a name. Basically just a cavern drilled to bedrock, filled to the brim with drunken miners and constructors. And pool tables. Is there some kind of fucking law about those? That every place serving alcohol must have at least two of them tucked away to a dim corner?

“Give me a beer.” No use to ask certain label. There’s only one kind of beer in this place. I should know. Have spent absofuckinglutely too many hours in here during past years. Beer tastes like piss, women are ugly and worn down, but people know me, and keep their distance. My kind of place. My kind of crowd. I wonder how Marie knew about this place. Haven’t exactly advertised this to her. Speaking about which… I tracked her here, but I can’t see her anywhere. Where the fuck is she?
“Looking for something?”
“What if I am?” That’s none of your fucking business. Just keep that beer coming.
“You might find what you’re looking for from the lower level.” Lower level?
“What?”
“There’s an entrance at the back, behind the pool tables.” Huh? This is getting weird.
“Just take your beer and go.” O-kay…

Holy shit. Wasn’t really expecting to see something like this again. I thought I left this back couple of hundreds years ago. A cage. A fucking cage. And bunch of rednecks cheering and whistling, gathered as close to the metal mesh as possible, not to loose a second of what’s going on inside.
“And the winner is again the unbeatable Mutilator! For all my years haven’t seen anything like this… Are you going to let him walk out with your money? And this poor girl?” Poor girl?

“What the fuck are you doing?”
“Logan! You found me!” Yeah. I found you. Now would be a good time for me to walk out and let her take her medicine. Has she gone fucking insane?
“What kind of game are you playing? Because this shit isn’t funny.” Wipe that smile out of your face, darling, before I do that for you.
“Not a game. Seriously, I was just going to lure you out so that we could have some fun. Then some asshole grabbed me and dragged me down here. Apparently they think I would make a nice trophy for the winner.” Wonder why… Those stamps she’s wearing are covering her nipples, and that skirt is almost long enough to cover her panties. Don’t even get me started about those ‘come-fuck-me –boots you’re wearing, darling. These morons should be deaf and blind not to want to have a go with you. Doesn’t give them an excuse to kidnap and grope you, but there you have a reason for it…
“And you’re expecting me to climb in the ring and go against a guy that calls himself a Mutilator?” Have you lost your fucking mind? I’m not suicidal. At least not today.
“I’m supposed to go with the winner…” Fuck this. Couldn’t hurt to go few rounds. Might be fun.
“Wait here. I’ll be back as soon as I finish off that oaf…”

Fun? I do have mental problems, but I hadn’t realized they were this bad.
“Careful, darling…” Oh, fuck. It hurts just to breathe. Mutilator, my ass. The guy was a fucking cyborg!
“Just few more steps, we’re almost at home…”
“Marie? Do me a favor… Next time you feel like going out without me, don’t…” I won him, fair and square. Got beaten up pretty badly, but most of the damage I took afterwards when all those yahoos wanted to have a go with me. Had to beat up five of them before they realized that Wolverine was just as bad as the Mutilator.
“I won’t. Here we are. Think you could stand on your own for a sec?” Let me see…
“Almost…” Sliding down. Nice and easy, against the wall… I’m a fucking mess. Drunken, horny and beaten up mess.
“Come on, get up. Get up, honey.” Do I have to?
“I’m too old…”
“We’re both too old. But get up anyway. Let’s get you in to bed…”
“Shower first.”
“You can’t even stand on your own!”
“First shower. Then bed.” I can still smell the filth of that place on me.
“Fine.”

“Lean against that wall.” Gladly. I’m too heavy for her to carry anyway.
“Oh… Fuck…”
“Sorry. I try to be more careful.” Don’t. Doesn’t matter where you touch. I’m bruised all over. Just touch. Let those hands glide over… Oh…
“Logan?”
“Yeah…” Closing my eyes. She doesn’t use the sponge on me. Ever. She knows how much I like to feel her skin against mine.
“I’m going to give you your prize now…” What prize… What’s that? What is she… Oh, Christ! This is going to be good… Her soapy hand sliding up and down on my shaft…
“I won’t last long, darling…”
“It’s okay. This is for you.”
“Just… If you want something… Thought you should know…” Because it really won’t take long now. I can already feel the pressure building up…
“I’m fine. I can wait until you feel better…” Oh, shit! Have to take a hold from something, can’t touch her now… Feels too good….
“Marie…”
“Yeah?”
“Just finish it… I can’t… This is too much…”
“Just calm down… I want to taste you.” Uh… Go ahead. Be my guest. Can’t really complain now. Not when she’s kneeling down and sucking me in. Jesus…
“Honey… Marie…” She’s licking and sucking me like a fucking lollypop.
“Just relax.” I will. I have no other choice. Not when she’s twirling that warm tongue over my balls. When one small hand is rubbing small circles over my stomach. I will be fucking boneless soon. She smells so good. Fuck it. I want to fuck her. Now.
“Turn around…” On your hands and knees, darling. Can’t do you up against the wall now. Have to save that for later.
“Are you sure… Oh… Logan…” Trust me. I’m sure. You’re so fucking slick and wet already. Have been waiting for this all day. Just nice and easy now…

They were all cheering and jumping up and down like a bunch of freaking schoolgirls when we finally got through the wall. Other end of Xavier’s Pass was stretching in front of us, dark, round cavern. I was relieved, too, but there was this nagging feeling at the back of my neck. At six o’clock next morning, still tired to the bone, that nagging feeling woke me up. Ten past six my beeper went off.

“Don’t answer… Take a day off…”
“Would love to, darling. Maybe make up some past arguments…” Dear God. All she has to do is to stretch her legs under the covers and I’m good to go.
“But I can’t. And you know that, fucking vixen…” Stop laughing. Not fair to grope defenseless man when he’s getting up from the bed. Not fair.
“Yeah?”
“Logan?”
“It’s me. What is it this time?” Gary. Don’t like the sound of his voice. Don’t like it a bit.
“Xavier’s Pass. It collapsed again.”
“You’re shitting me.” Nope. There are many things Gary could joke about, but work isn’t one of those.
“New tunnel is okay, but the older part… It’s shot to hell. Whole fucking mountain fell down just couple of hours ago.”
“And you’re calling to me because…”
“You’re holding some sort of grudge towards that place. Thought I should let you know first. Company decided to give up the contract. It’s over. Xavier’s Pass won’t chew up our men anymore.” Just like that, Xavier’s slinking back. Back in to the shadows to wait.
“Thanks, Gary. So, I’ll see you on Monday at the new site?”
“Nope. They’re transferring me to Phobos. There’s a new foreman. He should arrive at Tuesday. I got his name on somewhere… Now where did I put those papers…” same old Gary. He would lose his head if it weren’t screwed to his shoulders.
“Gary? You still there?” I know he is. Papers rustling, can hear him breathing at the other end of the line.
“Here it is. This is some weird shit, you know…”
“What do you mean?”
“The name of the new guy. His last name’s Xavier. How about that!” Oh…
“Logan?” Fucking…
“Logan? You still there?” Shit…
“Logan?”
“Yeah. I’m here. I was just thinking… Thanks for the heads up, Gary… And take care of yourself.”
“I will. And remember to take care of your wife. She nearly chewed my balls off when she thought I was forcing you to work. Don’t want her to mutilate some poor schmuck just because of some misunderstanding.”
“Yeah. Bye.”

Xavier. Name that has been popping up throughout the centuries, at convenient and not so convenient moments. But never this close. Never in the flesh. Always something inanimate, object we could skirt past if we wanted to. This one I can’t avoid. Not if we don’t skip the boat and leave this planet.

“Who was it?”
“Gary. Xavier’s Pass… It’s over. We won’t be going back there anymore.”
“That’s great news! So you won’t be working this weekend?”
“No. You got me all to yourself.”
“Hmm… What should I do? I have this gorgeous hunk on a man in my bed, what should I do…”
“Do your worse…” It can wait until tomorrow. We can have this one day just to ourselves. I’ll break it to her tomorrow.

“Mmm… I’m hungry…”
”I’ll go and make us some breakfast.” Can’t have you starving, darling. There are still few places we haven’t tried this morning, and I don’t think you managed to wake all our neighbors when you screamed my name. I have a reputation to keep…
“I’m coming with you.”
“Sure you are… Later. Lets eat something first before you keel over.”
“Logan!” Was that a…
“Did you just threw me with a pillow?”
“Yeah. What are you going to do about it?” I do have that reputation to cover, darling…
“I think I’ll just turn you over my knee and…”
“Promises, promises… But we’ll have to leave that for later. I really am hungry.” Crap.