Death was driving an emerald green Lexus. Salvation was a gray Shelby Mustang.

The car had been following him for over two weeks, and he was starting to get tired. Part of him didn't even know why he was running anymore.

Logan had left the mansion over a year ago. No one there had really made him feel welcome. No one except Marie. But they'd talked her into joining the team, and he just couldn't stay there and watch the only good thing in his life constantly put herself in the way of danger. So he'd done what he did best. He'd run.

And where had it gotten him? A year later he was cold, tired and hungry trying to dodge a surveillance vehicle that wanted to take him back to the labs. Back to experiments and pain. All he had to rely on was himself and a beat-up Ford pickup.

"To hell with it," he muttered. "To hell with it all."

He pulled into a cheap motel. If they wanted to take him, they'd do it eventually. Might as well make it sooner as opposed to later.

Then he heard the voice. The one he only let himself hear in dreams. "Come on sugah, let's get outta here."

He looked into Marie's velvety brown eyes, and suddenly he wasn't ready to give up. "You need to get out of here, Marie. Do you have any idea what those people want?"

"Ah do. That's why ah've been lookin' for you."

"You need to go!"

"Not without you! So get outta the damn car and let's go!" In a year she'd grown up into a forceful and commanding woman, and he was so tired... It had been a week since he'd had enough time to get a few hours of sleep, longer then that since he'd eaten. He was so tired....

"Alright. Alright, Marie." He slowly climbed out of his truck and almost fell to the pavement. She slipped an arm around his shoulders and helped him across the parking lot and into the motel.

"We'll wait 'em out here for a while. They won't make they're move until night. Damn, sugah, you look bad. Let's get you something to eat. Ah missed you."

He heard it, even though she tacked it onto a bunch of other things so he might miss it. And it made him smile. His first real smile since he left the mansion. Since he left her.

They got a room and something to eat, then she made him get a few hours of sleep.

He woke an hour before dark to her gently shaking him. "C'mon, sugah, it's time to go."

They crept across the parking lot to her car.

"Don't you worry about a thing, sugah. Ah can drive like a bat outta hell, must come from having you in mah head. And if they catch us in this car, then we deserve to be caught."

"I've heard that one before," he shot back, as she helped him into the passenger seat.

"You just relax, Logan." Rogue climbed into the driver's side and started the car.

"We goin' back to the mansion?"

"Yes," she replied firmly.

He rested his head back against the seat. "Okay."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. I'm tired of runnin'. I missed you, too, Marie."

"Good. Now you're gonna have to do better then that to make all of this up to me, sugah. And if you call me kid, even once..." She let the threat trail off menacingly.

"How about I love you?"

"Now that's more like it."

And together they sped off into the night.