The cold wind blows and a flurry of soft powdery snow flakes cascade over him. It feels good against his heated flesh and he rolls his neck and stretches his muscles. It’s nice to be out of the heated and smoky bar. When it gets a little too chilly for even him, he steps back inside and pulls his shirts and jackets back on.

It’s a short walk back to the MC and after a quick exchange of money, Logan heads toward the bar. The girl, no woman definitely, from earlier is there. She’s sitting at the bar nursing a beer. There’s a duffel bag at her feet and upon closer inspection she’s barely touched the beer. Her eyes settle on him and she waits a long moment before speaking.

“Wolverine.” It’s not a question. He looks at her for a long moment before grunting. A gloved hand comes up to brush some of that long brown hair from her face. She steels herself, piercing him with a pair of big brown eyes.

“I need your help.” This time he speaks.

“I don’t help people, darlin’.”

“But, only you can help me, I know that.”

“Listen, I don’t help people. I…” He’s interrupted by last man to challenge him. It’s a flurry of conversation and heated emotions before the girl calls out to him to watch out.

He’d known it was coming, you can’t hide that kind of intention from his sense of smell, and everything happens in a flurry again. She’s taken off sometime during the confrontation, and he inwardly sighs from relief. One less thing he’s… Before he can finish the thought he hears a scream and the sounds of a scuffle.

Before he realizes what he’s doing he’s out the door, claws at the ready. He barely feels the pain anymore, but it’s always there just under his knuckles. What he sees brings him to a screeching halt for a fraction of a second, but then he’s there, saving her.

Sabretooth, the fucking bastard, is practically mauling the girl. There’s tears and cuts in her clothing and, as sure as he can smell her bleeding, in her skin as well. A running leap and a roar and he’s stabbed the hairy beast in his back, claws reaching deep into him and piercing his lungs. With a wrench of his wrists he pulls the claws out and to the side, tearing more lung and scraping bone.

The big man hits the ground hard as Logan goes in for what should be a killing blow but that he knows will only keep the man down for a short while.

He grabs the girl and her duffel and practically throws her into the passenger side of his truck. He’s got an inkling now of why she needs his help.

“Are you ok?” He asks when they’ve gotten out of the parking lot and driven a short distance. He can smell all of the blood on her and it worries him, though God knows why.

“Maybe,” She groans. She doesn’t smell good, not like she did in the bar, all innocent and fresh and something distinctly alluring. Instead she smells like blood and defeat and fear.

“I think I’ll be ok. I just, I just need a moment.” She’s still bleeding, he can smell it coming off of her in waves, but he can’t stop. Not just yet. There needs to be more space between them and Sabretooth. “Just, talk to me. Take my mind off of it.” She speaks again.

“What the fuck does Sabretooth want from you?” He spits out, concentrating on keeping the truck and trailer on the road. It’s not snowing yet, but the roads haven’t exactly been fully taken care of since the last time.

“I’ve just been calling him Big’n’Hairy.” Her voice is a little more steady when she speaks this time. “It’s…” There’s a sharp intake of breath for a moment but he thinks she’s stopped bleeding now. Fucker must not have gotten his claws in too deep. “He wants me because of my skin.”

That’s a new one, though he wouldn’t put it past that sick bastard. “What do ya mean?”

“I’m a mutant, like you. My skin, when it’s on, sucks the life and” she draws in a breath through her teeth and sits still for a moment before continuing. “it draws out another mutants powers too. On top of that I get a copy of that persons personality and memories in my head, and they stay there like an imprint. He thinks,” another sharp intake of breath and he knows now that she’s really hurting. “He thinks that if he touches me that he’ll get all of his memories back.”

He thinks about this for a long moment. “How long can you stay like this?” He gestures to her stomach and legs, where she’s covered with blood.

“I figure I’ve got another hour, max, before I pass out.”

“You said you take mutations? What, what happens to the mutant that you take the mutations from?”

She’s quiet and when he looks at her she’s looking more and more strained as the moments tick by. Another hour, yeah right. Another fifteen minutes more likely.

“They, they usually pass out. But I’m better at it now, than I used to be. I can,” another pause and he can smell her pain and paranoia. “I can just take the power without hurting them no. No more… No more passing out or anything.”

“Is it, is it on right now?” He doesn’t know what make him ask, but if he can touch her and give her his healing for just a little bit then some part of him, a pretty big part of him, wants to.

“Yeah.” She’s breathless with her reply and it makes him reach over to her. She hesitates for a minute before taking his hand into her and he doesn’t know what he was expecting but it certainly wasn’t for her hands to be so damn soft and warm. He wonders how often she wears those gloves that are now settled on the seat between them but then he’s being sucked in. Down and deep and he can feel part of himself pouring into her and it’s all he can do to slow down and get them safely to the side of the road.

Her hand in his is still soft and warm and wonderful and she’s holding his hand so carefully and so intimately. It doesn’t hurt, not at all, but it’s like a vorte sucking him in and he’s not afraid of losing consciousness so much as the feeling of letting himself go.

The feeling stops and she’s still holding his hand, but then he feels her tighten as the cuts start to knit themselves together and suddenly he’s pulling her close and holding onto her because he knows how much that goddamn hurts and he doesn’t want her to feel alone with her pain.

Afterward, when she’s resting her head on his shoulder and her breathing has returned to normal she shifts a little closer into him. He tightens his grip, feeling closer in the wake of sharing something so… He can’t think of the word to describe it.

A few minutes pass and he’s reminded of Sabretooth still on their trail so he carefully and reluctantly lets her go and starts driving again.

“Put on your seatbelt,” she tells him and as much as he thinks about arguing he doesn’t. Instead he just fastens the seatbelt as he listens to her doing the same thing.

“I’m sorry,” she says after a moment of driving.

“No, it’s… it’s ok. I-”

“No, I’m sorry that it hurts. That it hurts when they come out.” He’s a little taken aback by that. No one’s ever asked him that before, even acknowledged that it might hurt. Not that too many people have ever actually seen the claws. He mumbles something about it being alright and asks him her name.

“Marie,” she tells him. “Marie D’Ancanto.”

“Logan.” He replies.

“Yeah, I know. But thanks, for telling me anyway. I know, I know that you don’t share it lightly.” He’s confused for a moment, then he remembers. He’s in her head now and he wonders if he’s making things hard on her up there.

“It’s not too hard on ya, me being up there in your head and all?”

“Nah, I kinda like it. You’re up there prowling around and keeping all of the others in line. Especially Sabretooth. He’s been raging for a while now and it’s hard to keep him in his cage, but you’re up there making it better. It’s almost quiet.”

She sighs for a moment and looks ahead of them. He drives for a long while before she speaks again.

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”

“I mean it, no one’s ever helped me before. Usually they’re too scared or just don’t really give a damn. I’ve had to touch him a few times to get him away from me, really put him down. Didn’t have a chance this time, his hands were covered. I don’t know why he thinks… He thinks that me touching him will bring back all of his memories. It’s not true, that’s not how it works. I only know what he knows. What you know, when you touch me.”

He nods, not sure what to say to her. Instead he just sits for a long moment, letting the silence hang between them.

“So, does this mean you’re gonna help me?” He sighs at the tone of her voice, she knows the answer already, but wants him to say it out loud. How the hell does he get himself into shit like this?

“Yeah, Marie. I’m gonna help you.”

It’s almost an hour later when they’re settling into something of an evening routine at a seedy motel somewhere in Northern Canada. Marie’s showered and brushed her teeth, it seems that the girl has everything in that duffel of hers. Instead of the ripped and torn jeans and shirt she’s got these tiny little pajamas on.

Logan watches as she dries her hair with a towel thinking for a long moment before speaking.

“How does a girl like you get on Sabretooth’s radar?” He’s lounging on the only bed in the room, a little too delighted at the prospect of spending a night in bed with her plastered up against him.

She stops what she’s doing and throws the towel over the back of the only chair in the room, considering.

“I know you said you’re going to help me, but I feel like you should have the whole story first, then you can decide.” He figures there isn’t any considering to be done, he’s said he’s going to help her and that’s that. He tells her so.

“O-ok. But you still deserve the whole story.” She sighs and crawls up to the top of the bed, sliding under the sheets and blankets, like she’s burrowing into a cocoon. Logan makes a split decision, stripping off his shirts and boots and climbing into bed with her.

It was the right one because she’s there cuddled up against his side, her head lying on his chest while she speaks. He breathes her in deeply, enjoying the scent of her.

“I manifested my power when I was 17. It was during my first kiss ever and I put him into a coma for three weeks. I can still feel him inside my head, just like with you. My parents kept me cloistered away, home schooling no dating the whole nine yards. I couldn’t live like that so as soon as I had the graduation papers in m hand I moved out. Settled into a little apartment, lived my life.”

Her scent has gone melancholy and he brushes his hand over her back over and over, offering comfort. In response she snuggles into him a little more.

“Sabretooth had been following me for weeks, on Magneto’s order, when he first attacked me and tried to take me to a secluded warehouse. That’s the first time I touched him. I put him down, good. But I had him rattling around in my brain, screaming and fighting and freaking out. That’s how I knew he’d been following me. He’d learned about my powers from The Brotherhood,” Logan tenses at that. The Brotherhood had tried to recruit him once, had used a shape shifting bitch to try to lure him into their political bullshit. He’d turned her down flat and she hadn’t been very happy. Marie’s still talking so he tunes back in.

“He misunderstood what my powers can do, I told you that. He’s been chasing me across the country, I started in Mississippi. I don’t know how to get him to stop.”

“He won’t,” Logan replies. Another thought strikes him. “How did you know to find me?”

She blushes a little and hides her face in his chest. “I dreamt of you.” Her voice is muffled, but he knows what she said. She’s not embarrassed, he realizes, but afraid. His arms tighten around her.

“I was dreaming and you and Sabretooth were fighting and when I woke up, I looked into his memories. He’s afraid of you, you know. He knows that you’re the only person that can stand a chance against him and he knows that you can kill him.” That’s news to Logan. Sabretooth, afraid of him. The man never acted like it.

“So you thought you’d come and find The Wolverine and get him to help you, what? What is it you want me to do?”

“Just keep me safe, Logan. All I need you to do is promise to keep me safe.”

“I’ll keep you safe Marie, I promise.”

She shifts a little in his arms, her eyes closing. He can tell when she drifts into sleep, her breathing deep and even. He closes his eyes as well and drifts to sleep.



A knock on the door wakes him. Groggy, but aware, he leaves Marie in the bed and moves to look out the window.

“Who is it?” She’s awake now, looking at him and the door in earnest.

“Not sure, couple of people, one guy wearing glasses and another with red hair.” Marie groans aloud and buries her face in the pillow.

“You know ‘em?” This was a new turn of events he hadn’t expected. “Who are they?”

“They’re from this school in New York. They tried to get me to move there, shortly after I moved out into my own apartment. Then again, after Sabretooth attacked me they tried to get me to come again, but I’d had the dream of you already and I knew that you were the only one that could help me, so I turned them down again.” She pulls herself from the bed and grabs a pair of jeans to pull on over the short shorts she was sleeping in. Almost as an afterthought she grabs one of his flannels and pulls it around her shoulders. “Go then, let ‘em in.”

After opening the door Logan moves to stand across the room next to Marie. The two people come inside and Logan takes stock of them. Mutants by the looks of them; one tall and wearing a pair of wrap around shades, in the dead of night something like that is a dead giveaway. The woman’s only a few inches shorter than the man, high cheekbones, splash of bright red hair, tight lips. The two of them wear matching bands on their left hands.

“Marie, we’re so happy that you’re alright. When the Professor said that Sabretooth had caught up to you…”

“Jean,” the man stops her mid sentence and turns to Logan and Marie. “We’re here to offer you sanctuary. A place where Sabretooth and Magneto can’t get to you and-“

“I’ve told you that I don’t want to go.” Marie’s calm when she speaks, but it’s easy for Logan to sense how she’s really feeling. Marie’s considering. The man can sense it too, that she’s wavering.

“Listen Marie, I know that you think you can run from him, but it’s not safe out here. If we can find you then Sabretooth is sure to find you.”

“You don’t think I know that? That’s why Logan is here.” She moves and he can feel her press her hand onto his back, shifting so that she’s more behind him that she was before. The idea of her feeling threatened makes him growl and take a step forward.

The woman is quick to intervene.

“We only want you safe, Marie. That’s all we want. And maybe we can help keep you that way. The Professor and everyone would be able to look out for you, keep track of where everyone is and keep you safe on the grounds of the school.”

He can smell it, that moment when she decides to give them a shot.



They’ve packed their things, Logan leaving his truck and bike someplace safe. He’s not keen on the idea of going back to their school with them, but Marie wants to give it a shot, especially since they seem to have created a safe place for mutants. She’s nervous though, worried that somehow Sabretooth will find them and cause more damage than he’s been.

She clings to him for the entire flight, strapped in right next to him on a bench seat in the plane. It doesn’t take them long to fly from Alberta to Westchester, New York, home of Xavier’s School for the Gifted. When they disembark it’s into a huge sterile room beneath the school.

“If you’ll come this way we can attend to any wounds that you might have and-“

“No,” Marie interrupts her. “I’m fine, all healed up from the fight.”

“But, the Professor said that you had been injured during your fight with Sabretooth. If I could just…” She stops when she sees Marie’s face, when she can tell the girl isn’t going to go with her anywhere.

He squeezes her hand and tugs her along down a hall.

“If you’ll just give me a moment I’ll come with you to show you where to go,” Jean calls after them. It’s Marie’s tug on his hand that causes him to stop. Since he’s been letting her take the lead on this little trip, he concedes.

“We’ll just wait here,” she calls out to the woman. After Jean is gone, the man comes to where they are. Scott Summers, he’d said his name was.

“She won’t be but a moment then we can see about getting you two some rooms and seeing the Professor.”

“One room,” Logan says, his grip on Marie’s hand getting a little tighter. Scott looks to Marie who only nods.

“One room.” She repeats. Her heart rate had accelerated at the mention of being separated from him, and he feels a little surge of pride in that answer. But her heart rate isn’t coming down and he wants to reassure her. “We’ll be fine.” He says to Scott as he pulls Marie off to the side of the hall, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her in tight.

Their bags hit the floor with a loud thump and he finds himself offering comfort to a woman he’s known less than twelve hours. It seems right though, to his way of thinking she’s known him his whole life, what with his memories and personality up there in her head. If she’s willing to cling to him for protection and assurance after knowing every little bit and thing about him, then he’s not going to let her go.

“It’s alright, I gotcha. We’re here and we’re gonna give it a shot but if you wanna go back at any time, just tell me and I’ll get these guys to take us back to where we were.” He holding her tight and pressing her head beneath his chin when the redhead comes back to where they’re waiting in the hall. Scott’s long gone.

“Ready to go and get into your room or do you want to go meet the Professor first?”

Marie hesitates so Logan answers for her. “Take us to our room.”