“You called?”
“Yes, Rogue. Please, sit down,” professor Xavier smiled and waved to the general direction of leather couch. She took the offered seat. Xavier rarely used mental summons, so this had to be important.
“Wolverine is coming in.” Wolverine. A living legend.
“And…”
“Arrange a room for him. Open the old wing. There’s a room at the end of the corridor.” Awfully far from other residents.
“He’s quite distressed, for some reason or another. Just go and make sure there are clean linens, towels and soap. Do not spend any more time in that room than it’s absolutely necessary.”
She understood professor’s instructions. From what she knew, Wolverine was a healer, equipped with inhuman senses. He wouldn’t want any intruding scents floating around in his room.
Corridor of the old wing was dusty and dimly lit. Rooms in there were rarely used. She walked past several doors, until she came to the one professor had wanted her to check in. Keys jingled softly when she opened the lock and pushed the door open. Room was dark, curtains drawn in front of the windows. She suppressed the urge to open them. The less she tampered, better it would go. She placed the towels to the towel rack in the bathroom, bar of soap to the soap dish, and a bottle of lightly scented shampoo to the counter. Bed was already made, and sheets looked clean, so she let it be. She turned to take one last glance of the room, backing slowly out and trying to notice even the smallest thing out of place. Her whole attention riveted to the room she never noticed the man standing behind her. Not before she backed straight against him.
“Watch it.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t notice… Logan?”
Logan. The man she had last seen when she was only six years old. He was standing there, battered backpack slung over his shoulder, looking positively pissed off.
“You’re… You’re Wolverine?” She stammered.
“Yeah. Do you mind? I’m kind of tired…” For a moment she just stared at him. Logan huffed exasperatedly.
“You’re in my way. Move before I move you.” She stepped aside. Logan brushed past her and closed the door with a loud slam, leaving her alone in the corridor.
There had been no sign of recognition on his face. She had been a complete stranger to him. Granted, it had been nearly sixteen years, and she had grown, matured, but now knowing his senses… Shouldn’t he at least have recognized her scent? She had studied biology enough to know that each person had a distinctive, unique scent. Hormones, what that person did and what she ate, where she lived and what kind of clothes that person wore gave a small addition, but basic scent stayed the same during whole lifetime.
“He forgot.”
She managed to reason with herself. She managed to lie to herself almost rest of that evening. She had been just a kid. For whatever reason Logan had been there and protected her, it had been only a job for him. Or something to pass by dull moments.
Then she remembered the way he had hugged her at the airport. How even his voice had trembled slightly. How hard it had been for him to let go when her flight had been called out. For a moment she had thought that he would change his mind and follow her past the gates to the plane. In the end he had stopped in front of the metal detectors, waving her good bye.
“He forgot.”
“His mind is at fragile state. I’d advice you to stay clear from him.” She shrugged out of her thoughts and met professor Xavier’s concerned gaze. Apparently he was as unable to sleep as she.
“At fragile state? What do you mean?” She asked, taking a sip from the hot cocoa.
“He has been away for fifteen years. His memories from those years are at best fragmented and incoherent. I’m going to help him to place them all back together.”
“But why? What happened to him?” She asked. Professor squinted his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“That is none of your concern, Rogue. As long as he stays here, you must stay out of his way. If you need to address him for anything, I would ask you to use his codename instead of the one he revealed to you when you first met.”
“But…”
“Rogue, try to understand. I need memories he has from the past fifteen years. We all need them. We can’t have wrong memories surfacing and pushing them to the back of his mind. If he were to forget what happened while he was away… It would take away the whole meaning and purpose of those fifteen years from him, and for the rest of us, for our cause, it would be a serious setback.”
Cause? Setback? Fragmented? She felt sick. Xavier spoke about Logan like he was nothing more than just a part of machinery, a chip in the computer. Something slightly broken that he was going to mend so that he could be used again. She left the half empty cup of cocoa and the professor to the kitchen and walked out to the back garden. If she didn’t get fresh air soon she was really going to be sick.
She ended up climbing to a tree at the outer perimeter of the garden. For some reason she had always felt safer in higher grounds. Safety meant time. You had time to think things over. Everything was clear.
“Coast is clear, kid.” She turned to look. Familiar scent of tobacco wafted from down below, and she could see the glowing tip of a cigar in the darkness.
“Xavier is partly right. I’m messed up right now.”
“Wolverine?”
“Cut the crap, kid. I gave you my name to keep. Use it.”
“But Xavier said…”
“I heard what he said. I was at the patio.”
“Okay…”
“Could you come down from there? I’d like to see the person I’m talking with.”
“Okay… I’ll just… Fuck.”
“What?”
“I can’t.”
“You have got to be shitting me…”
“Nope.”
“Jump. I’ll catch you.”
“You promise?”
“Cross my heart and hope not to die.”
Again she put her trust and life to the hands of his and let go. His hands wound around her waist and stopped her from falling. She inhaled deeply scents that she had learned to know when she was just a scared little child. Leather. Tobacco. Underneath lurked something new. Burnt blood and metal.
“There are some things that Xavier’s wrong about. I do remember you. Sort of. Took a while to connect you with the kid. You’re all grown up. But I do remember that last night. I remember the airport.” Logan spoke softly; his low and hushed voice turning some syllables almost unrecognizable murmurs. They were sitting at the patio outside of the kitchen.
“And I do remember why I first decided to spend so much time with you. You were my last assignment before I went undercover. I knew this would happen. I knew they would mess up my head. For that I needed somebody who would remember who I was. I needed a reason to get out of there after the mission was over. I needed a trigger.”
“Where did you go? What happened to you?” She placed her hand over his forearm, and he twitched a bit.
“Doesn’t matter. But I got out of there because of you. Because you asked me to come to see you.”
“But I was just a kid!”
“A kid I made a promise for. I don’t go around handing off promises left and right like they meant nothing.”
“Why did you pick me? There are lots of people in here at school who already knew you. Professor Xavier, Jean, Scott…”
“All grownups. With a life expectancy of a pogo-stick tester on a minefield. I needed somebody young who was going to stick around long enough.”
“So… It all was just… What was it?” She asked confused. Somehow she felt used. Exploited. But at the same time strange warmth was making a nest inside of her chest.
“It begun as careful planning. But at the airport… Hell, you weren’t just another job. You were my friend,” Logan huffed and chuckled bitterly.
“Out of all the people in the world… A little girl.”
“I… I really was your friend?”
“Were? We aren’t friends anymore?”
There was a blank look on his face, but for a moment she had seen disappointment and hurt flashing to surface. Friend?
“I think of you as my friend. I always did. But I don’t… You don’t have to feel obligated to…”
“Stop spewing that bullshit, Marie. Being friends is not an obligation. It’s a privilege,” Logan grunted and held out his hand. She took it.
“Friends.”
“Friends,” she affirmed.
“Now that’s settled… Shouldn’t you be in bed already?” Logan asked, taking a drag from the cigar. She stifled a giggle that turned to a huge yawn.
“I guess so. Early morning tomorrow.”
“Xavier keeping you busy?”
“I’m not complaining as long as my salary is in my account at the end of the month.”
“You free for lunch?”
“I usually eat with students and the rest of the staff.”
“I’ll come and pick you up at eleven. There’s this place down the road… At least there used to be. I thought I could check out my old haunts. Professor gave me couple of days off to settle in before he starts prodding my head.”
“Eleven it is.”
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