Take You Home
Logan just froze for a second. Inasmuch as he’d thought this out at all, he hadn’t ever thought of this. One possibility presented itself as a faint hope. “I’m lookin’ for Marie D’Ancanto.”
The blond kid stared at him for a second with open suspicion. “She’s not home. Can I help you?”
That took care of that. He shook his head. “Thanks.” He turned to go.
“Who is it?” It wasn’t Marie’s voice, but it was a woman. He glanced back and was a little startled to see she had green hair. “Bobby? What’s going on?”
“It’s all right. Go on back inside.” The young man put his arm around the woman. Logan’s eyes narrowed at the gesture.
“Wait.” The woman stepped forward, pushing open the screen door. “Are you Logan?”
“Lorna, what are you doing—” The blond kid tried to catch her arm, but she came a step further, out onto the porch.
Slowly, he nodded. “Yeah.”
“You want to come in and wait?” She held the screen door open wider. “Marie’s still at school, but she’ll be back soon. We’re going to go out to eat. She won’t be long.”
Logan hesitated. The blond guy was clearly not on board with the idea of his coming in, but that was almost more of an inducement than otherwise. He nodded abruptly and brushed past the little twerp.
There were suitcases and other impedimenta of travel spread around the living room, and apparently the sofa pulled out into a bed, because it was open, neatly made up. The green-haired woman came up to him.
“My name’s Lorna Dane, and this is Bobby Drake. We went to school with Marie up north.” She seemed to expect him to know what that meant. “At Xavier’s?”
“I don’t think talking about Xavier’s is such a great idea.” Blondie, or apparently Bobby, was glowering. Trying to, anyway.
“Bobby.” Lorna shot him an exasperated look. “It’s all right. He’s one of us.”
Now Logan and Bobby both were surprised. Logan recovered first. “What are you talking about?”
“Xavier’s is a school for mutants,” she said. Logan blinked. There were schools for this kind of thing?
Bobby crossed his arms, still trying to look vaguely threatening. “So how do you know Marie?”
Logan showed him what a glower actually looked like. “Why?” Lorna looked between the two of them and hastily stepped forward.
“Marie said you saved her life,” she said pointedly. Logan saw Bobby’s shocked look and gave Lorna a mental note of approval.
“I’m gonna go wash up. I’ve been driving since about ten o’clock this morning,” he said, and deliberately walked back through the apartment and into the bedroom. He had no idea how much Marie had told this girl, but apparently she hadn’t mentioned enhanced senses—hell, Marie probably didn’t really know about the extent of his mutation—because the conversation that followed was clearly audible to him.
“Who the hell is that guy?” That was Blondie, his sense of masculinity clearly having been challenged.
“She met him last summer. Don’t worry about it, Bobby. She would’ve been furious if you’d sent him away.”
“So how do you know about him and I don’t?”
“She didn’t want to talk about it with you. She told me about him the night you went out with Remy, all right? She just didn’t seem happy, and we kind of had a girl’s night. Just relax, will you? You’ll see, it’ll be all right.”
Logan quit listening in. He went into the bathroom, cleaned up, and put on a fresh shirt from his knapsack. When he came out he walked across to drop his knapsack on the bed. In contrast to the pullout in the living room, her bed still wasn’t made; he was ridiculously pleased at seeing that. Something dark was peeking out from under a pillow and he looked a little more closely. Aw, christ.
It was one of his t-shirts. One he’d apparently missed packing.
He really hoped she got home soon.
He went back out to the other room. Lorna was opening a bottle of wine in the kitchen; Bobby was standing in the living room, still looking disgruntled. The green-haired girl gave him a bright smile. “I thought we could all have a drink while we’re waiting?”
“Is there any beer?”
She put down the corkscrew. “Yeah. I think so.”
Logan walked past her and opened the refrigerator. He tried not to smile and didn’t quite succeed. He reached in and took out a bottle of Molson. “You two go ahead with the wine. I’ll have this.”
Just then there was the sound of a key in the front door, and all three of them more or less froze.
Marie came in, carrying a large portfolio under one arm and her messenger bag, heavily packed, over her shoulder. She didn’t look up at first, in her rush to get everything unloaded. “Sorry I’m so late, you guys, just give me a minute and I’ll be ready to go—”
Logan set the beer down on the counter and stepped into the archway between the living room and the kitchen. “Marie.”
She looked up, and there was another moment where nobody seemed to move. Logan saw her eyes go wide and shocked and he had time to think She looks different. Tired. Then she was running towards him and he caught her up in his arms, drinking in her scent as she clung to him.
“Oh, my god.” She was half laughing, half breathless. “What’re you doing here?”
“Missed you.” He probably wouldn’t have been able to make the admission if she’d been looking at him. He set her down and she still looked stunned, staring up at him with incredulity. Then she seemed to remember her other guests.
“Oh—you met Bobby and Lorna—” She turned. Lorna was picking up a jacket and her purse from the end table.
“Yeah, we met.” The green-haired girl put a hand on Bobby’s arm. “Listen—you guys probably have a lot to talk about, so maybe we can catch up with you later?” She was edging back towards the door.
“Okay. I’ll call you,” Marie said. Lorna nodded and hustled Bobby out; the blond sent one last vaguely suspicious look over his shoulder as he was led away. Marie watched them go and then looked back up at him.
She’d done something to her hair, he realized, dyed a couple of white streaks into it at her temples. He reached up and brushed his fingers over one of the silvery locks. “What’s this? You get tired of painting other stuff?" he asked jokingly.
Her face relaxed into a smile. “I got a little bored, I guess. Wanted a change.” She reached up to her hair self-consciously. “I kinda like it.”
“Looks good on you.” She smiled again and then stepped back.
“So…” She looked really unsure of herself, which made him nervous as well. “My friends are here till Friday.”
He nodded. “Okay. I can stay over at Toby’s.” A flash of something like pain went over her face.
“Well—are you gonna be around after that? I mean—” She hesitated, and he hated that he didn’t know exactly what to do here. She’d missed him too, that much was clear, but in his typical fashion, he really hadn’t thought beyond getting back and seeing her, somehow thinking it would all be as simple as it had seemed during that week in the summer. And it wasn’t simple at all, really; she didn’t really know anything about him and this was a lot different than a few days of vacation time.
He had an idea. “Listen—let’s go get a drink, okay?” Marie looked a little surprised, but she nodded.
“Okay. Let me get a jacket.”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
So Logan's back. But who's at the door?