They tried to ‘enhance’ her Sie called it. Strapped her down to a freezing cold table and cut into her deadly skin. The drugs from the tranquillizer darts thankfully blurred the pain from their tools to a sharp sting, something she was more or less fairly use to. Worst off the bastards dragged her exhausted carcass back to her cell with no ‘enhancements’ what so fucking ever. Unless tightly wrapped bandages going down the full length of her forearms were suppose to make her a more effective killing machine.
As they walked Sgt. Alvin was very tender with her, a gentle grasp on her upper arm and helping her stay up right in the elevator. She had a hard time feeling grateful though, considering his bosses just filleted her like a fish. The Colonel was fairly upset to say the least that she wasn’t holding Sabretooth’s mutation. At the first incisions the red wave began. She always had been a heavy bleeder and would have gladly told them that if they’d just asked. But no, they were caught unawares and rushing around to stop the bleeding, yelling all sorts of profanities at each other. Well, at least she was consistent. Rogue- disappointing authority figures since 1984.
So now she was light-headed from blood loss and her arms aflame and itching from the stupid stitches being escorted back to her home away from home by an army boy who evidently had a sweet spot for her. The dumbass.
The elevator dinged as it touched down and Alvy-boy gently pushed her out. The walk to her cell seemed to take forever but the guards didn’t rush her past her shuffling feet. How very sweet of them. The whole small group patiently waited as Theo stepped forward to unlock the door.
Something red caught her eye and see looked down to the ground. A small pond of red juice was puddle up in front of Wolverine’s cell; he really didn’t seem to like beets. Scattered haphazardly around it she noticed carrots and green beans lying like little casualties on the floor, a small steak another few feet away. She just caught sight of the tray caught in the bars of another cell when she was moving again, being pulled forward into her own.
‘Good,’ she thought. ‘Ah hope tha ass starves ta death.’
Her escort nudged her forward and actually accompanied her all the way to the cot. Any other time it would have been perfect, but now she was in no mood for an elaborate and dramatic escape. She just wanted to sleep for a while. Alvin quickly scurried out after she was seated; evidently he didn’t trust her as much as he liked her. The thought actually was able to make her give a weak smile.
Slowly she eased herself down onto the cot. Shoulder first, then roll over onto back, just like the older mutants at the labs taught. Despite her careful movements she still had to clench her eyes shut to ward off the feeling over her brain banging around and spinning in her head. She heard the door groan and clang shut then feet shuffling down the hall. Good, maybe by the time they get around to bringing her food she’d have enough strength to throw it at her neighbor through the bars.
Just as she was being to let the image of the massive man ducking and being pelted by celery lull her into sleep another groan of poorly oiled metal sounded. She really must be out of it. She didn’t even hear them move back down the hall. ‘Alvy –boy’ she thought in horror. Oh God, if he stayed back and thought he was going to get any kind of special alone time he was in for an unfortunate shock. She might have been too tired to open her eyes but her skin was on high-alert from the minute she saw scalpels.
Heavy footsteps moved closer to her, was he stomping or something? He didn’t seem drunk in the elevator— suddenly no more light was filtering in through her eyelids and she swallowed down the lump of nervousness in her throat. What little energy had went into forcing her eyelids open; wanting to make sure her attacker knew he wasn’t fooling anyone.
And there were clear blue eyes.
“Ya---,” She stuttered, her head suddenly hurting more. “Wolverine?”
He nodded, his face solemn as he looked up and down her body. She ignored his traveling glance, still in shock at the large man leaning over her, filling her whole line of sight.
“What tha hell…What are ya…How tha hell did ya get in here?” She huffed in disbelief, though that really wasn’t the question she wanted to ask.
Keys were dropped onto her stomach, the expression on his face never change. She however busted out into laughter, forced, painful laughter but it was all nearly too much to believe.
“Keys,” she coughed mid-laugh. “Please don’t tell me ya had keys this whole time?”
He shook his head, his eyebrows clinching in.
“Well, good. Ah guess ya ready to leave now, ain’t ya?” She asked and he nodded, bits of jet black hair following into his face. Her arm tried to reach up to smooth them away but it never moved. She groaned, muttered a short profanity. “Sugah, ya got worst timing than vocabulary skills,” one tear slid its way slowly down her cheek. “Ahm not goin’ anywhere. Not for a while.”
He frowned and muttered, “Creed heals.”
She sighed, another person disappointed in her and her mutant abilities. “Yes, he does. And he still is, which means ahm not. Aside from half-crazed ramblin’ and keep tryin’ ta get me ta tell ya ya smell like rabbit shit, he’s gone.”
His top lip lifted in a silent snarl.
“Hey, *ah* didn’t say it,” she countered.
He leaned back, she didn’t notice until then he had been sitting in a crouch beside her cot. ‘No wonder the man has thighs the size of log,’ she thought. But he was no longer looking at her, instead staring off into the direction she assumed the wide open door was. Considering leaving her? Probably, he seemed to be thinking awfully hard based on the way his face was all scrunched up.
Well, there was nothing she could do about it really. She supposed she couldn’t blame him, what with talking up cashmere and all other sorts of wonders from the outside world. She would just have to find her own way another time; it wasn’t like she couldn’t---
“Wait!” She gasped as he reached a hand towards her. He seemed upset, or annoyed, it was hard to tell but he dropped his huge hand down onto the edge of the cot. “Mah skin,” she explained. “Ahm….ahm too wiped out to control it.”
He narrowed his eyes again, looking up and down her body. She could tell what he was thinking. The suit from the labs went only from chest to hips, covering the basics. And aside from the bandages now covering her arms she had a lot of very deadly skin on display.
“Blanket,” he said and immediately began reaching for the edges of the thin-green material she was laying on. He soon had her in a tight cocoon and his thick arms sliding underneath her, separating her from the cot.
He, unlike the good sergeant, wasn’t particularly gentle as he lifted her up. Sort of just bounced her more securely into her arms and she couldn’t stop the cry of pain at the jerking. He didn’t so much as flinch.
“Ya think we can make it with ya carryin’ me?” She asked once her nerves settled.
“No,” he grunted and starting walking. His answer confused her, since he was obviously taking her. But then instead of going towards the only way out once they got pasts the cell door he veered back the other direction. Towards his cell.
“Wolverine—“
“Quiet,” he snapped and brought her into the shadows.
She panicked. It would have been a lie to tell herself she wasn’t. She was scared and confused and damn it, she was having a very rough day.
Above her head she heard him sniff, then growl softly. It did sort of smell kind of funny, but---
“Stop,” he commanded and she was even more confused. He had her in his arms and wrapped tightly in an army issued blanket. She wasn’t doing anything. She couldn’t do anything even if she wanted to.
“You’re scared,” he pointed out, just standing there holding her like she weighed nothing. Damn he was strong…
“No, ahm…” ‘Yes!’ “ahm just confused, sugah. What exactly are we doing here?”
“Waiting,” he supplied.
If she could just get him to speak in full sentences, things would go much more smoothly. She was sure of it. “Waiting on what?”
“You.”
“Me?” She asked surprised. He nodded then bounced her in his arms again. She grunted at the pain but understood his explanation that time, waiting for her to heal, to be able to walk her own sorry ass out of here. And okay, he got points for the blanket idea and double for the keys, wherever he managed it get them from but the notion was stupid. Best case scenario it might take her just a couple of days to recover from the amount of blood loss. Somehow she didn’t think the chances of the guards or someone not checking on them for several days was slim to none.
“We can’t wait that long,” she informed him, wishing he would put her down somewhere already. “Mah healin’ time is too slow compared to their paranoia. Hmm.. maybe if—“
He was ignoring her that much she could tell so she just shut up. He was, however, carrying her further into his shadows. It was sort of amazing; she had to admit, to be there. Being in the darkness made her feel…closer to him, she supposed. This seemed like a silly notion considering she was curled against his chest. But it felt like she was a part of his darkness, his shadows, and it wasn’t as scary being inside it then looking in on it and only seeing intense blue eyes.
In fact, her eyes were starting to adjust. She could make up the mangled sink and plumbing, there was a fairly deep hole dug in the floor. “What is..” she squinted, noticing something gleaming in the far corner and a huge lump beside it. Maybe it was his bed. Or.. “Oh mah gawd! Is that a body?!” She partly screamed, partly hiccupped.
Vacant eyes wide open, staring at her. A distinctive blotch on his chest she had a good guess what it was. Wishing she had never seen the gruesome thing she buried her face into Wolverine’s chest to try and make it go away.
“Keys,” he mumbled and she could feel the vibrations on his chest wall.
“Yeah, sugah, ah figured,” she talked into his chest.
Now that she knew what it was that funny smell from earlier made her retch in her throat. It wasn’t that she blamed him for it, killing and death couldn’t mean the same thing to him as it did to her. But the body was just *lying* there, leaning up against a damn food cart.
He growled-no, grumbled, and it was an interesting feeling against her cheek. Then they were moving again, but still she didn’t look but. At this point he could do and take her wherever he wanted, she trusted him. She just didn’t want to see it. A second later he bent, completely surrounding her again for a short time before her butt was on something fairly soft. She risk cracking open her eyes, careful to only look underneath her. A pillow. He eased her back an inch and there was the wall, hard against her back. The sink was beside her, she could tell, but didn’t want to look because she knew what was just past it.
Then his imposing presence was gone and that definitely caught her attention. Her eyes frantically searched for him in the dark. Unfortunately she found him- heaving the body up and recklessly depositing it on top of the cart. Most of the body dangled off the edges.
“Oh Gawd,” she groaned, quickly turning her head away. ‘Concentrate,’ she told herself. Concentrate on getting out and not the corpse…or what that new squeaky noise was. Escape. How was she going to get them out when she was in no condition to do anything?
Wolverine was back, if the sudden increase in the darkness in front of her was any indication. Looking up at him she wondered what he was watching her for, he was studying her face quite thoroughly. She looked away, not really sure what she was looking for but what she found made her smile. The body was gone. This time she actually looked for it, peered behind him. Nowhere.
She smiled up at him. “Thanks.”
He nodded and eased himself to sit on the ground in front of her, moving very graceful in spite of his size. She had an idea, really there only solution, and started to tell him when she stopped short. He was lifting something to his face, the steak.
“Ew!” She squealed, wrinkling up her nose. “That was on tha floor!”
Damn him if he didn’t immediate rip a large chunk out of the piece of meat with his teeth, swallowing it whole. A slight twinkle in his eye as he did it made her laugh.
“Ah hope ya healin’ covers bacterial infections,” she manage to get out through her soft giggling. He smirked at her and through the rest of the steak in, his jaw moving in large circles as he chewed. “Good,” she went on, hoping to feed off his evident good mood. “Can ah barrow some of it?”
His chewing stopped and he swallowed the mass whole.
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