Charles watched as the news ticked by on the large screen in front of the gathered senators, he was there by invitation and they knew exactly who had broken into the facility that was now splashed all over the screen. Keeping his calm demeanour as the ticker tape at the bottom of the screen rolled by, telling the numbers of cities that were now rioting. Their mutant populations finding support with the general human population as the awful truth came out, the screen flickered, showing pregnant women with scared faces being fired on by american soldiers.
A senator whispering ‘My God,’ another’s thoughts were betraying him as he tried to remember if his son had been re-posted before this attack. The screen suddenly went blank as the president entered the room, looking tired and old a very different picture of the man who’d promised to build bridges between the two differing communities of humanity.
His tired eyes dragged around the senators and fell finally on Charles himself, a spark of anger lodged deep inside his mind flaring slightly as he looked toward his seated figure. “Good you’re all here. Now what can we do to calm this mess?” No one answered, nothing was thrown out onto the floor and the faces of the gathered senators was stony, the exasperated voice of the president rang around the oval room. “Are you suggesting then by your own silence you expect this to be handled by troops?”
One man was foolish enough to open his mouth to confirm the good sense of this action when the president jumped on the movement. “Harry? You’d like me to send troops down into North Carolina? Let them calm the situation down in your part of this mess?”
His body was beginning to shake as he moved over toward the large and slow senator who was well known for his views on the ‘mutant problem’. He tended to think long and slow before opening his mouth but this time he launched into a tirade that wasn’t well thought out.
“Why the hell not! Ah mean people need to see us taking back the streets, we’re bein’ hammered out there! Why can’t we let the garrison’s sort this mess out Phillip, ah mean that’s what we pay the goddamn bills for anyway!” The president didn’t answer him but an aide did, the words he used were small and easily understood by the slow witted senator.
“Because that would mean a declaration of Martial Law in your state Harry, and if you think we’ve got trouble now…..” The rest of the unspoken sentence hung in the air between them all, the charge of anger was building and Charles decided to act.
“There are those who would use the deployment of troops to their own advantage Senator Gall, both mutant and human.” The hot gaze of the senator dropped onto his form and Charles felt the hatred wash over him, he was a bigot but an honest one, he didn’t have the guile to hide what he felt.
“We all know your take on this, bet you’re as happy as a pig in wallow right now aren’t ya? All those ‘people’ out there damaging resources and business’s that have taken years to build up.”
Charles didn’t rise to the bait but he did notice the level of attention on him rise as he answered the barb directed both at him and his ‘kind’.
“No Senator I’m not happy at all, if anything I believe this has put us all back at least a year on relations. What the media did was inexcusable, they put people and mutants at risk by showing this tape to the most volatile sections of both our societies. What has come from this has been from the extreme ends of our own sides, not the majority and if we react like they want us to we will only confirm their views in the undecided of both sections. At the moment I’m trying to get community leaders to help out where they can in their own districts. Helping both communities by pulling together not apart, putting in troops will only exacerbate the problems.”
His voice was calm, the words solid as they fell onto the silence that had filled the oval room, turning to the screen that had been blank he nodded to the white haired beauty that was stood unnoticed in a corner until now. She moved with a feline grace that had many men in the room looking her over and finding someone they’d like to tame. Putting a gold disc into the machine she pulled back and showed the assembled group the screen as it flickered back into life. Charles voice was heard just before the voice began on the screen, “This was given into one of our safe houses by a ‘carrier’. We have no idea where it came from but I believe you need to see the information before you make any decision gentlemen.”
The face was familiar to most of the senior men in the room, Martin Carter, the ex-head of the secret service faced the camera. The way he looked on the screen was a man who knew he wasn’t long for the world and he needed to clear his conscience before it killed him. A deep voice rang out across the room, “Get Chambers in here, I want him to see this.” A door opened and a security man slipped out to bring the new secret service head here to the meeting.
The first few minutes were Carter giving his thoughts on what was happening outside the knowledge of the government funding this facility. He spoke of the re-assignment of troops, of people going missing to and from the facility, of the women brought in their state and the information he’d managed to gather as to where and how they’d been recruited.
The door opened again just as Carter was getting to the ‘Donor’, even he was looking around the small office on screen as he laid out the information he’d had on him. Charles watched Chambers face drop as the words echoed around the room, “Records show that the man known as ‘Wolverine, file number 454-25-243’ is the main sperm donor of the experiment. His file has been requested from the Alkali Lake facility by the head here, a Dr. Ursell. The file has been cleared by Director Chambers, his signature is on the first page.” The file was held upto the camera for perusal, the screen filled with it for a second then pulled back to show Carter’s drawn face.
“I’ve tried to gain access to the secure files on the subject but I’ve been denied it by Dr Ursell, lucky for me I know how to bypass my own security. The file shows a concerted effort by the last administration to find a solution to the ‘mutant issue’, the entire project was run by a conglomerate of scientists, they’re not named in any normal sense, just by numbers. The subject ‘Wolverine’ was a mutant taken and programmed to be a perfect killing machine, the conditioning he underwent was believed to have caused a split personality. When fighting this meant he did a mainly two pronged attack, in testing Wolverine would kill anything in his path, animal, human or mutant. If he was injured mortally he would lie low, wait to heal and finish the mission he was programmed with. His main programme was to hunt out and kill any mutant he found, basically a ‘final solution’ wrapped up in metal armour on his skeleton if the file is to be believed.”
The face of Carter was serious as he faced the room filled with rapt faces once again, “If he manages to escape here I’ve no idea where he’ll go or what he’ll do but looking at his track record I’d be looking behind me all the way to the moon. They made the perfect killer, thing was they couldn’t control him, hence the program here. He was too vicious, too feral, he’d kill everything and not differentiate between friend and foe, thing is there are notes on him from 1944, from Klagenfurt, Austria. Written in German I can’t translate them but they’ll be added to the data on here, looks like our boy has been in other hands than our own for longer than we realised.”
A sound much like gunfire was heard on the screen and Carter’s face flicked to the side, fear etching deep lines in the craggy face. The door opened and a young voice was heard asking Carter to put the camera down and to accompany him. He did so and placed it so the camera could see the young soldier pointing the gun at him, the conversation between them was kept at a minimum but the ending was always sure in Charles’s mind. The young man was felled quickly his head snapping back as Carter snapped the thin neck, the body landing next to the camera. The gold insignia looming large in the lens, picking up the camera Carter spoke hurriedly, “These guys have been infiltrating the garrison since I got here, Sir….., Phil if you get this and by God I hope you do, get any of these guys out of your personal guard. Whoever they’re working for it isn’t you, what is it they say, ‘Administrations come and go but the machinery keeps going?’ Well Phil, these guys are part of the machinery, I’ve copied the files onto this disc so you should get everything I know.”
Sustained gunfire was now drowning out his words and the camera shook as it was picked up. “Gotta go Phil, say hi to Carol for me, never did get to see her ride Victory.” The tight smile was all he left them with as the screen went blank again, Ororo opened the drawer of the machine and took the gold disc directly to the President. Stiff backed he took the disc out of her hand, his eyes locked onto the small golden round in his hand.
Charles had been scanning the emotions of the room as the disc played, several were unsure, incredulous almost as the thing had gone on but Chambers had been calm, upto the piece where the solider had come in and been dispatched with efficiency. Then his fear had begun to spiral, his face had locked onto the President’s own, eyes narrowing when he’d seen his own face watching his reactions to the situation. Still keeping his gaze on Charles, Chambers spoke up to the quiet room, “Sir I think we need to discuss this matter privately, we need to clear the room and get some damage control on this before it spirals out of our sphere of influence.”
Charles had to hand it to the President, he was calm, controlled as he turned to look at his security chief, it covered the turmoil he was feeling underneath and his voice was loud enough to carry past the room into the waiting room beyond.
“Oh you do, do you? What else is there that I don’t know about Chambers? Just what the hell am I involved in here?” Chambers was still, his body tense but controlled. “The damn disc was handed to me by someone who has survivors of the damn facility Chambers! A pregnant woman no doubt,” he looked over to the serene face of Ororo who just inclined her head to the affirmative. “ A woman who’d been impregnated by this doctor who’d decided to breed himself a little army of these things, of these ‘Wolverine’s’.”
Charles felt the first threads of fear run through him, where was the President taking this, he looked to Ororo who had her own nerves showing by now. “Get me a damn computer in here NOW! I want to know what else is on this disc and everyone, I do mean everyone in this room is going to read it with me! If I’m going to go down I want an audience to tell the world I didn’t know anything about the damn thing before today! Chambers you’re staying put until I know exactly what you’ve been doing in my name and what you’ve released on the world.”
He moved quickly to the red telephone on his desk, picking up the receiver he spoke quickly and sharply, barking orders out. When he’d finished he turned to the assembled faces, some white and pale, others calm and secure. “Well gentlemen we’ll be here for the duration, there will be no troop deployments, only civil authorities. Make your calls gentlemen but make it quick, I’m not in the mood for waiting.”
Ororo plucked out the small phone and dialled quickly, Charles watched Chambers doing the same, reading the thoughts that were skimming through his mind as he spoke, images of hunting and killing were filling his mind. Coming to a close as the image of the President lain dead at the hands of Wolverine only to be brought down by a hail of bullets drifted through his consciousness. Chambers locked gazes with Charles for a second and a corpse like gaze swept over his own, the coldness in it making Charles shiver internally. The game had just been upped a notch and he communicated that to Ororo who turned her back to everyone and continued her call using code words that had been in place for months. He just hoped the school would be safe while he was absent, he had to trust those he’d trained but even he had his doubts.
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The house was just as the picture had led them to believe, the sun was beginning to set behind the mountains casting the valley into shade, the large plane seeming out of place in the green valley. Hank had carried the bulk of their supplies into the house, opening the door with a set a keys that had a small copper fob with them. He swiped the fob through a set of dark plates before he used the keys, his tone rushed as he spoke to Marie, “It’s a latent security measure, it releases a type of gas throughout the entire house, it knocks you out for a day or so but it also trips an alarm back at the mansion via satellite. So any unwelcome visitors get a surprise and us on the doorstep within six hours.”
Logan was stood outside with the baby, his eyes on the tree line in the distance, the relaxed look in his gaze making her fears subside for a while. The other two helpers brought things inside, switched on the lights, turned on the solar panels and the water pump, after just under an hour they were getting ready to leave them behind. Logan hadn’t even looked at the house yet, he was too busy watching the birds circle above in the cold thin air. Hank joined Marie as she watched the two of them stood in the foreground of the valley as if they’d always belonged here.
Hanks words cut through the dream and made the reality stark for her, “I don’t know how long you’ll be able to stay here Marie, there’s too much going on for us to come at a moments notice but there’s a communicator inside.” Her face turned to see the large doctor looking at Logan and the way the held his son upto the sky, as if he was showing him to the world. “It’s a bit like a radio crossed with a computer, just switch it on if you need anything and someone will answer it. I don’t know what happened to you both there, I have an idea of some of it and it makes this even harder to do.” Marie reached out to his covered arm, making the large head look toward her, care and concern raised high in his gaze. “It’s about Logan,” she could sense the reluctance in his tone as Logan turned toward them both, the other two helpers walking back to the plane. “He’s been institutionalised Marie, they’ve done things to him that make me wonder about leaving you here with him…” Marie’s gaze made the words die in his throat as Logan met them, the small child settled comfortably in his fathers arms. Reaching out to Logan’s face Marie let herself smile feeling a little more relaxed as she heard the engines fire up on the plane.
“Ah already know doc, he showed me, when ah touched him back in the facility, he showed me.” Hank looked at the small family and the protective air that was building around Marie from Logan.
“If you need anything….”
“Yeah ah know the computer thingy, we’ll be fine. Ah’ve got Logan to protect me, what more could we need?”
Logan then took her arm and pulled her to the house, knowing he’d want to explore every nook and cranny with her, his need to know the territory uppermost in his mind. A small purr rumbling out into the cooling air as they went inside the open house, Hank looked back at the couple once before putting his thoughts to bed. If anything were to happen they’d be half a continent away and getting to them quickly would be nearly impossible, there were others who needed his help and they were waiting back at the school. The calm gaze of Marie stayed with him all the way home, as if her soul had been bared to his gaze for a moment. That she was capable of coping with whatever came upon them both, his mind still wondered how well she would cope when the baby would begin to teethe, they had a few rocky months ahead of them out here in the middle of nowhere. Autumn was only a couple of months away, then winters harsh grip could crush life from anything up here.
Hank made a note on the onboard computer to come back in three months to check on their progress and the babies. He’d have to come by a different route next time though, the blackbird may be fast but it was expensive to use like this. House calls made in the X-Men jet wasn’t on his budget but it made him smile when he thought about the expenses that would make Warren choke. Sleep stole across Hank’s mind as he settled back into his seat, the squawk of Jubilee’s music reaching his sensitive ears. The world maybe falling apart but Jubilee’s taste in music never changed and it made his dreams sweeter for the comforting sound it filled his mind with.
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Logan hadn’t wanted to interact with them, not that he didn’t want to believe it was real, that they were being given this place to live in for a while, it was the thought that someone actually cared for him. Someone apart from Marie was thinking about his well being, he knew instinctually that Marie would care for him, the way she’d held onto him, supporting herself as well as him when they’d faced the people when they’d woken up.
The two other’s who’d come along with them had been quiet but their movements had spoken volumes for them both, the way they moved with casual ease and strength. They’d been trained, they knew how to move, how to fight, how to dodge a blow before it fell, he’d seen it when they’d joked with each other as they’d gone back to the plane. Their uniforms were well used, the stiff leather worn in places, the seams stretched and soft, whoever they were they knew where they were and for how long.
He’d scanned the terrain and he knew that the chances of them getting out of the valley with the baby before autumn were scarce to none. The cold winds were coming from the north already and the geese that had been flying above told him that bad weather was on the way, if not today then tomorrow. No, they had to stay put till spring and that meant getting to know the area around them as well as he possibly could. Hank the doctor had given him a clue back in New York, he’d told them it had been years since anyone had been up here. Years for trails to change, for new growth to obscure old landmarks, if they were having to stay here then he’d make it the most secure place he could, even from those he was taking it from.
A memory had surfaced in his mind, an old man raising a child to the sky, his features worn and skin burned brown by the sun. There was nothing but the wind around him and the gentle rolling hills laid out underneath them, he hadn’t said a word, just raised the child upto the sky. The child resting safe in the grip stayed still and made no sound, a moment passed and the child was returned to the bosom of the old man, the smile on his face illuminating the world. He couldn’t remember if it was something he’d seen in his life, or from somewhere else but it felt right to him to do this now.
Holding his child in both hands, he raised the small new born toward the evening sky, the darkness just beginning to tinge one side a darker blue. Holding him aloft to the vast bowl of the sky, unaware of the eyes that were watching him, letting his own heart tell him when the moment had passed. A calm settling into his bones as he pulled the small child back into his arms, turning back to the mother of his child, seeing the concerned gaze lock onto his own.
She felt for him, knew there were things on his mind, things he wouldn’t be able to acknowledge never mind talk about. Yet she seemed able to forgive him these things, to just accept him as he was, sensing him and reacting to what he needed from her. It was easy with her and that was one thing that made him nervous, if it was this easy for her how had she known to act the ways he needed her to?
It would wait for a while, he needed to check out the home they were going to live in, moving back to her he took her arm and pulled her toward the house. She was his now, it was more than simple possession, it was a truth and he needed her to understand that. When she finally came with him he purred his contentment to her and the baby in his arm, her smile was bright as they walked into their new home, his only hope was that it didn’t fade when they began to understand each other. It was a lot to ask of her and she had enough of him in the tiny child she’d carried for nine months.
Shutting the door on the encroaching dark Logan held his breath for a moment closing his eyes as he made a memory out of the moment of perfection. Of the child in his arms, of the beauty he had by his side and the home he was about to explore, making it a place of light in his mind, no matter how things turned out he had this to keep him sane through it all. This was *real* and he would keep the memory lodged deep where they would never find it if they ever caught him again, he would have this to remind him he was human and that someone cared for him.
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Richards had spent the last four months moving from safe house to safe house, crawling his way across the country. The shit had come down from above like he thought it would, he’d been close to being caught twice in his long absence. Once when he’d managed to contact Carter, they must have been scanning the bandwidths to catch his communication. They caught Carter but not him, the old man looked relieved when he’d seen the faces of the men who’d come to pick them up, he’d known them all but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t be in a ditch few miles down the road with no face left to recognise. Richards had just waited until dark to move away, his nerves were taut but he wasn’t going to die just yet.
His second mistake had been to go into Nevada, the damn place was crawling with spook’s, agency men and police looking to make a name for themselves. The plan had been to get into the outer suburbs where the main lot of safe houses were, to use them as he went across the large sprawling expanse of city that covered the desert. Thing was he didn't expect to be recognised by an ex-detainee, the guy had been on the phone immediately to his handler telling him all about the ‘harassment’ he was suffering at the hands of the agent who’d brought him in and what were the Fed’s going to do about it?
He’d had to leave most of his survival stuff behind on that one, he still bemoaned the loss of his sleeping bag because of that feeble minded idiot. The screech of cars had been the only clue he’d had before he’d flung himself out of his warm hiding spot into a cold Nevada night clutching his half emptied rucksack and firing the small blue ford into life before losing himself in the stream of traffic heading out of Nevada. So, he’d headed into Arizona going north instead of following his training to go south when winter was approaching, they knew what he’d be doing and why if Carter had made it back to Washington alive. There were priorities and one of his was to make sure that the girl had survived, he didn’t know where to start looking but he had to try before he gave in entirely and left the country for good.
All throughout his travels he’d kept up with current events, the newspapers had been filled with the thing, the entire mutant question had been exploded open by the facility being found. What was being done to the women there and why, it hadn’t been released by the government oh no, it had been the families of the women who’d survived and still had people to help them. Several children had been born but had died soon after birth, their immune systems not capable of coping with the bacteria that covered our skin.
It was in the second month that the other clinics had been revealed, the true extent of the program had then come to light and that was when the pro-human argument had stepped up their campaigning. The earnest faced men telling the rest of their blinkered flock that the mutant was an aberration of nature that needed to be ‘cured’. To be ‘studied’ so that the rest of humanity could be safely protected from their taint, most of them tended to be right wing Christians although they’re were a few right wing Muslim clerics there too. The irony of it all made him smile, the two opposing sides of God’s army finally agreeing on something, pity it had to be the death of a different people to make them finally agree.
Thing was he didn’t know which side he was coming down on, sure he knew the reactions to most mutants would always be dangerous, hell he knew human nature as much as the next man did. What humans fear they destroy, he’d been trying to get into the mutant underground but the men and women who worked for the small groups weren’t looking to help strangers. Especially strangers who were obviously looking for someone; it had been her eyes that had come back to him. The way they’d widened at the sight of his weapon held in his hand, the fear in her gaze as if she’d finally realised that she’d made a mistake trusting him. That had ripped into him more than his other nightmares had, that he’d failed her, she was becoming something more than an obligation or mission to him; she was becoming a saviour. If he could find her and find out where she went then he’d have a starting point instead of dodging every spook in the lower 48.
His break came hanging around a soup kitchen in Lubbock Texas, the group was a mix of mutant and human but there was a copper haired kid handing out flyers to everyone. He took one as he waited in line for the thin soup that passed for charity our here under the big skies. The flyer was for a meeting, mutants and humans working together to make the world a better place, a way to come out of the fear that was surrounding them all. He watched the small copper haired kid dodge the eyes of the soup kitchens priest, seeing the kid actually change shape to someone else, effectively hiding in the crowd of lost and lonely. Looking at the small crumpled flyer in his hand Richards knew this was his best bet yet, moving to the front of the line he took the small handout he’d been queuing for nearly two hours for. Concentrating on the food he ate quickly, his eyes never leaving the now dark skinned man that had once been a copper haired kid. He’d follow him and see exactly where the kid led him, maybe there was something in this meeting he could use to find her.
The spoon in his hand dropped into the empty tin bowl, clattering loudly bringing attention to himself, he quickly covered the error by coughing loudly and holding the flyer to his mouth. Nearly everyone here was sick in some form or another, his motions were ignored along with the sound of many others. Shuffling off his bench seat Richards went to wait for his flyering friend, the thin soup barely giving him the energy to stand. But he would, he’d wait and he’d follow no matter where they took him he’d follow, even if it led to hell itself.
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Hank was exhausted, over the last few weeks more and more people were coming to the mansion, every room was now filled with eight people; whole families were sharing with students. Teachers were billeted together, but it was only a stop gap; before long they had to move more out of here and Hank knew it. They’d been lucky when the outbreak of flu had hit last month, it’d raged through the entire school. He’d stacked as many as he could in the infirmary but eventually he’d had to open up the quarantine floor as well, luckily the patients who went down there were too far gone in fever to even notice the amount of extra equipment down there. Thing was the weather had turned to a full winter now, kids and adults alike were suffering from the close confines of the school and the cross mutation of the various diseases they were bringing with them. Hank would be lucky if they didn’t have an all out plague on his hands soon, plus that he was now on his own. Seeing as Jean was out somewhere in New York State trying to find accommodation for the families that were in direst need and could blend into the population.
Charles hadn’t left him much room for manoeuvre in anything and his nerves were beginning to fray, when he had time to himself he often thought about Marie and Logan all the way out there in the middle of nowhere. Hank knew it would be impossible to go and see them any time soon but there was something irritating him, something about the two of them alone without any support.
He’d seen the injuries of those that had come here, they were quiet about who’d hurt them but the imprints of night-sticks were obvious. The police had done this to them, men and women whose only crime had been to look different. If that was the case then how were Logan and Marie holding up in North Dakota, he’d checked on the internet what was happening in the major cities but he’d been too busy to even think about the rest of the country.
Wiping his large hand down his face he didn’t see Jubilee until she handed him a plate, “Here Hankster, get some food down you before you come down with the heebie-jeebies.” Hank looked at the dark eyes searching his own rich amber, her smile was rare these days, she’s collected too many sorry souls running from somewhere that used to be home to them. She looked so grown up, so aged by the last few weeks, taking the laden plate from her grip he just smiled at her; putting it down on the tables surface.
“Thank you Jubilee, I’ve not had time to eat yet,” her face went to the clock on the wall, raising her perfect eyebrows as she answered him.
“Well that makes a new record then……fifteen hours an’ twenty seven minutes since seeing you stumbling around in the kitchen at six this morning.” Her gaze was locked onto his own as she sat down next to him, the tears in her uniform only now becoming clear as she moved and stole a fry from his plate. Concern filled his face as he put his large hand on her shoulder, Jubilee flinched away from the gentle contact, her lips pulling tight as she hissed in pain.
“Jubilee….” She just raised a hand and stood up, her small frame looking fragile, her features wan and pale. Holding onto his shoulders as she breathed in; the pain obvious on her, ribs that were pulsing and aching as she took breath.
“Hank, I’ll live. Eat first then come and see me over there,” her hand waving behind her where the few empty beds were. She pulled his face closer to her own, “Look I’m not going anywhere and I’ll probably be dancing again in a week. What you need to do is look after number one for a moment Hank, what’ll we do if you collapse huh? Send out for the Ice Queen?” Her smile made it to her eyes and she let him go, patting his large face before moving off to the empty beds, her wincing movements filling his ears and gaze.
The food went down well, making him feel more awake and alive than he had all week. Jubilee was strapped up and made to rest down here just for observation, one night wouldn’t kill her and she looked like she could do with the calmness of the med bay for a few hours. Upstairs people were staring to get ready for a Christmas that they really didn’t feel like celebrating but it was a hope they were all hanging onto.
Charles was rarely here, leaving messages and orders through Ororo, and they were having a hard time in Washington just trying to convince people not to react with their hind brains. Of course Magneto was out there as well, trying his best to pull every other mutant to his side, working the underground shelters, the soup kitchens, everywhere there were lost and frightened people. He gave them a choice, to join him in his dream of setting up a place where mutants could live freely, to be what they were without fear of reprisal or hatred. To segregate themselves from the rest of humanity, to eke out a living somewhere in the world and live in peace.
Thing was Erik knew it wouldn't work out that way, to settle anywhere they had to displace someone else and that meant fighting. Several families had come to the mansion without a few members of their own, lost to Erik’s dream that was nothing but shadow play. People would die in his cause and that was the only tragedy, the truth was even Hank believed that Charles’s way would lead them nowhere fast. Hearts and minds would be turned by the men on the street not those in power and The Brotherhood was already out there while they were trying to save as many as they could and were drowning in the process.
Hank did his rounds of the beds, checking on those that were sleeping, seeing to the medication of those that needed it. Working his way back upstairs to the living area he’d carved out for himself in front of the large fireplace in the den. The fire was still burning into embers when he got there, someone had left him a packet of twinkies on his blanket, an obvious thank you from someone he’d helped. Taking the sweet treat in his hands he tore open the packaging, letting the sweet scent fill him before he tore into them. Mouth watering he bit into the first one as his eyes dragged over the frosted window panes at the other end of the den. The snow blowing into drifts and flurrying across the gardens, the stark relief of the bare forest making him wonder how Logan and Marie were coping in the wilds. The cabin had enough for winter he was sure of that but how was the baby? Finishing his treat Hank bedded down he’d try to contact them tomorrow if he had time, maybe by then the storm would have passed over. Finally closing his eyes Hank let himself dissolve into the bedding he had wrapped around him, relaxing the weight of the house off his broad shoulders. He hoped for dreams as sweet as the sugary remains still in his mouth but he doubted they would be.
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Routine, always routine. Every single night the same routine, Marie watched Logan check and re-check every single door, every window, every crack in the cabin. Setting the security system and testing it before re-setting it and finally going with them both to bed, she didn’t complain, didn’t think it was funny, she understood it.
He was being cautious, careful, guarding her and his son, settling her first in the large bed and him sleeping beneath it. The room he’d chosen wasn’t the ones upstairs he’d chosen the large closet under the stairs for them. Upstairs the beds were turned down and what looked like people were sleeping in them but it wasn’t them. He’d only slept up there once and they both hadn’t liked the open feeling it gave them, even the baby hadn’t settled down until they’d gotten themselves under cover. Something defensible.
It was instinct, nothing more nothing less, Marie knew she had to explain it to him why she was so happy to comply with his wishes, as if her understanding of his motives sometimes left him stunned and surprised. She’d attempted several times to talk to him, to tell him about her gift and what he’d given her but he seemed so distant when they finally got some time to be together.
The days they had he’d spend hunting, foraging, trapping in the vast forest around them, she knew he’d made defences all around the cabin, every approach was rigged in someway or another. She’d occupied herself with cleaning the cabin, cooking and looking after their son; he was a healthy child, growing quickly and putting weight on well.
A happy child he had the colouration of his father but her temprement, he slept well, his first grumblings of his teeth were coming and even without her books she knew it was early. Hearing Logan's booted feet coming closer she shuffled herself closer to the back wall of the understairs, giving him more room to take off his boots.
He looked settled tonight as if the storm outside had given him some respite from the fear of being snuck up on. The wind was to much to fly in, the blizzard cut down visability and the wind chill would freeze anything trying to come across the open space toward the cabin. The small tilly lamp he used was set down next to the bed his gaze going over their son first then going to her own soft features. He didn't say much, over the last few months he'd been quiet more often than not, even when he'd spoken the words he'd used were clipped and small. She'd made her mind up, it would be tomorrow, she'd start talking to him tomorrow, she had to, Christmas was coming and she needed to know somethings about him before she invested anymore of her feelings for him.
A part of her had been questioning her about all of this, about her easy accpetance of him and his claim on her. He hadn't made a sexual move toward her at all, as if just having her there with him was enough for him right now. Her own needs though were another thing entirely, when she breastfed her body would sometimes react to the stimulus leaving her frustrated and confused. She'd read about it in her books but she'd thought it was something that didn't happen or wouldn't happen to her. Only once had Logan seen her like that, her face all flushed as her son was sleeping on her chest. He'd tensed up for a second his eyes taking in her wide eyes and the small form at her chest before leaving for nearly a day. He'd come back dog tired and had slept like the dead, they had to start somewhere and she needed to talk to him.
Watching his back as he undressed, throwing off the clothes he wrapped himself in as he turned toward her in the small bed. His body shielding them both from the room behind the solid door he'd pulled closed. Seeing his smile warm his eyes before he placed a gentle kiss on their sons head and one on her own before wrapping his bulk around them. Closing her eyes Marie knew this peace wouldn't last forever but she'd take as much as she could while they had it.
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