Four days later...
“Just,” Rose frowned as she looked over him. “Just come here.”
She licked her fingers and tried to slick back the long black hair hanging in his face. Thanks to the grease already in it, most of it stayed in place. But then the dirt smudged across his nose and cheeks became more evident.
“Oh, you poor thing,” she sighed and licked her fingers again to attack the grim. He stood there silently, his eyes fixed on the group of houses behind the trees.
“Now, listen to me,” she said as she straightened his shirt. “This is the last town, right by the coast. I shouldn’t think we’ll have to go any further. Oh, are you even paying attention?”
His cloudy blue eyes settled down on her, although he remained stoic.
“We’re going to tell them we’re from Prince Rupert and we left because...” she stumbled, her mind running a blank. “Oh! I can’t do this! Ugh!!” She shook her head, and took a deep breath. “Okay, we’ll tell them we’re Rose and–and—Logan. Rose and Logan Smith.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You said my name was James.”
Her face softened and she took his hand. “It’s not safe to be James right now.”
“Logan,” he tried the name out loud.
“There you go. Good,” she patted his hand. “We’ll tell them we’re siblings and that–that our family lost our home in a fire.”
He wasn’t looking at her again, his eyes were back to scanning the point beyond the trees.
“Oh, let’s just go.”
She grabbed the horse’s reins and started walking forward, out of the woods and into the clearing. He followed behind the horse. The landscape was nothing like the gentle rolling hills of Northern Alberta. The little town was nestled amongst tall, jagged stones and mountains just in the distance, casting their shadow over the comparatively tiny wooden structures.
The way into town was easy to distinguish. One dirt road ran down the center, making three nearly perfectly straight rows of buildings, road, buildings.
She had no idea where she was going in the tiny mountain town, yet somehow her feet had a very distinct direction in mind. It had been days since either of them ate anything and she assumed they were pulling her towards that wonderful beef smell.
Tucked perfectly in the straight line was a shorter wooden building, though it was probably twice as wide. Men came in and out of it. Not just men, huge monsters of men who’s skin was gleaming and red from either sun or dust (not that it mattered which). Their muscles were as big as their heads and their thighs shared a similar affliction, making them waddle as they walked.
Fear scratched at the inside of her throat with dryness, but she pressed herself on, pulling the horse to towards two other waiting ones at the tie ups in front of the building.
“Logan,” she called as she reached her hand out. It surprised her how easy it was to call him that. “Come on now, stay behind me.” He made no move towards her, just dark, cloudy blue eyes fixed out her, so she had to grab his hand herself.
She took a last breathe before she pushed the door open and stepped inside. The last, quick shot of oxygen appeared to be a good thing considering how dense the air was with thick, grey smoke. It bellowed around the men as they lounged around tables, huge mugs of beer sat in front of them and not a single ash tray in sight.
Beside her she heard Logan sniff, a big deep breath. “No, no!” She chided him, waving her hand in front of his face to reduce to the cloud. “Oh! Don’t breathe in too deep; this stuff is bad for you.”
He squinted his eyes at her but she was already moving forward, looking for someone, anyone who would give them a slightly less intimidating look then the men sitting around them. Finally a blur went past her, and then came back around. It was a short, rather pudgy older lady, running around the room refilling mugs.
“Somethin’ I can do for ya, skinny?” The older lady asked as she skirted by, not even slowing down.
“Oh,” Rose faltered, being completely thrown off guard by the woman’s half-ignorance of her. “My name is Rose and---”
“I don’t care what ya name is,” the lady interrupted her and finally stilled in the front of the bar. “All’s I wanna know is what do ya want?”
“Me and my brother, here,” Rose pulled Logan forward. “We had to relocate, if you will, and we’re hoping to settle here.”
The lady shook her head and went back behind the bar, continuing her frantic pace. “Ain’t no places for sell here. Ya gonna have to buy a lot from the company, they own all the land round here, and build your own.”
“See,” Rose started to follow her but was jerked back by Logan’s refusal to move his feet. She looked up to him quickly, to find a still vacant face and sighed and dropped his hand in favor for chasing the woman. “That’s just the point, madam, we have no money.”
The woman stopped cold in her tracks and spun around to her. Her tiny eyes narrowed even more. “Any body says ‘madam’ has money, girl. You’ll find ya can’t con folks round here too well.”
Rose raised her hands in innocence before she clutched them to her chest. “No. Oh no! I wouldn’t dream of such a thing. We lost our estate, family estate. Fire!” She flinched when she realized how loud she had shouted the word. That was not how the story was supposed to be told. Not at all.
“Fire?” the woman echoed with an arched eyebrow, obviously seeing through the lie.
“We’ll work for everything,” Rose assured her. “That’s my brother there,” she pointed through the crowd to Logan who was standing perfectly still just inside the door.
The older woman snorted. “That boy looks about as sharp as a duck without a head, can’t be too handy.”
“He is,” Rose immediately countered and hoped the woman wouldn’t see through her second fib. “He’s just in shock still.”
“From the fire?” The woman guessed with a smile. Rose’s face fell as she sighed and looked back to Logan. The older woman didn’t let her suffer long. “Alright, little lady. You wanna work? That’s fine by me. Run in the back and get a apron.”
Rose’s brown eyes went wide. “Oh! What, now?”
“You damn right, now,” the woman huffed. “We’ll see ‘bout the boy later.”
***
Rose took a deep breath as she leaned against the bar. She was exhausted, never had she moved so much in her whole life. Her feet hurt from walking, her arms hurt from carrying things and her overall body was just sore. And she’d only been helping Ms. Alton for just over an hour.
With another heavily sigh she reluctantly wiped her hands on the used apron and made her way over to her ‘brother’. He was sitting in the very back, hands clasped tightly over his ears and a scowl on his face.
She felt so sorry for him. He’d been sitting like that since Ms. Alton told him to go sit down somewhere and get out of the way.
“Logan,” she said when she reached him. He raised his eyes to look up at her but didn’t remove his hands so she took them carefully in hers and lifted them away from his face. “Are you alright, you look absolutely miserable, you poor thing.”
“The noise,” he groaned, clenching his eyes shut again. “It’s so loud.”
She looked around them surprised. It wasn’t that loud, the men were talking in a low murmur, their deep voices blending together. The loudest thing there was Ms. Alton yelling, but she was back in the kitchen so even that was muted. Rose put a hand to his cheek. “You must be getting sick again. It’s probably all this horrible smoke in here.”
“I happen to like all the horrible smoke in here,” and voice behind her quipped.
“Oh!” Rose jumped and turned around. Behind her with a big, toothy smile on his face and arms crossed over his chest was another large-built man, sun-burnt skin, just like the rest of them. But he had short brown hair peppered with gray around his face and warm brown eyes to match his smile. The faint heat of a blush crept onto her face. “I’m...I’m very sorry, sir. I didn’t intend any offense.”
He laughed, loud and hardy. “I don’t imagine a sweet thing like you ever does. Name’s Smitty.”
“It’s...it’s very good to meet you, Mr. Smitty.”
“None of that now, just Smitty is enough.” She nodded and at her silence he laughed again. “You gotta name, darlin’, or’s that a secret?”
She looked down to the floor quickly, then forced back up a little bit of courage. The urge to curtsey to him was unbelievable, but she manage to suppress it to just a nod of her head. “Rose. My name is Rose.”
“Of course it is,” he smirked. “That explains that lovely shade of pink you got going on.” Her eyes went wide and he almost laughed again at the sheer innocence all over her face. But his glaze finally landed on the boy sitting behind her with hands pushed hard against the sides of his head. “He alright?” He asked.
“No, if ya want my opinion,” Ms. Alton said as she stopped beside him. “These the two I told you about, Foreman, lookin’ for jobs.”
“Well,” Smitty started, and then bit his lip. “I don’t know how its gonna go down on the job site, but I suppose I could find an ax or something small enough that she could---”
“No, you great big oaf!” the older woman wacked his arm with her hand rag. “You gotta take the boy.”
“Oh!” Smitty said as he slapped a hand to his forehead, then gave a wink at Rose. “I suppose that does make more since. Alright, kid, you ever done any mining?”
Logan only narrowed his eyes at him, the corner of his top lip quivering slightly. No one seemed to notice it though before Rose stepped in front of him. “No he hasn’t. He...he hasn’t really done any physical labor.” She felt horrible for saying it. But she had little choice but to butcher his pride in front of everyone, least they might give him something he couldn’t handle.
But to her surprise Smitty didn’t laugh or looked surprised, his face remained calm and stoic. “Well, we’ll fix that. What’s your name, kid?”
Clear blue eyes looked to Rose. “Logan,” she placed a hand on his shoulder as she answered for him. “It’s Logan.”
“Right,” Smitty answered looking between the two of them. “Alright then, Logan. Works starts tomorrow morning at sun up. Now, Miss Rose, I’m unsure of your serving qualifications. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind giving me a demonstration?”
“You’re pathetic; nothing but a cad,” Ms. Alton snapped and she stormed off.
“And I adore you as well, my dear Ms. Alton,” Smitty called after her, then turned back to Rose. “What do you say? Beer? Please?”
Rose rubbed her cheeks in an attempt to rub off the flaming blush. She nodded at him and made her way to the bar. He followed closely behind her.
Logan watched them walk away, his eyes following them all the way across the room. Then somebody knocked a plate off a table and it crashed to the floor, sending a rattling volume bomb going off in his head. Unable to stand the constant noise in the place any longer he pushed off the stool to his feet and stomped to the door, not bothering to dodge anyone in his way in his haste to get out.
Once he was outside he took a long, deep breath, then shook his head at the invasion of new scents, trying to clear them out. He actually stumbled on his feet, his body whole body felt as if it was being attacked, on overload.
His shaky feet brought him away from the tavern, to the middle of the dirt road. It didn’t improve. The whole town as too offensive for him, the stench of horses and metal and things burning and cooking and waste, it was all too much.
He turned his head suddenly, his eyes peering into the distant woods. The last four days hadn’t been this bad, the woods were peaceful and quiet and smells were pure. Without another thought he took off in a run, straight for the line of trees.
************
Five Years Later...
Rose sighed heavily as she continued to stare out of the window. Rain was still coming down hard and showing no signs of letting up soon. “Where are you, James?” She whispered quietly to herself, allowing herself the rare luxury of saying his real name out loud.
She knew the mines were shut down, men starting walking passed two hours ago. But still not her best friend. They should have done what she wanted, build a home close to the mines so he wouldn’t have far to walk, but his belly-aching about the smell of the place finally won out and now she feared they were too far away for him to walk in such a storm.
Reluctantly, she dropped the edge of the drape and turned away from the window, wrapping her shawl tighter around her. If he wasn’t back soon she would find Smitty. He’d find him for her. He always did when James—Logan, when Logan pulled one of his disappearing acts.
She sank down into the old rocking chair by the fireplace. It was a housewarming gift from Ms. Alton when they could afford the land for their own cabin just a year ago. Rose thought it to be such a sweet gesture at the time, so unlike the old woman, but soon found out it was completely scratched up on the underside and most of it Smitty had to replace. Her hand sneaked out from under the shawl to lovingly rub the smooth wood on the arm. James—no, Logan. Logan hated the chair, said it squeaked too loud, but it was her prized procession. He complained about a lot of things though, the chair only being one. He complained about having to pretend to be her brother, although she wasn’t sure why that was so offensive to him. In hind sight she should have never told him they weren’t really related. She certainly didn’t tell him anything else about the horrendous past that he still couldn’t remember.
“Oh!” She suddenly screamed in surprise. A thundering boom from the storm shocked her out of her wandering mind. It was followed by another loud bang of the heavy wood door being slammed open and colliding with the cabins walls. The open doorway was filled completely with an ominous male figure.
“Logan!” Rose called in relief as she jumped up and ran to him. “Oh, I was so worried! Where have you been?”
“Out,” he mumbled, his deep, rumbling voice bouncing off all the walls of the small cabin. Behind him a deer carcass was lying on the porch.
“Oh, Logan,” Rose sighed as she took the sleeve of his drenched shirt in her fingers and gently tugged him further in so she could push the door closed behind him. “Hurry now and go put dry clothes on before you get sick again.”
Logan shook his head, sending water drops flying everywhere. “I’ve never been sick, Rose,” he pointed out, slight annoyance in his voice from having to say the same thing so many times.
She huffed and pushed on his wide, muscular back towards the direction of the bedrooms. He allowed her to move him, shuffling his feet the whole way. “Please do not do this to me, Logan. Just change and I’ll make you something warm to drink.”
Her constant worrying tried his nerves but looking down into the tear-glazed honey eyes he surrendered, like he always did. “Sounds good, darlin’,” he said as he kissed the crown of her bright red curls.
The familiar gesture made her softly chuckle. “Oh, I swear you are spending way to much time with that cad Smitty.” With a smile she gently cupped his cheek in her hand before turning away back towards the fire.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000