Marie knew how to read Logan's body language. The skill was born from years of friendship, refined as they worked together on the team, and perfected in her time as his lover; so when every one of his muscles grew tight and his body went deathly still, her panic rose.
"What is it?" she managed, already out of the swing.
Logan spoke quietly, urgently, but hadn’t yet made a move.
"Get Charles, head towards the car, but be natural about it. Go. Now."
She desperately wanted to look around, run, yell out for her child, but she trusted Logan’s instincts and tried to move at a slow, deliberate pace. Marie reached the edge of the see-saws and tried to keep the fear from her voice.
"C'mon Charlie, it's time to go."
"But I don't wanna go, Mom," he whined, casting a longing look at his new playmates.
"Charlie," she said firmly, her eyes intense, "we gotta go. Now!"
Charles looked at her, and then saw the men in the distance, behind her. They were dressed like anyone else in the park, but they walked too fast and they weren't smiling. To Charles they looked like the bad guys on one of his mother's favorite police shows. He launched himself into her arms, remembering what she'd said about the bad guys.
"It's them Mommy! It's them!"
Marie couldn't contain the fear anymore. With her child in her arms, she turned to run for their car.
Seeing her flee, the five soldiers gave chase.
"Stop! Mutant!" she heard them yell. She heard, too, a chorus of gasps from the other parents, the same onlookers who had smiled indulgently as Charlie capered with their little darlings.
Her shoes threw up clods of grass and soft earth as she sprinted across the park, desperate for escape.
Logan intercepted two of the soldiers, dressed as civilians.
"I don't think so – bub! Not today," he yelled, collaring one man, connecting a fist to his jaw, and then knocking him out with a head butt.
Aware that using the claws in such a public place would only make this unforgettable scene even more memorable to the bystanders, he counted on his adamantium-reinforced fists to do all the damage. He reached for the other man, pulled him in close, and broke his jaw with one precise jab.
Logan saw Marie reach the parking lot with the other three soldiers fast on her heels. Fear crawled up his back, cold and debilitating, as he watched his family being chased by those bastards. He forced his legs to move towards them and he saw her shove Charles into the SUV before climbing in herself. She threw the machine into reverse, almost mowing down one of the soldiers in the process.
The soldiers jumped into their van, just as she swung the SUV around, barely stopping for Logan to jump in.
"Go! Go! Go!" he was yelling, even before both legs were in the vehicle.
Marie spun out of the parking lot on two wheels and tore towards the interstate.
"Make sure he's buckled in," she shouted to Logan.
He turned to secure Charles and look behind them, before checking on her. She shot him a frantic look while exiting for the interstate.
"They're following Marie," he told her.
"I see them," she replied, gunning the engine.
They sped down the sparsely occupied highway, wondering how they were ever going to lose the tail. Then, the unthinkable happened. Coming up behind, the van rammed into them, jerking and pushing their car forward.
Marie inhaled sharply and tried to regain control of the wheel.
"Mommy!" Charles' cry was filled with confusion and fear.
Logan immediately turned to him, "It's okay, buddy. Just hold on - we're gonna get away from them."
Accelerating as fast as she could, Marie tried to put room between them and the dark van.
"What the hell are they doing?"
"They're trying to force us off the road. You're doing fine, just outrun 'em."
The van pulled along side, almost passing them. She let up on the pedal to slow down and let them by, but instead the van careened into their side; broad siding them with its full length and forcing the Tahoe to skid off the shoulder. Marie tried to correct, pulling the wheel hard to stay on the road. She was met by the van, hitting the back quarter panel, sending them into a spin. Instinctively she hit the brakes, but the car was no longer under her command. Marie felt the sickening tilt of gravity as the top heavy automobile turned, hit a steep decline and started to roll, before righting itself only to plummet downhill.
Three soldiers jumped from the van to watch the SUV twist out of control, careen downhill and slam, front end, into a tree. The sound of crunching metal made the squad leader cringe.
"For fuck's sake Jenkins! What the fuck was that? You're supposed to disable the vehicle so we can grab the kid and go. Not cause a fuckin' fatality!"
"Let's go," he ordered.
They picked their way slowly down the steep hill towards the wreckage, forced to concentrate on the terrain. Jenkins lost his footing, and the squad stopped while he was helped up. They were still bent over him when the explosion from the wreck threw a wave of heat across their backs. Buckling forward to cover their heads, they turned to see the car being swallowed in flames.
"Dammit. Dammit! We got no capture now, asshole. Now the fuckin' capture is a crispy critter.” The squad leader moved towards the wreckage, but could see nothing: the inside of the SUV was engulfed by fire.
“We gotta get outta here. Fuck!" he roared. "Move!"
They crawled back up the incline and piled into the van, leaving before anyone could witness the carnage they’d left behind.
******
Logan had learned a lot from his mistakes over the years, but remembering to wear a his seat belt wasn’t one of them. He had been thrown through the front windshield on impact. Groggily, his eyes opened from the blackness. He felt his shoulder resetting, his clavicle knitting itself back together, an open wound on his forehead sealing shut.
The healing burned like hell fire, but it was the sight in front of him that sickened him as his searching gaze found the crumpled SUV. Marie and Charlie were still inside, and he knew he had to get them out before the car ignited.
Nowhere near steady on his feet, he crawled back towards the car, ripping open the driver side door. The airbag had activated, giving Marie a nasty lick to the face. She was black and blue and probably had some internal bruising, but she was moaning in distress. It was music to his ears - pain meant she was alive. He released the claws and slashed through her safety belt, dragging her from the car. Logan flung the back door open and cut that seat belt out all together, pulling Charles into the safety of his chest. Marie was sitting up behind him.
"Give him to me," she sobbed.
Logan handed their son over and grabbed their single bag of possessions from the floor.
"Can you move? Get away from the car. That way,” he gestured. “They won’t see us."
Marie couldn’t think to ask how; she was cradling her son into her side and sliding away from the car, further
into the tree line.
"Keep moving! Further!"
She slid behind into a copse of trees and brush, sheltered from view, and shifted Charles in her arms.
"Logan? Oh God. Logan! He's not breathing!"
Her panicked scream coincided with the flash and roar of the car bursting into flames behind them. Logan threw himself over them both, but Marie barely noticed the debris flying about. Charles was lying limply on the ground, and she was near frantic as she pulled his shirt open to check for injuries.
"Why isn't he breathing? Logan?! What's wrong with him?" Her voice was shrill.
Charles had bruising over his chest, but no other signs of external damage.
Logan crouched down on the boy’s other side, feeling a helplessness he'd never felt before in the years left to his memory. The boy obviously had some kind of internal damage. He touched his son's small neck, checking for a pulse, watching his chest for the rise and fall.
Marie began to administer CPR with tears in her eyes. "Oh God, baby no! No! Don't do this! What's wrong? What
happened?"
Logan’s attention was focused on Marie’s desperate efforts to revive Charles, but his well-trained instincts noted the soldiers leaving, thinking them all still trapped in the car. Rather than being consumed with the need for an easy kill, he was grateful to see them go; the protection of his family taking priority above vengeance.
"Let me see him," he said hoarsely, continuing the CPR himself and using his hyper senses to look for clues, a sign of hope, for anything.
"Logan...please... he can't die!"
"I'm not going to let him die!"
They watched their son lie still. There was no movement, no reaction, no improvement. Marie buried her hands in her hair, before smacking the ground with all her strength.
"No dammit! I'm not losing him too!" She shoved Logan away with all her might and leaned over her son. "Charles - you can't leave me!"
She put her mouth to his and tried to give him life, breathing through her tears and pushing on his sternum with shaky hands. Through watery eyes she thought she saw his color change, brighten. Was it a play of light? A trick of her mind? She watched in stunned silence as the bruising around his little ribs began to disappear right in front of her eyes.
"Oh my God...Logan!"
Logan shook his head, not wanting to look at his son's motionless body. "No! Don't say..."
"No, look! He's..."
Charles made a high-pitched wheeze, before succumbing to a fit of coughing and panting. Marie rolled him to his side, a strong, but comforting hand on his back.
After a little while, he caught his breath.
"It burns Momma. It burns," he sputtered.
She looked at Logan, confused, tear streaks drying on her face.
"That's the healing," he said, his voice rough.
She pulled her son into her lap, against her chest, rocking him. "It's okay baby. It'll be okay now," fresh tears streaming down her face.
Logan slid up in front of her, pulling them both into the circle of his arms. So many emotions, so many unspoken words, twisted up inside him, racking his body; but he couldn't say a word. The fear of what could have happened, what he could have lost, shook him. The awe at what would come out of his mouth at that moment kept him silent.
******
Logan stared out at the long, gray road ahead of him. Miles and miles of endless highway were a part of his existence; as familiar to him as ‘home’ was to other people. Never before had he been happy to be on the road though. Now, to be on the road meant they were surviving; they had survived. His child was alive, Marie was alive, and maybe for now, they were safe.
Concentrating on the road kept his mind from obsessing over what just happened. He thought about all the times he had taken this path alone, when he’d ran because he thought he needed that solitude. It had never brought him any peace or happiness, only emptiness. But this time … for the first time he wasn’t running away. He was running towards something.
They'd been driving for hours. Marie feigned sleep against Logan’s shoulder, but their son was truly asleep in the jump seat. The truck wasn't ideal for them, but when you'd resorted to stealing a car, you couldn't be too choosy. She was exhausted; and so thankful that if she thought about it too much, the tears would come again.
Charles had manifested his mutation right in front of their eyes. He was just like his father ... thank God! Dismay that it had come to him so young in life was overruled by the joy that it had saved him. She blessed that long-ago teaching, the role of heightened emotional stress in triggering a previously dormant mutation. She would be forever grateful that he'd inherited his father's healing in time to survive this encounter.
Even after coming so close to death, Charles had riddled them with questions. Why had someone tried to hurt them? What had happened to him and why did the hurting go away ... and wasn't it wrong to take someone else's car? She'd managed to appease him by telling him that he needed to rest and she'd explain everything later. Only his exhaustion, from the ordeal and the effects of exercising his new mutation, had made him agree to try and sleep.
Both father and son looked to be in great shape, their shared mutation having wiped out any evidence of the earlier trauma. Marie, on the other hand, had a lovely, dark reminder underneath her eye, and her body was bruised, stiff, and sore. She had never been happier to feel the hitches of pain in her life, reminding her of how close they'd come to losing everything. But then, they were given a second chance. Suddenly, she realized she was thinking in terms of 'them' - she and Logan and Charles; a complete unit, a family. Her son needed to understand what they were and who they were to each other. He needed know his family.
She raised her head to look up at Logan. "I- I think we're far enough away now. It should be safe. We need to stop somewhere...and talk."
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Author's Chapter Notes:
This takes place years after X3. Marie took the cure, it was permanent, and the Mutant Registration Act has gone into effect. She has her own life among humans while the world of mutants is thrown into chaos.
A very special thank you to both laenwyn and jaq_of_spades for beta; without you guys, this fic would not be here. Y’all are the greates
A very special thank you to both laenwyn and jaq_of_spades for beta; without you guys, this fic would not be here. Y’all are the greates