“Marie, I still don’t exactly understand.”
Sitting in the van parked on a suburban road, Logan and Rogue remained.
“I wish I could tell you it all, but I’m not so sure I should be the one to do it.”
“What does this have to do with me?”
“I stole what the Director considered to be a weapon.”
“And you destroyed it.”
Rogue turned and glanced at him with a sly frown, but her eyes were steady.
“No.”
Logan frowned and she could tell he was about to get angry so she interrupted him.
“You’ll understand in a minute, Logan,” she tried to calm him.
“I couldn’t destroy it because to me it wasn’t a weapon.”
Logan paused as he glanced at the window, his hands clenching the steering wheel. His mind appeared to be elsewhere for a minute before turning back to her.
“You never explained why you had that file on me,” he whispered.
She smiled genially.
“No, I didn’t.”
Reaching over she grabbed his hand. “Your memories revealed a lot of stuff to me. When I’d been at Xavier’s you know Kitty and I were assigned a lot of the research development stuff. I was pretty knowledgeable about the process of mutant labs. When I had flashes of your memories I was able to narrow it down where you had most likely been, it hadn’t just been Alkali Lake” she whispered gently.
His hand tightened on hers.
“I did some research and was able to acquire that stuff on you and well that’s when I ran into the Director and...”
“And the weapon,” he interrupted.
“Not a weapon,” she responded delicately. Slowly, she eased her hand out of his and opened her door.
She began to walk up towards the house they had been parked in front of; Logan was quick to follow her.
“I don’t like this,” he muttered.
“Think of this as your first step to trusting me again.”
She knocked on the door and although Logan didn’t reply, his hand touched the small of her back.
Footsteps approached and the door opened.
A young woman with a slender but very muscular figure answered. Her long straight brown hair reached her waist. Her eyes were a sharp hazel that were dotted with yellow flecks. Her stance was very stiff but as she opened the door further and her eyes focused on Rogue, she leant against the door with a smirk.
“Why hello, Rogue,” the other woman spoke. “It’s a bit late don’t you think.”
“Knew you’d be up,” Rogue shrugged back.
“No phone call?”
“When have I ever called?”
The woman smirked. “It’s been a while, Rogue I was getting worried.”
“No you weren’t,” Rogue sassed her back.
“Maybe a little,” the other woman replied, her eyes landed on Logan and her body language became stiff again.
Logan’s nostril’s flared.
Pretending to be oblivious to the sudden obvious tension Rogue entered without an invitation and the woman merely backed up. Logan closed the door laboriously behind them.
“Logan, this is Laura,” Rogue introduced.
“You can call me X-23, Wolverine.”
“Laura,” Rogue grated.
Laura rolled her eyes. “Sorry, Rogue’s been trying to teach me to be more personal.”
Logan’s head cocked to the side but before he could say anything Rogue gave him a tight smile.
“No comments, Logan,” she chided.
He merely raised an eyebrow in response.
“Who are you?” Logan asked bluntly.
Laura smirked. “I thought you had senses, Wolverine.”
“His name’s Logan, Laura.”
Laura eyed Rogue. “To you maybe.
“Who are you?” Logan spoke again, each word emphasized.
“I’m your clone,” she smirked. “Hi, Daddy, what no hug?”
Rogue sensed Logan going very still as the air between the three of them became very tense.
Abruptly, he grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to the door. Leaning in his hot breath grazed her ear.
“What exactly is going on here, Rogue?” he hissed.
Laura crossed her arms and smirked again. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”
“Be nice, Laura,” Rogue called not breaking eye contact with Logan.
“Yes, Rogue.”
“Well?” Logan grated as Laura left.
Brushing his grip off, she spoke calmly. “When I was able to find files on you at a facility in Canada I was able to find clues that lead me to believe research involving you was still being done. That led me to the Director and I found out and had guessed that after having a mutant of your calibre in their hands they most likely had retained all kind of samples.”
“The weapon was Laura, Logan.”
“X-23, the only successful clone of you. Obviously, not exactly. She is the female version. I was smart enough to know that entering the facility on my own would be extremely dangerous...”
“Stupid,” Logan interrupted with a growl.
“I observed the place for some time Logan, learned the habits of some of the guards. Touching one at odd times in town on their time off, eventually I learned of the transfer of Laura to another checking point. They were constantly moving her around, making sure she never got to comfortable. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
“They were using her. She is no doubt what Magneto was after, he has contact’s everywhere. I don’t think he understood exactly what the ‘weapon’ was but I think he had his theories. He’d be just another person trying to use her for his own means no doubt. But no one else knows, Logan. I brought her here so she could have a life. Detroit had been a decoy. Hank, however, has met her; she needed to be checked out. I think he has his suspicions but he’s kept quiet. She’d been particularly feral at the time but more than willing to escape.”
Logan looked ill for a brief moment before his usual anger settled in, but in no way directed at her.
“You can’t change what happened to her. She’s not looking for you to be her daddy, literally. In fact you’ll find she might even hate you a bit. She’s seventeen Logan, but she is much older than she seems. She knows a lot about you though. Maybe you could help each other.”
Leaning up she kissed him briefly on the lips and rubbed his chest. Confusion was settling in as well, she could tell.
“Go talk to her.”
Reaching for the door she saw his gaze was already focused on where Laura had disappeared to.
“I will wait outside. Try and keep it civil though, this is her house now and the rent ain’t cheap.”
“Okay,” he murmured and she watched him walk stiffly away.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000