They drove in comfortable silence, well comfortable for Logan who sat resting against the seat of his truck, smoking a stogies and enjoying the chilly night air hitting his face. He kept a beer in his hand and kept his hand out the window to keep it frosty; this was nice almost like having a personal driver. He was snapped out of his relaxed mode by the sound of chattering…teeth chattering.
“You cold kid?”
They’d only been driving for about 15 minutes now and they were out on the open road. Logan was wondering how he was supposed to explain to this girl that although he didn’t want to hurt her, if she tried blasting him again he’d be forced to skew her alive like a shish-kabob. He thought that sounded pretty reasonable considering her previous actions.
“N-n-n-noooo, I’m really warm, I’m j-j-j-j-ust practicing for-r-r-r later.”
She ground out between random chatters as the chilly Canadian air hit her spine. She was still wearing only her sweat shirt and a leather jacket.
“Good to hear,” Logan said sarcastically reclining in his seat again and closing his eyes. He loved the night, and he knew being an animal himself that wasn’t so unusual, but something about frosted night air up in the wilderness, where you could smell the scent of pine and fresh snow, it invigorated him.
“S-s-s-h-h-h-u-t-t the ww-w-w-in-n-ndow… ah….ah…asshole!”
She threw the last word out like a sneeze, and Logan was about to say god bless you and realized he was talking to someone who would probably give the devil a run for his money. Logan had no intention of actually closing the window but he cracked open one eye to see if she was as cold as she was pretending to be. He could easily hear her teeth rattling around as she shivered and her body seemed to be shaking. He was almost convinced and to be thorough he brought a hand up to her face to see if she was faking or not. This proved to be a bad idea.
Logan’s bare hand touched the girls cheek, lightly if not briefly and the entire truck took a drastic turn to the right, almost over turning because of the force of the swerve gliding against the ice, the girl shrieked and Logan spit out his stogie on the floor of the truck as he hastily tried to grab on to something for support.
“JESUS H CHRIST, what the hell are you trying to do get us killed?!? Don’t you know how to drive!?!”
“It’s not my fault! Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to touch other people! Jesus!”
“PULL OVER!”
“Its fine I got it under control, we’re doing good now,” she said offhandedly
“Just pull the god damned truck over!”
There wasn’t any curb to pull the truck against and there hadn’t been any shoulder for miles, so veering as much to the side as she could without bringing the truck up onto a snow embankment, she brought the vehicle to a halt and placed it in park.
“I didn’t mean to swerve you just scared me”…she looked down at her lap before continuing, “Your hand’s are unusually warm for someone who isn’t wearing any gloves you know.”
She said the last part pretty grumpily and he could almost understand, Logan was always warm, something Rogue had complained about many a night when she would crawl into his bed. Constantly and more frequently then he would have liked, Logan had to shoo thoughts away of Marie in his bed. Like he said, she had been there before, but somehow when he tried to remember those times in the night, when she would come in covered from head to toe, just in case, he would change what really happened, which was her cuddling up next to him and falling asleep, to her and him spending the night denting the headboard; as you can see drastic difference between the two.
Often Rogue would seek him out after having one of her nightmares, once in a while he would even seek her out after he’d had a bad night and they always slept comfortably and soundly next to each other. He’d breath her in, her scent would calm him and she’d told him on more than one occasional that sleeping next to him made her feel safe.
If she only knew He thought wryly.
Despite him telling her that she didn’t need to cover up to the extent that she did, Marie would never enter his bed with so much as a bare hand on her body. Even if he told her it wasn’t necessary, she would insist, her own paranoia getting the better of her. Snuggled deep under the covers, Rogue would swear that Logan was trying to fry her alive because between the clothes, and the covers she was warm but with Logan thrown into the mix she was likely to die of heart exhaustion in the middle of the night, according to Marie Logan could “fry an egg on his chest.” He came back to himself when he caught a whiff of embarrassment wafting off of the girl. He was surprised to know she was capable of feeling that way.
“All right, I’m sorry about the unusually warm hand, now get out.”
“You’re leaving me here!?”
The girl was confused, granted she’d stolen his truck but he’d been letting her drive for well over a half hour now. Why was he suddenly kicking her out, he could of at least dropped her off in town so she’d have the hope of catching another ride.
His only answer was to sigh in frustration, and if the girl wasn’t mistaken she’d swear she heard a bit of a growl vibrating its way out of his chest. Who was this guy?
“I’m drivin, that’s all, now move.”
She didn’t like the idea of having to get out of the truck and walk around to the passenger side, what if he drove off before she got back in? The truck was still running and she didn’t think this guy was going to like it if she took the keys out of the ignition just so she could walk around to other side of the vehicle, it seemed in poor taste.
Mentally she chastised herself, like stealing his truck was such a nice thing to do? She’d even shot him with one of her low beams…he’d gotten up from that fairly easily though, if he wanted he could probably fight her off and away from his truck. Although, she figured, if he wanted to do that then he would have when he caught up with her.
“Listen Kid, we don’t have all god damned day- move it!”
“GOD! You’re so growly! It’s like driving with a god damned bear!”
She grabbed her duffel bag for assurance; at least if he took off without her she’d have her bag. She grabbed it with one hand and opened the door with the other.
“What are ya takin your bag for?”
Her only answer was to climb out of the cab and walk around to the passenger side, the door was locked when she walked around and she could see through the window that the guy hadn’t bothered to hop out of the truck but merely slid over into the driver’s side. She sighed almost sad; she should have seen this coming. He was just going to leave her in the middle of the Canadian wilderness, stuck in the freezing cold in nothing but a sweatshirt and leather jacket. She was going to be an ice pop by morning. The door was still locked, and the guy was looking at her through the window as he lit a cigar, the truck remained running and at that moment the girl would have bet good money that he was going to gear up into drive and just go on his way.
In the next second he looked at her a little impatiently and he motioned with her hand for her to hurry along…was he waiting for her? She spoke but the words came out in a surprised questioning sort of way because she didn’t think he was waiting for her.
“The door…it’s locked…?”
She hadn’t spoken the words loudly and was surprised he’d even heard her over the roar of the old engine wheezing to fight off the frost bitten air which threatened to seize the engine in its icy grip and kill it altogether. Somehow though, the man heard and he reached over across the seat and unlocked her door for her, settling back against his side and exhaling the cigar smoke. He put the car in drive but he kept his foot on the break waiting for her to get in.
For all the money in the world she couldn’t have moved, she just stood there starring at him. Was this for real? He was back in the driver’s side, he had control of the truck again, but he was still letting her come with him? After she had shot him in the chest with a beam of light and stolen his truck and everything? She’d been so obnoxious before on top of it…
“All right Listen, if you’re taking drugs or something you’re jus gonna have to tell me cuz this is the second time in a six second span that you’ve just frozen up like that- get in the truck or I’m leaving your scrawny ass here, c’mon!”
She shook her head and blinked looking at him again before hustling to grab her bag and fling herself into the truck’s cab. Off they went, him driving and her contemplating. Maybe he was crooked or something, maybe he was waiting like that bar tender outside Northern Alberta, and he was just biding his time until he could try something on her?
She stole a glance at him as he drove, he was old, not hideously so, he still had his natural hair color, although the oldest man she’d ever been with was in his 30’s and this man didn’t look much older than that, maybe late thirties, early forties. Still, she didn’t get the sense that he was being dishonest, her instincts told her he was actually a nice guy…then again her instincts were why she was stuck out here in the freezing boonies of Canada to begin with.
“I’m sorry….” She let it hang in the air for a few minutes; he didn’t so much as blink at her.
“I just needed a ride and you were the last guy to leave the bar. Oh and I’m sorry about just now, I didn’t think you were going to let me back in the truck, I kinda figured the door was locked on purpose and you were going to leave me here, that’s why I took my bag.”
Well there, she was plump out of things to say, definitely his turn now.
“And?”
And what, she wondered.
“And what?” She asked.
“And how about “gee sorry I almost roasted you alive back there, hope that didn’t hurt, hey did you want a new shirt?”
She laughed. She hadn’t laughed since she didn’t know when and the last smile to get on her face was back over 100 miles ago at a dinner out in the sticks. It was a reaction she had when she was eavesdropping on a dirty joke being told to a waitress.
He looked at her then and she could have sworn she’d seen his lip curl ever so slightly around the corner of his cigar but when she turned her head towards him there was nothing there but thick cigar smoke curling in the air and that stoic face he wore so well.
“Aw I knew you could handle that, after all look at well you did in the cage! Besides, I never use my power on other mutants unless I have to- you shouldn’t have put your hands on me, it is impolite to touch a lady out of anger.”
He choked. He actually choked on his god damn cigar smoke listening to this girl!
“Impolite? Your tellin me about polite? I caught you stealin my truck!”
“Ha! Caught being the operative word- besides that was barely my fault, you were suppose to be too drunk to drive I was only trying to help you avoid an accident.”
“Oh yeah right, I didn’t realize what a do gooder you were- and how in the hell did you figure I was a mutant?”
Logan knew what he was, knew what he had to be, hell he had blades of steel between his knuckles, but that didn’t mean he’d ever really referred to himself as a mutant before. A man, yes, the guy who was going to kick your ass, sure, a whiskey drinker, definitely and of course a damn good roll in the hay-but he rarely called himself a mutant. He liked to think of himself as abnormal if anything.
“I heard your…I don’t know what to call it….bones o’ steel?”
He laughed-lightly, this wasn’t that funny. After all he fought in the cage all the time and sure once in a while a person guessed he wasn’t entirely normal but he didn’t think teenage girls watching him- which wasn’t in itself a normal occurrence-, should be able to gauge whether or not he was a mutant.
“Explain.”
“I don’t know, everyone was yelling and I was watching you, watching the fight. It was really noisy in there but I watched you fight six different guys. The first time I heard it I didn’t know what I was hearing, I started looking around for bells or pots and pans, something making a clattering noise but the only thing I saw was glass bottles and ugly men. Every time you hit somebody though that sound went off again and then I waited and by the time you fought the fifth guy I closed my eyes and listened- no easy thing mind you in that freaking sound pit- but when the guy, the one with the baseball cap, he sent that undercut to your ribs-remember?”
Logan nodded, she really had been watching him closely.
“Well until then you two hadn’t really collided, you had gone to punch him and he blocked you and I saw him take his other hand, the one that wasn’t deflecting your fist and I saw him make a fist with it and I saw his fist going for your ribs-and keep in mind this was all going in slow motion for me- then I saw you take your free arm and you pinned his hand to your side and you head butted him-wicked move by the way!”
Logan smirked fleetingly-she was observant he’d give her that, but he could tell by the enthusiasm in her voice she must have been young.
“Anyway, that’s when I knew that metal clinking noise was you. As soon as your head collided with that guy, it was like someone slamming into a bell with a shovel! I thought the whole place knew but no one even said anything, I guess that’s the distraction that comes from losing money when you make a bet, or even those who won money who bet on you. I don’t know but I just realized then that whatever you have under your skin, it wasn’t normal bone.”
He really only had one question.
“What’s your name, kid?”
She only hesitated for a minute and then she figured it was the least she could tell him.
“Star.”
“Star?” his voice was incredulous, like she had just told him her name was Zulu Queen of the Amazonians.
“Yeah, Star, is there a problem with that?”
“I don’t know are you supposed to be a stripper or something?”
“Star’s not a stripper name!” She hated the way her voice betrayed her age, coming out indignant and naive sounding.
“Really, have you ever met a stripper?”
He had her there, she’d been on the road for six months but she hadn’t spent any time in a strip joint.
Apparently her silence answered for her.
“Exactly, and believe me I’ve met plenty and I’ve met more than one named Star.”
“Well Sorry we can’t all have show stopping names like Wolverine, you realize that’s a furry little beaver like beast with fur that looks like a skunk.”
His voice was almost deadly low and she had to struggle to hear him over the heater, had he put that on for her?
“Wolverine’s are wonderful and magnificent creatures- they don’t look like skunks and they’re apart of nature, unlike women who take their clothes off for money.”
She thought it was amusing the way he was defending his furry friends.
“Besides, my real name is Logan.”
“Yea? Good to know, thanks.”
She realized he was fishing to find out her real name, but that was a dead end. She didn’t tell anyone her real name, at least not until she spent more than 24 hours with a person. When he didn’t say anything she realized she may have backtracked in their socializing progress and tried striking up a conversation again.
“So, Lo-gan, where we goin?”
“New York.”
“WHOA! WHOA! Isn’t that a little far? You want to go to NEW YORK? IN THIS TRUCK!”
He looked down at her like she was a fruit fly he wanted to squash.
“Yep.”
“Okay listen, I appreciate the ride, but I was sorta hoping to head to Alaska, not away from it! I’m so close!”
“You’re headin to Alaksa?”
She got silent, she really didn’t know this guy enough to trust him.
He sighed, but this was a bored sigh not an angry one.
“Look kid, honestly, I’m not going to hurt you- believe me it’s tempting- but I’m just…I’m taking you to people who can help.”
“hey, I don’t need help, I’m doing fine on my own-thank you very much.”
“Yea, you’re doin great,” he rolled his eyes and a made a face that indicated that she was doing anything but.
“I didn’t think you were going to be tagging along for the journey but I don’t want to go back to New York, I want to go farther north, it’s really important okay.”
“Are you from New York then?”
It was her turn to sigh, but she wasn’t bored she was frustrated. What was she suppose to tell this guy? She didn’t like sharing and she hadn’t been expecting a pow-wow with an out of work cage fighter to be truthful. She settled for answering his question with one of her own.
“Who are these people who you’re taking me to?”
“Friends. Mutant advocates, you’re a kid, they have a school there, they can help you. No one’s going to hurt you, everyone there is like us.”
“Ha, oh I don’t think there’s anybody quite like me there. Listen, I’m not in need of schooling, I graduated high school already and I’m sure these people are really nice and all but I need to get to Alaska!”
She couldn’t help the urgency that was in her voice, this guy was annoying to her but only because she couldn’t use her mutation against him. She also wasn’t sure if she was going to have a chance to make a break for it, which if she couldn’t convince Mr. burly pants next to her to turn around and head North again, she was going to have to.
“All right, I’ll bite, what’s in Alaska?”
What was it with this guy and these questions!
“I just…want to test something out…”
It was vague but it was what she could muster at the moment.
Luckily she was saved when her stomach growled loudly. She put her hand over the offending noise maker trying to compensate for food by rubbing her belly. She actually blushed when she realized that Logan had heard her stomach growl.
Logan couldn’t be faulted for not knowing he was going to have company, he was fresh out of stale beefy jerky. Of course he should have had some on hand, here he is driving around in Canada, it was only natural that he’d run into another mutant teen on the run, and of course it was almost inconceivable that he hadn’t thought to stock his pick up full of teenage girl goodies. He was relieved to see a sign that said rest stop ahead, five miles.
“I can stop at that rest stop, we need to find a place to stay for the night anyhow.”
“We? okay let me clarify here, I’m really grateful that you’re giving me a ride, and I appreciate that you want to help me, sure is swell of you and all,” Logan could hear the sarcasm in her voice and it only made him more mad, “BUT I have to get to Alaska, so I’ll take you up on the eating offer because I am starving and if you’re so inclined to find a spot to sleep, that sounds good too, but eventually I’m going to have to hitch another ride.”
Logan didn’t really know why it meant so much to him, he didn’t believe she’d actually graduated High School, she looked too young for that. He didn’t think she was old enough to be hitch hiking all over the country either, but he did know that for some reason it mattered to him. Maybe he just saw a lot of Rogue in this girl, well a lot of Rogue in the way that this girl had nowhere to go and was a drifter, his girl, his Marie wasn’t this difficult, she was sweet and grateful and the most guff he got out of her was when she told him to wear his seat belt. This little bundle of joy next to him was another story entirely.
He sighed again, he had at least a four day drive until he reached New York, and that wasn’t calculating sleep time.
“All right then, how about this. Come back to New York with me, these people, they have a jet. Scope out the situation, see if you want to meet them and talk with my guy, he’s a good man, a patient man. I promise you, if you want to leave after you meet them and go to Alaska, they’ll take you. No questions asked.”
“Oh yeah sure they have a jet. Uh-huh and next you’re going to tell me you’re taking me to see Professor Xavier, the famous mutant advocate.”
She snorted and rolled her eyes, she couldn’t picture this guy, who looked like he spent his free time opening beer bottles with his teeth, as someone who was associated with people who owned their own jet.
“Oh, you know of Professor Xavier?”
“Yeah, who doesn’t know of the professor? He’s like completely famous? Him and that Grey Lady, they’ve even spoken in front of the Senate- not that it did any good because Senator Kelly is such an asshole, personally I think Xavier brainwashed him or something, it isn’t right the way he up and changed his mind. Good for us and all, but still something about it just doesn’t make sense. Do you know that people working for him actually upped and quit after he switched from ant-mutant to pro-mutant? One guy on his campaign, an employee who quit after Kelly switched sides got interviewed and he told his interviewers Senator Kelly had been organizing and campaigning for the Mutant Registration Act for over three years when he suddenly turned around and decided it wasn’t a good idea.”
Logan cracked his neck thinking about the Mutant Registration Act-now there was a slab of bullshit with a side of useless. He cracked his neck again thinking about the Senator, the real one, before he died and Mystique took his place.
Still he had to give the kid credit for noticing, many mutants had attributed Kelly’s change in opinion to a change of heart. Logan and the rest of the team knew better, the person who had changer their mind wasn’t Senator Kelly but Mystique impersonating him. Not a day went by that Logan didn’t wish that he had slit that blue bitch’s throat, missed opportunities haunted him sometimes. He looked down at the girl hoping what he had to say next would make her easier to deal with and not more difficult.
“Kid, I’m taking you to see Professor Xavier, and that Grey Lady.”
For once the little mouth piece didn’t seem to have much to say.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
This Chapter is dedicated with sincere gratitude to TRSummers- THANK YOU Tara for actually e-mailing and explaining how the codes work: Everyone! GO READ HER STORY RIGHT NOW!!
Stamp of Approval- Awesomeness! A normal Rogue and a big handed Logan- who could ask for more?
Stamp of Approval- Awesomeness! A normal Rogue and a big handed Logan- who could ask for more?