“So he didn't say?” Scott looked blankly at his watch, not believing it was nearly midnight already. What a freaking day. Meeting after meeting with Charles, plans and schedules and security procedures; contingency measures should the worst happen. He was still fretting over those, unable to let go of the nagging suspicion that he'd missed something. And the day had gotten off to such a wonderful start, too. He thought he might just skip breakfast tomorrow, thank you very much.
Jean shook her head innocently, although it was true. Logan hadn't verbalized what had happened between him and Marie; he'd merely given her a look-one that told her plenty, but she wasn't about to voice it out loud, even to Scott. What they'd discussed was private. Being used to matters of confidentiality, as her position as the school's physician necessitated it, Jean had no problems keeping her mouth shut.
“Well, what did he say?” Scott tiredly stripped the rest of his clothes off, tossing them on a chair. He was too bushed even to pick up after himself, a rarity indeed. He'd been under a lot of strain lately, so much so that he'd flown off the handle and taken aim at the first available target - Logan.
He knew he'd been out of line, a knee-jerk reaction more ingrained by habit than anything else. When Logan was around he had someone to disagree with, could let off some steam and let the control slip a little. They'd had some hellacious and monstrously crude shouting matches in the past, ones that escalated to the absurd in an effort to top the other. In the end, it usually left them breathless with laughter at their sheer inventiveness. The well-timed insult was a fine art, something for which they both had an appreciation. Scott hadn't had that outlet in a long time. Hassling Logan was kinda fun.
It hadn't been fun this morning. They'd gotten their bitching sessions off on the wrong foot, the timing all wrong and the subject a little too raw. Scott had come off sounding like a fool and he wasn't one.
Logan assuredly had an eye for the women - that was no secret. But the man wasn't a sexual predator and Scott knew that. Mention of Marie, however, brought a protective streak a mile wide. Marie and Don't touch were two thoughts that seemed inextricably linked; the words just went together. They always had. The fact that she now could touch just made him worry about her all the more.
Jean went about picking up his things as he flopped backward onto the bed. She'd been plenty steamed at how he'd handled himself this morning, but she did understand the reasons why. Scott labored under too much pressure and had been shouldering the load with little help. Though he'd probably never admit it, she knew he was glad Logan was back. It was only once Logan had left here that Scott truly realized how much he'd come to rely on him, outrageous flirt or not. In any case, Logan had never crossed a line with Jean that couldn't be laughed off. But back then, there'd been times when Scott stubbornly failed to see the humor and things had gotten uncomfortable for all three of them. So Logan had bowed out.
Over the years they'd kept up the pretense of hating each other's guts. It gave them a common ground of sorts. Not once, though, had their strange dynamic interfered with Scott's position as team leader, nor had Logan ever failed to back him up. Scott was no dummy and playing the role of uptight Boy Scout gave Logan room to swagger. Because when push came to shove, Scott was still Logan's boss and you didn't keep a wild animal on too tight a leash. If you wanted him on your side, you gave him enough leeway to act.
Jean let her flaming red satin robe fall and tossed the armload of Scott's clothing into the bathroom. “He didn't say much, really. But I do know that neither of them realized the truth, not at the time. They can both pass as human, just like a lot of us do. No reason to broadcast who you are if you don't need to.”
Scott thought it over, wondering how he was going to make himself apologize the next day, although he knew he should. Logan's business was his business and Marie's was her own as well, and though it was hard to think of her that way, time did march on. She'd grown up. She'd changed. Recently, she'd changed a lot. She would sink or swim on her own without him looking after her every step of the way and second-guessing her choices for her. Besides, would it be so bad if they got together? Marie could do a lot worse than Logan, especially if the political situation started to deteriorate. There were few, if any, men that could offer a better safety net.
Jean slipped into bed next to him and he felt a comforting brush of her mind across his.
“Oh, Scott, you don't need to apologize. You both get a kick out of needling each other. Always have. But you might want to rein it in a notch or two.”
Scott sighed. “Yeah, I know.” He took a last look at his watch before chucking it at the nightstand. He missed. It went sailing over the edge to bounce on the carpet.
Scott slumped in defeat. “You wake me before seven tomorrow and I'll spank the daylights out of you.”
Jean snuggled closer, soundlessly giggling in his ear. “Promise?”
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Marie pulled the truck into the garage, hunting tiredly for an open space. The vehicles had been moved around since she'd been here and Pete's maintenance supplies and tools were scattered about. She felt a jab of guilt for that. Without his truck, Pete must have had to make do.
Her eyes burned with the strain of night driving and she felt grimy and sticky and cramped from too many hours behind the wheel. The moth that had flown in to keep her company ten miles ago still had not found her open window. The window only went down about six inches before complaining and she'd left it at that, not wanting to force it and maybe break something else. She eyed the lone windshield wiper and wondered how much a new set of wiper blades were going to cost her.
The moth sat fluttering atop the ignition switch. For some reason, it had kept stubbornly to her side of the cab the entire time. She'd cranked the passenger side window down all the way in an attempt to pull some air into the cab against the summer's heat, but the moth never went near it. Stupid bug.
Marie shooed it away to shut the engine off and the moth went mindlessly skating along the windshield. The truck gave up with a hiccup and a wheeze. Seemed the truck was glad to be home, too.
Gathering up her bags, she got the straps hefted over a shoulder and popped the door open. She drew up short as the door banged into something solid; it would only open a few inches. Plastering her cheek against the glass, she tried to look straight down. There was something in the way but she couldn't tell what. Whatever it was, it was damned heavy.
Oh, fine! Whatever. She'd just use the other door. Scooting along the seat, shoving her bags along in front of her, her progress slowly came to a halt as she regarded the support pillar outside the passenger side window. It was far too close. She'd never get this door open, either.
For crying out loud! Could nothing go right? With forced calmness, she untangled herself from her bags and again dug out the keys. All she had to do was back up a foot or two and she could get the door open.
It shouldn't have surprised her in the least that the truck wouldn't start.
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Logan cut the bike's engine and coasted up the drive, a long-ingrained habit after dark. The groundskeeper's quarters were over the garage and Logan didn't want to wake him. Not only that, but Logan often kept late hours. No sense advertising the fact he'd been out prowling-even if he hadn't been, not really. Not tonight.
He glanced up to his left as the light flicked off in the far corner windows on the third floor. Shit. Looked like Jean and Scooter were in for the night. He'd been hoping to talk a few things over with her, things she might help shed some light on. Jean was a woman; she had to know a bit about how Marie's mind worked, and she'd known Marie a long time.
He'd pondered the situation over a few shots of whiskey and an absent-minded game of pool, but had no idea if he was even in the ballpark. But what he thought, what he hoped, was that the reason Marie had left so abruptly was because she'd been in pretty much the same quandary as himself - mutants didn't hook up with humans. Not often, at any rate. Maybe she'd just thought there was no future in it, that the inevitability of discovery was too great a risk. He knew that's where his thoughts had gone to, thinking things over on the drive up here.
Then again, maybe he was just the biggest fool on the planet and she regretted having slept with him, giving up her innocence to a man she'd just met. Even if she'd wanted it at the time, and there was no denying she did, morning-afters were always the time for doubts and second-guessing to set in.
The unanswered questions were making him edgy and restless. He was even considering driving down to Meridian to try and find her. Waiting around for her to get home was going to drive him nuts.
Summers was driving him nuts, too. The guy had acted like a complete dick this morning. Not that that was anything new, but this time he'd been decidedly vicious, personal even, and that was not a level their verbal jousting usually sank to. He figured something must be bugging the guy and he'd just snapped. Logan would have to corner him tomorrow and find out just what it was. Oh joy.
Rolling past the last tree along the driveway, he suddenly hit the brakes. The garage door was open and there was a familiar truck squished between stacked bags of dry cement and a support pillar. She couldn't have cut it any closer if she'd tried to thread a needle.
Holy Christ. She was back already.
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Marie sat with her head lowered on her hands on the steering wheel. This couldn't be happening. Two fucking feet from home and she was stuck.
She'd thought to just crawl out the passenger side window, but the support pillar was almost as wide as the door. Unless she found a handy magic mushroom that said Eat Me and shrank a whole bunch, she wasn't going anywhere. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the moth lazily tip-tapping across the dashboard - a flutter of wings, a pause, another flutter, in no hurry to get anywhere, la dee da.
She suddenly reached out to snatch it, hoping to herd it out the top of her window - but with her bags on the seat, and in the way, she couldn't quite reach it as it went swooping and dipping in the other direction, turning this way and that as if inspecting things. Then it tumbled drunkenly out the open passenger side window and fluttered away to get on with its buggy little life.
Arrgh!! A fucking bug could get out of here but she couldn't? She started to thrash and yank on the steering wheel in utter frustration, her hair flying every which way and kicking at the floorboards. She was close to screaming.
“Whoa, darlin'. Need a hand?” Logan could hardly believe how pissed off she was. Why hadn't she just backed out?
Marie nearly jumped out of her skin. There was a man standing next to the pillar and peeking around the doorframe at her. It was Logan. It couldn't be, but it was Logan.
She stared at him, her eyes wide and her mouth open. Had he followed her here? How had he gotten past the gates?
“Baby, say somethin'. You all right?”
“What - what're you doing here?” Was he a stalker? A bounty hunter? A ghost? At this point, she was betting on the latter.
“I, uh, live here.”
“What?!”
Logan couldn't help it; he started to laugh. It seemed to be a theme. Her eyes were as big as saucers. “Let's get you out of here and I'll explain. Start it up and back out.”
Marie couldn't get her mind working. Lived here? What did he mean? “Uh - um, I can't. It won't start.”
Logan's eyebrows went crooked. “Remind me never to drive with you anywhere. Pop the brake, darlin', and put it in neutral.”
Marie was frozen; she couldn't stop staring at him. “Who - who are you?”
His grin faded and he looked at her steadily, a hand resting on the doorframe. **snikt**
Her eyes got wider, though Logan wasn't sure how. “That tell you anything? I'm not exactly a state secret around here.” Another **snikt** and the adamantium blades disappeared.
Marie looked at him in shock. “You're - you're the Wolv - you're Logan. You're that Logan?”
“How many Logans do you know? Come on, baby, pop the brake so I can roll this thing back. Let's get you outta here.”
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Marie stumbled along next to him, letting him carry her bags. She couldn't get over the fact of who he was. What he was. And that he was here.
She'd heard many a tall tale about the Wolverine, scary stories featuring severed limbs and gnashing teeth; mangled flesh that melted before your eyes and remade itself. A blackly quiet rage barely held in check until the first menacing growl signified his stealthy presence. It was said to be the last thing you'd ever hear other than your own screams.
Yet Logan wasn't anything like that. She couldn't overlap the myth with the man, no matter how hard she tried.
He opened the door to her room like he'd been doing it all his life and stood there waiting for her to precede him. She scooted past, not quite realizing she'd hurried. Logan caught it, though. Maybe her finding out who he was would slam the door on this anyhow. The thought was a terrible disappointment.
He dropped her bags next to the bed and took a look around. He wanted more than anything to yank her into his arms and kiss her until she couldn't breathe. Didn't look like that was in the cards, though. She was more than skittish and everything just felt awkward. “No roommates, huh?”
“No. I've always had a room of my own. The skin thing - scares people off.”
A dead silence fell between them and Marie realized that maybe he didn't know what she was talking about. “My mutation - it - ”
“Yeah, darlin', I know. Jeannie filled me in.”
She listened to him explain about Pete's smelly dog, about having figured out who she was; about having a talk with Jean. That last bit made her uneasy. An intimate encounter away from the school was one thing; it was private. But this - did everyone know she'd taken a tumble with a man she'd just met? And the Wolverine, of all people?
Logan could see what she was thinking. “Nobody knows a thing, darlin'. Well, Jeannie sort of figured it out. But you know she ain't one to talk. You want to keep this between us for now, that's okay.”
“For - for now?”
Logan stepped over to her and tried not to be pissed that she backed up until she couldn't go any farther, cornered by the bathroom door. Actually, he tried not to be hurt. “I'm not a monster, Marie.”
She stared up at him, and not quite knowing why, her eyes welled with tears. She was so tired from the drive and utterly confused and yes, a little bit afraid of him - which after thinking about it for a moment she knew was ridiculous. He'd been nothing but good to her, in every way imaginable. And underneath all the chaotic thoughts, she was so damned glad to see him she could barely stand it. She didn't have any idea how to act.
Her breath caught as he leaned closer, his hand on the wall over her shoulder effectively caging her in place.
“Tell me what you're thinkin'.”
Marie blushed and stammered and fought the tears to a standstill. “I - I… I don't know.” She needed some space, she needed to think. Him standing so close was robbing her of ability to do that. “I - I need to take a shower. I have to wash my hair.”
She shut her eyes and wanted to drop through the floor. It was probably the stupidest comeback in all of history.
To her surprise, he laughed. Sensing how flustered she was, he didn't want to push it. Her eyes flew open as his mouth grazed her ear and his warm whisper made her want to fall into him. How she managed not to, she'd never know.
“Okay, baby. Go on and get cleaned up. We can talk later.”
He stepped back to give her room to grab her bags and she paused, a hand on the bathroom door. “Wait for me?”
That lopsided grin of his was like a punch to her stomach. God, he was a gorgeous man.
“You didn't seriously think I was goin' anywhere, did you?”
She watched as he stretched out on her bed, making himself right at home. Legendary bad-ass or not, he looked good lying there, and Marie thought she was the luckiest woman alive.
A brilliant smile lit up her face. “I'll hurry, sugar. Don't fall asleep.”
Sugar? Oh, man. He could get used to this in a big hurry. “Not alone I won't. Now get.”
Marie planned to take the fastest shower of her life.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
"I--I have to take a shower. I have to wash my hair."
Chapter End Notes:
This wraps up jj's portion of the proceedings. Anything anyone doesn't like from here on out, it's all my fault.