“What do you think?” Logan asked. Scott rubbed the back of his head, his eyes fixed on to the radar.
“I was thinking about how nice it would be to sleep on a real bed for a change. I was thinking how good a fresh, rare steak would taste. But you wanted my opinion about that lumber mill we passed few minutes ago, right?”
“That would do.”
“I don’t know. It’s a low risk. Low yield as well. Are you willing to risk everything for possibly nothing?” Scott asked. Logan shrugged his shoulders.
“There was a small airfield close by. No big cities, just a small shanty and it looked deserted. From the sight of that forest I’d say that the mill was closed long before legacy hit.”
“We could get fuel. But what about food and water? If nobody lived there, I highly suspect...”
“I could hunt,” Logan proposed. The fact that Scott was now steering the blackbird in a wide circle around the area they were discussing gave him hope. At the beginning of this all he had been far from thrilled over the prospect of spending a small eternity up in the air, but so far he had endured it. Now there was a chance to walk on a sturdy ground and breathe fresh air. He wasn’t going to give it up without a fight.
“And I think I saw a small lake down there as well. Looked clear enough for me,” he pressed on. Resolve on Scott’s face began to crack.
“I don’t know... It’s...” As if on cue Jean walked in to the cockpit.
“Are we going to land soon? I really need to pee, but I’d rather wait until we’re on the ground than risk turbulence,” she said.
“Oh, for fuck’s sakes. Buckle up, people. I’ll bring this bird down,” Scott huffed.
“Better do as he tells, he got his licence by watching Top Gun,” Logan smirked.
“You’d rather land on your own?” Scott asked. Logan raised his hands, still smiling.
“She’s all yours, Scooter. Just make sure that you don’t wreck our wings. There’s no mechanic or spare parts available if you break something...”
It was meant as a joke, but too soon they learned the true meaning behind those words. One of the landing gears let out an alarming shriek as the Blackbird touched the ground, then suddenly the whole jet tilted on one side and they could hear the feared sound of metal tearing.
“Oh, Christ. That just didn’t happen,” Scott whispered, his hands still grasping the armrests of his seat.
“I hate to break it to you, Scooter, but I heard that, too. It definitely happened,” Logan said, mixed feelings of disappointment and all-engulfing relief sloshing inside of him.
“It was the wing. It was the fucking wing...” Scott chanted, unbuckling his seatbelt, then grasping Logan from the lapels of his jacket.
“It was the fucking wing and it’s your entire fault! If you didn’t have the bright idea to land here, the jet would be alright and we’d be high up there, safe from the shit that waits for us out there!” Summers practically screamed. Logan raised his palm and slapped him on his cheek, hard enough to leave a mark. Scott fell silent, still clutching Logan’s jacket in a death grip, red glow of his concussive beam dancing behind the dark surface of his visor.
“Get a grip, asshole. It was just a wing. Could have been worse. Engines could have broken while we were in mid air,” Logan hissed and struggled loose from his hold.
“I’ll go and see if Jean and Marie are alright,” he said leaving Scott standing in the cockpit.
He found both women from the outside, staring at the broken down wing.
“You two okay?” He asked. Marie merely nodded, but Jean burst laughing out loud and took a few skipping steps on the ground before calming down and smoothing her slightly tousled hair.
“Please, don’t tell Scott that I did that,” she asked, her eyes full of remorse but the corners of her mouth still curling to a wide smile.
“I won’t tell if you don’t,” Logan promised.
“It’s just... I don’t know how much longer I could have kept going like that. Do you have any idea what is it like when you can hear every thought around you? When you know what other people are thinking before even they know it? What is it like when you know that there’s no way out of it, no way to get some distance to them?” Jean whispered, now completely serious.
“I have inkling about it. So it’s basically a good thing that...” Logan paused and they turned to look at Scott who walked down the ramp. His shoulders, usually wide, were no sagging. His whole posture seemed somehow bent and twisted; he looked like an old man, decades older of his true years. Crashing of the jet had crashed him as well. Logan cleared his throat.
“Like I was about to say, it’s basically a good thing that this happened here. There’s an airfield just around the corner, so it shouldn’t be a problem to fix this...”
“Shut up, Logan. We both know that it’s quite unlikely that an airfield in the middle of Nowhere, right next to Bumfuck is equipped to handle this kind of emergencies. As of starting today we won’t be flying anymore. Not with Blackbird. And I have my doubts about optional vehicles, at least aerial. For now we’re quite efficiently stuck out here,” Scott said, grasped Jean’s hand and lead her back in to the Blackbird.
“I’m going to pack up this bird with Jean! Go and see if there’s a suitable place for a home base anywhere near!” He cajoled and Marie and Logan could hear them opening up cabinets and jostling their cargo.
It sounded like the usual Scott Summers, fearless leader and their trusted pilot. They didn’t learn until much later how badly exactly the crash had damaged him and his view of their situation.
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