Logan found he always did his best thinking in one of three places – in the cage while deciding how long to wait before beating the shit out of a some drunk redneck, in the truck while meandering from one out of the way town to another, or in front of the TV while watching either sports, the weather, or the news. As he made the short drive to the diner, Logan’s thoughts were plagued with all of the responses he had extracted or provoked from Marie. It wasn’t just the sexual reactions he brought to mind. He also reviewed the ways she reacted to him verbally and physically both when they were having sex as well as when they weren’t.
Waiting for their breakfast order while watching an old Flames/Redwings game on ESPN Classic, Logan considered his own actions and reactions. Giving Marie up hadn’t even crossed his mind in all this, his honor having long ago lost that particular argument. However he was considering how he talked to her and the ways in which he touched her.
For a man who hated nicknames, he had surely used them a lot over the last thirty six hours. Had it really only been that long? Logan was amazed at how quickly things in his life had changed.
“Your food will be up in a few. Want some more coffee?” Startling at the female voice right behind his head, Logan looked away from the TV to find the petit waitress with bottle blonde hair and pink fingernails who had taken his order standing closely behind him carrying a full pot of coffee and sporting a Cheshire grin. He must have been in deep thought to have not heard or smelled her approach. He gave her a nod and moved his empty cup towards the pot in her hand. She spoke again while pouring the hot coffee.
“After seeing you in the cage last night, I’m surprised you are out and about so early.” Logan was immediately on guard; usually leading statements like hers didn’t end well when the topic was his performance in the cage. She could either be one of a dozen or so women who been hanging on his opponents last night, which he very seriously doubted, or one of the people who bet against him and lost. Logan tried to avoid helping people draw the correct but unwanted conclusion about his propensity to heal quickly. He carefully choreographed his fights, the ways in which he won and how often he won. Still, occasionally someone would put two and two together and realize he shouldn’t be standing up the next day unless he had ‘help’ with his ability to stave off injury.
“Why’s that?” Cocking an eyebrow, Logan simply waited for her reply. Narrowing his eyes at her, Logan tried to place her. Had this twenty something really been at the bar last night? He thought he would have remembered her. She was reasonably nice looking. But there had been no shortage of ramped up woman last night in the bar. More than one had sauntered up to him smelling like they were ready to go. A few had even left the starting line and just wanted him to help them get to the finish line.
Interestingly enough the young girl blushed and twisted her fingers nervously in the skirt of her waitress uniform, all the while straightening her back and pulling up her shoulders to further present to him what in Logan’s estimation were natural C cups. The very pleasant thought that Marie would soon have better breast than the waitress skittered across Logan’s brain.
“Well, you certainly weren’t lacking for interested company from what I saw.” She must have seen the two hot redheads who’d practically dry humped him as they brought him shots of whisky in the cage between the fights. JoAnne, according to the name tag pinned over her left breast that Logan would have had to have been blind not to see, peeked around the nearly empty diner and slid just that much closer to him. Her breast brushed up against his bicep.
“And if I’d been lucky enough to get my hands on you, I sure as heck wouldn’t have let you go until at least dinner time tomorrow.” Logan chuckled. This one was sure good to go should he want to take her to the truck and have a little tete to tete while the rest of his and Marie’s breakfast cooked. Did he have time for a quickie before getting back to Marie? Logan wasn’t sure.
“How do you know I’m not just out gettin’ us some food so she and I can go again?” Logan made sure to let his eyes travel down to her chest and linger. JoAnne’s nipples poked against her tight uniform shirt and her arousal spiked the air.
“Maybe you want a little help working off breakfast?” JoAnne practically purred. She sure was wet and raring to go. Logan wasn’t sure. Did he want to quick lay? Did he want to bring someone back to Marie this soon? Was he ready to share Marie with this girl?
The repeated clang of a traditional diner bell had JoAnne giving him a wishful look and heading towards the kitchen. Chuckling at the exaggerated swing of JoAnne’s hips, Logan moved towards the cash register and knew there was no way he would seriously consider taking this girl back to the hotel.
“Sorry, darlin’. Not today. This is one is too much fun to share. Maybe next time.” Taking the bags from the visibly disappointed girl and leaving her a big tip, Logan winked as he headed out the door.
Walking back to the truck, Logan thought about what he had just called JoAnne. It brought him back to his earlier line of thinking about his use of nicknames with Marie. ‘Darlin’’ was the pet name Logan used with just about every woman he came across – waitresses, bartenders, fight groupies, check out girls, even the X-women. All of them. It was his default name for any woman. ‘Baby’, baby was a name Logan usually only used for women he slept with. He had certainly slept with Marie.
Starting the truck, Logan smiled at the thought. He had slept with Marie in both senses of the word. Actually sleeping with a woman was rare for him, fucking then lounging in bed together in between rounds - yes, sleeping - no. He had also done something with Marie he hadn’t quite managed with other women – he’d gained full control over her. ‘Good girl’ and ‘little one’ were appellations that had subconsciously erupted from him while he exerted his growing control. Logan intentionally wanted to remind Marie who she was and who she now belonged to through his repeated words. But did he really need words?
As he drove back to the hotel, the cab of the truck filling with the aroma of Canadian bacon and maple syrup, Logan concluded it wasn’t his words but his touch that Marie responded to best. Her responses made sense with what little she had told him about her mutation when he first picked her up. Even with the big gaps in what Logan knew about Marie, he knew she hadn’t been able to touch or be touched until the Lab Assholes figured out her collar.
Exactly how long ago was it that someone had touched her? How long ago did she manifest? Was she one of the ones who manifested in their early teens? Or did she manifest later? Logan knew Hank was gathering data on this. The doctor had a theory that when a mutant manifested directly correlated to what form their mutation would take and how powerful their mutation would be. Marie said yesterday in the shower that it had been a long time since anyone had touched her tenderly.
Logan began to wonder how long Marie had been alone, left to fend for herself. Had she been on the road months, days, or even years? All the while associating her “gift”, to put Chuck’s nomenclature on it, with losing everyone and everything she’d ever known? Just how long after her mutation manifested had her family made it clear they didn’t want her? Logan knew from working with the kids at the mansion that there were families who cared and tried to make it work with their mutant children. Logan suspected Marie’s family wasn’t one of those. So she had probably been on the road since the very beginning, but how long ago was that exactly?
What about the lab? What had happened to her there? Logan guessed the creation of the collar was what had prompted her to escape. How many times had she tried to get away before she was successful? She had given him her virginity which had to mean she hadn’t had the collar long. Logan knew, first hand, that sexual abuse within many of the labs was normal, and sometimes encouraged.
The X-men had known about the existence of suppression collars for some time. The Lab Assholes had even had a cruder version they had tried on him when he was their prisoner twelve years ago. However they eventually decided drugs worked more affectively and for longer periods of time against his healing factor. Logan wondered if they had been able to make a collar strong enough would he still be a captive himself? He owed his freedom to one missed dose of medication and the right opportunity.
From what the team had been able to gather on various 3R missions, the collars didn’t work universally. Each collar had to be individually ‘tuned’ to each mutant’s body chemistry and brain waves. The collars couldn’t be used on people like Hank, Kurt or Warren. Well, they worked on mutants with physical mutations but if the collar was removed the mutant was likely to die in the process of instantaneously re-manifesting.
Pulling into the hotel parking lot, Logan again took a quick glance over to the trailer, making sure it and his bike chained in the back were still secure. Satisfied all was well there, Logan headed inside, resolved that today was the day he would find out what he wanted to know about Marie. Today was also going to be the day they should have had yesterday – nice, light and, if possible, low drama. Fleetingly Logan wondered if he could actually accomplish the former without sabotaging the latter.
Hand on the door knob, Logan’s watch caught his attention. Twenty-seven minutes there and back, not bad, he thought. Logan unlocked the hotel room door, while congratulating himself on getting back so quick and, more importantly not bringing JoAnne back with him. He was chucking to himself and maneuvering the bags of food when he realized Marie was in the center of the bed.
Her left hand was balancing one of his towels precariously piled on her head. Logan wondered how much the towel could really be helping as more of her hair had already escaped the towel than was currently corralled within it. It looked like Marie was trying to fastidiously file her toenails one handed. The tip of her tongue peeking out the side of her mouth had him smile. Logan had seen Jubilee doing that same thing with her tongue when she was concentrating on a particularly difficult math problem Jeanne had assigned for homework.
“Ready for breakfast, darlin’?” Quickly shaking his head at making too many comparisons between Jubilee and Marie, Logan plopped the bags on the small round table and started shucking off his jackets, boots and socks.
“Un huh.” She nodded her head while attempting to push her hair back under the towel. In an attempt to not laugh at her while she fought with both her hair and the towel, Logan took a quick scan around the room. During his trip to the diner, Marie had been busy. She had remade the bed, folded up his blue blanket leaving it at the end of the bed, moved the cheap hotel comforter to the corner of the room, draped one of the scratchy hotel towels over the sheets where she was sitting, and neatly arranged all of the manicure tools and lotions out on another of the hotel towels in front of her.
The faint scent of the coco and Shea butter lotion tickled his nose. The leave-in conditioner, the brush, and the comb were neatly laid out on the end table next to the bed. He smiled to himself; she had followed his instructions and then some.
While removing the Styrofoam cartons from the bags, the blue duffle bag he had pulled out earlier caught his eye. In addition to all of the other rearranging she had done, all of Marie’s items from the bathroom had been dried and packed in the bag around his travel case. Logan let out a grunt.
“I see you did some stuff while I was gone, huh?” Turning towards her, Logan saw Marie looking at him like she wanted to bolt out of the room at any second.
“Umm…” She started to twist her hands. Logan watched her closely, looking for any sign she was getting ready to lie to him.
“Marie?” He put his hands on his hips and squinted at her, hoping to make his meaning clear. He wanted the truth and no drawn out bullshit.
“I…” Big intake of breath and then she blurted it out. “I wasn’t sure if we were leaving today or not, so I thought I’d better pack.” Her voice was timid and quiet. She responded to his question while pulling herself into a ball, chin down, legs folded tight into her body. Her arms were crossed in front of her legs protectively as she scooted back on the bed in an effort to wedge herself into the corner of the room at the opposite end of the bed. For anyone else, the change in Marie’s position and body language might have been perplexing but Logan knew what it felt like to not know the boundaries of a new situation and live in fear of retribution for breaking those boundaries. Cursing himself, Logan mentally admitted some of her trepidation was residual reactions to his out of bounds behavior yesterday morning.
“Did you do as I asked while I was gone, Marie?” He tried to keep his voice even, so as to not make anything worse and waited a beat. This wasn’t the type of déjà vu day he wanted for them to have. Deciding he wouldn’t let her hide from the things he asked her and she needed to know that; Logan sat down on the bed, grabbed Marie’s feet and dragged her towards him. She screeched as he pulled her across the bed. Putting a hand on the back of her neck, Logan slowly untied her body.
“Relax, babe, just answer my question.” Again, he kept his voice soft. Convincing her he wouldn’t punish or abuse her for every misstep was going to be difficult. Not that what she had done this morning by being proactive and thinking about them was anything Logan would ever consider punishing her for. “Did you try and do what you thought was best for me, darlin’?” Slowly he started running his hands up and down her calves. Touching her was focusing him and he hoped it was calming her.
“Yes. Yes…I…I…” Her voice was sullen.
“What, Marie?” He lightly touched her chin and her eyes met his.
“I didn’t know if…when we might be leaving.” Taking a deep breath, she shrugged. “I just wanted to be prepared.” She flopped her hands uselessly while she talked, as if moving her hands would explain everything. Logan didn’t think he had ever seen anything so adorable. He kissed her forehead as he ran his hands up and down her calves.
“Tell me what you did while I was gone.” He pulled her into his lap. Logan relished the feel of her naked skin against his clothing. The meager fact that he remained dressed and she remained naked gave him an erotic thrill. He never stopped touching her while she rattled off the litany of tasks she had performed. Marie had used all of the products he’d expected her to. His pride growing at the idea she was already willing to take his direction out of bed as well as in. His ears perked up when she mentioned not being able to find any nail polish.
“My Gran, well she wasn’t really my Gran. She was my daddy’s step-momma. But she was the only Gran I ever knew. Daddy was the oldest child of three, ya see…” Glancing up at Logan, Marie immediately stopped talking. Wanting her to continue, Logan smiled while scooting his back against the headboard bringing her body with his so she was lying with her back on his chest.
“Relax Marie, and go on with your story.” Logan was interested in how much she would tell him. He was hoping to glean more information from her about her past without having to ask her directly. She had talked more than he had expected two nights ago in the truck but yesterday when he had asked her how long it had been since she had eaten regular she struggled with the memories. Wanting to know more, especially how hard the Lab shitheads might be looking for her, Logan encircled his arms around her, hoping keeping her in close proximity would help her be able to talk.
Snuggling around in his arms, Marie arranged herself on his lap facing him her legs wrapping around his back. Again the differences between their respective states of dress cause Logan a small thrill. Having no idea why, he decided he would rather hear her story then fuck her, at least right at this moment. Kissing her temple and flicking a nipple, Logan urged her to go on with her story.
“Well, my Gran, she always said no good woman left the house without nail polish on her toes.” Peaking over his shoulder as if looking for her unadorned toes, Marie started to explain. “She used to have the prettiest toenails. I first remember her painting them when I was really little, three or four maybe. I would spend nights at her and Granddaddy’s house during the summers.” Marie smiled a little and Logan could tell she was remembering a happy time. “She’d let me pick out the color. It seemed like she had hundreds of reds, burgundies, and pinks to choose from.” Marie giggled and smiled as she stared out into the middle space behead Logan’s head. “She even had this hidden stash of regular colors like blue, greens, yellows and purples. She said she always wore the purple and yellow during college football season to show her support for her alma mater – LSU.” Bringing her eyes to Logan’s, Marie shrugged.
“I know it is silly but she made me feel like choosing the color that would go on her toes was the most important decision any one could make right at that moment. I would always pick out the deepest sparkliest red I could find for her to wear.” The smile was back and Marie shook her head. “Hum. Sparklist was one of ‘our’ words. I had forgotten.” Again her eyes found his. Her voice was light and carefree.
“We had a game we would play to see who could make up the silliest word and use it in a sentence everyday for a week.” Marie’s smile was the brightest smile of hers Logan had seen yet. “She always won. Gran was a lawyer after all, but she would always let me get my sentence out early in the day while she pretended to struggle with hers. Granddaddy would pretend he had to help her.” Marie’s face was at ease and relaxed as if seeing the memory in her head brought all of the joy and warmth associated with it to the forefront of her mind.
“What color did you choose for yourself, darlin’?” Watching her face and monitoring her reactions, Logan caught the change in her demeanor and scent as the memory changed, her face darkening and the register of her voice dropping lower. She was angry not scared.
“Momma didn’t want my toenails painted when I was little. Gran respected her wishes on that. However, when I turned sixteen I knew I would get nail polish from Gran on my birthday, because that’s what Gran had always promised. She was living in Arizona by then. She had gotten sick and the South was too wet for her lungs. Frank, her new husband, took her out West because the air was drier. Daddy didn’t talk to Gran much once she moved. I was only allowed to send her Christmas and birthday cards. They wouldn’t even give me her address.” Starting to run his fingers through her drying hair, Logan listened attentively. She was angry about this. It all seemed fresh to her. Logan guessed this couldn’t have happen long before she left home. Marie continued to focus on nothing, seemingly lost in the memory while Logan began rubbing her smooth thigh with his other hand.
“What happened on her birthday, Marie?” Lowering the tone of his voice some, making it more commanding, Logan hoped to nudge her into answering by reminding her of his presence. Gulping in a huge breath, Marie continued her story while clenching her fists in his shirt. She stared over his shoulder again, face stern and eyes pinched. Her scent telling Logan she was hurt by this memory but also pissed off.
“I didn’t get any nail polish. Momma said that she and Daddy had decided I had too much potential to be whore, selling myself on a street corner.” Marie paused and Logan saw what he suspected was pure anger on her face. “Then Momma said that she would do anything in her power to make sure no daughter of hers ever become a slut like Daddy’s step mom had been.”
Logan knew very little about raising children but he damn well knew telling any kid something like that was wrong, complete bullshit, and made the adult in question worthy of a complete trashing. He just growled low, fearing if he moved or said anything he’d do something stupid like pop his claws and offer to go make them take the statement back via claw point. Marie’s voice was small and quiet but she continued. Her words brought Logan out of his own swirling thoughts.
“Momma even showed me the box with my present in it from Gran. Daddy took it into the garage and crushed it with a sledge hammer.” As Marie smirked at Logan, a macabre chuckle escaped her. “Daddy’s garage floor looked like one of those paintings the guy makes by splattering the brush drops on the canvas.”
“Pollock? Jackson Pollock?” Yet another thing Logan would suspect most of the X-geeks at the mansion wouldn’t know. He enjoyed art.
“Yeah, I think that’s him. Daddy’s garage looked like one of his painintgs only with just deep reds and pale pinks.” Marie shook her head as if banishing the image. “I don’t think I ever went back into the garage after that night.” She took in a shuddering breath and released a deep sigh. He knew she was struggling to not cry. Unfortunately, Logan was too pissed to respond to what Marie had just told him and try to comfort her. He wasn’t sure he could listen to much more without expressing his need to throw or hit something. He needed to give himself a distraction.
“Let’s get you something to eat, baby. I bet you are hungry.” As gently as he could, Logan nudged Marie off his lap. While Logan got their breakfast out of the boxes, Marie wrapped up the nail tools in the towel.
Putting their drinks on the table by the bed, Logan handed Marie the boxes and settled himself into his what was quickly becoming customary spot against the headboard. Hoping having her close would keep his anger at her parents in check, Logan tilted his head and Marie immediately moved into the space between his legs, which pleased him to no end. As she had last night when they shared dinner, Marie angled her body into his while unwrapping the plastic flatware for the both of them and settling the boxes on her lap to share food between the two of them.
Marie’s actions to take care of them both were almost pleasing enough to Logan to ease his anger. Logan knew, accepted, and sometimes even embraced, he was a first class ‘A’ number one bastard but it wasn’t in him to viciously and maliciously debase someone he was responsible for the way Marie’s parents had done to her. This had all happened prior to when they knew their child was a mutant. What had they done then? Logan wasn’t quite sure he wanted to know. Unfortunately as they ate, while Marie ate slowly and with grace, Logan’s mind continued to churn over the possibilities of what Marie might have suffered at the hands of those who once professed to love her.
Too upset to be interested in eating all that much, Logan flipped on the Weather channel and urged Marie to continue with her breakfast. It looked like there was a fairly big storm coming in over the next 24 hours. They would need to leave as soon as he got back from the fights tonight if they wanted to have had any hope of making it to the next town on the circuit without battling the worst of the storm.
After navigating the TV to CNN and instructing Marie to put her back to him, Logan sprayed the leave conditioner in her hair and started working the comb through. He kept one ear on the news because the Lab Assholes often used the News Channels to track escapees under the guise of missing person reports and one eye on Marie making sure she was eating as much as he wanted her to. Logan tried to come up with a question that would get her talking but hopefully not upset her. What he said wasn’t what he decided on.
“I like the feel of your hair in my hands, Marie.” Not only had he not meant to say that, Logan hadn’t meant for what he said to come out in the low husky tone. He couldn’t help it, the more he ran his fingers through her hair working the conditioner in, the more he flashed back to the view that very first night of his fingers buried deep within those brown locks as he held her face to his crotch while she sucked him.
“Thank you.” Her response was quiet and Logan could make out the spread of a blush down her neck even with her back to him. “I have always tried to take good care of it.” He could tell by her tone her hair was something Marie had once taken pride in. “When I left ho…” The tone of her voice changed growing bitter. “When I left my parents’ house, I didn’t take much with me but I did take my good brush and comb. I had trouble finding places I could really wash it on the road though.” Logan continued to run his fingers through her hair.
“It’s thick,” he chuckled, “and a little unruly. Kind of like its owner, huh?” The teasing was intended to make her laugh and relax her. Marie giggled as she turned her head so she could see him. “It just needs a little taking care of and then it will be just like it should be – even more beautiful.” Logan’s inter-voice added ‘just like the rest of you.’ Logan hazarded a guess that the small smile on her face was for his benefit only. She still didn’t believe in her own desirability. Yet.
“The last time I had it cut was just a few days before my birthday.” Marie got a faraway look, unconsciously pulling a few lose strands of hair over her shoulder. She stared down at the ends of the strands, flicking it with her fingers. Logan wondered where she was headed with this story. Marie hadn’t told him much about how she ended up on the road yet. “Momma wanted to do a family portrait for my birthday. She surprised me one day after school with a new dress and a trip to get my hair cut.” Marie shook her head, dropped the hair and let out a harsh laugh. “She was the one who ended up surprised, finding Cody in my room. We aren’t doing anything but the door had been shut and that was against the rules. Momma was really upset.” Logan could imagine what kind of commotion a boy in Marie’s room would cause having had to run a few of the boys out of the Girl’s Wing after hours at the mansion himself.
She took in a deep breath. Logan could tell she was getting to the part of the story that was hard for her. He wasn’t exactly sure this story would the one of when her mutation manifested but it was clearly something distressing.
“Maybe that is why Daddy did what he did with the nail polish…I don’t know.” Marie wiped her eyes to corral the leaking tears, the sadness in her scent pushing to the forefront. Reaching around and setting the half eaten breakfast aside and making a mental note that he needed to make her finish that later; Logan scooped Marie more solidly into his arms holding her to his chest. He would sit quiet and listen - for now but if she cried one tear more over these fucks that had the audacity to have once called themselves her parents, he was going to be forced to maim someone – preferably her parents.
“Three nights later Cody climbed up Daddy’s honeysuckle trellis through my bedroom window. He wanted to give me a kiss, a real kiss for my birthday. Instead of giving myself to him like I had planned, my skin decided to suck him in. For a minute I couldn’t move, and then…that’s when I started to scream. Cody rolled onto the floor unconscious. I hid under the bed wrapped in my comforter while Daddy called 911. I could hear Cody in my head even while I stared straight into his unblinking eyes. I thought for sure he was dead.”
Running his hands along her sides and back as a way to ease her, Logan realized Marie was probably cold - naked as she was. Briefly he thought about giving her something to wear and decided against it. There were others ways to get her warm. Keeping her in his arms, he stretched forward, grabbed the blue blanket and wrapped it around her. Marie snuggled deeper into his t-shirt covered chest.
“EMS and the police came. Daddy tried to say Cody had broken in but they found the rope I had tied to my bedpost to help Cody climb the trellis. They took Cody to the hospital. The next day they airlifted him to Baton Rouge. He was still in the hospital the last I knew. I used to call to see how he was doing. But the calls got too expensive the farther away I got.” Her guilt was evident in the way she curled her body and the timid sound of her voice.
“The Clan burned a cross on the yard the next night. I never knew if it was because I was a mutant or because Cody was black.” Now that admission surprised the Hell out of Logan. One would have thought that Southern parents willing to let their daughter date a black boy would have been progressive enough to at least try to prevent their mutant daughter from ending up on the street. Chuck had well disguised ads in all kinds of places troubled teens and their parents might be found – bus stations, Planned Parenthood, psychiatric centers, and even police stations. Help wasn’t that hard if the parents tried.
“My parents threw me out the next morning. Calling me ‘mutant trash’. Pitching all of my stuff on the lawn for the neighbors to see. Yelling that I had better hurry ‘cause the trash man was coming that day. I took what I could carry and sold it at the Pawn Shop in town. I bought a couple of pairs of gloves, a big Snickers bar, a big bottle of water and a bus ticket for as far away as I could get.” Logan noted with a certain amount of pride she had covered the essentials – clothing, food, water, and transportation.
“Where was that?”
“Winnipeg.” Marie shrugged, trying in vain to hide behind an attitude of resignation and a poor façade of nonchalance when talking about the shitty life she’d been sentenced to. “I tried to get a job, but it’s hard when you don’t want to give people you real name or age. I didn’t have any experience either. Momma didn’t believe in girls having jobs while they were still in school, even babysitting, helping at Daddy’s office or anything like that.”
“Your mother didn’t work, Marie?” Logan was wondering if Marie had lived in some kind of 1960s throw back of a town. One of the things he had learned in doing pickups with the X-men was that in the majority of the households he went to both parent’s worked.
“No.” Logan continued to caress her not in a sexual way but just as a way to keep her grounded. Her skin was starting to warm up.
“Why not?” Marie took a deep breath while twisting her fingers in the soft fabric of Logan’s t-shirt. She looked as if she was getting ready to start on another story.
“Daddy was the oldest of three. His momma died delivering my uncle Joey. Daddy blamed my Granddaddy for his momma’s death for some reason. Probably because they were vacationing in Florida at the time and the hospital was far away. Who knows really. Daddy left home right after Joey was born. He was only fifteen. He didn’t talk to Granddaddy again until almost thirty years later when I was born. Granddaddy died when I was twelve.”
“Daddy never liked my Gran very much, maybe because she replaced his Momma. I don’t know. My Gran had been Granddaddy’s student when he taught at the law school and after graduation she worked at his firm. She was just a few years older than Uncle Joey. Gran said she didn’t fall in love with Granddaddy until he’d brought her a chocolate bar after the first case she had lost.” That caused Logan to raise an eyebrow. Obviously Marie’s Granddaddy had been one smooth customer to attract a smart lady probably at least twenty five years his junior. If Marie had any of her looks, the woman had been a knock out to boot.
“Granddaddy had a stroke when I was eight or so. He was in a wheelchair after that. His mind was always real sharp though. I can remember Daddy saying at the time that Gran wouldn’t make it six months before she left Granddaddy. Gran proved Daddy wrong thought; she continued practice law part-time at Granddaddy’s law firm and took care of him the rest of the time. When I stayed with them for the summers, Gran would set us both up on the porch before she would leave for work. Granddaddy would read to me while I played.” The memory was obviously a happy one for her. Logan marveled at the fact all of Marie’s happy memories seemed to revolve around her Grandparents rather than her own parents. He wondered if her parents’ rejection of her mutation was coloring her memories of them or if there simply weren’t that many happy ones of her parents.
“When I was about fourteen Gran hired a handy man to do so work around her big old house. His name was Frank. Gran had been sick a bunch that spring. When I came down with a really bad respiratory infection after staying at her house just a few days, she knew something was wrong with the house. She thought there was a draft coming in from the attic somewhere even though it was summer. Frank was the one who figured out that Gran’s old house was a breeding ground for black mold and that was what was making her sick all of the time. It was an old turn of the century place that Granddaddy had bought for Gran when they got married. He named it ‘High Cotton’. He always said that Gran made him feel like he could conquer the world when he was with her so that put him in high cotton.”
Marie laughed then, a real genuine laugh. Logan smiled. He was amused by the meandering way she was getting around to explaining why her cunt of a mother didn’t work. He wasn’t quite sure where she was headed with this story but it was providing him with insight as to how to get information out her. He still had some tough questions to ask her if she didn’t get there on her own – about how she got to the Lab, what they did to her there and what lengths she thought they might go to in order to get her back. But for now he would wait, not push and see how far she got in the story on her own.
“Unfortunately by the time Gran hired Frank her lungs were scarred and her doctors told her to move to a drier climate.” Logan didn’t need his sense of smell to recognize the sadness coming off of her. He buried his nose in her hair, nuzzling her.
“You miss her, don’t you, darlin’?” He whispered the words into her hair.
“Yes.” It was a whispered answer in conjunction with a small nod, followed by an audible intake of air. Affectionately, Logan grazed a finger along her cheek, pulling back to see her face.
“Maybe you will see her one day.” Logan wasn’t quite sure what part of his head that idea sprang from but…it was out there now. Marie swallowed deep, stared at him for a moment and continued with her story.
“Anyway Daddy always wanted to impress everyone so he started a real estate company. He got Granddaddy to give him money as a silent investor. Gran always said it was Daddy’s way of getting into Granddaddy’s good graces without actually having to be nice to him or become a lawyer like his brothers. Since Daddy wanted to look like everything was always perfect and he could do it all by himself, he forbid Momma from working. Momma had what Gran called a ‘MRS’ degree. Gran wouldn’t ever tell me what that stood for. Do you know, Logan?”
She looked up at him again. Her face was one of pure innocent curiosity. At that moment, Logan would have sworn the twinkle in his eye could have powered a star. He knew that a ‘MRS’ degree was a euphemism for the degree earned by a woman who only goes to college to find a husband. He had heard Jean use the term when counseling female seniors about the seriousness of their college options. He also knew it wasn’t a particularly flattering term. Logan was growing to like Marie’s Gran more and more.
“I am not sure the MRS part actually stands for anything, Marie.” She looked at him like she didn’t truly believe him but wasn’t willing to push it. “So your mother didn’t work because your father told her not to for the sake of appearances?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Again she shrugged the mask of detachment almost fully in place. “Daddy made enough money that she didn’t have to. Momma was always so worried about attending all of the meetings at the Ladies’ League and making sure I got to all of the dance and etiquette classes she wanted me to take.” Now Marie’s face morphed into something Logan hadn’t seen before. If he had to put a name to it, he would have called it a shit eating grin mixed with a sarcastic smirk. It was a look he could grow proud of.
“When I first got to Winnipeg, I tried to put all of those dances classes to good use and was almost a stripper for awhile…” Marie laughed but was it more resigned than amused. She looked straight in Logan’s face and said her next words.
“It didn’t work out but I guess maybe momma was right about me and that turning to a whore thing.” Logan’s entire being rebelled against what Marie had just said.
“Your mother was a bitch, Marie.” Marie stared at Logan as if he had told her the world really was flat and that we hadn’t ever landed on the moon. Logan was appalled by her reaction. He couldn’t believe she would still have such belief in the opinions of people who had thrown her out with the trash.
He was upset enough that he knew he had to move or he would yell, rant, rave and other generally stupid things to do in front of someone who had suffered like Marie had. Trying to be gentle despite how pissed he was, Logan slid Marie off his lap, hoping that getting a beer would give him enough time to come up with a way to explain what he was thinking without terrifying her while he was doing it, like he had yesterday with the ‘stay right here’ comment.
Marie had value. Whores didn’t have value for anything other than what you paid them for, but Marie… She was no whore. What made her valuable was the fact he’d decided he wanted her. And because he wanted her, she had value. She was even more valuable because she was willingly his. It didn’t have to make any sense to anyone but him. However there was no way on God’s green Earth he would have her believe that she was something as throw away to him as a hooker.
Grabbing a Molson’s out of the little hotel frig and slugging down a good half of it, Logan wiped his mouth with his sleeve and pointed the bottle at Marie to emphasize his point. The hand not holding the bottle and pointing at Marie clenched at his side helping him maintain some semblance of control.
“I don’t ever fuckin’ want to hear you say that about yourself,” A pause. “Or us again, Marie.” He knew she didn’t understand his addition - calling them an ‘Us’ but Logan didn’t care. Marie didn’t need to know or comprehend everything he had planned for her right at this moment. However this…her inherent value was a fundamental piece of what she was to him; this she had to understand because it explained how much he was willing to put into her, how much value he’d already put into her. This she would learn and believe he would make sure of it, just as she had already learned he expected her to obey him.
“Do you hear me?” His voice was calm but stern. It was his ‘I caught you coming in after curfew after being stupid - AGAIN’ voice. Logan started to prowl the small room, his mind wholly focused on explaining why believing herself the equivalent of a hooker was wrong on every level.
“Do you think I’d offer to take care of just anyone? Do you think I would want just any one to be my good girl do you?” Marie had pulled the blue blanket into her lap and was hiding behind her hair. Logan counted to five and asked again, doing a bad job of hiding his frustration. “Well, do you girl?” His voice had taken a dip for the rougher. He was starting to lose his temper.
“Well…I…” Marie squirmed under Logan’s squint.
“Well, what Marie?” Slamming the beer bottle hard on the table, Logan moved toward her. “Don’t you think I could randomly fuck any woman I wanted to? Did it ever occur to you that I have? That I could have quite easily come back here with the little blonde waitress from the diner?” Marie’s head shot up at Logan’s statement. He took another step toward her, crowding over her as she sat in the bed. “That I can’t afford to bed any number of random hookers should I want to? Do you honestly think you are the same as them? Do you honestly think I would have WANTED to feed you, clothe you and keep you safe if I thought you were the same as them?”
Standing deathly still, Logan watched Marie struggle in her hesitation to give him his answer. Logan knew of only one sure way to fix this. In blink of an eye, Logan pulled Marie to the end of the bed and pinned her down. Her bare legs splayed, his hips wedged into her pelvis, her hands held above her head with one of his, his face was just inches above hers, her neck forced back in submission displaying his mark to the world.
Logan pressed two fingers on his free hand to his mark on her neck. Marie let out a moan. The sudden movement of his actions may have scared her but Logan knew the pain reminded her of who she belonged to, who had given her that mark and the pleasure that came with the pain as she got it. Logan took in a big sniff as her arousal bloomed. It helped him calm down - a little. After waiting until she met his eyes, Logan spoke through a clenched jaw.
“Now baby girl, you best get it through that pretty little head of yours that you are mine,” The word came with a tightening of his hands on her wrists, the rolling of his hips and press to the bite mark. “And what’s mine gets cared for,” A quick nuzzle of her cheek and the sensitive space behind her ear. “What’s mine is special,” A quick lick of her nipple and harder press of his pelvis to hers. “What’s mine gets fought for with blood and sweat and pain” He circled the mark with his fingers while bending down to pull on her collar with his teeth. “So even if no one else thinks that what’s mine is special; it is. It is because of what it costs me to get it.” Logan looked her straight in the eye, pivoted his hips and squeezed her hands to emphasize his point. He could see Marie’s eyes searching his face, but for what he didn’t know. There was silence for more than a few moments. Marie swallowed deep, her eyes were huge and her cheeks were red. He initial furry fading, Logan was afraid he’d gone over the top again.
Then something completely out of Logan’s range of expectation happened, Marie kissed him. Not a peak on the lips or a whisper on the cheek but a passionate lips, tongue and teeth kiss. Logan returned it, what man wouldn’t? But he slowed it down, turned it slow and lingering, and made the movement of their months a dance rather than a dual.
“That’s my good girl.” Breaking away Logan smiled content in the moment while Marie giggled. He thought it might be a good day after all.
As Logan shifted off of her onto more of the bed, Marie curled herself under the blanket. She wasn’t sure what to make of this morning. She still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the man who seemed to value her so highly and so quickly after meeting her but what could she do? He owned her and she was gradually becoming okay with that. Besides she wasn’t about to risk being an experiment again.
“We understand each other, Marie?”
“Yes. I…I think so, but you might have to remind me again.” Marie caught herself. Did she just flirt with him? Logan looked almost like he wanted to press her, but then he just gave her a small nod and sat up.
“Sit up, baby. You need to finish your breakfast before it gets any colder.” He grabbed the food container and started cutting up the remaining food into small bites. “Besides I want to continue to hear about your adventures.” Marie wasn’t sure she was really all that hungry and was about to say so when Logan asked his next question. “How long were you in Winnipeg?” Marie figured that eating might keep her from having to relive too much of what came with the answer to that question.
“Oh, for a good long time,” Logan raised an eyebrow at her. Marie swallowed. She wasn’t supposed to lie to him. “Really, months and months.” With a look of what Marie guessed was disbelief, Logan feed her a bit of sausage link. As Marie chewed she thought about what to do. She wasn’t completely foolish. She knew Logan wanted to know more about her time on the road. When he picked her up two nights ago, he’d asked her some basic questions about who she was, where she had come from, and why she was hiding in his trailer.
Marie now guessed she had probably told him too much then. That first night, as they had headed towards the hotel they were now in, Marie hadn’t even considered she would be with this man for more than one night. At the time she had vaguely hoped that if he knew a bit about what had happened to her, he might be a little nicer to her. Logan certainly hadn’t hurt her…well not really, bite marks aside.
But Logan had said he wanted to keep her that he would take care of her and keep her safe. Marie looked up to find Logan starring at her, a bite sized bit of pancake ready and waiting on the fork he held in his hand. She was at a loss what the look on his face meant.
“You went away there for a minute, darlin’. What were you thinkin’ about?” Marie mentally braced herself and decided if she really was the Rogue, she had to ask. Just like the yesterday morning when she had asked if she was the only one he got hard for, she shored up her courage and asked her question.
“Logan, may I ask you something?” Looking at her, in what Marie assumed was awry expression; Logan took that moment to feed her the bite of pancake.
“Sure, baby, what’s on your mind?”
“When did you decide you wanted to keep me?” He chuckled, moved the breakfast stuff aside, and pulled her into his lap blanket and all. He slid them down a bit and rolled. Marie quickly found herself laying flat on the bed cradled in his arms as Logan gently leaned over her.
Logan looked the sweet young body laid out before him recalling those few moments standing in the snow after she had made her offer of anything. He had already known what he truly wanted from her at that moment. He had never had any other intentions but to keep her. She had been a ripe fruit ready for picking and Logan was a starving man.
Damn she was beautifully his and his alone. He could do anything to her, with her…and she would probably let him as long as he kept his word. His hands petted her stomach and upper thighs. Logan wondered if he made a conscious effort could he sexually excite her by touching her in places other than her lips, breasts, and clit.
He would have to wait for another time to find out. No matter how excited he got, or got her, he vowed he would have his answers about the lab before he let her touch him, undress him, or he let her come. Raising an eyebrow and calculating his options, Logan worked through his plan of action. He wasn’t going to bargain with her. He wasn’t about to get in a habit giving her things or information he wasn’t ready to give just because she asked. Logan knew he had to handle her question in a way that gave Marie what she needed but kept him in firm control of their dynamic.
“Marie, let’s get something straight right here and now. There are some things I want to know about you and I am gonna find them out today, this mornin’. No dancin’ around it, no pussy footin’, but straight I ask the questions you provide truthful responses, got it?” She hesitated. “Marie?”
“Yes, Logan.”
“Good. While we are at it…” Logan lifted his eyes to the food container on the corner of the bed. “New rule, you eat what I tell you to, when I tell you to and however much I tell you to.” Grazing his hand not embedded in her hair across the underside of her breast over her ribs caused Marie to catch her breath. Logan’s gaze moved up to her face from where it had been on her body. “You are too thin and I aim gonna fix that as soon as possible. So I want you to eat the rest of that breakfast when we are done talkin’.” The look he gave her wasn’t one that would have accepted ‘No’ as an answer.
“Yes, Logan.”
“Now the answer to your question, it’s an easy one, baby. From the moment I accepted your offer.” He nuzzled her neck, tugged on the collar with his teeth and licked at the mark on her neck. Tightening his hand in her hair, he whispered against her skin.
“Now tell the truth about Winnipeg, Marie.” He felt her whole body tense against his. Logan continued to whisper against her skin. “It’s all right, no punishment this time, just don’t do it again. No lying to me is a rule, remember?”
“How…how did you know?” Her voice was also a whisper. Logan pulled back from her neck with a grin on his face. He was amused that she still marveled at his ability to read her. Marie was going to get the same answer he had given her before. Logan mirrored her volume with his own responding in a quite tone.
“I told you Marie, you are mine and I will always know.” He kissed her forehead. Again he breathed against her skin but his voice wasn’t playful, it was firm, still quiet but firm. “Now, Winnipeg, Marie.”
Marie knew she was in the proverbial corner. Resigned, she pressed her body up into Logan’s chest. When his arms wrapped around her, Marie guessed he understood and accepted her want to hide in his arms while she did this.
“It was late August when I ran.” She didn’t think she would be able to look at him while she told him any of this. Getting her voice above a whisper was going to be impossible. “When I bought my bus ticket I knew I just wanted to get as far away as I could. I thought about Mexico but my Spanish isn’t very good despite taking it all through junior high. And Granddaddy always said the most beautiful place in the world was Alaska. Gran would always giggle when he said that and remind him the only time he’d ever been there was on their honeymoon and she wasn’t really sure how much of the actual state he saw.” Marie shot him a wily smile. Logan laughed at that. Yep, Marie’s Grandfather sure sounded like a guy that Logan would have enjoyed. “Anyway, I decided to go North.”
“Winnipeg was as far as I could get. When they made me get off at the bus station in downtown Winnipeg, I almost turned myself in to the police as a runaway right then.” Logan grunted. He knew why she would say that. The bus station was in the worse part of downtown. You couldn’t go twenty feet and not run into a hooker, a crack house or both. The bar Logan usually fought at when he was in Winnipeg wasn’t far from the bus station as a matter of fact.
“Not a great part of town, is it?” Marie shook her head. Logan rolled off of her onto his side and pulled her to him so they were facing each other.
“No, that’s where I first got the idea about being a stripper. I didn’t do try it right then, I wasn’t that desperate quite yet.” Marie rhythmically petted Logan’s shirt. He was breathing into her hair as he ran his hands up and down her body. “I walked up to the interstate and tried to get a ride to a better part of town. I ended up walking ten miles to what I think was the start of the suburbs.” Marie tried to keep her voice steady. She wasn’t ashamed of what she had done in those early days on her own trying to survive.
“I tried to get a job at a few of the businesses in a strip mall. But I was sleeping behind the dumpsters so I know I was getting a little fragrant.” Logan squeezed her tight and Marie felt him stifle a chuckle. “I tried to use the water spigot in the back of the restaurant in the corner of the mall but…well it was just hard to get my clothes washed. I was afraid if they found me living outside I would get arrested. It wasn’t like I could hang out the wash. I had been living on the jar of peanut butter I bought somewhere in the mid-West. I was out of money. It was getting too cold to sleep outside no matter how many layers I had on. I felt like I didn’t have much choice.” This is where Marie felt like she had started to make mistakes.
“So on a Sunday I walked back to the first strip club. I was overjoyed they agreed to give me a job. The manager told me that the gloves would be a turn on to the men. The ‘talent’ at the club had to start behind the bar and work their way on stage. I worked the bar for about two weeks. It didn’t matter that I was wearing jeans and long sleeves as long as the jeans were tight and the shirt had cleavage.” Marie shook her head remembering. “Since we were expected to eventually dance too we didn’t get a salary only tips regardless of whether we danced or worked the bar.”
“No one knew I was sleeping in the back of the club. There was a full bathroom in the girls’ dressing room. I took a real shower for the first time in the four weeks since I had run from home the day they hired me. In those two weeks working the bar, I was able to do my laundry, wash my hair, and eat once a day every day,” Marie felt Logan plant a kiss on her head. “I was making between thirty and seventy bucks a day working the bar. The other girls told me they made a hundred on stage even on a slow night. I wanted to try and get enough money to get a car so I would have someplace to live and a way around so I told the manager I wanted to ‘audition’. I got one of the other girls to give me a ride to the place where they got their costumes. I spent almost two hundred dollars on the costume and body suit. I had my song picked out and everything. I ‘auditioned’ for the bouncers that following Monday.”
Marie pulled away so she could see his eyes. He didn’t look like he was upset over what she was telling him.
“Logan, aren’t you mad?”
“About what, Marie?”
“That I would have done something like that. Shown myself to strangers like that.”
“Well I guess I might be but you told me you didn’t strip.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “That’s the truth isn’t it, Marie?” She let out a big sigh and looked away. The silence lengthened longer than Marie was really comfortable with. She knew he would demand she answer. “Marie?” Marie knew that tone of voice and closed her eyes, resolved she was going to have to admit how stupid she had been.
“I never danced for anyone other than the bouncers. Once I ‘auditioned’ the head bouncer said I should work the private room to ‘get my moves down’.” Marie heard Logan make a noise like he had a deep cough in his chest. “I…well Logan I did something really stupid. I thought I could do it. I should have known better and stayed working behind the bar. But I really thought I would be able to give a lap dance and not have the guy touch me. I had a body suit on and was covered just about everywhere but my face. But the guy...” Marie huffed. She still felt guilty about what had happened. “Well he was…was drunk. He didn’t follow the rules and I hadn’t ‘tipped’ the bouncers before going in,”
“Tip’em so they would keep the guys from gettin’ outta line?” To Marie it sounded like he knew how all of that worked. Marie stared at him wondering, Logan provided an answer to her unspoken question. “I have been a bouncer for some of the bars that had both fights and dancers. It was good easy money when the circuit wasn’t running.”
“I didn’t know I was supposed to tip them or I would have. I had money then, I could have.”
“What happened, Marie?”
“Well this guy, when I got ready to get started he wanted me to actually sit on his lap first. He said he wanted to whisper something important in my ear. We weren’t supposed to touch the men and they weren’t supposed to touch us, which is why I thought I could do it.” Her frustration at herself, her skin, her situation and her naiveté at the time was flaring up. “I tried to explain to him, but the guy grabbed me by the arm. The body suit had only capped sleeves and my gloves were only three quarter length…” She let out a whine and shivered. Logan’s hands just caressed her back and thighs. His voice remained in the soft whisper it had been since she started talking but Marie knew the steel behind it.
“You touched him?” She nodded hoping that would be enough but Logan waited her out and she gave in and answered.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“What happened?” Now that just pissed her off. Marie squirmed to get away from him and managed to pull herself into sitting position on the bed facing away from him. She was trying to reign in her temper but she couldn’t.
“What the Hell do you think happened, Logan? The same thing I told you to happened to anyone who touched me before I got the collar. I almost drained the bastard to death, that’s what happened!!” She got up off the bed and moved away from him.
Logan was almost blown over. Marie hadn’t ever cussed in front of him nor had she ever exhibited this level of anger. As she talked, it became clear to him that Marie somehow blamed herself for having to do what she had done. Logan wasn’t particularly sure what the big shame about being a stripper was, he happened to like strippers, but he had been known to have a questionable moral character. That might actually be the understatement of the year, he thought. Marie was standing in front of the hotel room mirror with her back to Logan staring at him. When he caught her eyes she glanced away from him and focused on her own body.
“I can still hear him in my head, Logan. He isn’t a particularly bad man but I reminded him of his daughter. He wanted to apologize for not being there when she was growing up. Logan, I put him in a coma. I don’t know for how long either, but must have been a long time. The EMTs had to restart his heart when they got there. I grabbed my stuff and ran that night.” Logan got up off the bed, picking her up, carrying her back and cradling her in his arms. She didn’t even seem to notice he had done it.
“I knew the club manager would hand me over the police if they asked too many questions about what happened to the guy. I didn’t want to get arrested and sent home, especially not after being found in a strip club.” Again Logan marveled that she would still put any stock at all in the opinions of the people who raised her.
“I walked east all night. I just put my regular clothes on top of my body suit. I was afraid something like that would happen again. I got picked up by a lady trucker sometime in the early morning the next day. She was headed to Newfoundland and said she would take me the entire way if I wanted. I had a little money for food so I took the ride.”
“When did you get to Newfoundland, baby?” Logan was starting to do the math in his head. She said she ran in late August. When she got the job in the club she had been in Winnipeg four weeks, worked there two or three more, that would mean she took the ride sometime in early October. “It gets cold up that way in the winter. What did you do when you got there? Not much up that way but fishermen.” There were still some missing months in her story. Had she been in the lab longer than she thought? Did she know it was mid May now?
“Yeah,” She let out a grim laugh. “I found that out when I got there. I tried to get another job doing something where I worked alone or stayed completely covered. I pulled pots on a shoreline crab boat for about a week…You know the little ones, not those big ones you see on TV.” Logan just nodded. He knew what crab pots she was talking about, the little four foot by two foot ones, but he had no idea what TV show she was talking about
“Between the waders, the gloves, the thick sweatshirt with the hood, and the hat I felt okay that I wouldn’t touch someone.” Her mutation had obviously been more confining than he had realized. She must not have ever gained control of it. It happened sometimes – like a Scooter, the Boy Scout. The collar must be both a blessing and a curse to her. Logan wondered how she felt about it and if she would take it off if she could.
“The fisherman, Ralph, who gave me the job, didn’t own the boat and when the engine went out the owner refused to fix it. Ralph wasn’t paying me very much. I had been staying at a crummy little hotel in town paying them by the day with money from the catch, so I didn’t have much cash. I knew the hotel would lock me out of my room if I didn’t pay them so I grabbed my stuff and took off.”
Marie went on to tell Logan how she had gotten another few rides always trying to hook up with long haul truckers. She ended up having to get out of one ride because she hadn’t realized the guy was headed across the US boarder and she didn’t have a passport. She had managed to find little odd jobs she could do here and there for a week or two at a time but never anything permanent. She never mentioned wanting to stay and find a place to live after Winnipeg. Logan was cataloging all of things that could have happened to her out on the road when the word March caught his attention.
“What did you say Marie?” He shook her a bit and Marie seemed to really focus on him for the first time since he brought her back to the bed.
“I said I got picked up by this old guy who looked so much like Santa I thought I would be safe. But he spiked my sweet tea and sold me to the lab about four weeks ago, sometime mid February.” Logan immediately bolted up, abandoning Marie on the bed. He could feel the blood leaving his face. Marie slowly sat up with him. “Logan, what’s wrong?”
He could feel her hands on his back. She wasn’t afraid of him at the moment; well she didn’t smell more afraid than normal. Logan knew he had to tell her. She had lost time. He had to tell her. This was a microcosm of his own experience. Logan wasn’t sure if he would be able to handle telling her, never mind being there for Marie. Turning back around to face her, Logan pulled her back to the bed and into his lap once more. He cradled her head to his chest and wondered how bad this was going to be – for both of them. Taking a bracing breath, Logan spoke.
“Marie, its mid-May, May 19th I think to be exact. Today should be a Monday.” Logan could feel Marie’s whole body stiffen and shudder. She curled her fingers into his shirt and held on. He could feel the minutes ticking by but Logan had no intention of rushing Marie on coming to terms with this fact.
“Okay…okay.” She looked up at him with watery eyes. “Logan, are you sure?” He kissed her lips slowly trying to make it all better. It wasn’t as long as the decades he had lost but it might as well have been to her. Losing time was a pain Logan was intimately familiar with. He knew there wasn’t much he could do for her now except comfort her, hold her and try to take good care of her. All that and kill those fuckers who did this to her when he found them.
“Yeah, baby. I am sure. Listen, I know you may not want to, especially now...but you need to tell me about the lab or…or at least what you remember.” Logan watched as big crocodile tears ran down her cheeks.
“But Logan, why? Why do you have to know? It hurts to think about.” This was as close to a hysterical panic Logan had seen from her. Slowly Logan rocked her back and forth, wiping the tears away with his thumbs.
“Oh I know, baby, I know but…” He kissed her long and hard, putting all of the emotions running through him into the movement of his lips and tongue. “Marie, what did I tell about how it is gonna be now?” Still slightly dazed from the intensity of his kiss, he could see Marie struggling to comprehend what he had just asked her.
“That you would take care of me...” Logan nodded. There was more, he was confident she knew that. “That you would feed me and clothe me.” He waited a beat.
“And the rest?” A big big sniffle. Logan’s shirt was wet through with her tears.
“That you would keep me safe?” It was more of a question than Logan thought it would or should be.
“Yes, Marie, that I would keep you safe. I need to know what happened, who might be lookin’ for you and how much they might want you back in order to do that.” She was scrabbling against him now, her nails scratching against his chest, shaking her head no. Rolling them both, Logan pinned her underneath his frame and thanked all that was great about sex, Molson’s and cigars; his own little Holy Trinity, that he’d left his shirt on. The last thing he wanted to do right now was explain away the disappearing scratches she would be putting on his chest if it were bare.
“Logan, Logan, you can’t.” Marie’s voice was rapidly reaching higher and higher octaves. “These guys were military. There were bars and alarms and drugs and all kinds of soldiers with guns.”
Logan grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head. She was going to hyperventilate if she wasn’t careful. He kept his voice low and calm. After a few minutes it became clear calling her name, murmuring in her ear for her to breathe and relax wasn’t working. Logan used his other hand to keep her still by bracing it across her stomach. Despite having her hands and body pinned, Marie still struggled fruitlessly against Logan’s bigger frame. She twisted her neck and Logan saw the solution to the situation.
Moving the hand laying across her stomach around to grab her hair, Logan used his face to push her neck to the side. Pausing just a moment to make sure she hadn’t calmed down and finding she hadn’t, Logan moved with lightening quick speed, bared teeth, and impeccable accuracy. He bit her hard – very hard.
Marie screamed. Logan felt her body tense but almost instantly relax. She was sobbing but her breathing was deeper. Logan licked the bite hoping to ease some of the pain as he whispered in her ear.
“That’s enough, baby girl. Take a deep breath in.” Logan paused as she followed his instructions. “Hold it until I say let it out.” Shifting some of his weight off of her, giving her the space to breathe, Logan counted to ten. “Okay let it out.” She did. He licked his mark as a reward. Repeating the same instructions over and over, rewarding her with a tender lick or kiss to her neck each time she obeyed. Gradually he could hear her fluttering heartbeat start to slow and she calmed.
Once Marie seemed to have returned to herself a bit, Logan moved the two of them up to the head of the bed. Hopefully he could allay her fears and still not have to tell her everything.
“Marie, listen to me now very carefully.” A touch to her chin and her watery eyes instantly found his. “You know what I do for a living?” A nod. “Well that means I am a Hell of a good fighter. Now I also have been around the block a few times,” That is an understatement, he thought. “Done some work for the government here and there,” The smart ass part of his brain adding sometimes voluntarily and sometimes not. “So that means I am not just a hell of a fighter but one bad ass mother fucker.” He got a tiny nod from her, maybe even the allusion of a smile. “So I just need to know a few things so I can be on the looked out and prepared should we run into any of these guys.” This was the part he wasn’t sure he should tell her.
“And Marie, if we do run into them, don’t worry, they won’t be around long enough to hurt you. I will, sure as Hell, see those bastards go down and go down hard long before anything could happen to you.” She was looking at him with those wide eyes again. Logan couldn’t help it; he ran his fingers through her hair and swooped in for a quick kiss. Marie’s face was puffy and red, streaked with tears but she was looking at Logan like he could hang the moon. Logan watched Marie’s thoughts play across her face. She was trying to determine if she could trust him with this. “Believe me, baby?” A small nod.
“I…I guess, Logan, but…what if…” He cut her off before she could get herself worked up again.
“Look Marie, I am not goin’ to go lookin’ for these guys,” At least not right now, his mind said adding a small caveat. “But I want to be prepared. That’s all.” He knew he needed to give her a bit more reassurance.
“If necessary, I have people I can call who could help us if we needed it, but we won’t because I am the best at what I do and one of the things I do is beat the shit out of anyone who tries to hurt what’s mine. And you are mine, Marie, mine!” As he said the final words, Marie whimpered and Logan realized he was holding her by the arms and shaking her. “Shit, baby! I am sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you, but this is important.” Logan ran his hands up her arms hoping to sooth where he was sure there would be bruises tomorrow. She was still and quiet, staring into his eyes. There were several beats while Logan worried that he had hurt her physically and said too much, given too much way. Logan hadn’t even known he had grabbed her arms so hard and he wasn’t ready to have the ‘I am a mutant super hero’ conversation with her either. Logan waited and hoped.
“Okay, Logan, okay.” She pushed her head into his shoulder, hiding again.
“My good girl.” He kissed her forehead. “Go on baby, I will be right here through the whole thing.” Marie started talking. Logan held her tight while he listened. The lab Marie had been in was separated into two facilities. One wing holding girls with suppression collars and one with those without. From what Marie could tell the ones with collars were all pregnant and had gotten their collars before the pregnancy. She remembered being brought in, stripped and led into a room with what turned out to be giant shower heads.
As Marie talked Logan did what he could do to keep her calm by touching her gently, cooing in her ear, and kissing her hair. Unfortunately the more Marie talked the more Logan saw his own flashes of the terrors he had experienced during his own stay in a lab. He was going to need a drink, several in fact, when this was all over. Marie could probably stand a few herself.
“They didn’t know what my skin did until they tried to move me to the exam room after my ‘shower’. Two guards touched me before the others understood why I was yelling ‘don’t touch me’. Fortunately, I didn’t hang on very long. I remember being hit with multiple darts with some kind of orange liquid in them.” Logan smelled the tears start again. At least that meant she was feeling something. If she had gotten through reliving the entire ordeal without showing any emotion, Logan would have been very concerned.
“I don’t know how long I was out of it. There are hazy scenes of doctors in masks and scrubs rolling around in my head but sometimes I keep memories from people I have touched so I just thought that was what those glimpses were. I think there were tests on my skin but again, I don’t remember what they were. I am not sure the memories are even mine. There is this one about being strapped to a table on my stomach but I don’t remember what happened before or after. I don’t think I was sick or injured but...” She just sighed into his chest. Logan could tell she was getting tired. “I do remember awaking up a couple of different times in what looked like a hospital rather than my cell.”
“I guess I misjudged the passage of time. I thought when I started waking up in my cell on a regular basis it had only been a few days since I had been taken but maybe it was longer. It would have to have been if it is May now. I guess I really don’t know…don’t know what they did to me…” The sobs came now. Logan slowly rocked her, reminding her it wouldn’t ever happen again. Promising her that once she told him she wouldn’t ever have to tell anyone ever again, that this was the last time she would have to relive it out loud. Logan knew there was nothing he could do about her reliving it in her nightmares.
“When did you get the collar, baby?”
“They must have lowered the amount of drugs they were giving me over time because I can remember the first day they fitted me for the collar. I know there were at least four or five times when they tested the collar. They always made me touch one of the other girls as a test. The day they declared it done and working, I touched a girl named Shannon for five minutes.” Again a torrent of tears came. Holding her wasn’t doing it anymore, there had to be more Logan could do to take care of her.
“Hang on a second, baby.” Getting up, Logan went into the bathroom. Quickly returning with a cold wet wash cloth, he wiped Marie’s red face and gave her several tissues so she could blow her nose. Once she was finished with the tissues, he put the cloth on the back of her neck. “Better?”
“Thanks, Logan.” Watching Marie eye to eye, Logan let his question show on his face. “I am okay, Logan. It is almost over. I am almost at the end.” Logan only nodded and pulled her back into his arms, keeping the wash cloth on her neck with a carefully placed hand.
“The collar is actually what got me out. I wouldn’t have tried to escape otherwise, I don’t think. At night when the lights would go out, the guards would close the hallway door and unlock the doors to some of the cells. I could hear the other girls as the guards would come into their cells. They would scream and plead but it was always the same. The guards made sport of who would get them first and who would rape them last. It was two or three girls every night. The doctors had to know what was happening because the girls would always get special food afterwards.” Logan did everything in his power to not pop the claws. How could these people even believe they were human? How could they go home to their families every night? Logan needed to call the mansion and get this lab moved up in priority for raiding.
“The night I got the collar, my door opened. That hadn’t ever happened before. The guards knew what my skin could do. The lead guard strolled in and told me that I was lucky he wanted more than five minutes to fuck me. He said wanted to give the collar twenty four hours to work but that he would be coming for me the next night. I knew I had to get out then. There were other girls who had tried to escape and what the guards did when they caught those girls again is horrible, but I knew I had to try.” Logan just nodded and caressed her cheek with his thumb. She was stronger than she knew, stronger than he would have guessed.
Marie continued her tale. Telling Logan about the lead guard leaving her door open and her sneaking down the hall where the bio-hazard containers were stored while five guards gang raped Shannon, the girl in the cell next to hers. The girls would empty their waste buckets into the containers every night before lights out and the full ones would get removed every morning. She told him how she moved a half full container to where all of the other full ones were and climbed inside.
“Waiting through that night was the longest night of my life. I was sure I would get caught. In the morning, the maintenance guys came and got the palate with the full containers. One of my biggest worries was not being able to get the lid back off so I could get out but somehow I did. I guess it is one of those strong when you have to be kind of situations.” To overwhelmed, Logan could only nod and kiss her lips.
“I could feel the container being moved. When I felt the movement change, I hoped I as on a truck headed out of that horrible place. I opened the container and it was at the back of what looked like a moving truck. There was a bin full of hospital scrubs and linens. I stole a blanket and some new to me scrubs. Mine were covered in waste. I used the lid to the container to pry up the lift door on the back of the truck just enough so I could roll out.” Damn this girl had balls. Logan wasn’t sure if any of the senior X-women would have been able to pull that off. He had more faith in Jubilee and Kitty doing something like this to survive but that was because he had a hand in their training.
“I walked through the woods for three days before I came to a highway. On the fourth day, sometime mid-morning I saw a black SUV coming up the road. I tried to dart into the woods but the SUV stopped. I was afraid they had seen me. I heard them on the radios saying they had spotted me. I just ran and ran. It seemed like for hours. After it had gotten dark, I found a town and saw your trailer. I was cold so I hid in the back. I don’t know how far you drove before you found me.”
“Far enough.” Logan wasn’t sure that was entirely true but now he knew what he needed to know. They were looking for her even after four days. They wanted her back at least that much. He would have to keep her as hidden as he could until they got out of the province at least. “You did real good, Marie. Hang on; I want to get you somethin’ out of the truck. I will be right back.” He pinned her with a good hard stare before moving another muscle. She gave him a nod and Logan got up off the bed.
Grabbing his keys, Logan left the hotel room door open like he had yesterday morning when he had gotten the towels and stuff out of the camper. It only took him a few minutes to get what he needed. He looked at his watch. It wasn’t quite noon. Well it was noon somewhere. Putting two shots glasses on the bedside table, Logan poured both he and Marie a good sized shot. Moving to the little mini-frig he grabbed a Coke and brought it to Marie.
“Ever had whiskey, Marie?” He was proud of her but they both needed this to marginally relax.
“No, Daddy drank scotch. Momma only ever drank martinis. Gran and Granddaddy used to let me sip their bourbon, though.” Logan again noted her grandparents weren’t sounding half bad.
“Here open this,” He handed her the Coke. “And I want you to drink the shot and take a sip of Coke. It is called a chaser when you do it like this. Just watch me and do what I do.” Logan threw back the shot relishing the burn. Marie only hesitated for a few seconds. The face she made when the whiskey hit her tongue was the funniest thing Logan had seen in months.
“Urgh”
“That’s why I wanted you to drink the Coke as a chaser. It will taste a better with practice.” He moved her over on the bed and grabbed the long forgotten breakfast. While he waited for it to heat up in the microwave, Logan poured himself another shot and drank it. As Marie ate, Logan did a two more shots. When she was a third of the way done with the pancakes, he had her do another shot with him. He did the same when she was two thirds of the way done and again when she finally finished. He was guessing four shots would be enough to let her relax and maybe even sleep.
Instructing Marie to go wash up, Logan straightened out the bed, stripped down, poured them both one more and climbed under the covers.
“Come on baby, one more and I want you to try to get some sleep. You are exhausted.” Wobbling over to him, Marie managed to get into the bed, drink the whiskey, but split some. Logan had her had lick it off his chest. After a slow deep possessive kiss, Logan curled her up against his side and watched over her while she drifted off to what he hoped would be a dreamless sleep. Logan stayed awake thinking and cataloging everything she had told him until well into the evening. When the time came for him to go, he woke her up only long enough to tell her he would be back late, she should eat anything she wanted when she got hungry and that they would be leaving after he got back.
Logan left for the fights wondering most if she would want the collar off once she knew he could remove it with one flick of his claw.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
First, this chapter is dedicated to doctorg, atmd, and hobbitsdoitbetter as a thank you for their fine fine and inspiring works.
Second, I apologize for the length. There was a natural break I could have taken advantage of but it made the first part feel like filler and I didn't want that.
Third, chapter 8 is largely written so it should see the light of day sometime around Thanksgiving.
Fourth, this one is NC-17 for the non-fun reasons, nothing graphic but the implications are there.
Fifth, as always constructive criticism is appreciated.
Oh and bold is for emphasis.
Second, I apologize for the length. There was a natural break I could have taken advantage of but it made the first part feel like filler and I didn't want that.
Third, chapter 8 is largely written so it should see the light of day sometime around Thanksgiving.
Fourth, this one is NC-17 for the non-fun reasons, nothing graphic but the implications are there.
Fifth, as always constructive criticism is appreciated.
Oh and bold is for emphasis.