DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews. Somehow there seems to be a bug on this site: It shows the chapter perfectly fine in preview mode, but in reality the text vanishes.
Here I try yet again with this:

CHAPTER 3

The next day at the same time a tall in black clothed man entered the diner and sank down in the same booth as the day before. Marie rolled her eyes and approached the table. "Please, Victor, do both of us a favor and wait with your game another quarter hour till Ah have break."

"Only if you gonna join me."

"Humpf." He would terrorize her the next hour if she would decline his offer. "Fine. Do ya want coffee again?"

"Hell no! Not for the rest of the month!" This made Marie grin as she fetched her note pad. "Gonna have a beer and the country-fried steak, rare."

"How else…" She muttered under her breath, but knew with his sensitive ears Victor had heard her clearly.

"And a chocolate muffin as take-away again." Victor stared a little baffled – just for a friction of a second – at his brother's trademark hitched brow, the brunette was giving him.

"Afraid eating sweets in public might damage your reputation?"

"Hardly, my sweet." He licked his lips, gazing at her hungrily as she tried to stop the chill that run up her spine.

"Anything else?"

He flashed her his toothy smile, baring his fangs in the process. "Just your company, Stripes." It surprised Victor that his predatory smile hadn't the same effect on her as the day before. The girl was nervous in his presence and he could tell she never let her guard down, but she didn't let her fear hold her prisoner either.

"Alright, Victor. Gonna get your beer." A moment later she returned with his booze and the muffin. "Your steak is ready in a sec. The unfreezing takes longer than pulling the meat over the grill once." She always thought it disgusting when she was out with Logan and he ate a steak rare. She preferred her food dead and very well done.

After serving the other tables Marie removed the apron from her hips and folded it neatly. She placed the fabric onto her bag in a corner of the kitchen and fetched Victor's plate, a tuna sandwich, a bottle of Sprite and a book and entered the diner's main room. "Here ya go, Vic." The brunette placed the steak in front of the waiting feral and the sandwich across from him, sinking down behind it.

She saw his distant glare linger on her for a moment, before he grasped fork and knife and tore into his meal. "What?"

Victor hardly chewed as he wolfed down the meat and felt the girl's eyes on him. After a minute he met her gaze. "It's been a long time that someone called me that."

Marie thought she saw sadness flicker in his blue eyes, but dismissed it as her own imagination. "Or do ya prefer Vicky?" Her grin was met with a deep snarl in warning.

She slipped her hand into her jeans' pocket and retrieved a small paper bag. Before shoving it back into her pants the brunette fished a dark red pill out and swallowed it with a sip of her soda.

"What's that?" Victor grunted after she didn't bother to answer his questioning gaze.

She saw his nostrils flare and smirked smugly. "Oh, only drugs." The low growl didn't startle her as much as the concerned and disapproving expression he gave her. "Geez, ya're grouchy today." His low growl resumed and she became serious again. "That's prenatal vitamins."

The mutant eventually tore his piercing gaze from the girl and took another bite of his steak. "So it's good for the baby?"

Marie furrowed her brows in curiosity about his concern for her unborn child. "Yep. That mah baby will be healthy." With that said, she bit into her sandwich and opened the thick book, she had borrowed from the library.

"What's that?"

"A book. Ah'm sure ya might have seen something like this before." She peeked over the page and saw him roll his eyes while his throat emitted another growl. "Boy, did a mouse steal your milk, or what happened?"

His snarl got louder and made a few customers look scared their way, but Marie stayed unfazed by his animalistic behavior. Thanks to Logan she knew to interpret his body language and the different nuances of growls. His clawed hand snatched the book from her fingers and closed it. His gaze swept over the letters as he placed it rather unceremoniously onto the tabletop. "Stephen King?"

Marie shrugged and took another bite from her meal. "Ah like his books." After a swig from her soda she eyed him annoyed. "So, what ya want, Victor? Or are ya enjoying growling at me while wolfing your meat down?"

He huffed and returned his stare to his steak. "You gonna raise your cub here?"

"If ya mean here in the diner, then the answer is no. If ya mean McLean, then yes." She paused a moment and narrowed her eyes at him in annoyance. "At least Ah had planned until now."

This made Victor laugh darkly and Marie stared at him in confusion. "If my presence is the reason for your worry, girly, then I have to tell you that simply movin' away won't hinder me to pay you a visit."

"Ain't ya exaggerating a little?"

"What? You ain't believin' me I could track you down wherever you hide?" Doubt was written all over her features. "The runt's currently a little south of Calgary."

It took Marie a moment to process this information. "Ya're shitting me."

"Nah, how else should I beat the runt to a pulp once a year on his birthday?" Her expression told him that this wasn't new information for her and that she started to believe him now. "You have quite a mouth, Strips. Doesn't suit such a beautiful woman."

"Huh? Was that a compliment?"

Victor swallowed the last bite of his meal and leaned back in the booth. "Nah, just an observation. Didn't the runt teach you some manners?"

"Logan?" Marie laughed heartily. "He only provided me with a whole new spectrum of cussing."

"Really? There was a time, the runt blushed at the mere thought of usin' a 'bad word'." Marie's laughter continued at his hitched eyebrows and he soon joined in with a few dark chuckles.

When the brunette's hilarity had died down to a grin, a whole new set of questions popped up in her mind. "So ya knew Logan before he lost his memories?" Wolverine and she had always assumed this, since Sabretooth began his yearly attacks only a few months after Logan had woken up on that Island surrounded by debris.

Victor's eyes got a mischievous glint. "If you wanna know, it'll cost you."

"What's your price, Sabretooth?" Marie asked suspiciously and finished her sandwich.

"Information." He emptied his beer and eyed the girl across from him. "What exactly had happened at Alkali Lake one and a half years ago?"

"Huh?" This was the last thing Marie had expected. "Umm, well… There was that raid at the mansion and that military scientist-"

"Stryker." Victor put in and sensed her surprise about his knowledge.

"Stryker wanted to use the Professor to rid the world of all mutants."

Victor got a little impatient. "Yeah, remember that pain. But I already know that much. What happened to Stryker?"

Marie stared at him in bewilderment before answering. "Logan said that he died when the dam broke."

The mutant only nodded in acknowledgement. "And back to your question: The runt and I know each other for a long time. Even before Stryker took his memories."

Marie's eyes widened in disbelief. The answers Logan was looking for so long were within her grasp. "Ya know who Logan really is? His real name?"

"Yep, but I won't tell you." He saw how her face fell and motioned with his chin towards the kitchen door where Tina stared at the clock and Marie in turn.

"Damnit, now when it gets interesting mah break is over." The brunette muttered and rose to her feet reluctantly.

Victor snickered and watched her stack their plates and glasses and head over to the kitchen. His gaze caught sight of her book on the tabletop and he picked it up when he shrugged into his black coat. The moment Marie returned to the counter he slid the book towards her with a lazy grin while holding the muffin in his free hand. "You forgot somethin', Marie."

Her small hands grasped the book immediately and she hid it behind the counter. "Thank ya." She saw him retrieve his wallet and placed the bill next to his claws. "Ya already go?"

"Yep, have some stuff to take care of." His grin turned to his trademark toothy/fangy smirk. "I'm gonna give you a break tomorrow."

"A break? How generous of ya, Victor!" Marie flashed him a mocking smile. "Found someone else to scratch your claws on?"

"Somethin' alike the lines." The humor had left his voice and his cold blue eyes silenced her at once.

Her stomach clenched at what he implied. 'He's gonna kill somebody!' She kept staring after him when he left the diner, only noticing the 5 dollar tip a few minutes later.

Liked it?