The hotel bathroom starts to stink as soon as Marie uncaps the first bottle. It’s not a smell that goes away easily, even after she’s washed it all out under the hottest water she can stand. Logan comments about it later that night and they spend a moment commiserating about it before they drift into sleep.
The next day Jean and Marie head down to the pharmacy around the corner to pick up some medical supplies for her and Scott.
“Are you sure it looks good?” Jean’s pressing her hand into her black hair, sliding her hand down the length of it.
Marie smiles at her. “You look fine Jean. We’re just normal every day women going to the store for tampons and first aid stuff.”
Jean cracked a smile back at her. “I just… I’ve had red hair my whole life. I’ve never dyed it before.”
It surprises Marie that Jean might feel insecure about herself and she laces her arm through her friends as they turn around the corner. It’s easy to forget that she’s still a woman beneath the lab coat and the leather suit. The shopping goes quickly and smoothly and Marie and Jean are headed back to the hotel when Jean speaks.
“Don’t look now, but there’s someone following us.”
Marie tightens her grip on the toiletries. “Are they soldiers?” She can see Jean’s face go blank for just a second before she opens her eyes and looks at Marie, smiling widely.
“No, just one guy. He’s following us because he thinks that we ought to have some money on us.”
Marie returns the smile and moves her left hand while she speaks, giving the impression of two women talking and laughing. “Isn’t there anything that you can do?”
“Marie, no. No, I can’t just change his mind for him, I’m not the Professor.” Her shoulders sag at the mention of the Professor. Jean’s right even if she could she wouldn’t have done it because it wasn’t the right thing to do. Changing someone’s mind for them was beyond the question.
“Hmm… maybe just see if they’ll try anything? Hopefully we’ll be at the hotel before they decided to mug us.” Still, they start moving a little faster, heads up and alert, focused on the walk up the hill toward the hotel.
Logan’s out on the balcony when they arrive back and Jean’s heaves a sigh of relief when they get to the bottom of the stairs.
“He took one look at Logan and hightailed it out of here.”
“Yeah, he ought to have run. What’d I scare him away from?” Logan says when he meets them at the top of the stairs.
“A mugging.” Jean tells him, patting him on the arm as she passes. Marie stops and plants a short kiss on his lips before walking to the room. She can feel the emotion rolling off of him, the urge to scent the bastard down and-
“Don’t worry, Logan. He didn’t do it, he was just thinking about it.”
Scott has the same reaction Logan did, but she doesn’t need to touch his skin to know it. He outright offers to go and kick his ass. Jean smiles at her husband and discourages violence.
It isn’t long before they’re all packed up again and heading south. The trip takes three days and they find themselves is a small town in Texas, sitting at a diner and considering settling down.
“What can I get ya’ll to drink?” The waitress says after they’ve been given menus to look over. Everyone orders coffee. The television switches to local news. Marie watches, in horror, as the news crew zooms in on a line of people coming out of a building, they’re passing protesting citizens and dodging rocks.
“Today there was a heinous attack on a number of mutants outside of a Mutant Registration Center here in Dallas. There has been cries of outrage about the treatment of mutants in-“ Someone cuts off the television in the middle of the story, but it’s still sparks a conversation among the locals.
“Filthy muties,” one man says.
“I think this MRA law is a good idea. I need to be able to know who my kids are going to school with. It’s like that sexual offender registry that they have.”
A murmur of agreement comes from a few of his buddies, and their waitress chimes in as well. “I tell ya, after everything that has happened since that law was passed, I’m more and more glad that they’ve got to own up to everything. Why, we wouldn’t even have known that Bobby Jensen could light things on fire like that.”
She plopped their coffees down in front of them and not missing a beat asks them what they’ll have. Marie can’t focus on what everyone is ordering, she’s too busy being shocked by the idea that no one is at all ashamed of their attitude toward mutants.
When she comes back to their conversation she realizes that Logan’s ordered her food for her.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Scotts saying. He’s leaned over the table, both of his hands wrapped around one of Jeans.
“What is?” Marie asks.
Logan grunts, “Staying here. Their attitudes, about us” he waves his finger around the table then points to the TV, “it would make a good cover.” He’s not comfortable with it. No one at the table is because they know that eventually they’re going to have to voice the same opinion.
They’re half way through their dinner when they all agree that sticking around is their best chance of staying hidden.
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