Author's Chapter Notes:
“I need your help.”

“I don’t help people, darlin’.”

“But, only you can help me, I know that.”

Thanks to feralbites for the beta. This is a story that I've wanted to write for ages and ages, an AU meeting between our two heroes that didn't have a whole hell of a lot to do with X1 except for a few little bits that I wanted to use because I could. Here's Marie and Logan, Marie's older in her twenties and Logan is a cage fighting badass.
The cold wind blows and a flurry of soft powdery snow flakes cascade over him. It feels good against his heated flesh and he rolls his neck and stretches his muscles. It’s nice to be out of the heated and smoky bar. When it gets a little too chilly for even him, he steps back inside and pulls his shirts and jackets back on.

It’s a short walk back to the MC and after a quick exchange of money, Logan heads toward the bar. The girl, no woman definitely, from earlier is there. She’s sitting at the bar nursing a beer. There’s a duffel bag at her feet and upon closer inspection she’s barely touched the beer. Her eyes settle on him and she waits a long moment before speaking.

“Wolverine.” It’s not a question. He looks at her for a long moment before grunting. A gloved hand comes up to brush some of that long brown hair from her face. She steels herself, piercing him with a pair of big brown eyes.

“I need your help.” This time he speaks.

“I don’t help people, darlin’.”

“But, only you can help me, I know that.”

“Listen, I don’t help people. I…” He’s interrupted by last man to challenge him. It’s a flurry of conversation and heated emotions before the girl calls out to him to watch out.

He’d known it was coming, you can’t hide that kind of intention from his sense of smell, and everything happens in a flurry again. She’s taken off sometime during the confrontation, and he inwardly sighs from relief. One less thing he’s… Before he can finish the thought he hears a scream and the sounds of a scuffle.

Before he realizes what he’s doing he’s out the door, claws at the ready. He barely feels the pain anymore, but it’s always there just under his knuckles. What he sees brings him to a screeching halt for a fraction of a second, but then he’s there, saving her.

Sabretooth, the fucking bastard, is practically mauling the girl. There’s tears and cuts in her clothing and, as sure as he can smell her bleeding, in her skin as well. A running leap and a roar and he’s stabbed the hairy beast in his back, claws reaching deep into him and piercing his lungs. With a wrench of his wrists he pulls the claws out and to the side, tearing more lung and scraping bone.

The big man hits the ground hard as Logan goes in for what should be a killing blow but that he knows will only keep the man down for a short while.

He grabs the girl and her duffel and practically throws her into the passenger side of his truck. He’s got an inkling now of why she needs his help.

“Are you ok?” He asks when they’ve gotten out of the parking lot and driven a short distance. He can smell all of the blood on her and it worries him, though God knows why.

“Maybe,” She groans. She doesn’t smell good, not like she did in the bar, all innocent and fresh and something distinctly alluring. Instead she smells like blood and defeat and fear.

“I think I’ll be ok. I just, I just need a moment.” She’s still bleeding, he can smell it coming off of her in waves, but he can’t stop. Not just yet. There needs to be more space between them and Sabretooth. “Just, talk to me. Take my mind off of it.” She speaks again.

“What the fuck does Sabretooth want from you?” He spits out, concentrating on keeping the truck and trailer on the road. It’s not snowing yet, but the roads haven’t exactly been fully taken care of since the last time.

“I’ve just been calling him Big’n’Hairy.” Her voice is a little more steady when she speaks this time. “It’s…” There’s a sharp intake of breath for a moment but he thinks she’s stopped bleeding now. Fucker must not have gotten his claws in too deep. “He wants me because of my skin.”

That’s a new one, though he wouldn’t put it past that sick bastard. “What do ya mean?”

“I’m a mutant, like you. My skin, when it’s on, sucks the life and” she draws in a breath through her teeth and sits still for a moment before continuing. “it draws out another mutants powers too. On top of that I get a copy of that persons personality and memories in my head, and they stay there like an imprint. He thinks,” another sharp intake of breath and he knows now that she’s really hurting. “He thinks that if he touches me that he’ll get all of his memories back.”

He thinks about this for a long moment. “How long can you stay like this?” He gestures to her stomach and legs, where she’s covered with blood.

“I figure I’ve got another hour, max, before I pass out.”

“You said you take mutations? What, what happens to the mutant that you take the mutations from?”

She’s quiet and when he looks at her she’s looking more and more strained as the moments tick by. Another hour, yeah right. Another fifteen minutes more likely.

“They, they usually pass out. But I’m better at it now, than I used to be. I can,” another pause and he can smell her pain and paranoia. “I can just take the power without hurting them no. No more… No more passing out or anything.”

“Is it, is it on right now?” He doesn’t know what make him ask, but if he can touch her and give her his healing for just a little bit then some part of him, a pretty big part of him, wants to.

“Yeah.” She’s breathless with her reply and it makes him reach over to her. She hesitates for a minute before taking his hand into her and he doesn’t know what he was expecting but it certainly wasn’t for her hands to be so damn soft and warm. He wonders how often she wears those gloves that are now settled on the seat between them but then he’s being sucked in. Down and deep and he can feel part of himself pouring into her and it’s all he can do to slow down and get them safely to the side of the road.

Her hand in his is still soft and warm and wonderful and she’s holding his hand so carefully and so intimately. It doesn’t hurt, not at all, but it’s like a vorte sucking him in and he’s not afraid of losing consciousness so much as the feeling of letting himself go.

The feeling stops and she’s still holding his hand, but then he feels her tighten as the cuts start to knit themselves together and suddenly he’s pulling her close and holding onto her because he knows how much that goddamn hurts and he doesn’t want her to feel alone with her pain.

Afterward, when she’s resting her head on his shoulder and her breathing has returned to normal she shifts a little closer into him. He tightens his grip, feeling closer in the wake of sharing something so… He can’t think of the word to describe it.

A few minutes pass and he’s reminded of Sabretooth still on their trail so he carefully and reluctantly lets her go and starts driving again.

“Put on your seatbelt,” she tells him and as much as he thinks about arguing he doesn’t. Instead he just fastens the seatbelt as he listens to her doing the same thing.

“I’m sorry,” she says after a moment of driving.

“No, it’s… it’s ok. I-”

“No, I’m sorry that it hurts. That it hurts when they come out.” He’s a little taken aback by that. No one’s ever asked him that before, even acknowledged that it might hurt. Not that too many people have ever actually seen the claws. He mumbles something about it being alright and asks him her name.

“Marie,” she tells him. “Marie D’Ancanto.”

“Logan.” He replies.

“Yeah, I know. But thanks, for telling me anyway. I know, I know that you don’t share it lightly.” He’s confused for a moment, then he remembers. He’s in her head now and he wonders if he’s making things hard on her up there.

“It’s not too hard on ya, me being up there in your head and all?”

“Nah, I kinda like it. You’re up there prowling around and keeping all of the others in line. Especially Sabretooth. He’s been raging for a while now and it’s hard to keep him in his cage, but you’re up there making it better. It’s almost quiet.”

She sighs for a moment and looks ahead of them. He drives for a long while before she speaks again.

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”

“I mean it, no one’s ever helped me before. Usually they’re too scared or just don’t really give a damn. I’ve had to touch him a few times to get him away from me, really put him down. Didn’t have a chance this time, his hands were covered. I don’t know why he thinks… He thinks that me touching him will bring back all of his memories. It’s not true, that’s not how it works. I only know what he knows. What you know, when you touch me.”

He nods, not sure what to say to her. Instead he just sits for a long moment, letting the silence hang between them.

“So, does this mean you’re gonna help me?” He sighs at the tone of her voice, she knows the answer already, but wants him to say it out loud. How the hell does he get himself into shit like this?

“Yeah, Marie. I’m gonna help you.”
Chapter End Notes:
Thanks all! Tell me what you think. Sorry for yet another WIP, but hell it's me. I'm kinda good at those, but I don't plan on letting them fallow!

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