Rogue stomped down the snowy highway, she was stepping harder than was strictly necessary but the sharp spikes of pain in her feet with each stamp gave her hope that she hadn't started to lose extremities to frostbite... yet.
She was still supposed to be warm in the cab of the last truck she had hitched a ride with but the driver had made an unscheduled stop and, in spite of her warning to not touch her, the driver was now a twitching pile of muscle on the floor of the cab. She had been half tempted to leave the heater off, and the doors open, and hope the asshole had frozen to death before he regained consciousness but at the time that seemed too cruel even for her. Now however, after having walked for around five miles with nothing but snow for company, she was rethinking her compassionate stance.
"Fucking asshole ... goddamn snow ... fucking Canada..." she grumbled. At least her anger helped keep her somewhat warm, though even that advantage was going to be lost soon. She estimated she had about half an hours daylight left, and with having to trudge through this snow she would be lucky to get another mile before the temperature dropped even further.
An hour later, as the last inkling of daylight bled out of the sky, she felt her confidence drain away entirely. Right then she caught sight of headlights coming toward her. Her excitement at the possibility of a ride, even if in the wrong direction, quickly died when the headlights turned off the road ahead of her. As she trudged further more and more vehicles pulled off the highway, at the same spot, leading her to believe there was a business, likely a bar or motel, up ahead. At this point though she really didn't care what it was, it would be warmer than out here by any stretch.
When she finally got to the driveway she had to pause, to wait for a camper to pull into the now crowded lot, before she could make her way toward the door. Partway across the lot she noted the driver of the camper, eyeing her up from where he was getting out of his vehicle.
"You sure you want to be going in there, kid?" he called out to her.
"It beats freezing to death out here," she shrugged, and continued on her way, hoping he would get the hint that she wasn't up for a conversation.
"Don't know about that, these places aren't usually very ... hospitable, to young, female, hitchhikers, if you catch my drift," he continued, moving towards the point where their paths would cross when she passed his vehicle to reach the door.
"I can look after myself," she snapped, adjusting her bag, where it was slipping down her shoulder for the thousandth time that afternoon, tugging her coat around her tighter, though it did nothing to help her keep warm.
"No need to bite my head off kid, just a friendly warning," the guy replied, sounding equally as amused as annoyed.
"Sorry, I'm cold and tired and I just had to walk eight miles because the last guy who gave me a ride was a waste of oxygen, I'm feeling pretty shitty right now, thanks for the warning but I really don't have any other option right now," she answered, trying to soften the edge to her tone. He was probably right, hell she knew he was right, not that it made any difference.
She watched the guy do a double take at her. "Eight miles!" he asked incredulously, "In that get up? Have you ever heard of frostbite?" he sounded concerned now.
"Yes, I have, I'm going to check everything inside, not sure what I'm going to do if anything's frozen though, I might have heard of frostbite but I have no idea how to treat it," she shrugged again, trying to hold in her laugh. She really was fucked she realised, because the weather was only going to get worse the further north she travelled.
"Come on in here, I can help you out," the guy gestured for her to follow him, as he popped open the door into his camper.
She let out a huff that might have been a laugh. "No, I'm good," she replied, and started walking again. She had to give the guy props, that was the most direct 'here let me kidnap you' she had encountered so far. Though she still wasn’t sure if it counted as kidnapping when you had no home, and no one gave a shit if you were taken.
"I'm not going to hurt you kid," the guy sounded annoyed again. "It's warm in here, and I do know how to treat frostbite, so hurry up and get in here before all the heat gets out."
She stopped and regarded him closely, he did look nothing but concerned, though she had seen enough of human nature in the last eight months to know that often the worst people were the best at hiding their true nature. This guy just wasn't giving her that vibe though.
“Fine, but if you try anything mister, you'll be on your ass faster than you can blink."
It was his turn to chuckle this time. "I'll believe that when I see it kid, but don't worry, I’m not going to try anything. Take your boots, socks and gloves off," he told her as he shut the door behind her.
--
He watched, as she sat down on the sofa-slash-bed and toed her boots off, while simultaneously peeling off the gloves. They looked like stretch satin, not anywhere near enough to protect from the cold. "Don't you have proper gloves, something wool, hell even leather would do?"
"I did, someone stole them," the girl replied with a scowl.
With a shake of his head he took hold of her hands, noting but ignoring the brief twitch of surprise from the girl when he did. Turning her hands over to check for any discolouration to her skin he noted they looked surprisingly okay. "Did you have your hands in your pockets?" he asked.
"Yeah," the girl replied softly, she seemed to be loosening up a little.
"Well, the hands will survive if we get them warmed up," he commented, turning to a cupboard he pulled out a box full of instant heat packs, activating a couple, he handed them to the girl. "Tuck these up inside your sleeves, they'll start warming your blood up slowly as it heads for your hands."
While she was doing that, he took hold of one of her legs and slipped off her sock. The girl noticed his concerned look. "What is it?" she asked.
"You had any pain in your feet?" he asked gently.
"Stabbing when I stamped," she admitted.
"Looks like you're lucky, there won’t be any permanent damage if we can start you warming up but it's going to hurt as the feeling starts coming back." He pulled out a couple of pairs of his own socks, slipping two socks on each of her feet, he activated two more heat packs and tucked one between the two socks, against her ankle.
"You should start to feel pins and needles, if it gets too bad let me know and I'll see what I can do for pain killers. Now, how about the face, did you have your face covered the whole time?" he moved on swiftly.
"More or less," the girl confirmed, "but the scarf’s about as useless as the gloves."
Nodding understandably, he gently shifted the icy scarf and her hair to get a look at her ears, her nose was red and cold but it would be fine, he determined the ears were fine too before moving on again. "You had a headache?" he checked.
"Not that I'd noticed," the girl replied, "I didn't know that was a sign of frostbite," she added.
"Not frostbite exactly but can happen if the blood going to your head is too cold," he clarified, as he activated another heat pack, and gently tucked it in her scarf at the back of her neck, tightening the scarf enough to keep it in place. "Last thing I need to check is your core temperature, before you freak out on me that's going to involve me putting a hand inside your shirt because I don't have a thermometer, I'm not trying to cop a feel so don't drop me on my ass, alright?" he said, trying to keep his tone light.
His comments earned him a smile from the girl, who sat up a little straighter and unbuttoned her coat. He was pleased to note the girl was sensibly wearing several layers, sliding his hand inside her shirts he gently placed the back of his hand against her stomach, before moving up to her chest. "And the back," he said softly, as he moved his hand around and checked the temperature against her kidneys, and behind her lungs.
"Not bad kid," he commented, adjusting her shirts down, "I'm going to take the coat though, it's too damp, you can borrow this for a while," he said, slipping his own body warmed leather jacket over her shoulders after he had tugged off her thin green wool coat, before pulling out a blanket and wrapping that around her too.
Noticing the girl starting to shiver he paused. "How you going, your hands and feet okay?"
Through chattering teeth, the girl smiled at him again. "Hands are stinging a little, feet are getting a pretty impressive case of pins and needles but all things considered not too bad,” she answered him.
"Alright, we'll move on to warming you up from the inside shall we," he commented with a grin. "First things first," he handed her a shot of bourbon, "This will start you warming quick and we can follow it up with something with a slower burn, I know it's late but you okay with coffee?"
"Uh, I don't drink," the girl replied, eyeing the alcohol, "But I can do a coffee."
"One mouthful won't hurt kid," he said, placing the glass in her hand before turning back to the small counter top to start some water heating. He knew she had taken a sip a moment later when he heard her gasp and cough.
"That is disgusting," the girl said, when she had caught her breath.
"To each there own but it sure works to warm you up, and out here that trumps taste," he commented.
A short time later he turned back to her with two cups of black coffee. "One for you, sip slow." He noted, pleased, that she'd stopped shaking, and her cheeks had pinked up some, indicating she was finally starting to warm.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
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Story Notes:
Happy birthday to me, for my birthday I will give you my longest story to date. You'll get one chapter a day for like... two months ;)