Author's Note: Well, here's my second! Hopefully anyone who liked the first
one will like this. As before, not everything is going to be very accurate,
but that's just me. And as usual I ask that no one else use my invented
characters. Enjoy!
~Dragonwing~
One
~
Samantha De Lombre was up with the sun; she didn't sleep much last night anyway. She grabbed a towel, her bathing suit and crept down the stairs. Well as much as she could creep, when you have bones made out of stone, it's hard to take light steps. Luckily the door to the indoor pool was already unlocked. You wouldn't think she had any interest in swimming, but she found it a good way to let off steam. And boy did she have some steam to let off. She put on her bathing suit in one of the dressing rooms and took the band out of her hair. Her curly red hair fell over her shoulders. She'd have to cut it soon; she never liked for it to get too long. She slid in the water and started doing laps. One.. Two...Three, Swimming was great for her when she was mad, course there wasn't always a pool handy when she was mad, but sometimes she could wait till she found one. Sometimes not. She, Linzie Compton and Cora Wood, her two friends, had been at the Xavier Institute for less than two weeks and already Samantha had found something, or someone in this case, to make her mad. Six...Seven..Eight, Since she didn't have full control over her strength, Professor Xavier had asked Logan to help her with it. Something about him having some type of metal in his skeleton or something like that. Well it wasn't working! She'd had her first session with him yesterday, disaster! They couldn't get along any better than a cat and a dog could. At first it was going pretty well, she had gotten him to talk a couple of times other than what he was explaining to her what to do to control, he was just too close-mouthed! Its not like she was a big chatter box either, but you had to talk sometime. And when he did talk he was always serious or monotone or sounded annoyed, that just didn't fly well with Sam. Again its not like she was very social herself, in fact she could sometimes be the antisocial, but. Oh, forget him anyway! All she had to do was make it through her control sessions until she had it down and then she could ignore him if she wanted! They'd finally gotten so fed up with each other that she had stormed out. She'd have bet those claws of his would have come out sooner or later if it had gone any further. She just didn't get it! He just made her so mad! And it wasn't just the talking thing; there was more to it. She just couldn't figure out what it was! Nineteen...Twenty...Twenty-one. Oh! That's not where she was! Arrgghh! She'd been so busy ranting she'd forgotten to count! She dove underwater and decided to swim from one end to the other that way. She was about to the edge when she thought she heard something, she looked up to see a blurry blue figure standing at the edge of the pool and waving it's arms. Sam came up to find Kurt shouting "Are you crazy!!" "What are you talking about!?" she snapped, "What's with the suicide?" At least he had stopped shouting, "If your talking about my bones it's not suicide," she said, "I may weigh slightly more than natural for someone my size but I'm not an anchor! I can control my weight or strength fine on some things like driving or in this case swimming. Now can I please finish?" "Oh," he said, "Sorry, I didn't think you could do stuff like that. My mistake," he grinned, "Practically everyone knows about your fight with Logan, most who knew first actually heard it, but still. I guess I thought you were doing something drastic to get even or something!" Kurt probably would have laughed if it weren't for the look Sam gave him. By now she had lost the need to swim and was climbing out of the pool. "What time is it?" she asked as she wrapped her towel around herself. "It's about eight. How long have you been out here anyway?" "Since the sun came up." "Oh, ok. Do you want any breakfast? It's almost ready." Sam started walking toward the dressing rooms, "Nah, I've got somewhere to be. I'm probably gonna be late as it is." "Ok," Kurt left to head back toward the mansion.
Two
~
Linzie and Samantha were waiting impatiently for Cora in the front hall. "Come on Cora, we're already late!" Sam shouted. "All right already!" Cora snapped as she ran down the stairs, still trying to pull on her long blue jacket. "It's not my fault I have to get dressed over scales! So back off!" "Let's just go," Linzie said calmly, "We should be able to make it if we leave now." "Where are you going?" Rogue asked as she and Kitty came to see what all the shouting was about. "We have to get to work." Linzie told her.
"Work?" Kitty asked. "Yeah," Cora said, untangling her dart-nails from her sleeve. "We work at this new place out near Linzie's Aunt's house. Jack's. It's a restaurant/bar in the day-time and a dance-club/bar at night. We've got the all-day shift every other Saturday. Jack was just giving us time to move in." Now that Kitty and Rogue looked, Linzie and Samantha were dressed pretty similarly. They both had on blue-jean shorts, black Nikes, and a shirt the color of their hair. Cora had on her usual blue turtleneck, jeans, and long jacket. "Sounds cool!" Kitty said, "You can come by later if you want." Sam said, "Try about 1:00. The lunch crowd should be mostly cleared out by then." "Great." Rogue said. "Yeah, we'll definitely be there." Kitty was getting excited. "Alright," Cora called over shoulder as they walked out the door, "See ya then!" * * * The crowd that normally came for lunch was just about gone when Kitty, Kurt and Rogue pulled up to Jack's. It had a large dance floor to the left when you walked in, tables to the right, a little mingling space in-between, and strait at the back was the bar. There was a small, sort of low catwalk going around three of the walls with lights draped around the handrails and above the dance floor was the DJ box. "This place is great." Kitty said as they walked up to the bar where Samantha and Linzie were. "Yeah," Kurt agreed, still looking around, "What's with the cat-walk?" "There used to be a second floor," Linzie explained, "Jack took it out and left the walk so people could relax up there. This place hasn't been open very long, but we already have a bunch of regulars coming in every day." "Where's Cora?" Rogue asked, sitting down on one of the barstools. "She's in the back with Alice getting some more glasses. There was a small fight between two of the lunch regulars. A lot of the people who come here then are normally high way workers and people like that, you've got to expect a brawl once in a while." "Guess so," Kitty said. Linzie went to take someone's order and Sam started to wipe down the bar, when Cora and another woman with frizzy, black hair and just a little too much make-up came from the back each carrying a crate of glasses. "Hey!" Cora said as they set down the crates. "Glad you were able to come out. This is Alice, she works here too." "Hi," Alice smiled at them; "I've heard quite a few things about you guys." "It's all lies then." Kurt joked. Alice laughed, "Well then I guess you aren't the one with the cute accent then?" "They said that?" he asked. Alice started laughing again, joined by Kitty an Rogue, "Nope, but that doesn't mean it isn't. Hey Jack!" Alice called, "Come and meet the girls' friends!" Jack came from the back; he was a thick, muscled, middle-aged man with thinning brown hair and bronze eyes. "Well hello there!" he boomed, "I'm glad you could come! It's certainly about time these three got out there and met people" "Technically, we went and found them." Kitty said. "Figures," he chuckled, "Still having friends that found you is better than having no friends at all." "Our boss the philosopher." Linzie said with mock proudness, "How would we get by without him." "You'd better think that," he said with mock sternness, "After all, I hold your jobs in my pocket. I could toss them any ol' time." "Sure, and then who would you find to help you run this place?" Sam said poking him on his shoulder, which came up to about 3 inches below her own, "There's no one else for fifty miles. Face it. We're irreplaceable." "Well, you never know about that," he said, "Though I doubt your replacements would be as reliable as you three." The phone in the back rang and Jack went to answer. "He's really nice." Kitty said. "Say Cora," Rogue asked her, "How do ya work here without him noticing your mutation? Having long sleeves doesn't take care of everything." "Oh, Jack knows I'm a mutant. He knows all three of us are mutants. Alice too." "And he doesn't care?" Kurt asked. "Well there's no reason it should bother him," she said as she and Alice started to put up the glasses, "He's a mutant too, after all." "He's a what?!" Kurt asked, nearly toppling out of his chair. "A mutant. He can tell if someone's telling the truth or not. It's very handy, especially since he owns a bar. If someone he's looking at isn't telling the truth, they have a sort of glow around them that he sees." "Pretty nifty huh?" said Alice, "We never have anyone here who's under the allowed age. That's so handy, and since the age minimum is 14 if your with an adult, anybody under 21 has a stamp we put on their hand that can only be seen under a black light. "And if anyone asks about Cora's nails we just make up something like, 'You know these kids today, everything has to be weird and wild', saves a lot of trouble." "Sounds like you've got it all worked out." Rogue commented. "Yeah, it's way easier on us." Cora and Alice finished putting up the glasses and went to put the empty crates in the dumpster out back. "You guys want anything to drink?" Linzie asked a little bit later when there were almost no customers left, "The first one is always free." Kitty and Kurt each had a soda, Rogue didn't want anything. "There's really not going to be much to do until the dance crowd shows up around 5:30 or 6:00. If you guys want to come back then you can, otherwise your probably just gonna have to sit there like a couple of vegetables." "Why don't we go back and tell the others how it went and see if anyone else wants to come back later?" Kitty suggested. "Sounds good to me." Rogue said, "Kurt?" "Sure" he hopped off of the barstool he'd taken to and started walking with them towards the door. "We'll be back later." Kitty called over her shoulder, "Ok, see you then." Samantha said as they left.
Three
~
They came back around 5:45, this time Jean, Evan, Scott, and Ororo were with them. "Hey!" Jean said as they made they're way up to the bar. Kitty had already gone to check out the dance floor, and Kurt decided to go up on the catwalk. "Hi," Linzie said, "Do you guys want anything to drink? In case Rogue hasn't told you, the first one's free." "Sure." Evan and Jean each got one, Ororo and Scott decided to save they're free-bees. "Well, I've gotta get back to work," Linzie picked up her tray and order pad, "If you guys need anything else, Cora's handling the catwalk and Sam and Alice are covering the bar. There are a few other people working here, but they aren't as nice." She winked and walked off. They stayed kind of late, Kurt, Rogue, and Scott left about 9:30, then the others left around 10:20. At 11:30, the dance crowd was mostly cleared out and the late night, biker/bar hoppers were coming in. This was when they normally got a fight, (if they got one). Sam was wiping down her side of the bar when who should walk in but the 'stubborn king' himself. Logan. 'Great.' Samantha thought, 'This is just what I need. What does he think he's doing here anyway?' He walked up and set down about five stools down from her. She ignored him and continued to clean off the glasses left behind by customers and gathering up her tips from under them. Alice walked up to her a little bit later and asked: "Aren't you going to take that guy's order?" Sam looked up, "Who? Oh, I'd rather not, will you take care of it?" "Alright," she said, "But I'm keeping the tip." "Fine with me." Alice walked over to where he was sitting, put on her cheery waitress's smile and took his order.
Logan left a little while later. Then shortly Linzie, Sam and Cora got off of their shifts and headed back to the mansion.
Four
~
The days passed. Sam continued with her control lessons every other day, though there wasn't much communication during any of those times. And Sam liked it that way. Linzie went on a cooking craze and baked about everything in the book. (Well, everything in the cookbook that is.) And Cora finally learned how to, sort of, control her poison, though there was room for improvement. One day, everyone was called to the study where Professor Xavier told them about something he had been arranging. "Since the danger room system has acquired a few bugs," he began, "I think it would be good for those who've missed out the training they should have been doing," a glance at Kurt, "to take a weekend in the mountains for a sort of survival training session." "Knew the system problem was too good to be true." Kurt mumbled. "You can complain all you want Kurt, you're going." Professor X said. "Besides, it'll be good for all of you that need to go. Ororo and Logan will be going along in case a serious problem arises. Other than that, you will have a backpack with only the essentials needed for this trip." They all agreed to make the trip that coming weekend, Cora would call Jack and tell him where they'd be. "It's all set then. Go ahead and start planning what you'll be taking. And remember, only the essentials." * * *
Cora, Kitty, Scott, Samantha, Jean, Kurt, Evan, Linzie, Logan and Ororo set out the following Friday morning. On the way there Evan asked, "Now tell me again why Rogue didn't have to join us on this death march?" "Because she got in her training when she could. She didn't avoid it. That's why she got to stay home." Cora said over her shoulder, "Don't worry, this'll be a piece of cake." "That's what you think." Evan said slumping down in his seat. "Well there's no turning back now," Jean said, "Because we're here. Welcome to the Devil's Peak mountain reservation!" When everyone was assembled, Ororo gave them their instructions: "You'll be split up into two groups, one will start up the east trail, one the west trail, and we will meet at the Devil's Peak landing on Sunday afternoon. You should have enough food among each group to sustain you until then. The rest of your supplies were up to you to get. Now, Scott, Cora, Kurt and Jean will come with me on the east trail. Linzie, Evan, Samantha and Kitty will go with Logan on the west trail. 'Perfect, Sam thought, Three whole days of intolerability.' * * * The two groups set off shortly; some were more enthusiastic than others. By sundown both groups were well under way. Samantha hadn't said anything the entire way. But that didn't last long. No one knew how it got started. Not even Sam or Logan. One minute she was walking by him, the next she was shouting at him. It was ridiculous! She wasn't even sure what they were arguing about. It had to be something, but she sure didn't know what. It was when Logan was on the verge of letting his claws slip out that Sam simply spun on her heal and stormed off. Telling Kitty that she was going to get some more firewood on her way. There was a lot of tension in the air, Kitty decide to go and make sure Samantha was alright, Evan went to actually get some firewood. He knew Sam wasn't going to really get any. Linzie, who had been calm the entire time, continued to quietly stir their dinner and sit out the water bottles. Logan glanced down at her, why was she so calm? After a time he finally asked, "How come ya didn't go after Sam with the Half-pint?" Linzie didn't look up, "Because I know Samantha, and I know that she doesn't really mean to get into arguments with people." "She's sure good at it." He snorted, "I don't think I've ever met anyone so short tempered." "Oh what, besides you?" Linzie asked. He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Its just that," she continued calmly, "You have to understand that Sam's been through a lot. And believe me I know you have too. But Sam is more emotional about it. Don't ask me why, if she wants you to know, she'll tell you herself." With that, the conversation was closed. Somewhere in the forest, Kitty listened patiently while Sam vented a little left over anger. "I don't even know what we were arguing about! Its just like there's something about him that makes me practically furious! I must be crazy!" "You're not crazy." Kitty said "You've just got a lot of anger and I guess Mister Logan was the closest fitting target." "Maybe. I don't know." "Well, let's go ahead and start back. I'm sure things have cooled off by now." "Alright." Sam and Kitty stood up and walked back to the camp.
Five
~
They set off again early the next morning. The tension seemed to have settled for the time. (To the relief of three certain members of the group.) They stopped right about 4:00 at a clearing where the path led out onto a sort of viewpoint ledge. While they were resting, Kitty and Sam walked towards the edge of the ledge and looked out over the mountain valley. "See up there." Sam asked, pointing to a peak far above from where they were. "Yeah," "That's Devils Peak. We'll be meeting the others at its base." "Wow," Kitty shaded her eyes from the sun and stared up at the looming rock. "Why do they call it Devil's Peak?" "Because the very top of the peak used to be shaped like a spear head. And when the sun came up it looked like it was burning. The local settlers originally called it Devil's Spear, but when the top eroded away, they changed it to Devil's Peak." "Regular encyclopedia isn't she?" They all spun around to the direction where the voice had come from. Evan noticed Linzie and Samantha's eyes widen even before they saw who it was. Out of the trees stepped a tall man dressed all in black with a long brown trench coat. He had a horrible looking scar running from his right temple down across his face to his left jawbone. Linzie sucked in her breath. Sam held hers. "You know it's taken me quite a while to find you. But I believe I'm missing one. No matter, I'll find her later." "Who is this guy?" Kitty asked Linzie. She turned her head as if to look at Kitty but never took her eyes off the man, "Would you believe this is the reason we had to leave the last place we were at?" Logan popped out one set of his claws. "Wadd'ya want with 'em?" The stranger tilted his head, "Why they're the one's who gave me this scar, and quite a few others. I've got a score to settle." Logan's other set of claws showed themselves. Linzie stepped forward, "You don't have to fight them Cain. They have nothing to do with this." "Oh, but they do. See, anyone who helps you three goes right on the list." He looked over at Sam and gave a harsh laugh, "What's wrong Sammy? Cat got your tongue? Or are you planning which scar to give me next?" Sam clenched her fists, "That was your fault Cain. You're the one who tried to kill us in the first place." "Yeah, you're right Sammy. But you got away, and I don't get paid until I kill ya." Without warning, he sprang forward and made a grab for Linzie! She ducked around and nearly fell into Kitty. Evan tried to spike him from behind but he whipped around and lifted him up by the arm. Logan sprang in and knocked him sprawling toward the edge of the cliff. Cain jumped up and lunged for Sam. His hands lock around her forearms and he tried to push her over, she pushed back and tried to swing around and get him on the edge. Suddenly, the edge of the cliff began to crumble under their combined weight. Cain went over the edge and dragged Sam with him! Sam hooked her arms onto the edge and held on as hard as she could. Logan ran over and saw that Cain was hanging on to her legs to keep from falling. Logan grabbed Samantha's hands and was about to pull her up when there was a loud CRACK and RUMBLE. The entire edge broke away and all three of them tumbled down.
Six
~
"Samantha!" Linzie and the others ran to the cliff edge and looked down. They were no where in sight. "Oh no." Kitty whispered, "What are we going to do?" "We're going to find the others." Linzie said. "What?" Evan stepped back from the edge, "What if they're still hanging on down there? What if they need help?" "If they survived they'll be alright." Linzie took out a scrap of paper and scribbled something down, "If they're close enough to climb up they will," she used a pin to stick it to a tree, "If they're low enough down they'll finish climbing down. And if they're in the middle, these cliffs are riddled with small caves and intakes. They should be able to get one." She slung her pack over her shoulder, "Now lets go and find the others before it gets too late." Kitty and Evan couldn't help but follow. Linzie explained to them how she could track the feel of Cora's mind medical record since she'd healed her a lot of times before. They hurried on and disappeared into the trees.
***
After they had gone over and fallen a little ways, Sam had thrust her hands into the side of the cliff and gotten a foothold. Logan had rammed his claws into the rock and stopped himself with his feet. Then they had listened to Cain's screaming until he was so far down they couldn't make him out anymore. There was a small cave about seven feet below them and to the left. They had managed to climb their way down and get into the cave.
"This is the last time I go to the mountains." Samantha said as she sat down on the cave floor and surveyed her scratched and torn hands. "How 'bout telling me why there was a moron in black chasing ya?" asked Logan as he looked down the gorge trying to see if he was still there. (Or still alive more likely.) "He's a hit man." Sam said, taking a roll of bandage out of her pack and wrapping it around her palms. "Some power crazy, rich guy sent him after us when Linzie wouldn't go out with him." "What was so bad about him?" "He was sixty-three." "Oh." Logan walked back inside the cave. "Well doesn't look like he's comin' back." "That's what we thought the first time he came after us. You'd think that after having the pain of every injury he's ever had dropped on him all at once and nearly getting fish poisoned would have done it. But no, he just had to come back and track us all the way here from Texas." "What was this guy paying him? A million bucks?" "Two actually." Logan looked up. "Ok so he's a very rich, power hungry, old guy. Not my fault." Sam finished putting the bandages on her hands and put the rest back into her pack, "So, now what?" Logan looked out at the sky; the sun was already starting to set. "It gets dark early 'round here. And considering how long it's gonna take to climb back up, and the fact that we're smack dab in the middle of this cliff, it might be best to wait till tomorrow morning." "Alright." Sam started rummaging through her pack. "What are you doing?" "If it's gonna be as cold as it was last night, we're gonna need a fire." She pulled out a box of matches and set them on the cave floor. "One problem, there's no wood out here." Sam pulled out a bundle of kindling tied with a string. Next came a flashlight, and a small blanket. "How'd that get in there?" she asked more to the blanket than to him, "Cora must've put it in. Oh well, that'd be like her." She searched the bag for anything else she needed at the moment and set back on her heels. "Any other complaints?" Logan just shook his head, and made a place for the fire. Samantha unwrapped some of the kindling, placed it on the ground and tried to light the fire, but she just couldn't seem to get the kindling to catch. "You're doing it wrong." Logan said. "Well excuse me if I'm not an expert at this." She snapped, burning the tip of her finger in the process, "Danget!" she yanked her hand back. He'd had enough, how much could she have been though to be this bull headed? "You know I realize you've been through a lot in your life and I understand that. But you don't have to be so stubborn all the time!" A long silence passed, neither of them moved, and it was then that something inside of Samantha snapped.
"Understand what I've been through?" she slowly stood up and looked down at where he was sitting, "Understand what I've been through?! You have no idea what I've been through! You didn't have to spend your childhood in a no rate orphanage in the sleaziest part of town in the sleaziest city. Not to mention the fact that this orphanage is owned by a woman who is so hard, so cruel, and so horrible that she makes the devil look like your friendly neighborhood gardener!" The words tumbled out before either of them knew why, "A woman who, every day, tells you how worthless you are and how nobody in their right mind would EVER adopt you! Who beats you day and night for things you never even did! Who locks you in a tiny little box if you don't obey her immediately until you think you'll go insane or starve to death before she lets you out!" Tears started streaking down her face, this was the first time he'd ever seen her cry, "Who knows you are a mutant and exploits your abilities? Who gets you to perform the most meaningless and sometimes unsanitary tasks! You didn't grow up with requests- no!- Demands, like 'Samantha knock over that repairman's ladder and make him mess up so I won't have to pay.' Or ' Samantha, my worthless little tot, lift up that sewage cover and place it so someone will hit my car and have to pay me for it.' Or even 'Samantha, knock over that antique vase so I can collect the insurance money from my great-aunt's lawyer before they sign the final papers to cut off her oxygen tank tomorrow!!!!!!' Not to mention the fact that you don't even know or have even heard of your parents, so you don't know if you were abandoned or if they're dead, you don't even know what month you were born in! And when you finally get to leave, it's because the police finally find out about her crummy operation and shut her down. Because no one ever even saw you when they came to adopt a child since she always locked you in the storage closet! "And you think you can understand what I've been through? No. You will NEVER, know or understand what I have been through." She walked to the edge of the cave, sat down, hugged her knees to her chest and that's where she stayed. After a few minutes Logan got the fire started, thinking, but didn't say anything.
The time passed, both of them kept quiet. When the sun was just about to disappear, Logan got up and walked over to where Sam was leaning against the frame of the cave door. She had fallen asleep. 'Real safe place ta sleep. He thought, If she'd a rolled over she'dve joined that Cain guy.' He bent down and gently lifted her up. Carrying her over on the other side of the fire and laying her down. Then he got the blanket and laid it across her. She was right, it was getting pretty cold. He sat down as close to the fire as he could and tried to get a bit of warmth from it. But pretty soon it was apparent that the fire wasn't doing much good. The wind was beginning to blow so hard through the cave that the fire finally flickered and died out. Then it just got colder and colder. The added altitude didn't help any either. It finally became just too cold. Logan stretched out the other end of the blanket and crawled under it. Getting as much distance as possible between him and Samantha. She'd probably explode if she thought anything had happened. Sleep came soon for him just as the moon was fully coming out.
* * *
Logan woke up sometime in the middle of the night, and it took memory a couple of seconds to set in. Moonlight was streaming through the cave; it was probably about midnight. He realized that his left side was very warm, and looked down to find Sam snuggled up against his side, her head resting on his shoulder. Oh, boy. Lord don't let her wake up. It would be worse than if a volcano exploded under him. He'd prefer the volcano. Ok, all he had to do was slide away from her. Easy, right? He started to ease away, but he didn't get very far. She stirred, stretched for a second, but then she settled back down. That was close, and she could wake up the next time. But he couldn't stay like this. Well he could but. Hey! Uh,uh! Don't even think about it! Why would you? Ok, just try again. Be very easy. He slid about an inch away from her when she stirred again. 'Here it comes.' Sam yawned and half opened her eyes. "Sorry," she mumbled, she was still half- asleep, thank God, "Must've rolled over in my sleep." She turned on her other side and slid a couple inches away from him. 'Well if that don't beat all.' Logan watched her a minute to make sure she had gone back to sleep, then he laid back and dozed off.
Pretty soon he woke up again. Something was sort of nudging him. He looked over to see Samantha shivering in her sleep. And it was actually colder than it was the last time he'd woken up, believe it or not. She was shaking like a leaf, and she was still under the blanket and everything. Logan lay there a little while watching her. She certainly was lovely. He'd known that ever since he met her, but he just realized it. Wonder why? He found himself sliding over and putting his arm over her. 'What am I doin'?' Logan thought, but she had stopped shivering. He'd be sure to slide back away from her before she woke up that morning.
Sam remembered being half awake and rolling away from Logan. Then she'd later woken up again to find his arm across her. Well at least she wasn't as cold as before, that's probably why he did it. She'd just scoot away before he woke up when morning came. No problem.
She woke up again, she guessed a little bit before dawn, since the sky was more gray than black now, and was just moving into the first stages of pink. She was on her back and Logan still had his arm over her. Ok, just scoot away, doze for a little while, and get up whenever he does. She tried to move away, but he practically woke up. Sam closed her eyes again and decided to play possum and see if he'd get up or not. Feigning sleep was a specialty of hers that she'd picked up at the orphanage. For obvious reasons. She felt him stir and sit up on his elbow. She knew he was over her and could feel him looking down at her face. But, why? He wasn't moving. The minutes went by. Her curiosity was beginning to get the best of her. 'Curiosity killed the cat.' Samantha told herself, 'but, then satisfaction brought him back.' Curiosity won. She hoped she wouldn't regret it. She stirred just a little bit for effect and half opened her eyes, blinked and opened them completely. Sam looked up at Logan. He just stared down at her, unchanging, unmoving. "What's up?" her voiced rasped and squeaked at the same time. Lovely, Not! He smiled, "Not much, just thinking." "Oh, ok." Why was her heart pounding? Why wasn't he moving? What was he doing? "So are you just gonna sit there or what?" Logan smiled again, "Or what." Before she could do anything, he lifted her up and turned around so his back was against the cave wall. He tilted her face up toward his, "Sam," he murmured. Then pressed his lips lightly against hers. Almost like you would kiss a child. Sam didn't know whether to push away or go with it. This was a very new experience. Shoot, she'd never even thought about anything like this, especially with Logan. It wasn't so bad though. He pulled away about an inch. "This is very confusing," Samantha said, "Very, very confusing." "Don't let it be." He moved in again and the kiss deepened. Not a child anymore. When he pulled away she turned a little bit just in time to see the sun peeking over the horizon. They sat and watched the sunrise, and sat for a while after it was over just looking out over the ravine. After she'd collected herself, Sam hopped up and stretched. She turned around and smiled, "What's say we get out of this dust bin?" He smiled back and nodded. Samantha picked up her pack and made sure she had everything. Then they made their way out of the cave, and started the long climb up the cliff.
Seven
~
While all of this was going on, Linzie, Kitty and Evan had made their way over to the east trail and caught up with the others. After they'd explained what happened, they all hurried back down the mountain. Ororo sent Jean, Scott and Evan to tell Professor Xavier what had happened and to see if he could find them with Cerebro. Then she split up those who remained to go to the top and bottom of the cliff that Samantha and Logan had fallen over. The group assigned to the bottom got there first, but all they found was the body of Cain. To the relief of a somewhat sickened Cora. The other group wouldn't reach the top for another three hours, so all they could do was wait. * * *
Logan and Sam reached the top of the cliff shortly after the second group had gotten to the bottom. It was there that they found Linzie's note.
Sam and Logan, If you, hopefully, make it back to the top of the cliff, we've gone to catch up with the others to tell them what happened. Please stay here. We're going to come back to see if you made it. Linzie
"I guess we're staying here." Samantha said, passing the note to Logan, "Linzie's always been good at taking charge in a panicky situation." "Who's panicked?" he teased her. "Well they probably were after they saw us go over the edge of a cliff!" she was exhausted but still got a good laugh in. Sam sat down and leaned against the tree Linzie's note had been on. Logan came over and sat next to her, she rested her head on his shoulder. "This has got to be the most bizarre trip I've ever been on." said Sam, closing her eyes. "Well I don't think it turned out too bad." She glanced up at him and smiled, "I guess not."
Eight
~
Linzie and the others were ecstatic when they made it to the top and found both Logan and Samantha okay. They met up with Cora and the rest about half way down the mountain and the joys were expressed all over again. They made it back to the mansion and everything seemed to be all right. (It was a relief and a surprise for quite a few that they didn't end up killing each other when they were in the cave.) But hey, why look a gift horse in the mouth?
But it wasn't until later that day when everything had settled that Linzie found out just how well Samantha and Logan had gotten along. She was heading to her room and was just about to round a corner when she heard soft talking. She couldn't make out what was said, but she got enough confirmation when she peeked around the corner just in time to see Logan give Sam a kiss before she went into her own room. A smug and satisfied smile on her face, Linzie turned back around and decided to "get a drink" before she went to bed. She passed Professor Xavier on the way down. She took the smile off her face long enough to say good night, but it came back just when she was passing him. A similar smile began to tug on his mouth as they passed. 'Looks like I'm not the only one who knows.' Linzie thought, 'And I'm not the only one who's glad about it either.'
End ~
~Dragonwing~
One
~
Samantha De Lombre was up with the sun; she didn't sleep much last night anyway. She grabbed a towel, her bathing suit and crept down the stairs. Well as much as she could creep, when you have bones made out of stone, it's hard to take light steps. Luckily the door to the indoor pool was already unlocked. You wouldn't think she had any interest in swimming, but she found it a good way to let off steam. And boy did she have some steam to let off. She put on her bathing suit in one of the dressing rooms and took the band out of her hair. Her curly red hair fell over her shoulders. She'd have to cut it soon; she never liked for it to get too long. She slid in the water and started doing laps. One.. Two...Three, Swimming was great for her when she was mad, course there wasn't always a pool handy when she was mad, but sometimes she could wait till she found one. Sometimes not. She, Linzie Compton and Cora Wood, her two friends, had been at the Xavier Institute for less than two weeks and already Samantha had found something, or someone in this case, to make her mad. Six...Seven..Eight, Since she didn't have full control over her strength, Professor Xavier had asked Logan to help her with it. Something about him having some type of metal in his skeleton or something like that. Well it wasn't working! She'd had her first session with him yesterday, disaster! They couldn't get along any better than a cat and a dog could. At first it was going pretty well, she had gotten him to talk a couple of times other than what he was explaining to her what to do to control, he was just too close-mouthed! Its not like she was a big chatter box either, but you had to talk sometime. And when he did talk he was always serious or monotone or sounded annoyed, that just didn't fly well with Sam. Again its not like she was very social herself, in fact she could sometimes be the antisocial, but. Oh, forget him anyway! All she had to do was make it through her control sessions until she had it down and then she could ignore him if she wanted! They'd finally gotten so fed up with each other that she had stormed out. She'd have bet those claws of his would have come out sooner or later if it had gone any further. She just didn't get it! He just made her so mad! And it wasn't just the talking thing; there was more to it. She just couldn't figure out what it was! Nineteen...Twenty...Twenty-one. Oh! That's not where she was! Arrgghh! She'd been so busy ranting she'd forgotten to count! She dove underwater and decided to swim from one end to the other that way. She was about to the edge when she thought she heard something, she looked up to see a blurry blue figure standing at the edge of the pool and waving it's arms. Sam came up to find Kurt shouting "Are you crazy!!" "What are you talking about!?" she snapped, "What's with the suicide?" At least he had stopped shouting, "If your talking about my bones it's not suicide," she said, "I may weigh slightly more than natural for someone my size but I'm not an anchor! I can control my weight or strength fine on some things like driving or in this case swimming. Now can I please finish?" "Oh," he said, "Sorry, I didn't think you could do stuff like that. My mistake," he grinned, "Practically everyone knows about your fight with Logan, most who knew first actually heard it, but still. I guess I thought you were doing something drastic to get even or something!" Kurt probably would have laughed if it weren't for the look Sam gave him. By now she had lost the need to swim and was climbing out of the pool. "What time is it?" she asked as she wrapped her towel around herself. "It's about eight. How long have you been out here anyway?" "Since the sun came up." "Oh, ok. Do you want any breakfast? It's almost ready." Sam started walking toward the dressing rooms, "Nah, I've got somewhere to be. I'm probably gonna be late as it is." "Ok," Kurt left to head back toward the mansion.
Two
~
Linzie and Samantha were waiting impatiently for Cora in the front hall. "Come on Cora, we're already late!" Sam shouted. "All right already!" Cora snapped as she ran down the stairs, still trying to pull on her long blue jacket. "It's not my fault I have to get dressed over scales! So back off!" "Let's just go," Linzie said calmly, "We should be able to make it if we leave now." "Where are you going?" Rogue asked as she and Kitty came to see what all the shouting was about. "We have to get to work." Linzie told her.
"Work?" Kitty asked. "Yeah," Cora said, untangling her dart-nails from her sleeve. "We work at this new place out near Linzie's Aunt's house. Jack's. It's a restaurant/bar in the day-time and a dance-club/bar at night. We've got the all-day shift every other Saturday. Jack was just giving us time to move in." Now that Kitty and Rogue looked, Linzie and Samantha were dressed pretty similarly. They both had on blue-jean shorts, black Nikes, and a shirt the color of their hair. Cora had on her usual blue turtleneck, jeans, and long jacket. "Sounds cool!" Kitty said, "You can come by later if you want." Sam said, "Try about 1:00. The lunch crowd should be mostly cleared out by then." "Great." Rogue said. "Yeah, we'll definitely be there." Kitty was getting excited. "Alright," Cora called over shoulder as they walked out the door, "See ya then!" * * * The crowd that normally came for lunch was just about gone when Kitty, Kurt and Rogue pulled up to Jack's. It had a large dance floor to the left when you walked in, tables to the right, a little mingling space in-between, and strait at the back was the bar. There was a small, sort of low catwalk going around three of the walls with lights draped around the handrails and above the dance floor was the DJ box. "This place is great." Kitty said as they walked up to the bar where Samantha and Linzie were. "Yeah," Kurt agreed, still looking around, "What's with the cat-walk?" "There used to be a second floor," Linzie explained, "Jack took it out and left the walk so people could relax up there. This place hasn't been open very long, but we already have a bunch of regulars coming in every day." "Where's Cora?" Rogue asked, sitting down on one of the barstools. "She's in the back with Alice getting some more glasses. There was a small fight between two of the lunch regulars. A lot of the people who come here then are normally high way workers and people like that, you've got to expect a brawl once in a while." "Guess so," Kitty said. Linzie went to take someone's order and Sam started to wipe down the bar, when Cora and another woman with frizzy, black hair and just a little too much make-up came from the back each carrying a crate of glasses. "Hey!" Cora said as they set down the crates. "Glad you were able to come out. This is Alice, she works here too." "Hi," Alice smiled at them; "I've heard quite a few things about you guys." "It's all lies then." Kurt joked. Alice laughed, "Well then I guess you aren't the one with the cute accent then?" "They said that?" he asked. Alice started laughing again, joined by Kitty an Rogue, "Nope, but that doesn't mean it isn't. Hey Jack!" Alice called, "Come and meet the girls' friends!" Jack came from the back; he was a thick, muscled, middle-aged man with thinning brown hair and bronze eyes. "Well hello there!" he boomed, "I'm glad you could come! It's certainly about time these three got out there and met people" "Technically, we went and found them." Kitty said. "Figures," he chuckled, "Still having friends that found you is better than having no friends at all." "Our boss the philosopher." Linzie said with mock proudness, "How would we get by without him." "You'd better think that," he said with mock sternness, "After all, I hold your jobs in my pocket. I could toss them any ol' time." "Sure, and then who would you find to help you run this place?" Sam said poking him on his shoulder, which came up to about 3 inches below her own, "There's no one else for fifty miles. Face it. We're irreplaceable." "Well, you never know about that," he said, "Though I doubt your replacements would be as reliable as you three." The phone in the back rang and Jack went to answer. "He's really nice." Kitty said. "Say Cora," Rogue asked her, "How do ya work here without him noticing your mutation? Having long sleeves doesn't take care of everything." "Oh, Jack knows I'm a mutant. He knows all three of us are mutants. Alice too." "And he doesn't care?" Kurt asked. "Well there's no reason it should bother him," she said as she and Alice started to put up the glasses, "He's a mutant too, after all." "He's a what?!" Kurt asked, nearly toppling out of his chair. "A mutant. He can tell if someone's telling the truth or not. It's very handy, especially since he owns a bar. If someone he's looking at isn't telling the truth, they have a sort of glow around them that he sees." "Pretty nifty huh?" said Alice, "We never have anyone here who's under the allowed age. That's so handy, and since the age minimum is 14 if your with an adult, anybody under 21 has a stamp we put on their hand that can only be seen under a black light. "And if anyone asks about Cora's nails we just make up something like, 'You know these kids today, everything has to be weird and wild', saves a lot of trouble." "Sounds like you've got it all worked out." Rogue commented. "Yeah, it's way easier on us." Cora and Alice finished putting up the glasses and went to put the empty crates in the dumpster out back. "You guys want anything to drink?" Linzie asked a little bit later when there were almost no customers left, "The first one is always free." Kitty and Kurt each had a soda, Rogue didn't want anything. "There's really not going to be much to do until the dance crowd shows up around 5:30 or 6:00. If you guys want to come back then you can, otherwise your probably just gonna have to sit there like a couple of vegetables." "Why don't we go back and tell the others how it went and see if anyone else wants to come back later?" Kitty suggested. "Sounds good to me." Rogue said, "Kurt?" "Sure" he hopped off of the barstool he'd taken to and started walking with them towards the door. "We'll be back later." Kitty called over her shoulder, "Ok, see you then." Samantha said as they left.
Three
~
They came back around 5:45, this time Jean, Evan, Scott, and Ororo were with them. "Hey!" Jean said as they made they're way up to the bar. Kitty had already gone to check out the dance floor, and Kurt decided to go up on the catwalk. "Hi," Linzie said, "Do you guys want anything to drink? In case Rogue hasn't told you, the first one's free." "Sure." Evan and Jean each got one, Ororo and Scott decided to save they're free-bees. "Well, I've gotta get back to work," Linzie picked up her tray and order pad, "If you guys need anything else, Cora's handling the catwalk and Sam and Alice are covering the bar. There are a few other people working here, but they aren't as nice." She winked and walked off. They stayed kind of late, Kurt, Rogue, and Scott left about 9:30, then the others left around 10:20. At 11:30, the dance crowd was mostly cleared out and the late night, biker/bar hoppers were coming in. This was when they normally got a fight, (if they got one). Sam was wiping down her side of the bar when who should walk in but the 'stubborn king' himself. Logan. 'Great.' Samantha thought, 'This is just what I need. What does he think he's doing here anyway?' He walked up and set down about five stools down from her. She ignored him and continued to clean off the glasses left behind by customers and gathering up her tips from under them. Alice walked up to her a little bit later and asked: "Aren't you going to take that guy's order?" Sam looked up, "Who? Oh, I'd rather not, will you take care of it?" "Alright," she said, "But I'm keeping the tip." "Fine with me." Alice walked over to where he was sitting, put on her cheery waitress's smile and took his order.
Logan left a little while later. Then shortly Linzie, Sam and Cora got off of their shifts and headed back to the mansion.
Four
~
The days passed. Sam continued with her control lessons every other day, though there wasn't much communication during any of those times. And Sam liked it that way. Linzie went on a cooking craze and baked about everything in the book. (Well, everything in the cookbook that is.) And Cora finally learned how to, sort of, control her poison, though there was room for improvement. One day, everyone was called to the study where Professor Xavier told them about something he had been arranging. "Since the danger room system has acquired a few bugs," he began, "I think it would be good for those who've missed out the training they should have been doing," a glance at Kurt, "to take a weekend in the mountains for a sort of survival training session." "Knew the system problem was too good to be true." Kurt mumbled. "You can complain all you want Kurt, you're going." Professor X said. "Besides, it'll be good for all of you that need to go. Ororo and Logan will be going along in case a serious problem arises. Other than that, you will have a backpack with only the essentials needed for this trip." They all agreed to make the trip that coming weekend, Cora would call Jack and tell him where they'd be. "It's all set then. Go ahead and start planning what you'll be taking. And remember, only the essentials." * * *
Cora, Kitty, Scott, Samantha, Jean, Kurt, Evan, Linzie, Logan and Ororo set out the following Friday morning. On the way there Evan asked, "Now tell me again why Rogue didn't have to join us on this death march?" "Because she got in her training when she could. She didn't avoid it. That's why she got to stay home." Cora said over her shoulder, "Don't worry, this'll be a piece of cake." "That's what you think." Evan said slumping down in his seat. "Well there's no turning back now," Jean said, "Because we're here. Welcome to the Devil's Peak mountain reservation!" When everyone was assembled, Ororo gave them their instructions: "You'll be split up into two groups, one will start up the east trail, one the west trail, and we will meet at the Devil's Peak landing on Sunday afternoon. You should have enough food among each group to sustain you until then. The rest of your supplies were up to you to get. Now, Scott, Cora, Kurt and Jean will come with me on the east trail. Linzie, Evan, Samantha and Kitty will go with Logan on the west trail. 'Perfect, Sam thought, Three whole days of intolerability.' * * * The two groups set off shortly; some were more enthusiastic than others. By sundown both groups were well under way. Samantha hadn't said anything the entire way. But that didn't last long. No one knew how it got started. Not even Sam or Logan. One minute she was walking by him, the next she was shouting at him. It was ridiculous! She wasn't even sure what they were arguing about. It had to be something, but she sure didn't know what. It was when Logan was on the verge of letting his claws slip out that Sam simply spun on her heal and stormed off. Telling Kitty that she was going to get some more firewood on her way. There was a lot of tension in the air, Kitty decide to go and make sure Samantha was alright, Evan went to actually get some firewood. He knew Sam wasn't going to really get any. Linzie, who had been calm the entire time, continued to quietly stir their dinner and sit out the water bottles. Logan glanced down at her, why was she so calm? After a time he finally asked, "How come ya didn't go after Sam with the Half-pint?" Linzie didn't look up, "Because I know Samantha, and I know that she doesn't really mean to get into arguments with people." "She's sure good at it." He snorted, "I don't think I've ever met anyone so short tempered." "Oh what, besides you?" Linzie asked. He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Its just that," she continued calmly, "You have to understand that Sam's been through a lot. And believe me I know you have too. But Sam is more emotional about it. Don't ask me why, if she wants you to know, she'll tell you herself." With that, the conversation was closed. Somewhere in the forest, Kitty listened patiently while Sam vented a little left over anger. "I don't even know what we were arguing about! Its just like there's something about him that makes me practically furious! I must be crazy!" "You're not crazy." Kitty said "You've just got a lot of anger and I guess Mister Logan was the closest fitting target." "Maybe. I don't know." "Well, let's go ahead and start back. I'm sure things have cooled off by now." "Alright." Sam and Kitty stood up and walked back to the camp.
Five
~
They set off again early the next morning. The tension seemed to have settled for the time. (To the relief of three certain members of the group.) They stopped right about 4:00 at a clearing where the path led out onto a sort of viewpoint ledge. While they were resting, Kitty and Sam walked towards the edge of the ledge and looked out over the mountain valley. "See up there." Sam asked, pointing to a peak far above from where they were. "Yeah," "That's Devils Peak. We'll be meeting the others at its base." "Wow," Kitty shaded her eyes from the sun and stared up at the looming rock. "Why do they call it Devil's Peak?" "Because the very top of the peak used to be shaped like a spear head. And when the sun came up it looked like it was burning. The local settlers originally called it Devil's Spear, but when the top eroded away, they changed it to Devil's Peak." "Regular encyclopedia isn't she?" They all spun around to the direction where the voice had come from. Evan noticed Linzie and Samantha's eyes widen even before they saw who it was. Out of the trees stepped a tall man dressed all in black with a long brown trench coat. He had a horrible looking scar running from his right temple down across his face to his left jawbone. Linzie sucked in her breath. Sam held hers. "You know it's taken me quite a while to find you. But I believe I'm missing one. No matter, I'll find her later." "Who is this guy?" Kitty asked Linzie. She turned her head as if to look at Kitty but never took her eyes off the man, "Would you believe this is the reason we had to leave the last place we were at?" Logan popped out one set of his claws. "Wadd'ya want with 'em?" The stranger tilted his head, "Why they're the one's who gave me this scar, and quite a few others. I've got a score to settle." Logan's other set of claws showed themselves. Linzie stepped forward, "You don't have to fight them Cain. They have nothing to do with this." "Oh, but they do. See, anyone who helps you three goes right on the list." He looked over at Sam and gave a harsh laugh, "What's wrong Sammy? Cat got your tongue? Or are you planning which scar to give me next?" Sam clenched her fists, "That was your fault Cain. You're the one who tried to kill us in the first place." "Yeah, you're right Sammy. But you got away, and I don't get paid until I kill ya." Without warning, he sprang forward and made a grab for Linzie! She ducked around and nearly fell into Kitty. Evan tried to spike him from behind but he whipped around and lifted him up by the arm. Logan sprang in and knocked him sprawling toward the edge of the cliff. Cain jumped up and lunged for Sam. His hands lock around her forearms and he tried to push her over, she pushed back and tried to swing around and get him on the edge. Suddenly, the edge of the cliff began to crumble under their combined weight. Cain went over the edge and dragged Sam with him! Sam hooked her arms onto the edge and held on as hard as she could. Logan ran over and saw that Cain was hanging on to her legs to keep from falling. Logan grabbed Samantha's hands and was about to pull her up when there was a loud CRACK and RUMBLE. The entire edge broke away and all three of them tumbled down.
Six
~
"Samantha!" Linzie and the others ran to the cliff edge and looked down. They were no where in sight. "Oh no." Kitty whispered, "What are we going to do?" "We're going to find the others." Linzie said. "What?" Evan stepped back from the edge, "What if they're still hanging on down there? What if they need help?" "If they survived they'll be alright." Linzie took out a scrap of paper and scribbled something down, "If they're close enough to climb up they will," she used a pin to stick it to a tree, "If they're low enough down they'll finish climbing down. And if they're in the middle, these cliffs are riddled with small caves and intakes. They should be able to get one." She slung her pack over her shoulder, "Now lets go and find the others before it gets too late." Kitty and Evan couldn't help but follow. Linzie explained to them how she could track the feel of Cora's mind medical record since she'd healed her a lot of times before. They hurried on and disappeared into the trees.
***
After they had gone over and fallen a little ways, Sam had thrust her hands into the side of the cliff and gotten a foothold. Logan had rammed his claws into the rock and stopped himself with his feet. Then they had listened to Cain's screaming until he was so far down they couldn't make him out anymore. There was a small cave about seven feet below them and to the left. They had managed to climb their way down and get into the cave.
"This is the last time I go to the mountains." Samantha said as she sat down on the cave floor and surveyed her scratched and torn hands. "How 'bout telling me why there was a moron in black chasing ya?" asked Logan as he looked down the gorge trying to see if he was still there. (Or still alive more likely.) "He's a hit man." Sam said, taking a roll of bandage out of her pack and wrapping it around her palms. "Some power crazy, rich guy sent him after us when Linzie wouldn't go out with him." "What was so bad about him?" "He was sixty-three." "Oh." Logan walked back inside the cave. "Well doesn't look like he's comin' back." "That's what we thought the first time he came after us. You'd think that after having the pain of every injury he's ever had dropped on him all at once and nearly getting fish poisoned would have done it. But no, he just had to come back and track us all the way here from Texas." "What was this guy paying him? A million bucks?" "Two actually." Logan looked up. "Ok so he's a very rich, power hungry, old guy. Not my fault." Sam finished putting the bandages on her hands and put the rest back into her pack, "So, now what?" Logan looked out at the sky; the sun was already starting to set. "It gets dark early 'round here. And considering how long it's gonna take to climb back up, and the fact that we're smack dab in the middle of this cliff, it might be best to wait till tomorrow morning." "Alright." Sam started rummaging through her pack. "What are you doing?" "If it's gonna be as cold as it was last night, we're gonna need a fire." She pulled out a box of matches and set them on the cave floor. "One problem, there's no wood out here." Sam pulled out a bundle of kindling tied with a string. Next came a flashlight, and a small blanket. "How'd that get in there?" she asked more to the blanket than to him, "Cora must've put it in. Oh well, that'd be like her." She searched the bag for anything else she needed at the moment and set back on her heels. "Any other complaints?" Logan just shook his head, and made a place for the fire. Samantha unwrapped some of the kindling, placed it on the ground and tried to light the fire, but she just couldn't seem to get the kindling to catch. "You're doing it wrong." Logan said. "Well excuse me if I'm not an expert at this." She snapped, burning the tip of her finger in the process, "Danget!" she yanked her hand back. He'd had enough, how much could she have been though to be this bull headed? "You know I realize you've been through a lot in your life and I understand that. But you don't have to be so stubborn all the time!" A long silence passed, neither of them moved, and it was then that something inside of Samantha snapped.
"Understand what I've been through?" she slowly stood up and looked down at where he was sitting, "Understand what I've been through?! You have no idea what I've been through! You didn't have to spend your childhood in a no rate orphanage in the sleaziest part of town in the sleaziest city. Not to mention the fact that this orphanage is owned by a woman who is so hard, so cruel, and so horrible that she makes the devil look like your friendly neighborhood gardener!" The words tumbled out before either of them knew why, "A woman who, every day, tells you how worthless you are and how nobody in their right mind would EVER adopt you! Who beats you day and night for things you never even did! Who locks you in a tiny little box if you don't obey her immediately until you think you'll go insane or starve to death before she lets you out!" Tears started streaking down her face, this was the first time he'd ever seen her cry, "Who knows you are a mutant and exploits your abilities? Who gets you to perform the most meaningless and sometimes unsanitary tasks! You didn't grow up with requests- no!- Demands, like 'Samantha knock over that repairman's ladder and make him mess up so I won't have to pay.' Or ' Samantha, my worthless little tot, lift up that sewage cover and place it so someone will hit my car and have to pay me for it.' Or even 'Samantha, knock over that antique vase so I can collect the insurance money from my great-aunt's lawyer before they sign the final papers to cut off her oxygen tank tomorrow!!!!!!' Not to mention the fact that you don't even know or have even heard of your parents, so you don't know if you were abandoned or if they're dead, you don't even know what month you were born in! And when you finally get to leave, it's because the police finally find out about her crummy operation and shut her down. Because no one ever even saw you when they came to adopt a child since she always locked you in the storage closet! "And you think you can understand what I've been through? No. You will NEVER, know or understand what I have been through." She walked to the edge of the cave, sat down, hugged her knees to her chest and that's where she stayed. After a few minutes Logan got the fire started, thinking, but didn't say anything.
The time passed, both of them kept quiet. When the sun was just about to disappear, Logan got up and walked over to where Sam was leaning against the frame of the cave door. She had fallen asleep. 'Real safe place ta sleep. He thought, If she'd a rolled over she'dve joined that Cain guy.' He bent down and gently lifted her up. Carrying her over on the other side of the fire and laying her down. Then he got the blanket and laid it across her. She was right, it was getting pretty cold. He sat down as close to the fire as he could and tried to get a bit of warmth from it. But pretty soon it was apparent that the fire wasn't doing much good. The wind was beginning to blow so hard through the cave that the fire finally flickered and died out. Then it just got colder and colder. The added altitude didn't help any either. It finally became just too cold. Logan stretched out the other end of the blanket and crawled under it. Getting as much distance as possible between him and Samantha. She'd probably explode if she thought anything had happened. Sleep came soon for him just as the moon was fully coming out.
* * *
Logan woke up sometime in the middle of the night, and it took memory a couple of seconds to set in. Moonlight was streaming through the cave; it was probably about midnight. He realized that his left side was very warm, and looked down to find Sam snuggled up against his side, her head resting on his shoulder. Oh, boy. Lord don't let her wake up. It would be worse than if a volcano exploded under him. He'd prefer the volcano. Ok, all he had to do was slide away from her. Easy, right? He started to ease away, but he didn't get very far. She stirred, stretched for a second, but then she settled back down. That was close, and she could wake up the next time. But he couldn't stay like this. Well he could but. Hey! Uh,uh! Don't even think about it! Why would you? Ok, just try again. Be very easy. He slid about an inch away from her when she stirred again. 'Here it comes.' Sam yawned and half opened her eyes. "Sorry," she mumbled, she was still half- asleep, thank God, "Must've rolled over in my sleep." She turned on her other side and slid a couple inches away from him. 'Well if that don't beat all.' Logan watched her a minute to make sure she had gone back to sleep, then he laid back and dozed off.
Pretty soon he woke up again. Something was sort of nudging him. He looked over to see Samantha shivering in her sleep. And it was actually colder than it was the last time he'd woken up, believe it or not. She was shaking like a leaf, and she was still under the blanket and everything. Logan lay there a little while watching her. She certainly was lovely. He'd known that ever since he met her, but he just realized it. Wonder why? He found himself sliding over and putting his arm over her. 'What am I doin'?' Logan thought, but she had stopped shivering. He'd be sure to slide back away from her before she woke up that morning.
Sam remembered being half awake and rolling away from Logan. Then she'd later woken up again to find his arm across her. Well at least she wasn't as cold as before, that's probably why he did it. She'd just scoot away before he woke up when morning came. No problem.
She woke up again, she guessed a little bit before dawn, since the sky was more gray than black now, and was just moving into the first stages of pink. She was on her back and Logan still had his arm over her. Ok, just scoot away, doze for a little while, and get up whenever he does. She tried to move away, but he practically woke up. Sam closed her eyes again and decided to play possum and see if he'd get up or not. Feigning sleep was a specialty of hers that she'd picked up at the orphanage. For obvious reasons. She felt him stir and sit up on his elbow. She knew he was over her and could feel him looking down at her face. But, why? He wasn't moving. The minutes went by. Her curiosity was beginning to get the best of her. 'Curiosity killed the cat.' Samantha told herself, 'but, then satisfaction brought him back.' Curiosity won. She hoped she wouldn't regret it. She stirred just a little bit for effect and half opened her eyes, blinked and opened them completely. Sam looked up at Logan. He just stared down at her, unchanging, unmoving. "What's up?" her voiced rasped and squeaked at the same time. Lovely, Not! He smiled, "Not much, just thinking." "Oh, ok." Why was her heart pounding? Why wasn't he moving? What was he doing? "So are you just gonna sit there or what?" Logan smiled again, "Or what." Before she could do anything, he lifted her up and turned around so his back was against the cave wall. He tilted her face up toward his, "Sam," he murmured. Then pressed his lips lightly against hers. Almost like you would kiss a child. Sam didn't know whether to push away or go with it. This was a very new experience. Shoot, she'd never even thought about anything like this, especially with Logan. It wasn't so bad though. He pulled away about an inch. "This is very confusing," Samantha said, "Very, very confusing." "Don't let it be." He moved in again and the kiss deepened. Not a child anymore. When he pulled away she turned a little bit just in time to see the sun peeking over the horizon. They sat and watched the sunrise, and sat for a while after it was over just looking out over the ravine. After she'd collected herself, Sam hopped up and stretched. She turned around and smiled, "What's say we get out of this dust bin?" He smiled back and nodded. Samantha picked up her pack and made sure she had everything. Then they made their way out of the cave, and started the long climb up the cliff.
Seven
~
While all of this was going on, Linzie, Kitty and Evan had made their way over to the east trail and caught up with the others. After they'd explained what happened, they all hurried back down the mountain. Ororo sent Jean, Scott and Evan to tell Professor Xavier what had happened and to see if he could find them with Cerebro. Then she split up those who remained to go to the top and bottom of the cliff that Samantha and Logan had fallen over. The group assigned to the bottom got there first, but all they found was the body of Cain. To the relief of a somewhat sickened Cora. The other group wouldn't reach the top for another three hours, so all they could do was wait. * * *
Logan and Sam reached the top of the cliff shortly after the second group had gotten to the bottom. It was there that they found Linzie's note.
Sam and Logan, If you, hopefully, make it back to the top of the cliff, we've gone to catch up with the others to tell them what happened. Please stay here. We're going to come back to see if you made it. Linzie
"I guess we're staying here." Samantha said, passing the note to Logan, "Linzie's always been good at taking charge in a panicky situation." "Who's panicked?" he teased her. "Well they probably were after they saw us go over the edge of a cliff!" she was exhausted but still got a good laugh in. Sam sat down and leaned against the tree Linzie's note had been on. Logan came over and sat next to her, she rested her head on his shoulder. "This has got to be the most bizarre trip I've ever been on." said Sam, closing her eyes. "Well I don't think it turned out too bad." She glanced up at him and smiled, "I guess not."
Eight
~
Linzie and the others were ecstatic when they made it to the top and found both Logan and Samantha okay. They met up with Cora and the rest about half way down the mountain and the joys were expressed all over again. They made it back to the mansion and everything seemed to be all right. (It was a relief and a surprise for quite a few that they didn't end up killing each other when they were in the cave.) But hey, why look a gift horse in the mouth?
But it wasn't until later that day when everything had settled that Linzie found out just how well Samantha and Logan had gotten along. She was heading to her room and was just about to round a corner when she heard soft talking. She couldn't make out what was said, but she got enough confirmation when she peeked around the corner just in time to see Logan give Sam a kiss before she went into her own room. A smug and satisfied smile on her face, Linzie turned back around and decided to "get a drink" before she went to bed. She passed Professor Xavier on the way down. She took the smile off her face long enough to say good night, but it came back just when she was passing him. A similar smile began to tug on his mouth as they passed. 'Looks like I'm not the only one who knows.' Linzie thought, 'And I'm not the only one who's glad about it either.'
End ~