I know I'm horrible - another one. I at least know exactly where this one is going, so expect some Logan/Rogue Angst, and a Victor/OC, hey its what I do best.
Driven out of their home by prejudice, she just wanted a place to raise her daughter in peace. Will she find the peace she's looking for - as her daughter faces her father for the first time, or will a battle between brothers destroy her life forever.
Chapter 1 - Lynch Mob
She was wiping the diner counter when the phone rang. She cringed as Amy answered it, her sharp voice grating on Kate's nerves.
"Dave's" Kate moved the salt and pepper back to the front of the counter and moved to the next seat. The diner had been quiet all day. The only excitement had been an ambulance blazing by half an hour ago.
"Hang on a sec, she's right here." Amy held the phone out to her. "Kate, its the school."
Kate dropped her rag. Every time she got a call she expected it to be 'the one'. Margaret was eleven, almost twelve, and she knew the mutation wouldn't stay hidden much longer. Kate's own was easy to hide, mostly, but Magpie's wasn't going to be, not if she was more like her father.
"This is Ms. Rains." She said into the phone.
"This is Principal White. I need you to come to the school, Margaret is in my office." Shit, this was the fifth time this year, and she really was going to have to crack down on Magpie fighting at school.
"I'm on my way." She said, untying the apron around her waist as she hung up the phone.
"I'll be back." She said to no one in particular and rushed out the door. She heard Amy yelling behind her.
She drove to the school, hoping this was just something normal, but her heart dropped to her feet when she saw Maggie sitting in the office, her face white and blood on her hands.
She walked into the principal's office followed by her unusually subdued daughter.
"What happened?"
"Margaret was in a fight. Some boys were bullying her, and she was obviously defending herself. However, one of the boys had to be rushed to a hospital, he may lose his leg." The principal said. Kate tried to hold out hope it was just a normal fight. She could deal with that.
"Ms. Rains, you did read our student handbook with your daughter at the first of the year, correct?"
"Yes." She answered. She wanted to rip this patronizing bitch's face off.
"Then you are aware of the district's stand on our no-mutants policy." Shit and double shit.
"Yes, but Maggie..."
"Cut a boy's kneecap out of his leg with bone projections from her hand." The principal finished.
"I was just gonna punch him. I didn't know they were there." Maggie said.
"It won't happen again...". Kate started.
"I'm sorry but it is a zero tolerance policy." The woman reached into her desk. "I do have some information about a school for mutants, someplace she could go to school with her peers. We had another student about eight years ago who went there, she had a very loud scream that caused temporary deafness."" She handed Kate a booklet. Kate snatched it out of her hand and turned, storming out of the office. Maggie grabbed her bag from the chair in the office and followed.
"If I could find your father right now I'd strangle him for a month." Kate said as she got in the car.
"Who is he?" Maggie asked for the thousandth time. Kate looked at her daughter, her hazel eyes filling with tears.
"A cage fighter I met almost thirteen years ago." She gave her the same answer she always did.
"He had these?" Maggie asked, looking at her hands.
"His are metal." Was all Kate said as she drove to the small house they rented from her boss.
"Pack." Was all she said as she opened the door. She grabbed a bag from the top of the hall closet and walked straight to her room. She pulled a shoe box out from behind her nightstand and counted the pitiful savings she had in it.
"I'm not sure where we can go on two thousand dollars, but we have to get out of here." She threw some clothes in the bag, and the shoe box on top and zipped it closed.
"Mom there's someone coming and they sound angry." Maggie said, handing her mom the small bag in her hands. Kate grabbed her purse and her own bag and rushed back to the car. She could see the crowd coming down the street and she quickly threw the bags in the back seat and started the car.
The crowd parted only after she revved the engine, and they threw things at the car as she drove through, something breaking the back window into a spider web of safety glass. She drove as quickly as she could. She'd been safe in this town for fifteen years, and now was having to run, again, because humans just couldn't understand and accept mutants.
"Why'd they do that?" Maggie asked.
"Because we're different. Because they are jealous of what we have and what they don't. Because they don't understand us, and they are afraid of what they don't understand.
"What are we gonna do now?"
"I don't know, Magpie, I don't know." She looked over as Maggie turned to look out the window. Thirteen years ago she made a mistake, one she'd never regret, but a mistake nonetheless.
One night, trying to help someone try to understand what he couldn't remember, one night of letting her guard down, led to her greatest joy, but if she had it to do over she never would have followed him out of that bar.
"I know what you are." She said from the edge of the parking lot. "No you don't." He snarled. "You're a mutant, like me. That's why you can take a beating like that, that's why they can't defeat you in the cage." He flicked his lighter and lit the cigar in his mouth. "So what." "You need to pretend to be hurt sometimes." She said as she moved closer, watching him warily as he sat on the bike. She'd seen how he could move, in the cage, but she'd seen more, how every blow glanced off, how bruises and contusions healed instantly, or close to it, before she could even get a lock on the damage. His self healing was off the charts. "Why's that?" He took a drag on his cigar and then looked at her with his hazel eyes. She moved closer, lowering her voice with each step. "Its better to hide what you are, not let them figure it out. You'll last longer, and won't make people suspicious of others who are in hiding." "Why hide?" "To live, to survive." "I don't need to hide, anyone fucks with me..." She heard a strange noise and three sharp blades were held up under her nose "I have these." "That's fine for you, but the rest of us don't." He gave her a funny look. "Okay, I guess not." He quickly kicked the bike into life. "Need a lift?" She thought about it, something about him, being with her own kind for a while, made her jump on the back. "Sure." He took off and she realized he wasn't heading anywhere near her apartment. He pulled in to an out of the way rest stop. He climbed off the bike and sat down on the bench of a cement picnic table. "I didn't even know there were others like me." He said, pulling his cigar out of a pocket and lighting it again. "I don't remember much more than about five years ago. You're the first one I've seen." "We have to hide." She climbed off the bike, pushing her skirt down as quickly as she could. "Why?" "They hate us, normal people. If you can pass as normal, most try to. Its not good to advertise what you are." She climbed up onto the table and sat down on the edge, her feet on the bench next to him.
He stretched, leaning back on the table, his arm slipping behind her back. She knew what he was trying, and decided to let him. The idea of another mutant, even one she might never see again...the idea of being with one of her own kind, without being afraid of being seen. She wasn't going to say no.
"Mom?"
"Sorry, what Mags?"
"Are we going to stop any time soon? I gotta go pee." Kate looked over at her daughter. She saw a rest stop with bathrooms ahead.
"Hurry, I want to get as far from here as possible tonight." Kate climbed out and looked at the mess of the rear window of the car. She couldn't afford to fix it and she hoped it held, or she was going to have to find other transportation. She glanced over at a young couple making out on one of the tables. She smiled a little at the folly of youth while she waited for Maggie to come out of the bathroom.
One quick meeting on a table like that lead to her going through nine months of misery and almost twelve years of being content and happy, until today. She shuddered at how close they came to being hurt, even with both of them able to heal themselves, they could still be hurt, and she didn't like it when her daughter stubbed her toe.
She stuck her hand into her uniform dress pocket. She felt the stiff paper and pulled out the brochure the principal had given her. Xavier's School for Gifted Youth the bright letters on the front said. The place looked more like a mansion than a school. She opened it up and read about all the activities. When she got to the part about board she stopped. She couldn't afford a boarding school, but maybe they had room on the staff for kitchen personnel. She could cook and serve, and maybe pay for Maggie's tuition.
She wanted Mags to have a better life than she'd had. She ran away from home at sixteen, the first time her healing really showed itself. She'd made a few wrong turns along the way, but managed to scrape out some kind of education for herself. A lot of good it did her, she'd still ended up serving tables at a greasy spoon instead of going into medicine like she'd planned.
One mistake had screwed that up, one man with a congenital heart defect that had dropped in front of her on the side walk. She couldn't have not helped him, couldn't have just walked by. Instead she used it, her gift, pulled the damage from his failing heart, kept his beating while her body healed the damage to herself, and saved his life...and destroyed her own.
She'd been relegated to the "freak" in the corner office, the one that could lose funding and scholarships and grants. The one they wanted to drive away. She'd run then. Left and hadn't looked back...gone to a little town in Canada, worked as a waitress in a little bar, where she'd met the fighter, the one that gave her Maggie.
She pushed the brochure in her purse as Maggie came out of the bathroom, and smiled at her daughter. She at least had a destination in mind, and Maggie wouldn't have to quit school, even if she had to wash dishes to pay the tuition.
"Lets get moving, kido." She said as she buckled herself into the car. It was old, almost as old as Maggie, and she hoped it would hold together long enough to get them to this school.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"Logan, Can Ah talk to you?" Marie stood at his door. She'd been 'cured' for about three months, and he knew she was lonely and scared.
"Sure, kid." He dropped the weights he was lifting.
"I've heard rumors..." She started and he knew what was bothering her. Ro told him about it this morning. The cure was wearing off, and mutations were coming back stronger than they were before it happened.
"Yeah, Darlin'. It's temporary." She was a sweet kid, and if he'd ever had a kid he'd wish it was like his Rogue, with less curves, and there's no way any kid of his would wear lipstick or have a chest like that...or those hips...or that ass...or those legs. God he had to stop that train of thought. She was a kid, he reminded himself for the millionth time that week.
"Ah thought so. Ah started feelin' it tingle about a week ago, but Ah'm still able ta touch. Ah wanted ta try ta test it but you're the only one Ah might be able to..." He bit back the groan. The idea of her getting a dose of him, now, after Jean...and her starting to smell way too delicious and fuckable was not something he wanted her to have to deal with.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, kid." He sat up on the weight bench. He'd moved a set to his room so he didn't have to wake anyone if he had a bad nightmare and wanted to work out to deal with it.
"Ah know you're goin' through shit with Jean, Ah won't touch ya that long, just a bit of the healin' and I'll quit. Ah just want ta make sure it is really there, and that Ah can control it." She had moisture in her eyes and he was lost. He couldn't make her cry, he couldn't stand it when she cried. He just nodded. She walked over and stood in front of him. He looked up at her, waiting for her to make her move.
She leaned down, and brushed his lips with hers. At first he couldn't feel anything, he was too busy concentrating on her wonderful scent of magnolias and vanilla and something spicy with need that had him gripping the sides of the bench to keep his hands from roaming her body. Then he felt it, the pain of the pull starting, but slowly as if she were just siphoning off a little bit, not the floodgate it had once been.
"Logan." She whispered. "Can Ah try it again?"
"Yes." He whispered, unable to stop himself.
Her lips were firmer this time, and he waited for the pull, instead he felt her soft tongue brush his lips and he moaned, letting her explore his mouth before losing complete control and lacing his fingers through her hair to pull her tight against his mouth as he plundered hers. She tasted as good as she smelled and when he let her come up for air he realized her legs were wrapped around him on the bench, and her hips were pressed intimately against his. One hand was tangled in her hair, the other under her blouse, a taunt nipple pressing against his palm.
He pulled back quickly. This was wrong, she was just a kid, she didn't deserve his shit, didn't need him and his screwed up head to make her life worse.
"What the fuck was that, kid." He snapped, yanking his hand from under her shirt as if burned.
"Ah wanted ta see if Ah could control it." She had tears in her eyes again.
"Well, I'd say you can." He whispered. "Just don't tell Ice Prick ya practiced on me first."
He saw the flash in her eyes, and felt the slap. He'd made her angry, good. Now she'd storm out and he wouldn't have to look at her, hear her sobs or smell her tears...or at least he could pretend he didn't. She stood up and stormed out of his room.
"Thanks, Wolverine. Ah knew Ah could count on you ta feel me up." She snapped at the door, slamming it behind her as she exited.
He fell back on the bench, his head hitting the metal and putting another dent in it.
"You did the right thing...she deserves better." He whispered. He was going to have to pack up and hit the cages again for a while, fight off some of the damned frustration. He had a sudden thought, maybe he'd head back to Marlow...he wondered if the redhead, the one that told him about other mutants was still working in that bar. It'd been almost thirteen years since he'd been there, she'd probably moved on by now.
He stood up and grabbed his bag to pack.
"What did you do to Rogue?" He snarled as Ro slammed his door open.
"What she asked me ta do, let her test her mutation." He snapped.
"You are an idiot." Ro said.
"Yeah, and...your point is?" He asked, stuffing shirts into his bag.
"You are not leaving, we need you here. You are going to have to face what you've done and realize you may have destroyed your friendship for good this time." Ro was livid.
"Hey, I didn't ask the kid to kiss me, I sure as hell didn't ask her to kiss me the second time, and I thought you'd be proud of me for stopping before I'd fucked her over the damned bench. I swear you are the most fickle woman I've ever met. One minute its 'Keep your hands to yourself, Logan.' and now its "You've blown it because you kept your hands to yourself.' You know what, Storm. Fuck you. I need some air, some violence, and some beer and right now I ain't got any of that here."
"Fine, go find a fight, just be back here by the end of the week. Bobby can teach your self defense classes." She turned and slammed the door behind her on the way out too. Yep he needed a good fight, and maybe a good fuck before he could face either of them again.
XXXXXXXXXXX
He leaned against the truck, counting the cash from this last job. He couldn't believe he'd stooped this low, but with Magneto out of the game, and even the Runt out of reach for the time being, he was taking what jobs he could, but three hundred bucks to supervise a custody switch was low even for him.
He climbed into the cab of the beat up truck he was buying. Since Stryker's death he'd been at loose ends. The Runt killed the fucker, and now he had no one but the Runt to hunt. One word kept echoing inside his head. Alone. Alone. Alone.
He shook his head. He'd heard about a possible real job in Pennsylvania, he was going to head that way and see if his real skills could land him some real money.