The doctor Jean-Luc sent over was fast, efficient, and stiff beyond simply being professional. More than once Wolverine caught himself on the verge of growling at the Doc for being too rough with the kid while he stitched her up.
Sadi was lying on her stomach on the couch, doped to the gills with Novocain and barely conscious, her body covered by a blanket he'd found at the doctor's request. There was a drip hooked up to her arm, replacing any fluids she might've lost. The doc had said the girl's blood pressure was dangerously low, but given time to rest, she'd be fine.
Logan stood across the room, leaning against the far wall with his arms crossed over his chest, watching the doctor very carefully while acting completely unconcerned. He was good at that, pretending that he didn't give a damn about what went on around him, when in reality he picked up on even the tiniest details.
The Doc finally left after giving him brief instructions on the nature of Sadi's care over the next few days, and a bottle of antibiotics to dose her with to ward off infection. When he was gone, Logan sat down in a chair next to the sleeping girl.
After an hour or two of studying the side of her face, he found himself wondering what her mother looked like. Sadi hadn't inherited a great deal of her father's features. She didn't have his eyes or his nose, but she did smirk like the Cajun, even had some of his trickster-esk presence when she entered a room. Funny that he didn't find the qualities she possessed irritating, like he had with Remy.
In spite of his differences with her father, he'd found himself thinking about Gambit a lot lately. Thinking about whether or not he had it in him to sacrifice himself, to give up everything to protect someone he loved.
Jean, Storm, Jubilee. All were the names of women he'd ever cared about. Even his wife. The one he hadn't been able to save...
More out of self-destructive tendencies than anything, he'd been telling himself that without a doubt, Remy Lebeau would've found a way to save Mariko. The Cajun would've been savvier in the ways of guilds, gangs, and clans. With his sharp mind, he would've found a solution that Wolverine hadn't ever considered, because Logan was nothing more than a brute. Hack and slash the world into the shape of peace and justice? Yeah, like that had ever worked out for anyone...
That brought him to Sadi... He hadn't thought about her much the past few years, but lately all roads seemed to lead him back to the girl, and with a wry grin on his face he mused that it must be fate. The crazy bitch that went by so many names, including Destiny, never seemed to tire of fucking with his head. Now he just had to ask himself whether or not he was strong enough to pass through her life on this spontanous little visit without pulling her down with him.
That was why he was there, right? So he'd have company when he at last fell into the abyss? That was the animal in him in a nutshell. The thing that kept getting him in trouble, and kept dragging the people he cared about right in with him.
Not her, not this time, he swore to himself. As soon as the kid was healed up, he was out of there. Out of the city and out of her life.
He should never have come back in the first place.
