Hello all! First off, thank you so much for the love so far and to the ones who have faithfully reviewed! I appreciate you! 3 Second, this story was inspired by a variety of songs and I will list them at the end of this chapter. It helps set the mood when I write! Thanks again for reading!

Needless to say, I didn't talk to Logan right away, despite Professor X assuring me that it'd be okay. It wasn't personal, I didn't talk to anyone right away. I was still pretty closed off though people had actually started trying to talk to me. Not about anything too heavy but casual conversations, the ones I wasn't really good at but for the sake of promising that I would try, I tried my best to be polite. I got better at remembering names and did my best to stay out of my room. I connected more with the teachers more than the students. Most likely due to my age which also became easier after I revealed my age after getting tired of being mixed in with the kids. I wasn't trying to be above anyone but you could definitely tell there was an age difference.

I wish I could say the day I started to Logan was on casual, good terms but it was anything but. My nightmares, to say the least, were out of control. I would stay up days at a time until I couldn't help it anymore and even then I'd only get a few hours. Needless to say, I was very cranky during that time and people learned very quickly to stay out of my way. Was it what I really wanted? Yes and no. I just wanted to sleep one good night but it wasn't happening. I tried talking to the professor but it didn't go well, much to my dislike because I hated disrespecting him. But he told me himself that he wouldn't be able to help much in that area and I felt even more frustrated and helpless than I did before.

So the day I went off on some students was my breaking point. I was sleeping in the rec room after watching some flick on TV when I got a very rude awakening. Some students thought it'd be funny to throw cold water on me while I was in the middle of a bad nightmare. They were effective in waking me up but man did they regret it. I was not happy. At all. In fact, you could barely say that I was rational. I went off on those students, said a lot of stuff that I didn't mean and that poor rec room...it was trashed. After I scared those poor students off, I took my rage off on the room and trashed it completely. By the time I was done with it, it looked like a tornado had gone through it. I knew I was going to be in big trouble but there in the moment I just didn't care.

I slid down the wall and leaned my head against it, trying to catch my breath. A few of the teachers came down and stared in horror. They tried talking to me but I had nothing to say. I didn't move from my spot and when they tried to move me themselves I yanked my arm away and warned them to back off. They did for a while until he came in.

As I heard heavy footsteps crunch on the glass, I clenched my eyes closed and squeezed a piece of broken glass, cutting into my flesh brutally. "Go. Away." I say through clenched teeth.

"I come in peace." Logan says while plopping on the couch then pops a cigar in his mouth. "Like what you done with the place." I give him the meanest glare I can manage in which he responds with a small smirk as he blows smoke into the air.

I roll my eyes then set my head against the wall again. "I'll clean it all up and apologize later. I just want to be left alone."

"What set ya off, kid?" He asks curiously.

"I'm not a fuckin' kid, alright? I'm eighty years old." I snap at him.

He raises his eyebrows and shrugs. "Ya look good for your age." He says sarcastically. I give him another glare and flip him off which causes him to chuckle a bit. We fall into silence and I begin to tremble a bit from being cold and wet.

Logan notices and hands me his jacket which I hesitantly take but he nods, letting me know that it's okay. "That's the second time you've loaned me your jacket. I never thanked you for the first." I say, my anger starting to leave. "Thank you."

He nods. "Least you got ya clothes on this time" He teases with a small smirk.

I start to laugh a bit but it quickly turns bitter as I remember why. It causes me to cling to the wall a little tighter.

Logan gives me a look as he notices my change in demeanor. "Is that what's keeping ya up at night?" He asks tenderly. I don't answer at first but eventually I nod. "Happens a lot, huh?"

I let out a shaky sigh. "Every fuckin' night." I reply tiredly.

"Mmmm." He nods while blowing out smoke. "Well, I wish I could tell you it gets easier but it may get worse before it gets better."

Lovely. I look at him curiously. "You have them too?"

"Mmm hmmm." He mumbles quietly.

"What are yours about?" I blurt out, not really thinking that it might be too personal.

He stares at me for a while then shrugs. "Everything. War, killing people, being experimented on, there's a variety to choose from."

I wince, understanding. "Me too. The camps, gas chambers, losing friends and family." I shift into a more comfortable position facing him. "The experiments have taken the cake lately though. It's every night. I feel like I'm dying all over again."

"What kind of experiments did they do?" Logan asks carefully.

I tense up, hesitating at first but then choose to be honest. "You name it, they did it." I say bitterly. "A lot of it came down to them trying to see why I wasn't dying and how I healed so fast. They'd record how long it'd take me to come back and how fast I would heal. They'd take all these tests and biopsies but I was never sure what they were doing with them. All I remember was that none of it was painless." I sigh deeply. "People are so eager to test on people who are different. They never think of how painful it is to be the guinea pig."

Logan pays close attention, looking deep in thought. "Sucks, kid." He whispers. Coming from anyone else, I would've rolled my eyes but coming from him...I knew that he felt my pain and understood more than I know. What I respected even more was he didn't try to fix me like the rest of them. A fact that I didn't let go unnoticed.

"What? No, 'don't worry, you're safe.' or 'it's gonna be okay, you'll get through this.'?" I say more sarcastically than I intended.

Logan shrugs then gives me a look. "No use in saying shit you already know. Not much else to say." He takes a another puff of his cigar. "Fact is that isn't a cure for nightmares. You may always have them. That's what sucks about living through all that hell. There's a price to it. Gotta learn to live with it."

"And what do you do to live it, Logan?" I ask softly.

He thinks for a moment. "Take it all as it comes. Accept it. Accept that bad things happened, I am what I am, and I did what I had to do. Doesn't excuse or erase anything but you can't change it so all there's left to do is move forward."

I took a moment to think about Logan's words and oddly enough they are helpful and I understand them. I don't have much to say so I sigh and say, "Sorry about the rec room. And for going off on those kids."

Logan smirks. "Eh, serves em' right. Makes you feel any better last person that woke me up from a nightmare got stabbed."

My eyes widen a bit but I can't help but smirk and shake my head. "You're right. It does make me feel better." I joke lightly then slowly stand up. "Guess I better get this cleaned up."

Logan puts out his cigar then wordlessly begins to help me clean up. As we cleaned up, I was surprised that I began to unwind a bit and relax around him. It seemed weird because I was terrified of him at first. Still was slightly to be honest. But a weird sensation fell over me. I felt safe and I couldn't understand why. I'd known the man less than an hour and the advice that he gave me wasn't exactly typical feel good advice. It was real and raw, which is what made me respect him.

After we got everything cleaned up, we sit in the rec room next to the window and stay there until the sun rises. We didn't talk and I waited for him to leave but he never did. The more I got used to his presence, the more I could breathe and my thoughts quieted. When the sun was well into the sky, I finally realized how tired I was in every sense and for the first time in a long time, I wanted to sleep and I didn't care what dreams what came my way.

"You should get some sleep." Logan eventually says, noticing my droopy eyes.

I yawned and stretched while nodding in agreement. "I'm gonna try." I reply then stand up. I realize that I'm still wearing his jacket and take it off. "Uh, thanks." I say a tad awkwardly as I hand him the jacket. He nods then takes it. I look up at him. "For everything." I say, hoping to express my gratitude.

Logan smiles slightly and nods again. "Get some sleep, kid." He says quietly.

I smile softly then leave him at the window. On the way to my room, I run into the professor. As always, he greets me with me a warm smile and acts as though I hadn't just gone crazy. "Good morning, Anna. Or should I rather say, good evening?" He chuckles and I join him.

"Yeah, I, uh...haven't gone to sleep yet but I think I'm finally ready for bed. Only so much your body can take before you pass out." I reply lightly then turn serious. "Hey, I'm sorry about last night. I didn't mean to go all psycho on you guys."

"No harm done. All is forgiven. Though I do believe you quite startled some of the students. I can safely say that they will not pull any more shenanigans on you again." He says amused.

I laugh, silently feeling proud of myself. Serves them right. "I'll apologize to them later. I'm gonna get to bed."

Professor smiles. "You seem to be in bit of a better mood." He observes openly.

I shift to one side. "Yeah, um, Logan came down after everything happened and we talked for a few minutes."

His eyes light up a bit. "Ah, and was he able to give you some good advice?" He asks.

"No." I say bluntly with a laugh. "It wasn't your typical life saving advice. In fact, anyone else may have been offended. I know I almost was. But, he was honest and real. Think that's what I really needed."

Professor nods with a smile. "Sometimes all we need is somebody to relate. One of the greatest fears people face, especially with your type of mutation, is being alone. It's always comforting to realize that we are not alone as we thought." He says wisely and I nod in agreement. "I highly encourage you to continue being around Logan. Not many others would agree as he is a loner and is not always easy to get along with. But, he cares deeply about the people closest to him. He just doesn't always show it as much as others expect. However, I think you would understand that."

"You're right. I do." I say quietly.

Professor offers one more smile then turns to keep going his way. "Good night, Anna."

"Good night, professor." I reply then finally get back to my bedroom.

Once there, I collapse onto my bed and fall into a dreamless sleep. The perfect kind.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Logan asks, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"The night I went psycho on all those kids and trashed the rec room." I reply, twisting in my seat.

Logan smirks. "That was a long time ago." He says, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Yeah. I was surprised I didn't get in more trouble than I did." I say laughing softly. "

"You were the new kid. They made exceptions." Logan replies.

"I guess. Rogue and Bobby didn't come near me for months though." I laugh, thinking about how they would very intentionally avoid me after that incident.

The corner's of Logan's mouth twitch. "Bobby was always a chicken shit anyway."

"Ah lighten up, he wasn't that bad. You were just protective over Rogue." I point out.

Logan becomes quiet and focused on the road. "Marie." He corrects a bit somberly.

My face falls and I give him a sympathetic look. "She was a good kid, Logan." I say softly. "They all were."

Logan remains quiet but you could see the pain in his eyes. I should've known better though. It was a tender topic for us all. "Yeah." He whispers so softly I barely hear it.

I let out a small sigh. "Do you ever wonder-"

"No." He interrupts firmly. Not really a snap but I could hear the warning in his voice. Still too soon. Some things you just had to let go. He gives me a look, hoping I understand and I offer a faltering smile and gently squeeze his arm then look back to the road just in time for us to be pulling into a run down building. "We're here." Logan announces.

"Fancy." I say sarcastically, making a face.

I get out with Logan and walk with him to the door. I felt it something was wrong the minute I got out and I know Logan felt the same way by the way he looked at me. We both freeze when see the door has been broken into. I take a gun out of my belt, exchange a brief look then follow him inside. "Shit." He curses under his breath.

As I come around him, I flinch slightly when I see a woman slumped over in a chair covered in blood. "Oh no." I sigh heavily and lower my gun. Logan huffs, frustrated then starts looking around the room for any others. I stay alert, looking around for any signs of the people that did this. I see Logan pause and pick something up. It's a cell phone, which turns out to belong to the woman. She was in the middle of a text and the last thing she wrote but didn't get to send sent chills up my spine.

"They're here. Please hurry."

It was something you'd see in a bad horror movie. I felt really shitty, like if we had only been there earlier, we would've made it. "Don't." Logan says, reading my thoughts. What can I say? He knows me too well.

I sigh deeply as I close her eyes then pick her up and move her to the bed. "Sorry." I whisper sadly then pull a sheet over her head. I exchange a look with Logan, who looks sort of lost. "What now?"

He shrugs. "We were never here and there was never a job." He says then walks out hurriedly.

I follow Logan and get in the car. He speeds off, clearly agitated. "What about her daughter?" I ask.

"What about her? They took her. Lady said that was the plan. To kill her and take her daughter. I don't know why. Don't really care to know." He says as he drives.

"You're not heartless, Logan." I say gently.

"No, but it ain't our business. I was only ever the driver. That's it. Nothing more. It's not on us." He replies firmly. "Besides, you didn't want me to take the job in the first place. You were right. It wasn't worth it. Now we don't have to worry about it."

A pinch of conflicted emotion hits me. I really did feel bad for the girl but at the same time, I was relieved. If it were back a few years ago, I wouldn't have hesitated. But now...now I was nervous just riding in the car. There was too much to lose and after all that I've lost...well, there was no one that could ever be worth it.

We ride the rest of the way in silence and I find myself drifting off to sleep. While asleep, I see faces that I knew. Friends. Foes. Strangers. All a blur mixed in with memories flying by fast. A new face though is of a little girl being carried away against her will, screaming and kicking, crying out for help. I wanted too. I ran after her but it was like I was running in slow motion. I couldn't keep up. I couldn't-

"Anna, wake up." I feel a rough hand shake me awake. I jolt awake and jump in my seat, ready to fight or fun. "Hey, hey!" The hand grabs my arm and I jump back like a snake was ready to bite me. But it's only Logan, looking at me half concerned. "We're here." He says as he puts the car in park.

I settle down and catch my breath, wiping the sweat from my brow. "Sorry." I mumble.

Logan gives me a look and then releases my arm, letting out a shaky breath. "Looks like we'll be here for a while more."

I swallow a little hard. "Don't worry about it. We'll figure it out. We always do." I say hoarsely.

Logan stares out the window for a moment, looking a bit frustrated and lost. I grab his arm. "Hey," I say, forcing him to look at me. "we'll figure it out, okay? All this," I motion around the site. "is temporary. It won't last forever. I promise."

He looks at me for a long moment and I can see the doubt in his eyes. "Yeah." He whispers then slowly gets out of the car.

I sigh deeply then get out myself and slam the door shut. Caliban comes out, decked out in all his sun clothes. I can practically hear his questioning thoughts.

"Logan?"

"Yeah?" Logan replies, opening a door.

"What happened? Something go wrong?" Caliban asks.

"The job was wrong to begin with." Logan says frustrated then stomps inside.

Caliban turns to me but I hold up a hand, not really wanting to talk about it either. "I'll fill you in later." I say then follow Logan inside.

We're about to go check on Charles when Caliban calls Logan outside. Logan ignores him at first but then he sounds more frantic the more he calls his name. He gives me a questioning look and I shrug. "Go ahead. I'll be with Charles."

With that, we part ways and I go over to Charles' place. I freeze when I find his door already opened. I quickly run inside. "Charles? Charles!" I practically yell frantically.

"Anna!" A cheerful voice greets and I whip around to see Charles smiling excitedly.

I let go of the breath that I was holding and go over and give him a hug. "I saw the door open...you scared the shit out of me."

"Nonsense. It's alright." He says calmly then let's me go. "Laura is here!"

My eyebrows furrow together in confusion. "Laura? Who's Laura?" I ask.

"She's the new mutant I was telling you about. She's here!" He says excitedly.

I sigh. So it was going to be one of those days. "Charles, there's no one here." I try to explain gently.

"But she's right over here. Come! See for yourself." He insists then wheels excitedly away.

"Charles-" I turn around but then freeze in my tracks. There, in front of me, a young girl stands up and approaches cautiously. Her face is stoic but her body language says that she's ready to fight any second. She's no more than eleven or twelve years old but even I can tell that she's not that threatened by me.

Charles looks at me excitedly.

"Anna, this is Laura."

Not a super long chapter but it'll get better! Especially since Laura is here now. I adore her character! I hope you guys are enjoying the memories in the beginning. I wanted to give sort of a back story and glimpse of what Anna's life was like and to give a glimpse of her relationship with not only Logan but other characters as well :)

As I said in the beginning, several songs inspired this story, especially these first few chapters, but my top fav is Paralyzed by NF followed by Wake Up, Face It, Can You Hold Me, which all are also by NF. And of course, Hurt by Johnny Cash but I also love this instrumental piano cover of that song that I listened to on repeat. And lastly, the Motion Soundtrack to Logan which is all score music from Logan. It's awesome.

Well, there ya go, peeps! Until next time! Review!