Thanks to Kima, gaben and Raven for the reviews.
Oh, and Kima - I usually have a lot of half written stuff on my laptop. Ideas come and go, so I write what I can down and then when I grow bored of one story, or I get stuck, I work on another. For example, half of this was written the day after I posted the last chapter. But between then and now I've also been working on a trio of short stories that will live in the movie section with Marie and Logan. I'm really looking forward to unleashing them, but I'm going to wait until all three stories are finished first because it will be easier for the readers, plus there will be no waiting around for months on end!
Stick to Your Ribs
Anna sunk further under the overweight patchwork quilt, and each brightly coloured thread dragged her towards real long forgotten memories stuffed full of her mama. The eccentric woman had gone and made this bedding when she had stopped going to town and hitting the front pew at the local church. Of course she weren't punching the wood none, she only sat there and opened the Bible, then scolded the preacher loads for eyeing up any of the pretty ladies. That was her mama through and through; she hated perverted fellas and could swing an umbrella like Babe Ruth on acid. One time she had even knocked the shock out of the man who had a farm a couple of corn fields over. He'd gone and called her mama a name that weren't good, so the tough lady had nearly scared his eyeballs out of his face when she'd smacked him with a pale pink umbrella. His nose had started to swell and a young Anna had giggled until she was drowning in tears. Now, there was nothing but tears and tears and more tears.
Every last shred of her hurt ached for her mama to come back because a couple of days ago the lady had been alive and sleeping in this bed. But she was gone and she weren't gonna come back 'cause she'd packed a bullet in her brain and jumped the road to Heaven. The girl hoped there was a world beyond the clouds, though she didn't believe in no God. How could she when she was an orphan? She was nothing but a miserable orphan who weren't about to leave this bed for all the ice cream in the world. The funeral could drop dead too 'cause she wasn't going. In fact, nobody was going to push her mama away into the cold ground neither.
Anna finally puffed out her cheeks, wondering how long she'd been hiding under the tangled, lumpy bedding. Jimmy had stopped trying to talk to her so she was guessing it had been a while, but that didn't matter because she was never going to talk to him again. With the shadows in the room catching her sleepy attention, the sullen girl drew her knees closer to her slender body and salty depression pooled in her emerald eyes as she felt a wave of tiredness destroy the last of her thoughts. She fell asleep, thinking of her mama and daddy, and how much she was missing them.
Logan, meanwhile, was pacing the front porch with his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets. He looked gruffer as usual as he cocked his head to the side and sniffed the air. His sharp hearing focused on the solid footsteps behind him and he sighed deeply in the hazy moonlight. "Got a lighter? I can't find mine."
Victor Creed approached the farmhouse, his eyes searching the peeling paint on the wooden cladding until his cold stare landed on the window above his head. He caught the scent of death and Anna-Marie, and he scowled, tossing a small packet of matches in his brother's direction. "You ruined my night," he stated, his glare still pinned on the bedroom window that had belonged to his crazy ma.
Wolverine cleared his throat and caught the flimsy packet of matches. "Business?" he murmured, raising an eyebrow at the name of the motel printed on the packaging as he snapped a match free.
"Hooker," the older feral answered, finally looking at his brother and climbing up the creaking porch steps. "Big in the chest department too, and you know how hard it is to come by those types in the middle of a seedy fucking bar you've just trashed."
The Canadian snorted and lit his cigar with the strike of a match. "Can't say that I do, Victor," he said, handing him back the matches. "I grew up and I'm glad to hear you've done the same." He inhaled the smoke and leaned with his back against the porch railing as he glanced at his brother. "How have you been?"
Victor dropped the matches into his coat pocket and his eyes darted to the man beside him. "Small talk, Jimmy? Is that your way of admitting you fucked up without me here to kick your ass?" He set a cigarette between his snarling lips and dug around for his matches again. "I told you to watch over her real good!"
"I did," Logan snapped, his eyes narrowing at the chewing out he was on the receiving end of. "I kept Anna safe and don't turn this into point scoring, Victor. Ma's dead, damn it. She didn't want me around so I thought if I gave her some space -"
The fair-haired mutant railed over the words with another snarl. "You fucked up, Jimmy! Your pa gave her some space and he ended up croaking it in the barn and that sure as shit made everything worse for the damn woman. You knew she had more holes in her head than Swiss cheese and then you let her shoot another one through her fucking skull!"
Logan growled harshly and turned to face his brother. "This is my fault, huh? Do you think I knew what would happen if I walked away for a while? Ma didn't want me here and I thought Anna would be better off without the fighting. I feel guilty enough over what's happened, you asshole, but this wasn't my fault. And where do you think this is going to get us? Blame me all you want, but I don't want that hurt kid upstairs sinking into a hole of depression because we're more interested in trading insults."
"You call that insulting me?" Victor responded lazily, inhaling a cloud of cigarette smoke. He watched the match burn between his fingers and sighed. "I've been called worse than an 'asshole' in my time, boy." He let the silence calm the tension until he wanted to fill the space with a question. "What's she like?"
"The kid?" he chewed on his cigar, deep in thought and smiling slightly. "She's a spitfire. You should have seen her when she was a little tyke. She was into everything and anything. Hell, she wanted to be a pirate when she was four. She ran around throwing mud pies at the girls in her school when she was five. And when she was six she packed her rucksack up and disappeared. I don't know why I'm telling you about that one, though." His eyes flickered to the dying flame about to burn his brother's fingers, and he chomped on his cigar. "You brought her back eventually."
Victor didn't answer. The fire doused his skin with the stench of burning flesh and he snuffed the flame out between his fingertips, grimacing. He remembered that time real well.
Nine years ago…
Anna gripped her mama's umbrella in her right hand and huffed, using it as a really tall walking stick as she stormed through the woods. She'd left her good old home 'cause Jimmy wouldn't let her have more ice cream. It weren't fair none so she was gonna run away and find a new bunch of family folks. They'd let her and her teddy have more ice cream because they weren't Jimmy Howlett.
A wall of muscle and brutal strength stood in front of the runaway, blocking her muddy path with a dangerous scowl and a pair of large feet. He was staring down at her, his eyes pinned on the rucksack she was dragging over the rocks.
The little spitfire came to a stop and lifted her gaze up and up and up until she saw the fat's boy's face. "Ya in mah way," she said loudly, poking his knee with her mama's pale pink umbrella. "Ya've gotta move 'cause Ah said so an' everythin'."
Victor smirked, amused by the kid who was dressed in clashing colours. "You got spunk, Anna-Marie," he rumbled, his finger darting to the route she'd marched along. "But move your ass that way. Go home, girl. I don't know what the hell Jimmy's playing at, but you shouldn't be out here alone. Don't you know it's dangerous?"
The pint-sized bundle of trouble peered up at the strange man-boy and matched his earlier glare. "Ya look like a girl folk, ya girl," she pointed out, her grumpy gaze searching his long hair for a bow. "Only real ugly ladies have hair like yours."
"I'm gonna take that because you're kin," he grumbled, still pointing behind her grimly. "You've insulted me, now get home, go to your room and stay there. I ain't playing here, Pup. Get. Home."
Anna shook her head moodily and stepped around the boy-girl folk who couldn't brush his hair. "Ah'm runnin'away an' Ah've gotta go now." She waved goodbye with the umbrella because she was real polite and then she started to hop away. "Ah'm goin' tah mah new family 'cause they're gonna lemme have loads of ice cream."
"Ice cream?!" Victor snarled, stalking angrily after the brat who was disobeying him, "You're putting yourself in danger for ice cream? Even Jimmy weren't as stupid when he was young'un." He followed after the bouncing kid, on heavy boots and a growl of irritation. Why did their first proper meeting have to play out like this? "I get it, you're dumb, everybody's like that at your age, but get yourself home, Anna-Marie!"
The girl huffed and pouted sullenly over her shoulder. "Go away, fat girl. Ah ain't allowed tah talk tah strangers none," she said, poking out her tongue at him.
"Good to know the boy taught you something of value," he grumbled, watching her stamp her feet as she kicked her way through the broken sticks, clumps of rocks and mud. "But you're making a real big mistake here, girl. Nobody ignores me when I give 'em orders, especially not you. I get it, you don't know who the hell I am, but that don't mean you can wander away from the house and decide you're not going back. You're what, five now?"
"Ah'm six an' everythin'," the mini Howlett piped up proudly as she strolled along, hopping every now and then. "Ah'm gonna be seven when it's another year an' Santa's been." She scrunched up her nose, trying to remember when. "It ain't cold when it's mah birthday 'cause it's in July."
"Yeah, well I'm a lot older than that, Pup," Victor sighed, beating down the temper he was close to losing. He snapped a long arm of scrappy branches from his line of sight and grimaced as he caught up with the chatty thorn in his side. "I'm old enough to be your pa and that means you ought to be returning home already. Jimmy's going to be choking on his cigars when he realises he's lost you."
"Ah dunno what ya goin' on 'bout," Anna answered slowly, a confused look stampeding over her heart-shaped face. "An' ya a real funny girl."
"I ain't a girl, I've just been too busy to visit a barber, damn it." The monster of a man sucked in a rope of short breaths until he calmed down because she was his little sister, and he didn't want to kill her. "You need to get home now, Anna-Marie. Go the hell home."
She shook her head and stopped walking so she could stare at the big girl. "Ah'm goin' tah get some ice cream an' it's gonna be chocolate," she answered, grinning widely and jumping up and down. "Chocolate, it's gonna be chocolate, an' if ya a real good girl Ah'm gonna give ya some too!"
"Pup, stop with the shouting and get home!" he roared, stooping down and slamming his palm roughly against her backside. "Get home before I bare your ass and beat it with my hand!"
Anna stopped yelling loads like a loud girl and yelped and whimpered instead. The boy-girl had hurt her and the fat tears rolled down her pale, shocked looking face. Her bottom lip trembled in real big fright and she stumbled backwards, trying to escape the monster folk because she was scared.
"No you don't," Victor said, feeling like shit as he grabbed hold of her and picked her up. He tossed the umbrella to the ground and jiggled her a little in his arms, trying to plug the flood of tears. "You don't run from me, Pup. I know I just rattled the hell outta you, but I ain't sorry I did it, you know why?"
The girl sobbed and cried ever harder, her butt hurting and her bottom lip wobbling loads and loads. "Ah want Jimmy, mama an' daddy!" she howled, kicking her feet and losing her backpack as it slipped out of her hand.
He caught the rucksack and sighed, cradling the screaming kid. "Hush up," he ordered, though he'd finally wrangled a calmer tone to speak with. "I can't explain nothing if you keep bawling like a cub whose lost his tail." When his words didn't help matters, he sat on a fallen tree and held the girl in his arms, waiting for her to calm herself down. "Now this is why I walked out all those years ago," he added, mostly to himself.
It took some time, but she finally stopped wailing and kept up the sniffling instead, which made him smudge her tears with his thumb. "C'mon pup, this ain't like our family," he said, clearing his throat when she stared up at him with watery eyes. "Look, I ain't about to say I'm sorry for what happened. I told you to get home and you wouldn't listen to me, would you?"
Anna shook her head with a large sniffle. He was real right 'cause she wouldn't go home none. She wanted to go somewhere with loads of ice cream and no Jimmy Howlett instead.
Victor gave her a look of understanding and could see they were finally getting somewhere. "You've got to listen to me just like you'd listen to your ma, pa or Jimmy, understand?"
"Who are ya, ya boy girl?" the youngster asked, her bottom lip still trembling as she sniffled and cried quietly, wanting to know where the monster had come from.
"Nobody," the tough cage fighter muttered, looking away from her miserable gaze. "I'm nobody, pup. Only passing through these woods while I search for my next job and it's a good thing I was walking these parts when I did. Anybody could have snatched you and run before Jimmy had even realised your ass was on the loose." He growled at the thought and held her even tighter. "Both me and James have got some enemies out there and you'd be fodder for them, damn it."
Anna rubbed at her eyes and was as confused as ever. She didn't know what the fat folk was going on about and yawned as she tried to figure his real funny talk out. He said stuff like Jimmy did and most of the time she didn't understand him neither.
Victor stared down at her and frowned, the lines on his forehead wrinkling. "You get some sleep, pup, you smell tired. When you wake up you'll be home and I'll be long gone." He watched her eyelids grown heavier and heavier, and he added another group of words he hoped were fit for the occasion. "I'm sorry I had to make you cry though, Anna-Marie. I don't like seeing those tears drying on your cheeks." He stood up when she started to doze, grabbing the rucksack and leaving the umbrella. "But when I tell you to do something, you do it. I'm hoping you'll remember that in future because I know we're going to be butting heads again. You're stubborn just like me and Jimmy, pup, and I ain't sure if that's a good, decent position to be in."
He mulled over the time he'd spent with his youngest kin as he made his way to the farmhouse. The weather overhead was beginning to threaten a storm and he could smell a worried as hell Logan scouring the woods in a pit of panic. "Serves him damn right," he murmured, climbing the porch steps and letting himself in the house. "Here's hoping he learns to watch over the girl from now on or I'll be back to kick his ass next time."
Minutes later, Victor had put Anna on her bed and he'd stepped away, standing by the window and looking out at the falling rain. "Looks like it's time I left you again, pup," he said, watching the storm clouds roll in. "Jimmy's gonna be retracing his steps in the hopes you've come back now the weather's turned." He reluctantly stalked to the bedroom door and paused, digging inside his coat pocket and depositing a ten dollar bill on the bedside table. "Get some ice cream with that," he added, knowing the sleeping kid couldn't hear him, but hoping it made up for him scaring her earlier. "And don't go on anymore goddamn walks on your own."
The Present day…
"I thanked you, you know," Logan admitted, snuffing his cigar out onto the railing. "When I found her sleeping on the bed, I said thanks, but you'd already hightailed it."
Victor climbed down the steps and shoved his hands into his coat pockets, ready to leave. "There was no hightailing, Jimmy, I just had better things to do. Anyway, I figured you'd learned a lesson and would keep good watch of the girl now you knew she liked to wander."
"I sent her to her room that day," he sighed, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't know she was going to run away while I was out tinkering with one of my old Harley's in the garage. She was throwing a fit because I wouldn't let her -"
"Pig out on more ice cream," Victor finished for him and kicked at a stone. "Yeah, I remember her yammering on about it, Jimmy. Anyway, this has been great, but it's time I was heading on out of here. There's nothing I can do and you know it."
Logan's brow furrowed and he followed after his brother with a growl. "No you don't," he said, shaking his head. "You're not walking out on us again, Victor. There's more to this then our ma dying."
The older feral froze and turned around to face his rival. "What do you mean?"
"It's Anna," Logan grunted, slipping another unlit cigar between his lips. His eyes locked with his brother's and he spilled the rest of the story with a tight jaw. "When I took her to the store earlier today, she got into a fight with some girl she knew from school. I think she's going to be just like us, she's getting our mutation."
Victor glare dropped to his fingers and his fingernails extended as he thought everything over. "How do you know for sure, Jimmy?"
"I could smell it, Vic. The hair on the back of her neck was standing on end and she'd lost it," he explained, chomping on his cigar. "The scent of a feral spiked inside her when she was fighting and hell, I thought she was going to kill the other kid."
The other man grunted, and rolled his shoulders. "That's not going to make me stay, James. You can handle her coming into her mutation; it'll be a piece of cake."
"With the Garrets around to even the score?" he added, raising both his eyebrows and waiting for a reaction.
Victor's head whipped up and he snarled violently, storming towards the porch and taking his coat off as he went. "I'm staying," he said darkly, his eyes narrowing. "And those fuckers better keep their distance or I'll be snapping necks after the funeral."
Logan snorted and looked up at the last of the stars and the fading moon. He wasn't looking forward to later today when they buried their ma, or how Anna was going to react when she met Victor. "Hell," he muttered, heading back into the house. "It'll be fine, I hope."
