Ugh, don't get me started on how difficult I've found this chapter. I think I find action a lot easier to write than the slow, thinky, talky scenes.
Basically, this chapter was meant to have a lot more happen in it, but it started getting really long, so I'm splitting it down into two smaller chapters rather than have one giant monster of a chapter.
Anyway, without further ado, I give to you the exciting adventures of Kitty and Logan on the run!
Chapter 7: Regrets collect
They had to wait at the station for the first train to arrive. All the time, neither one of them let their guard down. Kitty was too troubled by the night's events to even think about sleep. She was so wired; it was as if she'd had four triple espressos.
When the train came, there were only a handful of other people who got on it, so thankfully they got an entire carriage to themselves. Logan picked a seat with a table in the centre and leant against the window. Kitty wasn't an idiot; she could tell he was still in a great deal of pain, and that he needed the window to keep upright. He winced every time he had to bend down or stretch his abdomen, and although she hadn't seen the crucial moment when he was shot, the amount of blood she'd seen on his top meant that he was hurt bad.
He needed to repair more than anything, which meant that it was up to Kitty to defend them if anyone else came along. Knowing this, she took up the aisle seat diagonally opposite from the older mutant. The position gave her a perfect view up and down the carriage and even through the glass doors either end. If shotgun-toting madmen stormed the carriage she'd be ready for them.
But as time went on, and they traveled further and further north, the likelihood of an ambush seemed to grow more and more distant. Stations went by with no one stepping on, as others stepped off.
Logan's eyes slowly closed and he fell into a light doze. He twitched and started every time the train jolted or stopped at a station, but for the most part he remained very still.
Kitty tried not to stare at him too much, and her attention was mostly divided between checking the aisles and watching the flurry of green farmland go past outside, but she couldn't help wondering what had been going through his mind when he'd killed those men. She tried to unravel his motives by studying the creases in his brow, but it was like trying to navigate a map with no words, key or compass.
There was always the possibility that he was just incredibly hostile towards intruders, she mused – after all, the only two times Kitty had seen him kill were almost identical situations. Admittedly, compared to the first occasion Logan had been more restrained this time. He'd been ruthless, but he hadn't blindly decimated the intruders into pulp.
Kitty still remembered that night, when everyone else had been sent back to bed, she'd let her curiosity get the better of her and taken a slight detour via Logan's room. She'd overheard him admit that he'd been stuck in a nightmare; that he hadn't known whom he was killing. The thought that it could have been the students he'd turned on had disturbed her at the time. And tonight that fear had hit her like an aftershock. It had almost paralysed her too much to respond to the man pointing a gun at her head. But then she'd had a flashback to the time that crazy scientist had put a chip in Logan's brain – he'd held back from killing her then, even when he could hardly control his own mind. She knew that there was some instinct deep inside the feral mutant, which wanted to protect rather than kill.
That was what she thought she saw tonight. The men who'd attacked them were more than intruders; they were deadly threats. Logan had acted out of the urge to protect.
Yet the biggest question remained: why kill them? Kitty had seen the older mutant take out hundreds of people before using non-lethal force. So what had changed?
He'd even killed the man that she'd phased into the wall, when the threat was long gone. Either something had shifted in the man she knew, or she'd never really known him at all.
The train jerked violently as it switched tracks. Logan's eyes shot open and Kitty quickly dropped her gaze to the plastic tabletop between them. The older mutant shuffled in his seat, making uncomfortable, grumbling noises.
Defeated by her curiosity, Kitty chose to stare at the seat opposite, allowing Logan's actions to appear unfocused at the edge of her vision.
He pulled at his jacket, sliding an arm in from underneath and brushed down his front. At first, Kitty wondered what on earth he was doing, and had to fight the urge to stare outright. However, she didn't need to when she heard the sound of metal chinking on the hard linoleum floor. A couple of small pellets rolled into her foot and she lifted it up, cringing slightly. Something about making physical contact with the shots that had previously been inside her companion's body left her feeling uneasy.
Logan grunted, leaning forward over the table to reach behind his back. He dug out a final metal pellet and dropped it on the white plastic surface. It rolled across the top, leaving a hairline trail of crimson, before falling over the edge. Kitty winced. It was remarkable and disturbing all at the same time, to think that Logan healed so quickly as to just force the shots out of his body.
Although, the fact that the tiny lumps of metal were now traveling down the length of the carriage reassuringly meant that Logan had healed, and Kitty didn't need to be quite so on edge. She braved a glance at the older mutant, trying to subtly check him up and down for any signs that he might still be injured. The sentiment was not appreciated.
"What?" Logan scowled at her.
Kitty supposed she really should have known better than to be seen worrying over the one former X-man who'd thrown himself into any situation, regardless to his wellbeing.
Then again, on this particular occasion, he hadn't really had a choice. Those men had been after her, not him, and yet he'd been caught in the crossfire.
Kitty thought she'd kept such a low profile since leaving America. How people had discovered that she was a mutant and managed to track her down was beyond her contemplation. The anti-mutant activists were obviously more persistent than she'd ever imagined.
"It's happening again, isn't it? England is turning against us, just like America," she said morosely, not quite sure whether she'd intended to think aloud.
Her statement was met by a low growl from Logan. "Yeah," he replied, not sounding too happy to admit it.
"Then is The North going to be any safer than London?" Kitty asked. She'd been considering the question over and over for most of the train journey, but hadn't wanted to disturb Logan enough to ask it.
"Probably not," he replied bluntly. "But we can start fresh, keep a lower profile."
Kitty wondered just how surreptitious they could be, when she'd hardly used her powers since leaving America and still picked up a deadly trail. But she decided not to voice that concern; it wouldn't really help either of them.
What they really needed was a whole other country to hide in, more space and less recognition of mutants - if a place like that still existed - the entire world knew about mutants and no one really liked them. Their best hopes of survival was to find somewhere secluded, where less bigoted, suspicious people could find them. Maybe they'd get that in North England, maybe not, but they had a much greater chance than they would in America. With sentinels stalking the streets and Scott dead, there was little hope for the place Kitty had once called home.
The X-Men family was broken and scattered around the globe. Very few of them had stayed to fight alongside Scott when the Institute was compromised, and now he was gone, there was little hope for those that remained.
Kitty liked to think that they'd escaped the attention of the sentinels; that they'd found somewhere to hide or had left America altogether, just like her. She just hoped that wherever they were, they were safe, and more importantly, alive.
Dealing with Scott's death resulted in the constant turning over of unpleasant emotions, and the one that she'd been avoiding the most was guilt.
Guilt that she hadn't been there to help; that she'd chosen to hide at home when other X-Men went out to fight.
Professor Xavier had made it very clear that he didn't expect anyone to stay on the team. In fact, he'd actually tried to send everyone back to their homes, and even found places for those who had no family to return to. Kitty had taken the easy option out, because at the time it hadn't seemed so bad to register her powers. All the government had wanted was a record; they didn't say anything about arresting mutants because they thought they could be dangerous, and they definitely didn't say anything about sentinels killing mutants that resisted arrest.
If she'd known how things would turn out, Kitty would have stayed to fight. She'd be out there destroying sentinels, and maybe she could have been there to save Scott. Instead she'd fled halfway across the world, scared and alone, with no hope of finding the remaining X-Men.
Although, having found Logan, she was at a far greater advantage than she could have ever imagined. Together they could watch each other's backs, and with his expert tracking abilities, maybe the possibility of finding the X-Men wasn't so bleak. Given the recent developments, Logan might even want to help fight.
Excited by the concept, she volunteered, "We could always try and find the X-men."
Unfortunately, she was met with a sharp and resolute, "No," from Logan.
"Why not? If there's nowhere safe for us we may as well have strength in numbers," she pushed.
"'That's what you want then you can go. I'll be fine," Logan replied gruffly, staring intently out the window.
Kitty sank in her seat. Of course he wouldn't want to rejoin the X-Men, who was she kidding? The stupid man was far too busy wallowing in alcohol and self pity to spare any time for the people he once called family. Kitty didn't want to admit it, but Scott was apparently right: Logan just didn't care.
However, the thorn that dug the deepest was his flippant suggestion that they parted ways. It was one thing to be dispassionate for those who were halfway around the world, but another to be so callous to direct company. Kitty wondered how little her presence really meant to him.
She was sorely tempted to do as he said. At least by traveling alone she wouldn't have to put up with his foul temper, and she'd find far better company with the other X-men. Who said they needed Wolverine, anyway?
The only problem was she had no idea where or how to start looking, and she mumbled something along those lines before staring fixedly out of the opposite window.
They completed the rest of the journey in stubborn silence. A few people got on their carriage as the morning dragged on, but no one sat close. Whether that was because they could feel the waves of tension radiating from the two strangers in the centre of the carriage, or whether they just liked their own space, Kitty didn't really care. She felt like she might snap at the next person who even looked at her, so it was very fortunate that they kept their distance.
Eventually they got off at a city called Durham. It had an old-fashioned British countryside feel, with cobbled streets and old brick houses, surrounded by dense foliage. There was none of the hustle and bustle of commuters that London fell prey to, but enough people to blend into so they didn't draw any attention.
They walked down street after street, sometimes looping around to stand back where they'd been five minutes ago. Kitty didn't need to ask to know that Logan was leading her around to try and shake off any tails they might have picked up from the station, but it didn't do any better to calm her temper.
Her feet began to strain over the discomfort of walking on cobbled stone and her arms grew tired of carrying her suitcase, which bounced about and made far too much noise to be pulled along by its wheels.
She was close to stopping and snapping at Logan, accusing him of dragging her around as punishment. But he eventually stopped outside a café with large glass windows. Kitty peered inside to see small wooden tables covered in plastic red and white check tablecloths, chairs with backs woven out of straw and a counter displaying a selection of very tasty looking pastries. There weren't many people inside, and it looked like the perfect place to take a break.
She hazarded a glance at her companion and found him to be staring back at her, with a similar apprehensive expression.
"Breakfast?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
There was no doubt that Kitty was very keen to take him up on his suggestion. Her stomach was so empty that she reckoned she'd be able to eat every pastry the café had to offer. But that didn't mean she forgave Logan for being a massive jerk, so she didn't reply and pushed past him. As she leant on the glass door to enter the café she caught sight of his reflection. His perplexed expression caused her to smirk involuntarily. As petty as it was, she felt like she'd had some small measure of revenge, especially when she let the door slam back in his face.
He caught up with her inside, standing a few paces behind her as she approached the counter. Stood behind it was a woman in her forties, with greying brown hair pulled back into a low ponytail. She was wearing a white apron over her plain grey jumper, and had a cheerful yet homely look about her.
"Can I help you?" she smiled politely.
Kitty fell prey to her infectious smile and pulled her lips tight in an unwilling reciprocal response. Finding the interaction somewhat awkward, she began to study the pastries in the glass display. There were a great number of different shapes and sizes, some of which she didn't recognise.
"Yeah, I'll have a coffee and a bacon sandwich," Logan said from behind her.
The woman nodded and turned her expectant attention to Kitty. Feeling pushed to make a decision, she said, "I'll have a coffee too, and uh –" she scanned the display for anything that looked familiar, eyes settling on a row of sugar incrusted, bulbous triangles of pastry. A distant memory that left her feeling a little homesick prompted the decision. "Two apple turnovers please," she finished.
Lost in a reverie of how her mum used to make turnovers out of the apples in their garden every summer, Kitty didn't immediately notice that the woman behind the counter was looking at her expectantly.
"Sorry?" she blushed slightly, hoping to cover her blunder by pretending that she'd simply misheard something.
"I said that'll be £7.90 please," the woman said kindly.
"Oh, right," Kitty said. Of course, it wasn't like Logan was going to pay for breakfast. She doubted he had a cent to his name, not after seeing all those empty bottles of whisky in his apartment.
She delved into her coat pocket and pulled out her purse to count out the money. After she handed it over, the woman assured them that she'd bring the food to their table, so they took a seat opposite each other by one of the large windows.
After shuffling the bags around and getting comfortable, Logan mumbled a quiet "Thanks."
Kitty looked up at him in surprise.
"I mean, I wouldn't be having breakfast if it weren't for you," he continued, avoiding eye contact.
Kitty marveled at him for a moment. It was almost impossible for her to get a read on the man; he seemed to defy any of her preconceptions, and just when she thought she'd worked him out, he went and did something to turn her around. After all, showing gratitude, when he'd only recently hinted that he didn't even care for her presence, what was she to make of that?
Staring at the steam that rose from her coffee, Kitty decided that she didn't really care for the man's complexities. Her feet hurt and all she wanted to do was rest. So if that meant just accepting his gratitude and getting on with it, then that was exactly what she would do.
"S'fine," she mumbled in reply.
The food arrived, and as they ate the tension around them slowly dissipated. Kitty just didn't have it in her to keep a grudge, not when she was so exhausted. Eventually the silence between them fell into the category of companionable, and Kitty decided that even though Logan's bad points seemed to outweigh the good, staying with him would beat traveling alone. At least they'd have strength in numbers.
Action in the next chapter. Reviews always appreciated!
