Chapter Nine

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except for my own personal character.

Author's Note: I like reviews. They make me happy. ^_^


The kitchen was packed with students. The amount of children and young adults in the room was overwhelming for me, and I opted to grab a plate of food and sit out in the hallway. The room was far too claustrophobic for my taste.

A few moments passed before the door opened. Logan poked his head around the door and looked to see me sitting on the floor, eating quietly. In truth, I was listening to the different conversations going on in the room, trying to pick out a few of the more interesting ones to focus on. I found the younger children much more amusing, arguing over which show, mostly ones I had never heard of, were better than others.

"Hey," he said, allowing the door to shut behind him.

"Hey." I glanced up briefly to let him know I saw him before turning back to my food.

"You all right?"

"Yeah, just didn't wanna eat in an overcrowded room," I said before taking a bite of a roll. I chewed a bit and swallowed before adding, "Close quarters with a bunch of people… not really my thing, if ya catch my drift." I smirked.

He nodded, leaning against the wall on the other side of the door. It opened again, blocking my view of him.

"Logan, why're ya out here?"

A girl's voice, younger than me, but not by quite much, spoke to him. I sniffed the air, sensing the change that had overcome Logan, and getting a good feel for the girl, even though I couldn't see her.

"I was keepin' the new girl company," Logan answered, trying to hide his sheepishness.

"Oh."

She sounded disappointed.

"Can I meet her?"

She was trying to change the subject, hoping he wouldn't pick up on her… mix of emotions.

Logan chuckled. "You'd have to close the door first, kid."

She stepped forward, closer to him as I still couldn't see her, allowing the door to close. She turned around, and I saw a girl who was, in fact, maybe only a year or two younger than me. She had very pale skin, brown eyes, and brown hair. The curious part was the white streak that ran through the middle part of her hair, up towards the front. She smiled politely.

"I'm Marie," she said. "But you can call me Rogue, too." She reached out her hand.

I took it, feeling awkward on the floor as I did so. "Rebecca," I told her. "Or Coyote, if you want."

She nodded. "Cool name," she said, retracting her hand as I did the same. "So, when'd you get here?"

"Just this mornin'," I said. "I thought this place would be better than where I had been" I gave her a tiny smile.

"An' where was that?"

I looked up at her. "The road," I said. "Everywhere. Runnin'."

I looked back to my plate and began eating again. She turned back to Logan, I saw out of the corner of my eye, before turning back to me.

"You're from the South?" she asked.

I nodded. "Georgia," I told her. "Kinda hard to shake the accent, but mine's not as bad as it could be. It mostly comes out when other Southerners are around, though, so I'm good for most of the time, at least."

She giggled. "I don't think there's anything wrong with it," she said. "I'm from Mississippi, so everyone has one."

She watched me for a moment more, thinking. She thought I was like Logan, mysterious. She also wondered why he had been out here with her. Marie wanted to talk to Logan about her lack of powers, now that Bobby was out of the picture. She stopped that train of thought, thinking it was silly. What would he want with her? She was still "kid" to him.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Rebecca," Marie said with a tiny smile. "Maybe I'll be seeing you around?"

"Prolly," I said, smiling back, though mine was a little more forced. "I'm sure I'll be here for a while."

She nodded, turning back to Logan. "Kitty and the rest of them who're on trainin' to be on the team wanna use The Danger Room tonight," she told him. "Think you'll be there? I was gonna watch."

Logan shifted. "I might be by later, but I got some stuff to do, kid. Ororo will be there, though." He gave her an almost comforting smile.

I knew she wasn't happy to hear that. She wanted to be able to talk with him, like olds times. If she couldn't have his love, she at least wanted his friendship.

"All right, well, I guess I'll might see you later, then," she said. She opened the door and went back into the kitchen.

"What was her power?" I asked as soon as the door closed.

"She absorbed others' powers."

I nodded, figuring it was something like that. "I can see why she's glad to get rid of it."

"You should try an' stay outta people's heads, ya know." He didn't sound offended, but he looked concerned.

I shrugged. "I can't help it if people project, Logan," I told him. "She was trying to will you to hear her thoughts."

His brows furrowed, as if he knew exactly what she had been thinking. "Don't start," he said.

I looked back and ate the last bite of my food. "So, you're blowin' her an' her friends off to come and hang out while Hank does the tests on me?" I paused, smirking. "I'm touched, Wolverine."

He seemed taken aback by my sarcasm, and it looked as though it could go either well or badly from there. He decided to chuckle, which I guess was somewhat of a relief. Apparently the Wolverine offended easily.

"Looks like it."

He stared at me for a moment, and was about to speak again when the door opened a third time. It closed immediately, and I knew it was Hank who stood on the other side before it even closed. He looked to me and grinned.

"Ready to go?"

"Sure," I said, standing. I held my plate, wondering what to do for a moment.

Hank laughed, taking the plate from me and returning it to the kitchen. In that moment, I knew Logan had something to ask me, but for once I couldn't tell what it was. He was getting better at hiding things. My curiosity would have to wait.

Hank returned, then told me to follow him. He asked Logan why he was coming along instead of seeing to the teens who would soon be joining the X-Men. Logan shrugged.

"I wanna see how similar we are," he said.

We reached the hospital wing of the mansion. It was just like an actual hospital; I felt very impressed. They had machines I had no clue what the uses were for, as well as the standard equipment like heart monitors, respirators, and the like.

"I would like, first, Rebecca, for a sample of your blood," Hank told me. "So if you would like to have a seat, we can get started." He patted a chair, making it clear it was that I was supposed to sit on and not the bed that was in the room. I thought it kind of him.

I sat on the chair and waited for the rest of my instructions. Hank returned with a needle and stood a few feet away from me while he spoke again.

"Now, if your… other half decides to act up, just let me know and we'll stop. All right?"

I nodded. "It seems to be used to you," I said. "I guess it knows it can trust you."

"Well, that's certainly a good sign," Hank said, smiling with relief.

I saw Logan standing in the corner, watching everything carefully. The door to the room had been left open for my own comfort, and Hank moved very slowly. Logan was completely still, his nostrils flaring every so often to show he was breathing. Hank cleaned my skin with a cottonball that had smelly rubbing alcohol on it. I ignored the smell as best I could, though it was quite annoying.

The needle pierced my skin, which only stung for a moment. I felt the blood being drawn from my body. Soon, the needle was pulled out. The tiny hole where the needle had been closed up in a second.

"Fascinating," Hank said, watching my skin mend in awe.

I smiled. "Sorry, I'm used to it, so it's not quite fascinating to me anymore."

"Well, I say 'fascinating' because your healing factor appears to be faster than Logan's," Hank said.

That got the man in the corner to perk up. "Faster?" he said.

"Well, Logan, when I took your blood, the cut didn't heal for a few more seconds than Rebecca's. Perhaps I am remembering incorrectly. The only way we would be able to tell is if we gave you both cuts of similar sizes and widths on almost exactly the same parts of your skin, filmed it, and then watched it in slow motion. We could count the frames per second to see which of your factors was faster." He stopped, pondering to himself for a moment. "However, this is just for my own curiosity, mostly, nothing would really come of it."

He walked away from me and placed the syringe of my blood on a metal tray on the counter in the corner. Logan gave me a strange look.

The rest of the time in the hospital wing was spent with Hank running a variety of different tests on me, x-rays, CAT scans, the whole works. The whole time, Logan watched carefully, keeping quiet. After an hour or two, Hank was done, and said he would most likely be working on getting some results by morning, if he could.

"Once I have a conclusion," he told me, "I'll let you know."

I nodded to him and turned to go, knowing that Hank would be more than wrapped up in his work. Logan didn't follow me. He stayed to talk with Hank, I figured, probably about me.

That night, I spent my time in the library, catching up on the books that I had wanted to read.