Chapter eleven, for your reading pleasure! Once again, thanks to my devoted reviewers and readers! Enjoy!


Though Logan was on a very serious mission to bring Marie back to the X-Men mansion, he couldn't help but enjoy himself a little. Scott's bike was a smooth ride, and there was always a feeling of liberation that accompanied Logan whenever he rode a motorcycle.

He rounded corners with precision and practiced ease that he'd always possessed. Long ago he'd come to the conclusion that he must have ridden motorcycles before, because he'd always been a good rider.

Looking down for the switch to flip for the headlight, he saw a button with three red arrows. Raising a brow, Logan wondered if he ought to push it. What's the worst that could happen? It's not like it's a self destruct button or anything…

He pushed the button and his heart jumped into his throat as the motorcycle accelerated from sixty-five miles per hour to one-hundred and thirty in half a second. Were it not for his super-human reflexes, Logan was sure that he would crash trying to wind around the roads many twists and turns. The harsh wind pulled his already wide smile even wider. He'd get to Marie in time, and this was pretty fun…

-

Standing in the middle of the train station, Logan concentrated hard. If he was going to find Marie, he'd have to momentarily sacrifice the use of his other senses. Not caring about the odd looks that he was probably going to receive, Logan closed his eyes and blocked out the noise around him, focusing all of his power on his sense of smell.

He blocked out the scents of the humans around him in search of Marie's peppermint scent, which wasn't too hard since the humans all seemed to blend together. He picked out a few unique scents – cotton and pineapple were the ones that were most easily identifiable, telling him that at least two other mutants were here – but he wasn't breathing for more than thirty seconds when he picked up the faint scent of peppermint.

His eyes snapped open and he followed his nose, which lead him right past the ticket counter without stopping to pay. "Excuse me, sir, but I'm afraid I can't let you through without a ticket," an irate looking man said.

Logan glared at him, hanging on to Marie's scent. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm bringing someone back."

"All the same sir, you're going to have to purchase a ticket before I'm allowed to – "

Logan let his lip curl up in an animal like snarl slid past his teeth. The young man swallowed hard and stepped aside. Logan passed, eyeing him with a look that he hoped was intense enough to discourage this man from calling security. The last thing that he wanted was to cause unnecessary commotion.

He continued following his nose and it lead him right to Marie, who sat by herself on the train, complete with trench coat with the hood up to discourage socializing of any kind.

"Hey kid," Logan said quietly, sliding into the seat next to hers. He swallowed hard when she didn't look at him, hoping that she wasn't furious with him. Perhaps talking a little before bringing up the subject of the night before would make it a little less awkward. "Where'd you get the money for a ticket?"

It was her turn to swallow hard, still refusing to look at him, though her eyes widened. "I didn't."

Logan snorted and Marie looked at him strangely. "Well, let me give you some free advice; when the ticket guy comes, hide in the bathroom and pretend that your sick for a while."

"You know, believe it or not, I was actually thinking of doing that."

"Small world." He looked around and finally sighed. Beating around the bush would only get him more meaningless conversation like this. "I'm sorry about last night," he said quietly.

She turned to him slowly, but she didn't look angry with him at all. In fact, she looked… ashamed? "Me too."

Logan could only nod. It was his opinion that she had nothing to apologize for. He'd almost killed her, and when faced with death it was natural to used whatever means necessary to save yourself, sometimes at the expense of someone you cared for. But, if she felt that she needed to be sorry in order to make things right from her end, he wouldn't stop her. "You running again?"

"I heard the professor was mad at me," she said quietly, looking away.

Logan frowned. Xavier was a pretty understanding person, and he hadn't seemed the least bit upset when he'd been talking to Logan. "Who told you that?"

"A boy at school."

A boy at school… She was going to leave, not because of him, but because some boy had lied and told her that Xavier was mad at her?

"What boy," Logan growled.

"It doesn't matter"

"It does matter. I'll skin him alive. What boy?"

She smiled humorlessly. "I'm sure he was just misinformed."

"My ass," he snorted. "Nevertheless, the professor isn't at all mad at you. Accidents happen, he understands that."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You think I should go back," she said accusingly.

Yes. "No," he said carefully. "I think you should follow your instincts."

A pained expression crossed her features. She looked as though she might collapse into a fit of tears at any moment. "The first boy I ever kissed ended up in a coma for three weeks. I can still feel him inside my head." Her voice was hallow, haunted almost. "And it's the same with you."

Logan looked away from her. He understood what she was saying, to a certain extent. Though it didn't necessarily feel like Marie was inside his head, it did feel like she was now a part of him. It didn't really upset him the way it seemed to upset her, but something in the back of his mind told him that she was upset because she felt like she had stolen something from him. He knew that she felt that way about David, though he didn't know how he knew that.

That must be her talking, he thought, shaking his head a little.

Since meeting her only a few days ago, Marie had really grown on him. She was his first true friend, and he felt drawn to her, as though he wanted to protect her. Though she was probably seventeen, in his eyes she seemed like a scared seven-year-old asking for help.

With a bit of a start, he realized that these were paternal feelings. He wanted to shield her from the world, or perhaps give her all of the joy that could be had from the world. That was why he'd been so concerned about her in the bar, and why he hadn't had the heart to leave her on the road. And the fact that they'd nearly killed each other only made him feel closer to her. It was unnerving to think that he could care so much about someone, but it felt kind of nice to care about someone other than himself.

"You know," he said softly, "ever since I woke up fifteen years ago, I've seen these powers of mine as a curse. I've always been the reckless kind because I don't die, I always heal. There have been times when I've even tried to die, but as you can obviously see, they've been failed attempts."

He glanced back and saw that her eyes were closed as though she were in physical pain. "I know," she whispered. "I feel the same."

His frown deepened. This was his fault. Whether this boy had fed her some bullshit lie or not, whatever part of him that had transferred over to Marie was now haunting her. The problem was that, no matter how far she ran, she wouldn't be able to escape it. Not by herself.

"When you touched me last night, for one brief second, I could actually see my death. And right then I realized that I didn't want it anymore. I want to thank you for that." He wrapped his arm around her comfortingly and pulled her close. She leaned heavily on her shoulder, her breathing and heartbeat erratic as she let go of the emotions she seemed to be trying to hide from him. She definitely couldn't do this alone.

"There's not many people that'll understand what you're going through, but I think this guy Xavier's one of them. He seems to genuinely want to help you, and that's a rare thing…" He looked down at her, hoping that she understood that she wasn't alone. "for people like us."

The train creaked and lurched forward, and Marie started, sitting up straight and looking out the window. She turned back to Logan expectantly, waiting to see if he'd let her go that easy or drag her back kicking and screaming.

Logan cleared his throat and looked around briefly, feeling odd in his own skin. He wasn't an emotional person, nor was he the type to comfort people when they were vulnerable. It was quite an experience, but Marie was worth it. If it got her back to Xavier's school, then it was certainly worth the mild discomfort.

"So, what do you say?" he asked, his voice returning to its previous gruffness, though his eyes remained soft for her sake. "Give these geeks one more shot?"

A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips, but she still didn't seem sure. "Come on," Logan whispered, staring straight into her eyes. "I'll take care of you."

The words were out of his mouth before he'd realized exactly what he'd said. But it was too late to take it back, and a big part of him didn't want to take it back. She seemed more settled now and she gave a nod so slight that anyone else would have missed it. "You promise?"

"Yeah." Sure, Jean may be a friend of his, and Ororo's scent was a quiet obsession of his, but he and Marie had been thrown into this together, and somehow it felt right that they stay together.

"Yeah, I promise," he repeated.

She visibly relaxed, and the tension between them all but vanished. Logan smirked. "Now, about this boy…"