It probably should've been a little disturbing, how easily life went right back to normal. Especially since Andi and Jim disappeared without a trace. The funny thing was, Marie seemed to be the only one who even remembered them. Even Logan had given her the oddest look when she'd mentioned them.
She'd heard stranger, though, much stranger, and so life went on.
A few days spent at the mansion upon Ororo's request, helping to sort some things out, and then they were on their way home. Another day and everything was just business as usual. Marie was in the kitchen making dinner. The twins were on the floor, playing with some blocks and Abigail's favorite little pink teddy bear. The phone was sitting on the counter next to Marie, on speaker as she chopped vegetables and her Mama ranted a bit.
"It just gave me a real fright, that's all, yah'll livin all the way up theah with that awful place just miles up the road." She'd apparently heard all about it on the news and had automatically suspected Marie and the X-men were involved. Smart woman, her Mama.
"It wasn't actually that close Mama, unless yah felt like trudgin straight through the forest."
"Well, Ah still don't like it. Ah say you could've found someplace better to settle down."
"Yah're only sayin that because yah want us closer to you."
"Well, that ain't the only reason, but now that yah mention, of course Ah do! Ah still haven't seen my grandbabies yah know, except through pictures."
"Ah know Mama." Marie paused to throw the vegetables she'd been chopping into a skillet that was already coated in olive oil. "Maybe yah could come up here. Yah'd get plenty of time to spend with the pups and yah might even see why we like it up here." There was silence on the other end for a long moment, and Marie braced herself for whatever would come next, expecting a question about her slip up, but it didn't come. Her brows furrowed. "Mama?"
"Marie, turn the news on. Yah'll do have a TV up theah, don't yah?"
"Course we do Mama, but Ah'm a little busy at the moment."
"Well, theah's this woman they found, they say she's probably connected to that whole mess up at those labs, they found her just wanderin down the road. She claimed to have been attacked by a wolf."
Marie grimaced at the vegetables she was stirring.
"And she went missin from the hospital just last night."
"Mama, why did you want me to see about all this."
"Because the cabin they found her not far from looks an awful lot like yours." There was a slight, hesitant pause and her mother's tone turned suspicious. "You wouldn't happen to know anythin about it, now, would yah?"
"What did the woman look like? Do they have a picture?"
"Pale with dark red curls, cold eyes, apparently she had her arm in a sling."
Well, that explained that then. Maybe the wolf the woman was talking about was a somewhat cheeky reference to Kris – or Victoria, the girl seemed to prefer her middle name now – or maybe Fang had gotten in a bite or two somewhere along the line. Either way, Marie had a feeling she knew what had happened to the woman. A wolf may have attacked her, but it was the cat that now had her tongue. She probably should've been worried by the idea of Victor having her, but she wasn't. In fact, she found herself wondering if he wouldn't be able to get more answers out of her than the cops would.
As usual, she had no intention of voicing any of this to her mother.
"Doesn't sound familiar. Besides, we just got back last night, we weren't even here."
"Oh, of course yah weren't."
Marie threw down her spatula at this and snatched the phone up to bring it to her ear. "Mama, what is that supposed to mean."
"Just that Ah ain't so sure yah'd tell me if yah did know somethin." Her mother replied calmly. "Ah looked up you're brother-in-law, you know."
"Ok." Marie drew the word out, uncertain. She wasn't sure her mother would've even been able to find anything on him. Technically, he didn't exist. (Logan hadn't technically existed either until he'd proposed, at which point Ororo had pulled a string or two. Marie strongly suspected Hank had something to do with this.)
"And all Ah could find were some very interestin news articles. Ah'm sure Ah don't have to tell yah what kind of stuff he might be involved in. Yah already know, now, don't yah?"
Marie bit her lip and heaved a sigh. Of course she knew, all too well, but what was she supposed to tell her mother?
"Sorry, Mama, Ah'm cookin dinner, Ah don't wanna burn the house down, Ah'll call yah later, ok?" Her mother began saying something else, shouting, but Marie hung up impulsively. Her Mama would get over it. Marie knew she would because she always did.
Setting the phone aside and plucking some spices out for her veggies, she wondered why normal just had to include shutting down testing labs and lying through her teeth to her own mother.
"Do yah think we should tell her?"Her mother's voice was loud and clear, even though she was obviously trying to be quiet. They were in the living room, just below her. They probably thought Victoria was asleep. Honestly, she'd been trying to fall asleep for over an hour, but couldn't seem to with the threat of more nightmares looming over her.
"She's not stupid, she'll figure it out on her own quick enough. I'd be willing to bet she has already." Victor responded.
"Well, Ah'm just worried – she's been through enough."
"Relax, Rosie. She'll be excited once she sees you are."
The truth was, her dad was right. Victoria already knew something was off, had noticed on the car ride back days earlier. It had taken her a bit to figure out what exactly was altering her mother's scent, but she'd been around other very married couples at the mansion. She wondered how far along her mother was. Probably not that far, Victoria would have noticed before, probably. She'd never really thought about being an older sister, but now that she had to, the idea wasn't at all unappealing. And the pleasant thoughts were a very welcome distraction.
She'd say something tomorrow. If not, her mother would have to tell her eventually anyways.
Her parents left soon after, probably heading to bed. Their room was on the bottom floor, on the opposite side of the house. This arrangement was undoubtedly the only reason their father had gotten them such a big house; they were just far enough apart that Victoria could tune out anything happening on their end. Which was a good thing, because obviously, stuff had definitely been going on. Trying to imagine what it would be like to have a baby brother or sister was more than enough to take her mind off of any possible nightmares. Closing her eyes, she fell into a restless sleep.
..
"Now, now, just relax." The man – the doctor, she could see him now, he was short and thin with graying light brown hair – was pushing her back down to the table. The voice he was using reminded her of the voice one would use on a frightened animal. "Oh, my, look at those eyes. Beautiful, aren't they."
"Like a wolf's." The woman from before commented, and Kris could just see her. She was a little taller than the doctor and much younger, her dark brown hair tied back in a strict bun.
"Yes. Yes, particularly when coupled with those claws and her teeth. Perhaps we shall simply call her 'Wolf'."
'Wolf'…'Wolf'…'Wolf'…
..
"A good girl?" Victoria snarled "Yah got me all tied up like some kinda – some kinda animal and –"
The doctor's eyes hardened as he reached out and roughly grabbed her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye.
"You are little more than an animal, and you will not talk back to me."
'Little more than an animal'…
..
"Go to hell!" She burst out, snarling at him. Normally her eyes would've long since turned golden yellow, but with the inhibitor she wasn't sure they would now.
His eyes narrowed at her in anger.
"Very well. I wasn't expecting this to be easy. We're going to need some skin samples for testing. I suppose I can just take them now," he got up and crossed the room to take some latex gloves out of the metal cabinet before wheeling a tray of the sharp metal objects closer to Kris, "perhaps you'll feel a bit more talkative when I'm finished?"
She watched as he picked up one of the knives on the tray. Her heart began to pound in her chest, and she could hear it even with her now normal hearing. She began to shake, unable to stop herself as fear tied her stomach in sickening knot.
..
"Feel free to scream for me if you wish."
..
He was pressing the knife to her skin on her arm, and digging it in deep, slicing through her flesh like butter.
Victoria jerked awake, breathing ragged, tears streaming down her cheeks. Shaking like a leaf, she turned onto her side and curled into a ball and hoped that her heart would eventually stop pounding against her ribcage. Ah'm home, she chanted to herself, Ah'm home, Ah'm safe, Ah'm home. She reached up to rub the smooth, unblemished skin on her arms to prove this to herself.
She thought maybe she was just hearing things when the footsteps below her reached her ears. A moment of silence past, almost confirming this. But then the front door opened and shut, so quietly anyone else probably wouldn't have heard it. Victoria knew she had, though, and wasted no time in acting on it. Throwing back the sheets, which were damp with sweat anyways, she changed quickly into dark jeans and a plain dark green shirt before making her way out too. It wasn't like she'd be getting back to sleep, or really even had a desire to try. She was anxious to find something else to occupy her mind.
Slipping out into the warm summer air – not as warm as Georgia, she thought at random, but steamy compared to that stupid forest way up North– she darted through the various other houses and buildings around, unsurprised to be following Victor's sent.
It led her clear across the compound to a non-descript, brick building. The only thing that stood out about it was the large bolted door that appeared to be made of steel. She raised both eyebrows at her father, who was leaning against said door.
"Yah knew Ah'd follow yah?"
"Knew you haven't been sleeping too well. Come on. Got a surprise for you."
Victoria crossed the distance between them wordlessly as he opened the door and let her in first. Florescent lights flickered on automatically as she stepped down a short hallway to a door that was smaller, though also made of steal. She opened it without bothering to wait for her father and stepped into what appeared to be one side of the interrogation rooms she'd seen in crime scene shows. Her brows furrowed a bit as she looked around at the high tech monitors and recording equipment, but she didn't really think to question it.
Her father came up next to her and flipped a switch on a small control panel. Victoria glanced up a him. He gestured towards the large wall of glass occupying most of the wall in front of them. She turned her head slowly to see that the lights had turned on, dimly, on the other side. It really was an interrogation room. Or at least, that was the idea. Apparently it was made to be a holding cell of sorts too. The room on the other side of the glass was set up like a jail cell with a bed and a small table on one end, and what would serve the unfortunate prisoner as a washroom in the far corner. The only camera was set up in that corner, making that the rooms only blind spot if one were being taped. Victoria noted this because even the bathrooms at the labs where she and Lizzie had been kept had had cameras.
Victor waited quietly as she scanned the room again, her eyes finally landing on what the surprise he'd talked about obviously was: a woman with dark red hair and eyes that, Victoria could now clearly see, were green. They were also, currently, aimed at the wall of glass, glaring. She looked pretty beat up and her arm was in a sling.
Victoria just stared.
"Took her right out of a hospital, not far from Jimmy's cabin." Her father explained, and she didn't have to ask by now to know Jimmy was what he called her Uncle. "She told them she was attacked by a wolf." Amusement colored his tone. "Somehow I ain't so sure she was talking about Jimmy's mutt."
"Why'd yah take her?"
"Because we need answers, and I'd be willing to bet she has them."
"And if she doesn't?"
"Then she's useless, which could also be fun." He replied, and all at once it occurred to Victoria that maybe, just maybe, the only real reason he'd had for taking the redhead was that she attacked Victoria. She wasn't used to that yet, to having a Daddy who would literally kill for her. Dillon O'Connell had done well enough in pretending that he cared about her, but a part of her had always known he didn't care that much, although he'd raised her.
With Victor, she had no doubts. And she'd only known him a year.
"How are yah goin to get them from her, if she does have answers?"
His eyes darted towards the redhead before fixing themselves back on Victoria, and he gave her that smirk. The same one he'd given her the first time she'd asked him what exactly his job was.
For a moment she was tempted to ask if she could help. But then she remembered her conversation with Lizzie days earlier in the forest.
"I'm sure they thought the same of us."
"They deserved it." She'd told the blonde, and she still didn't doubt that Reinhardt had had it coming.
"I'm sure they thought the same of us."
Wolf snarled that Lizzie had also been afraid of her own shadow up until she'd finally worked up the courage to really test her powers – because a cat had been stuck in a tree. The girl's a hippie, a frail! Only said that because she didn't have it in her to kill the rest of them when she had a chance!
Victoria turned abruptly and, ignoring her father as he called out to her, she ran. Out of little brick building through the complex, darting in and out of the other houses and buildings around. She wasn't sure how long she kept going or how far she ran, she only knew that she somehow ended up back at her house. Collapsing into the grass just next to a tree, she closed her eyes and tried to rebuild the mental cage she'd had for the Wolf just before being taken. Tried to force it back.
"There's an easier way, you know."
Victoria's eyes snapped open at the sound of her father's voice. She jumped to her feet, startled, spinning around to face him. "What? What do yah mean?"
"You're afraid of it. Stop."
He came forward so she had to look up at him. "Bring her to the surface." Victoria hesitated. "Come on," a distinctly growly undertone to his voice now, "let me see those eyes."
She bit her lip lightly as she did as she was told, closing her eyes and pulling Wolf halfway to the surface. She opened her eyes.
"All the way, half pint." Her father growled. "Stop being afraid of it. It does you no good to be afraid of it."
Wolf pushed her way fully to the surface, but Victoria still had some control, almost as if, for a moment, they weren't separate at all. She let out a soft growl back at him.
"There's my girl." He said. "Now, the firebrand. We don't even know her name. She's been real quiet so far. We go back to see her and I can show you how to get answers from someone who's been trained not to give them."
"And if she has none?" Victoria asked.
"Then she'll be yours to deal with." A slight pause. "In whatever way you want." And there's the smirk again.
Wolf had a dozen ideas right off the bat. Victoria, for her part, thought on that for a good, long moment.
"Let's go."
And that's it for One Day At A Time. I'm also about to post the next story, it's called Family, please check it out.
On an entirely different not, I'm super sorry for the long wait. The past few weeks have been crazy and I've had major writers block, but I'm attempting to get back in the swing of things. Reviews always help. :)