These chapters feel really, really short. I'm sorry, I'm just so desperate to get this shit posted for all you patient people. Reviews are always appreciated! Oh, and don't be shy about sharing ideas with me :)

By the way, guys, I found a good reference as to what Acadia looks like: Marie Avgeropoulos

Acadia didn't really feel like getting up from her corner of the couch, but her stomach began to growl to the point of being painful and she finally surrendered and made her way to the kitchen. A majority of the classes had been put on hiatus because of all the goings on, so most of the resident students were enjoying their time off. Of course, the older ones were still pinned with more long-term assignments, much to their displeasure. All of this meant that the common areas were much more crowded than Acadia wished to deal with at the moment. She gritted her teeth against her temper as a gang of boys hurtled down the hallway past her, making much too much noise—in her opinion.

"Acadia," A deep voice caught her attention as she was nearly to the kitchen, and she reluctantly turned around.

"Logan," She greeted back, trying to sound conversational. The truth of the matter was that he looked about as comfortable as she felt—which was close to nil.

Logan was the one to close the distance between them. In a few long strides he was towering over her. Acadia watched his expression, anxiously curious as to what he was thinking and what his thoughts were. He probably has no idea, She told herself, but the presence of a social rift between the two of them hinted in the opposite direction.

"Have you seen my dog tags?" Logan finally managed.

Acadia didn't whether to be relieved or disappointed. On one hand, she was grateful for the lack of depth to their conversation; on the other, she desperately wanted some goddamn answers. "Uh, yeah—" Acadia pulled her hand from her pocket, the chain loosely tangled in her fingers as she held them up. "Here. The chain's broken. I think that other guy must've ripped them off while you were fighting."

It took Logan a moment to realize whom she meant by 'other guy'. He just chuckled and pushed his hair from his face with one hand. "You mean Victor?"

"Yeah, that one. He's an asshole," Acadia told him boldly. Logan stifled a laugh. "… How'd you know him?"

"Long story," Logan answered, his amusement rapidly disappearing.

The awkwardness waned, and Acadia desperately wanted to know more. She looked up and down the hall. When she looked back up at Logan, she said, "I don't have anywhere to be."

Logan raised one eyebrow at her smugness. "Fine. He's my brother."

Acadia's jaw slacked just a little, but she clamped it shut as soon as she noticed. "You're related to that guy?"

"Yep," Logan answered curtly. He grabbed his tags from her, quite ready to end the conversation. He was about to tell Acadia goodbye when he paused with a sudden idea. "You know what? Here—" He reached for Acadia's hand and held her palm up, noticing how much smaller it was than his; though, he wasn't dumb enough to ignore the deadly points of her currently retracted claw-like nails. He let the tags and their broken chain slip from his fingers. "You keep these."

Acadia felt no small amount of shock. "Thanks, but… why?" She ran her thumb over the word WOLVERINE as she gripped them.

Logan opened his mouth to answer, but discovered that he didn't even have an answer. He knew why; hell, she probably knew why, too. But saying it was another thing. "Why not?" He finally said with a slight smirk playing at one corner of his mouth. Acadia smiled and stashed them in her pocket, with her next task being getting the chain fixed. A silence settled in the hallway before Logan shifted and looked over his shoulder. "Well—I'll see you around, kid."

"Right," Acadia nodded and they both headed separate directions. Well, it could've gone worse, She reasoned as she scrounged up a breakfast for herself.

She didn't immediately say anything aloud when Kayla sat down at the table beside her, but she didn't have to wait very long before the silence was broken. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah," Acadia answered quickly, only glancing up at her mother for a brief second.

Unlike most other young adults in her age group, she didn't have issues getting along with her mother; this was mostly due to the fact that she didn't have anybody else most of the time. She didn't keep things from Kayla, and vice versa—at least, that's what Acadia had believed before. So, when an awkward silence began to settle between them, she wasn't sure how to react. The one subject that was important was so impossible to breach for all parties involved that their relationships with each other had come to a grinding halt.

Acadia had thought that getting rescued would fix everything; she would no longer be a captive test subject, both her and her mother would be safe… Instead she had been thrown into a whole new genre of challenge. Maybe it was the fatigue and hunger talking, but Acadia found herself actually wanting to be locked up somewhere if it meant not having to look truth in the face.

Don't keep putting this off, it won't become easier, A familiar accented voice resounded in her head. The professor. Acadia gritted her teeth, wondering how that old man kept track of everyone's thoughts—including his own—without going mad.

Practice, The same voice answered with a chuckle, only making her more frustrated.

Acadia was yanked from her thoughts by Kayla breaking the silence. "I'm so glad that you're back safe—that everyone is back safe." Idle small-talk, but it was a start. "Acadia, I—"

"You what?" Acadia cut her off, her voice taking on a challenging tone.

If Kayla was annoyed by the interruption, she didn't show it. "I think it's high time I tell you some things I never thought I'd need to."

Acadia looked over at her mother, coldly expressionless. She didn't do emotional well, but coming off as disinterested and cynical was the perfect cover-up. "And what might that be?" She feigned curiosity.

"There's no need for so much attitude," Kayla warned. When Acadia said nothing, she looked down at her hands and continued, "I never thought I'd see him again. I thought he was dead." There was no need to specify. "To be honest, I thought I was going to die, too."

She began to recount the long-buried story of how she'd originally been planted with Logan Howlett as a set of eyes and ears for the colonel. How they'd faked her death—the reason he submitted to the Adamantium experiment. She told Acadia everything about the ordeal at 3 Mile Island. About her Aunt Emma, whom Acadia had only met a couple of times as a child. About the reason Logan didn't remember—the reason that she was sure he hadn't ever returned.

"I didn't want to ever get your hopes up," Kayla added. "Until now, I had no idea. You have to believe I never thought anything like this would happen. It's what I've been fighting to keep from exposing you to."

Acadia said nothing; throughout the entire story she had simply stared straight ahead, which happened to be the fridge. Her gaze was unfocused, her mind's eye taking up her attention as it tried to visualize each scene of Kayla's tale as if it were a movie—just a work of fiction.

"And how much of this does he know?" She finally asked, trying to keep her voice as level as possible.

"I haven't the slightest idea," Kayla answered honestly. "Apart from the military archives, Victor, Emma and I are the only ones who actually know what happened. I told all of this to the professor; they'd been in the dark here about much of it, as well."

After a long bout of silence, Acadia looked over at Kayla with an incredulous smirk. "So you were a spy for the government?"

Kayla quirked an eyebrow and chuckled. "I wouldn't go that far."

So, it's finally out in the open! Now all we have to do is convince Logan to say it out loud, which I'm still working on accomplishing XP He's not too pleased.