The week passed slowly. Roger visited the farmhouse during that time, driving by in the truck and glancing here and there at random times to see what was happening. While he avoided going to little Riley's birthday party during that time (which Mae said was pretty special, all things considering), he did notice more than a few cars sitting in the driveway at different times of the day and night. Some parked as far as the back property, noises and partying coming from there, but Roger was not concerned about that. All he was worried about were the amount of men now coming his way, which now seemed to be more than even he expected.
By the first of May, there had been groups of mutants and humans running in and out of the farmhouse, all of them being sent from Teller, Roger knew. They had been discreet, silent and friendly. All of them slipped in and out, like they were welcome sights and not dangers to society, and soon were congesting up Roger's home at odd times too. While he was appreciative of the effort Danielle (and maybe Logan, he conceded) put in, he was also pressed on time. They had less than a month left before they had to storm the main camp in Kansas and rescue the mutants and gather them together for both the Professor and Magneto.
On that Mayday, Roger also went to the farmhouse, tired from training more men and women. He passed a few familiar people while driving the truck there, but was not worried. When he got there and parked the vehicle, not getting out yet, he saw Danielle and Logan fighting each other for fun as the boys watched. Logan had his claws out and Danielle had Jay's katana. Sparks flew each time the adamantium claws and the old katana hit each other, but the two were laughing and backing each other up constantly, so the fight was equal in its own way. Logan wasn't exactly an opponent someone would want to practice with, but Danielle was always good defensively and blocked his every move.
Michael and Riley interested Roger for a moment. The two had been eying the couple fighting as they sat on the porch steps, but were egging them on too, like they had with the others that came and went through the farmhouse. The two held a secret between them, but Michael was the one who knew more information. Roger suspected that the nearly ten-year-old knew something about his mother and Logan, but was not going to tell a soul about everything. He knew that Michael would have said something to Riley at least, in terms a six-year-old could understand, but to fully allow secrets to be shared…it was not possible. Michael was a loner since the mansion was invaded and will always be that way, until a time when there were all back together.
Roger shook his head. I am becoming a damned sentimental fool.
It was then that Roger noticed Danielle and Logan's interactions with each other in a better light. They were closer, he realized, and it was more openly shown than any other time anyone had seen them together. By then, Danielle had tripped over a branch and Logan held her captive when his claws trapped her by the sides, but she laughed about her mistake, like it was funny to be clumsy when death could be a result. Logan then retracted his claws and put a hand out for Danielle. She took it, wiping the dirt off of her face. She even appeared younger then, pretty too, when a stray flower swayed from a tree above her and landed in her red-white hair. Roger had to do a double take when he noticed the hair and lack of lines on Danielle's face. There were redder streaks in there, to be sure, but the wrinkles were starting to recede. It was a slow change for her powers, something Roger did not expect, but it should be somewhere in that file of the Professor's.
Dammit! That file is locked up still in that floor safe and I still don't have access to it. Oh, damn Peter Ellis! Damn his cronies!
Logan and Danielle then joined the boys on the porch as they moved aside for the adults. They then started resting on the plastic chairs as the children took out toys and played with each other, setting up plastic green GI Joe soldiers and lining them up for battle. Logan did not seem winded from the fight and was slightly amused by the mock toy battle, but Danielle was wiping sweat off of her forehead and taking her cup of coffee from next to the chair with a contented sigh, seeing Roger for the first time. She was appearing very calm and it seemed an idyll atmosphere that Roger thought should be shattered soon enough. He got out of the truck brusquely and walked to the porch, pausing on the steps.
"Morning," Danielle greeted carefully as she put her cup down.
Roger nodded to acknowledge the greeting, but ignored Logan's growl. "How many?" he asked Danielle directly.
Danielle stared at Roger incredulously. "Should this be something we should be talking about this early in the morning?"
"Is sword fighting with adamantium claws an activity not meant for this early in the morning?" Roger taunted. "Come off it, Danielle. I need the details. How many men did Teller give us?"
Danielle looked at the children, busy and so innocent with their green soldiers, and turned back to Roger, her face hard. "About two hundred people and counting, men and women, humans and mutants. About three quarters of them are going to the camps with Teller by the end of this month, but they all are forming plans to run and hide before they come for them. Most of them already are making room for the people we're picking up already."
Roger seemed surprised that there had been planning for the survivors of the camps, but did not show it. "And Teller himself?"
"I would assume that he has his own hidey hole and would scheme his own plans, Roger. Who cares?"
"I do. I would like to have the weasel up front and center when we go."
"We can't force him," Logan observed quietly.
"No, but we can hit the point home," Danielle added, not willing to say what she thought of the bar owner. "Teller isn't going to move and will fight for his home and hearth until he's dead. That much I know."
Roger was quiet about the exchange, but changed the subject. "Do you have any news from the camps?"
Danielle looked at Roger sharply this time. "No. Do you?"
"I went scouting earlier this year, you know. I saw Hank McCoy. As I've told you, my guise is being in charge of him. You have Storm and Logan will be an extra guard on lookout. As far as I know, the mutants there have been building the new section of the camp and some privileged ones are on arbor duty, whatever that means to you."
A sloppy, silly grin on Roger's face briefly showed itself. Danielle guessed it had to do with him and his equally silly plans that sometimes take fruit. However, it was placed with something more sinister. Roger had yet to tell her about how the others were doing. Danielle guessed it was bad and was ready to brace herself for the worst.
"You've already solved the problem of where to put people," Roger continued, to again change the topic. "How many are you planning to hold and when will you move them?"
Danielle had yet to think about that. She had too much to do that she forgot that she too had to move shortly after this mission. Hell, she had yet to tell Michael and Riley, but that could wait, she figured. Right now, as she again glanced at them playing and pretending to kill each others' men, she configured how many she could fit in the farmhouse and how fast she could get them out. If she packed now and saved it for the end of the month, she could be out in a few days, after resting and rounding everyone up. Minimum, she knew that she could be out of there in less than twenty-four hours.
"I have yet to think that through," Danielle admitted, looking to Logan for confirmation too. "But I'm sure we'll think of something when the time comes. I know how to get them moving, Roger. We'll work it out."
Roger nodded, pleased somehow. He then turned to Logan, watching him drink his coffee (which smelled as if he added some alcohol in the cup). Logan gave a customary sole middle claw directed at Roger as he finished his coffee, but said nothing of the conversation. Roger saw Logan's wheels were turning in his mind briefly and the single claw retracted. Roger noted to himself that, the next time he talked to Magneto without wanting to strangle him, he should ask to have those claws cut off and remolded.
"I know what you're thinking," Danielle said softly with a smile, peering at Roger over her coffee cup.
Roger said nothing about the thought, cursing Danielle to hell's deepest fires (and knowing that she heard that too, even if she didn't believe in a Christian hell), before asking for some coffee himself. While he was not a huge drinker like his wife, he needed something to do to get away from the couple and the kids. He needed to think about what had conspired before getting uniforms and identities ready and to sort himself out before allowing his thoughts to flow freely to a powerful mutant.
Walking inside the kitchen and closing the door behind him as consent was given, Roger took a mug out of the cabinet to his right and went for the coffeemaker further down the counter. As he poured his cup, he listened to the lively conversation outside. While Danielle seemed a little more animated alone with Logan, she was also wary of him and his intentions nowadays. That was normal, Roger thought with relief, but her love for Logan and his for her was getting in the way of things. He needed to make sure they were both separated and far apart from each other when they were in the camp. Mae had not been exaggerating this time.
For, Roger knew, love was a dangerous game. It can pull and push people apart, be manipulated and destroyed…and also be the death of one or both of them.
~00~
Hank sat across from Ororo at the Mess Hall. Both had been unable to speak for the whole lunch period, but time was running out and their half hour was almost finished. They had less than ten minutes before being led back to their cells and barracks and back into a rest period before working again. But Hank knew that something ominous was going through Ororo's mind and it was bothering her greatly. If he had the words to console her, he would say something, but he could not. Even with the hope Roger Mortimer had given some time before, it still was never enough. It was becoming a thin thread, unraveling itself little by little as each day turned into the next and warm weather turned hot and unbearable. There was nothing spared for this feeling called hope anymore.
"So…excited about Dedication Day?" Hank asked Ororo, knowing the topic to be approved by both his and her guards beside them.
Ororo looked up from her food. "Yes…oh, yes, I am, Hank."
Hank felt embarrassed by the small talk, but he had to do something to keep the awkward silence away. "We'll see more people we know. I've heard that New York is shipping more people down."
"I've heard the same. California, Oregon and Massachusetts are shipping people out too."
Hank frowned, his blue fur shedding onto the table in small chunks with the small gesture. "I didn't hear that. I just know that New York was sending mutants down before the dedication, so we'll see them march in. Where did you get that information from?"
"Oh, here and there, Hank. You get a lot of things when you put your ears to the ground and your heart in the right place."
It was then that lunchtime was over. Ororo's guards came by to get her and Hank's did the same. As they were chained, Ororo sent Hank a reassuring smile. She motioned her chin to the group behind them, consisting of Rogue, Bobby, Devon, Peter, and Kitty, with their new friends (Sunspot, Blink and Warpath), and wanted to say something to Hank, but could not. She only shrugged her shoulders in some dismay, quite the opposite of her smile, and walked with her guards outside, back to her cell. Hank complied and did the same, ignoring the young adults behind him getting the same treatment, and rolled over the new information in his mind as he walked back to his cell. As he was chained back to the wall and started to stare at the reflections of his prism, he started to realize what Ororo was talking about.
The three states she mentioned were liberal states, for the most part, and had a different schedule to comply with when shipping out their mutants if they were to begin with. They were still fighting over states' rights on mutants versus federal and were not complying with the new federal laws. But that was neither here nor there, Hank thought. It was a clue from Ororo, to tell Hank that something was going to happen. And her motions to the young adults gave him another.
It was mandatory to hand over mutants in every state when told to…and it was the same for the mutants to take their cure. And those eight young people behind them…what did they have to do with this requirement of all mutants in the camps?
Suddenly, the answer came to Hank, just the clues did. Ororo wasn't trying to give him false information. She was trying to tell him that the mutants were ready to rebel…and they were going to start by not taking their cure and that he should do the same.
