3

Rogue woke up shivering wildly, cold. But she was sweating from a temper. Her throat hurt badly as it hurt to breath. As Rogue opened her eyes everything started to form in the dark room. The room was shaking. Was that what woke her up? What had happened to her? Rogue then noticed she was actually lay down in a bed.

She heard someone muttering, "Come on, don't die on me now."

As Rogue looked around though, she didn't see a body. She saw hung up washing, a few empty and full tins of food. The place just looked a mess. It looked a little familiar though. But Rogue still didn't remember what had happened to her. She felt misplaced and confused. And ill.

Rogue twisted her neck to look behind her and that's when she saw him and she realised she was in a truck. She could just see out of the top of the window screen, seeing something like white snowy clouds past. She saw the back of the man's head as he looked left and right, tapping on the stirring wheel with a cigar in between his fingers. He was muttering to himself.

Rogue couldn't remember who he was. Not really, but she could still think a little clearly that she was in pain and she needed help. Rogue tried to form words, not sure what she was trying to say, but her mutters got the man's attention. HE looked back at her and those piercing black eyes made her already bad breathing jolt.

"Don't worry strips. We'll be at the hospital soon."

Hospital? Something about going to a hospital made Rogue feel scared and uneasy. "N-No." She muttered.

The man looked back at her. Rogue couldn't make out from her blurry vision if he looked confused or just ignored what she was saying to him. "N-No... Hospitals." Rogue broke out into another clothing fit.

Over it she heard the man say; "You've got Pneumonia. Most likely from living on the streets. And the Canadian streets, no doubt. What the hell were you thinking? A homeless southern girl traveling up north to where it's colder and you could freeze to death. What are you? Suicidal?"

Rogue closed her watering eyes. "No hospital." She whimpered under her breath.

Rogue was falling in and out of consciousness, but she left the truck pull over and come to a stop, hearing the man cut the engines quite violently. She opened her eyes to see he was climbing through the gap in between the two seats at the front to get into the back. He came to crouch besides her on the bed. She just tried watching him. He kept swearing under his breath. Then, he took his cigar out of his mouth, looked around, finding no ash tray, then put the end into his hand. Rogue had felt very on edge at this point, wondering if the man she'd ended up with was actually a serial killer and was going to torture her before killing her. When she thought he was going to put his cigar out on her, he actually put it out on himself. HIs face showed a bit of little pain, but then it faded. And when he took the cigar off his hand, Rogue watched it heal. Her eyes doubled as she saw this. It amazed her what was happing to the point where she didn't understand what was happening.

"Look strips, I get your a run away and a mutant that doesn't want to go to the hospital because your scared of what they might do to you there, but I'll keep an eye out, alright? I'll make sure we're in and out without you getting revealed as a mutant or found by your parents or whatever."

Rogue looked up from his hand to his eyes. He did not seem to be enjoying having to reassure a dyeing person he'd be there for her. Rogue still shook her head no though. She just knew she couldn't go to the hospital. Could not let anyone touch her skin.

The man let out a mix between a huff and a growl. "Right, you are suicidal then. Well tough. I am taking you to a hospital."

He stood up. Some ounce of strength was give to Rogue as she was determined not to go to the hospital. Rogue awkwardly sat up, twisting and grabbing his wrist. He turned and glared back with dangerous wild eyes. "Let go now!" Rogue simply pulled him down more though. Her pull wasn't strong, but the man bent a little at her pull. Rogue had a better grip at his bare hand, though watched his skin very closely. "We're going hospital strips! Now let go."

Rogue may have had to reasons for doing what she did, but none were clear thought in her head. Rogue leaned forward, letting her band face touch the man's bare hand. The man had no idea what she was doing and was about to pull his hand away when it happen. He felt as if something had stung him and he couldn't breath. Any movement he made which was compulsory, it felt like he had to push as hard as he can to make them move and it was horrible.

Rogue didn't hold on for two long. She waited to the point where she could actually feel the thoughts of the man start to question what the hell was going on, then she let go. Rogue closed her eyes, hating how the break off always felt like waxing not only her skin, but the insides of her body and mind. The man felt it too and then stumbled back and collapsed into the dirty kitchen area behind him. Food fell on top of him and so did pots and pans. But he was still breathing.

Rogue felt strange. She felt some strong cleansing force push through her, opening all of her airwaves, clearing all of her blood vessels of all the much inside her blood and bettering her cells. She felt her mind get cleansed and recharged and the next time she went to inhale, it didn't hurt anymore. The smell was horrible (rotten food), but getting that fresh air into her lung was heaven. She looked over to the man on the floor who was starting to come to. That was the fast recovery she had ever seen.

The man inside her head screamed at her, grabbing her attention. He kept screaming what the hell was going on, even when she was pushing him back into the further deeps of her mind. It was like she was trying to forget something that just wouldn't leave her alone. So she turned her attention to the man now getting up off the floor. Wolverine. She remembered his name was Wolverine. But from that little voice in her mind, she just knew his real, or what he took as his real name, was Logan.

"Logan?" Rogue said, sitting up in the bed now like she'd simply just woken up. "Are you alright?" She asked.

He looked up to her. He was using the kitchen side to help him balance then he looked at her. He wasn't as aggressive as the imprint of him in her head, but she was scared for his reaction. Right now he just looked confused, a little hurt (in pride) and... sad. "What the hell was that?" He asked.

Rogue felt helpless. But she owed him an explanation. She looked down to her hands as she explained. "Ma powers... I can't touch people 'cause I take lives Logan...Anybody I touch either ends up in a coma or dies." She looked at him, seeing his expression had gotten a little stronger and he'd stood up a little straighter. "And I end up with that person's life, memories and abilities as ma own."

"You...stole my life?" Logan said, a little unsurely. Then his brows threaded together. "How the hell do you know my name? I never told it you."

"...I told you. I get memories... I know from your memories that your name is Logan." Rogue stopped to think as she let his psych merge with hers. She knew she probably shouldn't do this because he was either going to kill or, or worse, throw her back out into the cold with nowhere to go. But it was too late. She was on the go with her powers. "I know that Wolverine is the name they gave you. Those men who..." Rogue swallowed feeling like she was emotionally sinking and just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry at the pain and sadness these memories endured. "Those men. Those monsters. They strapped you down, experimented on you. You don't know who or what they were, but you got out of there. Your memories are all flunked those. It's so hard to coordinate them. It's like someone's smashed them up with a hammer and you're driving around in this van to try and put the pieces back together. To find out who you are. You remember somethings orderly, but because you've lived so long... they merge together...you forget things you really wish you could remember, but just knock it off and keep going a head because...because you can't die."

Logan looked very shaken. "Get out!" He said,, rather quietly at first so that Rogue had to say

"What?"

But then the beast came out and his face expressions change to pure anger and she was scared, getting on edge as he screamed at her "Get Out!" Rogue was scrambling off out of his bed when he screamed it again. He went to grab for the other pan on the kitchen side as she was running to get to the back doors of the truck, the pan flew at her near her feet just as she grabbed hold of the doors. Rogue gasped her shock and horror and focused more on opening the door and jumping out back into the cold. Inside the van she heard Logan smashing things up, but she just kept running. Running and running, using her now healthier lungs to breath and pump the adrenaline around her body as she ran down the road, as far away from the truck as she could get.

XXXXX

Rogue didn't know where she was or what road she was running down when she finally stopped. She finally thought that she should have grabbed her bag that had her map in it, but she'd left everything with that beast man. She swore under her breath. She had been an idiot in forgetting it. She'd been an idiot touching him. Why the hell didn't he drop like most men did? She'd taken out way bigger men than that. Rogue put two and two together and thought it must have been his healing factor which she'd used herself to get better to make him recover faster from her touch. But god, that healing was great and fast. A miracle of it's own with it's own curse and burden. Rogue, as she started to walk, hoping to come across the next town she could find soon (and maybe she'd have to touch and take some things) started to think who's curse was the worst? Having whatever powers a person desired for all their life, but killing anyone and everyone they touched, or living their life always healthy and never dying, but outliving everyone they loved, having to watch them die. Rogue was actually starting to believe that she'd meet someone worse off than her. Well, only because of the tortured past he'd had and memories he couldn't remember. That had a pull and a win for having the worse life and powers. Rogue hated that she'd messed it up with the man. They most likely could have gotten along great with the sad conclusions of their powers effecting their lives. But then she'd had to go and ruin it.

Rogue stopped hearing a engine behind her. She turned in the middle of the road thinking, this might be just a bit of luck coming her way. She could jump a ride from the person driving towards her. But when she actually saw the van pull around the corner, Rogue had a mini panic attack. It was him! Logan. Wolverine. He was coming to get her. Rogue felt fear grow again inside of her as she turned around and began running. But she could hear the engine getting closer to her and she knew she'd get run over like this. Making a 90 degree turn, Rogue ran into the forestry part of the woods, knowing she needed to not get lost in the woods, but she had no chose. Rogue ran and ran, hearing the engine stop and Rogue knew the man had got out of his van and might possibly be chasing after her.

One thing Rogue had noticed about herself after absorbing the man was her reactions and senses and physical abilities had just been amplified a lot by logan's animal instincts. As she ran now, she used his leg strength and agility to run and jump over fallen branches and duck under logs. Rogue did whatever she could to get as far away as she could from the man, but she could still hear him chasing her getting closer at that.

Rogue was beginning to lose her absorbed powers and just as she stopped to try and get some air into her breath, that's when he pounced. Rogue screamed loudly as Logan tackled her to the ground. They fell down the little hill together, rolling and getting entangled with each other until Logan came to be pinning Rouge with his claws at her throat. Rogue gasped, but stopped moving as she felt the claw dig into her skin. She couldn't move. Couldn't even beg him not to hurt her because his claw would slice her throat. This was it. She was going to die.

Logan was an animal above her, his teeth bared.

"Tell me what you know about me!"

"I_I told you all I-"

"Don't lie to me-"

"Please-"

"Who sent you? Who paid you to track me down?"

"I'm not?"

"Who?"

"Please." Rogue cried. "I-I-I'm not. I-"

Seeing and hearing in her heartbeat that the kid really didn't have anything at all to do with some kind of organisation he took his claws back, but didn't realise her. She calmed a little, but he could tell she was still scared.

"So who are you then strips? What do you want with me?"

"N-Nothin-"

"Don't lie to me! Before! You had an agender before, what was it?"

"I-I-I just wanted a f-friend. Who was a f-freak like me. I'm sorry. I-I-I didn't mean to hurt or stela from you. Just- I just didn't want to g-go to a hospital."

Logan stared down at the girl whose face was all wet from tears. He felt like he couldn't accept it as the truth, but he knew it was. The question was what did he do now. Finally he got up off of Rogue and Rogue scrambled away from he, never taking her eyes off him as she backed into a tree.

"Alright." Said Logan and he began walking away, back up the hill. When he walked so far he turned around and said, "Come on." Rogue didn't move. she wasn't sure at all what to do. He'd let her go? Was he planning to kill her or not? She didn't know. Finally, Logan stopped and turned fully around, are you gonna sit there all night till the wolves come ad eat you or you gonna get up off your arse and follow me."

Not knowing what else to do, Rogue followed Logan in silence. Either said anything. They got to the main road and Rogue eyed Logan's truck. She didn't want to get herself trapped back in there with him. She was scared of what he might do to her. But she did want her bag back at least for the map so she could pretend she knew her way. Rogue swallowed as she looked from the truck to logan. He was walking towards it casually as if nothing had happened. When he got to his side of the door and opened it, he pulled out another cigar and lit it. "Get in." He said to Rogue.

Rogue didn't move. The tears had gone and she'd brought back up her facade, but she was till scared of this man. "Can- Can I just have ma bag back. Please." She added on in the end.

"You think I'm leaving you out here in the cold to freeze to death."

"You've done it before."

Logan looked frustrated as he realised it was true. He turned around, then took another drag of his cigar. "You're not gonna let that one go are you?"

"No. Or what just happened 2 seconds ago. I don't trust you, you don't trust me. All that's happened from the start of us meeting each other is trouble. So just give me ma bag and I'll be on ma way, outta ya life for good."

"You made that promise last time."

"Yeah, and then you came and found me, n stopped by the road to wait to give me a lift."

She didn't understand why she was winding him up even more, but it was as if things were going back to normal and they were poking jabs at each other. Things felt almost equal, yet on shattering grounds.

"I don't trust easy strips. Never have, never will, and I expect you're the same so of course we were never going to hit it off if you think trust comes that easily." "Get in the truck strips! You still want to leave after we get to the next city, then feel free to. I ain't stopping you."

Then Logan jumped into the seat and started the engine.

Rogue stood there for a moment. Unsure what to do, then ran towards the door, and just as he was driving off, she jumped into the moving vehicle and closed the door behind her.

"So." Rogue said, breaking th silence. "Where are we and what's next?"

xxxxx

Next was a little dinner. They had been silent in the drive to it and they were still silent as they got out of the van and entered the dinner. Rogue had been on edge, ready to jump out the door at any moment if she thought this man was going to strike. She watched him, on and off, not liking how he muffled a growl the longer she watched him. She could tell Logan was mad, but he was trying to stay calm. There had been times where Rogue's eye had been drawn to his fists that tightened on the wheel, wondering if his claws were going to come out and if he was going to stab her.

First Rogue smelled the food before she saw the dinner - it seemed her smell had been enhanced. He had smelled it too. When he parked up, Rogue had felt a drowning sensation again at the fact that she had no money to pay for the food that smelled oh so good.

"You coming?" Logan barked at her from where he stood by his van door.

Rogue jumped out and followed him inside, sitting down opposite him at a booth. Logan picked up the menu. Rogue was still watching him carefully, trying to concentrate on him instead of the food that tickled her nose (it was harder to ignore with the enhanced smell). Logan had simply glanced at the menu, she noticed, obviously knowing what he wanted to eat already. Then he looked up at her.

"You ordering something strips?"

It came like a bee's sting the drowning feeling, but she quickly tried to hide her upset and shuck her head. She needed a distraction from the food, well, she needed to at least get rid of him if she wanted to sneak around back to the bins and get her meal there - she didn't need him with her, seeing her like that.

"What the hell do you want from me?" Rogue asked with a little bit of a growl herself.

Logan looked disappointed when he turned back to his menu. "Not here. Ain't a good idea."

"Tough!" Rogue growled, surprised herself at her own anger. "You said you'd explain but ya didn't say nothin' in the truck, so why not here? "

"Fine!" Logan shot back with an anger of his own as he put down the menu. "What are your powers?"

Rogue felt herself flush and look around to see if anyone else in the dinner had heard him. It seemed not, but Rogue had managed to lock eyes with a waitress. Rogue looked back to Logan. "Why you gotta ask that question now! Why the heck didn't you ask when we were in-"

"Erm, hi there. Can I take your order please?" Said the waitress who Rogue had caught eyes with.

Both had turned to see the girl that had interrupted, then turned away. Rogue slouched back into the fabric chair; her eyes down casted at the deflating feeling she had. Logan had turned to watch Rogue and saw her reaction. He then turned back around to the waitress and said, "Two large steak house special meals and two pints of beer."

Rogue's eyes shot up. "I'm not hungry." Rogue said in reaction.

"Two steaks and pints." Logan confirmed.

"Erm." The waitress said uneasy. "I'm sorry, but it she of age?" The waitress asked, nodding with her head at Rogue.

"There no for her. There for me."

"Oh," The waitress said. Even Rogue sat back again, feeling idiotic. "OK then." The waitress said, writing down Logan's order. "Two special steak house meals and two beers. Is that all or," the girl turned to Rogue. "can I get you something?"

"Just water, please." Rogue said.

The girl nodded then took off.

There was silence between Logan and Rogue for a moment.

"I'm not good with my timing." Logan finally said, not looking at Rogue.

"No shit." Rogue replied, not looking at him either.

"Never said I had people skills, did I? Besides, I've been away from...people lately. Do tend to forget how to be...pleasant when you don't have to be."

Rogue looked at Logan this time, realising she knew little about him. "Who are you?" Rogue questioned. Logan looked at her strangely and she realised he didn't completely understand the question. "Where have you been if you haven't been... with people? On the road? Why you avoiding people?"

"Could ask you the same question." Replied Logan. Rogue just stared at him. "Look strips, I'm not a very sociable person and I prefer to keep to myself. That a crime?"

Rogue shuck her head, no.

"Alright then. So why are you running? Don't you have a family back home worried about you?"

She didn't answer. He noticed she looked away from him and her hands turned to fists, but this didn't answer his question. "Hey, I answered your question. You answer mine!"

A spark flickered in Rogue. "Barely." She snapped. But he did nothing but glare at her. Giving in Rogue rolled her eyes. "Orphan. I don't have a family or a home."

"Not even an orphanage?"

"Nope."

There was silence for the moment as Logan studied the girl in front of him. He could see (before and after that incident a while back) that she was too pale and skinny for her own good. He couldn't help but think how long she'd been this way for.

Rogue looked up at the guy, anger flushing her face. "Don't feel sorry for me! I'm fine on my own! I've never needed anybody and that ain't about to change. Like you I don't much get on with people."

"You been on the road long then?" Rogue folded her arms and looked away, out the window into the street seeing the his van. As Rogue looked outside and thought of the already forming answer in her head she remembered all the cold nights walking and sleeping on the streets. It was still pretty cold out, but she'd had at least a little bit of luck what with Logan having the heater on in the van and then they went straight into a stealing hot dinner not staying out in the cold much.

Her ignorance made Logan momentarily forget his pity and get irritated. "What's the point of any of this is you're not going to answer the questions?"

Rogue shot Logan an equally mad look. "What's the point in getting to know each other when we're just gonna go our separate ways when you find out what you wanna find out?"

There was another silence between them. A silence that lasted long enough for the waitress to come back, dropping off the drinks and asking how they wanted their steak. Logan muttered rare and well done. The waitress seemed a little more uneasy than the first time she came over as she felt the tension between the two.

"Alright." Rogue looked at Logan, confused what he meant as he leaned back. "I'll take you to wherever you want to go. Where you heading?"

Her eyebrow rose. "Doubt it."

"Where you heading?" He enforced.

Rogue thought for a moment, then thought what the hell. "Yukon. Still willing to take me?" Rogue added with a venom.

Logan picked up one of his beers and swirled the liquid around a bit. "That's a long way you're traveling from the south. Why?"

Rogue rolled her eyes and sat up with a rage building inside her. "You won't take me, I knew-"

"I will, but Yukon's a long way away. We've got time to get to now each other. So what's up there that's better than the south?" Logan asked.

He was getting under her skin and she was losing it. It did feel good to have someone asking questions about her, but at the same time the way he asked and why he was asking irritated her too much for her to notice this other good thing. Rogue snorted. "What, so you think just because you said you'd take me somewhere I'm just gonna spill every dirty detail about my life? I don't doubt the minute you get answers you'd rather kick me out in the cold again or rather throw me off a cliff rather than take me to Yukon."

"For heaven sacks strips, I'm not gonna-"

"You've done it before." Were the steady words said that stopped Logan in his tracks and created another silence.

Then, Logan did something generous. He slid the other beer over towards Rogue. She looked at it, then at him who had raised his eyebrow before gulping down his own drink. Rogue didn't touch the beer. She hadn't seen him put anything in it, but she still wasn't stupid enough to trust a stranger.

The meals arrived and Logan did kind of the same thing. He pushed one plate towards Rogue. The waitress, having seen the beer in front of Rogue, looked like she was about to say something when Logan shot her a look that made her curl in on herself and leave.

As Logan tucked into his food, Rogue stared down at the steak before her. It smelled delicious and her dry mouth was beginning to water. Rogue looked up from the tempting plate to Logan who was picking up chips with his hands and eating them. He was watching her. "It ain't poisoned strips."

"What do you want it return for it?"

"Nothing."

Rogue looked down to the meal then back up to him. She wanted to believe that there was kindness in humanity, but she was losing her faith. Even when those nice people had given her a drink and a hotel room, she still had very little faith left in humanity. She was wary of them and she liked them. So she was super wary of a man that had kicked her arse to the side more than once and had jumped her in a forest. She may be untouchable and that might have saved her before when she'd been drugged by strangers offering her drinks and food, but he knew that she had this power and with that handicap, he could find a way to work around it.

It felt almost heart breaking to think about what she was going to do, but when it was done she just felt cold. Rogue pushed the plate away, back towards Logan. She didn't believe he was going to give her a life to Yukon and she didn't believe that he didn't want something from her.

Logan put down his knife and fork which he'd used to start cutting the steak. "I' not going to hurt you strips."

She stayed quiet. Sitting back, Logan watched her for a moment then explained, "Look, all I want from you is to find out who you are and what you can do."

"Why?" Rogue asked rather quietly.

"Same reason as you I guess. It gets lonely being the only freak out there, doesn't it." Logan pushed the plate back in front of her. "Eat."

"We won't stay in contact. You said so yourself. Your anti-social and you said you'd drop me off, not stay with me. Besides, you had ta be goin' somewhere before I arrived on the scene. Why do you really want to know about me? What do you want from me?"

Logan looked annoyed as he looked around the bar. When he turned back to Rogue there was a new seriousness in his eyes. "Look strips, I've lived a long long life. I'm much older than I look and I was probably still alive when your great great ancestors were walking the earth. I don't know much about why I am the way I am or what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. You don't seem to have those answers either, but maybe together we can find at least one little clue to add to what we know about ourselves already. About what powers we have, how they work and all that. I'm not going to kill you, drug you or use you in anyway strips. But I do wanna know what you know so I can maybe know a bit more about myself. You understand?" Rogue said nothing. "So yeah, maybe we won't be together for the long run, but I ain't got much better to do when I'm immortal and have another who knows how many more long centuries to live. I'll drop you off in Yukon, no trouble, but for my side of the deal, I need you alive and willing to co-operate so just eat the damn food and drink the damn beer so we can get outta here and start answering so real questions."

It wasn't a pleasant speech. But after a moment Rogue picked up her fork, her hand shaking a little at the anticipation of eating and she stabbed into her chips, putting a few in her mouth while trying to maintain some standards. There was one thing that made her more sure about eating during Logan's speech and that was his brutal honesty.

"You know you don't have to use your manners round me strips. If your hungry, then go ahead and eat all you want." Rogue caught his eye, dropped her fork then picked up a load of chips and stuffed them into her mouth.

Logan just turned back to his own food and ate his raw steak.