Chapter 3
By, 2280
Disclaimer:
Claire and Dim are mine, everything else belongs to marvel. Please give me feedback and tell me what you
think!
Logan
walked down by the dock and saw Claire sitting there, waving her feet in the
water. She was only wearing a loose
pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt despite the coldness of the air. He took a deep drag of his cigar and started
towards her.
"What
do you want old man? You here for a
rematch? Cause I'm not in the mood."
He
gave a small smile, he should have known he couldn't sneak up on her.
"Naw,
not here to fight with ya darlin'."
"Weren't
you listening earlier? I ain't yer
'darlin'. Go bother your lapdog or
something."
He
paused next to her sitting down on the dock. "Aren't ya cold out here with no
jacket?"
"Go
on, feel free to sit down," she said sarcastically. "And no, I'm not cold, it's
one of the benefits of being able to control ones body temperature. Anything else ya'd like to know?"
He
sighed, "Look, I didn't come all the way down here in the cold to fight."
p
"Then
why did you come? For a warm father-daughter
moment? Shouldn't that have happened before you skewered me?"
p
'She's
not gonna make this easy,' he thought as he watched her. He hadn't really looked at her before, but
she had a lot of his mannerisms. She
fought like him. Strong, hard and too
the death.
"I
came to apologize."
"For
being the worlds worst parent or for trying to kill me earlier?"
p
He
watched as she tucked a piece of dark hair behind her ear as the wind caught
it. Her hair was the same color as his,
but her frame was different. Was she
built like her mother? Did she look
like her mother?
"Let's
start with the trying to kill ya bit." He shrugged, "I admit I was out of
line."
"Gee,
do ya think?"
"So
do you forgive me?"
She
sighed and dug into her pants pocket, pulling out a cigarette. "Do ya got a light?" she asked, finally
turning to look at him with her blue eyes. Those were his eyes.
"Well?"
she asked when he didn't respond.
"Yeah,
I got a light," he dug a zippo out of his pocket, flicking it, allowing her to
light her cigarette. "Didn't know you
smoked."
"There's
a lot of things you don't know about me. I'm just chalked full of suprises."
He
gave a small smile, "I bet you are. You
want a beer?" He pulled two out of his
pocket. "Are you old enough to drink?"
She
gave him a quelling look reaching for one, "I'm old enough to go to prison for
first degree murder. Let's leave it at that." She pulled the cap of and took a
sip. "This is as warm as piss."
"I
had to hide it from Gumbo or he would have taken it all."
She
shook her head, "You never touch another person's beer, someone needs to teach
that Cajun a lesson." She switched
hands and took a drag.
"So
what were you doing in the danger room?"
She
sighed deeply, here it comes. "Getting my ass kicked."
"I
could see that, why were you doing it?"
She
turned to look at him to see if he was kidding, but saw that he was
serious. "I've never fought people like
that before, don't think I could hold my own in battle. I don't want to be a liability."
He
was silent for a moment digesting what his daughter said. He took a drag of his
cigar before he spoke. "You won't be a liability, we fight as a team, we count
on each other and look out for each other."
"Don't
know if you've noticed, but I'm not a team player."
"Maybe
not, but you went after Jubilee didn't you?"
"That's
different," she took her feet out of the water and put her socks and boots on
tucking them underneigth her.
"How
is that different?"
"I
was helping her, how and when I said so. I haven't had much luck in the past with trusting and depending on other
people in the past. And I'm not about
to start because your pansy professor or you say I should."
"I
wouldn't ask you too darlin, trust is something that takes time to develop."
"No,
trust is developed based on need. You needed
Jubilee, thus you trust her."
"So
you don't need anybody?" He looked at her, but she refused to look at him and
instead looked out onto the lake.
"I
haven't so far."
'More
like you weren't able to darlin,' he thought with a great sense of
sadness. Here sat his flesh and blood
and he had failed her for her entire life. 'But I'm gonna work on changing
that, no matter what it takes."
She
started to speak and interrupted his thoughts. "So how long did it take for the
poison to leave your system?"
"About
20 minutes, how come you never mentioned that you had that?"
"If
I did I wouldn't have been able to use it against you."
Logan
chuckled. "So are we better?" He felt so awkward around her.
"I
wouldn't say we're all better, but we're better of than when we started."
"That's
a start darlin, that's a start."
"Logan?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm
not your darlin."
Inside
the mansion Charles Xavier sat grimly at his desk. As of late the situation
concerning mutant human relations had been grim. In this dark hour it was hard for him not to believe what Claire
had said earlier.
Was
she right, were they fighting a lost cause? Would the battle never be over? They had lost Scott, who had now been returned to them. They had lost Peter, who was never coming
back. It seemed that the death toll
kept growing, and for every step they took forward they took one step back.
He
heard the door open and close quietly behind him.
"Am
I disturbing you Charles?" Storm asked quietly, coming up behind him.
"I
have been better Storm, but as always I shall endure."
She
looked at him with her large soulful eyes, eyes that made you think she could
look right into your soul. She was
never a woman of many words, however when she did speak there was wisdom and
thought behind it. He waited patiently
while she gathered her thoughts.
"I
heard what Claire said earlier in the medlab while I was attending to
Wolverine. Do you believe what she
said?" She walked around and leaned on
the side of the desk.
Charles
smiled, she always had a knack for getting right to the root of the problem. He
sighed deeply before he replied.
"Perhaps,"
he shook his head. "I cannot deny that there is some truth to what she says."
"Do
you truly believe that Charles? Can you
take the word of someone who is clearly unbalanced, at the least, as the
truth?" She searched his eyes.
"She
may be, unstable, in some aspects; however I believe that her limited
development makes it easier to see some situations that seem more complicated
for you or I." He leaned back. "When we look at the situation at hand, we
see the sum of parts, and analyze the problem, prescribe the best treatment and
administer it. Claire however simply sees the rotten parts and removes it,
stopping it from infecting the rest."
"But
what is the cost?"
"Indeed,
what is the cost. On one side we have
the loss of our friends and loved ones, on the other we are no better than
those we fight. Which is the lesser of the
two evils?" He rubbed his temples before he continued.
"Do
you realize that the only time we have been able to eliminate Erik as a threat
is when I did the one thing I swore I would never do, I used my ability and
stole his mind from him. What if Claire,
Erik, and all that think like them are right? What if the only way to beat them is to become one of them."
Storm
was silent for a moment, mulling over Charles' words. As she watched him she saw that he was losing hope, and if he
lost hope, then the cause would be lost.
"Charles
come here," she motioned towards the window.
He
came towards her and looked out beside her.
"Tell
me what you see."
"Darkness."
"No,
tell me what you see." She tapped her head.
Charles
reached out with his mind for a moment. "Logan and Claire are down by the
lake."
"Yes,
do you know what they are doing?"
"Talking."
"Isn't
it odd, that not one hour ago they were trying to kill each other, yet now they
can get along well enough to sit and have a civil conversation? What a
revolutionary idea." She cocked her head as she looked at the Professor.
He
smiled slightly, "Point taken."
"Good,
now how about we go find something to eat? I believe that we both missed dinner in all the confusion."
"I
would enjoy that."
END
This
story line will be continued in Resurrecting the Dream.