April 13th, 1912
6: 15pm
Logan watched calmly as Marie, Jennifer, and Amy went on about girl things, ignoring him completely. Not like he'd want to be included in their conversation anyways.
"You're kidding! Remy took you below to a third class party?" The one with the short bright red hair, Jennifer squealed.
"It's true. And it was fun! We danced and drank beer until we couldn't see straight. I had to get us back to our room. I should take you two down there tonight. They don't seem to mind the mingling of the classes," said the one with the sunglasses and the multicolored hair.
"Oh, I don't believe that I--"
"Come on, Marie, it'll be fun! Who has to know that's what you're doing anyway?" asked Jenn.
"Well... alright... Maybe... If I'm not grounded. Oh, I've been gone so long..."
Amy laughed. "Logan'll help us with sneaking you out. And I don't think you'd complain judging by the way you're blushing to a lobster red."
Marie glanced at a clock in the room and let out a light gasp. "Oh, no! I should be back by now to change... I am so grounded. Not that I wasn't before, but now I'll be under strict grounding. Jennifer, Amy, I thank you both."
Having already changed for supper, Logan was ready to escort Marie to her quarters and wait for her to change. Even though Marie walked fast, Logan just had to keep up with longer strides.
With a small smile, Marie disappeared behind the door to her quarters, closing it behind her.
"Marie! Where in God's name have you been!" Surprise, surprise, her mother knew it was her. "I've had people searching for you everywhere!" Irene held her arms out and Marie obliged by hugging her mother.
"I'm fine, Mother. I took a walk, got lost... then... I kind of fell asleep. I'm sorry." It would be far easier to tell a lie than the truth. What would the truth do besides add more fear to her paranoid parents?
"Please, do not frighten us like that again. Your father is still out looking for you. He should return shortly, and we should be ready for him. Go on, dearie, and get changed," her mother told her after placing a kiss on her daughter's cheek. "I love you, darling."
"I love you too, Mother. And I really am sorry about what happened." It wasn't her place to go off searching for some stranger that she should just forget. Not like anything that Marie wanted could possibly happen. She was engaged to another man, and she was going to marry that other man. That was the way of things, the way of her life, and nothing could change it.
But she couldn't help but feel like she was getting trapped in a poorly written, cheesy romance novel. Nothing like her favorite book. Engages, forbidden lovers, evil identical twins. Okay, so the last one hadn't been used as far as she knew in a book
Without much thought, Marie allowed her servant to help dress her in the deep purple gown with the royal blue top and trimmings, giving the false illusion of depth to the gown. Her hair and makeup were done perfectly in record time. As she stared in the mirror, Marie could finally see that 'Little Lady' her mother always talked about. She had always thought herself rather homely compared to the other girls she saw, but seeing her reflection just now... perhaps she had been wrong.
Or maybe it was because she was imagining what Logan might think of her. It wasn't good to be thinking of a man other than her husband-to-be. Give her a break, she knew her fiancé even less than Logan. And he really was handsome, in his own way. And kind, unlike his brother.
An involuntary shudder ran through her at thinking about that man. Even afterwards, Logan had offered to bring him to justice. His own brother. Given what he'd done, she didn't blame him.
"Marie? Are you in there?"
Plastering on her fake smile, Marie opened the door to greet her father. The smile withered away when her dark eyes traveled up to her father's face. He was wearing a medical patch on the side of his face. The same side that Marie had injured Logan's twin with. How ironic.
"I'm here, and I'm fine, Father. Forgive me, I took a walk, got lost, then fell asleep."
"Fell asleep? I was attacked by some maniac in the third class looking for you. Now I have to go around with this thing on and come up with a better tale than a drunken man hitting me with a lucky shot."
"I'm sorry," she replied, head hanging. She really was sorry, if she had known this much trouble would have been caused, she would have returned right away.
"Never mind that now. The important thing is that you are safe and back where you belong. I shall be ready in a few minutes, then we can leave."
Marie watched her father retreat to her parents room to get changed. In return, she went back into her own to gather her accessories.
Earrings... check. Necklace... check. Bracelet... check. Gloves... check. Gloves... "Oh, no..." came out as a distressed whisper.
Frantic, the small girl bolted to the front door and opened it, desperately searching for a specific person.
"Easy, darlin. Where's the fire?"
Careful to leave her foot in the door so it didn't close, yet careful to not have it opened all the way, Marie grabbed Logan's jacket and pulled him closer so she could whisper, "I know this isn't why you agreed to help protect me, but I need your help with something else..."
"Name it."
Entranced by those hazel eyes of his, it took a good shaking of her head to get back to the present dilemma. "Logan, I had a ring. It must have come off when your brother attacked me. It's very important that I have the ring before supper, but I can't go and find it. Can you go?"
If he refused, then she could proclaim it was a matter of life or death. That if she appeared without the ring, she'd be executed in public by her family, which may or may not had been a lie. "No, but I can get some of my friends to do it and meet us at the Reception."
Good enough. With a smile and a quick kiss on his cheek, her lips were stabbed by his outrageous sideburns, she doubted she even touched the skin, she returned to her quarters, praying to whatever Gods might hear that the ring be returned before someone noticed it was no longer on her finger.
Using the mental technique Xavier taught him, Logan called for help on that matter.
By the time he'd finished with the mental conversation, it was time to head out to dinner. Naturally, Logan walked a ways down the corridor and waited, acting as normal as could be. Within a few minutes, the family exited their quarters. Husband and wife, arm in arm to help guide her, with little, precious Marie trailing behind, looking so much like that of a lamb about to be slaughtered.
Taking caution to follow and not get caught, yet not lose sight of her, he followed them to the grand staircase.
Yet stopped dead in his tracks when the family turned to head down the stairs.
Marie's father had a bandage over one cheek. Fuck.
His job was going to be a lot harder than he thought.
The family stopped and chatted along the way, with Marie acting even shyer than usual, keeping her hands firmly clasped behind her back.
"Ah, Mr. Logan, what a delight to get to speak with you alone."
Logan glared at the man who dared to interrupt his tracking and his shock over the new revelation. Any normal man would have been made into a blubbering idiot with the only thought that of pure survival instinct to get away from this man. But Bruce Ismay was far from a normal man, and felt the need to speak to each and every first class passenger about the Titanic.
"I trust that you are enjoying your stay here onboard White Star Line's finest?"
Well, up to the point that he got the shit beat out of him below decks and Marie was attacked, everything had been rather peachy. "I'd do a frickin' little tap dance if I could, this ship is so great."
Apparently, Ismay was also immune to Logan's sarcasm. "Odd, I honestly wouldn't take you for the dancing type. What is it that you do, Mr. Logan?"
Logan had to bite his tongue to keep from saying 'I'm just a man who gets really pissed off by guys like you. Just a man who has these claws that are just itchin' to put you out of our misery'. "I'm a guard," he answered with a half-lie.
"A guard? Oh... how... splendid. Well, cheerio."
There was no hiding the disappointment in his voice, nor the surprised yet happy look on Logan's face as Ismay attacked another young man with the same initial question. Hobnobbing with the rich and famous wasn't his idea of a good time. And he put making conversation with them that required something more than the occasional grunt at the bottom of his 'to-do' list.
Turning around just in time, Logan caught a young man taking Marie's hand and kissing the back of it. The man then smiled and kissed her cheek, to which she blushed lightly.
Things were just getting worse as he recognized the man whom Marie was with. But Logan felt it all had a connection. That pieces of the puzzle could be put into place if he simply chose to.
Going down the next flight of stairs, although it was impolite to do so, Logan wasn't a polite man, and he eavesdropped on the conversation.
"Come, my dear. Let me show you off to the other guests," Graydon said with a huge smile on his face, proud of having the gorgeous woman by his side.
They talked for a while with other rich people, until one of them asked to see Marie's engagement ring. Turning deathly pale, yet the makeup covered for some of it, she shrank back some, gripping her hands even tighter behind her back.
"Marie, darling, show them the wonderful ring Graydon gave you," her 'father' ordered in a relatively gentle voice.
"Uh, well... Ah... uh..." The poor girl looked as if she was about to faint on the spot, and Logan could do nothing about it but swear in his mind for whoever Xavier had sent to hurry it up.
"Oh, Maaaarieeeeeeee!" came the two highest pitched squeals Logan had ever heard in his entire life. The sound made him cringe in pain as two girls went zooming by him down the stairs and assaulted Marie with instant pointless conversation and physical admiring of her dress.
The only reason why Logan was going to let the girls live, was because it was all a ruse. He could tell that Amy had been running quite some distance, and must have used one of her powers to have gotten the ring so fast. Without anyone noticing, Jenn slipped it into Marie's hand and she placed it on her finger. He had never seen Marie so relieved.
Yet Logan couldn't help but notice what finger she put the ring on, and the way the young man was acting around her. Xavier hadn't mentioned her being married or engaged or anything, but that looked to him like that was the case. It pained him to think thoughts like those, so he pushed them aside for now to be brought up later.
As soon as they had come, Amy and Jenn ran off to where Amy couldn't be seen almost completely out of breath and exhausted. Using one of her powers of altering time to appear to move faster put a great deal of strain on the girl. If she used them the entire way to the Scotland Road, found the ring, and ran back, she wasn't going to be able to sleep that night with the horrendous migraines she was due for.
Certain voices drew his attention back to Marie. The couple that had been there before were gone, replaced by another group of people. The young girl that made it a point to wear only the color red no matter what was currently swooning over Marie's ring. Her brother, along with the eldest of the group, Erik... something or other, Xavier had said -- were staring at Amy and Jenn. Jenn had just returned with a glass of water for her friend, and the two men found the girls fairly interesting. It was easy to tell what was going through the young one's head, but Erik... Erik was a different matter.
The moment that the rest of his gang showed up, Logan had to tear his observations away from Marie in order to relay the new information to Xavier. They were in a brightly lit public place where no one could really get alone. Marie should be fine here, even in the clutches of the enemy.
"Bad news, Chuck," Logan stated as soon as the Professor was within earshot.
"How so?" Xavier hobbled over to stand beside Logan, acting as if they were talking about something as normal as the stock market.
"The shapeshifter is Marie's father."
"Indeed... that is bad news... For it will make things that much harder for us. Now I know how Erik always manages to sit with them." Xavier pondered over the news before addressing everyone. "Let us go sit down to dinner. There we can discuss these important matters more."
Without complaint, the large group moved as one to do so.
April 13th, 1912
7: 07pm
During dinner, Marie forced herself to not once glance at the table in which Logan and his friends sat. Even though she felt the heated gaze of him on her numerous times. Someone had tried to harm Logan by using her, and she didn't want the same people to feel it necessary to do it again. The feeling that his twin was involved in that also came to mind.
So instead, she would act like she was admiring her ring. Which served two causes. One: It made it look like she really liked it. Which she did, but not when she thought about what it meant. And two: It gave her something to look at when Logan was looking at her so she wouldn't glance back at him.
"Marie, dearie, what color did we decide would be the main scheme for the wedding?" her mother asked gently.
"Deep or light red, Mother. The color of passion and love."
"That's right. Oh, I only wish I could see you in your wedding gown. But I can imagine, and you'll look so gorgeous in my mind..."
Graydon smoothed a side of his slick, brown hair back. "Indeed. I also await that presentation with bated breath."
More conversation about the wedding took place all throughout dinner. It seemed to be the only thing anyone could talk about around her. Truthfully, she was rather sick of it. Still gripping to her fantasies of marrying for love, not money or a title, or anything else. Which was odd, given that her family had a prominent title and lots of money, what use would they have for more? Without that need, she should be allowed to marry whomever she desired.
After dinner, the men parted ways to go to the smoking room and talk about business and things that had no place for a woman. Before her father left, he gave strict orders that she was to take her mother to their room and to stay there. On her way out, helping her mother back to their quarters, Marie chanced a quick peek over at Logan. Unfortunately, at that moment he was in a conversation with his group and not looking at her.
So she continued on and got her mother to their room and turned her over to a couple of their servants. As she was leaving to go to her own room, a knock on their door was brought to her attention.
Curious, she opened the door and was greeted by Jennifer. One of the girls she met earlier that day. "Jennifer?"
Jennifer just stood there and smiled at Marie. It took a quick and harmless jab to the shoulder from the elbow of the young man standing next to her. Bobby, if she remembered correctly. "Oh! Um, we were wondering... A friend of ours is going to take us to the lower decks, would you like to come?"
"I can't, I'm grounded," Marie admitted with a sigh. It was so unfair. So she ran into a little trouble before, she took care of it, and Logan had sworn to protect her.
Jennifer laughed. A sweet laugh that made you want to laugh with her, even if you have no clue what was funny. "You're twenty. Officially, at eighteen they no longer have any right to ground you. Come on, be rebellious for once. Who knows if you'll be able to again."
Had to admit, the girl had a point. She was twenty, dammit! Why should she still be taking orders from her parents. She was a young woman, fully grown and capable of making her own decisions and following her own rules. Without complete carelessness, Marie wrote out a note to her parents and put it someplace where her father or a servant might find it. After all, it would a very bad thing to have them go through a repeat of earlier in the day.
Marie exited the room and joined the couple in walking down the hall. "So, who is this friend who's supposed to take us?"
"Remy LeBeau," Jenn answered. "He's escorting Amy to her room, she can't join us. Major migraine, poor girl. Remy and Logan practically had to carry her out of the Dining Room. They both should be joining us down there."
Logan was going to show? That made things even better.
Bobby lead the way to the third class area of the ship. As soon as they got here, he yanked off his jacket and bow tie. "I hate these things. Hank was right, the bow tie is the most devilish villain in the world. All in the name of fashion... If you ask me, it's not worth it."
Marie felt her heart rate increase ever so slightly. This was going to turn into her first real battle of the sexes. It was thrilling, to say the least. Which meant that she lived a rather pathetic life. "They aren't as bad as corsets. Imagine having to always wear those. You can never lace it up yourself."
Jenn agreed and Bobby backed down. "Okay, okay. I know better than to argue long with one woman, and I certainly know better than to argue at all with two. So I'll just wave the white flag now, you win."
A ways down the corridor that looked drastically different from the ones she was used to, loud music could be heard playing. The walls were just painted glossy as was the floor. Instead of the wallpaper, wood trimmings, and carpeted floor she was used to. The music got louder the further they walked until they reached an open door.
Inside it was just one large mass of people having a good time, drinking beer and smoking up a storm. The room was noticeably bigger than Marie first thought once she went down the small flight of stairs into it, but it was still packed with people. Hardly any room to move around.
If it weren't for Jenn and Bobby, Marie would have felt extremely out of place in her first class attire. Everyone around them were mainly dressed in dirty, torn, ragged, you name it, it looked like it had been done to it, clothing. Despite that, they were all laughing and having a great time. One might have felt bad for them if it weren't for that fact. The fact that they would have far more fun living the lives they did than becoming a member of the first class.
"Ah, chere, you must be de girl ev'ryone talks 'bout," a young man who came up beside her said. He had long brown hair drawn into a low ponytail and dark glasses to hide his eyes. His accent was peculiar and one Marie had never heard before. The man took her gloved hand in his and kissed the back of it like a gentlemen. He was a gentleman, for he was dressed in expensive clothes and carried a trenchcoat draped across one arm. "Remy LeBeau, at your service, Mademoiselle."
Ahhh, so this was Remy. Not bad... Not bad at all. The man was attractive and had the most charming smile to go with him. If Marie heard right, that Amy was quite the lucky woman to have this man wrapped around her fingers in such short notice. Jenn was lucky too, Bobby was so sweet and funny. They both were lucky... They appeared to be in love with the men they were with. Given that Amy and Remy had met on the ship, perhaps there was such a thing as love at first sight.
"If you are lookin' for Logan. He's right over dere, mon chere," he said and gestured to a corner table of the room where Logan was sitting with a beer in his hand and a cigar hanging out of his mouth. This looked so much more like his element. Marie was surprised to see how relaxed he was sitting there with his back to the wall and in perfect view of the stairs. The only way in or out of the room.
Pushing her way through the crowd, Marie sat down beside him, careful not to block his view of the stairs. Logan raised an eyebrow in surprise. Apparently, he hadn't expected her to come. It was then that Marie noticed the numerous empty glasses of beer that sat on the table. "You didn't drink all these yourself, did you?" Once the words were out, she wanted to kick herself. Of course he didn't, no human could and not be dead drunk.
"Yep," he replied calmly, cigar still hanging from his mouth. He took a puff and pulled the brown appendage from his mouth, reveling for a moment before blowing the smoke out.
She was surprised. Well, maybe surprised was too weak a word. More like... aghast. Did he honestly expect her to believe he drank all that beer and still looked and acted as if he was just on his first?
"You want one?" he asked in between puffs.
She didn't even hesitate in her reply. "Yes."
"Go get one."
For the second time within a minute, Marie was shocked, and just a little bit afraid. Until she saw the amused glint in his eyes and reminded herself that his twin would have facial injuries. Down here, on more of his turf than hers, he wasn't going to play nice-guy or gentlemen anymore. Perhaps it was fair in its own way.
Moving gracefully, Marie got up and got a couple glasses of beer for herself. After setting them down on the table, she made sure he realized that they were both for her and none for him. Logan gave her his half-smile at that, amused that she was playing along by his rules. If he wanted another beer, he'd have to get it himself, same as her.
They sat in comfortable silence as the Irish music played around them, the fast beat making her heart pump in rhythm. Marie finally broke the silence between them. "Thank you... for getting my ring. I thought I was dead..."
The man next to her simply shrugged his shoulders as if it were nothing, took another large gulp of beer, and unbuttoned his dress shirt all the way down and opening it up some.
Good God... that's a chest... That was a chest. That was a chest unlike any she had seen before. Even though Marie didn't have another chest to compare it too in her memory, she was sure that the man sitting next to her had the chest of all chests. The muscles moved so smoothly whenever he moved. Her dark eyes trailed over it, drinking it all in as she was drinking her beer. She didn't even notice how bad it tasted compared to what she was used to.
Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as her eyes glazed over his chest and to his biceps, then down his arms. His arm didn't appear to be injured anymore. "Is your arm alright?" she asked, puzzlement clearly etched into her face and voice.
"Oh, yeah. It's great," he replied, trying to hide the fact that he wanted to avoid the question, and failing. "It wasn't nearly as bad as it looked."
"You sure? It still looked really bad, you should still have it in a sling or something." The scraping noises of her chair scooting towards him made him pull away.
"I'm fine, really."
"Okay..." Maybe it was like the man thing she always read about in her books. They just didn't want the women to see how hurt they were for some odd reason. Though that would give them the opportunity to pamper them and cater to their every whim, and what man wouldn't want that? No one else would usually know about it.
She sat back in her hard chair, her spine perfectly straight despite the discomfort. As much as she forced it down, the hurt remained at his rejection of letting her even look. Once she thought about it, she realized that before they were alone, in private. Whereas here, they were in full view of a lot of people.
Yet again, they sat in silence. Neither saying a word, just stealing glances now and then.
Until someone came up to their table and bowed before Marie. It was Remy, he had extended his arm to her in the fashion of a gentleman. "Would you like t' dance, mon chere?"
What the hell. She was there to have a good time unlike that she had ever had before. And dancing the way they were was something she hadn't done before. It looked so... unchoreographed. And so fun at the same time. With a grin, she took his arm and allowed herself to be led to the area where people were dancing.
Remy immediately swept her into the music and into the dance, leading her on with the way his hands would apply pressure before his feet moved. With one hand joined with her gloved one, and the other on her waist, they were off. Dancing and laughing and having a rather good time. He spun her, dipped her, which she had to admit was quite an experience. And they hopped around like a couple of fools, just like everyone else.
It was so wild and carefree. Completely unlike the dancing she was used to that was so proper and every step was placed perfectly. This was uncivilized, improper gander. And she was loving every minute of her rebellious actions, even with this strange man.
She was having so much fun she didn't even notice the man standing behind until Remy ran straight into him. With a growl and a shove, Logan pushed Remy away from Marie. In protest she put up a pissed off front, and succeeded even though she was gasping for air.
Remy was also going to protest, but Logan cut him off before he could even begin. "Get lost, Cajun. I doubt your girl would like to hear of you gettin' a little too friendly dancin' with someone else."
Finally able to find her voice, Marie yelled at him. "How dare you ruin my fun!"
"I figured you were too caught up in it to notice his hand on your ass." Okay, so it was a lie. Truthfully, his face was getting too close to her exposed neck for Logan's tastes. And not all of it was from what the Professor had warned him about.
"It was not! Believe me, I would know! After all, it was my ass and not yours!"
They were creating a scene. And a scene was not something that they needed at that moment. Putting a hand to the small of her back, he pulled her closer and even though he hadn't a clue how, he began to slowly dance with her in time to the slow Irish song that was being played. If it weren't for his good hearing, the small gasp she emitted would have been lost to him in the music and background chatter. Her eyes had also widened and darkened some from their normal chocolate color as she looked up at him with surprise.
His breath was hot on her ear as he lowered his head and rested it gently against the side of hers, careful to have her hair protect him from her skin. Her skin that he hadn't the slightest clue what it would do to him and was slowly wanting to throw caution to the wind and find out. She smelled so good amidst the brewed beer, the cigarettes, the cigars, sweat, blood, and everything that made up everyone else. She was like a flower, something beautiful and colorful and smelled nice among the weeds of the people. The faint vanilla scent inflared his senses and when he felt her breath just mere centimeters from his neck was driving him to the point of madness.
When he moved a little more than intended, her lips brushed the skin on his neck. Reflex made them both jerk apart as if touched by the scorching flame of a candle.
"I'm sorry-" they both sputtered at the same time, which in turn caused her to pause and smile while he raised an eyebrow.
The moment over, Marie asked him what time it was. When Logan took out his pocketwatch, he was surprised at how late it was. They must have been there for hours and not known it. But there was no wonder why Marie was so exhausted now, to top that off with the dancing she did earlier.
"Ah should be gettin' back," she said, her voice still thick with emotion from the brief contact.
"I'll escort you."
She nodded and smiled in reply before taking the lead in going up the stairs. Someone rushing down them made her stop her assent.
Bobby grabbed onto Logan's shirt sleeve to get his attention. "We have a problem. Where's Remy?"
Without even looking, he jabbed a thumb behind him where the Cajun was using his charm on a little girl who was almost asleep in her mothers arms. "What is it, kid?"
"Amy's missing and Jennifer disappeared"
"What d'ya mean?"
"I mean missing. As in gone. Amy's no longer in her room. There's no way she could have gone anywhere in her condition. It would have lasted well into the morning. And Jenn just disappeared as I was walking her back to her quarters. I felt a great gust of wind, then she was gone."
"Bobby, you take Marie back to her room. I'll get Remy and we'll search."
She had wanted to thank him for the wonderful time, but he already had her back to him and was pushing through the crowd. With a sigh, she silently headed back to her quarters and her life.