Ororo glared at the door and crossed her arms. "Go away." Logan sighed and again cursed himself for being so stupid.
"Look, 'Ro. I wanted to apologize." No answer came from the other side. "I know I shouldn't have made assumptions." The door swung open unexpectedly, causing Logan, who was leaning on the door, to stumble into the room. Ororo had changed out of her jeans and tee shirt into a sundress and strappy sandals, a nice blue to match her eyes.
"Came to check on the virgin?" She stepped aside and allowed him in. Logan looked around. Large room, the carpet a green and the walls robin-egg blue with fluffy clouds painted on. Something she would like.
" I'm sorry." She sat down on the bed and he took the wicker chair close to the window.
"You should be. What, it was so unbelievable for me to be a virgin?" Ororo crossed her legs and leaned back on her hands, causing the short dress to ride up her thigh. Logan tracked the hem of her dress with intense interest, trying to ignore it. One toned mocha leg flexed, muscles moving together in sweet rhythm. Damn her.
"It's just that…I mean. You're twenty three."
"What, there's some age where you're supposed to have sex?" She looked at him in disbelief. Wait a minute…what happened here? That wasn't what he wanted to say!
"No-"
"Let me tell you something Logan." Ororo stood and started to pace. "When I went to college I was inducted into a sorority. Sort of like a publicity stunt. I lived there for two years, and I saw how heavy drinking ruined many girls lives. I vowed to myself I would never lose control of my life. I also saw how sex ruined their lives. Girls who were pregnant and had to drop out, girls raped, and girls who just went around screwing anything that twitched." She sighed. "I didn't want to be like any of them."
"I'm sorry." That was all he knew he could say.
"You've already said that." She gave a half hearted laugh.
"So…most guys expect to have sex while they're with their girlfriends." Logan leaned forward, interested in her situation.
"And? They don't get to date me. When I tell most men I am celibate, they either ask me what illness do I have, or what religion I participate in. Erik was my physics professor, and when I passed his class, we started going out. That was two years ago. He and I decided we were no longer right for each other and we broke up. I am a very selective woman, as I should be." She reminded him.
"So you're a virgin."
"I thought we went over this already. Yes." She laughed. "Does this change anything between us?"
"Well, no. You are a witness, I couldn't cross that line anyway." He stood and took her hand. "But you are still the amazing person you have always been to me." She smiled.
"Thank you. I thought you might have pulled away…or more perversely, actively engage in ways to get me to have sex. That's happened before."
"I'm not them." Logan noticed they were standing really close…he could smell her natural scent. Very feminine, a flowery smell and vanilla.
"No, you are most certainly not." They were so close they were breathing the same air, lips close enough so she could feel his exhalation. Her full lips curved in a soft, amused smile. "Are you going to kiss me, or were you planning to just breathe?"
Logan chuckled as he leaned in, closing the scant distance between them, his large hands grasping her shoulders as explored her mouth. Her lips were soft against his, her taste supernatural as he felt himself respond physically. He pulled back reluctantly, releasing her as her eyes fluttered open, her beautiful eyes shining seductively at him. "Is that what you wanted?"
"It is. I should hope you enjoyed it as much as I did." Logan smiled to himself. "But I think I already know the answer to that." She let her hip brush his crotch and he growled slightly, his hands snaking down to her waist to hold her still.
"Woman…" He sat down on the bed as his voice trailed off and he realized how small she actually was. With her forceful personality, goliath intellect and almost unreal beauty, you forget you're dealing with a flesh and blood person. A person with fears which she stuffed down deep, and never let anyone see. But she was still a person, a woman. A woman who had a lot of people out to kill her. That brought out something in him that wasn't present when he was protecting other witnesses.
"Logan…I am scared. I don't know when I'll wake up and find everyone around me dead. Dead because of me." Logan brought her close, his head resting on her stomach.
"I promise to protect you with my life. You are very important to me." Ororo smiled as she ran her hands through his wry hair.
"Thank you." That is how they stayed, for quite some time.
*
"So you failed."
"I was detained by something outside of my control madam. I did not fail." Piotr bristled as he looked at Ms. Frost from across the table. She nodded in mock understanding, pushing her chair back and standing up.
"What we wanted was both Munroe and MacLean dead, and yet they are still alive. Do you at least know where they are located?" The stony silence proved her point. "You'll have a partner. The Leader has deemed this too important to risk to one person. Sarah will be along shortly."
Piotr narrowed his eyes. "I work alone."
"Not on this assignment you don't. I suggest you shake every clue you can out of the apartment." He rose and bowed. "And Piotr." He raised an eyebrow. "If you fall short, this will be your last assignment." He nodded curtly and left, intent on his mission.
*
"And he said that him and Remy discussed it before he died." Logan swallowed the large slice of pizza in his plate as he washed it down with a beer. Forge was the only one in the house to join them, Bishop having gone back to his house to check up on his girlfriend and get his favorite laptop.
Ororo's eyebrow raised as she thought over the conversation Logan relayed to them verbatim. "Wait…he said he didn't hear from him, but that Remy talked to him about the safe house before he died?"
Forge wiped some sauce from his chin and frowned. "You know, that's true. Did you tell him Remy was dead?"
"I sure didn't." He threw his pizza down on the plate with disgust. " Son of a bitch."
"What Logan?" Ororo asked, concerned.
"It might be someone in house. Damn it!" She looked to Forge with a question in her eyes.
"He means he's been sold out by the F.B.I. Most likely they're working for Bronson Group too." Logan lost his appetite and sat there, looking at his plate. He personally knew the extension of the FBI's powers. They could be found within a week, the trial in two weeks. Would they make it?
"Perhaps we should check out this director."
"His name's Xavier. His files are locked up tighter than most informants." Logan sighed. Forge shook his head.
"Then it's not that tight. I've devised a program that automatically brings up all available information on the person as well as the people and places he's met and gone to."
"You can do that?"
"So can the CIA." Ororo put her napkin down. "How do you think they tracked the Black Panthers?" They turned around as they heard the front door open and close, and a few seconds later Bishop appeared.
"What's going on?"
"We're doing a little digging." Forge stood up and pushed his plate away.
"Oh great, just in time."
*
Logan left Forge and Bishop as the talk became too technical for him to follow, besides the fact it was boring. Coming back upstairs he started to smile as he saw the long, slender leg of Ororo, hanging on the back of the couch. Coming around, she was on her back, looking through her credit cards. "What are you doing?"
She looked up and smiled. "Getting my finances in order. So, you've come up from the testosterone cave have you?" She lifted her leg and swung up, allowing Logan to sit on the couch as well.
"It was boring."
"You left out before they started drinking and telling perverted jokes." His eyebrow rose.
"Then maybe I'll join them." He made to get up but Ororo threw her legs on his lap.
"You're staying here. We have peace and quiet and no one is trying to kill us. Lets just talk." Logan settled back down.
"Sounds good to me. What's the topic?"
"You."
"I know that really well." She chuckled.
"So, have you always been in the FBI?"
"I started out as a field rookie, and it was shown I had great tracking skills, and when we ran simulations I always got the subject out with least bodily harm. Although it was a blowup doll…"
"Oh goodness…continue." Ororo swung around again and sat on her legs, leaning towards him. Some of her hair rested on the back of his neck, and suddenly he wanted to wrap himself in it, feel the cooling silk as he coaxed his name from between her beautiful lips- "Logan?"
"What?" He blinked and was slammed out of his reverie.
"Are you finished?"
"Oh. Um…well I was drafted into the Witness Protection Agency, and I had to give up any and all of my home life. No contact with relatives and I could no longer use my real name." She stiffened.
"Is Logan your real name?"
"Yes. I told you my real name. I usually don't, but dammit woman, I forget protocol when you're around." She laughed.
"I'll take that as a compliment. So, how many people have you protected?"
"Only thirty seven. I'm called on big cases, where threat is eminent and everywhere. I'm an eraser."
"An eraser?"
"Someone who erases the trail and leads to the witness until the court date."
"When is mine?"
"You've got two weeks." She hesitated and Logan took her hand. "What?"
"Do you think we have a chance? Honestly?"
"Ororo, I will do my best, and I think we have a good chance of getting out of this alive." Her eyes still looked troubled as she snuggled against him.
"Break it up kids." Forge laughed as he stuck his head in the living room. "Bishop's found something interesting."
*
"With a few modifications I was able to craft Forge's software to what we needed, which was pinpoint accuracy. No offense man."
"None taken." Everyone was gathered in the cave, looking at the screen Bishop connected his laptop to so everyone could see.
"Well…I checked the name Charles Xavier and on a whim I rechecked Scott Summers. Both came up screaming red."
"Screaming red?" Logan asked, confused yet again.
"Screaming red is when there is a seriously foul trail to their life. What did you find?"
"Both have met several times." Logan snorted.
"So he's working for Bronson Group. Son of a bitch."
:"No, more like they are both working for someone else." Forge spun around in his chair absently. "Do you know who the illuminati are?"
"The Illuminati? At the turn of the century they were up to be considered for eligibility for classification under the subversive groups list. They didn't make it."
"Why do you think that happened?"
"I guess they weren't a threat." Bishop laughed.
"You're not a history buff are you."
"Not really."
"They were behind many atrocities. Did you know Hitler was a member of the Illuminati?"
"So?"
"Did you know the Illuminati orchestrated the Holocaust?" Logan blinked.
"Why would they do that? What did they have to gain?"
"Six million were killed because they held wealth that was needed at that point."
"Oh come on. There were many other ways to get money."
"They're also anti everybody except rich, white and successful. Not surprising who runs it. He calls himself the Leader." Forge cracked his neck muscles
"Sounds like a hyped up little dictator. So you actually expect me to believe that the theory behind the holocaust was just a conspiracy to get money."
"Look, it doesn't matter what we think. The evidence is right here." Bishop tapped a few keys and the information poured itself on the screen. Dates, money transactions, hits and almost the entire itinerary for the past workings of the Illuminati, now using the name The Society, were in plain English.
"Oh shit."
"Now you get it."