Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men; however, I did make up the new characters in this story. I'm making no money off this, so no suing.
Summary: With their first major victory under their belts, the new X-Men must face a new, even more dangerous enemy.
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: This is the sequel to The More Things Change…, a fic where the children of the former X-Men create a new team. The first story can be found in the fanfiction section of my website at http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/addielogan.
Archiving and Feedback: Again, drop me a line and let me know what you think! (Addie_Logan@yahoo.com) I'll authorize any archiving, just email me and let me know where you're posting it.
*Special Note*: Usually, I don't post a story unless it's finished; however, this one is rather long and I'm sick of waiting to post any of it. I'm going to post chapters as frequently as possible, but with all the other stories I'm working on it might take a little bit between chapters. Also, I'd like to say that if anyone reading this hasn't read The More Things Change… (which is also posted at fanfiction.net), please do! It's my favorite of all my stories and I like it when people read it…
Clinging to Falling Angels
By: Addie Logan
Adanya Caitlin Logan glanced away from the movie and over at her date, Ric LeBeau. She tried to take his hand, but he pulled away. Logan slumped in her seat. She wondered if Ric would even notice if she got up and left. She forced herself to look back up at the screen.
When the movie was over, Ric got up , left the theater, and waited impatiently for her beside the door. Once she reached him, he immediately began to walk towards the car without even making eye contact with Logan. When he got to his car, he reached into the pocket of his jacket and began to fumble around, looking for his keys.
Logan reached up and placed a hand on his shoulder. Ric bristled. "Ric?"
"What is it, Addie?" he asked without turning around.
"Can we talk?" she asked.
Ric turned around and looked down at her with annoyance. "Now? I'm tired and I want to get home and go to bed."
Logan felt her lip tremble for just a second, but she soon regained her usual composure. "I just want to know what's wrong?"
Ric almost asked her what she meant, but knew he shouldn't ask a question that he already knew the answer to. "This isn't working—us I mean."
It was a statement that Logan knew had been hanging between them, waiting to be said, ever since the magnetic force-field Ric used to be able to touch her had suddenly fluctuated, making Logan feel as if her bones were actually being ripped through her skin. Still, actually hearing those words come out of Ric's mouth, having them still ringing in her ears, was too much for Logan to handle. Her last bit of strength faded away, and she broke into an uncharacteristic fit of tears.
Ric reached out his hand to her, but then quickly pulled away, suddenly afraid to touch her even with his gloves on. "I'm sorry, Addie. This is just the way it has to be."
Logan said nothing. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
"Don't do this here, please. Just get in the car. We'll talk later," Ric pleaded.
Logan walked over to the passenger's side and waited for Ric to unlock the door. When he did, she got into the car, buckled her seatbelt, and pulled her leather jacket tighter around her.
Ric turned his head to say something to her, but the words caught in his throat when he looked over and saw tears still streaming down her face.
They drove home in silence.
*** *** ***
Logan came down to breakfast the next morning doing her best to act as if nothing had happened. Still, everything stopped as soon as she walked in the room, and Logan could tell from the looks on her friends' faces that they had a pretty good idea of what had gone on the night before. A few people had been there when Logan and Ric had come home, and had seen them walk in without saying a word to each other and then go off in separate directions.
"Mornin'," Logan said as she made her way to the pantry to get some cereal. The X-Men watched her intently as she got her breakfast, as if they were waiting for her to break at any moment. She ignored them for the most part, continuing to go about her business as if it were any other morning.
Ric came in just as Logan sat down at the table, and the tension level in the room rose even higher. Logan ate her breakfast as if Ric wasn't even there, and he didn't even glance in her direction. When she was done, Logan put her bowl in the sink and left the kitchen. Marie ran after her.
"Logan," Marie said once they were down the hall. She put her hand on her friend's shoulder to stop her.
Logan moved Marie's hand away and turned around. "I'm really not in the mood to talk," she said.
Marie sighed with frustration. "Don't be this way, Logan. I know you're hurting, and I want to help you. You can't keep your feelings all bottled up inside—you told me that yourself once."
Kacie joined them. "Marie's right. Why don't you just talk to us?" she said.
Marie put her arm around Logan. "Yeah. Stop trying to be so wolverineish."
Logan smiled as she looked at her two best friends. "Fine, I'll talk. Let's just go somewhere a little more private than the middle of the hallway."
*** *** ***
Logan sat down on the couch in the den. "So you guys really want to talk, or can I just run away now?" she asked.
Kacie and Marie sat down on either side of Logan. "You need to let it out," Kacie said.
Logan let out a deep breath. "Fine, I'll tell you what I can but…" She glanced down at her hands. "but it still really hurts."
Marie put her hand on Logan's shoulder and gave it a little squeeze. "It'll be okay. Just talk to us."
Logan kept staring down at her hands. "Things got bad so quickly," she said. "We loved each other so much at first, and I know I never stopped. I'd like to think he didn't stop either, but well, see we thought we were going to be able to touch, but we didn't even consider the effect his magnetic powers would have on my skeleton. At first, everything was going great. He could keep his shield down to a level that it had no effect on me. Problem was, he didn't have very good control over his powers. Then, once while we were kissing, his powers went haywire and he hit me with this magnetic pulse. He couldn't get it to stop, and it was hurting me really badly. It took all the strength I had just to get away from him before it killed me. After that, Ric didn't seem to want to be around me much anymore, and I'm still not sure if it was because he was afraid he'd hurt me, or if he just wanted someone he could touch."
"So last night he called it off," Marie said.
Logan nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much it. I can't blame him for leaving though. We were—drifting apart, I guess."
Kacie and Marie shared a quick glance. "How did you take it, you know, when he told you?" Kacie asked.
Logan grimaced. "Not as well as I would've expected. I cried—a lot."
Marie and Kacie looked at her incredulously. "You cried?" they asked in unison.
"Yeah," Logan replied, her voice soft and meek. She looked up for the first time since she started talking. "I wanted to say something, be mad at him for leaving me like that, but no words would come out. So I just burst into tears, right there in the parking lot of the movie theater. And I kept crying all the way home. I didn't stop until I fell asleep."
Marie and Kacie both hugged Logan in turn, expressing their most sincere pity-fueled apologies. "I'm going to be all right, really," Logan protested.
Rachel and Rebecca came into the room to see Marie and Kacie comforting Logan. They came in and sat down on the floor in front of the couch. "Are you okay?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah," Logan said. "I've been better, but then again, I've been worse, too."
"Maybe you could talk to Ric," Rebecca suggested. "He seems fairly upset himself."
Logan shook her head. "No. I miss him so much—I just don't think I could handle talking to him right now. As much as it hurts, Ric's right. We are better off apart."
"Do you really believe that?" Marie asked.
Suddenly, Logan's lip began to tremble as her perfect composure that she usually tried so hard to maintain broke for the second time in less than twenty-four hours. She buried her head in her hands as her friends did their best to console her.
None of them noticed a pair of red eyes watching them silently from across the hall.
*** *** ***
"Uh hu. Uh hu. Coming this Wednesday? Okay…Warren and I will be there to pick you up. See you then. Good-bye." Angela hung up the telephone with a heavy sigh.
Warren walked into the kitchen and noticed the troubled expression on Angie's face. "What's wrong, Big Sis?" he asked.
"Briana's comin for a visit."
Warren's eyes grew wide with fear. "Briana Braddock? Please say you're kidding."
"No, I'm not," Angie said, "though I wish I was. She's flying in from London Wednesday."
"Why?" Warren asked.
Angela gave him a small smile. "To visit her favorite cousins, of course."
Warren frowned. "Aren't we her only cousins?"
Angie laughed and ruffled Warren's hair. "Look, I don't want to see her any more than you do, but she's coming all the way from England just to visit with us, so we might as well be nice about it."
"Isn't she too busy with being Captain Britain or something?" asked Warren.
"Apparently not. Come on, Warren, don't get so bent out of shape. She isn't quite as bad as you think. Maybe she's even lightened up since the last time we saw her."
Warren shot her a dirty look.
Cable walked in and began to look around. "I'm the only other person in the room," Warren muttered.
Cable went over to Angela and kissed her as Warren stared down at the floor. He was already tired of being one of the few people that knew Nathan and Angela were a couple and having to deal with them acting like a pair of lovesick school kids whenever they were around him. Personally, he found their behavior, well, disturbing—especially since it was Cable of all people. Warren sighed inwardly. At least his sister was happy.
After a moment Warren cleared his throat and Nate and Angie pulled way from each other. Nathan sat down in the chair beside Angie and took her hand.
"Our cousin is coming into town next week," Angela said.
"I didn't even know you guys had a cousin," Nate replied.
Warren grimaced. "Don't like to talk about her much."
Cable raised an eyebrow. "She's that bad?"
"Well, she's no picnic, but Warren does tend to overreact just a tad," Angie said.
"I've been traumatized!" Warren exclaimed.
Angela snickered. "Traumatized? Wouldn't you say that's a bit much?"
"She tried to kill me!"
"Really, Warren, it wasn't as serious as all that," Angela said.
Warren crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. "You weren't there. You don't know."
Angie reached across the table to ruffle Warren's hair again. "Everything will be fine. She'll be gone before you know it."
Warren sighed heavily and Nathan smiled in amusement. "So what makes you think she tried to kill you?" Cable asked.
Warren threw his hands up in the air. "I don't just think! I know! She came after me!" He pointed to Angela. "How can you be so calm about all this?!"
"I can be calm because it just isn't that big of a deal. She's going to get here and sure, she'll be obnoxious. She'll act all high and mighty and get on everyone's nerves for about a week, then she'll get back on the plan and return to London where she'll be an ocean away and out of lives."
Warren sighed. "When has it ever been that easy where Briana's concerned?"
Angie patted Warren on the shoulder. "Come on, Little Brother—just have a little faith."
*** *** ***
It had been three days since Ric had ended things, and Logan was beginning to wonder if she was going crazy. Every time she saw one of the happy couples that lived at the mansion, she felt a surge of jealousy followed by guilt for thinking that way about her friends. Every time she saw Ric, she felt the urge to either burst into tears or break something and, much to her humiliation, it always seemed like the tears won out.
However, it was after she woke up one morning to find three little holes in the wall right above her bed that Logan realized just how out of hand everything was getting. She ran her fingers delicately over the puncture holes in the wall, remembering her nightmare and wondering if she really was as much like her father as everyone suggested.
Logan got out of bed, changed out of her nightclothes, and left the room. She crept down the hall and into Marie's room which was, as usual, unlocked.
Marie LeBeau heard someone calling her name and slowly opened her eyes. Realizing someone was actually in her room and it wasn't just a dream, she sat up with a start.
"Marie, calm down, it's just me," Logan said.
Marie felt her heartbeat began to slow down. "What in the world are you doing in here?" Marie asked. "It's…" she glanced over at the clock on her bedside table, "four o'clock in the morning! And Saturday, too!"
"Sorry," Logan said, "but I need your help. Do you have a poster I could borrow?"
Marie gave Logan a puzzled look. "Why the hell do you need a poster at this time of the morning? Have you finally gone and lost your mind?"
Logan grimaced. "Maybe. The thing is, well, you see sometime during the night, I had a nightmare and I, um, apparently, well, took it out on the wall."
"Are you saying you clawed your wall?"
"Yeah."
Marie climbed out of her bed and went over to her closet where she kept the posters that wouldn't fit on her walls or ceiling. "Why exactly do you need one now?" she asked as she started rummaging through boxes. "Couldn't you have waited until a more civilized hour?"
"I wanted to cover it up before anyone saw it," Logan said. "I just didn't want the others to find out about it. I mean, I know my behavior change over the past few days has been rather noticeable, and I don't want them assuming that this has anything to do with it. I've had nightmares ever since my run-in with the so-called 'Weapon X,' although I haven't had one quite that bad in a while. After it first happened I shredded my bedposts."
Marie continued looking through the posters. "Do you think this whole thing with Ric may have triggered the intensity of the dream somehow?" she asked.
"Maybe. The level of stress I've been under lately couldn't have helped. But I still don't want anyone to know about the wall. I don't want Ric to know how strongly he's affected me."
Marie selected a poster and shut the closet door. "Holes in the wall or not, I think Ric has a pretty good idea of what this has done to you."
Logan wanted to cry again, but held it back. "Then why is he doing this?" she asked.
"He thinks it's for the best," Marie said, handing her the poster. "You said the same yourself."
"I've changed my mind. It isn't."
"I know."
"Thanks for the poster, Marie," Logan said. "Go back to bed and I'll see you a little later in the morning."
Marie nodded, just happy to be able to go back to sleep.
*** *** ***
Logan taped the poster over the three holes in her wall and then glanced at the clock. Four-thirty. It would be hours before anyone else would be awake. She pulled on a sweatshirt, went downstairs, and then out the mansion. She started walking through the woods, something that usually made her feel better. This time it didn't. Logan began to walk faster and faster until eventually she was running. A branch hit her in the face and her claws shot out, slashing the branch from the tree. Logan stopped short. She sunk down to the ground and pulled her knees up to her chin, and cried.
A little while later, Logan got up, brushed herself off, and walked back to the mansion. She went into the kitchen, picked up the telephone, and dialed the number from memory.
"Hello?"
"Daddy, I need to come home for a little while."
Within the hour, Logan was pulling away from the mansion on the back of her father's motorcycle. When the X-Men came down later that morning, they found a note on the fridge.
*** *** ***
"Gone to visit my parents. Shouldn't stay too long. I'll call you guys soon. Logan." Kacie Drake read the note aloud.
"So she just leaves with nothing to say goodbye but a note on the fridge?" Rachel asked.
Marie frowned, remembering the visit she'd had from Logan earlier that morning. "She's being all wolverineish again," she said.
"She did tell us where she went," Kacie pointed out.
"At least this is in keeping more with her personality," Rebecca said. "She was beginning to worry me with her frequent breakdowns."
Ric walked into the kitchen and everyone turned around and stared at him. "What?" he asked.
Marie felt a sudden surge of anger at her brother. "You chased Logan off," she said.
"What are you talking about?" Ric asked.
Marie took the note from Kacie and handed it to Ric. He read it. "Oh," he said softly.
Rebecca put her hand on Marie's shoulder. "Come on. Let us get ready and go shopping."
Marie glanced back at Ric. "Yeah. Sounds like a good idea."
The X-Men filed out of the kitchen, leaving Ric alone with Logan's note.
*** *** ***
The young man stood in front of the door. He looked down at the piece of paper in his hand. House number 202. He looked back up at the door. House number 202. He felt the urge to turn and run, but he knew it would only be prolonging the inevitable. After a year of searching, he had an address. The young man took a deep breath. Maybe it would be the wrong address, and he'd be sent away to continue a never-ending search. He frowned. Was that really what he wanted? He'd been searching for a part of himself and even though he was afraid of what he might find, he knew the time had come. He knocked at the door.
A petite girl who looked about sixteen years old answered the door. "Yes?"
"Um, yeah, hi, I'm Craig Marshall. I'm looking for a Mr. Logan."
The girl looked back into the house. "DAD! There's some guy at the door for you!" she called.
Craig felt the desire to turn and run grow even stronger. This man had a daughter, and odds were, he had a wife, too. Craig felt guilty. What if his sudden appearance ruined this guy's life? Craig made up his mind. The girl had gone back in the house. He could make his escape right then.
"You wanted to talk to me?" Craig heard a gruff voice ask.
Craig realized he'd missed his chance to leave and he might as well go through with the reason why he'd come. He took a deep breath and asked, "Did you know a woman named Jane Marshall?"
The compact, muscular man frowned, as if he were trying to remember. Craig reached into his pocket, pulled out a photograph, and handed it to the man. "Here. This is her."
Logan looked down at the picture and a swarm of memories from a weekend twenty-five years ago came flooding back. "Yeah, I knew her."
Craig took a deep breath. "I'm her son and, well, I think you may be my father."
*** *** ***
To be continued in chapter 2…
Please leave me lots of feedback letting me know what you think. This is still a work in progress, and I need reviews!
