Disclaimer in Part One
Update list: autumnfic@yahoogroups.com
********************
Believe in me because I don't believe in anything
and I want to be someone to believe
Marie walked to the front of the truck and examined the grill. Whatever she'd hit had been heavy. She saw nothing in front of the truck, and guessed that the animal had flown off the side of the road. Twenty feet to the right lay a boot. Frowning Marie walked towards the object and discovered she'd hit a man. Shock overwhelmed her chased swiftly by irony. On a road where she hadn't seen so much as another car, she'd managed to hit a human.
By the looks of things he was dead. Still, if he was simply knocked out she couldn't leave him there. Marie returned to the truck and opened the rear door, she retrieved the body and a thanks to Victor's strength was able to haul it and effortlessly place it in the backseat of the truck. For good measure, she strapped the two shoulder belts, and middle belt around his prone form. Marie started up the truck again and turned it around towards Montana.
******
A few hours later she heard grunting from the back of the truck and once again pulled the truck over. Unbuckling the seatbelt she turned around to face the source of the noise. The grunts had turned into what sounded more like growls and soon she found herself in a tight chokehold. She grabbed the arm around her neck and fought to extract it from her body, he squeezed tighter and Marie realized he had to be a mutant. An ordinary human would never have such a tight grip.
Eventually he let go and she gasped for breath. She saw him go for the door so she hit the power locks. "Don't go." She said in a hoarse voice.
"You're one of them." He snarled.
"One of who?" She asked, confusion etched on her face.
"Don't fuck with me kid."
"Marie."
"What?"
"My name's Marie. If you're going to yell at me, I'd prefer you to use my name." She said with a hint of bite in her voice.
It seemed to shock him into silence. She saw his eyes glance over here with a closed expression before he finally relaxed. "Logan."
"Nice to meet you Logan, even though you tried to choke me."
"You hit me with your truck." Logan shot back.
"Fair enough. I'm sorry."
"You're strong." Logan answered in a low voice.
"Yeah I know." Marie said not meeting his eyes.
"You're nervous."
"And you're inquisitive." She snapped.
"Look, Marie," he said stressing her name "I don't have time for this shit. Let me out."
"No. You could be seriously hurt. We're not that far away now from where I live. Just get checked out and then you could leave if you want."
"How many people are there?"
"Just si-five."
"They your family?"
"Yeah."
"They as friendly as you?"
Marie laughed at that. "I'm sorry, I've just got a lot on my mind at the moment. I don't usually lash out at strange men. Or hit them with my truck."
"The DMV should take away your license."
"I don't have one. That was my first time driving." Marie grinned.
Logan's eyes narrowed. "Awfully good for a first timer, accidents aside. There's something you're not saying."
"I-" what was she going to say? That she'd had the legacy virus and her father had sacrificed another mutant to saver her? That she'd taken a life through her own skin?
"It's complicated."
"You're a mutant."
"I am. So are you." She answered softly.
"So, you still want to take me to your place?"
"Yeah. You can hop in the front if you want to." Marie said and started her truck again.
Logan took the invitation and jumped into the front seat. He'd only met Marie, but there was something about her that was instantly likeable.
"Who are 'they'?" Marie turned and asked.
Logan's face became guarded again. "It's complicated," he said mimicking her earlier answer.
Marie just nodded. They each had a past they didn't want to discuss at the moment, it was something she respected.
"Ever been to Glacier?" She asked changing the subject.
"No, but I've been to the Canadian part of it."
"Are you from Canada?"
"I don't know." Again his tone was clipped.
Avoiding things about his past whatsoever seemed like a good idea. The pair dropped into silence each thinking about the other. It had been a weird meeting; two murder attempts and some clipped conversation but neither felt particularly ill at ease. "There are plenty of cabins, you'll be able to use one for as long as you stay. Marie broke the silence.
"How close are we?"
She inclined her head towards the sign that remained standing and read "10 miles."
************
Meanwhile in Apgar Erik himself had taken ill and lie sweating in his bed. He'd felt a little off color since the day Marie had become sick and now he didn't need a test to tell him what he had. He didn't mind dying, he'd lived an exciting life and his last wish was to make things right with Marie.
What he'd done had been wrong to her, but right to him. She was young and didn't deserve to die like that, she was also a better person that Victor. Marie was kind, sweet and predominantly good whereas Victor was rough, crude and inherently wicked. He knew he'd made the right choice, even if his daughter hated him for it. But he'd been desperate, and loathe as he was to admit it, Erik would have even used Jubilee if it would have saved Marie.
Sacrifice and calculation had always been shrewd tools for him and more than once he'd mad a decision based on feelings rather than ethics. He only hoped his moral daughter would one day realize that there were two sides to every decision and both had pros and cons to them. The rage she had directed at him he had seen only once before when she was 14. The mutant registration act had been passed and Marie had come home from school in tears.
Mystique and Erik had anticipated her coming home early and for her to be upset. The tirade that had erupted was something they hadn't expected. "They did it, those fuckers did it!"
"Marie, language." Mystique had lightly admonished.
"Why am I different mom? Why can't I go to school anymore?"
"You have the genes Marie. We discussed this before." Erik broke in quietly.
"But I'm not even a mutant yet! I don't have powers so why do I have to be treated differently!"
Erik and Mystique had simply looked at one another their hearts breaking as Marie's concept of the world was altered.
"You did this too me. You did this and I hate you!" She'd shouted trembling in rage.
"I hate you!" She screamed before shrieking in pain and fainting.
When they'd gone to pick her body up Mystique gasped in pain as her face broke out in webs that mirrored the ones on Marie's face. Erik pulled his wife away from his daughter and the two wept over their unconscious daughter. Neither needed to guess what had happened to her.
*******
"Dad, I brought someone who needs to see you." Marie spoke into the darkness.
"Marie, I'm-"
"Don't right now. I'm too angry."
"I've got it Marie. I'm dying."
"I'll bring him in. He heals."
"How do you know?" Logan asked from behind her.
"I hit you with a truck and you're not dead. Anyone could guess you have some healing ability." She retorted.
"Very well. Help an old man up then and we'll take a look at you." Erik said.
"I'll come back later." Marie said and walked down to the lake.
She was too numb to realize that night had set in and the air had grown cold. Marie didn't hear the sound of footsteps on the dock and barely looked up when her father settled down beside her. "I put Logan into the cabin next to yours."
She nodded before throwing her arms around him. The damn inside her finally broke and she burrowed into Erik's side shaking with emotion and crying for all that had been lost. Erik held her and shed his tears of his own on the dock of Lake McDonald.