Chapter 10: Chase
Professor Cohen bustled up as Remy stared stupidly at the empty room and smashed furniture. He ran to the door and looked out. Through the moonless, starless, cloudy night, he could dimly make out the shapes of trees quite close to the back porch. He turned to the host. "What's out there?"
"Forest," the man answered. "And a bit beyond that, the Canadian border. Unless you're a very experienced hunter or tracker, you won't find her and that man out there." He looked at Remy speculatively, then said, "Come on." He barely stopped at the door to drop a quick word to his new wife, then went on swiftly to a small den, where there was a phone. "Call your friends. Tell them she's in trouble. I figure her lover should be here soon enough."
Remy gaped at him. The man rolled his eyes. "You and Dr. Lee are both X-Men, aren't you?" he said. Remy nodded dumbly. "I found a letter she'd written once to someone she cared about a lot, Logan, I think his name was. We were in a hotel for a conference, and she'd arrived late. There weren't any rooms left. She, Claudia, and I shared a room that night. She wrote a letter, went to bed. Woke up in the middle of the night with the worst nightmare I've ever seen anyone have. She was screaming and crying, and calling for someone named Logan because someone named Bastion was hurting her. I remembered reading something in the papers about a member of the X-Men being pulled from that madman's hideaway, and I figured that was Dr. Lee. I wasn't wrong, was I?" he finished quietly. "She was a prisoner of that madman, and he did torture her."
"Yes," Remy said, picking up the phone and dialing the mansion's number. "Do she know dat you know?"
"No," he said. "Dr. Lee is an intensely private person, especially about her past. And I figured if her nightmares were that bad, she must be suppressing them during the day. So I started making it a point to keep an eye out for her at the conferences we were both at, and making sure she had a room to herself. I was pretty sure she wouldn't want anyone else to know. I kept her secret, don't worry; and I know Claudia didn't tell anyone."
Remy was just getting impatient with the ringing when the ringing stopped and a quiet voice said, "Xavier residence."
"Jean!" Remy burst out in relief. "Jean, is Logan there?"
"Yes, he came in about an hour ago. He's pretty beat up and exhausted. He went straight to bed. Should I wake him up? What's wrong?"
"Jean, listen. Sabretooth was hidin' out in de fores' up here. He saw Jubes, an' he crash de party an' grab her. Says he goin' to keep an eye on her till Logan come to fin' her."
"I'll tell him. We'll be there soon." The line went dead. Remy blinked and turned to Professor Cohen.
"There's supposed to be a snowstorm headed our way," the man looked worried. "Jubilation doesn't even have her coat. I hope she's not out there long."
Remy nodded grimly.
* * *
Jean slammed down the phone and pitched her mental 'voice' to carry to all the occupants of the mansion, asleep or awake. Jubilee's in trouble! Scott, Logan, Ororo, out to the Blackbird, NOW! Then, on a tight thread of communication, she told Xavier what had happened as she changed out of her pajamas and into her uniform. Charles, Sabretooth crashed the party. Apparently he's been hiding out in the mountains, and he saw Jubilee and Remy drive up. He broke in, kidnapped her, and ran.
Oh my God. Xavier's mental voice sounded stricken. Jean understood.
Of all the foes they'd ever faced, Sabretooth was one of the cruelest. He and Logan especially had a long history of blows traded, battles fought, and words exchanged. Jean remembered the last time Logan had gone up against Sabretooth. Sabretooth had lost that time, and had limped off to nurse his wounds. Apparently he'd healed, and was now looking for revenge. And what better way to get that revenge but by hurting the one person in the world Logan loved more than life?
She didn't even want to think about what Jubilee was going through at the moment. No doubt the girl was terrified. Jean finished dressing, grabbed the cold-weather thermal gear out of the closet where she and Scott stored it, and ran.
She met them in the Blackbird's hangar, and quickly briefed them as they boarded the plane. Logan clenched his fist. "I shoulda stayed! I shoulda gone wit' her ta this shindig! I coulda helped her…I coulda saved her!"
"Logan," Ororo said, laying a hand on his arm in an effort to calm him down. "You had no way of knowing this would happen. You cannot be around to protect her all the time. Do not worry about what you could or should have done. We must concentrate on finding her first."
* * *
Jubilee groaned as Sabretooth's shoulder dug into her middle again. "Let me down," she pleaded with him. "I'm going to be sick if you don't put me down!"
He dumped her unceremoniously onto the cold ground, and she groaned as her aching stomach muscles abruptly clenched. She squirmed as best she could over to the side of the trail they were following, and threw up, retching miserably. Sabretooth tapped his foot impatiently, waiting as her stomach heaved from the jolting she'd gotten on his shoulder. "Are you done?" he snarled, yanking on the end of the scarf that bound her hands behind her back.
Jubilee spat on the ground in his general direction, just far enough toward him that he would suspect that she was spitting at him, but not close enough to him that he would try to retaliate. "Wouldn't have thrown up if you hadn't thrown me over your shoulder like a sack of potatoes," she muttered. "Now do you actually have a destination in mind, or were you going to just wander around in circles until Logan finds you and shreds you like he did the last time?"
Sabretooth growled and sprang at her, slapping her hard. She bit her lip and refused to flinch, refusing to cower in front of him as he apparently wanted her to. "Yah, I got a destination in mind," he snapped. "You gonna be stayin' out in da cold if'n yah don't stop pissin' me off, girlie."
"Go ahead," Jubilee challenged him. "Leave me out here, right now! I can find my way back. And when Logan gets a hold of you, he's gonna kick your furry little ass all the way to next week!"
WHAM! Jubilee found herself on her knees in the snow under a tree. Sabretooth leaned over her, so close his fetid breath made her nose wrinkle. "Lissen, frail," Sabretooth snarled. "Ain't no way da runt gonna be able ta take me down in a square fight. Never has been able to, never will pull da trick. So shet yer mouth and come on." He grabbed her shoulders and hauled her to her feet. "I ain't carryin' yer skinny li'l ass all da way up da mountain, no matter how good it looks. Ya got two feet, so ya walk!"
Jubilee bent her head into the biting wind and began to walk. She was shivering; her scarf was tied around her hands behind her, and her bare shoulders were turning just the faintest shade of blue. She clenched her teeth to stop them from chattering, and continued to follow him up the trail.
As they climbed, the weather got colder. Jubilee had to suppress a moan of despair as a heavy snow began to fall, covering the way they'd come with a blanket of white. In a matter of time she could see nothing behind her but a white wall of snow. How was Logan going to find her?
Sabretooth stopped under a pine tree with thick hanging boughs that blocked out most of the snow, and looked at the frail. She leaned against the tree, eyes closed, panting through her shivers. The once-beautiful gown was now tattered, sodden, and dirty. Tatters of the cloth clung to the sticky, bloody slashes on her right thigh, sending drops of blood down the leg and to the snow. Sabretooth sniffed. Yes, the trail of blood was hot, and Logan shouldn't have a problem finding them out here in the wilderness anytime in the next two days, even with a blanket of snow on the ground. He yanked at the binding on her wrists. "Git goin', frail," he grunted.
Jubilee followed him numbly, all her attention now focused on putting one foot in front of the other. The terrible cold was making her mind wander, and she'd stopped being able to feel her numb cold feet a while back there on the trail. Her hands didn't exist anymore, either. Her mind floated in and out, in a daze, and she was just barely conscious when they stumbled out of the woods into a clearing. A run-down, ramshackle log cabin sat in the center of it.
Sabretooth opened the door and ducked under the top of the doorframe, his massive bulk filling up the space and making the cabin feel suddenly much smaller than it was. Jubilee stumbled in over the threshold, and stood there swaying, until he pushed her down into a shakily-constructed chair and unwound the scarf from her wrists. He turned to pick up a coil of rope from the corner, and when he turned around, she was unconscious. He wound the rope across her chest, breasts, and ribs, bound her arms close to her upper body and pressing her back against the chair, then proceeded to light a fire in the stone fireplace and empty a can of stew into a battered pot. The pot was placed by the fire to heat, and he sat down on the nearby cot, ignoring the wood's protest at the weight on it, and waited for her to wake up. As he waited, he studied her.
It had been several years since he'd last seen the perky little girl Logan had taken under his wing. Looking at her now, Creed's mouth watered. She was a nice little morsel, temptingly pretty and seductively curvy. He wondered if she was with Logan; he could swear there was something about her that smelled of the runt, yet she'd been with the Cajun boy at the fancy party. Maybe he should show her what a real man was like when she woke, not like the little X-Boys Xavier took in…
* * *
Jean and Scott looked despairingly out of the French doors in the rear of the house, watching helplessly as the snow fell harder. Already Sabretooth and Jubilee's tracks were covered, and more snow whirled a few feet beyond the door, reducing visibility to nearly zero. Then they turned back to the center of the room, where Ororo and Remy were trying to talk some sense into Logan. Logan, ignoring their protests, was pulling on several layers of thermal clothing and donning protective gloves, mask, hat, and two jackets. "I ain't goin' through this with ya all," he said. "This kinda storm's called a whiteout, an' its common in Canada. We're gonna see an inch in the next ten minutes, and chances are, be snowbound by tomorrow mornin'. Won't even be able ta open the doors, the snow'll be drifted up high against them an' ya won't be able ta leave. Not ta mention how long its gonna take ta dig out the Blackbird. I ain't gonna trust Creed ta keep Jubes safe that long; my chances o' findin' her an' him're better if I leave now."
"Logan, it is suicide to go out there now," Ororo protested angrily, putting her hand on his arm. "You cannot possibly track anything through this snow; you will die if you try. What if something happens and you get lost, or don't make it home?"
"Then there's still you, Scott an' Jean, an' the Cajun to try," Logan said, shrugging into the straps of the backpack Jean had packed with medical supplies and non-perishable food items that Professor Cohen had kindly offered to him. "Don' try ta talk me outta it, 'Ro. I gotta find Jubes, or die tryin'. Ya guys don' understan' what she means ta me. Life, for me, ain't worth livin' if she ain't in it. I listened ta ya, Scott, an' I tol' her I din' love her cause she deserves better'n me. She says she don' want nothin' better, she wants me. No one's ever said that to me before. No one's ever said they love me like that. An knowin' that, ya think I'm gonna leave her up on that mountain with Sabretooth? I let her down once when she needed me; I ain't doin' that again." He stood, tested his balance with the pack on, and nodded. "He's a'ready hurt her. Look at the blood on the floor. I can follow her scent to wherever they're hid, an' fin' them b'fore y'all can. I'll see ya later." He opened the French doors and stepped out.
He took a deep lungful of the cold snowy air, and accustomed himself to the smells in the air, sifting through the smells in the air to find the scent he sought. Pine, maple, the smell of the snow itself, and a wildness that was the forest itself…ah. There it was. The hot, rank, irritating scent that was Sabretooth's, and then the smell of blood and jasmine; Jubilee's perfume and blood from her leg wound. His lip curled in a silent snarl. Sabretooth had obviously not bathed in a while; Logan could almost have followed him by smell alone. Poor Jubilee; that must offend her delicate sensibilities. She even got snippy with him whenever he returned from one of his sojourns.
He'd missed her picking at him about his unwashed clothes and odor when he'd gotten home that afternoon…no, Logan checked his watch; it was now almost four o'clock in the morning, so he had arrived actually about twelve hours ago. He'd been expecting to see Jubilee. So it was something of a shock when Jean had tapped hesitantly at his door and slipped in.
"Whatcha want, Red?" he'd growled as she closed his room door. "If ya wanna give me another one o'your lectures, ya can save it, 'cause I ain't listenin'. I listened ta you an' your precious Scott, an' ripped out Jubes's heart 'cause ya all said it was the right thing ta do. Then I went off an' did some thinkin'. An' I realized that it ain't about what y'all think is better for Jubes an' me; it matters what we want. I been watchin' ya since she came home. Ya'all are still treatin' her like the child she was, not the woman she's become. Ya all still don't see her as a woman. So until ya do, there ain't nothin' we can do but go on as we have an wait fer all ya ta come ta yer senses. No outta my way, I gotta go fin' her an' talk ta her, apologise fer all the stuff I said before I left."
Jean put her hand on his arm. "Wait, Logan. She's not here, she was invited to the wedding of two of her colleagues upstate, and Remy accompanied her up. I'm not here to lecture you. While you were gone, Scott and Ororo and I realized we shouldn't be telling either of you what to do. Jubilee didn't say a single word to me for most of the time you've been gone, and then this morning Scott and I provoked her. She told us she doesn't want another life, she doesn't want anyone…but you."
Logan stopped unpacking and regarded Jean warily. "What're ya sayin', Red?"
Jean sighed. "I'm trying to say I'm sorry. We're sorry. We were wrong to get mad at you that night. Jubilee isn't a child anymore, and we have been treating her like one. We're sorry." She looked at him.
Logan sat down on the end of his bed heavily. He never could resist those big green eyes. He might not still carry a flame for Jean, but the memory was still there, and he was always a sucker for a pretty woman. "Aw, Red," he groaned. "Thanks for the apology, but it's probably too late, if she took the Cajun--" He stopped, because Jean was shaking her head.
"There's nothing going on, Logan. Remy might wish there were, but there's no room in her heart for anyone but you. It's pure friendship only. And a desire to hold her together for you. She's been having the dreams again since you left; Remy tried to help her through them by being there for her. She might be grateful to him, but she loves you."
Logan shifted the backpack on his back, his eyes slitted against the driving snow and squinted at the path in front of him,. It had apparently been an old deer trail; Sabretooth had used it as the most direct means to get…wherever he was going. They had stopped here; Logan's nose wrinkled at the rank smell of vomit. He was pretty sure it wasn't Sabretooth's, so it had to be Jubilee's. What had Sabretooth done to her to make her throw up?
He continued to follow the trail.
* * *
Jubilee stirred in her chair. Her leg was killing her; she whimpered a bit from the pain. As she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Sabretooth, lying on a cot by the far wall, asleep. She bit her lip. There were ropes tying her to the chair; but the chair wasn't made sturdy, and if she could…
She started wiggling everything she could, trying to get free. The rough rope sawed into her skin, giving her ropeburn on her arms. She ignored the pain from that, the wound on her leg, and the slashes on her cheek, and was finally rewarded with a loosening of the rope across her upper arm. Maybe now she could get her arm out.
A shadow fell over her, and she gasped as a rough hand cupped her chin and forced her head up. "Thought I was asleep, didn't you?" Sabretooth snarled. "Yer more trouble than yer worth, girlie!" He untied her and grabbed her arm, shoved her down on the cot. "I'm gonna have ta teach ya a lesson!" He shed the jacket and thermal clothing he wore, and Jubilee's eyes narrowed in anger as she realized what he was trying to do. She was frozen in terror, but snapped out of it when she saw he was almost on top of her. She tried to push herself off the bed, but he grabbed her arm.
Jubilee yanked her arm out of his grasp and kicked at his knees hard. He howled as her heel caught the side of his kneecap and it cracked. "Damn frail!" he grabbed at her. She drilled a fist into his face, tried to gouge at his eyes again, but he saw it coming this time, and grabbed her fist before it could connect. He bent her fingers back, further and further, until Jubilee heard the joints pop and a spike of pain traveled up her arm. She screamed, cradled her hand in her other one, sobbing. He grabbed a handful of her hair and the rope and flung open the cabin door.
He dragged her out into the whiteness of the storm, feeling his way through the snow until he found the tree limb he'd pounded into the earth to hang his deer kills to skin and butcher them, and slammed her back to it. Holding her against the pole, he tied her to it, winding the ropes cruelly tight around her upper body. She panicked when he began to move off into the cabin. "You're not going to leave me out here!?"
"Sure," he grinned. "Unless ya agree ta share da bed wit' me." She made a face, and spat in his direction. "Never!"
"Suit yerself, frail. Ya ain't comin' in till ya agree ta give me what yah gone an' gave da runt." He turned an stalked off into the cabin.
"Sabretooth! Please! You can't leave me out here—please! I'll freeze! Sabretooth, please! Creed!" but he just walked back into the fuzzy rectangle of light that was the cabin door and slammed it shut, leaving her alone out there in the cold.
She opened her eyes wide, trying to see anything in the whiteness, but there was nothing but whistling wind and swirling snow. She was already shivering uncontrollably; she'd lost one shoe in the cabin, and the skirt of her dress had been ripped away up to her knees by Creed on their way up to this desolate place. She sobbed. There was no way anyone, even Logan, would find her before she froze to death. Already the numbness was creeping upward from her feet and legs, and from her hands and wrists. Her head lolled, and she started to drift off into the comfortable fuzziness of hypothermia.