A Man After Her Own Heart – Chapter One

Disclaimer:  I own nothing except Val and the story idea. 

A/N:  This is a sequel to my "A Girl After His Own Heart" and is the result of a few readers who asked for more.  So…here's more.  This picks up right where AGAHOH leaves off and is rated R for language.  No more sex…at least not yet.  You'll be warned if we head that way.  If anyone wants to archive this (not that I think anyone would want it, but just in case), please just ask.

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Val huffed along in silence, the only noise the crunch of snow under her boots as she hiked back to her small house.  She'd left Logan at the bar in town and she'd pushed the old truck into the ravine.  Now she was making her way home.  A thirty-mile hike in the dead of winter was something she should have rethought, she realized now, only three-quarters of the way there.  It was late afternoon and she knew that it would only get colder as the sun dropped below the horizon.

What she should have done was make him follow her in the old Ford, then drive him into town and back home in that.  Stupid, she cursed herself.

Stopping for a moment to readjust her scarf, Val stretched her back and wished for warmer weather.  Then, being too practical for anything else, she shook her head and trudged onward.

Hating herself, Val finally, after almost an entire day of ignoring what she knew to be obvious, acknowledged that she wished she'd asked Logan to stay.  Even if she'd been rejected, at least she would have known.  Now, she'd always have to wonder.

"Shut up," she muttered to herself.  "He would have said no thanks.  Places to go, people to see."

Grimacing, she thought back to her very first boyfriend in college.  She'd been way too unsure of herself in high school to even hold a conversation with a guy, much less date him.   

Anyway, it didn't matter anymore.  Men had become tertiary.  She didn't need them.  She didn't want them.  They were almost always trouble. 

Unbidden, she was reminded of the trouble in college.  Having to leave in the middle of her junior year because of the 'incident'.  Her parents had had the nerve to be embarrassed by her.  Red-hot anger flared up at the memory. 

She'd been barely twenty, drinking with a fake id and a bunch of friends, including this new boy she'd been seeing.  It was a small college town in a small suburban Midwestern town.  Nothing special.  But she'd had a few too many drinks and had stupidly gone outside with him, this guy she barely knew, had only just started seeing.  There'd been kissing and groping and when it went a little too far and she protested – after all, who wanted their first time to be up against a wall outside of a bar? – he'd gotten a little angry.

Well, angry wasn't the right word, she corrected herself.  Indignant was the right word.  He'd actually had the gall to call her a cock-tease and then – everything else she could take but this…this! – he'd hit her.  Nothing huge, just a slap across the face, but…she sighed as she remembered her angry response.  He hadn't expected to be hit back.  And she hadn't pulled her punch.

He ended up on the other side of the parking lot with a concussion, three broken ribs, a broken arm, and a sprained ankle.

Horrified with herself, Val had gone to make sure he was okay.  Someone called the police.  She was questioned.  Her parents were called.  She was expelled.    

Afterward, she'd gone home in disgrace and her parents had refused to speak of the incident.

A few months passed, things calmed down and she'd begun dating a local boy.  Chuck Kemp was his name.  She thought back fondly of Chuck.  What a jackass.  He seemed to believe that God had put him on earth for the purpose of pleasing the ladies.

Wanting to please her parents, though, Val had dated him.  She'd been so intent on making everyone else happy, that she'd forgotten about making herself happy.  There was an engagement.  A party.  A happy couple.  And then she'd caught him fucking her worst enemy in their bed less than a week after they'd finished sending out the thank you cards. 

Val paused in the dwindling light to wonder if it would have been easier if he'd been fucking the cliché, her best friend.  She didn't think so.  Her worst enemy, Erin Roberts, had been making Val's life miserable since Kindergarten and had continued to do everything in her power to keep Val's life miserable up through high school.  Erin was everything Val wasn't.  Tall, blonde, thin, popular, and above all, normal

In the heat of the moment, Val had thrown caution to the wind.  She'd been keeping her strength a secret for most of her life, but in the two seconds it took her to recognize the people going at it in her bed, she'd gone a little crazy.

Val threw her husband out the window.  Head first.  And then she threw the slut out the window.  If she remembered correctly, neither had had a moment to put on any clothes and they'd landed on the front lawn as naked as two people who'd just been caught fucking behind someone else's back could be.  The police were called.  Injuries were reported.  And her parents had asked Val to leave. 

Val was getting closer now and she was glad of it.  The light was fading and she wanted to be back at home before it was completely dark.  She'd been living in that little house since her parents had sent her away.  She couldn't believe it was almost five years ago.  Stuck in the middle of nowhere, they'd insisted that she just stay put.  She'd acquiesced, simply because it was the easiest way to keep them quiet, but she never intended on living here forever.  Montana in winter was a bitch.

And yet, here she was, five years later, living alone, lonely as hell, but afraid to rejoin the real world because of what might happen.  What if she couldn't control her anger and she hurt someone else?  A female Hulk is what she'd started thinking of herself as.  Shaking her head, Val noted that she was less than a mile away and was very thankful.  It was too damn cold out to be running around like this. 

Val's parents had found the little house, rented it for her and had asked that she never to return.  That hurt a little.  She couldn't deny it.  Their request that she never come back had made her feel at a loss.  Her family had officially rejected her.  The divorce papers had arrived less than two months later, officially severing the one remaining tie she'd had to her hometown.  In that moment she'd decided to shed her old skin.  She'd taken Latin in high school and she'd always thought that the word "Valens" encompassed her powers beautifully.  Even more perfect, shortened to "Val", no one was any the wiser that it wasn't her real name.  Valens was born and her old self, Elizabeth Morrow Kemp, was gone forever.  The few people in town who'd asked her for a name had been greeted to a stiff, "Val."  She paid cash for everything, so there was no need to start accounts.  Her parents were so adamant that she never return and never re-enter society that she received money from them every month, no matter what.  She was sure that they'd depleted their savings by now, but the checks kept coming.

Gritting her teeth, Val silently told herself to buck up.  There were thousands of people worse off than herself.  Homeless people.  Mutants who'd been cut off from their families but who looked different and were ostracized from society because of it.  She was lucky compared to some and she refused to ignore that.  She would not be a victim.  She was tough.  A survivor.  The world could go fuck itself.  She would carry on no matter what.

The snow crunched under her boots as she made her way up the driveway.  Thank God she was back.  It was so cold she was sure she'd have lost an appendage or two if she'd been out any longer.  Unlocking the door, she thankfully breathed in the warm air that greeted her return to the little house.