Chapter 9: I'll Be Here
Logan groaned as the sky opened up and started pouring rain. Perfect. He was hoping to go out and find a good brawl to get into to ease the tension he'd felt all day, and now it was going to rain. He shrugged as he got off his bike and took off his helmet. Okay, bar brawl out. He grinned maliciously as he left the garage. Remy and Rogue were going to have to ride home in the rain; Scott and Jean's romantic dinner at the Kiss Caf's outdoor dining area was going to need to be moved indoors; Ororo…well, she was probably going to be hanging with her friends, and even Bobby and Hank had gone down to Harry's for the evening. He, thanks to the rain, was going to be stuck in the mansion alone. Chuck was out of town for some conference or another.
He wondered where Jubilee was now. It was Friday night; usually he and Jubes hung out on Friday nights. He'd come to think of it as 'their' night; until she started going out with this new boy. He missed her. He wondered what she was doing right now. Probably curled up with that 'boy' in his apartment. The thought made him grind his teeth.
The wind shifted, and a sudden whiff of scent made him pause. He stopped, took a deeper sniff of the moisture-laden air, and frowned. He could have sworn he caught Jubes's scent at the front door of the mansion. But what was she doing here?
He rounded the corner of the mansion at a run, and stopped short, stunned. Jubilee had fallen to her knees on the front doorstep. Rain soaked her clothing, she was missing one shoe, and her hair hung in lank, wet tangles around her face as she sobbed into her hands. Logan could also smell blood from where he stood, and that scent made him break into a run toward her.
His footstep crunched on the gravel, and she raised her head slowly. "Logan," she whispered, a soft sob following his name. "Help me…" He froze in shock for a moment, then ran to her side. Picking her up easily, he carried her around the side of the mansion to the kitchen door.
He put her down in a kitchen chair and turned the light on, then slid a hand under her chin. One of her pretty blue eyes was swollen shut, and both cheeks were discolored by bruises. Blood and tears streaked her face, which he dabbed at with a damp paper towel. Her nose was still bleeding sluggishly, and he felt the bridge of her nose gently for breaks before applying pressure to stop the bleeding.
"Logan, I'm--" she started to say, but he hushed her with a finger placed gently over her lips. She fell silent, and didn't say another word until he was done tending to her face. He didn't say anything until he was standing at the freezer, collecting ice from the dispenser into a plastic bag and wrapping a towel around it. He came back to the table, handed her the bag quietly, which she placed over her swollen eye, and then sat down opposite him as he took her hand. "Jubes, what happened?"
"Chris…" Jubilee choked back a sob. "Logan, he was what you told me he was. We went to the country club, and he gave me a ring…look…" She held out a hand, and Logan stared at the diamond on it. "I told him I didn't want to get engaged yet, but he said I could wear it anyway…" and she went on to tell him about the club, the events at the apartment, and finally about her escape. Logan sat quietly through it all, holding her hand as she talked and finally took her in his arms as she sobbed. She put the ice down on the table, leaned forward and rested her head on his shoulder, and started to cry. "I'm so sorry I didn't listen to you, Logan, I'm so sorry, please don't be mad at me…"
"Ssh," he said, patting her back gently as she sobbed. "It's okay, Jubes, I ain't mad at ya, I'm mad at the stupid son of a--"
She yelped suddenly, and he froze. Pulling up the end of her ripped shirt, he flinched as he saw the huge black bruise on her lower ribs. "Jubes…" Without waiting for her permission, he pulled her shirt off completely until she was sitting in front of him in her wet shorts and bra. He stared at the bruises on her ribs and chest, traced the large one that covered her upper left chest and disappeared into her bra where Chris had kicked her; and sucked in a breath. "That boy's gonna have a meetin' with my claws," he snapped when he recovered from his shock. "Come on. Let's get you up to bed." He hauled one of her arms across the back of his neck, and lifted her out of the chair. They made their way up the stairs to her room.
She sat limply down on her bed, too drained to move. Logan hunted through her drawers until he found her favorite pajamas, then stripped off her wet shorts and underclothing, and helped her get dressed. So intent was he on getting her settled, he completely ignored her nudity. He went to the bathroom for some ointment for the raw scrape on her forehead where she had collided with the door, and a bandage. By the time he got back from the bathroom, she was almost asleep on her feet. He lowered her gently into bed, tucked her in, and then cleaned, medicated, and bandaged the scrape on her forehead. By the time he finished, she was asleep.
He stood looking at her for a while before closing the door quietly. He went to the bathroom, replaced the supplies he'd used, then went to his room, stretched out on his bed, and lay staring at the ceiling for a long time, trying to come up with a suitably painful way of disposing of the insolent puppy who'd hurt his Jubes.
He was just drifting off to sleep when his room door creaked open, and he saw Jubilee in her pajamas standing in the doorway. She was shaking slightly, and he could smell her tears from where he lay. She hesitated, as if unwilling to bother him, but he scooted back on his bed and picked up a corner of the blankets in invitation. She slipped between the sheets and snuggled up against him, spoon-fashion, and he tucked the covers around her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders as she cried. He held her like that, not saying a word, just offering her comfort, until she went to sleep.
When he woke the next morning she was still tucked against his side, but the lines on her face had smoothed out a bit. He stroked her hair back from her bruised face, studied the black eye. It looked bad, but it would fade away in a couple of days. He planted a kiss on her forehead, relieved that at least the bastard hadn't raped her, and slipped deftly out of bed, grabbing a discarded pillow from the floor to tuck against her. She hugged the pillow close to her body and settled back into deep sleep. And he was careful not to wake her as he slid the ugly diamond from her hand and dropped it into his pocket before he left the room.
Chris emerged from the elevator and walked out to his car, parked a little way from the entrance to the parking garage. He was almost there when he saw that someone had slashed it up.
"What the hell?!" he snarled as he saw the three parallel slashes up and down the side of his Mercedes. Whatever had done the damage had cut straight through the aluminum of the door panels and peeled the metal back, exposing the steel body frame of the car. "Who the hell ruined my car?!" He ran his hand over the slashes, jerking his hand back as the jagged metal cut his hand, and cursed. He yanked out his cell phone, flipped it open, put it to his ear…and then froze as a sharp adamantium claw pierced the middle of the phone and gently dimpled the skin just under his ear.
"Don't even think 'bout it, pal," came a rough, gravelly voice from behind him.
"Look," Chris said nervously. "I got money, you can have all of it, and hey, here's the gold Rolex I just bought. It's brand new, I just got it. Just don't hurt me, please--" And he shut up as the claw dimpled his skin inward, and a drop of blood ran down his neck.
"Give me one good reason why I oughtta listen to ya," he heard that gravelly voice say again. "Ya didn't listen to Jubilee when she told ya she wanted ta go home." The claw dug a little deeper into his neck, and he gave an involuntary whimper of fear. "Oh, ya want me ta leave ya alone, eh? Well, I'll make a deal with ya. We're gonna go upstairs an' yer gonna give me every scrap of anything that belongs to her that you might have. Then you're gonna promise ta forget she even exists. Once we're done that, I'll let ya have yer miserable little life! How's that fer a deal?"
"O-okay. Anything you want. Just don't hurt me, okay?" Logan snorted a little inwardly. Coward. He could beat up women, but he couldn't face a man his own size.
They went back into the elevator, and went up to Chris's apartment in silence. Chris opened the door, and Logan pushed him in on the point of his claw, then stopped. Jubilee's bag was right beside a large stain of blood on the carpet that must have come from her bleeding nose the day before. Seeing the blood made his anger rise to the surface again, but he controlled it with difficulty as he bent over, checked the bag to ensure all of Jubilee's things were in it, then prodded Chris again. "Where's her ring?" he asked.
"What?"
Logan slid his claw another millimeter into the skin of the boy's neck. "She was wearin' a sapphire band I gave her fer her twentieth birthday. Ya took it off her when ya forced her ta wear that ugly rock ya bought fer her. Which, by the way, is right here." He threw the rock at Chris. "She don't want it, an' she don't want you. Gimme her ring back, an' we'll be even."
Chris dug a black velvet jewelry box out of his coat pocket. "I was gonna go sell it," he whined. "She ought to pay me fer the damage she did to my carpet."
Logan slid his claw into Chris's neck another millimeter. "What about the damage ya done her?" he demanded. "What 'bout that? What 'bout her black eye? Her bruised rib? The scrape on her forehead? Ya thought 'bout that?" He snorted as Chris froze again. "I guess ya didn't." He slipped the ring into the bag, zipped it up, and took his claw out of Chris's neck. Blood flowed, but not as much as Logan would have liked. He snarled. "Don't call. Don't try ta see her. Forget 'bout her. Got me?" He stepped closer, until his face was right in Chris's own. "Ya better thank God that she got outta here 'fore ya forced yerself on her. If ya had, you'd be bleedin' yer pathetic little life out on the floor right now."
Without waiting for an answer, he turned and left.
Jubilee was still in bed when he got home. Her ribs were badly bruised, Hank had said when he examined her that morning, and he'd told Jubilee to stay in bed and take it easy for a while. Jean and Ororo had been indignant, and wanted Jubilee to press charges, but Jubilee shook her head. She just wanted to forget the whole thing.
She looked up with a watery-eyed smile as Logan came into her room with her bag. "Was everything there?" she asked as he sat on the bed in front of her and unzipped the bag.
"Got all yer stuff," he said, nodding, "Including this." He opened the little black velvet box and showed her the sapphire ring.
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she took it. "Oh, Logan." She slipped it onto her middle finger, where she'd always worn it, and looked at it there for a moment before leaning forward to hug him. "Thank you, Logan…oh, thank you, I'm so sorry, Logan, I love you…"
He hugged her back, his heart aching. "I love ya too, Jubes. Remember, no matter how bad it gets, or how mad I seem, I'll be here fer ya. I'll always be here."
"Thanks, Logan," Jubilee said softly, hugging him. They sat there like that for a while, until they were interrupted by a softly-cleared throat in the doorway.
Remy stood there, looking a little uncertain but smiling gamely. "Whatcha want, Cajun?" Logan growled, but there was no ire in his voice.
"De p'tite not feeling so good, Remy t'ought maybe he bring flowers to cheer her up," he said, walking into the room and producing a bouquet of sweetly-scented roses from behind his back. Jubilee smiled, grabbed the roses Chris had given her from the vase on her bedside table, and dropped Remy's roses in it. "There. That's a lot better."
"Maybe when de p'tite feelin' better she let Remy take her out on a date?" Remy looked hopeful.
Jubilee smiled weakly. "No, I don't think so, Remy. I think I'll swear off men for a while; I don't seem to be having much luck." She sighed.
Remy smiled gently. "S'okay. Remy understan'. But I hope you still feelin' up to dat wet t-shirt contest over at Dotson's?"
Jubilee threw back her head and laughed.