Chapter 11: Movie Night

"Popcorn?"

Jubilee held up the bowl, full to the brim of hot, steaming, buttery popcorn. "Extra butter and salt, from Emma's private stash," she said with a grin.

"Pizza?"

She nodded toward the two boxes stacked atop one another. "Large pepperoni, large sausage," she said. "They were having a two for one deal."

"Beer?"

She grinned and reached into the cooler beside the couch. "Twelve pack of Molson." She handed Logan a bottle. "Now what movies did you get?" She leaned over and grabbed the bag from him, rifling through it. "Ooh. The Ring. Haven't seen that one yet. The commercials for it on TV looked creepy." She looked up at Logan. "Have you seen it yet?"

"Nope. First time for both o' us." Logan tossed back a mouthful of his beer as she continued to rummage in the bag. Any time now. Remy should be coming in any time now…

"Resident Evil! Oh, Ange and Ev tried to get Paige and me to watch that once and we thought it was so totally gross so we didn't. But I'll watch it if you want to."

And at just that moment, Remy popped his head around the doorframe and gave Logan a wink and a nod. Logan grinned back and nodded, and Remy's head disappeared. Jubilee, engrossed in the contents of the bag, never saw the Cajun.

"Hey." Logan took the bag out of Jubilee's hand. "Come with me for a moment."

"Why? What's up?" Jubilee was comfortable on the sofa, and she didn't want to get up, but Logan wasn't taking no for an answer. He shoved her slippers at her, waited a few seconds while she put them on, and started to the garage. Jubilee, her interest piqued by his behavior, followed him.

It was a warm fall night outside. The rain had just begun, a light mist that wasn't enough to get them wet yet but soon would be. The old maple behind the garage was turning a bright yellow, and its color guided Jubilee and Logan through the darkness to the garage. Logan opened the door, reached for the light switch, and flipped it on.

"What? I don't see…" Jubilee walked into the garage, took a look around.

Logan gave an exasperated sigh and gripped her shoulders, turning her to look at the motorcycle corner.

"Logan? What…whose bike is that…." She turned to look at him, and he let the broad smile that had been hovering around his lips finally show through.

"Yers, darlin'. Don't ya recognize it?"

Jubilee stared back at the bike. "But…I thought you said…it wasn't fixable…" She trailed off, going to the bike, running her hands over the smooth, polished, gleaming dark-blue paint.

Logan watched her with a grin. After Emma had picked them up in the van, Remy had gone out with Logan and the trailer to pick up his and Jubilee's bikes while Hank bandaged her ankle. His was still where he'd last left it, in perfect shape. Jubilee's bike, however, hadn't been in the best of shape when she took it out to go follow him, and when he saw it lying on its side, dented and forgotten, he marveled at her tenacity. Her footprints were clearly visible in the dirt, too; she had dropped her bike, run out onto the bridge, and jumped off. There was no hesitation, no stopping. He was shocked.

"She love you, Logan," Remy had said as they hauled the dented, battered hulk onto the trailer. "She love dat bike…but she love you more. I don' know anybody who would jump into a river to save my derriere; Jubes probably de only person in de world who goin' to do dat for you. Don' let dat slip away, Logan. Love like dat is very hard to find."

Her bike, when they got back to the mansion, proved in very bad shape. The engine was completely busted. Logan couldn't fix all of that himself, so he told Jubilee that her bike was unfixable. She had looked sad, then she said to him, "At least I still have you." That had brought a lump to his throat. The next day he'd taken her bike to Max's, a shop in the Village that specialized in bike restoration, and had it completely fixed. Max'd put a new engine in, added more parts, and then did a custom paint job as per Logan's instructions. Remy had gone out this afternoon to pick it up while Logan distracted Jubilee with the promise of a movie night (with rented movies, as a way to make up for missing the other one) and then Remy and Bobby had sat in the garage for the better part of an hour polishing and cleaning the bike until it looked like it had just come off the showroom floor.

Jubilee turned toward him, tears in her eyes, as she trailed a hand down the side of the gas tank. Logan had had three claw marks painted down the side, with painted-on bits of silver metal peeling away from it. It looked as though he had taken his claws and scored each side of the bike…except it was painted on. He had to admit that the paint job looked pretty damn good.

The breath rushed out of his lungs as Jubilee barreled into him at her fastest pace (she could still run pretty fast, even on a slight leg limp) and proceeded to hug the breath out of him. "Oh Wolvie I love you it's the most gorgeous present I could have gotten besides you I was totally not expecting it it's so beautiful!" All in one breath. Logan hugged her back, tightly. "Glad I could make ya happy, Jubes," he said quietly. "Least I coulda done fer ya after ya saved my life."

"Oh, Wolvie." Jubilee leaned back and looked at him. "I didn't do it 'cause I wanted thanks from you, I did it because I love you. I'll always be here for you, Wolvie, just like you've always been here for me."

His face darkened as he touched the tiny scar at the back of her neck, where the mind-sifter Bastion had used on her had rubbed her scalp raw and left a scar. "I ain't always been here fer ya, darlin'," he said glumly.

"You're only human, Wolvie," Jubilee said quietly, pinning him with blue eyes so full of love and forgiveness that he felt that lump rising in his throat again. "You can't be everywhere all the time. You can't watch over me all the time. Stop blaming yourself for not being there, Wolvie. Because I don't."

He looked at her for a long moment, reading the trust, the love, the deep friendship that had built up between them over the years in her eyes, and the tension and distance of the past few years melted away. She would try to be there for him, as he would try to be there for her. And if they couldn't, well…

He fished into his pocket for the little object he'd taken from his drawer earlier. After she had shoved it into his hand that day by the pool, he hadn't had the guts to give it back to her…and he hadn't, for some reason, been able to throw it away either. It was only a little silver piece of jewelry, anyway. If one of his enemies saw it, they would know that Logan had someone who cared about him, who loved him, and would avenge his death if they killed him. And Jubilee was fully capable of doing it, too. If she could jump into a river after him with no surety that she would make it out alive…oh, whoever got on her bad side would have more to deal with than they could ever know. "Here," he said, dropping the little silver 'L' dog tag, on its chain, into her palm. "If I can't be with ya in body, least you'll know I'll be there in spirit." When she hesitated, he pulled his dog tags out from under his shirt, and showed her the third little silver one, the 'J' tag, hanging beside his old ones. Jubilee flashed him a look of pure happiness, then clasped her own necklace around her neck.

"Let's go for a ride," she said impulsively.

He grinned at her. "Not really dressed for it, darlin'," he said. "And it's rainin' outside. An' all them goodies ya got back at the house're gettin' cold. Pizza, especially. An' I went an' rented all those movies fer ya, don't ya wanna watch them?"

Jubilee laughed, throwing her arm around his waist. "How could I pass up a movie night with my best pal?" she said, heading for the door. "Let's go. We'll go riding tomorrow."

Remy was sitting comfortably on the end of the couch, with the bowl of popcorn in his lap. "Which movies you get, chere?" he asked, completely ignoring (apparently) Logan's glowering presence beside her.

"Hey. It's our movie night. Scram, Gumbo," Logan warned. "Got those movies fer Jubes an' me, not Jubes an' you."

Remy looked slightly miffed. "After de way you blow her off de las' time, I'm surprised she goin' to do anyt'ing wit' you," he said dryly.

Jubilee attacked him, her fingers busy tickling along his ribs. "I forgive easily!" she said as Remy howled in laughter. "Especially when it comes to Wolvie!"

Remy hauled himself up off the couch, looking sheepish. "All right, all right! Remy know where he not wanted." He fled the room to Jubilee and Logan's mingled laughter, and they both plunked down on the couch.

Jubilee snuggled up next to Logan as he slipped the DVD in the player.

For a long time after the movie ended, Logan sat staring at the blank screen in the darkness, listening to Jubilee's even, quiet breathing. It had been a while since they'd done one of these; he was surprised to find how much he'd missed it. The way she burrowed into his side during the scary parts, the small sarcastic comments she'd make when a part was especially cheesy—he missed that. "You were right, Gumbo," he said into the darkness finally, knowing Remy was there without having to see him. "Love like this is really hard ta find. I don't think I've ever had it like this from any woman. Just Jubes."

"Right," said a dark form by the dark doorway, and there was the flicker of a lighter as Remy lit his cigarette in complete defiance of the non-smoking rule in the mansion. "Remy never fin' dat before. If you got it, hang onto it."

"She said she's always going to be there for me, Rem. But I can't always be there for her."

"She not always goin' to be dere for you neit'er, Logan. But she goin' to try. And not'ing stopping you from goin' after her if she get into trouble, too."

Logan looked down at the sleeping Jubilee in his lap. And she really was sleeping, not the feigned kind he knew she could fake. Her breathing told him that. "I'd go to hell for her," he said. "An' back, too."

"I know," Remy said. He gripped Logan's shoulder gently. "Why not take her upstairs to bed? Remy clean up here."

Logan bent over Jubilee. "Hey, Jubes?"

She stirred. "We just had one yesterday morning, Scott," she mumbled, still half-asleep. "Not again."

Remy stifled his snicker as Logan grinned. "Jubes, it's me. Last movie's over, it's time for bed."

Jubilee's blue eyes opened sleepily. "Oh. Okay." She climbed out of the depths of the couch, waited for Logan to rise, then, half-leaning on him, left the room. Remy watched them go with an amused smile, and then turned back to the litter of beer bottles and empty pizza boxes on the table.