"I know what precognitive means." he said, testily. "You told me you weren't a mutant."
"I'm not," she said. "I'm from a long line of precognitive women. We're not mutants. None of us have the X factor in our genetic codes."
His eyes narrowed. "Sure sounds like a mutant trait to me."
"I know it does but trust me, it's not."
He paid the tab and they left the diner, returning to the road. He drove in silence for a while before asking the question that was uppermost in his mind.
"What did you see?"
Her head whipped around to look at him, surprise evident on her face.
"You believe me?"
"Darlin, I'm a mutant. I've seen all sorts of things that are supposed to be impossible. My life should be impossible. I can heal from wounds that should be fatal, including being shot in the heart. I believe just about anything."
She smiled coyly at him.
"I saw you making love to a woman. Sometime in the near future, you will find a woman who can match you. She will heal you in a way you yourself can't."
Logan found himself blushing for the first time in a very long time.
"Well," he said after clearing his throat. "I'm no saint."
She sniggered. "Aren't you curious?"
He ignored her for another twenty miles before his curiosity got the better of him.
"OK," he gave in. "What did she look like?"
She chose her words carefully. "That's the funny thing. I didn't see her. Just you and a female form. I usually see everyone who is involved in a vision but this time I didn't." He could never know she was lying. She saw the woman Logan would love. It was the second part of a vision she had last year. That vision was why she needed to get to Washington. This vision would break Logan. There was nothing she could do to help him now. Fate was in control.
They drove on until midnight. Logan found an out of the way motel and stopped for the night. He knew they should continue on but he was tired. Mistakes were made when you were tired. That last battle took more out of him than he thought. If only he could remember it.
They got a room with two beds. Kate fell asleep quickly. Logan was a little too keyed up to sleep yet. He went to the bar across the street and ordered a beer. Picking up his beer, he went to the pay phone in the back and placed a collect call.
It was three AM in New York and Scott Summers was not pleased to have the phone jangling in his ear. He was in the middle of a great dream that involved Jean, a big tub of Cool Whip and for some reason, a standard poodle. Grumbling, he got out of bed and answered the phone.
"And good morning to you, grumpy," Logans' cheerful voice came through the handset.
"Logan, it's three AM." At the sound of his voice, his wife, Jean rolled over and opened her eyes.
"Logan," she whispered.
"Go back to sleep," he told her.
"Logan," he said into the receiver, "Why are you calling at this ungodly hour. And why are you calling at all. I thought I told you to regain your balance."
"Working on it, Slim. I need you to research someone for me. Her name is Katherine Dempsey."
"Katherine Dempsey." Scott repeated. "Why am I looking her up?"
"She's commin for a visit," Logan replied. "Thought you'd like to know as much as possible before we showed up."
"Logan, if this is another one of your floozies, I'll blast you into next week." he began angrily.
"Ask Hank. I gotta feelin he may know her." Logan interrupted. "Give my love to Jubes."
With that he hung up. Cyclops was best taken in small doses.
Scott gripped the phone in a temper.
"Scott," Jean said. "Logan usually has a good reason for doing what he does. Come back to bed. Let me see what I can do about that dream of yours. Lets try it without the poodle."
He grinned, wolfishly and climbed into bed and into the arms of his wife.
Logan finished his beer and returned to the room. Kate was fast asleep but restless. Logan could sympathize. He had nightmares that would frequently wake the entire house. Nothing Jean of the Professor could do stopped them. He wasn't sure he wanted them to stop. They were the only clue to his past. Some one had used him as a lab rat in the past. Fifteen years ago, he woke up in the middle of a forest, naked, exhausted and covered in blood not his own. He had no idea who he was or what had happened to him. He only knew his name was Logan. He spent a lot of his time trying to find out what happened to him. Yeah, he could sympathize with her.
Her scream jolted him out of his bed and across the room before he realized there was no visible threat. He sheathed his claws and rushed over to her.
"Kate," he called grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. "Wake up. You're having a nightmare."
Her eyes popped open and raced wildly around the room.
"Oh God," she whispered with a shaky voice. "They're all dead."
"Who are, Katie?"
"The plane went down in the mountains and they all died. I felt them all die."
"What plane?"
"Trans Continental. I didn't see the flight number but it has already left. They're in the air now. I'm too late." She began to sob. "God, Logan. I hate this."
He gathered her into his arms and began to rock her. This was a threat he couldn't protect her from. He whispered quiet nonsense to her in an effort to calm her down. Slowly, she began to relax.
Her head came up and watery green eyes looked back at him. Her hand reached out to him and stroked his face.
"You're a good man, Logan," she said with a weak smile. "Don't let anyone tell you different."
For the first time, Logan really looked at her. She was incredible. Clouds of red hair framed her face. His body told him he was holding a very female form in his arms. He had thought that she was a child but the woman in his arms was no child. She was warm and soft with curves in all the right places. She had the most magnificent breasts he had ever had the pleasure of gazing at. He glanced back to her eyes. He knew he was in trouble. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. He bent his head and took her mouth with a feathery kiss. That was the end for him. He kissed her again. Arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss. He couldn't stop if his life was depending on it. He had to have more. He lifted hid mouth from hers.
"Are ya sure, Katie?"
Her arms pulled him back down in response.
"Please, Logan. Don't leave me like this. I can't take it."
It was wild. It was sweet. It was the most incredible night he had ever had. She wasn't afraid of him at all. She explored every inch of him, and he, her. He found a spot behind her right knee that left her breathless with laughter. She found a spot on his lower back that left him breathless with passion. By the time the sun rose the next morning, he was more than a little in love with her. Finally, they slept.
Logan woke feeling better than he had in years. His dreams had been untroubled by the nightmares of the past few weeks. He stretched out to gather her into his arms but she was gone. He opened his eyes and found her sitting on the other bed, watching a special report on TV. A jet had gone down in the Colorado mountains during the night, killing all 142 people on board. His heart sank. She had seen this happen forty five minutes before it happened. She was precognitive. He knelt in front of her and took her face in his hands.
"There was nothing you could have done for them, Kate."
"I could have warned them."
"Would they have listened?"
"No," she said. "They would have accused me of bringing the plane down."
H kissed her lightly. "Let's go. The next team will start out today. We need to be gone before they can track us here."
As it was, the next team was outside the door. Logan smelled them just before they kicked they way into the room. Kate dove under the bed. Logan, however, never hid in his life and he wasn't going to start now. He joined the fray with claws flashing. In less than a minute, three were dead. He wounded the last one enough to stop the attack.
"Tell your boss," he growled at the last assassin, "Kate has a protector. Any more teams come after her and they die. Got it?"
"Why are you protecting her," the wounded man asked. "She worked in a lab that used up animals like you."
Logan, his temper gone, lashed out and cuffed the man with an adamantium laced fist. The assassin slid to the floor, senseless.
"Come out Kate," he called. "They're dead."
"Logan," a small voice came from under the bed. "Is there anything you want to tell me about yourself?"
He went to the bathroom to clean his claws. As he came back into the room, he found her sitting on the bed fully dressed. She deserved an answer to her question.
"I was a lab rat for the Canadian government a number of years ago. They grafted adamantium to my bones. The claws are most likely part of my mutation."
She was stunned. How could he have survived something like that. It must have been incredibly painful. No wonder he had an attitude. Normal humans would have died from the shock not to mention the pain.
"Oh my God, Logan"
"It was a long time ago. I don't really remember the procedure. I have nightmares about pain."
She didn't know what to say. None of her words could change what had happened to him or relieve the pain he still felt at the rape of his life. She knew the governments of Canada and the United States had done some questionable experiments on mutants decades ago but how could he have been a part of them. He looked around thirty five years old. Most of those programs ended twenty years ago. He would have been a child when it started. Metal doesn't grow.
He noticed her confusion. "What's wrong?"
"How old are you?" she asked cautiously.
"Not entirely sure," he replied. "I have memories of the second world war. I remember fighting in the south pacific but not which island."
She was stunned. "Your healing factor." she said suddenly. "It must make you nearly immortal."
"I don't know about that, darlin." he said, embarrassed. "It takes a beatin from time to time. There's no sure way to tell if it has a limit. It may decrease as I get older, it may not. Only time will tell."
He got dressed and grabbed their bags. "We gotta go,"
"Logan," she said. "How did they find us so quickly this time?"
"Not sure," he replied as the got in the Jeep. "We'll get as far away as we can in two hours of driving then look through out things. I think we may have a tracker on us." They were one hundred fifty miles from the motel after two hours of driving. Kate's' nerves were a wreck. Logan drove without regard to speed limits or road conditions. He found a roadside rest stop to take a look at their things. They took everything out of their bags and looked at them with a wary eye. They found nothing. They pulled off their clothing and looked through them. Still nothing. He looked her over, closely.
"The locket." he said.
"My father gave this to me when I was ten. It can't be that." she protested.
"Give it here," he ordered.
"But," she began.
"Kate, give it to me."
She sighed and took the necklace off and gave it to him. Logan opened the locket and looked at the inside. There was a picture of a beautiful redhead that looked very much like Kate. He flicked a claw.
"Logan, wait," she cried. "You'll cut it up. I'll do it."
She took the locket from him and pulled the picture out of it. There was a space behind the picture that should have a lock of her mothers' hair. There, they found what they were looking for. A small chip.
What to do with the chip was a bone of contention. Logan was not an expert in computer hardware. He hoped they could crush the chip and go on from there. Kate knew differently. She recognized the chip. It was the type used in aircraft black boxes. It could survive the crash and burn of an airliner. Stomping on it wouldn't do anything.
They would be watching the chip. It needed to keep moving or they would know it had been found. She had an idea.
"Logan," she said "Find me a small animal. Don't kill it."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to give these people something to chase."
Logan began to grin. "I have a better idea."
He found what he wanted hibernating nearby. A male wolverine, still groggy from winter sleep and cold. He attached the chip to the animal with a deft little knot and returned him to his den.
"Logan, these things are vicious." she began. The she got it. Wolverines hated to be treated roughly. Whoever reached in to pull it out would regret it for a very long time.
"Oh," she said, grinning. "You're bad."
The packed up their things and returned to the road.
The next few days passed without incident. The nights passed in a haze of passion. It was as if they couldn't stop. Sleep was the last thing on their minds. After the third night without sleep, she came to a decision.
"Logan," she began. "We can't continue spending our nights making love. We have to sleep."
He looked over at her grinning. "Wore ya out, huh?"
She smiled in as she recalled last night. "It's not that. I need sleep."
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her deeply. "I can't help finding you sexy darlin. I got needs."
"Needs huh." she laughed. "Isn't sleep a need?"
"OK darlin." he told her. "I'll let you sleep tonight. I want to do something about that information you have first. So you have a copy of the stuff you took from the computer?"
"Yeah," she said, confused. "On disc. What are you planning to do?"
"I'm going to send it to a friend. If you get caught with the disc, all of the information will be lost. This way, you'll have a back up. They can't kill you until they get it all back."
"Good idea. Who are you going to send it to?"
"X Men"
This startled her. "How do you know they'll accept it?"
"I'm one of em." he said as he got into the car.
She stood there, speechless.
"What?" she exclaimed. "Are you kidding me?"
"Get in the car darlin."
"Wait a minute." she said. "You can't drop a bomb like that without explaining."
"Get in the car and I'll explain."
She gave up and got in the car. He explained how he came to the X Men. The talked a long time about what they represented and his role on the team. He told her about his team mates and told her some of the funnier conflicts he had with Cyclops. He told her about the school and the kids he had become so fond of. He mentioned Professor Xavier and Hank McCoy.
"Dr. Henry McCoy?" she asked excitedly. "The geneticist?"
He dropped the package into a mailbox.
"Yeah," he said surprised. "You know him?"
"I studied under him at Colombia. He's brilliant." Wheels began to turn in her head.
"I sending the disk to Hank and Chuck. They'll keep it safe."
"OK," she agreed. "They won't be able to read the disc. It's encrypted with an unbreakable code."
"Don't count them out," he warned.
"The code isn't in English," she said. "The information isn't in English either."
"Obscure language?" he asked.
"About as dead as it comes." she told him. "I don't speak anything other than English but I read 42 different languages, most of them dead."
"Scary big brain." he said with a smile.
"Strange early education," she replied. "My father was an anthropologist. Mother was the scientist and smarter than Dad. She worked on the very early computers. She was the one who first sparked my interest in computers. She also was the one who got me into genetics. She was a gifted geneticist. Her work was directly responsible for the cure for Cystic Fibrosis. She died two years before the cure was presented to the FDA."
"You come by your brains honestly," he remarked.
The drove on in easy silence for another thirty miles before Logan's brain finally kicked in. The cure for CP was developed almost thirty five years ago. Kate had clear memories of her mother. She was considerably older than she appeared.
"Kate," he began
"I was wondering how long it would take you to figure the math. I'm 45 years old. Genetics is my second career. I worked as a computer programmer for the first twenty years of my adult life. I designed several security programs that are still in use today. The best of them, I update monthly."
"You don't look a day over twenty five," he remarked. "Are you sure you aren't a mutant?"
"I'm sure," she told him. "Mother died from breast cancer. Mutants are immune to most cancers, including breast cancer. She never looked older than twenty. She was forty seven when she died."
She was quiet for ten minutes. When she spoke again, it was with a slow sad voice.
"Daddy never got over her death." she said. "Neither did I."
His arm came around her and pulled her close. They drove on.