Okay, it occurs to me that I have not posted a disclaimer in any of my previous chapters so I'll make it known now that Joss is my creation and as such belongs to me. Every other character featured in this fic is the property of Marvel (I think, not me anyway) unless otherwise specified.

Please don't sue me...I don't have shit.

4

It was a forty minute drive back to the 'Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters' but Logan made it in fifteen, still, Joscelyn was unconscious by the time they arrived but breathing steadily. He picked her up gently and carried her up the steps kicking the front door open.

"Jean!" he yelled heading for the recreation room where he could hear the television on. She met him in the corridor, accompanied by Cyclops, concern spreading over her face as she saw what he was carrying.

"Logan, what the hell? Who is that?" Cyclops demanded, "What happened to her?"

"Her name is Lynx" he answered unsure why he didn't tell them her real name. "She needs a bit of patching up."

Jean led the way to the infirmary in the lower levels of the school and indicated for him to lay her on the table then removed Logan's jacket and gasped at the amount of blood on the wrong side of the girls' skin.

"Logan what happened to her?" she asked cutting away Joscelyn's ripped shirt to clean the wounds. "Who did this?"

"Some of our friendly homo-sapien cousins." He replied drawing her attention to the bullet wound and removing the tourniquet he had applied.

Jean watched him work for a moment amazed at his delicacy and care with this strange girl before remembering that she was the qualified physician and took over bandaging the wounds.

Logan had wanted to stay in the infirmary with Joss whilst she slept just in case she woke up but Jean had ordered him to bed (his own unfortunately) saying he needed rest so he was surprised when the professor woke him in the early morning with a telepathic message:

Logan, can you make your way to the infirmary immediately please! He quickly pulled on a pair of jeans and a clean t-shirt and ran barefoot down to the lower levels.

"What happened?"he asked running down the corridor. Jean, Cyclops and Storm were all standing outside of the closed infirmary doors with the Professor looking anxious.

"Young Lynx woke up earlier than expected and attacked Jean!" Scott answered angrily; he had always preferred the helpless scared kids to the ones who could actually take him in a fight.

"It's okay Scott" Jean assured laying a hand on his arm; she had a red mark and slight swelling around her right eye threatening to bruise. Logan was reminded of the time he had almost strangled her upon waking up in the same position Joss had found herself in. "She's just scared. Logan we were hoping you might be able to talk to her, if she recognises you, you may be able to calm her down." She looked concerned "I'm worried about her; she's still hurt and there are scalpels and drugs in there." He nodded and started for he doors.

"I'll talk to her, she'll be fine" he told her reassuringly.

"Oh yeah" muttered Cyclops to himself "because Logan is such a sensitive soul!" Logan spun round and came to face him threateningly, growling. Cyclops, to his credit didn't back down but after a moment leaned past Logan to hit the keypad unlocking the infirmary and gestured towards the opening door. Nodding curtly Logan stepped inside and closed the door behind him resisting the urge to drag Cyclops in with him.

Entering the room Logan barely had time to register her presence before he was bowled over by Joss and found himself lying on his back with her perched on his chest holding a scalpel painfully close to his Adams apple.

"You Fuck!!" she breathed pressing still harder "a school for mutants" she adopted a pretty convincing imitation of his voice "yeah sure!! This doesn't look like a school to me! You think I've never woken up in a lab before?!"

Her breathing was laboured and she shook her head as if clearing her vision. Logan felt something on his chest and looked down to see blood dripping from the freshly opened wound on her stomach.

"You know that's the second of my shirts you've ruined in less than twelve hours, I'm gonna have to start charging you for these."

Caught off guard by his humour she pushed off of his chest and stood back allowing him to get up, he did so slowly, being careful not to move suddenly. Joss was standing a short way off eying him suspiciously still clutching the weapon.

He approached her slowly speaking in what he hoped was a reassuring tone, stopping when she started to emit a low, rumbling growl very much like that of a big cat.

"I didn't lie to you. This is a school, the woman you attacked is teacher here, and her name is Jean. There are three others outside: a woman with long white hair called Storm, a geeky looking guy with red shades called Scott or Cyclops and an old bald guy in a wheelchair, his name is Professor Xavier, he's the principle, there are others too, all mutants." He approached a little more, stopping when the warning growl started up again. "I would have introduced you earlier but you were more than a little unconscious." She thought for a while before nodding, still a little wary. She had, had more than one unpleasant experience waking up in a strange place in the past but felt , for some reason she couldn't place that, she could trust Logan.

"Yeah, okay" she granted. "Sorry. Was that women...uh, Jean too pissed? I was a little surprised; waking up to see a big ass syringe next to your head can be quite disconcerting."

"That's okay." He said gently "Pity you didn't hit Cyclops though, I get in slightly more trouble if I do. You can join me in his bad books though for hitting his fiancé." She cringed.

"Fiancé?"

"'Fraid so. Don't worry she's already forgiven you and the only one who really cares what Cyclops thinks is Cyclops." She sniggered and he relaxed a little.

"So if this really is a school" she asked, "what do you teach?" Logan hesitated no one had really asked him what he actually did all day before, although Storm had suggested that he teach gym he was dubious; most of the kids were afraid of him and he thought they would probably skip class.

"I'm more...umm...maintenance/security." He replied "not really one for the classroom. This place is all right though, you'll find out for yourself if you want to stay. You don't have to pay anything; the professor funds all of the students here." God, he thought, I really sound like Cyclops, trying to force the poor kid into learning!

"Somehow I don't think these people are going to want me to stay here after I tried to kill one of them." She replied, glumly.

"Hey, they took in one guy even after he set fire to their jet; I think they can get over one black eye. Do you want to stay?" she looked up at him and shrugged forlornly.

"I want to be able to stay anywhere for more than a few days without someone trying to kill me." Logan knelt down next to her and frowned.

"Why exactly were those guys trying to kill you?" she smiled guiltily

"I may have tried to do them out of a few hundred grand." he cocked one eyebrow.

"How?"

"Well, I figured that what with the whole being stupid truck drivers thing they wouldn't have slightest idea what to look for in a 2ounce 24carat diamond." She shrugged. "Unfortunately, they did." Logan cast his mind back to the headline of the newspaper he hade been reading the previous morning, something, he remembered about a 2ounce 24carat diamond being stolen from the New York city museum. He looked at her suspiciously.

"You haven't been to the New York City Museum recently have you?" Joss blushed.

"Why would I want to do that?" she asked innocently "Their security's shite." He raised his eyebrow again but decided that the less he knew about it the less Professor Xavier could fish out of his brain at a later date.

"So, you wanna stay then?" she considered for a moment. She was very tempted by the concept of a permanent home though taking lessons might be a bit of a drag.

"Yeah, go on then."