Disclaimer: Same as always, I don't own the rights to anything.

Sidenote: A big thank you again to Regan Trinity for beta reading this for me.

I woke up at once with my lungs hurting and feeling awkwardly both hot and cold at the same time. I looked around me, but it was too dark to see anything. I was lying on a cot in the back of something, I assumed it to be a truck since we were moving, then I went back to sleep.

The next time I woke up, I was lying on a couch in a dimly lit room. I quickly searched around me, trying to find something that might help me understand what was going on. I looked to my right, from where I was lying on my stomach, and saw him, Logan, sitting in a chair, watching me.

"What's going on?" I breathed, my voice sounding hoarse.

"You fell asleep and I went to the bathroom. While I was gone two guys broke in, knocked you out, pulled you into your office, stole the money that was in the cash register and set the place on fire,"

"Did you get hurt?" I asked.

"No, I'm fine, but I probably need to check you out to make sure you're okay,"

"Yeah, alright," I said, sitting up and feeling pain immediately rush to my head. I reached my hand up to feel the sore spot and felt something crusty. I pulled my hand away and saw dry blood on my fingers.

"I think your neck may have gotten burned, you might have to take your sweater off," he said. I cocked an eyebrow at him; even I wasn't that thick.

"I don't think so, Casanova," I said with a small cough, my lungs were still hurting.

"No, here," he said, unbuttoning his flannel shirt that he had on, taking it off and then pulling of the gray wife beater he had on underneath it, then handing it to me. "I'll turn around and won't look,"

I watched as he moved around and turned his back to me. In a momentary state of shock, I forgot what I was doing and became in awe of his body. He had broad shoulders and he back was smooth. I could see all of the muscles flexing as he moved his arms and propped them on his waist, as he moved his head down, looking at the ground, then back up and looking at the ceiling. I had never been one of those women who went crazy over a guy and talked about how great of a body he had. I didn't swoon over fit guys, or giggle like a little girl when I saw a guy with a nice butt. As a matter of a fact, I didn't even care much about any guy's behind, until I saw him in his tight blue jeans standing only feet away from me. Yes, with my mind still confused from lack of air, or sleep, impaired by injury, or something, I sat gawking at a mat I barely knew while he was waiting for me to change shirts so that he could examine me.

"Are you done?" he asked.

"No, sorry," I said, tearing my eyes away from him for just long enough to pull of my singed sweater and pulled on the wife beater had had handed me. I pulled the excess up in the back and tied it into a knot so that it would fit me better, instead of falling off of me. "Alright, you can turn around now."

He turned back to face me and got I an eyeful of his chest and tight abs. I thought that perhaps he had done something to me, given me some sort of drug; why had I never realized he was so gorgeous before?

"Here, sit in this chair so I can see your back," he said, pushing the chair that he had been sitting in closer to me. I moved from the couch to the chair, my back turned to him. He took my hair, gathered it and carefully pushed it to hang over my left shoulder. A shiver ran down my spin as he moved his hand across my back, assessing the damage. Finally, his hands landed on a hot spot on my shoulder and I cringed, letting out a painful groan. "I'm gonna' have ta' clean this up. I'll be right back."

He left me sitting in the chair and walked away. Since waking up, I took my first look around the room. We were in some sort of house; it looked like a cabin. I looked out the window and saw that the sun was setting and that the storm had died down. There were a few candles lit, but the most light inside was coming from the large fireplace in front of me, in the middle of the room. The only furniture was the couch I had slept on and a table with a few chairs around it, where I assumed my chair had come from. To my left there was a dark hallway that I couldn't see where it led. Behind me, I heard water running and guessed that it was the bathroom. I felt disoriented and confused; One minute I was sleep in my chair in front of the fireplace at the motel and the next thing I knew it had been set on fire and vandalized. I was depressed at the thought of having to fix that stupid place up, it would take forever to find someone who wouldn't be scared to come fix it, and for a reasonable price as well. However, I thought, maybe I would be able to take a few days off while they worked. I might even be able to go visit my grandparents back home if it was going to take too long. I didn't get to dwell too long on what I was going to do with my free time, as Logan was soon back and cleaning up the burns and scrapes on my back. When the hot water soaked rag hit one of my wounds I let out a small whimper and gritted my teeth, trying to ease the pain. He didn't say anything, but his touch became softer. He took his time to be careful with my injuries, being as gentle as possible with his big, strong hands. After a while, I assumed that everything had been cleaned, but he still took his time, lingering on my skin. He ran his hand over one of the larger scars on my back that had been caused by a broken beer bottle and I prayed that he wouldn't ask me where it, or any of them, had come from.

"How bad is it?" I asked.

"Not too bad, but I think someone needs to look at it who knows what they're doin',"

"Okay, I guess I'll go to the doctor tomorrow,"

"I know someone who can look at it for you,"

"Really, who?"

"Her name is Jean; she works at the school where I live,"

"In New York?"

"Yeah,"

"I thought you said it wasn't that bad?"

"It's not,"

"Then why do I need to go all the way to the states to have someone look at it?"

"Because those guys who set fire to your motel knew that you were a mutant and you need to get out of here for a while,"

"What?" I asked, shocked in both by the news that had broken in had known that I was a mutant, and also that he did but spoke so casually about it. I had pegged him as a mutant hater.

"Don't worry about it, kid, you'll be okay there,"

"That woman, Jean, has she worked with a lot of mutants before or something?"

"Yeah, she works at a school full of 'em,"

"The same one as you live in?"

"Yeah,"

"Then you've worked with them before, too?"

He let out a small laugh that rumbled down through his hand, which were still working diligently to clean up my back and neck. "You really were out of it when I broke down that door, weren't you?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused but slowly grasping his point. "You're a mutant, too?"

He didn't say anything for a moment; instead, he just finished cleaning the rest of my skin, which had blackened from all of the smoke. "Yeah," he finally admitted, removing the wet rag from my skin before he began to apply bandages to my wounds. Not another word was spoken until he had covered all of my injuries with the gauze and tape.

"Thank you," I said once he was done.

"Can I…" he said, pausing.

"Can you what?"

"Where did all of those scars come from?" he asked.

"Different places, different things," I said simply with a sigh. Goose bumps ran over my skin both as I realized how cold it was and when he touched my bare skin.

"You can sleep in the bedroom if you want, but it's colder in there. If you want to sleep in here you can have the couch,"

"Alright," I said, nodding my head.

"And you can put this on, it's clean," he said, handing me a dark red flannel shirt.

"Thank you," I said again, slipping on the shirt over my wife beater that he had also given me. "How long do you think I need to stay way from the motel, I suppose it needs to be fixed up pretty badly?"

"Sorry darlin', it burnt down, there ain't nothing left of it,"

"What?" I asked standing and facing him as I continued to button my shirt. "It burned to the ground?"

"It looked that way as we were leavin',"

I once again found myself staring at his body, as he stood there with his hands rested on his waist, he looked so comfortable standing in nearly nothing, save his skin-like blue jeans.

I ran my fingers through my curly hair and sighed, trying to avert my attention from his wonderfully beautiful chest. "I hated that place but I didn't want it to burn down,"

"You can go home now, right?"

"I suppose, although I hadn't really planned on it,"

"Isn't that where your family's at?"

"Yeah, but I don't get along too well with them,"

"So are you gonna' stay here?"

"I don't know, I wasn't planning on this happening," I said.

"Well, we're gonna' leave early tomorrow before that storm heads back this way, so you might want to get some sleep,"

"Okay," I said, "where are you going to sleep?"

"On the floor in here,"

"Well, why don't you sleep on the couch since you have to drive tomorrow?"

"No, it's alright,"

"No, I'm serious, I can sleep in a chair or anywhere, it doesn't bother me,"

"You don't need to sleep in a chair, your back's hurt, sleep on the couch," he argued.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah,"

"Okay, last chance,"

"I'm fine," I shrugged my shoulders and went back to the couch to lie down, but my back hurt too much to sleep on it. So, I rolled over onto my side and closed my eyes. "Here," I heard him say as I felt him cover me in a blanket. I peaked my eyes open a little and watched as he folded his jacket into a pillow and lay down, covering himself with a blanket, leaving his still bare chest uncovered. He then rolled onto his side with his back turned to me, and I stared at him without him knowing until I fell asleep.

"Come on, wake up, we've got to get going so we don't get caught in that storm comin' back through,"

"What?" I asked sleepily.

"Come on, we gotta' go, get up kid," Logan said. I opened my eyes to see him pulling on his boots.

"Where are we going?"

" Westchester, New York,"

"Can I go by my house and get some stuff first?" I asked, looking up at him as he stood over me.

"Yeah, but we have to go right now, though," he said, offering me his hand and pulling me up from the couch. I climbed to my feet, unbuttoned my flannel shirt, slipped on my slightly burnt turtleneck sweater from the floor and pulled on the flannel shirt back over it. Then I followed behind Logan as he led me out the door, out into the freezing weather.

"Holy crap!" I said as a rush of bitter cold wind hit my face.

"Hurry up and get in the truck, I already started it and turned the heater on," Logan said to me, pointing to his brown truck, a harsh contrast to the white snow around us. The truck only had a light dust of snow on it and I assumed that he had been out earlier to clean it off and start it up. I hurried to the truck, tilting my face down to keep the wind from lashing against my skin. I tugged on the door, but I couldn't get it to open. He came up behind me, gently moved me out of the way and opened the door for me.

"Thanks," I said quietly with a small smile and then quickly climbed into the passenger's side seat and buckled myself in. It was not what I would call 'toasty' but it was better than the freezing weather around us. He soon followed by climbing into the driver's side and pulled the truck into 'drive' and going. We didn't speak for a while; I was still in shook by the whole situation and didn't really know what to say.

"What's your name?" he finally asked, pulling the stump of a cigar from his mouth.

"Haven Bates," I said, finding it slightly odd that he didn't know my name when I had known his for so long.

"I'm Logan," he said as he quickly glanced over at me.

"I know," I said with a smile. "Can I ask you a question though?"

"Yeah,"

"What does the 'W' stand for?"

"What?" he asked, sounding a little confused.

"When you sign in you write ' Logan W.' and I've always wondered what it stood for."

"Oh, uh, it's Wolverine,"

"Your last name is Wolverine?"

"No,"

"I don't get it then, why the 'W' if it's not your last name?"

"Because I don't remember my last name, kid,"

"You don't remember your last name?"

He looked at me for a moment and then back to the road. "No," he said, sticking the cigar back in his mouth.

"That sucks," I said bluntly.

He made a rumble in his chest that sounded like a laugh. "Where do you live?" he asked.

I gave him the directions and we headed towards my house.

"Why do you stay at my shoddy motel when you have a place like that back there?" I asked.

"Because it's not mine,"

"You broke in?"

He made an amused laugh. "No, I knew the people who owned it but they got killed, so no one owns it now,"

"Oh,"

It took about two hours to get to my house and when we did, there was another surprise for me; my home had been burnt down. There were firefighters and police officers all around it. As soon as we stopped, I flung the door open and jumped from my seat, running over to the nearest officer.

"I'm sorry but you're going to have to leave, this is a close off site,"

"This is my house!" I protested, pointing to the mix of ash and snow piled on top of the gray block foundation where my house once stood.

"You're Carry Baxter?" he asked.

"No, I rented from her," I said.

"Where were you while this was happening?"

"I was…I was at my motel that I owned, but someone broke into it and sat it on fire as well, so I went to stay at a friend's house,"

"Your motel? The old Bates Motel that burned down yesterday?"

"Yeah,"

"Why didn't you call to report that it was on fire?" he questioned suspiciously.

"Because she was unconscious," Logan said, appearing beside me.

"And how do you know that?" the officer asked.

"Because I was with her,"

"Why was she unconscious?"

"Two guys broke in knocked her out before setting it on fire,"

"Where were you while this was happening?"

"I went to the bathroom," Logan said with an irritated tone. I could tell he was getting bored with the police officer's questions.

"Would you have any motive for setting fire to both her house and business?"

"No," Logan said, getting angry.

"Sir, he was with me while it happened, there's no way he could have done it," I defended.

"He says he went to the bathroom and if you were unconscious how do you know that he wasn't involved?" he asked. "Unless you saw the men, in which case we'll need you to give us a description of them,"

"I didn't see them, I fell asleep," I said.

"Are there any other guests who would be willing to vouch for him?"

"We were the only ones there at the time, no one could get through the storm," I muttered quietly.

"So, there is a possibility that he was involved then?"

"Look, there were two guys who came in, knocked her out and dragged her into her office. Then they took the money out of the cash register, I walked out just as the were closing it and I tried chasing them down, but I saw that her office was on fire, I didn't see her and so I tried to get her out of there,"

"And you just let the two men leave?"

"She was locked in a room that had set on fire, what do you think I should have done?"

"I'm not saying that you did anything wrong, I'm just trying to get some answers."

After thirty minutes of talking to the police officer, we finally got enough straightened out so that we could keep driving to New York. Everything that I had brought with me and have bough in my year of living there has been destroyed, all of it gone. Not that I had much, I was saving all of my money to go to college and build a house near my motel in Canada. Sadly, nothing ever came of that plan, because once I arrived at the school, the founder and own, Professor Xavier, offered me a room there for as long as I wanted. I was homeless and too proud to call up my mother and ask if I could live with her again, so I kindly accepted. The mansion was beautiful and I had a wonderful time with everyone else, especially Rouge, who I had met when I had first gotten there. We were only a few years apart in age and usually spent the weekends at the mall with her boyfriend Bobby, who lived at the school as well. The Professor later informed me that my attackers had seen me use my powers before and decided to do their town a little favor and rid it of a mutant girl. I got the insurance money back on the motel and sold the property, giving me enough money to attend college later that year. However, when summer rolled around, school was the last thing on my mind.

I was sleeping, having another dream about my mother's old boyfriend, I still couldn't see him, but it was my birthday and he had bought me a little teddy bear that I named Peaches, though I couldn't remember why. Unfortunately, I was woken by the sound of my cell phone ringing.

"Hello?" I answered groggily.

"Hey baby, happy birthday!" my mother replied.

"Hey, thanks," I said, rolling over onto my back.

"How have you been, I haven't heard from you in a while?"

"I'm alright, happy that summer's here,"

"Yeah, I bet it's pretty up there, the weather's still too hot for me down here,"

"Yeah, it's not too bad," I said as someone knocked on my door. "Come in!" I called out.

Logan walked into my room. "Happy birthday, kid," he said with a smile.

" Logan, what are you up to?" I asked.

"I just came to tell you 'happy birthday', why do I have to be up to something?" he said with a coy smile.

"Because it's not like you to just come into my room first thing in the morning to say that, you would have waited for me at breakfast,"

"Fine, I'll leave then, if you don't want me here,"

"Good, because I'm on the phone with my mother," I said with a smirk.

"Tell her I had fun last night," he said, teasing me.

I picked up one of my pillows from my bed and tossed it at him, but missing and ending up hitting my dresser instead. "Get out of my room you pig-headed, male whore, Canadian freak!" I yelled at him jokingly.

"See you down at breakfast kid," he said with a smirk and then turned to leave, shutting the door behind him.

"Sorry about that, what were you saying?" I asked my mother.

"Nothing important, but do the two of you always fight? It seems like every time I call you're arguing with each other," she said, asking about Logan.

"We probably are, that's how we get along usually,"

"Is that healthy for the two of you to be talking to each other like that while you're dating?"

"Whoa, wait a second, we're not dating. Logan and I are just friends, and as far as healthy relationships go, with all due respect, are you really the one who should be worried about me calling him a male whore, that would have been the easy way out for us?"

"I know, I just don't want you winding up like me,"

"I'm not going to. Even if I were dating Logan, we may pick and fight with each other but we get along, he wouldn't beat me over something, so I'm one step ahead already,"

"Okay, just be careful with him,"

"Yeah, I will," I said; only half listening to what she had said before there was another knock on my door. "Come in," I called again.

That time Rouge opened my door. "Hey, happy birthday!" she said, her southern accent clinging to the words thicker than my own would.

"Thank," I said with a smile

"Me and Bobby were wonderin' if you wanted to go swimmin' out in the lake after breakfast,"

"Yeah, that sounds like fun,"

"Okay, well I'm gonna' go down and eat, I'll see you down there later,"

"Alright, I'll be down in a bit," I said with a smile as she left.

"You seem to have a lot of friends up there," my mother said, sensing that the conversation had gone back to her again.

"Yeah, I like it up here, it's nice,"

"Are you going to come back home any time soon?"

"I don't know,"

"You should, your Nana and Pop are dying to see you, and you know I miss you,"

"Yeah, I'll have to think about it and see if I can make some time for it," I said, staring up at my ceiling. "Oh, do you know where my teddy bear named Peaches is at?"

"Yeah, it's packed up in one of your boxes down here, why?"

"Is there anyway you could send him to me? So if I can't come home I'll have something here with me?" I lied. I wanted to see if I could remember anymore with it. Why not just ask my mother, you say? Ah, you clever person you, but I've already tried that and she refused to speak to me for weeks. Therefore, I figured that asking again would be pointless.

"I don't see why I wouldn't be able to," she said.

"Alright, thanks,"

"Well, I better let you get on with your day; I just wanted to wish my baby a happy twenty-second birthday. I love you sweetheart, bye,"

"I love you too, bye," I said half-heartedly and hung up.

Yes, my mother seemed nice, didn't she? And she was, but it was all guilt-induced kindness. She felt bad about what she had done and allowed to be done to me when I was younger, so she pretended to be nice and act like nothing wrong had ever happened. I didn't understand how she could just move on so quickly while I still suffered from it. I had been through hell, and I was bitter at her for it. I may have gotten over my bad thoughts and feelings about being a mutant, but I was still genuinely angry with my mother. I still felt hurt and betrayed by her, because she, above all people, was supposed to protect me and she didn't. She just stood by and let it happen. I finally decided to stop thinking about it and just go eat breakfast, so I rushed out of my pajamas into a T-shirt and jeans, sliding on a pair of flip-flops on my way out the door. Once I was in the hallway, I realized just how hungry I was and quickly jogged down the stairs and into the dining room. I spotted Rouge and Bobby sitting at our usual table and went to sit beside them.

"Good morning," I said as I sat down.

"Good morning," Rouge said with a smile.

"Happy birthday," said Bobby.

"Thank you," I said, reaching for a plate, but I turned around when I heard someone start singing 'Happy Birthday' off key, behind me. I saw Scott following behind Jean, who was carrying a plate with a stack of pancakes and a candle in the middle, singing. Sadly for him, the other students didn't realize that the rules of a 'movie slow clap' applied with singing 'Happy Birthday' as well, so when no one else joined him he soon stopped singing altogether, just as he and Jean brought me the plate they had.

"Happy birthday, Haven," Jean said to me with a smile as she sat the glowing pancakes in front of me.

"Aw, thank you guys!" I said, slightly embarrassed.

"Blow out the candle," Scott urged, apparently recovered from his singing fiasco.

"No, she has to make a wish first," Jean corrected.

I laughed and tried to think of a wish. 'I wish I could remember who my mother's boyfriend was,' It may have sounded like a cheap wish, but it was something that truly plagued me and I wanted to know who he was, maybe I could even find him and see how he was doing, maybe not, I didn't know.

I quickly blew out my candle and Jean clapped. "Thank you,"

"You're welcome," Jean said.

"Happy birthday," Scott told me, ruffling my curly auburn hair with his hand as they both walked to the teacher's table.

"What time did ya'll want to go swimming?" I asked, pulling out the melted candle from my stack of pancakes and cutting into them with my fork and knife.

"Right after we get done eating, but you have to be quiet about it, we're not supposed to be goin' down there without a teacher," Rouge told me.

"Alright," I said with a laugh. I found it funny that I had just turned twenty-two, Bobby was nearly twenty and Rouge had just turned nineteen a few months back, but we 'needed a teacher' with us while we went swimming.

After we finished I snuck upstairs to change into something that I could swim in and quickly threw in some dry clothes and a towel into a bag before going back down stairs to meet up with Rouge and Bobby, who were waiting to go out the back door. We walked down a path that was on the same property as the school and would up in front of a fairly large lake. I had been down there a few times but it was only with Storm when she had invited me down to try doing yoga with her, which, sadly, never caught on with me.

Once we got to the base of the lake, I pulled off my T-shirt, leaving me in a tank top and shorts, and jumped into the water. Bobby and Rouge soon followed and I couldn't help but laugh at Rouge, as she was wearing an outfit that covered almost all of her skin. It had been quite hot those past few days and the water felt good.

We had been swimming for about an hour and a half when someone came running through the bushes, yelling at us.

"Hey, what are you doing out here by yourselves?"

I turned to see Logan standing at the base of the lake with his hands on his waist, looking down at us with a clearly angry look on his face.

"We're just swimming," I called out to him.

"Well, everyone's been looking for you, Haven. Your grandparents called and no one knew where you were,"

"Alright, we'll go back then," I said. The three of us swam to the edge of the water and climbed out onto the bank. Logan helped me up after I slid in the mud and back into the water. "You guys go on without me," I told Rouge and Bobby as I pulled out my towel and began drying myself off.

"Alright, we'll see you back there later," Rouge said.

"Yeah, I'll be up in a bit," I said as I rung out my hair.

Nothing was said until they were both out of sight and earshot and I was pulling on my T-shirt over my wet clothes.

"What were you doing down here?" he asked as I slipped on my flip-flops.

"We were swimming, what did it look like?"

"The three of you shouldn't have snuck off like that,"

"Do you know who you sound like? Scott. Why do you care if we just went swimming? I mean, that's all that was going on,"

"Yeah, well, it didn't look like that,"

"And how did it look? Rouge and Bobby may be dating but they can't even kiss without risking the possibility of her killing him, and certainly no one thinks that Bobby and I were…." I said, becoming slightly uncomfortable with the thought of what everyone else may have been thinking. "Whatever."

"Just get back to the school,"

"You know, you really can't boss me around," I said with a small smirk, then turned and began walking towards the school. However, I soon found myself being lifted off the ground and slung over Logan's shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"I'm fixin' to be a teacher kid, you better show me some respect,"

"You're not going to be my teacher, and besides, respect for what?"

"I didn't tell the Professor where you were at,"

"Oh, would you like me to get down on my knees and bow?" I asked sarcastically from over his shoulder.

"It might humble you,"

"Humble me, humble me? I need to be humbled?" I asked with mock offense.

"It wouldn't hurt,"

"You know what, I really don't like you anymore," I said. It wasn't true; however, I really did like him. He had become sort of like a brother, or something, of course, I didn't completely think of him in a sisterly way, I still found him ridiculously attractive, but he was also my best friend and I didn't know how I had gotten along without him. "And just so you know; it doesn't matter whether you tell the Professor or not, he's going to know about this."