"Took me a coupla hours ta get to the rocks," he told them when they started out the next morning. "I was movin' pretty fast on the way in. We can't go that fast now so it'll take longer. My Jeep is a coupla miles up the dirt track they call the main road."
"There is a town not far from here," Rosa told him. "My brother lives a mile outside of it. We can get food and water from him."
"You know this area?" Jubilee asked.
"Yes," Maria told her. "We lived here as children. We both left after we were wed."
"Does he have a phone?" Logan asked.
"He doesn't even have plumbing," Rosa said disdainfully. "He has refused to have modern changes made to the house."
"Great," Jubilee grumbled. She was hoping for a hot bath, a television and a mall. The clothes she was wearing were beyond ripe and getting worse. Wolvie was on his last set of clothes as well and would need more. Her shoes were more for hunting in the smooth expanse of a civilized mall rather than the craggy rocks and dust of rural Mexico. Her feet were beginning to complain bitterly about their treatment. She knew they were still in danger of recapture so she kept her pain to herself and mushed on.
By early afternoon, however, Logan could smell the blood and serous fluid from the blisters on Jubilees' feet and stopped the trek. He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her down on a rock.
"Lemme see yer feet," He told her in a low growl.
"I'm fine," she insisted. "Nothin' wrong with my feet."
"Yer feet, Jubilation," he said in a no nonsense tone. She knew better than to disobey him when he used that tone. She sighed and began to remove her shoes slowly, mumbling about foot fetishes. A sharp intake of breath greeted her blood soaked heel as she removed her right shoe.
"Aw, darlin'," he said as he stooped to remove her sock, "ya shoulda told me."
"I'm fine," she hissed with pain as he peeled the sock from her wounded heel. "It's not that bad." He grunted in response and told the others to get some food and water while he doctored her feet.
Tessa gathered water bottles and jerky and passed it around to the other women. She was glad that she had chosen to wear her boots to the bar the night she was kidnapped. Her feet were in good shape though tired. Maria and Rosa were wearing sturdy, sensible shoes that looked well broken in. There should be no foot problems among them.
She watched as he cleaned and dressed the girls' bloody feet, Jubilee complaining the whole time that she was fine and quit feeling up her feet. By the time he had wrapped both feet in gauze, they were two times their normal size. He picked up her shoes and dropped them in his pack with a disdainful sniff. Tessa came over and gave them the jerky and water as he sat down beside the injured teen.
"I can't eat this stuff all the time, Wolvie," she complained giving the jerky a suspicious sniff before struggling to bite off a piece.
"I know darlin'," he said. "Neither can I. We'll stop fer some huntin' when it's safe." They finished eating in silence.
Tessa grabbed the pack and flipped it onto her back as they got up to leave. "Ya don't have ta do that darlin'," Logan told her.
"You're going to have to carry Jubilee," she said. "I've carried heavier packs before." Logan shrugged his shoulders and bent, picking up the tiny girl and settling her into his massive arms.
They reached the Jeep as the sun was setting in a blaze of glory. He settled Jubilee in the passenger seat and set about reloading the supplies. Luckily, he has several more bottles of water in the cooler. They were warm, but wet. They had used up their food and water on the hike and were now very hungry. He elected to continue on and find shelter for the night. Maria and Rosa gave him directions to their brothers' house.
It was further away than he had anticipated. Just past two in the morning, they pulled up in front of the dilapidated house. Maria and Rosa shot out of the car and ran to the house to bang on the door.
"Wake up kid," he said as he lifted the sleeping girl out of the car. "We're here."
"Hummm?" she questioned sleepily. He settled her more comfortably in his arms and turned around, to be met by the barrel of a rifle pointed between his eyes.
"Who are you?" a tall Mexican man demanded.
"Don't hurt him Roberto," Maria begged. "He's American. He saved us from the slavers."
"Who are you," Roberto repeated, in English.
"Name's Logan," he growled. "And I'm Canadian, not American."
"He rescued us from the slavers," Rosa told him. "He made sure we lived to return home."
"The girl is hurt, Roberto," Maria said. "Let us go inside and see to her wounds."
He glared at Logan and turned back to the house and marched away. Wolverine glanced over to Tessa. She shrugged and grabbing the pack, followed Roberto.
The house was small; three small bedrooms, a tiny living room and a large kitchen. A fireplace in the living room warmed the entire house when the coal fired stove in the kitchen wasn't in use. The furnishings were shabby and well used. Religious pictures hung on every wall. A small shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe stood in a corner near the door. For all its poverty, the house was very clean and homey.
"My parents raised eight children in this house," Rosa whispered as she took him to a bedroom at the end of the house. "Six girls and two boys. We slept three to a bed. My brothers built a shack in the back where they slept. It was a hard life but a good one. We were happy here."
The room she led him to was so small, it was almost wall to wall bed. He knelt on the bed and placed the small body on the far side, away from the door. She snorted in her sleep and turned over to her side. He smiled fondly at the sleeping figure.
"Come," Rosa said placing her hand on his arm. "You must eat before you sleep."
He followed her to the kitchen where they found Maria, her arms deep in flour, kneading bread. Tessa was at the large table scrambling eggs. Roberto was not in evidence.
"Roberto has gone back to bed," Tessa informed him as she poured the eggs into a big skillet. She picked up the skillet with both hands, went into the living room and placed it on the rack just inside the fireplace to cook. He watched her as she pulled a wooden spoon from the back pocket of her jeans and began to stir the eggs.
"You will have bread for the journey," Maria told him as she placed returned the shaggy dough to the bowl and covered it with a towel. "Rosa and I will return to our homes with Roberto's help tomorrow."
"We are thankful for what you have done for us," Rosa said from the door, "but you must leave in the morning."
"The slavers knew her," Maria lifted her chin, indicating Tessa. "They will be looking for her."
"If you stay, they will come and take Jubilee and Tessa." Rosa told him.
"How do you know they knew me?" Tessa asked from the front room.
"When they threw you into the cage they told us to watch you," Rosa told her.
"They said that you were 'insurance' and they called you by name," Maria said sadly. "You were not taken as a slave. You were a hostage."
Tessa returned from the living room with the skillet, eggs cooked. She began to spoon the eggs onto plates with a troubled look on her face. "Insurance for what?" she asked.
"They did not say," Maria said as she spooned salsa onto her eggs.
"Does yer father have anything comin' up that someone would want stopped?" Logan asked as he ate.
"He doesn't talk about work to me," she said. "As far as I'm aware, he's just getting ready for the election next year." She started to eat, her mind troubled. Her father had some controversial political views, she knew that. His views on mutants made him a target for home grown terrorists. She didn't think it was an anti-mutant group that kidnapped her. They could have taken her any time in the past four weeks after she'd broken up with her boyfriend. Why wait until she was in Mexico? Why use a notorious slavery ring to do the job? Something was off about this whole thing.
"Why does Jubilee call you 'Wolvie' or 'Wolverine' and you call yourself 'Logan'?" Rosa asked.
"Pet name," he lied, his tone indicating the subject was closed. The women took the hint.
"I will sleep with Jubilee," Tessa announced as she rose and placed her plate in the dry sink.
"That's okay," Logans said. "I'll sleep with her. She has nightmares that can scare ya ta death. I'm used ta 'em." Eyebrows rose all over the kitchen. "Fer heavens sake," he sighed, exasperated. "I don't see her that way. She's like my daughter. I've raised her since she was thirteen."
"She's not thirteen any more," Tessa objected.
"I like my women much older and more experienced." he growled. "She'll wake up the entire house if I'm not there, trust me." He got up and placed his plate in the sink. He glared at the women and, without another word, turned and marched down the hall to the bedroom.
He stopped outside the room and took a deep breath and exhaled forcefully. He'd been accused of a lot of things in his long life, most of it true, but he'd never been accused of being a pedophile before. It made him angry. He just didn't think of Jubilee that way. She was his lifeline, the keeper of his soul, not a potential lover.
He reined in his temper as he heard a soft moan from the room. She was having a nightmare. He opened the door soundlessly and slipped into the room. She was tossing on the bed restlessly. He pulled his boots and shirt off and slipped into the bed, gathering her close. She automatically curled up against him and snuggled her self to his side, her head on his chest. He thrummed softly, calming her, chasing the dream away. She sighed and fell into a deep sleep. He smiled to himself in satisfaction and allowed sleep to take him.
They were awakened early the next morning by the odor of freshly baked bread and frying bacon.
"I'm starving," Jubilee complained as he redressed her feet. "Hurry up."
"They won't ferget ta feed ya darlin'," he laughed. "Let me finish and I'll take ya ta breakfast." He tied a knot over her ankle, securing the bandages and slipped a pair of his socks over them. "This'll keep the bandages clean until we can get ya some better shoes. Just be careful. Ya don't want ta fall on yer ass."
She scrambled out of the bed and immediately slipped on the highly polished floor, landing on the aforementioned ass. "Told ya," he snickered as he peered over the bed at her.
"Shut up and help me up," she said crossly. He leaned over and picked her up and placed her on her feet.
"How do they feel?" he asked.
"Sore but okay," she admitted. "Let's eat." He held onto her arm as she skated to the kitchen.
Roberto and Maria were bustling around the kitchen, preparing breakfast. Maria placed two plates of pancakes and bacon on the table and motioned for them to sit, then returned to the stove. Rosa came through the back door with a bang.
"There is hot water for a bath," she announced. "Tessa is getting cleaned up now but we must all use the same water. It will take too long to heat more.
"Oh, gross," Jubilee wrinkled her nose as she ate a mouthful of pancakes.
"That's the way it's done here Jubes," Logan said as he added syrup to his pancakes.
"I have some clothes for you as well. The ones you are wearing are no longer clean."
"She means ya stink," Logan said in a stage whisper.
"I know what she means Wolvie," she growled elbowing him in the side. She shoveled food in quickly.
"Slow down darlin," he cautioned. "Ya don't want ta get sick."
"I want a bath," she told him, taking a gulp of coffee. "I haven't had one in five days. You had a bath in the stream yesterday, though you need another one, this time with soap. Tell ya what," she finally paused, "you take yer bath first. I'll wait for you ta finish. Ya don't want ta get my funk on ya."
"Does she always talk so much?" Roberto asked in wonder.
"Always," Logan confirmed.
"Wolvie's very taciturn," Jubilee told Roberto. "I hafta make up for his silences."
"Ya ain't gonna put yer feet in that dirty water," he told her. "You'll get an infection."
"How am I supposed ta get clean," she demanded.
"Spit bath, darlin'," he said as he finished his meal.
"Aw, come on," she complained. "I can't get clean that way."
"Spit bath or no bath," he told her sternly. "And if ya think I'm gonna carry ya smellin' like ya are, ya got another think commin'." He dropped his plate in the sink. "I'm going fer a bath. I'll come back fer ya when I'm finished." He planted a kiss on the top of her head as she pouted at the table, arms crossed over her small breasts.
"I left some clothing for you by the bathtub," Roberto told him. "They will be too long but they will do until you get to your home. We will be gone before you are finished. I must return my sisters to their husbands."
"Ya should have time to get pretty far away," Logan said as he shook the mans' hand. "The men from the warehouse are dead. It'll take 'em time ta find the bodies."
"I will return when it is safe," Roberto assured him. "Thank you for seeing to the safety of my sisters." Logan nodded in reply and left the room.
He carried Jubilee out to the tub after he had finished his own bath and left Tessa to help her clean up while he packed the food Roberto had left for them. They would have just enough supplies to last them to the border. Hopefully, they would make it there without any interruptions. Jubilee was in no shape to fight and he wasn't sure of Tessas' ability to protect herself.
They couldn't go back to Nuevo Laredo. The city was knee deep in slavers and drug lords. It would be too dangerous to take Tessa back to the area she was kidnapped from. It's possible they could cross into San Diego but they didn't have the supplies to make it that far. Del Rio was out for the same reason Nuevo Laredo was. They would have to cross the way immigrants have been crossing for a century; the Rio Grande.
'What possessed her to buy these things?' he asked himself as he pulled Jubilees' shoes from the pack. Dried blood was smeared inside both shoes by the blisters she had raised on her feet. Pinching the offending footwear between two fingers, he walked out of the back door. Jubilee, sitting on a bench near the bath house, saw him stomp out of the house holding the shoes she had spent six months allowance on not two weeks ago.
"What are ya doing with my shoes?" she asked. He shot her a glower and strode past her toward the out house. Realization dawned on her quickly. "No ya don't," she yelled standing painfully on her stocking feet. "Wolvie, I just bought those." He flipped open the door to the out house and leaned in. When he reappeared, his hands were empty.
"I can't believe you just did that," she yelled as he came over to the bench. "I spent my own money on those shoes."
"I'll buy ya another pair," he growled as he picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.
"I watched those shoes for weeks, waiting for them to go on sale," she screamed, pounding his back with her small fists. "It was the only way I could afford them."
"Find her another pair of shoes," he threw over his shoulder to Tessa as he carried the furious girl into the house and sat her down at the kitchen table.
"They were takin' up room in the pack, Jubes," he said as he peeled the dirty socks off. "Ya can't wear 'em until yer feet heal so they had ta go. I'll get ya a new pair when we get home."
"It's the principle of the thing," she said still angry. "They were the first thing I bought with money I saved. I waited and waited. When they were seventy percent off, I finally bought them."
"I'm sorry, darlin'," he kissed her nose. "I know yer proud of what ya did, but we need the room fer food. Ya can't eat shoes."
"Ya walk back into my life," she whispered, tears sliding down her cheeks, "and start rearranging things to suit you and ya don't even ask me first. Ya left me with Aunt Hope. Ya never call me and when I call you, ya don't have time ta talk. You abandoned me Wolvie." The reason for her anger finally surfacing.
"Aw Jubes," he sighed. He didn't know what to say. She had decided to go to her aunt on her own. She wanted a normal life. He couldn't give her that and it wasn't safe for him to follow her. He had enemies that would have jumped at the chance to grab her. It was better that he stay away from her.
He picked the weeping girl up and sat down with her on his lap. She tucked her head into the crook of his neck, still crying.
"Ya wanted a normal life, Jubes," he said softly. "I wanted that fer ya, too. I couldn't give ya what ya needed but yer Aunt Hope could. I didn't want ya ta go but I thought a clean break was better fer ya than a lingering connection with the X-Men. I wanted ya ta be safe. If I stayed in contact too close, ya woulda ended up a target again." He stroked her hair softly. "Just 'cause I'm not with ya in body doesn't mean that ya ain't in my heart. I thought of ya every day, hoping you were happy."
She thought on that for a while. "I love ya Wolvie," she said in a small voice.
"I love ya too, kid," he said. He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. "Let's get ya some clean socks and a pair of shoes."
"Ya mean I'm allowed ta walk?" she sniffed, wiping her eyes.
"Not yet," he told her as he set her on the floor. "But I ain't carryin' ya all the way ta the states."
"Whadaya mean 'all the way ta the states'?" she asked. "Aren't we takin' the Jeep?"
"By now, they have the description of my Jeep from the Nuevo Laredo police," he explained as Tessa returned with socks and a pair of sturdy shoes. "They know our general direction so they'll be lookin' fer us. We hafta ditch the Jeep and go on foot."
"Gak," she complained as he handed her the shoes. "These are ugly with a capital 'Ug'"
"They'll protect yer feet," he said as he slipped the socks over the bandages.
"Where're we gonna cross the border?" Tessa asked him.
"If we go straight north, we'll end up in New Mexico," he said. Jubilee started violently.
"I can't go back there," she said in a shaky voice.
"I know darlin'," he said. "We could go east and up through Big Bend. The border guards ain't as thick there."
"I have friends in Brownsville," Tessa told them. "They would help us, I'm sure."
"Too far east," he discarded the idea. "We don't have the supplies ta make it all the way ta Brownsville. The quickest way is north-east. Once we get to Texas, we can call Chuck and have him send a jet."
"Ya didn't bring a communicator, did ya?" Jubilee asked accusingly.
"I never do when I'm on a solo job,"
"I told ya you could turn the damned thing off."
"Language darlin'." She stuck out her tongue at him. It was a constant argument with them. She picked up the most interesting swear words from him but he got mad every time she used one.
Not that he'd ever do anything to her. She was the only person in the world who could get up into his face and tell him he's being a dick and get away without nine inches of adamantium in the gut. She wasn't afraid of him but he couldn't say the same about her. She had a temper that, if anything, was worse than his. She had blown up buildings before in a fit of rage. He never wanted that magnificent temper directed at him. She could do some damage. It wouldn't last but they would both feel awful while he healed. The only time he ever yelled at her was when she endangered herself or others with her actions. She usually agreed with him.
"I gathered a couple of changes of clothes for each of us, some blankets and some extra first aid supplies," Tessa interrupted. "I put them in a bag I found in one of the bedrooms."
"Matches?" he asked.
"Wrapped in oilcloth," she confirmed. "I'll carry the packs until she can walk."
"Climb on Jubes," he said as he turned his back to Jubilee. She scampered up his back and settled on piggy back. Tessa swung the heavy pack and the bag onto her back and they left the house and relative safety.