They spent over an hour stuffing their stomachs with the game they had caught and making themselves sick. Both girls refused to touch the raccoon but Logan didn't mind. He was used to eating whatever was available, frequently uncooked. He actually preferred his meat raw or very slightly cooked. Tessa's face turned a little green when he tore into the 'coon without cooking it but Jubilee was used to this. She assured the queasy woman that he did this all the time and she would get used to it. Tessa doubted that.

When they were finished eating, Logan forced them up and continued their march home. Tessa told them she doubted she could eat again for several days she was so full. Logan assured her that, if she could keep the food down, she would be hungry again by nightfall.

"I don't think we'll be attacked fer a coupla days," he told them. "The rain should keep them off our trail long enough fer us ta get closer ta the border."

"I still don't understand what it is they want." she complained.

"Could be anythin'" Logan told her.

"But if her father and her ex-boyfriend sent teams out ta grab her, maybe it's not a good idea to take her back to either of 'em." Jubilee told him.

"Wasn't plannin' on it," he told her. "We're gonna go ta the mansion and have Hank and Chuck search ya fer whatever it is they're lookin' fer." he told Tessa.

"We gonna stop and phone home?" Jubilee asked.

"When we get ta the States," he told her. "I can't be sure of the people around here. Some of 'em could be working fer the slavers."

"Who are Hank and Chuck?" Tessa asked.

"Hank's the team doctor," Jubilee explained. "Brainy big blue guy. If they put anythin' on ya, he'll find it. Chuck is Charles Xavier. He's the guy that put the X-Men together. He's a telepath so if they hid anything in yer mind, he can find it."

Tessa stopped walking in astonishment. "You want a telepath to walk around in my mind?" she demanded.

"Don't worry," Logan told her. "He won't go anywhere ya don't want him ta be."

"I don't want him in my head at all." She told him.

"I'm hopin' it won't be necessary," he told her, "but if anyone crammed somethin' inta yer head, ya have the right ta know what it is."

"But I don't think I've ever even met a telepath."

"Ya can't know that," he told her. "A good one can remove the meeting from yer memories completely. Only another telepath can tell if yer mind's been tampered with."

"Believe us, Tessa," Jubilee said. "we know about telepaths."

They continued to hike on in silence. Tessa's thoughts where a whirlwind of strange new things. After her best friend had been killed, she never came in contact with another mutant. Jubilee and Logan were her introduction to high powered mutants. Knowing them and knowing their abilities made her even more angry at her father for some of the things he had done over the years. His latest foray into mutant research funding now seemed even more disgusting. Logan had already been used for experiments and suffered because of them. If anything like that ever happened to Jubilee, Tessa thought she might kill him.

At nightfall, Logan stopped the trek and they ate the cold remains of their hunt from the morning. The weather continued to be calm and warm so they didn't have to bunch together for warmth. Tessa was on watch when Jubilee had the nightmare. She had never been so frightened as she was when the girl screamed. Logan was up and over to her side before Tessa could even stand.

"Jubilee," he called. "Yer havin' a nightmare, kid. Wake up."

She continued to thrash and moan, unable to hear him. "Please, don't hurt me," she whimpered in a small voice. "I'm just a kid."

Logan could taste the bile rising in his throat. Bastian. It had been three years since the madman had taken her and tortured her, trying to get the location of the X-Men from her. It was one of his biggest failures with her. He hadn't even known she was missing from school.

He picked her up and settled her in his lap and began to rock. "I'm sorry darlin'," he whispered over and over. "I shoulda been there ta protect ya." He buried his nose in her hair, breathing in her fear. He kept telling her he was sorry for not being there for her.

He could have cried for what she went through but manly men don't cry. He kept telling himself this even as his eyes blurred with unshed tears. He felt her relax and wake up.

"Wolvie?" she said softly. "Why are ya crying?"

"Ya had a nightmare," he told her, "'bout Bastian."

She reached up and wiped away the single tear that fell to his cheek. "Not yer fault, Logan." she told him. "If it's anyones fault, it's mine for goin' with him in the first place. I shoulda known better."

"I coulda kept a better eye out fer ya," he said quietly. "I didn't even know ya were missin'."

Her eyes darkened with anger. "Stop it!" she hissed. "Frosty was responsible fer me then. She should have known I wouldn't have left and not called her. I may have gone off with ya on a whim at times but I always called her ta let her know I was safe. She should have know somethin' was up when she didn't hear from me."

He didn't have a response for her. Emma and Sean were her guardians at the time. They should have known she was missing and called the X-Men. That didn't change the fact that he was responsible for her. She was his partner.

"Wolvie," she said, grabbing his chin in her small hand and forcing him to look at her. "I don't blame ya fer what happened. I dug the hole myself when I went with him."

"But I was there," he moaned. "I didn't even smell ya in the buildin'."

"I know," she told him. "I saw them shove ya inta the incinerator. You were hurt real bad. He had me isolated in a small room. Ya couldn't have know I was there."

"I shoulda," he growled. "I felt that I was leavin' somethin' behind when I left. I shoulda paid attention ta that feelin'."

She grabbed his chin in her hands and forced him to look at her. "The past is past. You can't change what happened no matter how hard ya try. I woulda been happier if it never happened but it did. All we can do is cope and go on. That's why I went back to school."

"But did ya cope?" he asked. "Ya still have nightmares."

"So do you," she reasoned. "I'm a mutant. My whole life is a nightmare. The only thing good about it is you and my friends."

"Ya think it's that bad?" he asked.

"It's no picnic," she admitted. "Sometimes I wish I was normal. Then I think, 'Well hell. If I wasn't a mutant, I wouldn't have met Logan and the X-Men'. That makes me glad I am what I am." She snuggled against his wide chest with a sigh. "I love ya, Wolvie." she yawned.

"I love ya too, Jubes," he said, kissing the top of her head. "I'm glad yer a mutant."

He laid her back down in her nest of blankets, tucking her in as he had done so many times before. Raising his hand, he stroked her hair until she fell asleep again.

He got up and walked over to Tessa and sat beside her.

"What happened to her?" Tessa asked. "She was terrified."

"Operation: Zero Tolerance." he told her. "Jubilee was captured by Bastian and raped and tortured for information." He closed his eyes against the memory. "She was fourteen."

"Oh, my God!" Tessa whispered, horrified. "What kind of a monster would do such a thing to a child?"

'Snickt'. Logan held the claws up in front of him, his eyes red with anger. "A dead one." he swore.

"SHIELD got him, didn't they?" she asked, leaning away from the deadly claws.

He started, looking at the gleaming claws. He retracted them with a sigh. "Yeah, they did." It still rankled him that SHIELD got to the crazy bastard before he did. He was dead, yeah, but Logan was still pissed that he didn't get the chance to drive his claws into the O:ZT mastermind. He wasn't able to get his revenge for what Bastian did to his best friend.

"Go ta sleep," he told her. "I can't sleep after she has one a her nightmares."

She nodded and got up. Logan could hear her back pop as she stretched. She looked down on the top of his head.

"You're very close to her," she remarked.

"She saved my life first," he told her. "Then, she saved my mind. Without her, I woulda given in ta insanity a long time ago. I call her my 'lifeline'." He looked up at Tessa, his eyes glowing with his love for the petite girl. "I love her more than anyone else in the world."

Tessa's brows rose as he spoke. "She loves you too," she told him. "I just didn't know that you loved her as much as she loves you. Thanks."

"What fer?" he asked.

"I never knew what loved looked like," she explained. "Daddy never showed me and Mama died when I was a young child. I thought Brad loved me but seeing you and Jubilee together, I was very wrong. He didn't love me. He never showed me the kindness and concern that you show Jubilee. Now that I know what love looks like, I won't be fooled again."

With that, she went over to the fire and laid down to sleep.

They continued their march north without incident. Logan was getting nervous. There should have been another attack by now. Both groups of mercenaries knew they were heading for the boarder and should have attempted to stop them. Why hadn't it happened? He didn't think for a moment that they had given up and gone home. Maybe, seeing what they did to the previous teams, the others were renegotiating their contract. Whatever happened to them, the most dangerous part of the trip was coming up.

He sat them down on a log at midday on the fourth day after leaving the mudslide and talked to them.

"From here on out, we're gonna be exposed." he told them. "No help fer it. There's not much cover fer us until we cross the river."

"How much distance are we going to have to cross without cover?" Tessa asked.

"'Bout thirty miles." he told her. "There's rocks and scrub but no trees. The next attack'll come somewhere in there. The closer we get to the river, the greater the chance fer an attack. We all need ta stay on out toes fer the next coupla days."

"Are we gonna cross at night?" Jubilee asked.

"Don't make no difference," he told her. "They got night scopes."

"Wolvie," Jubilee asked, concern in her eyes, "how are ya gonna cross? With all the metal in yer body, yer gonna sink."

"I've crossed this river before." he told her. "There's a spot near Big Bend that's not too deep. I can walk across as long as the river's not in flood."

"Are we in the right place" Tessa asked.

"Don't worry," he told them. "I know where I am. I don't get lost."

The wind suddenly shifted and Logan stiffened.

"Wolvie?"

"Puma," he growled. "It's too close. Grab a knife and stay together. I'll be back." He ran off into the trees and disappeared.

Jubilee could hear the puma growling. The tone was entirely different than Logan's growls. She felt the hair on her arms prickle as she pulled her knife from her belt. She saw Tessa do the same.

"Back ta back," she told the older woman. "If it comes fer us, I can kill it but I may get hurt. If I don't get it, go for the throat."

Logan heard Jubilee give Tessa her instructions and smiled. She would take care of her. He could put his mind and skills to hunting the puma.

It wasn't that difficult. The animal was sick and stunk so bad that Jubilee could have smelled it. It didn't put up much of a fight. Odd that it didn't. It was a nursing female. He quickly located the cubs. Whatever had affected the mother was slowly killing the cubs. One was already dead when he found the den. He quickly killed the rest and buried the bodies. He didn't want whatever sickness they had to get out into the general cat population.

He returned to the girls after burying the mother and found them still warily looking around.

"It's dead," he told them. "Let's stay here. We need ta rest before we go on. Next few days are gonna be rough."

Jubilee and Tessa relaxed and began to set up camp.

"Must not have been too big," Jubilee said when she found time. "Yer not all ripped up."

"She was sick," he told her.

"She?"

"Had ta kill the cubs," he said. "They were sick too."

"How bad?"

"One cub was already dead. The other two were dying." He finished stacking wood for a fire. "Light this fer me." Jubilee sent a paff into the pile of wood and it caught instantly. "I couldn't leave 'em ta die of starvation and they were too sick ta take back with us so I had ta kill 'em."

"What did they have?"

"Smelled like anthrax." he told her. "Musta got it from a kill. We're gonna hafta be careful with game in this area. I need ta sniff every kill. I'll survive anthrax but you and Tessa won't."

They spent the remaining daylight hunting and preparing for the dash north. Logan found a clump of wild potatoes to add to their food supplies and Tessa was able to locate some edible greens. Dinner that night was wild turkey and potatoes with a dry salad. Not Jubilee's favorite meal but she could tolerate it.

"We're gonna be moving fast," he told them the next morning after they broke camp. "We ain't stoppin' unless I can find a safe place. That may mean that we walk for more than a day before we can stop but it will mean that we can stay fer a while when we are safe. Keep yer eyes open and pay attention ta the animals. They're gonna know if anythin' is comin' before you will. Watch out fer snakes. Mountain rattlers 'r thick in this area."

An hour later, they left the safety of the trees and entered the scrub and brush of the high desert. Even in the late winter weather, they could feel the sun beating down on their heads. It couldn't have been hotter that the mid 60's but the sun was hot enough to be very uncomfortable. They were soon bathed in sweat and their water supply began to dwindle.

"Are we gonna make it to the river before we run out of water?" Jubilee asked as she wrapped a strip of cloth around her forehead to keep the sweat out of her eyes.

"Should," he said. "Gonna hafta ration but we have enough ta make it ta Texas."

"Where are we crossing?" Tessa asked.

"'Bout a hundred miles east of the Big Bend." he told her. "River's narrower there and not too deep."

"Any towns near there?"

"Just ranches and open land. Not much water there but we can fill up from the river."

"And the ranchers?"

"They may be a problem. They don't like trespassers. They'll probably take a shot at us before we can convince 'em ta let us use the phone."

"Oh, that's good news," Jubilee said sarcastically. "How are we gonna get them ta listen when they're shootin' at us?"

"Don't worry 'bout it." he told her. "I got it covered."

"That's all fine and dandy fer you," she said. "A bullet won't kill ya but Tessa and I ain't so lucky."

"Don't worry about it, Jubes. I know the guy that owns the ranch we'll be crossin' ta."

"But Wolvie," she said.

"Drop it," he told her.

"Fine," she huffed, "but if I get shot, it'll be your fault."