Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters, though if they wanted to give me a mini Wolverine I wouldn't say no.
Sidnotes: I've never been in a bar, I've got about 4 more years before I'm even old enough to, I've never drank alcohol and I don't know the darndest thing about cars, so if I mix some things up every now and then, please forgive me, as that's the joy of it being 'fiction'. Also, as I stated in the last chapter, I was going to end the story there, but got carried away and kept writing for about three weeks longer, so this was an after-thought of the original story idea and I hope you like it!
The trial was held in Seattle the next month, in mid-December. That's when the judge read the charges that my father had been imprisoned for aloud. My stomach churned, threatening to make me throw up as she described in detail how he had killed a mutant boy who was only fourteen. I tried to stay but I couldn't and ran from the courtroom. A woman who was helping with my case came out to check on me.
"Are you alright, sweetie?" she asked.
"I am not living with him," I said, fighting back angry tears.
"You have to understand that what your father did was to protect you and your mother," she said.
"He was a fourteen year old boy! He was only two years younger than I am, how is that justified by thirteen years in prison? Because he was a mutant? It wasn't his fault, my father murdered someone and I will not live with him,"
"Well, you can tell your concerns to the judge,"
"My concerns? My concern is that it's actually being considered that I live with a murderer, that he have legal custody over me and that no one cares to actually think about how incredibly insane this whole situation is. He should not even be out of prison, let alone be trying to win me back. Does no one else see how crazy this is but me?"
"I know that you're upset, but you have to go back in there,"
"I don't even want to see him again,"
"You have to, for today at least, and then they can decide what will happen,"
I let out a deep breath and resisted the overwhelming urge to run, screaming at the top of my lungs, from the building.
"Fine," I said, going back into the room.
I fought being given over to my father and custody was awarded to my aunt, who had agreed to take me in for the last two years before I was officially an adult. She had moved to New York City since that last time I had seen her. In less than a month, my whole life had changed again completely. I had gone from thinking that I could live with Logan, to having to move to New York City with my aunt, whom had given me away eight years before. Every night I went to sleep, wondering where he was and what he was doing. I couldn't help but think about how he had gone three months fighting before he left, and still, he had left undefeated.
Slowly six years of my life passed by. My aunt kicked me out when I was eighteen, and I moved in with two of my friends, but when I was twenty years old, I moved in with my boyfriend. At twenty-one I got a job at a bar in a town in Westchester, New York, and at twenty-two, my boyfriend was kicking me out of our apartment. So, as I was going through my things, packing them up while he was gone to see his mother, I came across one of my old journals that I had written about Logan in. I had never let anyone read it because it was the only thing that was mine and that no one could take away from me. However, there was no time for me to be nostalgic, I had to get to work, so I taped up my last box and got dressed before driving down to the bar.
"Hey Chloe," Kayti said to me as soon as I walked in. Kayti was one of the girls that I worked with.
"Hey, sorry I'm late, I was packing," I said, pulling off my jacket and hanging it up.
"You're still moving out, why? Josh treats you so well,"
"Well, sometimes you just have to move on," I said with a forced smile and going back behind the bar.
After being there for about thirty minutes, I was mixing a drink when another one of the girls that I worked with, Leah, came up beside me.
"There's that hot guy again,"
"What hot guy?" I asked, trying to look over my shoulder.
"No, don't look right now,"
"Who is he?"
"I don't know, he's been coming in all week,"
"Of course, the attractive ones only come in when I take time off,"
"Well maybe you should start taking time off, this guy is gorgeous,"
"Okay, you can't say that a guy is gorgeous and not let me turn around and look, that's just wrong and mean,"
"Alright, fine, you can look,"
I causally turned around and looked to where she was nodding her head. There was an attractive, blonde hair, blue eyed, J-Crew model looking guy at the bar. Unsurprisingly there was a small harem of girls right beside him, all laughing and flitting with him. I didn't have time to respond with my opinion because Taryn was yelling and telling me that there was a little bachelor party in the back that needed their order taken.
I grabbed a notepad and pen. "I'm on it," I said, heading towards the back. There was a table with five men all talking very loudly. "Is this the Bachelor party?" I asked, coming up to the table.
"Yeah," a man with red tinted sunglasses said to me.
"So, who's the man of the hour, then?"
"Me," one of the younger guys said, raising his hand.
"What's your name?"
"Bobby,"
"Well congratulations, Bobby, who's the lucky girl?"
"Her name's Marie,"
"Alright, so what can I get for you boys?" I asked.
"Well, we're missing one but he'll be here in a little bit," the man in sunglasses said.
I resisted the urge to ask if he could see in those things, considering it might be slightly rude of me, if he couldn't see at all. Instead, I took their drink orders. He didn't order anything though, and I assumed he could see, as he was the designated driver. I had just finished writing down the last one when I tried to rip the list from the pad, dropping them both in the floor. I bent down to grab it and heard one of the guys say, "The waitress is here, what do you want to drink?"
"I'll have a beer," he said.
I heard his voice and lifted my head so fast from under the next table, which was empty; I knocked my head on the underside of it.
"Are you alright?" Bobby asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, standing. I turned back to look at the table. "I'm afraid I didn't get that last one, what was it?"
The man looked up at me and met my eyes. I knew it was him even before I had seen him, his voice had been seared into my mind, playing over and over when I needed someone to comfort me as I fell asleep.
"Uh…a beer," Logan said.
He was just as gorgeous as I had remembered, and looked as if he hadn't changed a bit. He was quite a sight for my jaded eyes, which got their fair share of pretty boys each night. I drank the sight of him in, and then I realized that I still slightly resented him for leaving me stranded fourteen hours away from my home.
"Alright, I'll uh…be back in just a minute," I said with a smile, leaving the table. It took me less than five minutes to round up all of the drinks onto a tray and head back to the table. I handed everyone their order, saving his for last. "Alright guys, if you need anything else, I'm Chloe, just tell at me and I'll be right over," I said, setting down his beer in front of him with a little more force than the others, sloshing some out. "Sorry," I apologized; cleaning it up with the rag I had with me.
"It's fine," he said to me.
I smiled at him, tucking the hair that was into my eyes behind me ear, which was straight instead of it natural curly. "Alright guys, have a nice night," I said, walking off.
They didn't order anything else for the rest of the night and I was stuck wondering if he remembered me, so I had an idea. I grabbed a shot glass, filled it with some Jack Daniels and headed back to their table. I sat the drink down in front of him and he turned to look at me.
"Here's a whiskey, it's on the house," I said with a smile and a wink.
He didn't say anything; he just nodded and kept his eyes locked with mine. He had to remember after that, unless he was still having memory problems.
"Hey, you got a huge tip from that bachelor party table," Kayti said to me after she was done cleaning up the tables in the back.
"Really?"
"Yep, two hundred dollars," she said, handing it to me.
"Well, that's rent money right there," I said.
It was nearly one in the morning and they had just left, Logan in two, without me knowing it.
"You know what, tonight's going pretty slow, why don't you take the rest of the night off so you can finish getting all of your stuff from Josh's," Taryn said to me.
"Are you sure?" I asked skeptically.
"Yeah, we've got it covered," she said. Taryn owned the bar; she was in her mid-thirties and treated me pretty well. She understood that men were pigs and went easy on me when Josh and I would have problems.
"Alright, thank you," I said, giving her a hug. "I'll see you guys tomorrow night,"
I went and grabbed my jacket, sliding it on over my very low cut tank top. I took the purse down from its hanger and went out to my truck. I looked around for my keys, but when I found them and tried to turn over the ignition, it wouldn't start. I turned it back and tried to start again, but it was dead. I got out and slammed the door.
"Freakin' piece of crap won't start," I said, kicking the tire, but missing and hitting the hubcap. Yeah, that metal thing in the middle of the tire. "Holy crap! You stupid truck!" I yelled, hobbling along to the front of the truck and lifting up the hood.
"Are you alright?" someone asked from behind me. I turned around and saw the man with the sunglasses and Bobby the bachelor standing beside their car.
"Yeah, I was just checking the durability of the hubcaps; they're on there quite well," I joked with a smile.
"Do you need it boosted?"
No, I needed them to leave so that I could fix it myself, but it would look odd if I told them that.
"Yeah, I think so," I said.
"Do you have any jumper cables?" he asked.
"Why would I need jumper cables?" I thought.
"No, I'm afraid I don't," I said.
"Well, I think I have some in the truck, I'll check," he said, popping the truck with a button on his key ring. He searched around until he pulled out some cables. "Yeah, I've got them right here,"
"You came more prepared than I did," I said.
He smiled at me and walked over to where I was standing at the hood of my truck. "Bobby, pull the car over here closer," he said, tossing him the keys.
Bobby hopped into the car and did just as the man told him, pulling the car about a foot away from my truck, making it look like a genuine piece of junk in comparison.
He hooked the jumper cables to both of the engines and then looked at me. "Hey, weren't you our waitress?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm Chloe," I said, shaking his hand.
"Yeah, one of the guys we were with went back in to look for you,"
"Really?"
"Yeah, you brought him a whiskey,"
"Oh, right,"
"Have you seen him before?"
"Yeah, a few times," I said with a smile. Logan had gone back in looking for me; he had remembered me.
It didn't take long for them to boost my truck off and we stood outside talking while waiting for Logan to come back out.
"How long have you been working here?" Scott, the man with the sunglasses, said to me after he had introduced himself.
"Around two years, I had just turned twenty-one, so…yeah, just about two years," I said. "Where do you work?"
"At a school here in town,"
"How do you know Logan, then?" I asked.
"He works there, too,"
"Are you serious? Logan's a schoolteacher, that's brilliant," I laughed.
"What did he tell you that he did?" Bobby asked.
"I knew him before he started teaching,"
"Well, he's been at the school for six years, he's been teaching for about five, how long have you known him?" Scott asked.
"Six years. Your truck messed up?" Logan said, coming from the side door.
I smiled at him. "Yeah, it's your fault," I teased.
"How is my fault?" he asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"You talked me into buying this heap of junk,"
"I told you to get a truck, not that one and you said you were going to learn how to fix it,"
"No, you said you were going to teach me how to fix it,"
"I don't think I did,"
"You did, trust me, I remember. I figured that if you could keep your stupid truck from falling apart on you, that you could show me how to do it with mine,"
"How do the two of you know each other?" Scott asked.
"I used to live in Canada and my family owned a bar that he used to come to all the time. You've still got the record for the longest fighter, but Tom sort of scratched it out after you…left," I said, not knowing how to quite put the situation into words, and also wanting to be careful with what I said, as I didn't know if the Scott and Bobby guys knew about him being a mutant.
"Did they come get you?" he asked.
"No, I had to catch a plane at two in the morning to get there," I said, knowing exactly what he meant.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"It's alright,"
He let out a small laugh. "Not it's not, you're still pissed at me, that's why you nearly threw my beer down on the table,"
"I didn't nearly throw it down, but yeah, alright, so maybe I am just a little bit, but I'm trying to deal with my anger in a healthy way, so I'm trying to get over my past experiences," He raised an eyebrow at me. "Okay, so maybe it isn't working all that well, I kicked my truck and nearly broke my foot, but I'm working on it,"
He nodded. "What are you doin' down here?"
"Well, I was going to ask the same about you, but I was told that you're a teacher now," I teased. "My aunt lives down here,"
"So you moved in with her, then?"
"Yeah, for two years, then she kicked me out when I turned eighteen, which seems to be a pattern and reminds me that I have to go, I've got to get my stuff from my boyfriend's apartment before he gets back," I said with a sigh. "Maybe I'll see you around sometime?"
"Yeah," he said as I walked over to the driver's side of my truck. "Where are you movin' to?"
"I don't know, he sort of kicked me out on short notice so I haven't found a place yet," I said, trying to make light of the conversation, not wanting them to feel sorry for me.
"Why did he kick you out?" Logan asked.
I thought for a second, trying to think of how I could put it. "You know why Tom threw you out of his bar?"
"Because I got into a fight,"
"No, the reason why he pulled a gun out on you," I said, looking him in the eye from across the hood of my truck.
"Yeah,"
"It's sort of that same…thing. I told him about my situation that relates to yours and was told to pack my things and leave by the end of this weekend,"
Scott and Bobby watched the two of us talking, completely oblivious to what we were actually talking about.
"How did he -" he started.
"I told him,"
"Did he-"
"No, he just told me to leave. I was supposed to be gone by tonight, though," I said, cutting him off.
"Is he gonna' be there when you get back?"
"Probably,"
"I'll go with you,"
"No, you don't have to, I'll be fine,"
"I wasn't making a suggestion darlin', I was tellin' you what I'm doin',"
"But there's no point in you going, I don't even know when I'm going once I leave,"
"You're comin' home with me,"
"What?" Scott and I both asked in unison.
"I can't do that," I said.
"Logan, I don't think that the Professor will-" Scott started.
"Chuck will understand, she'll be fine at the school,"
"She will?"
"I will?"
Logan looked frustrated with the conversation. "She got kicked out because of it," he tried to explain.
"No, I got kicked out…I'm not sure what we're talking about right now and I'm really confused,"
Logan ran his hands through his hair, letting out a sigh, then placing his hands at his waist and looking irritated. "The school is for people like us, kid, now where do you live?"
"Wait, wait, wait!" I said, holding up my hands. "There's a school for people like us, that's where you work?"
"Yeah,"
"And the owner won't mind me staying the night until I can go out tomorrow and find a place of my own?"
"No," he said.
"Well," Scott started.
"Shut it Summers," Logan growled at him.
"No, he won't mind," Scott agreed, swearing at Logan under his breath and saying something about calling him 'Summers'.
"If this is going to be a problem then I can go stay with a friend, I don't want to cause a riff between the two of you,"
Bobby laughed, and then turned his face down, trying to hide it. Scott shot him a look.
"It's not a problem, there's plenty of room," Scott said begrudgingly.
I thought about it for a minute, it would be nice to have somewhere to stay for the night. It would also be nice to see Logan for a little longer and catch up with him, but it was all too fast and too simple. Generosity didn't like me that much, I was one of the few people that it made pay back for giving me something. There was no such thing as 'no strings attached,' which is what the offer sounded like. I would no doubt have to pay the Professor guy back some how and I was in no fit state to be paying anyone anything. I didn't have anything to give, unless he wanted my truck, which would almost have been worth staying the night for just to get rid of the stupid thing.
"No, I'm not going to impose on you guys like that, he's getting married tomorrow," I said, pointing to Bobby. "It's like one thirty in the morning, or later, it'll be nearly three o'clock before I get all of my stuff, no one's going to want that,"
"Then where are you gonna' stay?" Logan asked.
"I'll go to a hotel, I'll be fine,"
"I'm still goin' with you to get your stuff,"
"There's no point in it, though, I'll be fine,"
He let out a long breath, sounding annoyed. "Are you sure?"
I smiled at him. "Yeah, I'm sure. Thanks for offering, though," He stared at me, trying to read me. "I'll see you later, though, yeah? You'll come back and see me again?"
"Yeah,"
"It was nice to meet you Scott and Bobby; maybe I'll see you guys around some time,"
"Yeah, it was nice to meet you, too," Scott said.
"Bye," I told them, climbing back into my truck.
I drove all the way to Josh's apartment, mad at myself for just leaving Logan the way that I had. I had spent six years missing him, wondering about him and within the course of one night, let him slip away again. He had said that he would come back to see me again, though, so I counted on him keeping his promise. Maybe then, I could talk to him some more and catch up with him.
I pulled up to our apartment and saw that Josh wasn't there yet. I let out a relieved sigh; I didn't want to have to deal with him right then, I was tired and just wanted to load my boxes into the back of my truck, get a hotel room and sleep through the morning, right into the afternoon.
I parked the truck, went up to the door, unlocked it and pushed it open. I loaded some of my stuff into the bed of my truck and was in my bedroom getting some of my things together when I heard his car pull up outside. He opened the door and I could hear his footsteps coming up behind me.
"I've got like, three boxes left and I'll be gone," I said to him, picking up one of the boxes and turning around to face him. He was standing right there in front of me, holding a mag-light in his hand. "What are you doing with that?" I asked.
He responded by bringing it up, swinging it down and knocking me out. The last thing I remember is watching my purple bedroom fade into a very dark black.