A/n: See bottom! Interesting stuff written there!

Disclaimer: Charlie is the only character i own and the song is "Dare You to Move" by Switchfoot.

White Wolf.

Chapter 2: An old face

After a long shower and finally finding some shampoo and conditioner, Charlie left the communal bathroom with clean, knot-free hair wrapped in a towel and noticed it was late at night.

'How long was I in there for? Ahh well...now to unpack.' she thought to herself. It didn't take long after only having one fairly large rucksack with her. As most of her clothes were still dirty from the journey she decided to do a bit of washing, especially as she was still up. Taking the towel off her head and changing into the pyjamas they'd laid out for her, she could vaguely remember where the utility room was from her quick tour of the mansion. They hadn't shown her the lower levels yet as she was still gagging for a shower at the time. As curious as she was now, she knew better than to snoop around on her own. Last time she'd done that, her elder brother had locked her in the cellar on the pretence of being trapped in there himself! Memories of that made her shudder and continue her quest of searching for the washing machine.

One thing she would be forever grateful for was the fact that this kid had charged up her MP3 player's batteries for her, she guessed that was his special gift or something, better than hers anyway, but she wouldn't think about that tonight. After she had loaded the machine as much as possible, she sat down in the sitting room, or lounge as they had called it. She was going to have to get used to some of the American lingo while she was over here because she only knew vaguely what some phrases meant from previous visits to her grandparent. Not daring to risk waking up the other residents she put on her music while she sang, in what she thought was a terrible voice, under her breath. After skipping a few songs, she came across one of her favourites, 'Dare you to move' by Switchfoot. 'The first playing of the chorus gets me for some reason, it just moves me.' Charlie thought as she turned up the volume slightly.

Logan's side.

How many hours had he been sat on that bike? Too many, that's for sure. 'Scooter needs to get better seats or something!' he thought as he slipped into the silent, dark mansion. He didn't know why he still came back here. Rogue and Bobby and the rest had all moved onto college and left 'home' as such. It was really the only place he seemed to be genuinely welcomed and that comforted him he guessed.

Silently clicking the front door shut, he dropped his keys on a small table near the door. Still to awake from the ride home, he crept into the kitchen to grab a root beer, or at least look for something stronger, and then perhaps watch something on TV. Just as he suspected, nothing but chocolate shakes in the fridge but still using the light from the fridge he searched the cupboards. He didn't like to constantly remind himself of his heightened senses so used others methods occasionally. Best he could find were some bottles of soda, so grabbing one, he rummaged in a drawer and found a bottle opener. Once it once opened, he took a large gulp before moving in the lounge.

Taking in a quick glance of the room, it appeared someone had beaten him to it and had fallen asleep on the sofa. Not wanting to wake the poor soul up, Marie's influence, he started to leave before he noticed that the person was actually saying something.

"Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
the tension is here
the tension is here
between who you are and who you could be
between how it is and how it should be"

Charlie had reached the second verse now, oblivious to everything around her, eyes closed.

"I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before"

Standing stock still, Logan listened. Was she talking to him? No, she was singing it wasn't she? Hmmm must be one of those insomniac kids. Therefore they wouldn't mind if he put the TV on, would they?

"Oi, kid. Shift over." Logan stage whispered.

Charlie nearly jumped out of her skin when some strange, looming, dark figure poked her shoulder.

"I swear, if you leave me alone, I won't scream for help and no one will know. You can even have my MP3!" she pleaded to the shadow taking the earphones out and thrusting the object into the person's hands.

"What the hell? Look-" he managed to get out before being interrupted.

"My granddad runs this school and I swear I will yell as loud as possible in 5 seconds if you don't leave. And I should warn you, I can yell pretty loud. I'm renowned for it!" Charlie hissed, showing more confidence then she felt.

Placing a large hand over her mouth, feeling slightly irritated Logan began to speak again. "Look, I'm a resident here. I should be asking who the hell you are! You're the newbie here! I'm gonna remove my hand now and when I do, I wanna know what you mean by your granddad runs the school." True to his word he lifted his hand off her face.

Feeling cold perspiration starting to trail it's way down her forehead and landing in her eyebrows, she nodded. Once free of his hand, she leapt of the sofa and started to race out the room.

"Whoa! Get back here!" Logan grabbed her and shoved her back on the sofa. "Sit there and tell me who you are! You're not going anywhere till you do!" and stood, arms crossed, towering over the teenager.

"Please, don't hurt me. My name's Charlie, well Charlotte, and my grandfather's called Professor Xavier. I'm staying here for a while. On holiday." she gabbled out.

"You're related to the prof? Hmm... didn't know he had a family... didn't know they'd allow non-muties into the school."

"I am too a mutant!" she nearly shouted back. Then realising what she had said clapped her hands over her mouth again to prevent other pieces of information about herself to leak out.

Logan just snorted disapprovingly. Then narrowed his eyes and leaned in closer. "Are you British?"

Leaning as far back in the sofa as she could, Charlie nodded her head. Removing her hands she asked, "Who are you? I've told you who I am."

"They didn't tell you about me? I would be hurt but I guess I haven't been back in a while so there's no reason they should. Name's Wolverine, well real one's Logan but...so anyways, now introductions finished with, scoot over."

"Ok, Logan." she said sounding the name in her mouth. She moved to one side of the sofa and leaned over to switch on the lamp next to it. Wincing slightly from the sudden brightness, she flicked her head back to the man on the sofa next to her, eyes screwed shut.

Logan grabbed the remote and automatically turned down the volume before the picture even came up. Finally he switched over to a basketball game.

"Erm..."

"What is it kid?"

"My name is Charlie and please could I have my MP3 back?" she said with a slight air of annoyance.

"Sure." and he placed it into her open palm. "So, what's your mutation then? Insomnia?"

"Oh... erm... no... I wish." she muttered under her breath.

"That bad eh?" he replied having caught what she'd said.

"Hell yes. I need to make sure I stay up tonight, and every night till I'm settled." Charlie stated staring at her knees, which were tucked under her chin. "That's if they let me stay here long enough once I tell them all." she finished.

"Why, what's your mutation?" Logan asked, now actually ignoring the game and turning to look at the woman who'd caught his attention.

"Well, I guess you could say I can morph into animals. A wolf is my main one. My favourite actually." she responded, smiling slightly. Then she looked up into his face and something clicked. "Have I seen you before? Somewhere with snow?"

Looking perplexed, Logan shook his head. "No, like I said, I haven't been back here for a while. Been travelling around near Canada."

"Canada?" Charlie whispered, still staring into his face but a million miles away.

"Yeah," Logan shifted in his seat. "Also could you quit staring at me, getting kind of disturbing?"

"Oh sorry, yes of course!" she apologised and swiftly looked at the screen, but still not seeing. "Wait, were you near an abandoned dam or something? Lots of old, rusting iron around. Stood in the snow."

"You mean Alkali Lake?" Logan asked, quelling the disturbing images he'd seen there.

"Yes, Alkali Lake. I remember that name." and then horrifying images and blood, and slashed animals clouded her vision. Tears started to leak unnoticed out of her eyes.

"Hey, what's wrong? You ok?"

"What? What do you mean?" staring back at Logan.

He lifted his hand and using the back of one of his fingers caught a tear and showed it to her.

"Oh. Sorry." Charlie sniffled, furiously wiping her tears away. 'Crying in front of a complete stranger! How much more eccentric can you get Charlie! Get a grip!' she thought. Although it wasn't long before even more memories flooded back causing her silent weeping to turn into stifled sobs.

"Hey, hey now. Shhh." Logan whispered before pulling the fragile looking girl into a hug and letting her sob on his shoulder.

After a few minutes of letting Logan stroke her hair and whisper comforting words, Charlie pulled away. "Thanks."

"No problem. What happened?"

"It's just stupid memories. They won't leave me alone! But I've told them that I won't do what they want anymore!" she cried.

"Calm down! Who won't leave you alone?" he asked with concern.

"I don't know! I've never seen their face but they always find me! I came to ask my granddad for help but why should he. Not with the things I've done!"

"Nothing you've done would be bad enough to turn the professor against you, I should know!"

"Yes I have! I'm out of control! I need to be stopped before I hurt someone! I only have so much power over it, I've only got animals so far but soon I'll hurt someone I love, I know I will!" Charlie stated, verging on hysterical.

"Shhh. Look it's ok! Just tell your granddad your problem," he said as he rubbed his hands up and down her arms. For some reason she'd turned numbingly cold.

"I can't! There's too much blood! They'll find me and make me hurt him if I tell him!"

"Look, no one can manipulate a friend of the X-men and get away with it, ok? We'll all help."

"No, you can't," she'd turned alarmingly quiet and calm now. "I've already put you in danger telling you. I'm sorry, I've got to..."

Before she finished, she'd scrambled off the sofa and ran round to the door. Logan stood and watched her go. She turned at the door, looked him straight in the eyes before turning into a beautiful, medium-sized wolf, with glorious, white fur and piercing greeny-brown eyes. Then running out, Logan rushed to follow her. Reaching the front door, he managed to catch a glimpse of white disappearing into the forest, the sun a mere 6 hours off rising.

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A/N: Hey agen! sorry it took a while to update on this story but i have been busy doin school work and stuff for my GSCE year eek! lol! This chapter is actually quite long! So proud of myself! lol! also not sure if you american's call them sofa's or couches because I used to live there when I was little and get told off over here for my 'amercanisms' but i dunno if sofa is one of them? Convo between Logan and Charlie didn't go exactly as seen in my head at first but the ending was! left it hanging a bit so i'm sure to come back to it! I was looking for a good song for her to be singing because I saw logan in my head standing behind the sofa(back to it) with charlie lying on it but not being able to see her face and so unsure as to whether or not she was talking to him...dunno if i achieved it but i was gonna use 'Pet' by A Perfect Circle but saw 'A walk to remember' last night (kinda dissapointed coz i thought it lacked depth), heard the song and thought the lyrics kinda fitted...i also have plans for this song later! but less of my inane ramblings! Review please and tell me what you think! Constructive critisisms welcome!