Chapter 4

As the weeks passed, Wolverine's presence within the house was becoming a natural day-to-day fixture. Determined to become more than a part of household furniture, he was keen to help her with tasks, some he was undoubtedly better at. On one of the afternoons, Anna was changing one a tyre on a vehicle in her driveway and attracted Wolverine's attention when he heard her curses all the way from the bathroom. Out of curiosity, he headed outside to see her practically attacking the wheel nuts with her spanner in frustration. The ice on them was making it almost impossible to budge the bolts.

He headed over to her, suppressing an amused smile, "You need to give it a bit of force," he informed her unhelpfully.

Anna's face appeared as she wheeled round from the vehicle, "I know." She resolutely continued to try and turn the bolts.

Wolverine stood patiently at her side, leaning against the side of the tall bonnet. As he glanced over it, he recognised it to be a camper van. Whilst it was a little worn, he thought it was a decent vehicle. Snow marked most of its surface, last night's blizzard taking its toll. He peered down to Anna who still could not move the frozen wheel nuts. When she saw him looking, she exhaled an irritated sigh of misty air, and thrust the spanner up at him. She gave him a challenging look before she pushed to her feet and stepped back from the camper. A small smirk could be seen as he took the spanner and crouched down at the wheel. As Anna watched, he tightened his grip around the spanner and wrenched furiously downwards to loosen the bolt. With a crack of ice, the spanner moved, turning the once solid bolt loose.

Satisfied, Wolverine stood to his feet, offering the spanner back with an arrogant smirk. Anna took the spanner, glowering a little, however she stopped, as she looked downward. Then, slowly, she raised the spanner up to their line of sight – the spanner was bent into a crooked right angle. Wolverine stared at it, mouth hovering open a little as he tried to think of something to say. The first thing he could think of was; "Sorry.."

Anna looked up at him, laughing quietly, "I'm guessin' you didn't mean to do that. You don't know your own strength that's for sure." In reply, he could only manage a small shrug, glancing down at his hands in inspection. Anna noticed this, and she began to look concerned. "You don't do you?" she asked, "Is this something to do with the experiments?" she added in a quieter tone.

There was another pause in which Wolverine stared at his hands, "I think it's somethin' to do with the metal in my hands.."

Not wanting Wolverine to start thinking too much over his distressing past, Anna attempted to poke him playfully on the arm with the bent spanner, "Well, that means you can help me with chopping some firewood, seeing as you've got more strength in you."

Wolverine caught her eye, managing a small grin, "Alright. You might as well leave it all to me – seein' how amazing I am."

Anna laughed again, truly pleased that she had successfully steered him away from those murky waters of his memories. "Well, how about you finish the wheel on the camper for me – "

"- An' you sit around on your ass - ?"

" – An' I make you some dinner?"

"That's a deal."

With a grin, Anna nodded as she turned from him, wiping her dirtied hands on the grubby dungarees she wore.

As the evening drew closer, the darkness began to settle across the bitter skies of Canada, a sunset closing the short day. Round the back of the house, the sounds of a swish and thud of an axe could be heard every short while. Since changing into clean clothing, Anna had spent her time in the kitchen preparing a warm meal for them both. Leaving the food in the oven to remain warm, she dusted her hands down a kitchen towel before she stepped towards the back door and pushed her feet into her boots, exiting to find Wolverine.

The dusty glow of the setting sun threw a blaze of fire across the horizon, adding a small amount of light into swiftly darkening surroundings. A short distance from the front door was a little shed, behind which Anna could see the weak glow of a lit gas lamp. She trudged across the snow quietly, hearing another sound of the moving axe and the dull thump as it struck through the logs. The wind has calmed since the previous night, and the sounds of Wolverine at work carried quite easily. His grunts and sighs as he heaved the axe mixed in with the rhythmic strikes, sometimes punctuated by a crunch of snow as he moved.

Anna slipped round the side of the shed, stopping and leaning up against the wooden wall as she watched Wolverine work with his back to her under the beam-supported canopy. A gas lamp hung from one of the wooden columns, its flame flickering in the wind as it swung slowly and rattled against its hook. Wolverine raised the axe once more, powerfully thrusting it down upon the awaiting log. As the blade hit, the log split into two, and he swept them into a pile.

"You just gonna watch me?" he asked without looking round, straightening and hitching his jeans up a little.

Anna jumped a little at his words, quickly feeling embarrassed, "No.. I just – "

"Don't worry 'bout it," he then said, glancing over his shoulder with a grin, "You can watch me if you want."

Anna felt her cheeks burn a little and was glad it was dark. "I jus' came to tell you that dinner was ready.." Quickly wanted to push aside her embarrassment, she continued, "You've done a good job with those logs."

"Yeah," agreed Wolverine, dropping the axe down upon the pile, stretching his limbs as he turned to her, "I just imaged each one to be the face of the man who did this to me."

"Wolverine.." she murmured reprovingly, not sure if this was a good or a bad thing.

He just shrugged in reply, "How about this dinner then?"

"Just waitin' for us in the oven, now." She straightened off the wall, turning as she began to walk back into the house, Wolverine stalked in behind her, but Anna quickly turned as she gave his grubby form a quick look, "You can wash and change first," she quickly instructed, a fleeting grin passing her face as she headed towards the cooker, pulling oven gloves on.

"Yes, mother," growled Wolverine quietly, but his tone remained light hearted.

"Have a look through my dad's wardrobe.. there should be something in there you like."

"Sure that's alright?"

Anna placed the plates on the counter, her turned head canting a little as she looked down at her shoulder, "Of course," she replied in a quieter voice, turning back to the plate, "Be quick now, I'll be setting the table up."

A few minutes later, Wolverine returned into the kitchen, face spotless of dirt, hair less wild and a clean change of attire. Anna smiled as he entered, seating herself down at the small kitchen table. It had gone quite dark now, and a few gas lamps were all that lit the room. After taking temporary residence in her house, Wolverine had been treated to various meals each day, always made on time and served steaming hot with well-sized portions. ("You need to eat to help you recover," Anna had insisted day after day.) As he sat watching her eat, he wondered, as if he often did, why she was so keen to help him? Normally his answers boiled down to her being a kind woman, but, if so, he'd had to be very lucky to be picked up by her. Was that all it was, luck? His eyes averted for a moment as he ate, before once more rising upon her and noticing that she was looking at him, or more rather, the shirt he wore. Her lips grew thin and she quickly looked back down at her plate.

"Anna, do you want me to stop wearin' these clothes?" asked Wolverine quietly over the gentle clatter of their cutlery.

"No," she said quietly, shaking her head as she concentrated on her plate, "'Course not."

"But they were your father's and maybe I – "

"No, wear them," insisted Anna, looking up gradually, "There's no point just lettin' them sit in the wardrobe is there?"

"But – "

"It's fine!" she quickly snapped, quickly silencing Wolverine with her sharp tone. Her eyes darted upon Wolverine before down at her plate again, her fingers tightly clenched her knife and fork and her breaths travelled shakily from her nose. But it was clear to Wolverine that it wasn't, he lowered his cutlery quietly, leaning forward in his seat.

"Look, I just wanted to be sure, alright? Don't get upset.."

"I'm not upset," whispered Anna quietly, although her voice said otherwise. "It's just.. difficult."

"I said I can take them off – "

"No.. you need them. An', I said I'd help you, an' you need clothes," she smiled slowly as she looked up at him. "It's not like my father needs them."

Wolverine could sense the persistence in her words, but still heard the effort in which she fought to keep the emotion from her voice. But he nodded his head slowly and looked back at his plate. A silence softly settled over the pair as they finished their meal. When the plates were cleared, without a word, Anna pushed to her feet with her plate. She reached over to pick up Wolverine's and carried the empty plates towards the sink. Here she stopped, even after placing the dirty items down. She stared down into the sink, her hands holding the edge of the worktop tightly. With her back to Wolverine, the beginning of tears could not be seen.

But he could smell them.

He quietly pushed to his feet, walking quietly up to her. Her shoulders shook gently as she bowed her head. A hand rose to her face as she made a quiet sob. "Anna?" When she did not answer, he stepped besides her, looking down at her with a frown. Then, unexpectedly, she turned to face him, her face burying into his chest as her cries became louder. Her hands grabbed the shirtfront, squeezing it in her fists. Wolverine looked taken aback, particularly as she came against him. He looked down at her, beginning to feel a little uncomfortable as he awkwardly patted her arm.

But, her brief tears seemed to be subsiding, for she just breathed tearfully erratic gasps against his chest, sniffing quietly as fingers pushed away her tears. "I'm sorry," she whispered, a guilty expression coming over her face as she stepped quickly away from him.

"No.." said Wolverine quietly as his hand tightened on her arm. "It's alright."

"I just miss him," she whispered quietly, "It's lonely.."

"I'll help you.."

"Help me?" asked Anna as she looked up before she smiled weakly, "It's supposed to be me taking care of you," she murmured, tucking brown strands behind an ear.

Wolverine returned her smile reassuringly, continuing to watch her. "We can help each other.."

Thank you for reading this chapter, as you can see, it's weeks since he was rescued by Anna, and now, she needs some rescuing too!