The Girl With The Backstabbing Scars

"Does he have to be here?" Kitty whined as she pulled her top off. She pressed the fabric to her chest, leaving her back exposed.

"This won't take long." Malik promised as he started to peel the dressings off her scorched skin. The burns were dark red surrounded by leathery skin, which was hot to the touch. Malik carefully probed at the irritated skin with his gloved fingers while Logan watched. "Does this hurt?"

"No," Kitty shook her head. "Not really."

"Are you lying?" Logan asked with raised eyebrows. "Because they look painful."

"That's because these," Malik pointed to multiple large red patches. "Are third degree burns. The damage goes beyond the nerves. Could you," He turned back and nodded to a small hand held light on a table. "Bring that over here and hold it?"

Logan held the light over her back so Malik could better examine the skin. "Wait, what's that?" He pointed at over twenty faded marks littering her shoulders and back. They looked tight and smooth, with some appearing almost sunken in.

"I do not know." Malik said slowly, his eyebrows drawn together as he examined her back. "They look like scarred knife wounds-"

"If you don't stop poking at my back," Kitty growled, her eyes flicking to the men. "I will rip off your finger and feed it to your mother."

Malik slowly removed his hand and continued to clean the burns. The room stayed silent and Kitty kept her eyes down. She could feel Logan staring at her, but she refused to meet his eyes. She anxiously tapped her foot, unable to stay still. Eventually, Malik finished wrapping up her burns and left both alone.

"So, I thought Evelyn healed all your scars." Logan said.

Kitty sat cross legged on the bed and pulled the blanket closer. "She just made them less visible. Some were too deep to disappear."

Logan watched her start to braid her hair back out of her face. "So they're stab wounds?"

"Yep."

"They look old."

"Yep."

"There's a lot of them."

"Yep."

"Look pretty fatal."

"Yep."

"How many are there?"

"No idea."

Logan's eyebrows narrowed and he asked, "You don't know how many times you were stabbed?"

"Nope." Kitty took in a short breath. "I was too busy trying to stay alive."

"Never wondered or counted?"

"Nope." Kitty shook her head. "The only time I think of them is when I feel the residual pain."

"Who did it?" Logan asked.

There was silence.

"Was it-"

"Look," Kitty cut him off. "I really don't want to talk about it, okay?"

"Okay…" Logan leaned back in an attempt to look casual. "So, Stark and Rogers seem to think you get upset whenever a man yells-"

"Will you please just leave me the fuck alone?" Kitty snapped. "I get that we're trapped here in a bubble, but you don't have to pretend."

Logan actually appeared confused. "Pretend?"

"To care."

"What?"

"Why the fuck do you care about who stabbed me twenty-eight times?" Kitty hissed.

"Thought you said you hadn't counted." Logan said.

"Anyone who had lived through that would have counted." Kitty's voice was tainted with bitterness.

"So," Logan looked Kitty in the eyes. "Who could've gotten the upper hand on you long enough to do that?"

"I repeat," Kitty growled. She sat up on her bed and stared at Logan. "Why. Do. You. Care?"

"I don't." Logan shrugged. "I'm just curious."

Kitty stared at Logan, studying him as if waiting for him to laugh. Finally, she muttered, "...I wasn't expecting it, okay?"

"You're one of the most suspicious people I have ever met," Logan said. "And you weren't expecting to be stabbed?"

"It was my eleventh birthday. I thought," Kitty sighed and looked down at her hands. "I thought that they had gotten one of those cake things that people on TV get and that's why he had the knife…" She suddenly gave a short laugh. "Obviously I wasn't suspicious enough."

Logan stayed quiet for a moment as he considered this. "That's why you don't like your birthday."

"I just don't see the point in celebrating something as trivial as surviving another year." Kitty said quietly.

"So, you had never gotten a birthday cake as a kid?"

"Nope." Kitty shook her head. "Didn't even know it was a real thing before Barton got one for his birthday."

"Wait," Logan held up one of his hands. "You've never had a birthday cake? At all?"

"I had a piece of Barton's cake." Kitty shrugged. "It was decent."