Jubilee leaned closer to the window until her nose was pressed flat against it. She didn't breathe because she didn't want to fog up the window. Her gaze was fastened to the curve where the driveway disappeared behind a patch of trees. Every sense was alert, waiting for the distant sound of a motor to appear, but she heard nothing except the sound of Remy moving about upstairs. She stared harder at the bend in the drive, trying to will them into existence. She'd been doing the same thing for most of the night as well as the previous. No luck so far.

Leaning away from the window, she sighed and recalled the horrible moments after she and Remy had heard Laura's scream. It hadn't taken them long to realize that all the doors and windows were sealed. They had been trapped in the kitchen.

Jubilee rushed the glass door again, throwing her shoulder against it with all of her strength. She bounced back, hitting the floor hard. A low growl built up in her throat as she pushed herself to her feet.

"Wait," Remy said, taking a few steps closer to the door until he placed his hand on it. Waves of energy began to spread out from his hand in waves. "Get behind de bar!" He ordered as the waves spread across the length of the sliding glass door. He dove behind the barrier with her just as the door and wall exploded in a shower of glass and debris.

The dust hadn't yet settled when Jubilee launched herself over the kitchen island, dashing outside, her only thoughts of Logan. The instant she stepped foot outside, her entire body felt hot, but she ignored what started as an annoying tingle on her skin. She quickly saw them. The woman in black, Selene, was standing with one hand around Laura's neck, though she didn't appear to be paying attention to her. Her gaze was trained on Logan, who was being pinned down on the bar by an invisible force.

"Logan!" Jubilee screamed. The tingling became more intense and she felt flames of pain were licking across her skin. She was finding it more difficult to move, and she stumbled. Everyone looked at her, and she could see the panic and shock on Logan's face as his eyes connected with hers. His mouth formed the word "No!" just as she fell to her knees, her body not wanting to respond to her command. Oh, it hurt. What was the woman doing to her? She had never felt pain this intense before. Every fiber of her being seemed to be screaming in agony. She fell forward onto her hands, her eyes still locked with Logan's until she blacked out.

Jubilee was brought back to reality by the uneven sound of Remy coming down the stairs. She moved toward the stairs, patiently waiting for him to reach the bottom. He was holding a phone in his hands, and there was a relieved smile on his face. "Dey are on deir way home," he said. "Laura jus' sent a text."

Jubilee let out her breath in a whoosh and leaned back against the wall as relief spread through her body. Remy frowned and stepped forward to carefully take her arm. "Let's jus' get you into da kitchen." He kept his hand under her arm until she sat down on one of the high stools. Neither of them bothered to look at the tarp-covered section of the wall that hid a gaping hole. He grabbed a bottle of blood from the refrigerator and walked it back to the table. After glancing at her hands, which were wrapped in thick gloves, he untwisted the lid of the bottle and set it in front of her.

"Thanks," she murmured before turning her face away as she drank. He understood her discomfort and moved back to the fridge to begin pulling out food. Her gaze followed him, but she was seeing the moments when she had regained consciousness.

Her body felt like it was floating in ice, except for her back, which felt warm, almost too hot. It hurt. She shifted and the fire seemed to run along her nerves again, causing her to whimper.

"Shhh, just sit still" she heard Logan whisper, his voice close to her ear. She calmed almost immediately, realizing the heat was from his body. She slid her eyes open just enough to see that she was in Remy's large bathtub, Logan sitting behind her. She was naked, and there were strips and flecks of black floating in the water. She blinked her eyes, trying to clear the blurriness from them, but it didn't seem to work.

Logan's arms appeared in front of her, and she watched as he released one claw and sliced his wrist before pressing it to her mouth. "Drink now," he urged her. After one swallow, she tried to turn her face away. Even her throat hurt. "I know," he murmured, the discomfort clear in his voice, "I know it hurts. You have to drink though. It's the only way you'll feel better."

She tried swallowing again, cringing at the pain it caused. When she clenched her fists at the pain, she cried out. That hurt even more. After that, she tried to remain as still as possible and swallow the blood he offered. A few times he had to stop and reopen the wound. When she couldn't take it anymore, she let her head fall to the side, closing her eyes. Blessedly, she fell back into unconsciousness.

She finished the blood in the bottle in front of her, feeling the painful tingling as it spread through her. "Can I have another, please?" she asked Remy. He opened the fridge and took out the two remaining bottles. He opened them both and set them in front of her. He studied her face for a long time and then reached up to brush a finger against her cheek. It hurt, but she didn't pull away, the pain nowhere near as intense as it would have been even an hour earlier. When he pulled his hand away, there were flecks of dried skin on it, which he wiped on his jeans.

"You lookin' better already," He commented, "Logan will be impressed when he gets back. She nodded, picked up the second bottle, and looked away.

When she had woken again, she was in the bath again, this time alone. The hard porcelain was nowhere as comfortable as Logan's chest had been. She opened her eyes to find Laura's face eye-level with her own. The woman was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the bathroom, just watching her. When Jubilee opened her mouth to speak, Laura lifted a large mug, "Nope. Don't even bother talking until you drink this." She rose to her knees and brought the cup to Jubilee's mouth. She didn't remove it until it was empty, but she did speak while Jubilee drank. "I forced Logan to go to bed to get some rest. I promised him you'd drink what he's left here." The blood was cold, which made the taste less palatable, but the chilliness felt good against her throat. Jubilee closed her eyes against the pain that seemed to intensify for several moments. When she opened her eyes again, Laura had settled back into a more comfortable position. Her brow was furrowed and she was frowning.

"What…?" Jubilee stopped speaking after the first word. It felt like she had swallowed a mouthful of broken glass.

"What happened?" Laura prompted. Jubilee nodded slightly. Laura sighed and ran a hand through her short, spiky hair. "What happened is that you acted like a complete idiot. You and Remy came rushing outside, and apparently, you forgot that vampires and sunlight don't go very well together. What the hell were you thinking?"

Jubilee's eyes widened in shock. It had been daylight? What the hell had she been thinking? She turned her face away, embarrassed. Thinking back to the last moments she remembered, she knew what she'd been remembering: watching Logan being forced to pin himself to the tree with his own claws, seeing the patch of blood-red snow, seeing so much of his blood everywhere. She hadn't been seeing the bright, sunny day at all.

Laura sighed. "You're molting again. How about another cup of blood?"

Jubilee accepted it as her mind rolled over the word "molting." When she finished the cup and felt the rush of the blood through her body, she finally realized what it meant. The black pieces floating in the water. Her stomach rolled as she realized they were flakes of burnt skin. A long strip separated from her arm, revealing tight, pink skin beneath.

Her gaze moved back to Laura's, the questions clearly conveyed by the single look.

Laura sighed and leaned back, placing the second mug up onto the sink. "You lit yourself up like a torch. I don't think Selene had ever seen something like it, so she let us go to get you back inside. Damn sadistic bitch. I think she wanted to see if you'd live." She pushed herself to her feet. Using one claw, she sliced her wrist to fill both mugs back up. She kneeled back down and offered one of the filled mugs to her, and when Jubilee shook her head, she set it down on the edge of the tub. "Logan had already caught her interest anyway. She was after me for a knife I'd stolen for a client." Laura paused for a moment, clear regret on her face. "It was the stupidest job I've ever taken." She shook her head as if to clear the memories. "Anyway, she wants to get it back, and since I know where it is…." Laura shrugged. "Plus, she apparently owes Logan for something he did in the past. I guess she'd rather have us lead her to it than deal with any more searching on her own."

She looked back at Jubilee and studied her for a moment. "You've got to drink this other one. It does make a difference, but you've still got a ways to go before you're back to normal." Jubilee accepted the cup this time, drinking more slowly. "She isn't that bad when she isn't trying to kill you. I doubt we'll ever be friends, but she is reasonable at least." Jubilee turned her face away after having drank half of the cup. Laura sat back on her heels, and waited. When Jubilee turned back, she helped her with the rest of the cup. "We've got a plan in place and will leave in the morning. She wanted to go right away, but Logan needed to make sure you were healing first. He and I have been filling up bottles for you to keep drinking while we're gone."

Laura leaned back to place the empty mug on the sink and picked up the other one she had refilled. She rubbed at her eyes and then studied the water. We're going to need to get you up to put fresh water in. You're healing pretty quickly, so I think you'll be able to at least lay in a bed soon. We'll give you another drink once we get you resituated."

Laura bent forward to let the water down and to try to carefully lift Jubilee from the tub. The pain was so intense that she welcomed the blackness when it overtook her.

Jubilee reached for the third bottle and began swallowing it. When Logan had left, she'd still been in too bad of a shape to even be touched besides a soft kiss on her forehead. That had been three days earlier. She had finished almost all of the bottles of blood they had left, and her skin was greatly improved, though still tender and red. Her hands were probably still in the worst shape. Overall, Remy had told her she just looked like she had a bad sunburn. It had been a slow journey though. The first day had been terrible agony as she'd been confined to the bed. By the second day, she could speak again and move around without too many problems. She had ingested so much blood, she felt like she should have burst by now, but the thirst was still there—constantly present. She glanced in Remy's direction and took another long swallow, draining the rest of the bottle.

She lifted her gloved hand and rubbed it through her buzzed hair. When she was cutting it, Laura had tried to leave a little extra on the top to cover parts that had burnt away completely. She knew she looked horrible, but she figured that anything had to be an improvement from looking like a burnt piece of meat. She stared down at the top of the granite island, spinning one of the caps. What would Logan think of her? Scowling at the cap, she cursed her own stupidity. Not only had it kept her from being able to go on the mission (even though Logan swore she wouldn't have been able to come even if she had been healthy), but it also had her feeling extremely self conscious and unsure of herself. It just made things even worse that she didn't cast a reflection. She ran a careful hand over her face, feeling nothing but smooth skin. What would he see when he looked at her? Would he still see her, or would he see the mess that she'd made of herself. Again. The next spin to the cap sent it spinning off the edge of the bar. When she looked up, she found Remy studying her silently.

She gave him a tight, self-conscious smile. He smiled kindly back and said, "Don't worry, Petite. All he gonna see when he come in is dat you up and around and looking like you again."

She chuckled, feeling the knot loosen just a bit in her chest. "So where did you learn to read minds?" She asked.

He laughed, "Well, it don't—" he cut off in mid-sentence when there was a chiming sound from his phone. He glanced at the screen and smiled brilliantly, the years melting away from his face. "Dat's de gate. Dey's back!"

Thanks for sticking with me! One more chapter to go. :)