Both Jubilee and Remy dashed from the kitchen to head toward the front door just as they heard gravel crunching beneath tires. Remy pulled open the door, and Jubilee skidded to a stop at the threshold. The sky was just beginning to lighten. She waited just inside, her fingers tight on the doorjamb as the Land Rover pulled to a stop. The early morning sun wouldn't hurt her, especially as juiced up as she was on Logan and Laura's blood, but she just couldn't bring herself to chance it.
The driver's side door of the vehicle opened, and Logan stepped out of the car and was quickly around the front of it. Jubilee leaned more heavily against the frame as relief swept through her. He was okay. Completely unscathed by the looks of it. Laura stepped out of the vehicle at a more sedate pace, smiling at Remy who held her car door.
Jubilee watched nervously as Logan's eyes scanned the porch and drive before sliding to where she stood in the shadow of the doorway. He seemed to slow his pace a bit, almost as if he were hesitant. She could see the coiled tension in his shoulders, and she took a step back, deeper into the house until she was leaning against the railing at the bottom of the stairs.
He stopped in the doorway, and she couldn't read his expression as he was silhouetted against the ever-brightening sky. It wasn't until she tasted blood that she realized she was biting her bottom lip just a bit too hard. She took a deep breath and tried to put on a normal, if a little goofy smile. "You're back." She said, the words coming out a bit lamely.
He didn't say anything, but just took two steps into the room, enough to shut the door behind him. Her fingers tightened on the wooden railing, enough so that it made her still-healing knuckles ache. She tilted her head back to look up at him as he approached. She held very still, wary of his silence and hating the way her stomach seemed to roll in response to the tension coming off of him. She was so tense that she flinched when his hand raised to her face.
He pulled his hand back an inch or two, "Does it hurt?" he asked. She shook her head. He held still for a moment, his hand still raised, and then gently stroked his fingers down her cheek. When she leaned into his caress, she heard him let out a long breath. "Thank God," he murmured, the other hand coming up to cup her other cheek. "You look amazing," he said, his lips curving as his eyes moved over every inch of her face.
Jubilee couldn't help herself; she snorted in response. "Your healing factor must finally be failing you. You obviously are in need of glasses."
He frowned at her and then chuckled. "Compared to when I last saw you…." He shook his head as if trying to clear the memory. "You're up and moving around. That's a miracle in itself." His hands slid down her neck and over her arms, stopping when he was grasping her gloved hands. "You don't know how badly I wanna hold you, but I don't want—" She effectively cut him off by throwing herself against his chest, her arms coming tight around his waist. His hands carefully rested on her back, and she felt his cheek rest against the top of her head. Her whole body stung, the nerves crying out against the sudden contact, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that he was back and safe. She closed her eyes, letting out a little hiccupping sob of relief.
"Thank God," he mumbled against her hair, his voice growing more gravelly, as if there were something stuck in his throat. "I was so afraid to come back and.…I was afraid." One hand came up to brush against the back of her head, and she pulled back and stepped away self consciously. She lifted her hands to sweep back the wisps of hair, her eyes averted. He caught her hands and pulled her close to him again, in a moment of uncharacteristic romance, he brought the gloved fingers to his lips and kissed them. "Jubilee," he said huskily, "I was afraid you wouldn't be here when I got back. You looked so terrible when I left..." his words trailed off.
Her self consciousness forgotten, she looked up at him, surprised to see that his eyes were a little glassy. She stepped back into the circle of his arms. This time, her arms moved up to smooth the hair at the back of his head, trying to soothe him. Quietly, she promised, "It would take more than that to keep us apart, Logan." She felt more than heard him heave a sigh of relief, and his arms tightened, holding her closer to him. She buried her face in his neck as she winced against the pain it caused and continued to smooth the hair at the nape of his neck. They stood there for a long time, just holding each other silently.
Jubilee spent most of the day standing in one corner of the room, content to just watch Logan sleep. He lay on his back, one arm lay across his chest while the other stretched out across the empty side of the bed, almost as if searching for her. He wasn't wearing any clothes, but the sheet was draped across his chest, one foot jutting out and hanging off the side of the bed. His face was relaxed in sleep, his lips parted slightly and his soft snores soothed her rather than annoyed her. These were her favorite moments, and they were few and far between. He seemed to operate on much less sleep than she did, so it was rare that she was awake during daylight hours to observe him.
She rotated her shoulders, fighting against the tension that seemed to constantly plague and exhaust her. It was a result of the pain, that also being the reason why it was the middle of the day and he was asleep while she was not. Of course she'd fed from him before they'd gone to bed, from his wrist upon his insistence. It had helped for a short time, long enough for him to fall asleep, but then it was just too much agony to be laying down. She still hurt everywhere, but it was much better than it had been the day before. There was improvement.
Her mind drifted back to the previous night; it had been terrible. Logan had treated her like she was an invalid. He'd been hesitant to touch her and had even been worried about cuddling next to her in bed, worried he might roll in his sleep and hurt her. Honestly, she wouldn't have cared if he had. It would have been worth it. She'd been living a nightmare since she'd woken to find him gone. Then there'd been the three days of hell of not hearing from him while she fought against the constant pain and frustration. During that time, she'd been alone with the pain—well, Remy had been here, but he'd left her alone when she'd asked him. She wrapped her arms around herself, hugging lightly despite the ache it caused. She just wanted him to kiss her, to hold her, or to do something to let her know that things were okay. She still felt like such an idiot for running out into full daylight. What must he think of her? Had he lost respect for her? Why didn't he seem to want to touch her?
She looked down at her hands, gritting her teeth as she began to tug one of the gloves off. She stopped before it had slid off even halfway as she felt a layer of skin coming off with it. The last thing she needed to do was get more blood all over the place. Then he'd just distance himself from her even more. With a sigh and a cringe, she tugged it back into place. The last thing she needed to do was remind him of what she'd done.
"Come back to bed," his voice was quiet, slurred slightly by sleep. She glanced back up and saw that he was watching her now.
Jubilee slid an easy smile on her face and moved to crouch down next to the bed, despite her knees' protests. She lifted her hand to brush his hair back. "I'm okay standing. It's still uncomfortable to lay down. I'll be over that in a day or so at this rate."
He frowned at her and pushed himself into a sitting position. Her eyes followed the descent of the sheet as it slid down his chest and pooled at his waist. For the first time, she felt a spark of desire, and her smile widened. She just loved the way he woke up in the morning. He followed her gaze to his lap and tugged the blankets more tightly around him in un-Logan-like embarrassment. In response, she felt her cheeks heat. If it had been last week, he would have flung the sheets aside and pulled her down onto him.
Clearing her throat, she stood up and moved away to the bathroom in an attempt to cover their mutual embarrassment. The hand she'd started to remove the glove from was throbbing, so she knew she might as well take it off, clean the wounds, and replace it with a new one. She slid the bathroom door closed behind her, leaving it open just a crack so that she could hear him if he spoke. She gritted her teeth as she took the glove off, but was relieved to see that while it did remove a full layer of skin, there were only a few bloody spots; the majority of the hand was covered in bright pink flesh. It still throbbed, but it looked well enough that she could only foresee having to wear the gloves for another day or so. She grabbed a soft paper towel and wrapped it around her hand to staunch some of the bleeding. Then she layered some of the salve Remy had given her over her hand and pulled a fresh glove out of the box. She hissed in pain as she began to slide the new glove back on.
"You okay?" Logan's voice came from the other side of the door, and she smiled tightly.
"Yeah. I'm almost done." She wrapped the towel and glove together and tossed them in the trash before moving back into the bedroom.
He was seated on the end of the bed, wearing jeans and a denim shirt that was only half buttoned. "Come here," he said. She obediently moved toward him and allowed him to pull her to stand between his spread knees. He tugged her down to sit on one of his thighs and pinched her chin between his thumb and knuckle. He looked deeply into her eyes and frowned. "You're in more pain than you want me to know about." His words came out flatly.
She sighed and pulled her head back, free of his grip. "What does it matter? I'm getting better."
He let out a sigh, and when he spoke, his voice was tinged with aggravation, "What matters is that I can give you more blood. You know I want to help if I can."
She cringed. Obviously, he felt like she was a burden. "I just want to go home," she said, just a hint of a whine in her voice and felt slight relief when his hand came up to press her head against his shoulder. When she felt him muffle a laugh, she realized he hadn't really been comforting her. He just hadn't wanted her to see his face. She slapped his chest lightly with the back of her hand. "It's not funny," she grumbled.
"I know," he said, though there was clear laughter in his voice. "I miss the cabin, too. Though that has nothing to do with the fact that you spend a lot of your time running around without any pants on."
She slapped his chest again, a smile curving her lips at his familiar teasing. She felt a bit of the tightness in her chest loosen at that. She pulled back just enough that she could look into his face. Dramatically rolling her eyes, she shot back, "At least I put on a shirt. Thank goodness we don't have any close neighbors. They'd have gone blind by now."
He rolled his eyes back at her. "Funny, funny, girl. You're a comedian." He lifted his wrist so it was between them, "Maybe your jokes will improve after you have some lunch."
She smiled and leaned forward to kiss him again, but he held her back with one hand, only giving her a light peck. "Drink first," he insisted, his eyes serious. She rolled her eyes and turned so that her head rested on his shoulder again. As she bit down on his wrist, she felt hot tears sting her eyes. It wasn't that he had really done or said anything to hurt her, but she couldn't help feel that whatever they'd had before was gone now. She blinked back the tears, and drank.
It was about an hour later when they finally descended the stairs. There were loud banging noises from the kitchen, but they could hear Laura and Remy talking in the den, so they turned and entered the room. Out of respect for Jubilee, all the curtains had been closed in the house during day light hours, so the room was only lit with a few table lamps and the fire that was crackling in the small fireplace.
Remy smiled up at them and murmured a greeting. Laura looked up as well, though she didn't smile, only nodded a greeting. "I hope de construction noise didn't wake you. Sleep well?" Remy asked, his gaze focused on Jubilee more than Logan. She lifted a shoulder in a shrug and perched on the arm of the chair as Logan sat down in it. Remy frowned, "It will get better in time. Remy still be happy to offer some herbs to help you sleep. " Having spent the days with her and having gone through a quite significant recovery himself, he could sympathize with what she was going through much better than either Logan or Laura could due to their healing abilities.
Logan tried not to resent that fact. He slid one arm behind Jubilee so that his fingers carefully traced her spine and placed his other hand on her knee, unable to fight off the possessive instinct. It was driving him crazy that she wouldn't be honest with him about how she was feeling. He'd woken up to the scent of her blood, and rather than asking him for help, she'd shut herself in the bathroom, away from him. For one of the very few times in his life, he felt helpless.
Jubilee shook her head, responding to Remy's question. "Thanks, but no. I don't know that they'd work on me anyway." She looked down at Logan for a moment, twining her fingers with the ones resting on her knee. "It's probably just being away from home. I'll probably do better once I'm back in a familiar bed."
Remy nodded in understanding. "So you be leaving soon?"
Logan squeezed her hand before replying, "Yeah. I can't expect the neighbors to keep refilling my propane tank indefinitely. We need to head back to take care of some things." When she smiled gratefully, he felt slightly better. All teasing aside, he couldn't wait until they were back home and on their own. She'd have to open up to him then. He winked at her, glad when her smile widened in response. "We just need to make sure she can sit on a plane for that long without hurting too much. Oh!" he said, suddenly remembering something that was sure to cheer her up. "And we need to test this." He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small medallion.
Jubilee gasped and reached out to grab it. He had filled her in on what had happened at the Collector's but he hadn't mentioned the sun bender. She turned it over and over on her gloved palm. She gave a small laugh at the smug expression on his face and leaned down to give him a quick kiss. "I can't believe you didn't tell me," she complained as she looped the long chain around her neck.
He just chuckled and stood up, pulling her with him. "Well, it will certainly make travelling home easier." He began toward the door but stopped when her hand slipped out of his. "What is it?" he asked when he looked back.
Jubilee bit her bottom lip and stared down at the medallion she was turning over and over in her gloved hands. She wasn't smiling any longer. In fact, she looked young and scared. He took a step back toward her and stopped, at a loss of words. "Jubes…?" He said her name as a question, baffled by the sudden change in her manner. To his surprise, she stood and fled the room. He began to follow after her, but Remy pushed himself up from his chair with the help of his cane and effectively blocked the way.
"Laura, run upstairs and grab a couple blankets. Thick ones, please." He said, one hand reaching out to rest against Logan's chest when the feral let out a warning growl. Once Laura had exited the room, pulling one of the sliding doors closed behind her, he turned to Logan. "Easy, mon ami. De girl isn't even healed up yet from de last time she was outside. It might take a bit for her to be ready to go out again."
Logan cursed himself silently and turned away. She'd looked so excited at first that he'd forgotten that she was still hurting. How could he have forgotten that? He barely restrained himself from shrugging off the hand Remy placed on his shoulder.
"She jus' need one minute. She a tough girl." The Cajun said.
"Don't you think I know that?" Logan bit back, his anger rising to the surface, though he knew he was more angry with himself—with the situation, than with Remy.
Remy only nodded and stepped back, understanding. Obviously, he was used to Laura's short temper, so Logan's rudeness didn't bother him in the least. "It'll get better," he promised, "You both be under a lot of stress right now. Jus' be patient." There was another long moment of silence before the other man spoke again. When he did, he almost sounded hesitant in what he was sharing, "When Remy was hurt…de worst part was when people acted like he could break at any moment. When dey didn't act normal. It was worse, you see, to be hurting and have people know it dan if dey would have jus' treated him like Remy was still Remy." There was a short pause before he continued, "Jubilee not gonna break, and she probably don't like bein' treated like she will any more dan Remy did."
Logan only grunted, running a frustrated hand through his hair. They sat in silence until Laura and Jubilee came back in the room. Remy let out a groan of discomfort that brought Laura to his side. "Dese old bones. Remy better jus' sit for a while. Laura, do you mind keeping a tired old man company while Logan takes Jubilee out?"
Laura smiled and shoved the blankets into Logan's arms before moving to sit back down in the armchair next to Remy. "As if that is in any way a chore," she scoffed as she picked up one of the glasses of wine sitting on the table between them. "We've had a couple job offers come in anyway. We should probably start talking them over."
Logan juggled the thick comforters into one arm, holding the other hand out to Jubilee. He held his breath as she stood motionless for a moment. When she finally did slip her hand into his, he led her out into the foyer, sliding the door closed behind them to give them some measure of privacy. "You okay?" he asked.
She nodded, but kept her eyes downcast. "I'm fine."
He felt the anger and frustration bubble up inside of him again. She wasn't fine, and he had had about enough of her being untruthful with him and not letting him take care of her. He tossed the blankets onto a low bench by the door, and before she knew what happened, he pulled her to him roughly and kissed her. She gasped in surprise, her mouth opening for him to deepen the kiss. He didn't hold back, but let all of the frustration he'd been feeling into the kiss. Damn if he was going to let her pull away from him again. One of his hands gripped the back of her neck, angling her head to give him better access to her mouth. He heard her moan, her arms twining around his neck, her body yielding into his.
Feeling her surrender to him, he broke the kiss long enough to growl, "Don't lie to me." Logan didn't give her a chance to respond before grinding his mouth down onto hers again punishingly. His other hand slid down her body to cup her bottom and pull her hips more tightly against his. Even though he knew it'd cause her discomfort, he backed her into the wall and pressed the length of his body against hers. He slid his hand further down onto her thigh so that he could pull her leg up around his hips, letting her feel his arousal. He ground his hips into hers, not letting his need escape her notice. Her fingers fisted in his hair in response, and she bit his lip, hard enough to draw blood, but he knew it wasn't in any sort of effort to get away. She moaned again, sucking at his lip, her hips pressing hard against his, her hands holding his face down against hers. She tugged at his other hand, pulling it away from her neck and guiding it to her chest. He let out a growl of approval and molded her breast against his palm, loving that she always let him know exactly what she wanted.
He felt the pop of buttons as she pulled at his shirt, trying to tug it over his shoulders without taking the time to actually unfasten it. In response, he pulled at the neckline of the shirt she wore, trying to lower it to free her breast. They both ignored the sound of tearing material as the loose sweat shirt tore. She moaned loudly when the flesh of his palm slid down her neck and over her breast, his thumb flicking over her nipple. He felt her gasp against into his mouth as she tried to pull him more closely to her, making the soft sounds that he found so alluring. It was his turn to growl in pleasure into her mouth when felt her fingers fumbling with the button of his jeans.
A loud crash to their right hit them like a bucket of water. Out of instinct, Logan turned and shoved her behind him in one fluid moment, his claws sliding out of their sheaths before he'd even finished turning. A shocked construction worker bent hastily to pick up the box of screws he had dropped. "Pardon…." He mumbled, and stopped picking up the items as he got a better look at Logan's hands. He stood and held up his hands, "Pardon, monsieur. Je reviendrai plus tard." He backed away a few more steps and then turned to rush back to the kitchen. Logan stood motionless for a moment until he heard a hysterical giggle from behind him. He stood, shrugging the shirt back up onto his shoulder that had been hanging halfway down his arm. By the time he turned around, the giggle had turned into peals of laughter. Jubilee was bent over, her hands resting on her thighs as she laughed. He couldn't help chuckling himself, thinking of the picture the two of them had likely made. He pulled her upright again as her laughter began to die down. He rearranged her shirt so that it was a little more decent and bent to kiss her again, fully, but more gently this time. Her arms slid around his waist and when the kiss ended, he continued to hold her close to him. Letting out a long breath, he stroked a hand up and down the length of her back. "I'm sorry if I was too rough. I didn't hurt you—oof!" He let out a sharp breath as she fisted her hand and hit him hard right over the kidney. "Damnit, Jubilee," he grumbled, but there was no heat in his words and he still held her to him. After another moment, he grinned, finally getting it. "Actually," he confessed. "I'm only sorry that that guy couldn't have waited another five minutes to walk in. Then we'd have really given him a show." He felt her laugh against his chest, and he tilted her head back so he could kiss her again. When he pulled his head back, he felt relief sweep through him. She was smiling, and the haunted, pained look was gone from her eyes.
"Now," he said, pulling her toward the door, "Let's test out this new fancy jewelry, shall we?"
"I have a better idea," she said, trying to pull him in the direction of the staircase. "Let's just go back upstairs."
He laughed and pulled her against him again to kiss her once more. When she tried to deepen the kiss, he reluctantly pulled back. "No." When he saw the disappointment in her face, he continued, "Not because I don't really, really, really want to. Because I do." He pulled her hips against him once more to show the truth of his words. "But because when we do get the opportunity, it's not going to quick," he punctuated the word with a kiss, "or quiet," another kiss, "and I certainly don't want to worry about interruptions." He kissed her more deeply this time, waiting until her body melted against his again before he let up. "And we can't go home until we know that this thing works, so quit stallin'!"
He tugged her toward the door again, relieved when she went with him. At the door, he stopped and bent down to remove her shoes. "What are you doing?" she asked, but didn't fight him.
He grinned up at her, "The only part of you that's fully healed at this point is your feet, right? Cause they didn't get too burnt up the first time." When she nodded, he stood back up and grabbed one of the blankets and threw it over her. "Then we're going to taco you up in these blankets to keep you out of the sun, and then we're going to dangle one of these feet in the sun to see what happens."
She rolled her eyes, "Logan, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
He grinned and leaned forward to kiss her on the nose before pulling a blanket over her head. "That's what you say now," he said, and lifted her swaddled body into his arms. He heard her say something in response, but he couldn't understand it. As he nudged the door open with his foot and carried her outside, he could feel her shifting in his arms. He moved forward onto the porch and kept walking until they were in the middle of the driveway, in direct sunlight. He glanced down at her bare feet, watching them anxiously to see if anything happened. Instead, he just saw her violet toenails reflecting the bright, mid-afternoon sun. He grinned and swung her around until her toes rested on the hot cement. He felt her hold herself stiffly in his arms as he slowly began to unwrap the outermost blanket. When she held the next one firmly to herself, he shifted it enough so that he could duck his head underneath.
He looked into her scared eyes and could see the clear question there. He sighed, "I got bad news," he said, doing his best to look dejected.
"What? What is it?" She asked anxiously, "It didn't work? Did they get burnt? Did they start to smoke?"
He shook his head, "No. It's even worse." At her sharp intake of breath, he continued, "You're going to have to been seen in public in daylight with me now. You don't have an excuse to hide away anymore." As he finished the word, he tore the blanket away from her head, laughing with pleasure when she tried to burrow against him. It only took her a second of cowering to realize that she didn't feel any pain at all.
Slowly, she pulled back and blinked up at him, her eyes squinting in the bright sunlight. Then she began to laugh. She stepped away and lifted her face to the sun, spreading her arms wide. She was still laughing as she spun in a circle and enjoyed the warmth of the rays against her tender skin. He was laughing with her when she pulled him into a crazy dance with her. That was how Remy and Laura found them when they stepped outside: dancing together in the sun, both of their faces filled with joy and love.
I hope you enjoyed "Evading Darkness!" I certainly enjoyed writing it, and this is definitely not the end of their story. I've already got something brewing for about five years further into the future-a story involving Kitty (though I need to do some research on where she stands now), Laura, and some OCs. But I'm going to get back to my Smoke and Flames series first and write a bit there. If you enjoyed this, I hope you'll give that one a chance-though the storyline is a bit further out there and is definitely AU and only loosely related to the cannon.
Thanks for your reviews and favorites and your graciousness when I disappeared for months at a time! Your comments really kept me going. Please let me know if you have any other ideas you'd like me to explore.