Since that day on the dock Teva hadn't seen much of Logan, as he seemed to make himself scarce. There were a few run-ins, usually at meals or late at night in the adult's rec room, but not much beyond that. It never extended beyond some semi-awkward small talk, usually him asking how she was doing and her filling him in on her progress. She was beginning to work with Xavier on her telepathy now that she felt steadier on her feet and that took up a lot of her time and effort.
She usually found herself so tired by the end of the day from her lessons and her explorations that she slept quickly and soundly without a drop of alcohol. What Logan had said to her when he'd showed up at her door had bothered her enough to throw out her entire stash, like she'd told him, and those first few nights alone with nothing had been hell. Only the realization that she was turning into her mother, and the look on Logan's face, got her through it.
She still got lost in the mansion from time to time but those incidences were becoming fewer and far between as body memory began to kick in.
One thing she was glad to discover was a gymnasium with several punching bags sequestered to one side. She'd never been trained in any kind of martial arts but she knew how to brawl; she'd been in enough bar fights with guys who thought they could drink her under the table or swindle her at billiards, enough to learn how to defend herself and go on the offensive if need be.
She was there one day when Logan came by, looking for her, seemingly in a hurry. "Hey, ya goin' anywhere tonight?"
"No, why?" she asked, confused.
"We need ya to keep an eye on things, there's some shit goin' down an' we need to take care of it, but we're takin' most o' the team."
Teva frowned, feeling like he was speaking another language. "What the bloody hell are you talking about, Logan?"
"The X-Men," he replied, as if that was answer enough. "Xavier's team of superheroes. We fight for good and some other random bullshit I'm forgettin'."
He touched her arm, gripping it lightly. "We found some kind o' facility, they might be holdin' mutants there and doin' stuff to 'em." There was anger in his voice and eyes she didn't truly understand. "We're gonna bust 'em out. Can ya handle things here?"
"I - uh -" She shook herself. "Yeah, I can do that. I'm sure some of the older kids can help out."
Logan pulled her close and kissed her forehead. "Thanks. We'll be back ... fuck knows when, but we'll be back."
The gesture confused her and she blinked a couple times, unsure of how to react. After everything he'd said, for him to do that made no damn sense. "Um, right. Be careful?"
He bared his teeth at her. "Don't worry 'bout me, babe. Unkillable, remember?"
She hmmphed at him and couldn't help worrying. She headed back to her room for a quick shower before heading upstairs, her thoughts as she went broken by what sounded like a sonic boom. She jumped about a mile, then jerked again when a hand touched her back.
"Sorry, chere, Remy didn' mean t' spook ya."
Teva got her breathing back under control. "You're not one of the X-Men?" she asked, like she really understood what that meant.
"Auxiliary, réellement. Didn' need t' go."
"What the hell was that noise just now?"
"Ah, de Blackbird. Stealth jet, can hit somet'in like Mach 3."
"Jesus Christ. You people are kind of insane, y'ken that, right?"
He grinned at her. "How 'bout we go upstairs an' see 'bout de little ones, oui?" He didn't wait for her answer, just took her hand and stuck it in the crook of his elbow, and she followed along for lack of anything better to do.
"Do they always come back in one piece?" she asked once they got upstairs.
Remy nodded. "Us'ally. Few cuts an' scrapes, Logan come back wit' more 'n de rest of 'em combined." They came to the door of the rec room where it had apparently been decided that an impromptu Firefly marathon was in order. They ordered some pizzas and everyone settled in all cozy-like, though Teva kept half an ear out for the return of the superheroes.
Teva had fallen asleep in an armchair, part of a seating arrangement across the hallway from her room. She'd watched the marathon of one of her favorite TV shows, endured one of the older girls blathering on about how 'hawt' Sean Maher was (she preferred Adam Baldwin), and had to break up a couple who thought that a rec room full of kids was a good place to have a snog. Around ten she shooed the younger ones off to bed, tucking in a few who seemed to need the comfort, and she made the older ones ship off after 'Ariel,' the ninth episode that had ended sometime around 2 am. Several of them bitched that they hadn't gotten to finish the set but between her and Remy they got things squared away.
She'd almost gone to her own bed to sleep but she couldn't make herself; people she'd come to accept as friends were off somewhere risking their lives and she wanted to be aware when they came home.
Sometime just after dawn she was woken up by the new sun's rays shining in through a slit of a window near the ceiling. Her legs were cramped and her neck stiff from being curled up in the chair all night. As she got up to stretch her protesting muscles the far door opened to admit Ororo.
"Is everyone okay?" Teva asked, noticing the other woman's grim countenance and the black leather uniform she wore, a short cape attached at the back and the cuffs of the sleeves.
Ororo nodded. "Everyone returned but we were unable to save some of the children. They did not survive what was ... what happened to them."
She remembered what Logan had said about things being done to mutants and horrible experiments came to mind. She thought about the kids she'd spent the night taking care of and felt anger rise up inside of her. "They were hurting children?"
A low growl announced Logan's arrival. His leather uniform was gaping in places, slashes and bullet holes scattered across it. "Fuckin' government doesn't see mutants as human, we're just fodder for their sick ideas."
"Logan ..." Ororo tried to calm him by touching his arm as he went past and he jerked away from her touch.
"Don't 'Logan' me, 'Ro. Ya got no clue what it's like bein' chained up like a goddamn animal and havin' yer insides fucked around with. They were just kids. Fuck!" He pushed past them both, slamming his door open hard enough to make it bounce back off the wall but he was already through and apparently too preoccupied to make sure it closed again all the way.
His anger had gone past fury, straight into something like homicidal rage, and he was projecting so hard, so strongly that Teva was picking up on some of it. It scared her because behind all that anger was fear. He'd seen things that night that had affected him deeply. She hadn't even thought him capable of being afraid, which was ridiculous since everyone got scared at some point in their life, but he gave off an attitude of absolute fearlessness. It threw her off balance to feel that emotion from him.
She shared a look with Ororo before following him.
"What the fuck d'ya want?"
The Teva from a few months ago would have recoiled and apologized for barging in, unsure of herself and her place in the world, but now she stood her ground, didn't let him bully her. She quietly shut the door behind her. "Ye were gone for 12 hours. I slept in a frigging chair wondering if you'd come back alive or not. Then ye stomp in here with holes in your interesting leather outfit and ye want to ken what the fuck I want?" She put her hands on her hips. "Did ye get in a fight with Edward Scissorhands or something?"
Logan stared at her a moment, as if he was trying to figure out if she bothered him or amused him. "Not too far from the truth." He stripped the top half of his uniform off, revealing a well-muscled and very hairy torso; the leather shell lifted off his body with a sound like silk tearing, dried blood having glued it to his skin.
"There was a girl there, she was a feral and they'd put metal on her claws. Adamantium." Logan rolled his head and shoulders, the loud popping of the bones in his neck almost obscene in the small space. "It was bonded to her skeleton, too."
Teva waited a moment before speaking, not quite sure what he was talking about. "Ye said something about Ororo not knowing what it was like to be chained up and fucked around with. Is that what happened to those kids? To that girl?"
"She had a healin' factor like me. No matter how many times I put her down she kept comin' back, barely winded. They'd turned her into a weapon like me." His hands had balled into fists.
Before Teva could ask what he meant, three foot-long blades shot out of each hand, originating just above his knuckles on the back of each hand. The movement was accompanied by a distinctive snikt sound.
"Holy bleeding Christ," she said in reaction. "I'm assuming ye were'nae born with those."
"Nope, some government assholes put 'em in, coated my bones in adamantium, too. Adds to the unkillable bit." He watched warily as she came closer.
She couldn't stop herself from stepping forward and taking one of his hands, holding it with one of hers while she touched the back of the hand, ran a finger a few inches down the back of one blade. She'd felt him tense when she touched him and she could see the blood where they'd come out. "Do they hurt?"
"Comin' out an' goin' in, yeah."
He retracted them while she still held his hand, and she both felt and watched the skin ripple along the backs of his hands as they slid home into his forearms. He reflexively rubbed at the fresh wounds when she let him go and when he moved his fingers away, she saw the skin was unmarked.
Teva stood in front of him. "I'm sorry they hurt ye. And those kids. No one deserves that."
Logan grunted. "The fuckers who did this shit deserve it."
"No argument there." Her gaze traveled over his body. "All those holes and not even a scratch on you. I bruise if I bump into anything."
A small smile curved his lips. "It comes in handy sometimes, I guess." He bent to pull his boots off, then started undoing the clasp on his pants.
Teva raised an eyebrow and stepped back, averting her eyes when he slid the pants off. "Whoa, modest much?"
"Never have been. Am I embarrassin' ya?"
She snorted. "Nothing I have'nae seen before, though none quite so bloody hairy." With only a minimal amount of effort, she met his eyes again, saw the amusement there and the slightest bit of arrogance at her appreciation of his body. "I always thought leather was chafing."
He laughed as he headed towards the bathroom, muscles moving fluidly under his skin. Damn, that was a very nice ass. "There's no room for anything, the pants are too tight."
Teva couldn't take her eyes off of him and it wasn't entirely lust on her part. Watching him move was a treat. "Ah, panty lines. Though I guess it would be boxer lines, since guys dinnae wear panties, at least not most." She snickered. "Maybe a thong would work?" She heard him turning on the shower.
"You shittin' me?" he called out. "Thongs are fer strippers."
"At least there's no zipper. That would suck."
His answer was a groan. "Thanks fer the mental image, I really needed that." He stuck his head out, steam beginning to creep out from the open door. "Ya wanna get some breakfast off-grounds?"
"Let me take a shower first."
"No problem. Garage in 30, and be sure to wear a warm coat."
Originally, back when this story was more movieverse than comicverse, the girl Logan encounters at the facility was Deathstrike. I've changed her here, to the Native, a feral from the comics who was indeed experimented on. Seeing as Logan and Lady Deathstryke (as she's called in the comics) have a long history, I felt she was a poor choice.