Chapter Seven

Ten years later…

"I'm glad to see you have taken interest in the school."

I dazedly stared around at the lush foyer of the mansion, "As am I. This is magnificent."

The Professor smiled in response. I licked my lips as I continued to scan the area. I wasn't here for the school and he knew that. I was looking for someone. Someone I had heard word about living here. I knew he no longer went by the same name, but the way he was described by others I knew it was him.

He's coming down the hall now…

Smiling softly, "Thank you."

"I'm sure he will appreciate you, seeing as you will be able to provide answers," he commented as we both ventured in the direction of the man I was searching for. "He doesn't remember much."

We rounded the corner and a bright smile took over my lips. He didn't age a bit (not that I did either). The same messy black hair and bad boy attitude. Not really caring what his reaction would be I darted towards the man. I slammed into his chest and his arms extended outward awkwardly as he stared down at me with a confused glare.

"James…" I cried out unable to contain my emotions. A burning sensation started around my eyes and squeezed them shut tightly trying to rid away the feeling. "I can't believe it's you."

"It's Logan," he corrected. Backing away from him I wiped away the tears that had fallen from my golden eyes. I shook my head staring at him amazed. I can't believe he hadn't aged even a bit. Although, I already knew he wouldn't. It was still weird to see someone besides myself who hardly looked a day older after ten years.

An auburn haired woman stood behind him defensively. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she looked ready to pounce, "Who are you?"

"Zoie," I responded still staring at James, or Logan. "Logan and I are old friends."

He frowned, "Old friends?"

"You and I should talk," cocking my head to the side I eyed the tall woman. She seemed really defensive. Maybe she was his girlfriend? "Alone."

"Jean-" the Professor interrupted. "- would you mind helping me out with something?"

"Of course Professor," the woman obliged. She looked like she wanted to object as she brushed past me with an air of elegance. Logan and I both watched as the Professor and her left us in the middle of the hall.

"This way," Logan said shortly. He started walking down towards a set of corridors and I followed a safe distance behind him. I could tell he was different… happier yet lost.

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to tell James about everything. It would ruin him. Bring the pain back. Or was the old pain replaced by a different kind? The feeling of never knowning who you truly are.

The both of us entered a bedroom, I assumed it was his. There was a large bed with velvet red sheets covering it, an oak dresser in the corner, and it even looked like there was a bathroom attached or possibly a closet. Logan awkwardly shifted crossing his arms over his chest and I moved to sit on the edge of his bed to get more comfortable.

"I don't even know where to start…" I muttered unsurely as I stared down at my porcelain hands.

"How about how you and I know each other?" he commanded aggressively. "I don't know you."

I bit my lip, "Team X. We worked for Stryker-"

"Stryker?" Logan interrupted impatiently.

"Yeah."

"He's dead."

"How?" It might have been a tad sadistic how enthusiastic I was about his death. I imagined Strykers cold blue eyes fading as death overtook his life.

"I ugh, killed him," he dug through his pants pocket and pulled out a cigar. Lighting it up he took a drag and released the smoke.

"Good…" the only sad part was that I wasn't there to watch. "You trained me on the team. We were pretty close. I wouldn't have lived without you."

Well, I would have. I just didn't know it then. Even if Victor had tried to kill me I could heal myself. Over the past ten years I was able to discover more abilities than I had known I had. One was accelerated healing and another was biological manipulation. Who knew that being so close to the earth would open so many doors?

"Who else was in this team?"

"Wade, John, Chris, Fred, Zero," I listed slowly. "And Victor; your brother."

"Brother?" he questioned surprised. Wow, it was an odd occurrence having to explain everything to him. It was almost as if I were just telling him so made up story like Cinderella.

"Yes."

"What happened to the rest of 'em?"

Shaking my head I shrugged unknowingly, "Dead I think… I read about Chris's death in the paper. I'm not sure about the others."

It hurt. I wanted to find Wade. I wanted him back. We had not been together long, but I knew I'd never feel the way about him than anyone else. Maybe it was because the intenseness of the situation the two of us had gone through together, but it made me love him. He made me love him.

"Well, Victor's not dead," I added raged at the thought of that disgusting piece of trash. "He can't die, he's like you. Except… hairier with ugly nails."

"And you? How old were you when you joined? You can't be more than twenty."

"I can't die either," I confirmed. I had discovered that my death couldn't happen as I accidentally crashed the car head on in a tree the night I had escaped the facility. Somehow I had fallen asleep at the wheel and the car drifted off the road. The sound of the metal molding into the tree woke me right before I surged head first through the windshield of the car. All I recall after that was immense pain, but I had healed at a rapid rate. Much faster than the normal human.

"There's a lot of people that can't die in the world…" he dragged on his cigar allowing a puff of smoke to seep through his lips.

"Too many."

"Do you know what happened to me?"

"No… not really," I twirled a strand of my golden brown hair to distract myself from the tension that was starting to crawl over us. "I'll tell you what I know."

"Alright."

"You might want to sit down…" Logan sat beside me on the bed leaving us enough distance to be comfortable. Almost an hour later I had finished my in depth story of our time on Team X together. The training, the missions, the fights, and how he had decided to leave that terrible night. I had wanted to leave out the ending with Victor raping me out of the story, but I wanted him to know. For some reason I felt like he had to know. James would have wanted to know the truth of what Victor did to me. He told me so. He told me he would protect me from him.

"I'm sorry," he said as gently as anyone could to such a statement. "I wouldn't have let that happen."

"I know," forgetting for a moment that this wasn't the same James I remembered; I reached for his hand and squeezed it tightly. Thankfully, Logan didn't pull away. He only stared at me with his chocolate eyes analyzing the moment between us.

"We were close," it sounded like a realization.

"I can't remember the stories well, but we had talked about the wars you fought in," I told him. "You didn't like talking about them. They gave you nightmares a lot."

"I get nightmares a lot now. I think they are flashbacks of my past."

"Probably…" I tangled my fingers between his own. "You can come to me if you have any questions."

He stared at are hands debatably, "It sounded like that Wade fellow and you were close."

"I love him," I shortly stated. I do…

"And us?"

The question seemed light. As if he really wasn't sure by the way I had told the story, which I could understand, "No. We are friends."

"I see."

"Is Jean your girlfriend?" I questioned nosey. The woman had been quite beautiful and I could sense some kind of connection between them.

"No," he muttered.

"But you love her…" He scowled at me and I chuckled knowing that I had struck a nerve. "I understand what it's like to love someone and not be able to have them."

"What happened to Wade?"

"No idea. I don't want to think about it."

A knock sounded at the door. Logan raised his eyebrows, "Who is it?"

"Jean."

He sighed turning his head towards me with an exasperated stare, "What are your plans now?"

"Well, my plan had been to find you," I said with a small laugh. "And I did."

"And now?" Logan pressed as he took one last drag of the cigar. I winced as he pressed it against his arm burning it out. I don't care if you have the powers to heal it still hurts when you get burnt.

"I think I might stick around for awhile, ya know, keep you company," smiling at him I nodded my head to confirm my statement.

"Logan…" Jean tried again allowing her hand to rasp against the door. He shot the door an annoyed glare while standing from the bed. I tagged close behind him as he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway making sure to close the door tight after me.

Jean gave me a traitorous glower and I winked a golden eye playfully at her, "Don't worry. I'm done with him. He's all yours."

"Don't mind her," commented Logan. "This one's got a mouth on her."

"A mouth that I'm proud of," I agreed giggling. Holding out a hand to the woman I waited patiently for her to shake it. "Names Zoie."

"Jean," she mumbled uncertainty as I tossed her another friendly smile. There was no need for her to be so hostile. James and I, or Logan now, we're just friends.