Present
Rogue had acquired a fake I.D. stating her as the age of 21 and a name of Anna Marie Truscot after many months of starving on the road Rogue had gotten a job at a strip club in Anchorage. Applying for the job the owner her told her she sure didn't look like she was 21 but luckily the guy was a slim ball and had given her the job. Her only request was that her stage name be Rogue and that all the tips she made on stage be placed into a bucket, she explained that she didn't have a problem taking her clothes off for the men in the club she just couldn't tolerate the men touching her. The owner was a little sketchy with that at first but agreed in the end. Securing a small apartment with one of the other dance girls Rogue was doing pretty well on her own. She still kept herself covered to everyone and even while stripping she wore gloves and made a rule never to get to close to the edge of the stage.
Carol's Gentleman's Club was being kind to her, most of the men that came into the club where semi respectful to her when she danced for them and after about four months Rogue had raised enough money to get an apartment of her own, not that she didn't enjoy living with 'Candy' but she knew she would be more comfortable living alone. Rogue would no longer have to worry about keeping herself completely covered around the apartment fearful that someone might touch her.
It was just another night at the club for Rogue when she arrived for work at 8 P.M. Rogue usually came in early to get her things ready she would dress in her thong and bra or whatever prop she was using for her act in the ladies bathroom instead of the dressing room where all the other dance girls got ready. Becoming with of there most popular attractions Rogue was climbing the charts of Carol's Gentleman's club ranks, some of the girls where jealous and other not as much. In fact most of the girls at the dance clubs where girls just like her, left home to early either from abuse or just plain stupidity of thinking that they could make it out in the big bad world on there own. A lot of them wanted to be star's actor's Rogue just wanted to pay the rent and be left alone. She cried almost every night before she left for work, and every morning when she came home with her two or three thousand dollar's in tips. Oh if only her mama could see her now. She wasn't the modest little girl she'd been raised up to be and down inside it shamed her more then anything. Some times she would pretend that she was still that silly little seventeen year old girl inside her room dancing in her under wear and lip syncing to Allanis Moriset. And those where the days that got her through to the next.
Standing outside the curtain awaiting the announcer to say her name she checked her gloves. Tonight she was dressed as a little waiter girl. "And now put your hands together for the lovely, the seductive Miss Rogue!" Rogue could hear a few of the men in the crowd hooting and hollering and screaming her name as she slipped out from behind the curtain her music starting to play as she danced dipping down to the floor until her thong clad bottom almost touched the floor before slowly swaying her hips as she came back up running her hands seductively over her body taking a few buttons at a time on her costume. Stepping around the big brass pole in the middle of the stage she rested her back against it as she continuously let her hands roam her body and zoning out of herself to a better place. The place she went to every time when she did her three nightly performances.
Rogue didn't normally look at the faces of the men seated on bar stools at the stage nor did she ever look into the darkness of the crowd but tonight she caught a few glimpses of faces in a dizzying whirl as she spun around the pole ripping the finally last buttons of her costume and discarding it on the floor behind her. Rogue knew the feeling of eyes burning into her body as she danced. Every man in the place looked at her, but they never looked at her in the way that made her look around for the person who held them.
Tonight as Rogue danced there was one, dark man sitting in the back of the club leaned down in his seat his eyes a blaze as they watched her every move. Taking her bra off she did all the typical moves that all the dance girls did as they danced around the pole. Glancing to her left she could see a man waving a twenty dollar bill at her before he dropped it into the little black bucket that read in gold lettering Carol's Gentleman's Club and then passed it to the next man. Rogue couldn't seem to keep her gaze off of the man in the back, he wasn't one of the regular's of the club. She'd never seen this one before. Hearing her music coming to a close she gathered up sheer costume and picked up the black bucket that now sat at the end of the stage and walked back behind the curtain this time a little relieved that she no longer could feel that mans heated gaze upon her body.
Logan wasn't the type of man who normally visited strip clubs but tonight was an exception. He'd had a fight at a local fight bar just outside of the city and he hadn't seen any women that caught his eye so he asked the bartender where he could find a woman. The bartender had given him a short grin before directing him to Carol's Gentleman's Club. Snorting slightly as Logan paid the damned ten dollar cover charge to get into the place. It was nothing but a glittery whore house in his mind. But as he grabbed an empty seat in the back and got a beer and a lap dance from one of the girls his attention was strayed from the girl who seemed to be in her late twenties wildly grinding herself against him. She really was working for that tip. Looking up at the stage as a young brunette took the floor she caught his attention. It wasn't just that her body had the right amount of curves and the fact that she made him damn himself for wearing such tight jeans but the face, Rogue as the announcer had called her she just didn't seem to fit in this place her face seemed to innocent. Sniffing the air his suspicions where cleared as her scent told him all that he needed to know. She was nerves, afraid, innocent, probably wondering how the hell her life had fucked up so badly that she'd ended up in this place taking her clothes off for tips.
Taking another sip of his beer Logan didn't take his eyes off the young brunette until her song ended and he waved away another dancer wanting to know if he wanted another lap dance. Finishing his beer he paid his tab and left the club his mind wondering those curves when he started to wonder just how a kid like that had ended up in a strip club. Daddy probably raped her or something he thought to himself and before he realized it Logan felt a protective growl rumbling inside of his chest. Shaking the momentary feeling of possessiveness from his mind Logan climbed into his beat up pick up truck and pulled out of the parking lot. 'She just another whore.' He said to himself. 'Probably has banged every guy in the place.' But no Logan couldn't shake that feeling that she was to innocent for that despite the show she putt on for the men in the club. There was something different about her, that kid, the girl called Rogue.
Pulling up at his hotel Logan had another fight the next night and didn't plan on freezing his balls off and sleeping in his camper. Pulling the key from his pocket he walked into the hotel room reeking of dust and sex that still hadn't cleared the air from its last occupants. Taking a long hot shower before he climbed in naked between the cool sheets of the hotel and laying on his back, every time he closed his eyes he saw images of the Rogue dancing again, dancing for him it seemed inside of his mind. Rolling over into his side Logan fell into dreams of running his hands along that perfect skin that looked like it would feel like satin against his own.
His dreams slowly started to fade to that place where Logan had long ago been caged, electric pain shooting through his body holding back his screams of torture until his lungs burned and he opened his mouth screaming and felt water and the lingering taste of his own blood come washing into his mouth. Sudden rage filling him as he escaped from his watery prison three six inch claws springing forth from his hands with a snikt pain searing through his hands again now weapons for his use, cutting through anything that came into his path trying to stop him. Sinking his claws deep into a soldier that came into his path right into the breast bone Logan or the Wolverine smiled like a devil in the face of the soldier, but then the face started to fade and as he blinked trying to focus again he's stabbed the girl, that stripper Rogue. Extracting his claws he grabbed her as she collapsed against his chest sliding down to the concrete floor of the lab he was in holding her in his arms. What had he done. Mumbling in his sleep he yelled "Help...somebody, somebody help!" Looking down into the girls eyes she was shaking slowly her hand was reaching up to his face to touch it she was trying to say something, leaning down to her trying to hear what she was saying the tips of her fingers barely grazing his cheek Logan jerked up right in bed bathed in sweat from his nightmare. Turning he swung his legs over the side of the bed breathing hard. The acidic chunks of vomit rising in his throat Logan ran for the bathroom vomiting into the toilet. Kneeling against the bowl his forehead resting on his forearm as he gagged.
Rising slowly from the toilet he pushed the little handle not caring to watch the remains of his last meal being flushed down the drain. Looking a himself in the mirror he turned on the faucet running cold water he rinsed his mouth out before splashing cold water onto his face and taking in a deep breath feeling somewhat better. Wiping his face with a rough towel he brushed his teeth getting the last bits of vomit taste from his mouth. Logan shivered a little bit beads of cold sweat still popping out on his body. Why had she suddenly turned up in one of his worst nightmares. Maybe she was a link to his past. But them no, she couldn't have been she looked to young to have even been alive in his old life. She was trapped inside his head and he was replaying her dying face over and over again inside of himself.
Looking out of the window the early rays of sun light where beginning to come through the sheer curtain and blinds of the hotel room. Turning his back against the sun Logan turned on the shower again and tried to cleanse himself of the remains of his nightmare. She had him trapped he couldn't escape the vision of her. Washing his hair quickly and the rest of his body Logan quickly got out of the shower dressed while he was still half wet from the water. He had to get his mind off of her. Feeling hunger pains in his abdomen Logan decided the best thing to do was get something to eat. Leaving his hotel room Logan whipped the memory of his latest nightmare from his mind as he got into his truck and drove to the dinner he'd seen coming into Anchorage.