Love and Pain lie close together

When he woke up again it was still night. First, Logan had thought that he'd only fallen asleep for a few minutes. But one look at his watch told him that he'd obviously slept through the whole day. One look to the right was enough to figure out that the redhead was still sleeping, too. He smiled softly before he got carefully up to use the bathroom. Sleeping for so long without having eaten anything at all earlier he felt how his stomach began to protest now. He made sure that's he was really still asleep before he left the room and made his way to the kitchen. Just as he'd reached the lower level, he could already hear Ororo and Hank talking in the former office of the Professor. Frowning he stopped and leant back against the wall with his arms crossed. Even if he hated eavesdropping, he'd heard the mentioning of a specific name and needed to know more now. But what he heard made him the more furious…

"I know she's dangerous, Hank," Ororo said and walked back to the window with her arms folded in front of her chest. "But…don't you think that goes a bit too far?"

He shook his head and leant back in the sofa, one arms hanging over the armrest. "You know the law, Ororo. The President had made it after Alcatraz to make sure that no one can be harmed by mutants who cannot control their powers," Hank replied with a look at her. "I have made a vow. I cannot hold back the news to him…"

"But putting her into that prison…," she gave back and sighed. "Logan will be on your throat of you do that!"

"You shouldn't care about what he thinks or feels so much, Ororo!" he scolded her. "Think about the school and students and about the danger they are in with her being back!"

She shook her head and heaved a deep sigh before she ran a hand through her face. "We can't lose Logan, too. He's important for the team, he…"

"You mean to you," Hank corrected her and made her look down quickly. "Ororo, this is not about your feelings for him. But keeping her a secret will have the consequence that the school will be closed and we'll be probably imprisoned, too, because we didn't tell them about it."

Thinking about it Ororo sighed and nodded finally. "When will you make the call then?"

"After breakfast tomorrow. I need something to eat now," he said and got up. "What about you?"

She shrugged and followed him to the kitchen. "I could need a drink…" Ororo immediately stopped after she realized that someone else was already in there. She remembered the words he'd barked into her direction, recalled the determined look of him when he's stepped in front of her, the look which had told her immediately touch her and you're dead!. She felt how her heart contracted painfully at the same time as a strong feeling of jealousy emerged within her, when she took notice of his look. Logan only gave her and Hank a scornful look and chewed a sandwich he'd found in the fridge. "You left her alone?" she asked him with a chilly undertone, but only received another cold look from him. "She's just back and has you already wrapped you around her little finger, hm?" Shaking her head, she took a soda out of the fridge and handed Hank a plate with sandwiches.

"Logan you know that she's dangerous," the mutant began and gave the woman a thankful nod. "Her powers are instable. She can lose control any minute and you've seen hoe destructive her powers are."

Ororo watched Logan closely and saw the look he gave Hank. A look that instantly told her that he didn't give a shit on what they told him. And it only angered her more. "You don't care, huh?" she asked him and crossed her arms while she leant against the counter opposite him. Her eyes traveled down his bare chest to his boxers. "She's sleeping in your room, isn't she?" she asked him cynically. "Of course she is. How smart of her to stay with the man whose brain is in his lower body parts when she's around."

"Ororo," Hank intervened but she only cocked an eyebrow at him.

"What? It's the truth!" Ororo gave back and heard how Logan put the empty tray very slowly aside. "Frustrating, isn't it?" she asked him and sipped on her soda. "She's so close…and still you can't jump her bones even with Scott gone…" Shrieking, Ororo hit the counter with her back hard when he'd suddenly made a move and had grabbed the can in her hand roughly. She heard how Hank jumped quickly off his stool to help her, but still all she could do was stare into the face of her opposite with widened eyes. Her heart was in her mouth and she instantly began to shiver when he came slowly closer and pressed her even more against the hard counter.

"Logan, let her go!" Hank demanded and grabbed his shoulder roughly, but the man still stared at the woman in front of him full of hatred.

"You know what, Storm?" he asked her through gritted teeth and held her wrist in a painful firm grip; not caring that she whimpered. "You're only pissed because I didn't fuck ya as ya wanted it so badly. And now guess what? I had her the whole day through and she was so fucking good. Much better even with the foreplay than a tramp like ya could ever be." Roughly he pushed her against the counter once more and left the kitchen, just to start running soon afterwards, while he heard how Ororo began to cry heartrendingly and Hank tried to soothe her. He didn't care about what Hank used for words to refer to him. All he cared about now was to get back to his room as fast as he could. When he reached it, he made sure that no one else was close by before he went over to the bed and switched the small lamp on. He looked down on the woman that meant the world to him and recalled the conversation between Ororo and Hank he'd overheard before. He knew that prison Hank had talked about. He'd seen it on television, had heard the stories about it and he would be damned if he'd let them take her away. Logan sat down on the edge of the bed and touched her shoulder gently. "Jean?" he asked her and began to shake her until she pulled a face. "Jean, wake up! I need ya to wake up!"

She opened her eyes a bit and looked at him tiredly. "What's wrong?" she mumbled with a frown.

"Do ya trust me?"

Hearing it, she became even more confused and sat up a bit. "What ?"

"Do ya trust me?" he asked her again with an urgent undertone in his voice.

"Sure," Jean nodded and watched how he walked over to his wardrobe and pulled a bag out of it.

"Then get dressed and help me get our things together!" he demanded and pulled his jeans on.

"Logan…what's wrong?" she asked him and shook her head, since she didn't understand what was wrong all of a sudden.

"Just do as I said," Logan gave back and pulled a black shirt and grayish sweatshirt over his head, before he grabbed his leather jacket and began to put the rest into his bag. "I need to get ya outta here now. So get dressed!"

Still not understanding at all why he was so different suddenly, she pulled a jeans and shirt in that she'd found in the pile of her clothes next to the bed. He came over to her after he'd left the bathroom and told her to go on packing while he would get the rest of her things from the attic. She did as she was told and waited for his return, which was only a few minutes later. He handed her another bag and took his into his hand, before he put the rest of his personal things out of the bedside table and into his bag. Frowning, the redhead watched how he used his claws to open a small shaft in a corner of the room. He pulled a rectangular, shiny, metallic box out of it and it also disappeared into his bag. "Come on," Logan said and took her hand after he'd switched the lights off. He opened the door calmly and made sure no one was close by before he closed the door again. As silently and fast as he could, he led her down to the garages and took Scott's Harley. Jean still frowned and looked insecure and frightened when she followed him through the dark up the driveway and few meters down the street. "Put that one," he told her and handed her a black helmet. Clumsily, she obeyed and sat down behind him.

"Logan, why are we doing this?" Jean asked and looked back at the mansion through the visor, when he turned around briefly.

"You're not safe here anymore," Logan grunted and started the engine. "Hold on to me. We've to be gone before the Furball gets his hands on a phone…" He waited for her to do so and drove off.

"Hank!" Ororo called and ran down the staircase towards the office.

Alarmed the mutant came out of it with his cell phone in his hand. "What's wrong?"

She stopped breathlessly and with widened eyes in front of him. "They're gone!"

"What?!" he asked in disbelief and his jaw dropped. "What do you mean…gone?"

"He must have taken her away. His clothes are gone and I checked the attic. Jean's stuff is gone, too," she explained and ran a hand through her face.

"He must have heard us…," Hank mumbled.

"You mean he heard about the prison?"

"Yes. Why else would he take her away…," he said and stared at the phone. "Where would he take her to? Do you have any idea?"

Thinking, she shook her head. "Canada, I think… But don't ask me where precisely. All we know about him is that he's Canadian, but not if he has a home somewhere up there."

"Dammit!" Hank cursed and ran a hand through his fur. "I already made the call. But if he really is in Canada… We won't be able to get a hold onto them."

"Why?" Ororo asked him with a frown.

"First, because he's Canadian and the law is U.S. law, second, because Jean dies and doesn't exist anymore. And besides… Where do you want us to start looking? He could be anywhere…" Nodding when she understood what he meant, she turned around and stared at the door when someone rang at the door. Hank gave her a grim look. "There they are…"

"What will they do?" Ororo asked him concerned and followed him towards it. "Hank, what will they do? They know how powerful Jean is…"

He grabbed the doorknob with an indefinable look in his eyes and turned his head towards her. "Probably an illegal manhunt…," he replied honestly and her eyes widened.

"Manhunt?" she repeated the word in disbelief. "You mean…hunting them down and killing them?" Ororo asked in shock, but didn't receive an answer from him when he opened the door…

Far away and in the mountains, Logan opened the door to a cabin and beckoned her to come inside quickly. He pulled the soaked hood from his head and instantly walked over to the stove to light a fire. "Change your clothes. I'll get a blanket soon," he said and dropped his bag next to a table on the ground. Jean went over to the window, shivering due to the coldness, and watched the snowstorm on the outside. "Jean," she heard him saying and turned her head to him, seeing how he nodded at her bag that she still carried on her back. "You'll get sick…"

Nodding, she looked around, searching for a spot to change into dry clothes. "The bedroom's on your right," Logan told her and went over to the front door to lock it. "Are ya hungry?"

"Yeah." She nodded and heard him saying that he would heat a soup while she changed. Jean went over to the room to her right and closed the door behind her. The only source of light was an oil lamp on the bedside table, but the light from the outside was still enough to give her a good overview. She dropped the bag on the ground while she looked around curiously and began to undress herself slowly. The room only consisted of a wooden double bed with a bedside table, a sparsely wooden wardrobe to her left and another door that would probably lead to a bathroom. Without her clothes on, she felt how cold it actually was. One look into her bag was enough to notice that the long march through the storm had also soaked her clothes inside of it. Sighing, Jean looked around and finally went over to the wardrobe. Even if it had only been a guess of her that the cabin was Logan's, the interior of the object in front of her confirmed it. She searched briefly through his clothes and grabbed a black sweat pant and a light grayish sweatshirt out of it; ignoring that the clothes smelled of wood. Afterwards, she opened the door next to the wardrobe and noticed that she'd been right before. It was a bathroom.

Logan looked up and frowned when she came back after a while. "Your clothes were soaked?" he asked and received a nod from her.

"I put them into the bathroom," Jean said calmly and looked around the room. "It's yours, isn't it?"

Nodding he got up. "Yeah… Sit down."

Doing so, she watched hoe he placed two cups with hot chicken soup in front of her. She enjoyed the warm feeling when her cold hands touched it. "What are we doing here, Logan?" she asked him after a while and made him look up. "Why wasn't I save at the mansion anymore?"

Sighing, he put the cup down and stared at it. "Some things have changed after Alcatraz, Jean," Logan began. "The government has passed a law which says that every mutant who can't control his power has to be imprisoned in a special military facility."

"But…I…I don't have any problem with my powers," she said and furrowed her brows. "Not as I had back then…"

"Tell that the Furball and your so called best friend," he replied grimly. "He wanted to call the authorities, so I had to get ya outta there, Jean. I've heard what those bastards did to some mutants… The strange thin' about that prison is that it's supposed to help mutants to learn to control their powers… But approximately 90 of them end up in body bags."

Jean's head shot up and she stared at him in shock. "They kill them?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. But I couldn't let it happen to ya…"

Putting the cup down, the redhead stared at it for a while, thinking about her former home and that people she thought she could trust had betrayed and attacked her. "Why do you help after everything I've done?" Jean asked him calmly and met his gaze briefly, but Logan got up and swallowed the rest of his soup before he put the cup into the sink.

"Ya know why," was all he said and opened a wardrobe next to him. "I'll go and change the sheets. Blankets are in here."

Watching him disappearing into the bedroom, Jean thought about his answer for a moment. She knew why… All she knew was that he was probably the only friend that she still had after everything that had happened. She couldn't even remember completely what exactly had happened. Getting up, she walked over to the window. She reached out and touched the cold glass while she closed her eyes and allowed her mind to drift back…

Jean saw again what had happened. Saw how she lost control, destroyed things around her, destroyed lives…destroyed him. But no, she couldn't destroy him. His powers kept on healing the wounds she left on his body. She watched him fighting his way to her, felt how she became proud of him, how the animal in her realized that he was an equal and worthy partner to her. As destructive and lethal as she was, with the same fire and passion hidden underneath. She watched how he stopped in front of her, felt how her beast became angry when she managed to come to the surface for a brief moment. It broke her heart to look into his eyes that were so full of sorrow and grief, since he knew what needed to be done. That he couldn't stop it anymore. But she couldn't understand what he said, she only felt how his claws went right through her heart. She had thanked him for making it quick, for not letting her suffer. Jean frowned and shook her head. She needed to go back again, she needed to understand what he'd told her before he'd stabbed her. She did it over and over again, not realizing that he came out of the bedroom and watched her frowning. Again she saw hoe he opened his mouth to speak, she concentrated hard on his voice, heard what he said…

"Jean?" Logan asked and laid a hand on her shoulder. He startled when she let out a surprised shriek and hit the wooden wall with her back. "Jean, are ya alright?" he asked her worriedly, since she stared at him with widened eyes in shock and panted. "Jean?"

Only nodding, the redhead quickly made her way to the bathroom and locked the door. She leant against it, still heaving heavy breaths and closed her eyes while she slowly sank down to the ground. Even if her mind wanted to go back again, she didn't have to. She now knew what had been his last words to her before she'd to die and she felt terrified…

Again something I came up with because I went to bed very late this morning. Too late if you ask me, since I had to get up early. LOL Well, thanks for the reviews and that you like it so far! ; ) You can of course always let me know what you'd like to read. If it fits into the story, I'll write it. So, hope you liked this chapter here, too, and that you'll review again. ; ) Se ya!