With this said, they separated. Scott going to help more of the younger students, and Katie going to check on Nicole.
When she got to where Nicole was still pressed against the wall, lolling limply to one side, Bobby turned to look at her. "I've tried to shock her into consciousness but its not working." he said despairingly.
Rolling her eyes, Katie gave Bobby a ' you go too easy on her' look. "Make her really cold! She'll wake up."
Bobby blushed, looking as if he hadn't thought of that, he had been too worried about Nicole to even consider using his mutation to help her. After about another minute of prodding from Katie, Bobby finally put his hands in either side of Nicole's face and took a deep breath...
Nicole's eyes snapped open, as if by magic, and she scrambled to sit up. "Wha- what t-the hell?" she gasped between chattering teeth, wanting to know what had happened since the world had gone so inconveniently black. "What happened?"
Bobby grimaced, "Sorry. It was the only way to get you to wake up." he mumbled, blue eyes filled with concern. "Magneto slammed you up against this wall... behind that." he pointed to the telephone post that was still keeping her firmly against the wall.
Nicole nodded, wriggling a bit. "Damn..." she cursed softly, "Stand back, I'm going to blast it away."
Katie and Bobby backed away cautiously, trying to get far enough away so that it wouldn't hit them. But before Nicole could even summon up enough willpower to push the blasted pole away she heard,
"Oh, I don't think so my dear. You see, I can't have you getting in my way. How about I take you for a little spin?" Magneto's voice taunted her, laughing when she squealed as the pole wrapped around Nicole even more tightly and she was lifted into the air.
"Nicole!" both Bobby and Katie called, watching helpless as Nicole was flung round and round through the air and was finally sent flying right in the direction of Logan, who had his back turned to her, continuing to savagely hack away at his opponent. At such a speed, the metal simply slipped right from around Nicole, landing a good way behind her, leaving her to hurtle right in Logan's direction.
"LOGAN!"
Logan, in the middle of dodging a swipe at his face and nearly managing to skewer his opponent (damn thing had the reflexes of a cat... obviously), was more than a little surprised by the sudden flying Nicole. But he was even more taken aback by the hidden memory stirred by her screaming his name, by the entirely complete and graphic rendition of a dream he would have been extremely glad to remember, had not it been so unfortunate the timing.
Given the current distraction of enough graphic images to make him get a hard on, had it not been so unfortunate in timing, he hardly had enough time to turn around, never mind duck. So he ended up flat on his back, with a thoroughly sweating, panting (if not somewhat confused) Nicole sprawled on top of him. If that wasn't enough to make him harder than steel at a bad time like this, he didn't know what would. "Nicole!" he hissed through gritted teeth as she squirmed uncomfortably on top of him. "Get. Off. Me!"
Before the extremely confused Nicole (who, despite said confusion, found a moment to enjoy lying on top of the sweaty, sexy Logan) could think of anything to say that had any relevance to the situation (commenting on the fact that he seemed to have been rather turned on wouldn't have gone over so well), she was grabbed roughly by the throat, thrown against yet another wall, and threatened by an extremely creepy looking, very hairy (his eyebrows putting even Logan's sideburns to shame) man.
"Scream for me," he rasped, face close in to hers. "Scream..."
She whimpered softly, hands desperately scrabbling at his iron vise -like grip that was cutting of her airway. Being pressed to the wall by one's neck doesn't exactly do much good for the lungs. He pressed on her neck with increasing pressure, smirking and baring his canines.
"Now, we can do better than that. I want to hear you scream." he growled. Black, merciless eyes glittered at her from beneath those ridiculous eyebrows. Choking on the words, she let her anger and frustration get the best at her.
"Well I- I can't v-ery well s-ccreeamm if I c-c-c-can't f-ucking b-breath!" she snapped, feeling her head spinning.
For a moment he seemed to consider her comment, backing up just enough for her to get a breath, but digging in his claws/nails in the sides of her neck instead, drawing a bit of blood. "Scream..."
The rest of this wonderful sentence was cut off as Logan, looking extremely angry, gave the man a hell of a swipe across the back with his claws, breaking bone and nearly cutting the other man in half. "For once, I'd like to hear you scream."
Logan was rewarded as the man let out a hair raising shriek of pain, releasing Nicole's throat. With a guttural moan, the cat-man flopped over to the side in a boneless heap as Nicole slid down the wall, coughing and spluttering and fighting to make up for the lack of air.
Gasping, she put a shaky hand to cover her throat and pulling it away to stare in blankly at the small pinpoints of blood on her fingertips. She could hear Logan kick the cat man roughly in the side with a small grunt. He was breathing heavily as well, and he was close enough so that she could just barely feel it stir her hair and bangs.
"You alright?" he asked gruffly. When she didn't answer, he crouched down in front of her and pushed her head to the side gently, prodding the nail marks in her neck.
"Ow!" Nicole pushed his hand away, clapping a hand protectively across her neck. "Don't touch me," she hissed, "It HURTS!". Still glaring at him reproachfully, she started to stand.
"D'you-" He began, looking at her skeptically.
"I don't need your help!" she cut him off, managing one step before her knees buckled, her throat spasmed in a coughing fit, and she fell over. Picking up her head look at him, she made a face. "Ok... maybe a little help would be nice."
He smirked at her in an I-told-you-so, face so very close to hers... Without any outward sign of effort, he hoisted her onto her feet. Taking one of her arms, he wrapped it around his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her waist. Though he mentally denied it, a part of him allowed himself to enjoy the feeling of splaying his hand flat across her lower belly.
Nicole tried to suppress a shiver when she realized that the warmth of his hand penetrated the thick layer of leather, radiating heat into her already hot skin. But it was a different heat, heat that sent shivers up and down her spine and set the butterflies in her stomach aflutter. "Where are we going?" she asked, more to distract herself from his hands than out of curiosity. She looked up at him, and saw that he was eyeing her in a curious way.
"It doesn't matter. How are you feeling?" he muttered gruffly, looking away and off into the distance.
"Don't change the subject. I feel fine." Nicole snapped, impatiently.
He turned back to her, flashing a knee-buckling grin. "Then why are your knees shaking like jell-o?" he teased, voice a light purr. Blushing, she spared him a glare before looking away.
"Shut up. Where are you taking me?" she growled, clenching her teeth when he laughed. God he was so infuriating. Was it really that hard to give her a straight answer?
"The sim should be over soon anyway. I don't think Scott will mind if I steal you for the last couple of minutes to get you some bandages for those nail marks."
"Since when do you care?!"
He decided not to answer that question, merely continuing to grin at her. He'd been so very angry when Sabertooth had decided to attack Nicole instead, and it had almost scared him. Where there... feelings there? Could there be? Something other than lust (now that he was finally admitting to himself that he did want her. and very badly at that)? No one paid them any attention, the students were far too busy fighting for their lives (or cowering in fear as someone else fought for their life) and the other mutants were too busy with the students.
"Dammit, where did he put it?" Logan mumbled to himself, poking with his free hand at what (seemed like) normal empty air.
Staring up at Logan, Nicole couldn't help but blurt, " Have you got some screws loose or something?! You're clawing at nothing but thin-" the rest of her sentence was put on hold as her jaw dropped. A seemingly normal stretch of what appeared to be thin air, fell open like a door. She couldn't help but blush when he laughed at her while helping her hobble through into the long metal hallway.
"I'm not as stupid as you think I am." he laughed down at her as they made their way down the hallway.
"Could have fooled me.." Nicole mumbled under her breath.
- - -
Katie was more than a little happy for her friend as she watched Logan put an arm around Nicole's waist, though she was just as confused as Nicole had been as to where the hell he was going.
Bobby seemed to be very determinedly attending to some other task, and Katie couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for him. He simply had no chance, not against someone like Logan. But her mood, and this welcome brief lull from the action, was spoiled as something large and feathery slammed into her side, knocking her some ten feet to the left, and the spot where she was standing was enveloped in a ball of flame.
"Sorry about that," Arch murmured, half-lying on her. Katie sighed in frustration. God, couldn't she rescue herself for once? And if she did have to be thrown places, couldn't it be by someone else (like Scott? her mind interrupted)?
The rest of the sim went on with the usual ridiculous amount of chaos. How were the students supposed to learn how to defend themselves if half of them were doing the work, and the rest of them were cowering behind rubble and large pieces of rock?
Katie sighed, as the scene faded and left them all standing, rather winded and full of scratches and puncture marks, in the plain metal room. Logan and Nicole's absence seemed to go unnoticed by many, except for those who had seen them leave, Katie and Bobby.
Bobby didn't look happy, not happy at all. "Where do you think he took her?" he asked, failing to mask the jealousy that burned brightly in his light blue eyes.
Katie shrugged as gently as she could, trying to keep the pity out of her eyes. "Maybe she got hurt, and he was helping her off to get whatever it was attended to? I mean, she was kind of thrown around a lot... But I'm sure it can't be anything too serious." She smiled reassuringly at him, patting him on the shoulder. "She'll be at dinner, bragging about whatever it was and how much it hurt, showing off her scars... just you wait." Oh, just give up now, she thought. It's hopeless.