Wow. It's been a long time.

I'm so sorry, guys! I mean, sorry. Not a day went by where I didn't feel guilty for not updating this. I've never gone so long without an update. But I just moved to a new city, started my freshman year of college, and started a new job. To say I've been busy is an understatement. The only reason I had time to finish this is because I got sick.

All I can say is that I will try not to EVER go so long without updating again. But at the same time, my life is super crazy right now. Good news is it's given me a lot of time to really work on the plot to Thigh High Boots.

Always a silver lining!

Thanks for sticking with me guys and I am sincerely, deeply sorry. I really am. Like. I REALLY REALLY am.

XXXXX

"Remy didn' know you had much of a love life, Wolvie."

"For some reason, women are put off by a short man with anger issues, war flashbacks, and metal claws," Logan drawled dryly. "Don't know why."

"Baffles the mind," Christine added sarcastically. She was happy to see that Logan actually smiled at her little joke. "But there have been women in your life?"

Logan nodded. "I'm over a hundred years old, kid. It's kinda hard to not have formed some sorta romance in all those years." He frowned heavily. "Problem is they never last."

"Why?"

'They all die."

Christine's heart stuttered a little at the way Logan admitted this. "…oh."

"Or," he went on, scratching his head, "at least the ones I can remember. There are big gaps in my memory and I only get…feelin's some of them even existed. I dunno. My brains been messed with so much, maybe none of them were real."

He set down his Jack Daniels, starring broodingly at something only he could see.

"I kinda remember a woman…red hair. Long red hair."

"Jean?" Scott asked nervously.

Logan snapped out of his trance long enough to cast a withering glower at the younger man. "It'll be a cold day in hell when I'm attracted to Red, boy scout."

For reasons no one else understood, Wade threw his head back and laughed like he had just heard the joke of a lifetime but said nothing else. With only a raised eyebrow and a slight shudder, the group returned their attention to Logan.

"I wish I could remember her better. But I can't. All I see is…" He squinted. He looked as though he were seeing it in that very moment. "So much hair." He squeezed his eyes shut. "She died. Pretty sure it was my fault."

"Did you kill her?" John asked.

"Yeah. Wait…no. I didn't. But…I think I did. Not on purpose, I guess. I don't know. And the crazy part is, I don't know if I really want to know either."

"Why?" Christine whispered. She wanted to reach out and touch him, hoping to offer the smallest form of comfort possible but she was unsure if her touch was wanted from the gruff man.

"Would you want to know if you were responsible for someone you love's death?"

"Oh. Um…I don't know…."

"Exactly. But there's another. A girl I do remember." A tiny smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I remember her like it was yesterday. Who I loved in another lifetime. She died too…. I know I killed her." He glanced at his audience. "But for mercy, that time. I swear. She was gonna die not matter what and she…begged me….to make it faster and less….she begged me…."

Unable to stop herself a moment longer, Christine laid a delicate hand on his very hairy arm. "Logan, you don't have to tell us any—"

"Let me finish kid," he interrupted, but not unkindly.

"Okay."

She started to retract her hand, but for just one fleeting moment, so fast she could have imagined it, Logan gave her a tiny smile. It honestly could have been her imagination, but she decided she could be bold and leave it there.

He didn't seem to mind too much, anyway.

Logan went on. "There was my Fox."

"You dated a fox once?" Wade asked, smirking behind his mask.

Without blinking, Logan lifted the hand Christine was not touching and shoved his middle claw through Wade's skull. Scott and Christine screamed. Remy examined something under his nail. John clapped with approval.

And Wade giggled.

"That tickles," he commented idly. "Shh…I can hear my brain healing…."

Logan rolled his eyes and retracted the claw, setting his bloodied hand back on the table. Of all the thoughts that could have crossed Christine's mind in that moment, her first thought was that she would have to clean that up later. Her next thought was to wonder what she could use to get blood stains off the table.

"I loved a woman named Fox," Logan continued as if he hadn't just shoved an indestructible blade through another man's skull. "Silver Fox. I can feel it in my bones."

"When you say you can feel it in your bones," Wade began, dabbing at his head wound with a napkin, "do you mean the top part of your bones that covered in metal? Or do you mean your actual bones? The boney bones? Or bone marrow?"

"Wade, shut up," Christine snapped. "Please."

"Yes, sir!"

"You were saying, Logan?"

"That may have been the happiest time of my life…." He trailed off.

"But…?" the waitress probed. Because obviously there was a but following his proclamation.

"But let's just say the relationship ended violently, kid." He made a face. "If it even existed in the first place. Which it may not have."

"How do you not know?"

Logan smirked bitterly. "That's one long story I ain't gettin' into kid."

The smirk disappeared in the blink of an eye. In the same instant, he spun around to face Scott. His eyes were ablaze with ferocity and unforgiving rage. He pointed a blood stained finger at the X-Man.

"Which is why you ain't gettin' my sympathy, Boy Scout," he snapped, his words clipped. "'Cause no matter how it turned out with all those women in my past, I know in my gut each and every one of them knew exactly how I felt 'bout them. 'Cause I let them know every chance I got. 'Cause I know how quickly things can get bad and it's important to let them know. So even if I can't quite remember them and I ain't quite sure if it was real, I know I tried. I know they knew.

"You got a great girl in front of you. I put up with you dancin' 'round your feelin's for years. Now you got Red and can't suck it up, grow some balls, and spit out some words? And you think you deserve sympathy from any one of the men seated at this table who's women don't even like them?"

"Hey, now. I wouldn't say Wanda doesn't like me…."

"Rogue likes me. Jus'…in a violent way."

Christine shushed them.

"You don't deserve sympathy," Logan finished, picking up his Jack Daniels. "You don't even deserve a penis."

With that, he went back to nursing his drink and for the most part, ignoring those seated around him. Carefully, so not to get an appendage chopped off, Christine took her hand back.

Silence stretched.

And stretched.

And continued to stretch.

Then, somewhere in the distance, a bell rang twice. Christine jumped to her feet so quickly, he chair fell backward. She did not make an attempt to right it.

"Chimichangas are done!" she announced with a strained smile. "I'm going to leave this room right now to get them so I don't have to be here for a second longer!"

She ran out the room at a speed that would have impressed Quicksilver.

And so the men remained in the miserable silence Logan brought on.

Remy lifted a hand to his ear.

"Anyone else hear dat?"

"Hear what?" Scott asked.

"The awkward silence."