Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.
Tempting as it was to follow her back, Victor knew all he had to do was wait and see, he'd marked her in those hours they had worked out all the primal urges stirred after the bar fight. He'd caught himself watching her ghost her way through the fray dropping men with cheap tricks and hauntingly familiar attacks that left him without a doubt as to who she had learnt them from. If any o' his Jimmy was lurking around, he'd be coming for blood after a sniff of that firecracker and the thought thrilled him.
It was time to do a little digging just the same, find out just who this Miss Jubilation Lee was, pulling out his phone to have a look at the photos he'd taken of the contents of her wallet when she had lain spent and sleeping on his bed. Times like this he almost wished he hadn't killed Bradley, wondering just who out of his line of usual associates to set on this task. Flipping through his contacts finding one suiting to the task, he dialled and waited.
"Time ta pay the piper." Victor greeted, catching the hitched breath on the other end of the line.
Phones took out all the fun of surprising someone, never carrying the stink of their fear and the way their heart would beat all the faster. But he didn't have time to go making a house call, playing a waiting game he had no idea how long it could take. It'd been years since he caught a sniff of his baby brother, he wasn't about to pass up this chance.
"What, what can I do for you Mister Creed?" The fretful voice asked.
"I'm sending you some pictures o' someone I want ya ta fill me in on, all that internet crap I don't got time fer figuring out and any bit o' dirt ya can find." Victor explained.
"Of course Mister Creed, I'll, I'll call you and soon as I have anything." The fearful man agreed.
Hanging up, with hours to wait he figured maybe it was time to get back on task himself. Catching that first whiff o' his baby brother after all these years had sidetracked him, he had more than enough leads ta find him now after meeting up with that little minx last night. It was time to earn his pay.
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Parking her borrowed bike, Jubilee pulled off his leather riding jacket and hung it back up along with her own helmet to find the gas can to top up tank. As much as she just wanted to go get something for her aches and pains and hit the pool for a long soak under the sun, she had to get down to giving it a good thorough wash first. Logan didn't mind her borrowing it so long as she asked first, but given the late hour she'd needed to get out of the house along with just what Logan was doing at the time or rather who, she figured he'd give her a pass.
A half hour later had the grime of the road washed off, a fresh coat of wax on it, and the tires looking factory fresh. Not her best work, but a definite peace offering incase he got pissy. Stripping off her soaking wet T figuring it wasn't concealing much, she slung it over her shoulders and headed on in to the kitchen for a rummage of the fridge and some advil. Hearing wet feet slapping across the floors behind her, she looked to the leaded glass kitchen cabinets and saw Marie behind her dressed in a bikini.
"What the heck happened ta you?" Marie asked, walking up and trailing fingers lightly down her back.
Wincing at the touch, it hadn't been that long ago hell would have frozen over to see Marie dressed as she was let alone getting so personal. Yet the touch had found another sore, twisting to catch herself in the cabinet for a look to find trails of scratches and welts running down her back with some bruises here and there. She couldn't tell at a glance which had been from the bar fight and which had been everything after other than the scratches, recalling just how he had growled as she'd bit him hard on the shoulder earning herself the mark on her neck.
"Uh...long story, but you seem to have your share too." Jubilee said switching the subject, noticing some bites and bruises on her friend.
Marie blushed as if caught, Jubilee once again feeling those mixed emotions about the whole thing that had her needing to get out last night. That they shared a wall hadn't helped, making sure to move her bed to the opposite end after getting woken to a headboard trying to hammer through the wall.
"Just...I dunno, be careful and if ya need someone to talk to I'm here for ya." Jubilee offered.
"Ah hell, I forgot...how much did ya hear?" Marie asked blushing further.
"Oh Logan, Oh Logan, Oh Gawd Logan!" Jubilee breathed in a high pitched voice.
"Oh my god..." Marie blushed, hiding her face in her hands.
"Yeah...you're just lucky we got moved to the teachers wing when we graduated to the Major Leagues. Imagine if you did that back in our dorms." Jubilee laughed.
"I gotta remember that for next time." Marie chuckled, heading off to the fridge for a rummage and snagging a bottle of water.
"Like I said, just be careful. Now if you'll excuse me I have a date with the pool and letting my poor body rest." Jubilee remarked, rushing off to her room to change.
By the time she got down to the pool she found Marie already out sunning herself on a deck chair, ever since the cure the girl had been worshipping the sun every chance she got and no one really could blame her. Diving in and doing a few laps, she dove deep and enjoyed the quiet found down below with just her heart pounding in her ears. Staying down as long as she could, she let herself float up to the surface and enjoyed the peace of it with her eyes closed against the midday sun.
"Logan wanted to know where ya went." Marie remarked after a while.
"Down to that biker bar he likes just outside o' NYC, The Kick and Punch." Jubilee mumbled, wondering just where the man himself was.
"You get into a fight?" Marie asked, eyeing her friend critically.
"Yes Nurse Roguey, I got into a fight." Jubilee sighed, cracking an eye to peep at Marie.
"Hey, it's my job ta bandage all ya idjits up remember, and I'm a paramedic not a nurse." Marie spat.
"Okay, okay. Yeesh. I'll let ya poke and prod me once I'm done soaking." Jubilee growled, kicking a spray up at her sunbathing friend.
"Good, cause the mouth is a cesspool of filth, just might have ta get ya on some antibiotics ta be safe with those bite marks and the cuts I saw on your knuckles.
"Pot Kettle." Jubilee teased.
"Well, I don't think I got much ta worry about with Logan...not like some dude ya picked up at a biker bar." Marie fired back.
"So just where is our Field Leader huh?" Jubilee asked, rolling over and swimming up to the side to lean against the sun warmed concrete.
"Our Field Leader? Hey now, I just fly the jet and patch ya up. I don't go puttin' on the leather anymore. He took the Juniors off to check out a hit Cerebro had. It was down in New York so they just took a truck rather than the jet." Marie explained.
Thinking on it, Jubilee always felt weird about keeping that thing active after the Professor had been killed. That it had it's own autonomous function at just spitting out co-ordinates to manifested Mutants and spikes of mutant activity always creeped her out, thinking of what one madman had tried to do with both it and the Professor.
"And on that note, I need a shower. I'll see ya down for my poke and prod Roguey." Jubilee said with a shiver, figuring she might as well get it over with.
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Pulling up out front of the garage, Logan threw it in park and looked back to the Juniors with him all in their civvies. He'd been left on the reserve with Ororo and the others heading off to the West Coast to handle a situation with their silent partner, Worthington Industries. Eager as they were for a mission, the kids were clearly relieved to be back home none the worse for wear other than the trip to his favourite truck stop for some burgers.
"Alright folks, get. Just remember ya got training tomorrow so a trip to the gym wouldn't hurt." Logan called, watching the four kids pile on out.
Turning his gaze back to the garage, he saw his baby there looking showroom ready with a wash and wax. Credit where it was due, he could always trust two people to put his things back just where they had found it, his Darlin' and her motormouth friend. Knowing he still had a date with a quick wash for this truck, he left it out rather than parking it back with the school fleet. Climbing out, he caught a sniff of something that had a growl growing in his chest.
Catching a scent, he raced up to his bike and took a heady breath catching it all over his jacket mixed up in Jubilee. Blind rage like he hadn't known since the school had been attacked filled him, mixed up with that twisted sense of deja vu that denied him a reason why. Running into the school he caught her scent easily and pounded up the stairs, trailing off into her room. Throwing the door open, he followed it to the bath and tore the door open with screams of anger and shock filling the air.
"What the fuck Logan!?" Jubilee screamed, covering up herself as best she could under the spray of the shower.
"Who, where is he?!" Logan roared, ignoring her as he felt fearful for her for a reason he couldn't figure out.
"Get the fuck out!" Jubilee shrieked, throwing a bar of soap at him.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard the feet trampling down the hall, people asking after him though he couldn't focus. The scent on his jacket had him beyond reason, taking note of the bruises and bite marks on the woman before him, scratches that flashed to bloody claw marks to vanish with the blink of an eye. Frozen in place, he didn't even notice as she cast off all sense of modesty and charged him, slamming a knee in his crotch that sent him stumbling back enough to slam the door against his head.
"What the hell Logan!?" Marie screamed, rushing in to glare furiously at him.
Fighting against the red that threatened him, he didn't even know how to answer the question. Staring at her, he saw her fury fade to fear, taking tentative steps up to him to take his face in her hands.
"I don't know Marie, I...where was she?" Logan asked, trying to rally his thoughts and hold onto that wisp of a face that wouldn't come with the scent.
"At that stupid bar ya just had ta go introduce her to, ya idjit. Now what the hell are ya doin' bargin' inta her room and her shower for fuck sake!?" Marie growled.
Looking around and noticing just where he really was for the first time, his feet had carried him without rhyme or reason just having to see her and know she was safe. Feeling like a right 'idjit', he leaned in to kiss Marie once and took her hands in his own begging her apology.
"Oh no Mister, ya ain't gettin' off that easy. I wanna know what had ya tearin' through here like ya were, bustin' in on Lee in the shower for cryin' out loud." Marie spat, holding a stern finger up at him.
"Can you two take your lover spat outta my room so I can get dressed, then maybe we can figure out what's got Logan tweaked ta find out what my Full Monty looks like!" Jubilee yelled from the bath.
Mad as she was and had every right to be, Logan had to thank Jubilee for dialling the tension down a notch catching the smirk Marie threw at the door. Leading the way back out into the hall, he tried to figure out just what to say.
"She borrowed my jacket along with my bike I'm guessin', but that ain't the half o' it. I don't know who, or why, but there's the stink o' someone all over my jacket now that I know is a world o' trouble and hurt and I just had ta know she was alright..." Logan weakly explained, once again seeing the concern writ on her face.
"Wait, ya mean she ran into someone ya...you remember?" Marie asked with the fury fading from her voice.
"I, maybe. I can't remember, it's just...flashes. Claws, blood, always fighting..." Logan whispered, the weight of untold years pressing down on him suddenly.
"Well, she said it was a long story. I'm gonna go get my kit and I'll meet ya down in the kitchen, maybe she can try and fill in the blanks for ya once she's got some clothes on." Marie sighed, slapping him across the chest once, then twice hard thinking of how he'd just humiliated their friend.
"I deserve that..." Logan chuckled, leading the way back down the stairs.
"Ya deserve a good knee to yer nuts..." Marie growled.
"She already did that." Logan offered.
"Well she should do it again. Stay outta trouble till I get back." Marie said, leaning in for a quick kiss.
Heading into the kitchen, he didn't need his heightened hearing to catch the whispered questions and the gossip already swirling. He'd have to give Ro a call asap, but right now he owed someone a hell o' an apology and had more than enough questions for her. Riffling around the cabinets, he found some coffee and got a fresh pot going, digging around next for some cookies knowing the best way to handle a mad Jubilee involved sugar. Just as the pot was finished brewing, he heard the angry steps trampling down the stairs, fixing her cup first hoping it'd buy him enough time to apologise.
"Okay I know you got a memory like swiss cheese, but the next time you do that I'm paffing you through a wall, comprede?" Jubilee growled, snatching the offered cup of coffee.
"I'm sorry." Logan said, holding out a plate of cookies.
She took three, flopping down on a chair and dunking them in her coffee thoroughly ignoring him. Hearing the elevator doors open, he saw Marie round the corner with her duffle full of all the stuff she needed filling her role as the teams Paramedic. Snapping on some gloves, she got into full swing poking their teammate and friend, taking a throat swab and cleaning scabbed over cuts. He never forgot how fragile everyone else was, Marie most of all for all intent and purpose just an everyday woman after years of hiding away behind her once deadly skin.
"Alright, two today, one every day after till they're done. Ya already got some inflamation in yer one hand that stinks o' an infection. Hell girl, next time ya get in a fight wear gloves, y'hear?" Marie counselled.
"Just what the hell where ya doin' in a fight anyway?" Logan asked.
"Uh...starting it. I...might have been a bit drunk and tweaked up at the time. I'll let the sleepin' dog lie as far as what two consenting adults do in the privacy o' their own room, but I might have my own opinion on the matter that had me needin' ta get out for a drink after gettin' woken up by someone's headboard tryin' to drill it's way through our wall." Jubilee said, looking between the two 'offenders' in her own mind.
"Startin' it?" Marie asked, smacking her friend.
"It just happened, some juiced up biker wannabe wouldn't take no for an answer and got to manhandling me. I was just wired up by that point and reacted, slammed his face into the bar. Well, then his buddies got up tryin' ta start something but the locals weren't havin' none of that..." Jubilee explained.
"So that's how you got...?" Logan asked, waving a hand to encompass her thinking of all the marks she'd seen on her.
"Uh...partly, picked up some dude after to work the rest o' my frustration out on. We went back to his place and...think we got into it just as much as two consenting adults I know." Jubilee said angrily, crunching away at a cookie.
"Who?" Logan pressed.
"Just some dude. He threw a pass at me moment I sat down, but then we just got to talking over some CC. Actually he said he's Canadian too, kinda reminded me of you." Jubilee recalled, throwing Marie a look when she looked up at the revelation of the likeness between Logan and the mystery man.
"You get a name?" Logan asked, finally having a sip of his coffee.
"Of course I got a name, god...nice opinion of me ya got. Said it was Vic, Vic Creed..." Jubilee groused.
Anything else was interrupted by Logan's mug shattering against the floor, the man himself already out in the garage jumping on his bike. Chasing after him after a moment of stunned inaction, he was already pulling out down the drive by the time they yelled after him.
"What the hell's his problem?" Jubilee asked turning to Marie.
"I, I think he's remembering more and it's all because of whoever the heck ya got to...got ta screwing last night." Marie said with a fearful shudder of breath.
"What if he's just trippin' and crossin' wires and doesn't know Vic at all, dude just seemed like Logan. Kinda more a badass, no offense, but just the whole growly package." Jubilee said, thinking again of the man she met in the bar last night.
"Ah hell, I don't know. I trust him, but..." Marie clenched her fists in her hair, already his bike long gone as he put distance between them.
"But if he's wrong? But we can't just leave the school without anyone around, fuck. You think you can keep the home fire burning with the Juniors while I go make sure he doesn't go do something stupid?" Jubilee asked.
"Yeah, hell...if he does ya got my permission ta knee him a few times in the nuts till he comes to his senses, they'll grow back." Marie growled, fighting the urge to punch the wall as she stalked back into the mansion.
Left alone with her own worries and doubts, Jubilee raced off to the truck waiting in the drive and found the keys sitting up on the visor. Throwing it in reverse for a quick turn, she slammed it in drive and hoped she could catch up to Logan before he did anything stupid.
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