Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.
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Floating alone upon the still water of the pool, the only sounds that invaded her solitude was the beating of her own heart and the deep thrum of the mysterious machinery that reached from the very depths of the sub-basements. Rolling to her side, Marie dove under the surface and skimmed the very depths of the deep end, twisting and pushing off from a wall in a small display of underwater acrobatics. Years ago when she had first come to the school this had been one of her retreats, private sessions alone in just a modest swimsuit and not having to be afraid of her skin.
With her lungs burning for air she rolled head over heels and pushed off against the bottom, bursting free and sucking deep of the humid air that felt so refreshing. Treading water and hating all the anxious energy that had denied her even the simple pleasure of a nights sleep, surging forward she started laps looking to tire herself out. Back then the pool had been a release of hiding within herself, but tonight she was trying to find some of the calm of those days that came so easily.
She had names for those she blamed for this trip to the pool so late in the evening, Logan for driving her mad in all the right and all the wrong ways and this mysterious brother of his who had come barging into their lives. A guilty part of her even blamed Jubilee for the whole fiasco, if only she had gone to a different bar that night. Kicking off from the shallow end and surging back into her circuit, the whole drama was worthy of a soap opera. And of course it just had to happen when she finally felt like she was getting close to having the little she really wanted out of life.
Never one to be greedy, all she longed for was some place she could call home and someone who would be by her side whenever she was away from that place. If Logan just wasn't all that in a rugged and sexy package then she couldn't imagine anyone else. He was just surly enough to put up with her on her bad days, his rough and tough front hiding a gentle side that he let her dig through for little secrets they could keep together. Secrets like his love for Jazz and teaching her how to dance to it, discovered after dragging him to a cocktail club with the both of them dressed to the nines.
Yet tonight he hadn't been that man she had come to love in a very different way than she had once before come to love him, he hadn't been ready to fight for her just when she needed him to and tell her just how stupid and jealous she was being over a dead woman. Instead he'd just turned his back on her and left, driven off without a word of whether he'd be coming back or not. Venting her frustration with a few hard laps, the echoes rattled on until they died with the last wakes of her waves.
Hitting the showers and running one hot, already she was feeling the ache of muscles that hadn't been used for a while, promising to herself under the spray to make some time for laps in the week ahead all while soaping up and rinsing down the lather. Brushing her hair and staring at her reflection, her phone ringing startled a scream out of her that broke the silence of the change room. Tossing her brush to the sink and snatching up her phone, seeing Logan's number there had her half tempted to let it go to voice mail until some nagging part of her thumbed the answer button.
"What." Her voice cold and even, she was only ready for a fight if he was, his turning tail and running hurting even more than any harsh words she cold imagine.
"Don't got long, phone's crappin' out on me. Took a turn too sharp and flipped Ro's 'Stang on down a hill. I'm down on that road, ya know the one, has that bar you and the girls used ta goin' trawlin' for boys at." Logan grumbled without any room for her to cut in.
Stunned to silence and trying to piece together everything he'd just told her, was he really going out of his way to get in everyone's bad books? First digging into Lee's after walking in on her in the shower, then hers own, and now crashing Ororo's baby? Fighting the urge to just hang up and let him deal with the mess right down to however many volts there were in a lightning strike, she took a breath for her reply.
"What the fuck!?" Fuming and waiting for his answer, she was glad she was alone to take this call.
"I got eyes on a payphone up at a gas station ahead, gonna see about gettin' a flatbed for the wreck and smoothing things over with the authorities. If ya could..." Ignoring her question, the connection died just before he could finish his own.
Carefully setting her phone down and taking her face in her hands, she breathed deep once more trying to reclaim what little peace she found in her late night swim. Counting out the seconds like she had been taught as a child, One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi...
"God dammit Logan you asshole! You fucking son of a bitch!"
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Waking from dreams he couldn't remember, the sun was streaming in but that wasn't what had woken him. Out on the floor somewhere his cell was ringing, in that tattered mess of clothing that had been torn off in the height of their arousal last night. Looking beside him, Victor found her curled up against his side sporting bites and bruises that would have her aching and sore when she finally awoke. Rolling out of bed and stretching, finding his jacket he snatched up his cell and answered.
"This had better be good." Victor growled, noticing a splash of red down in the black of his suit.
"Six Figure Payday. But it's gotta be done fast as in flying out within the next three hours. The catch is that payday only goes to the one that gets the job done, they're signing up some heavy hitters. There's a signing bonus and expenses for your trouble, but I'm putting my money on you if you're in."
Listening to the sales pitch all while exploring that mess of clothes, lifting up that red rag he remembered tearing it off of her and getting nails dug into his ass for the trouble. I liked that dress, she had said. Just means we can go shoppin' for a new one and some neglige to go with it, he had promised if only to enjoy a fashion show for one. Kissing him hard had been her forgiveness, and he met it with tangled fingers through her hair and yanking her head back, biting her slender pale neck and lusting after her pained gasp.
"Where?" That was the most he could ask without committing.
"Madripoor."
"You handling the paperwork?" Leaning against a wall, he admired the view, the aroma of their night still heavy in the room.
"All in my finders fee if you take the job."
"Then I'll need the usual and airfare for two, call up Shiro to get what ya need for my Plus One's papers. I'm in." Smiling as his day was coming up roses, breakfast became beer and leftover room service they had ordered between bouts.
"You working with someone?" Smirking at hearing the concern in that voice, Victor sat next to his little Lee and trailed a finger down her side as she slept.
"Ya know I don't play well with others." Trailing that finger down her leg, the flutter of her eyes told of her wakening.
"So it's pleasure then? You know what, I don't want to know, I shouldn't have asked in the first place. I got calls to make, I'll have a car to pick you up in the hour."
Whatever the job was he'd get the details once he hit Hightown, that voice had never let him down since their business relationship had started. Time and again he was tempted to have Shiro work his magic just to track him down, but why ruin a good thing he always figured. Groggy eyes were looking up to him now, his little Lee reaching for his beer that he gladly gave up. Pounding it back and gasping for breath, she rolled over and gave him just the loveliest view of her pert, perky breasts.
"Ya glad ya didn't tell me ta go fuck myself?" Victor asked with a playful smirk.
"Ya want something done right, gotta do it yourself." Her voice was a husky purr, interest alight in her eyes as she looked down to his phone he still clutched.
"Ya ever been to Singapore babe?" Teasing her hair that he'd pulled last night just to get her to fight him back, the touch was gentle now.
"Odd question to be asking a girl first thing in the morning, normally this is around the point in my experience where me and mister lucky would be deciding on breakfast or a quick one in the shower." The interest never leaving her eyes, Jubilee looked from him to the en suite bath with a waggle of her eyebrows and a teasing smile.
"Thing is I just got a bit o' work that came outta the blue, round that neck o' the woods except not so much on the usual flight plan o' the jetsetters. Room for one if you're interested, all expenses paid and flyin' first class. We can even see about gettin' ya a new little red dress while we're at it..." Victor explained with just that growl lacing his voice that he found drove her wild.
"Serious? You, me, Southeast Asia?" Jubilee asked so quickly she couldn't keep her surprise and eagerness from spilling out.
"Short notice I know, but that's the kind o' business I'm in." He had her now, surging up and sitting there so close to him he could feel her breath against his bare chest as she looked up at him for any sign of him lying, but still she was a thousand years too young to ever be able to tell.
"I get the feeling the kind of work you get called about this early in the morning means somebody gonna get a hurt real bad." Looking uncertain now, she still looked tempted if the way she was chewing on her bottom lip was anything to go by.
"You know those Blackwater boys, private military?" Victor asked, just getting a quick nod still full of uncertainty, "Well, they're the fucking boy scouts compared ta me."
"That's not exactly reassuring you know..." Curling up and pulling her legs to her chest, her scent was awash with her unease and an undercurrent of fear.
"Lotta bad men out there in the world that go makin' enemies, ever since me and the military had a fallin' out I've been makin' a name fer m'self. So yeah, somebody gonna get a hurt real bad." Even with his past and all his sins, there were worse men that him out there and he'd yet to meet one of them yet that he couldn't break once he got them all alone.
"This place got a beach?" Jubilee asked, Victor just giving her a nod as he waited for her to mull it over.
"Well, I did say I was gonna take a vacation to get away from the cluster fuck that Roguey and Wolvie are doing to each other. It's not like I can lie and say there's not some sick fucks I wouldn't mind leavin' ya to go and..." Jubilee muttered.
"Hurt real bad, sick fucks like Stryker?" Victor asked, playing his ace that skirted some serious confession time for all the sins he'd freely committed with that man.
Nodding with her eyes still on the sheets, as he took her chin in his hand and gently urged her gaze to him, kissing her soft and sweet just like all those assets he had sold out in the spy games he had played in the Cold War, for the first time ever he felt a strange twist in his gut that told him maybe just this time he meant it.
"I'm in."
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Four coffees, two stops to pull over and scream at the heavens along with one unfortunate visit to a gas station washroom that had her wondering if a trip to the woods wasn't the better alternative, Marie finally found herself pulled over on the shoulder watching Logan talking to a cop while a tow truck driver was hauling out what had been Ororo's Mustang. Sitting there drinking he latest coffee and scowling at him, she took a small pleasure out of watching him try the door only to find it locked. Hitting the power window and rolling it down just a crack, she glared up at him.
"As far as cries for attention go this is pretty up there, because from what I see there's no way in hell you went taking this corner too sharp. So why don't we just cut the bullshit and you tell me what really happened." Marie ground out, low and deadly letting him know she wasn't about to brook none of the aforementioned bullshit.
"I remembered something." Logan said as if there were an explanation in and of itself.
"You're done here?" Marie asked, nodding off to the cop who was talking with the tow truck driver.
"Yeah, no charges, had me walk a line and do the Breathalyzer...takin' the wreck back to the school. Dammit Marie, can ya..." Logan explained, growing frustrated with talking to her through a slit of a window.
"Just get your ass in the car." Marie spat, hitting the locks and waiting.
Taking care not to peel out with the police presence still around, every attempt of his to start talking to her again was cut off with one raised finger as she headed back to the school. Sipping her coffee and holding on to all her anger at the whole situation, after five minutes of silence she finally felt she was ready to hear just what the hell had happened.
"What did you remember?" Marie asked, glancing as his reflection in the windshield.
"I don't know, I just see her face, someone I thought was dead before I saw her there on that island. But my gut's telling me that ain't the whole story." Logan whispered, shaking his head and reaching for a pack of Marlboro's as he rolled down his window.
"Her?" Marie asked with a heavy sigh.
The way he looked at her as if he was thinking over his next few words was enough to have her stomach sink and regret all that coffee she had been drinking. Sucking on his cigarette until it burned down to the filter, he flicked the but out and let go of a smoky breath. Wrinkling her nose at the acrid smoke, she missed his cigars just then. Not trusting herself to hear just whoever this 'Her' was, she pulled over lest she add another accident to the nights total.
"Whoever she was, she's the first face I ever remember seein' next to the man who I got a lot o' questions for. You up for a trip to New Orleans?" Logan whispered wearily, just staring out at the rising sun that was peaking over the trees.
"Was?" Marie asked utterly flustered at his matter of fact way of telling her.
"Whoever she was, she was dead when I found her and I can't shake this feelin' that it's all my fault. Just one man I can trust ta give me a straight answer this time around even if I have to beat it outta him, and he's in New Orleans. I know I'm not exactly your favourite person at the moment, but...I need ya Marie." Reaching for her hand and wrapping it up in his larger one, his shoulders relaxed as she let him have that one little gesture.
"Just what else does your gut tell ya?" Marie asked, hating how shaky her voice sounded to herself.
"That I might have loved her in that past life, that she loved me even if my gut tells me she betrayed that love. That's what my guts tellin' me." Squeezing her hand, he closed his eyes feeling too tired and worn out to stand seeing how she'd react.
Slapping the indicator and pulling back out on the road, driving with one hand and holding his in her own she forgave the ache she felt in her chest hearing of this lost love. This was a woman she had no reason for jealousy over, instead feeling a sad sympathy for her. If the answers were in New Orleans, then to New Orleans they'd go.
"Okay, I guess we can go pick up Ro and the rest at the airport and catch a flight, then you can tell her about her car." Quiet as she said it, his eyes snapped open to look at her in a mix of relief and horror.
"Guess I got that much comin' to me, here's hopin' the flights don't go gettin' cancelled on account o' the weather." Offering her a smirk and shaking his head, that she was feeling malicious enough to watch him squirm was a good sign in his books after last night.
"So just who are goin' to go talk to down in New Orleans?" Marie asked, digging a bit deeper into that bramble patch that was his past before meeting him up in Canada.
"Hustler by the name o' Remy LeBeau."
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