CH. 4
"Kat you need to wake up, Dr. Xavier wants to see us for an experiment so get up." Skylar repeatedly knocked on the door of Kat's bedroom and waited for her friend to roll out of bed. There was a groan from the other side of the door and then some shuffling. After another five minutes Kat threw the door open and donned a sweatshirt.
"Do we really need to get up so early for this?"
"It's almost 10:00 you should have gotten' your ass out of bed awhile ago." Kat tried to smooth down her short curls but gave up and stretched her arms above her heads. Kat had never been much of a morning person, but neither was Skylar so they made pretty good roommates.
"Give it up Kat besides you look fabulous and I don't think the blue guy is going to care much about what your hair looks like."
"His name is Kurt not 'the blue guy' and furthermore this is where we are going to be staying for awhile and I don't want to make a bad impression on the people we are going to be living with."
"They are the ones that asked us to be involved in this experiment so you shouldn't care what you look like, I know I don't." Sky turned and walked away with Kat in tow.
"Yes and we all see how delightfully cheery you turned out to be."
When Skylar and Kat walked down the stairs into the main foyer Logan was there to greet them.
"Follow me, Chuck's down in the training room waiting for you." Training room? Logan led them down to a large metal door with an 'X' on it and no handle. Logan pressed a button on a panel to the left of the door and it slid open. He gestured for them to go inside and they walked to the center of the dimly lit space. Suddenly the door slid shut and lock with a loud clang. The florescent lights came on all at once and Skylar looked up to see a large mechanical gun hanging from the ceiling. It turned towards where her and Kat were standing and began shooting at them.
"What the fuck?" They both jumped out of the way and rolled to opposite ends of the room. "What kind of experiment is this?"
"Apparently the kind that can end with us dying DUCK!" Kat yelled at Sky just as the gun shot at her and only missed by a few centimeters. Kat shifted into the form of a falcon and flew up to the gun to get at it with her talons, quickly swooping in and out of the guns firing path, but leaving Skylar as the primary target for the weapons assault. Sky was forced to run around the room while she thought of a plan knowing that Kat could only stay airborne as long as her arms could support her. Kat's talons had barely made a dent in the metal of the gun but there was a small opening that revealed the delicate wires of the deadly machine and that was going to be Sky's best shot at ending this stupid test. Skylar reached into the pocket of her pants and pulled out some seeds she always kept on her person.
"Kat here!" The falcon quickly dove down and plucked some of the seeds out of Sky's hand and carried them to the small hole in the gun's armor, dropped the seeds in the crack, and flew back to the floor shifting to her human form as she landed on her feet. Sky lifted her palm to the gun and focused on the seedlings now taking root in the heart of the machine. She willed the plants to bloom causing the mechanics to shutdown and the gun stopped firing just as ivy sprouted from within and grew out of the metal box, covering the gun completely in a sea of leaves.
"Kat you ok?"
"Yeah my arms are just sore. What the heck was all that about?"
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." Suddenly the door opened and Professor Xavier rolled in followed by Logan, Remy, and a handful of other people Skylar had only barely been acquainted with the night before.
"Skylar, Katrina you did very well." Kat smiled at the praise, but Sky only glared and marched over to one of her ideals only just holding onto her temper.
"Prof. Xavier I'd like a word with you."
"Watch the tone you take with the professor." The man Skylar had been introduced to as Scott Summer placed an authoritative hand on her arm, but quickly removed it when her glare was leveled on him at the contact.
"It's alright Scott, Dr. O'Riley is well within her rights to speak with me about what's happened here today. Charles wheeled himself out of the room with Skylar following close behind him. Once they were out of the room Remy let out and sigh of relief and looked at Kat, "Cher be lookin' like she's gonna give da professa a piece of her mind ya?" Kat laughed at everyone's perplexed faces and tried to reassure them that Sky wasn't as homicidal as she appeared.
Skylar sat at her lab table, measured out some liquid, and added to the bowl in front of her. Her damp hair curled slightly as it dried and she brushed it out of her face as she mixed the contents of the bowl together turning it into a paste. The knock at the door barely faced her she was so engrossed in her work. "Come in." The rich smell of cigar smoke hit her nostrils and immediately her hackles rose up. "What do you want Logan?" Sky stopped mixing and quickly threw her red mane into a careless ponytail.
"You said I could come over when I wanted."
"That was before you tried to have me and my friend killed this morning."
"Chuck would never have let you get hurt Doc." Sky glared at Logan and held up her hand to stop him from speaking.
"Listen Logan I've already heard all of this from Prof. Xavier, but it doesn't make me feel any better. I'm a scientist not a navy seal and being thrown into a situation where I could have been hurt doesn't make me very happy. We came here to get away from danger not to run head first into it."
"Chuck asked you to do an experiment."
"Yes but he didn't say we would be shot at! If we hadn't been able to fight that fucking thing…" Logan put his heavy hand on one of Sky's shoulders and gave her a slight shake.
"But you did Doc and that's what Charels wanted to see. If you had the stuff to be a fighter. To be an X-man." Skylar shook his hand off and turned away from him.
"I don't want to be and X-man. I didn't come here for that." Sky picked up the bowl she'd been mixing things in and held it out to Logan. "This is what I am Wolverine. I'm a scientist, a doctor, not a fighter."
"You looked like a fighter to me," Logan gestured to the white paste in the bowl, "what is that any way?' Sky blushed and self-consciously pulled the bowl back and held it to her chest.
"Muscle relaxer, I think I pulled something earlier." Logan's rough laugh softened the mood and Sky smiled at the gruff man before her. If she was going to trust anyone in this mansion it was going to be Logan. Skylar slipped her lab coat off and tried to rub the stiffness from her right shoulder.
"Need a hand?" Sky nodded and handed Logan the bowl. She turned her back to him and slid both of the straps of the undershirt she wore off to give him full access to her shoulders. She felt the tension ease out of her with every brush of his hand. "You know Doc we have some of this already made in the infirmary."
"Mines better. The fresher the ingredients the more potent, you might not feel your hand after this." Logan chuckled and wiped the reminisce of the paste on his jeans. Sky righted her shirt and sank down into her desk chair with a content sigh. Logan casually leaned against the lab table and eyed her. Sky was completely relaxed and Logan's lazy grin was having a drugging effect on her.
"Chuck said you ripped him a new one. You got a temper on ya."
"I'm Irish, red hair and a short fuse is in my blood. So you came here to check on me and scold me for arguing with Prof. Xavier?"
"Arguing wasn't what Charles said it was but I know you must be upset and I didn't think it would be good to leave you up here alone."
"Surprised the Cajun didn't volunteer to be my shoulder."
"He did but after seeing you storming out of the danger room he thought better of it. Besides I figured you'd want me to be here."
"You're right, I think I'd rather have you here. If it were Kat I'd yell at her and feel bad, but I know you can take it when I blow off steam."
"This is you blowing off steam?"
"Fighting is a good way to blow off steam and release pressure. It's only natural that I would want to." Sky looked at Logan's raised eyebrow and glared, "I'm not joining the X-men just to fight. Kat may want to join the team, but I won't. This is my place."
"You looked natural fighting, this seems foreign to you."
"This is what I choose to do. It's safe and I help people and I'm alone." Sky spun around in her chair to look at her plant samples when Logan spun her back to face him. "Logan I need to get back to work."
"You said you do this job to be alone. Why?" Skylar sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"Originally I wanted to travel around the world discovering new plants, but when my fiancé broke off our engagement I became a hermit."
"Why'd ya'll break up?"
"Because I told him I was a mutant and he couldn't deal. After that I gave up on people, stopped dating, and moved in with Kat."
"I'm sorry Doc." Sky waved away his concern.
"I'm over it, let's just forget it." Logan leaned forward and captured her lips in a fierce kiss. "What are you doing?"
"Helping you blow off steam."
(author's note: I am so sorry this took so long to get published. I've had this chapter written in a notebook, but never transfered it to my laptop until someone left me a lovely comment. Comments make stuff get written my friends. I know right now it seems like it's all about sky and wolverine, but I promise Gambit is coming.)