Six days after the loss of JFK, Charles Xavier stood in the dayroom with Erik, Logan, Raven, and Jerry. They discussed a great conspiracy that spread from Dallas to Washington DC and all the way to New York. Erik turned on the television screen and smiled at Raven. She smirked back and Logan watched them with a scowl.
Moments later, Charles settled in front of the TV when the seven am news bulletin began. "What do you think, Jerry?"
"It's obviously problematic but I deal with those situations every day," Jerry explained, glancing at Logan.
Logan raised an eyebrow at the remark and looked over at Jerry. He tried to focus on the conversation while his ears continued to be commandeered by several splashes outside. With a shake of his head, he wondered who was brave enough to swim in below-zero conditions in an artic-style Bayville winter.
"Are we boring you, Wolverine?" Erik asked suddenly.
With a growl, Logan turned his attention to Erik. "I'm not one of your students."
Erik smiled. "No, my students listen when I speak," he replied and continued to discuss the matter at hand.
Jerry seemed momentarily amused by Logan's anger. "The problem might call for another Jerry and Logan mission but I'm playing my cards close to my chest at the moment."
"We need to be patient," Charles announced and gazed at them.
"You said that last week and look what happened," Raven pointed out as the news covered the top story of the death of the president's assassinator.
When he heard the splashes from outside near the deck again, Logan left his chair and went to check the identity of the stupid early morning swimmer. He stood by the window where he could view both the pool and a familiar head of hair that bobbed up and down while it made its way across the full length of the water. With a scowl, he opened the window. "Get out the pool."
Rogue raised her hand to wave at him and shivered as she swam. "Mornin' to ya too!" she called back and stopped for a moment to grin.
"It's five below zero," Logan growled at her from the window as a curious Charles stood beside him.
"Ah know, it's mah new hobby. Thanks for lendin' meh the book, Professor," she said with a smile and continued to swim.
When a grumbling Logan scowled at him, Charles sighed. "Rogue told me she was interested in artic swimming. I thought it was an interesting topic for her to learn about."
"Not when learning leads to hypothermia," Logan grumbled as he shut the window and crossed to the patio doors.
"How's fatherhood treating you, Logan?" Jerry asked with a grin and sat in his old friend's vacated seat.
Logan scowled. "Like a hole in the head," he answered and left the important meeting behind. His boots crushed the fresh snow underfoot and he made his way to the pool until he could see the teen. "This your way of avoiding today?"
Rogue looked at him for a moment and shook her head. "Ah don't know what ya talkin' about."
"Bullshit," Logan said and stopped beside the ladder. "Out you get. You've still got time to shower and get ready for school."
"Ah'm not goin' back to school," she told him and continued her laps across the pool.
Hands deep in the pockets of his jeans, Logan watched her for a while and took his time to make his thoughts on the subject clear. "You know what I think, Stripes?"
She rolled her eyes and paused in the middle of the pool. "No, but ya goin' to tell meh."
"You're pushing your luck," he growled while his eyes narrowed at her. "If I don't see you making your way to this ladder by the time I'm finished reading you the riot act you're gonna be starting the day with a tanned hide."
"Ah have other things on mah mind," she reminded him. "It was mah principal that was the creep, remember?"
"You need to stop moping around," he grumbled at her. "It's been a week already, get over it."
She stared at him and crossed her arms, hurt by his words. "Why do ya always have to act like an ass?"
"Why do have to keep putting your life on the line to make a point?" he asked her gruffly.
"Mah hobbies aren't up for discussion. Mah life, mah business, Logan," she told him and continued to swim laps.
He levelled a look her way. "That ain't what your surname says."
She stopped dead in the water and looked his way. If he wanted to hurt her with his words, she could do the same because she would never get over what her principal did. "Ah couldn't think of a worst surname to have. It means nothin' to meh because ya mean nothin' to meh. In fact, ya nothin' but a cold-blooded killer with claws and no family to love. Ya really think Ah care what ya have to say about mah life? Ah don't because we're not family, we ain't even friends."
Her words cut Logan and he stalked back to his meeting with a face like stone. "Don't be late for school," he muttered and shut the door behind him.
Rogue swam to the pool ladder and could feel the guilt eat away at her with each step she took. Yeah, she had been angry because she felt scared about today. It terrified her to return after the business in the principal's office, but Logan wasn't to blame. With more hateful thoughts directed her way, she went to take a hot shower and shivered all the way to her bedroom.
#
When she had failed to find Logan in the kitchen, Rogue wandered to the dayroom and peered inside. She spotted Erik and Raven laughing on the couch. Erik muttered something to Raven, and she looked toward Rogue. "Can we help you?"
"Not really, Ah'm lookin' for Logan," Rogue told her and glanced at Magneto for a second.
"He left with Jerry, they have a mission," Raven replied with a frown. "Didn't he tell you?"
Rogue nodded and clung onto the strap of her bookbag tighter until her fingernails dug into the leather. "Yeah, Ah forgot, that's all," she said and walked away with her heart sinking to her boots. Even when Raven called her back, she kept moving until she reached the garage to hitch a ride with another student.
#
Rogue loitered outside her school building and took deep, short, and sharp breaths meant to calm her. The more she thought about the principal and his creepy hands, she felt her heart pound in her head until the world blocked out around her.
"What's your favourite Beach Boys song?" Sandy shouted eagerly in Rogue's ear.
Snapped out of her thoughts, a wide-eyed Rogue looked at the other teen. "What?"
"Out of every song the Beach Boys have released this year what's your favorite?" Sandy repeated, snapping her fingers in the girl's face. "It's an easy question to answer, Anna. They're all amazing."
Donny stood beside his sister. "Are you okay, Anna? You look like you're about to faint."
"Ah'm fine," she answered and with another deep breath she entered the building to attend the meeting with the school board.
When she reached the office door, Rogue stopped outside the room when she heard voices inside. She shuffled a little closer and listened through the crack in the door, her back pressed to the wall of the empty corridor to stop herself from being caught.
"We all heard the rumours about his behavior, and we refused to act," a male voice said. "So, I, dear friends, propose this: We hastily and permanently bury our, some may say, guilty knowledge, and refute the victims' claims, no matter how many girls come forward."
"What if we end the investigation instead? It has the potential to ruin our careers outside this building if it's discovered we held knowledge of these rumours. I'm determined to have my way in next week's elections, and I'll destroy anybody who stops me from gaining the votes I deserve," another male voice told the group of interested and influential men gathered at the table. "We crush this investigation and make sure we protect the legacy of our dearly departed principal and this fine school."
Rogue felt her panic blend with her anger. She walked away slowly at first to make sure she wouldn't be heard and then she ran all the way to the library. She slammed her bookbag down on the table and wiped her tears away.
Sandy and Donny had watched her run past them, and they looked at each other and followed her across campus. The tall bookcases shielded her from their gaze, but they could hear her crying while they talked about what to do.
"I don't mind if you hate The Beach Boys like my brother does," Sandy said, stepping around the corner to comfort her.
Rogue wiped her tears away quickly and tried to look busy while she searched through her bag. She huffed when her hands continued to shake, and the panic clung to her like her heavy coat. She started to unbutton it because she felt too warm and too panicked.
"Did he do it to you too?" Sandy asked her and sat at the table with her brother. "Don't worry, Donny knows all about it. I told him yesterday after me and my mom got back from our meeting with the people leading the investigation. Isn't it your turn today?"
"Ah'm not goin'," Rogue answered and tugged her coat off her shoulders. She dumped it on the chair next to her and balled her fists, working on a plan to comfort her overwhelming feelings.
"But you have to go, my mom said it's important," Donny told her.
"Ah don't care what ya mama said," she muttered, leaning her head in her hands for a few minutes to calm herself down.
Sandy nudged her brother with a fierce glance. "Maybe we should talk about music again?" she suggested.
When she felt calmer, Rogue lifted her head and gazed around at the books. From all the options she had, she wanted to go full-on nuclear. "Ah've got a better idea. What do ya know about protests?"
#
Logan and Jerry grunted while they carried huge army trunks across the forecourt of a storage facility. They heaved them inside a large truck while they listened to the news broadcast. "Without that hole in your head this would be easier, Logan," Jerry said doing most of the lifting.
"I don't bring my problems on missions," Logan answered with a growl and carried the next trunk alone.
"That's because you didn't have a problem until a few months ago," Jerry told him as he dragged the next box with gritted teeth and muscles that ached. "Girls are the worst to raise. My three boys were easier, and they liked to play a game called Daddy's a Firefighter." When Logan looked at him, he shook his head. "Don't ask, but I grew tired very quickly of putting out fires and saving the cat from the tree. Is her morning swim really a big issue?"
"She's only doing it to test me," he grumbled and hauled another box onto the truck.
They continued to empty the first lockup while they listened to the radio. "Breaking news in Bayville this cloudy afternoon: A school protest at Bayville High has shut the street outside the school in both directions. Currently, we have no word on the reasons for the disruptive protests, but we will have an interview with the protest leader in the next ten minutes."
"Someone's papa is going to be pissed. We'll hear the paddling from here," Jerry said, and Logan chuckled.
Logan hauled a large box into his arms and headed in the direction of the truck, the sounds of the school protest poured from the radio speakers as he walked.
"Joining me outside Bayville High is the leader of the sudden protest that began today without any prior warning and has caused much commotion and disorder. Now, young lady, can you tell me what this disruptive behaviour is about?"
"Yeah, we're doin' this to tell Bayville we're sick and tired of bein' treated like second-class citizens," a familiar voice said.
Logan swung around to face the radio and dropped the heavy box on his feet. With a snarl, he moved it off his toes and went to turn the radio volume down so the rest of the unit wouldn't hear.
Jerry stared at him. "That sounded like your hole in the head."
While he wore a scowl, Logan watched the radio closely with a growl building in his throat.
"Look, all anybody ever sees of us are our bodies, so we're blockin' this traffic and we're tellin' not only the town but the country and the world to quit sexualizing us. It started when Ah got here, it happened again in that school, and Ah'm not bein' a victim again', ya hear? Ah'm startin' to think the whole bunch of ya back here in the sixties care for nothin' but ya own dirty minds."
"You cannot possibly be suggesting the Bayville Principal was guilty?"
"Yeah, he's guilty and Ah'm goin' to tell ya another thing: the whole school board heard the rumours and did nothin' about them. Ya know what else Ah learned? There are a whole bunch of old guys in that school right now plottin' to stop the investigation into the abuse at Bayville High. One of them is runnin' in an election and Ah'm gonna make sure he loses. Now that's a mic drop for ya, ain't it. Come on Sandy, we've got a protest to get back to."
"Your hole in the head sounds like she's ready to fight the whole town," Jerry said with concern.
Logan muttered expletives under his breath and grabbed his communicator from his pocket. "Yeah, and I'm not there to put a stop to it," he muttered with a shake of his head. He went to the other side of the lot to have a short talk with Raven via the communicator. "If she put on that show for me, tell her I heard every damn word of it, Ray. Go get her and bring her here before she finds more trouble than she can handle."
#
Raven arrived at the school grounds and sauntered through the crowds. The weather was chilly, and she despised wasting her valuable time, but she agreed to find, secure, and ship a package to Logan. She spotted Rogue and frowned darkly as she watched a man march toward the girl. "Sebastian Shaw," she murmured and quickened her steps until she intercepted him.
He smiled and stopped to talk to her. "Well if it isn't Raven Darkholme, what can I do for you?"
"I heard you have an election tomorrow. Why don't you go home and play dress-up in your bedroom mirror?" she replied.
"I have some cleaning up to do first," he replied and seemed surprised when Raven continued to block his path. "Do you and I have an issue?"
"I suppose we do," she confirmed and refused to move.
He glanced at the girl with the striped hair and started to grin. "So, she's one of Xavier's latest recruits," he said with amusement. "How's Erik keeping?" Raven tripped him with her foot when he attempted to walk towards Rogue. With a stumble, he faced her and attempted to intimidate the one woman who showed no fear of him. "You shouldn't have done that."
"I've crushed larger bugs than you in my sleep," Raven told him and smirked as she walked toward Rogue.
"Bedroom talk, Raven? Won't Wolverine be jealous?" Sebastian asked as he pursued her.
Raven gave him a warning look and reached Rogue with a swift stroll. Worried about further escalation outside the school, she kept a close eye on Sebastian. "We need to leave," she told the girl and pulled on her arm.
Stood high on a chair with a crudely made banner in her hands, Rogue scowled at Raven and climbed down. "Hey, ya can't stop meh expressin' mah rights to free speech on the street outside mah school. If that place were better run Ah wouldn't be doin' this."
"Oh, so you think you know everything, do you?" Sebastian said, stepping forward. "What's your name, young lady?"
"Don't answer him," Raven ordered Rogue firmly.
"Hey, Ah don't need ya lookin' out for meh," Rogue warned the blond mutant with a glare and then glanced at the man. "Mah name's none of ya damn business. Now leave meh alone, Ah'm here protestin' for women's rights."
"You can say goodbye to your pathetic protest, little girl," Shaw said with a grin.
Raven glanced around them and noticed two sets of Shaw's men pushing their way through the crowds. She knew they were dangerous, and she sighed to herself. "I didn't want to do this," she murmured to Shaw. When he looked in her direction, her foot connected with his scrotum. "How's that for bedroom talk?" she hissed in his ear as he collapsed to his knees with a squeak.
With her banner still in her hands, Rogue ran with Raven through the crowds. "What did ya do that for?!"
"You started the fight with him, so I chose to end it," Raven replied, unlocking her car in a hurry.
"That weren't a fair fight, it was a kick and ya half killed him down there," Rogue said and jumped into the car with the banner hugged in her arms. She slammed the door shut and grinned when they left the guys behind at the protest.
"It was a gentle kick," Raven replied, driving down an alley to reach the main highway out of Bayville. She glanced at the look on Rogue's face. "Were you not taught self-defence?"
"All he did was ask mah name, Raven," she answered, rolling her eyes.
"What do they teach recruits in the future?" she scoffed, appalled. "That's Sebastian Shaw. He already disliked me because of Erik, but you're now his nemesis because you embarrassed him today."
"Folks are weird in the past," Rogue muttered and turned the radio on. When she listened to a particular song about getting around, she gazed at the older woman. "Do ya like the Beach Boys? It's somethin' Sandy asked meh earlier."
"They're awful," Raven admitted and realized several vehicles were following them.
Rogue huffed at the song and switched it off. "That's what Ah thought. Do ya think it matters if Ah don't like the same music as mah friends?"
"Can we leave the high school talk for later? We have a problem and it's going to be heavily armed," she sighed and took the communicator from her pocket when they reached the busy interstate.
Within minutes, the vehicles increased their speed and the larger truck sped past them until it attempted to box her in. Raven sped further ahead of the truck and swerved to avoid crashing into it. She switched the communicator on while the tyres screeched against the road surface. "We have a 411 and I can't come to your location," she said as she swung the car to the far left and smirked, half of the thugs left upside down in a ditch.
"How many bodies?" Logan's voice growled from the communicator.
Their vehicle swung to the right again and narrowly avoided incoming traffic. "Four and they will be heavily armed, they're Shaw's goons."
With a grumble, Logan's footsteps could be heard in the background of the comm call as he whistled to Jerry. "Where you headed, Ray?"
"In the direction of Denton and you know I despise that town," she replied with a dramatic sigh.
Logan held a quick discussion with Jerry, and they carved out a plan. "Drive to Elmer Sands in Denton, Raven," Jerry said. "We'll need to land a military-grade chopper and that's the best place to do it. Do you need directions?"
"She knows where it is, Jerry," Logan growled as he boarded the helicopter with his friend and several other men from the unit.
Rogue looked between Raven, the road ahead and the cars still tailing them. She could hear the noises of a helicopter spilling from the communicator and she chewed on her bottom lip nervously. The rest of the journey was short and by the time they reached Elmer Sands, Rogue felt sick, scared and when Raven handed her the communicator, she took it.
"ETA in five minutes," Logan's voice grumbled.
Raven turned into the track that led to the large, abandoned lot known as Elmer Sands. "We're already here and we have company." There were now three sets of headlights behind her vehicle, and she sighed when a man leaned out the car window with a rifle. "Rogue, get down!"
A wide-eyed Rogue dived down in her seat as a bullet smashed the rear window and crashed through the windscreen. "They're tryin' to kill us!"
"Correction: They're trying to kill me. They will shoot you after having their fun with you," Raven replied in an unemotional manner.
"Hurry it up," Logan ordered Jerry and felt helpless in the air miles from their location.
Rogue looked at Raven when she heard another distinctive pop! "But they're tryin' to kill us over a protest and a kick.'
"It's quite a lazy attempt to murder me, they should be ashamed," Raven complained, her foot pressed against the exhilarator until they sped forward like a rocket in the direction of the forest. She stopped the car once they reached the cover of trees and she gazed at Rogue. "Do I really need to tell you to run?"
"Ah'm not leavin' ya here alone, they'll kill ya," Rogue said stubbornly.
"My mutation is active, and I can defend myself, you can't," she said, headlights streaming through the trees behind them. "We don't have long, so run while you still have the chance!"
With a panicked breath, Rogue threw the door open and ran from the car. She held the communicator tightly in her right palm and had reached the densely wooded trees when the men arrived in their trucks and jeeps.
They surrounded the vehicle and Raven smiled to herself. While she counted their guns, she slowly slid from the driver's seat and left the relative safety of the car. She sauntered toward the mercenary with the largest weapon and smirked. "Perhaps we could talk about this in a more comfortable location?" she suggested, all weapons pointed at her.
Rogue kept running until she grew more breathless and stopped for a break. She rested on a rock and felt the same panic that had gripped her outside the school.
"ETA in three minutes," Logan's voice said through the comm link. "This signal getting through? The line's been dead on your end since the shooting."
She opened her palm and looked down at the communicator. "Logan, can ya hear meh?"
"Goodamn it, we've lost contact with them," Logan could be heard grumbling and unbuckling his seatbelt.
"I'm trying my best," Jerry said and reassured his friend it would be fine. "Raven can handle herself; you know that."
"Ray ain't causing the worry this time. I haven't taught Rogue anything about taking out gunmen without her powers," Logan said, cursing.
"Ah'm not clueless," Rogue answered back with a huff. "Ah used to go on missions all the time. Heck, this ain't even dangerous; Ah took out Juggernaut and Sabretooth all by mahself. Okay, Ah had some help and mah powers, but Ah can do this. Ah'm not a little kid, Logan. Ah'm an X-Man whether any of ya believe me or not."
The sound of static on the line could be heard before Logan's voice filtered through the tiny speaker. "Stripes?" he said and sounded surprised.
Rogue watched the communicator again. "Who else would it be when Raven handed meh this stupid thing?"
He remained silent for a few seconds and made his rage obvious when he found his voice again. "You think this is funny, huh? I'm gonna hunt you down and when I get my hands on you, you'll be dead in the ground quicker than you can count to five."
She had never heard that level of anger from Logan before. "What's ya problem? Is this over what Ah said to ya at the pool or because ya hate protests?"
He growled. "You best end this prank before I track you down."
"This ain't a prank! Mystique's stuck back there with gunmen waitin' to kill her and Ah'm here in the woods waitin' for ya to arrive!" She looked up because she heard a helicopter. "Can't ya hear that? That's ya and Jerry comin' to save us."
"I've heard enough," Logan snarled. "I lost a kid up in those woods after a bullet struck her down and you really thought it's a good idea to highjack this line to taunt me?"
Rogue stood up and started to feel even more panicked. "Now ya sound like ya talkin' to a ghost or somethin'."
"You'll be ready to welcome death when I get my hands on you," he promised with a snarl. "Now get off this goddamn line."
"Logan, ya scarin' meh," she said tearfully and kept looking around.
"Good," he answered and cut the line of communication between them.
The static returned to the communicator again and Rogue started to run as far from the scene of the guns as she could. Her mind kept stalling with confusion, and she failed to work out what the conversation meant. Maybe it was Logan pranking her? She shook her head as she ran. Logan had no sense of humor, and he would never joke about death either. When she almost reached the ramshackle remains of a cabin, she spotted one of the gunmen up ahead with a rifle pointed at her.
With startled eyes, she skidded to a stop and watched him. Her first instinct was to run, but she remembered Angry Logan's words and started to second-guess herself. She stuffed the live communicator in her coat pocket and held up her hands to show she wasn't armed. Wait, what if Angry Logan lived in the future? If he were from the future, that meant she, oh goddamn it, the gunman was gonna kill her.
#
The roar of the helicopter distracted several of the gunmen long enough for Raven to snap their necks with a quick somersault and a twist of her feet. She landed gracefully just as Logan leapt from the ramp and joined her. He cut the other mercenaries down with his claws.
"I would rate you seven out of ten for that entrance," Raven told him in amusement as the sun started to set and a gentle wind whipped around the trees.
Logan checked the inside of the car and looked around with a scowl. "Where is she?"
"I told her to run, so she ran," she explained with a snappish tone. "Don't look at me like that, I saved her life."
"You sent her into an ambush just as daylight's fading," he growled and sprinted into the woods.
Raven followed him and Jerry jogged behind them with a loaded pistol in his hand. "You sure about this, Logan?" Jerry called out when he almost tripped over a fallen tree branch.
"Get back to the chopper, we'll need a quick escape," Logan ordered him and started to sniff the scents in the breeze.
#
Rogue kneeled on the stony ground, her hands still raised in the air and the rifle pointed to her temple. "Maybe we should talk about this," she suggested and wanted to keep the discussion fluid until she could be saved. "Can we chat about the Beach Boys again?"
"They suck," the bearded man said with a smirk and tapped the barrel of the rifle against her ear.
"Ah don't like them either," she admitted and looked up at him until she tempered the words off the tip of her tongue. "What kind of music do ya like?"
"Do you really want this to be your last conversation?" he asked her with a glare and thought teenage girls were strange. When she nodded, he answered her question. "I like Elvis."
She smiled politely and continued to question him. "Which song's ya favourite?"
He gave it some further thought. "Hound Dog or All Shook up," he told her and suddenly caught on to her plan. With a glare, he shot a bullet within metres of her.
The shock of it caused her to fall backwards. "Hey! That almost hit meh!"
"Wait until you see my next party trick," he grinned and walked closer to her. Like a golf club, he roughly swung the rifle backwards and paused for a moment. "How fast can you move, mutant?"
She tried to scoot away to avoid the blow, but he struck her across the head, and she slumped to the ground. He complained loudly because he knocked her unconscious on the first try. "There goes my fun," he said and pointed the rifle to her chest, just where her heart would sit. When the mercenary held the rifle still, his finger brushed against the trigger, and he whistled the tune to All Shook Up.
Suddenly, Logan leapt from a clearing in the trees and sliced the rifle in half with a set of bone claws. He stood between Rogue and the mercenary with a growl and a menacing glare. The mercenary dropped the broken rifle and tried to flee but Logan skewered him. He waited until the struggling stopped, and he sheathed his claws. The mercenary collapsed in a dead heap, and a concerned Logan crouched beside Rogue. He could smell blood and he checked the wound on her head. When he pressed his hand against her cheek, he grumbled. "Goddamn it," he said because her powers still refused to work.
Raven walked over to him with worry. "Did they shoot her?"
"Not this time," Logan grunted and shifted Rogue closer to him. He stood with her cradled in his arms and looked at Raven. "We need to get back to Jerry and there are four mercenaries in our way."
"So, they brought in reinforcements," Raven commented with a tedious sigh. "We've fought in worse battles."
"Not with the stakes this high," he warned her and nodded to their left. "We'll head this way. It's the quickest route to Jerry, but still gives us cover."
"Remind me to never return to this hellish place," Raven complained and followed him. "Every time we come back here someone dies. Last time it was Elmer when his bar burned to the ground."
Logan grunted and remembered the scent of scorched wood and burned flesh. "That was somebody sending us a message," he reminded her.
"And we never discovered who," she pointed out and shivered slightly as they walked. "I don't like secrets, Logan. They have a way of disrupting our relationship."
"You forgetting our friend burned to death that night, Ray," Logan told her gruffly.
"Are you going to call me cold and selfish again?" she asked him in a clipped tone while they reached a further break in the trees.
"You need to put things in perspective," he muttered and stopped in his tracks. With a low growl, he hushed her when she opened her mouth to talk.
Raven nodded silently and noticed a mercenary thirty feet away. She shapeshifted into the form of the man Logan most recently killed and stepped onto the concrete where Elmer's bar once stood. She smirked when the mercenary dressed in black swung around to shoot her. "Hey, it's me," she said in a rough voice.
The mercenary lowered his weapon. "One of these days you'll get yourself fucking killed, Bernie."
"It's funny you should say that," Raven remarked with a smirk, her eyes glowing a taunting shade of gold as she vaulted in the air and landed snuggly on his shoulders. In her most performative and comfortable form, her skin turned blue and she tightened her grip on his neck, listening to his breathless gasps as he struggled to breathe.
Logan groused from his hidden spot beside the tree, his temper already frayed. "Quit playin' around!" he warned Raven before he heard another mercenary's steps closing in on him. With Rogue still unconscious, he shifted her lifeless body into one of his arms and kept his senses focused on the approaching enemy. He didn't mess around. With one swipe of claws at the unsuspecting mercenary's throat, he spilled blood and watched the lifeless body drop to the bracken-covered ground.
With a satisfied grunt, he heard Raven's victim land with a thud at the same time and watched her land gracefully on her feet. "Let's get back to Jerry," he said, breaking his cover and holding Rogue protectively against his chest. He heaved a steady sigh and started his run to the chopper with Raven flanked at his side.
Relief flooding through him, Logan jogged up the ramp and slammed his fist against the control panel. The doors slid shut. "Get us outta here," he ordered Jerry and lay Rogue down on the flattened seats, crouching to check the wound on her head.
"Sure thing!" Jerry called back, nodding at Raven as she settled down beside him. "Cosplaying again?" he asked her, flying the chopper in the direction of the base.
"I'm a more experienced pilot than you," Raven scoffed, straightening the aviation headset on her head.
Ignoring the bickering from the cockpit, Logan pressed his calloused hand to Rogue's ashy face. "C'mon, Stripes," he muttered impatiently, cursing when the plan once again failed. She still had life in her, her shallow breaths keeping his panic from overrunning his usual coolness. He settled down beside her, dragging a hand over his own worried face. "Damn it. You're stubborn even when you're out cold," he scolded her, his shoulders slumping. He took the time to focus on the journey. "ETA, Jerry?"
"Eight minutes," Jerry answered, glancing over his shoulder. "How's your hole in the head?"
Logan heaved a sigh and left it at that. The kid was a pain in the ass, but his responsibility. Instead of staying in school, out of the way of serious harm and rifle butts, she was nursing a head injury. What if she weren't waking again? What then? A growl formed in his throat, only calmed when Raven placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You worry too much," Raven whispered in his ear, something Rogue always said when he grumbled or grouched.
"One of us has to," Logan muttered, his eyes narrowing as the blood dried in Rogue's hair.
#
"It's been an eight-hour vigil and you still haven't showered," Raven said, standing in the doorway of the medical suite at the army base.
The youthful-looking doctor and set of chatty nurses worked on their teenage patient, checked her vital signs, and settled her in a semi-comfortable bed. Logan gruffly questioned the qualifications of the doctor, accused him of stumbling out of high school without a clue, then slumped into a chair and ignored the nurses' gossip. Raven had taken over the conversation with a frown at Logan, then used her charm to calm the tension in the room. The doctor left without thumping Logan, and Raven pointedly told her bad-tempered partner he needed an urgent wash. That was eight hours ago. Logan hadn't lost track of time, but the ticking of the clock pushed him over the edge.
Unsheathing a claw, he stabbed at the heart of the battery-powered clock and nodded gruffly when it slid down the wall.
"Tantrums, Logan? Really?" Raven sighed, though wasn't surprised.
"Not now, Ray," he answered in a defeated tone.
"Do you really want Rogue to wake up and see your bloodstained face?" she said, sauntering towards him and sitting in his vacated seat.
"It's not my blood," he muttered, walking the length of the room with an impatient scowl. "What's taking her so long? The doc said she'd wake when she's ready."
"Then don't rush her," she replied, crossing her legs, and tapping her fingernails against the arms of the chair. "You know, you might frighten her more if she wakes to see your face." Logan scowled in her direction, making Raven smile. "You know what I mean. As you said, the blood's not yours. I doubt she wants to be reminded of what happened in the forest."
"Maybe you're right," he admitted, taking one last look at the kid before he headed to the door, and told Raven to keep watch.
Raven promised she wouldn't move from the chair and observed him with concern as he left. She had never seen him this worried or forlorn before. Even when those bullets had struck her in Reno, lodging in her stomach and kidney, he remained calm yet vengeful. Ten minutes went by before one of the nurses appeared at the door.
"Excuse me, are you Raven Darkholme?" the young nurse asked.
Raven gazed at her, judging the slender woman's dyed hair and short skirt. Obviously in the market for a husband, she thought. She nodded silently in response and waited to hear why a low-level employee on the base knew her full name.
The nurse gestured hurriedly for her to follow. "There's someone called Erik on the phone. He wants to speak to you; he says it's urgent."
Raven frowned at the careless gesture. "Stop waving at me like I'm a college whore attending one of your frat parties and tell him I will take the call in here," she said crossly.
The nurse placed her hands at her side, looking slightly awkward in response to the harsh reprimand. "I'm sorry but I can't do that. The General always says phone calls should be taken in the matron's office, where we have a secure line."
"Great," Raven sighed with annoyance. She glanced at the sleeping Rogue, knowing Erik wouldn't use the word 'urgent' without a catastrophe bearing down on them. With a lengthy complaint directed at the nurse, she walked to the matron's office.
Moments later, Rogue started to stir, grimacing at the pain in her head. She opened her eyes and winced. Moving carefully on her side, she gazed around the empty room. The four beige walls and single and scruffy armchair meant nothing to her. Where was she? She shuffled off the bed and found her feet, struggling to walk at first. She spotted the broken clock on the ground, stepping over the batteries and leaning against the wall for a few, short and worried seconds.
Scanning her memories and picking them apart, she remembered the forest and the Elvis fan with the rifle. "They've captured meh," she whispered under her breath and stepped out into the empty hallway. She veered a sharp left and wandered slowly in the direction of another door marked EXIT in bold, large lettering. The bright lights overhead hammered into her brain, and she felt like closing her eyes and sleeping where she stood, but she kept going because she needed to escape.
"Run while you can, Rogue!" Somebody called out to her tauntingly. "Run!"
Panicking, she pushed open the heavy door, and let it swing closed behind her. She ventured into the barely lit warehouse. Her legs continued to wobble, her head still aching. She put her hands to her ears, the tips of her fingers brushing against the bandages wrapped across her wounds. She heard a voice again, this time less soft and followed by a hissing and crackling sound. Confusion followed every step and she leaned against a crate of boxes filled with medical supplies. Her gaze travelled left, her blurred vision catching sight of somebody holding something to their face. She blinked several times, thinking it looked like one of those phones from those sixties sitcoms they used to watch at the mansion. But this phone had something strange connected to it. It kept crackling and hissing, the voice sounded familiar.
The figure saw her, slammed the phone down and pocketed something. It stepped closer to her, sprayed something, and ran.
Rogue watched the person disappear into the night and followed its path to another door that led outside to a concrete impound of tanks and other army vehicles. She managed to push her way through a secure exit, tripping an alarm before she started to fall.
A pair of arms caught her before she landed on the hard ground. Logan stood there, cradling her to his chest, scowling one minute and breathing a sigh of relief the next. "You'll be the death of us both, kid," he told her, wincing at the shrill alarm and hearing dozens of boots on the ground. Soldiers spilled out of every door; guns trained on what they thought were trespassers.
Jerry jogged over and ordered the soldiers to lower their weapons. "That hole in the head is leading you astray, Logan," he said with a smirk.
Grunting, Logan glared at Jerry and carried Rogue back to the hospital room. "You never go wandering on an army base, Anna-Marie. It'll get you killed."
Rogue's blurry vision focused on Logan. She felt safer now but tried to warn him. "There was a voice. Maybe two of 'em. 'Run' one said. The other said nothin' but Ah knew what he wanted, they don't want meh alive."
He raised an eyebrow at her words and settled her back into bed. He did his best to tuck her in and kept her there when she tried to get to her feet again. "That's a head injury talking," he warned her, sitting her right back in the bed again. "You're staying put, you hear me?"
"Ah couldn't make out the second one. He was runnin'. He ran from meh and coaxed meh out there with this spray," she said, wanting to clamber out of bed. She slumped forward instead, overcome with exhaustion.
Logan caught her and held her still for a few seconds. He figured they both needed this hug. "You've had a real rough day, darlin'," he said, trying his best to sound understanding.
"Ya not listenin' to meh," she complained, her eyes slowly closing, the exhaustion catching up with her as she collapsed in his arms.
#
Rpgue's eyes slowly opened, and she blinked, her surroundings familiar and safe. She was home, stuck in a shitty 1963, but safe in her home. She rolled off the bed and stumbled to her feet, looking around at her empty bedroom. "Mah achin' head," she muttered to herself and spotted her coat slung over the back of her desk chair. She searched the pockets and found the communicator, her memories of her time in the woods, still fresh and just as confusing to her.
Her fingers brushed against the communicator, and she switched it on, rewarded with static and zero voices fixing to chat with her. With an exhausted huff, she trudged out of her room, each step she took only added to her exhaustion. When she reached the lounge, she spotted Raven mixing a cocktail by the drinks cabinet.
Raven glanced at her and offered her the drink instead. "It will help," she said when the girl refused to take the glass from her.
"Ah'm not about to get killed over somethin' Ah don't even want," Rogue answered, looking around for Logan.
With a smirk, Raven settled on the couch and crossed her legs. She sipped the drink and opened a glamorous magazine to read. "He's not here."
Rogue caught sight of the clock on the mantlepiece and noticed the time. It was almost four pm, and she was tempted to try the liquor on offer until she remembered Logan's sense of smell what with him being a show-off and everything. "Where is he?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," she replied without glancing away from the magazine article.
With a tired frown, Rogue wandered to the kitchen next and found it empty. Nothing seemed out of place except for Logan's untouched newspaper on the table. She reached for it and picked it up, unfolding the pages to get a better look at the front cover. The headline rattled her, and she read it repeatedly until the news settled inside her broken head. Her eyes drunk in the words underneath the headline, and she eyed the black and white image used beside the text.
"Oh, I forgot to mention Jerry's dead," Raven replied from the doorway, and she noted the newspaper in the girl's hand. "I see you're already aware of the latest developments, so if you don't mind, I want to relax."
"Ya want to relax?" Rogue huffed and followed her back to the lounge. She held up the newspaper and shook it in the woman's face. "Jerry's dead, Logan's gone, and ya want to sit there and relax? Read this, it tells ya about Jerry's family and everythin'. How can ya sit there and act like nothin' happened, huh? Ya've got a real heart of stone, Mystique."
Settled elegantly on her chosen couch, Raven shooed the newspaper away and sipped her drink with a frown. "Are you quite finished?"
Rogue nodded because she looked ready to drop to her knees. Her head continued to pound, and she wanted nothing but rest, but she cared about Logan and liked Jerry too.
Raven picked the magazine up again. "I wouldn't usually involve a silly, little girl in this discussion because it's for adults," she said, causing Rogue to glare at her. "But I'm going to make an exception seeing as you're close to Logan. We discovered late last night that Jerry was a double agent, passing our classified information on to countless others. He was neutralized because he posed a risk to every mutant in this country, and working closely with Sebastian Shaw, he almost succeeded in having you killed on the army base. As for Logan, he took the betrayal badly, unfortunately, he had been friends with Jerry for decades."
Taking in every inch of the unwelcome news, Rogue looked down at the newspaper sadly. "Do ya know where Logan is?"
"I have my suspicions," Raven replied, setting her magazine aside.
The Southerner dumped the newspaper in the trashcan and hated the thought of asking her for a favor. "Ya think ya can drive meh there?"
#
Rogue climbed out of the car and recognized familiar buildings along the roughest street in Bayville. It was dusk, and the threat of darkness made her worry a little for her safety, but she sidestepped the fire hydrant and spotted the bar close by. In the future, she used to come down here during the daytime, shooting pool and hustling drunks out of their beer money. Familiar with the knuckleheads who liked trouble in the neighborhood, she stomped down the sidewalk and past the newspaper racks housed outside the local store, spotting Jerry's beaming face on the front pages. A slight shudder crept down her spine as she reached the building, somebody was following her.
With the miserable weather drawing in for the night, Rogue pulled the heavy door open and noticed a strange, drunken guy behind her. He wore a perverted look on his face and kept eyeing her up and down. She managed to dodge his hands long enough to reach the bar stools where Logan sat with a half-smoked cigar between his lips.
Lost in his thoughts, Logan took a deep drag of his cigar and inhaled the smoke. He ordered another whiskey and told the barman to leave the whole goddamn bottle. When he reached for his drink, he sniffed several times, and his brow furrowed.
"Ya touch meh and ya'll regret it," Rogue warned the dirty old man and jabbed a finger in his direction.
Without a single word, Logan stepped protectively in front of her. He smashed his fist into the man's face and watched him crash violently to the sticky, liquor-stained floor. With a grunt, he settled back on his barstool and took another puff of his cigar.
Rogue hesitated as she watched the people around them. Nobody seemed to care about the fight or the unconscious guy on the floor.
"I told you to stay away from bars," he growled in a gravelled tone and poured himself another drink.
She sat on the barstool beside him, worried her legs would give way if she stood any longer. "Ah thought ya'd need a friend." When he eyed her with a scowl, she shook her head. "Not meh, Mystique's in the car waitin' for us. She wants to be ya friend, Ah'm just here to annoy ya." When that failed to get a rise out of him, Rogue was really concerned. "Ah used to come to this bar in mah time, sittin' over there where they'll be a pool table one day. Ya tried to make meh quit but Ah always snuck out when ya weren't around. It kinda looks the same in the future, always full of creeps and assholes."
Logan scowled at her again. "Watch your language."
Rogue huffed and stayed seated on the stool, watching him drink and smoke his way through his grief and betrayal. After a while, she started to unbutton her heavy coat, the heat of the coal fire getting to her. With the ache in her head thumping away, all she wanted was her bed. Another ten minutes went by, and she started to feel feverish. Eventually, she reached out and grabbed Logan's shirt sleeve to keep herself steady. "Daddy, Ah don't feel too good," she said and her grip on him tightened.
As Logan snuffed his cigar in the ashtray, he looked her way and steadied her with his free hand. He paid his check, grabbed his jacket, and hauled her to her feet. He guided her firmly outside into the rain, the streets dimly lit in the darkness. With the use of his nose, he walked her down the street towards Raven's parked car. Rapping his knuckles on the window, he raised an eyebrow at Raven and her cocktail glass.
#
Logan bagged up Rogue's contaminated clothes and dumped them in the incinerator. He intercepted Mystique once they were both showered and eyed the glass bottle in her hands. "That the cure?" he said, and took it off her, taking the steps two at a time.
Raven followed at a slower pace as she climbed the staircase. She mourned the outfit she had been wearing, it currently burned to ashes in the furnace with Logan and Rogue's clothes. "If we're correct about the cause of her illness, the medicine will heal her."
He rounded the corner and headed down the empty hall and entered Rogue's room. "She came into contact with something last night," he growled and spotted the girl curled up on her bedroom floor dressed in a pair of pajamas blacker than her current mood. He crouched beside her, a hand on her forehead to check if her powers were back. With a grumble, he cursed to himself and hauled her up into a sitting position. He cracked open the bottle of medicine. "She's burning up, Ray."
A confused Rogue slapped his hand when he tried to feed her the medicine. "Ah don't want it," she muttered tiredly and looked close to collapse again.
Logan scowled and pinched Rogue's nose roughly. When her mouth popped open, he shoved the bottle of medicine in her mouth and poured the liquid down her throat. He eyed Raven every now and then, and when Rogue drank the last drop, he handed the blue mutant the empty bottle with a relieved smile.
Rogue coughed and spluttered, a grimace on her pale face. She angrily stared at Logan and was ready to hurl, the taste of the medicine on her tongue toxic to her tastebuds. She shuddered and made a movement to chuck it up, but he reached her first.
"Don't even think about it, Anna-Marie," Logan growled and clamped a hand over her mouth.
Their stubborn standoff would normally have lasted longer, but Rogue was too sick to raise hell. She started to cry instead, and he sighed, his hand dropping to his side. He scooped her up and carried her over to the bed. "You'll feel better in the morning," he promised her as he settled her under the covers and tucked her in.
Raven watched him, surprised by his tenderness. Her memories of Logan were mostly mixed with battlefields and bar fights. She had never viewed the paternal side of him before and it left her taken aback. Feeling insignificant in the doorway, and awkward at best, she stepped out into the hall to give them privacy.
"Where you going?" Logan asked her and sat on the edge of the bed, holding Rogue's hand.
Pausing, Raven turned to gaze at him. "To the drinks cabinet," she replied, an obvious lie because she would never normally walk downstairs to the lounge in her nightgown.
He smirked at Raven because he caught the lie as soon as she uttered it. "You mind grabbing me some beer while you're at it?"
#
While Rogue slept, Logan and Raven settled on the patterned rug by her closet and talked quietly between themselves. They discussed the rough patches in their relationship and eventually reached the uncomfortable topic of Jerry. Logan snapped the cap off his second beer and leaned his weight against the closet doors, listening to her talk in a low whisper.
"Charles believes Jerry was linked to both killings in Dallas," she said, brushing the creases from her nightgown.
With a grunt, Logan nodded and settled his gaze on the sleeping girl. He trusted Jerry with his life and all this time he'd been digging up dirt to help spark a human vs mutant war. "I should've seen through him," he answered after a while.
Raven traced his knuckles with her fingers as she sipped her cocktail. "Don't blame yourself, none of us realized until it was almost too late." She gazed at him and tapped his hand. "In the end, do you think he regretted the choices he made?"
The question made Logan study his calloused hands. "I dunno, darlin'," he finally answered and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. They looked at each other and he kissed her, hoping their close contact mended things between them.
#
By daybreak, Logan sat alone in the desk chair and waited for his kid to wake. He hankered for a smoke, but waited patiently, counting down the minutes until her alarm clock sounded. At seven am on the dot, the irritating sound of a continuous beep-beep rang out and filled the room. As Rogue stirred in the bed, Logan approached the alarm clock and switched it off.
Blinking and confused for a few seconds, Rogue spotted Logan and remained in her sleepy state. "Ah don't wanna go to school," she half whined and rolled on her side, pulling the covers up over her head.
He settled down on the bed and tugged the covers off her, his hand rested on her arm. "I doubt they'd have you back after all the trouble you caused," he said and hauled her straight over his knee.
Suddenly, everything flooded back to Rogue, and she remembered last night, the sickness, the medicine, and the sleep. She felt him yank her pajama pants down and when he grabbed the waistband of her panties, she pleaded with him. "Ah'm still sick, ya can't spank meh when Ah'm sick!"
"Watch me," Logan growled, knowing full well she was just fine. He pulled her panties down and slammed his hand across her misbehaving backside, time and again, using enough force to wake the dead. He whacked her until she cried and then he paused for a moment with a scowl. "That was for causing trouble at school," he said, the next set of heavy spanks aimed straight at her thighs. "This is for straying inside another goddamn bar."
The bawling Rogue clenched her fists and kicked a cotton sock clean off one of her feet. Tears rolled down her face and she dug her fingernails into her palms, and booted the air, his hand slamming down even harder. She sobbed, barely able to string a sentence together the longer he spanked her reddening backside. "Daddy, Ah'm sorry!" she wailed, his hand still meeting its burning target every second or two.
Her pleading fell on deaf ears and Logan made sure the swats landed until she lay limp over his knee, her troublesome attitude in tatters and her backside hotter than the burning sun. He tugged her pants and panties up, stood her to her feet and levelled a glare at her that softened as she cried. He wiped her tears away as he spoke with a stern tone. "You don't cause trouble outside Anna-Marie, and if I catch you in another bar, you're getting a whipping," he said and smudged another tear with his thumb.
"Ah'm sorry," Rogue whimpered again, tears flooding her face faster than he could catch them.
Logan opened his arms, offering her a hug. She buried her face against his shoulder and sobbed, soon curled up on his knee. He held her close and rubbed her back wordlessly as she worked her way through the tears.
With a sniffle, Rogue eventually lifted her head and gazed at Logan. "Ah'm sorry, Daddy," she whispered, drying her face with her pajama sleeve.
"I know," Logan answered gruffly and brushed her hair out of her face. "How's your head?"
Rogue huffed quietly and winced as she shifted on his knee. Her butt stung badly, and she gave him a sullen look that died on her face as soon as he gave her a warning look. "It's okay, Ah guess. What happened last night?"
"It's a long story," he said, determined to protect her from the full facts. Lifting her off his knee, he set her back in bed and tucked her in.
She rolled onto her tummy and watched him sadly as she mourned her ass. "Ya not goin' to tell meh, are ya?"
Logan walked to the bedroom door and left her to get some sleep. "Maybe one day darlin', now get some sleep and I'll check on you later."
Rogue watched him leave, her elbow propped up on her pillow and her chin resting in her hand. She lay there and sulked like a damn five-year-old, pissed at her life and still caught with a thumping headache. Her butt stung no matter what she did, and finally, after a full hour of moping, she crawled out of bed and crept into the hall.
In search of painkillers, she made her way downstairs, one sock still visible on her feet. She looked embarrassed when she noticed but kept walking until she reached the kitchen and searched the junk drawer, snagging a pill bottle. Reading the label, she quickly took two pain pills. As she chased them down with a glass of water, she spotted the unread newspaper at Logan's empty spot on the kitchen table. She shuffled towards it and gently pulled it closer to her. Before she had the chance to read the latest rumors concerning Jerry's death, Logan's hand clamped down on her shoulder.
"Hey," Rogue said in a small voice and offered him the newspaper.
Without looking at it, he snatched the paper from her and dropped it in the trash with a growl.
#
With a grimace, Rogue fidgeted on a hard stool beside the workbench. Still dressed in her pajamas and single sock, she folded her arms and huffed. "This ain't fair," she complained and watched the rain fall outside.
Logan stood at the open garage doors and smoked his cigar, protected from the wet weather. "If you won't stay in bed, you can sit there and watch me fix up a car."
"Ah weren't lookin' for trouble, Ah just wanted mah headache to go away," she told him, angry he thought she needed a babysitter.
"You're always on the lookout for trouble," he told her and pointed his cigar in her direction. "And wipe that look off your face, you're lucky I didn't put you over my knee."
"Daddy, the paper was right there, everybody knows more than meh, why can't Ah go read it?" she demanded to know.
He crushed the cigar under his boot and returned to his list of unfinished jobs. When he dropped to the ground and slid under the vehicle, he growled to himself when she continued to complain. He didn't want her to become aware of what he'd done or the circumstances of Jerry's death, he also wanted her kept far away from the fallout of the latest mission.
Rogue left the stool and stood with her hands on her hips. "Are ya listenin' to meh, Daddy?"
"While you're up you can pass me the wrench," Logan told her gruffly from underneath the car and held his hand out.
She picked up the heavy tool and carried it over to him. "It's only words in a newspaper," she huffed because she knew she would never change his mind.
Logan took the wrench and got to work loosening a stubborn screw. "Quit complainin' and sit your ass down Anna-Marie Howlett."
When he used her full name, Rogue caught herself grinning. Confused at first, she took an uncomfortable seat on the stool with a pained wince and wondered why hearing the name out loud made her happy. All her life she'd felt alone, and suddenly, she was here, stuck in the past, with an asshole she hated. She shook her head because she didn't hate him, she never hated Logan, even when he whooped her. "Ah'm sorry about that fight at the pool. Ya probably already know Ah was lyin' when Ah said Ah hated sharin' ya name," she said, remembering a few days ago.
Stained with oil, Logan reached for a dirty rag as he sat up and cleaned his hands. He gazed at her and shook his head, still unwilling to let her read up on the news. He heard Raven's heels and stood, slung the rag on the workbench and smirked when she arrived with a cold beer. He kissed her and gratefully took the beverage, his arm wrapped around her middle as they shared a handful of words that made him chuckle.
Rogue watched them with a scowl from her spot on the stool, her feelings about Mystique still stuffed with suspicion. She rolled her eyes when they continued to kiss and she attempted to sneak away into the rain, only to be called back by Logan. "Ah hate mah life," she said moodily and stomped over to him.
Logan hugged them both and shared a smile with Raven. "Maybe it's time we made this official?" he muttered into his lover's ear; his family complete.
A furious Rogue stared at Logan when she heard those words, but when she noticed how happy he seemed, her anger faded away. She leaned her head against his side and twisted one of his shirt buttons between her fingers with a huff instead. Life had a habit of chucking surprises her way and something told her no matter what happened, Logan would always be around to catch her in the next bar when she least expected it.