Laura hated cold weather. She didn't have to worry about hypothermia or frostbite on account of her accelerated healing, but she associated being cold with the prison cell she grew up in. Every time winter rolled through New York City, she'd feel it in her adamantium bones days if not weeks before, and she made it a habit of migrating south or hibernating in her apartment until spring.

It was strange then that she'd leave the comfort of her warm apartment to climb atop a roof this late into December. Snow had fallen earlier that day, blanketing the city that never sleeps in white. With her sharp eyes, she could see all the way across Central Park where the students of The Xavier Institute were having a snowball fight. Laura shivered reflexively, and cursed herself for being a nostalgic fool. She couldn't even stand cold showers, so what was she doing sitting on a rooftop a week before Christmas?

"Yeah, what'd you want?" answered an all too familiar voice. Laura turned, surprised that her sister had even bothered to read her text message, much less actually come. Not to mention sneak up on her so easily.

She and Gabby had been fighting for three days straight. Three months really, until tempers finally reached their breaking point. Gabby had made a big production of storming out, saying that she wasn't coming back, and Laura had encouraged her to never show her face again. That'd been nearly a week ago, and Laura hadn't slept or felt warm since.

Unlike Gabby, Laura hadn't had sisters growing up, or anyone else really, and thus hadn't mastered the sacred art of arguing. The past year had been one new experience after another, and while the two had their fair share of shouting matches and no holds barred claw fights, Laura was always a step or two behind when it came to verbal confrontations, and was too scared of hurting Gabby to actually use her claws. Not that she'd feel anything.

Gabby on the other hand had once thrown a remote so hard at Laura's face that it'd gotten stuck, and saw no issue stabbing her sister until her bone claws inevitably broke against her adamantium skeleton.

Surveying the rooftop for signs of a trap, Gabby finally took notice of her sister and the fallen snow atop of her. "How long have you been sitting there?"

"Not long," she lied. "Can we talk?"

"What about?" Gabby crossed her arms over her bullet proof vest. "If you're wanting an apology, you're not getting one, and I don't want to hear one either."

Laura nodded. She hadn't planned on apologizing, nor did she want to hear one either. It wouldn't have fixed the holes or bloodstains in her favorite jacket anyway. "I just wanna talk. That's all."

"Not interested."

Gabby turned to leave, but before she could go back inside where it was warm, Laura sighed. "My birthday is August 2nd, 2003." An ordinary human wouldn't have even known she had spoken, but Gabby was anything but ordinary, and she stopped dead in her tracks.

For nearly four months she had begged, pleaded, negotiated, and even threatened Laura to reveal the date of her birth. Gabby felt that as her clone, she had every right to know her birthday and be able to celebrate it like an ordinary kid, but Laura as usual had kept it to herself just like everything else about her former life. The most she had revealed was that she hadn't been a test tube baby like her clones, and that she'd had a real mother named Sarah. Beyond that, Gabby knew frustratingly little about the young woman she derived from.

"You mean I'm a Leo!" she squealed. "Are there any big cats related to wolverines?"

"Not a biologist, but I doubt it."

"Ferrets, weasels, and stoats kinda look like cats." She bit her lip thoughtfully, thinking perhaps of adding whiskers to her Honey Badger costume. "Wait, you mean our birthstone is peridot? Now I know why you didn't wanna tell me..."

Gabby appeared to rethink coming all the way back home, and might've even considered diving headfirst off the roof in order to forget about this conversation when Laura interrupted.

"Never been into zodiacs or birthstones, but if it makes you feel any better, peridots are green because of the metals inside them, or something like that." She released the twin metallic claws from her left hand, wincing slightly as they broke skin, but feeling a sense of relief not unlike relaxing tired muscles or cracking knuckles. "I'll tell you more if you're willing to listen."

Gabby took a couple steps forward but seemed to have already forgotten about her brief infatuation with learning her birthday. "I'm listening."

Laura sighed again, something she was prone to do when talking to Gabby. She knew this wasn't going to be easy, and not for the first time cursed her own stubbornness and almost legendary ability to hold a grudge. "Gabby, I know you want to save all of our clones. All of our sisters, I mean, but first I want to stop any more clones from being created. I know what I'm capable of, and that scares me. If you hadn't been engineered to not feel pain, you'd be scared too."

"What if they're more like me?" Gabby countered. "I never got the chance to graduate to killing machine like you did. The day we met, Dr. Strange said he didn't see any taint in my soul but saw plenty in yours. If there's one of me, that means there's got to be more, right? And if they're more like you, well, they'll be as prickly as a cactus, but I'll still love them all the same."

Laura almost smiled. "Gabby, I'm helping them by making sure no other clones are created and have to go through the kind of hell we did."

"Going through hell is what made us who we are!" Gabby snapped. "Laura, take it from me, but nobody hates you more than you hate yourself. Why can't you just admit that of the dozens, maybe hundreds of clones you've met, not a single one of us have been evil. Murderers? Yeah, okay, but only because we didn't have a choice. I don't know if being clones makes any of us lesser than you, but none of us are as strong as you, or as well-trained, and we've all had our fair share of genetic defects. I don't know how else to tell you this, but you're the best and the worst of us. If anybody's the evil clone, it's you."

Laura glared at the face that minus the scarring, six years prior had once stared at her in the mirror. Just like before, she looked away before she lost control and scratched her face off. "Gabby, everyone I have ever loved is dead."

"I'm still here in case you haven't noticed, and I'm pretty sure neither of us can die."

"People said the same thing about Logan, and your healing factor isn't half as strong as ours, or as consistent for that matter. Haven't you ever noticed how often your skin your knees and elbows?"

Gabby shrugged. "Not really, but I see your point. I guess now it's my turn to make you see mine." She closed the gap between them and plopped down beside Laura, dangling her legs over the edge just like old times. "Growing up, I had nine older sisters. All of them except Bellona are dead, and she's in custody, and they've thrown away the key. You're all I've got, and I'm scared of losing you too, but I can't live my entire life being afraid all the time. Especially when I plan on living forever."

Laura's lip twitched. "That's easy for you to say. You can't feel pain, and you barely feel fear." She shut her eyes when the wind suddenly cut through her like razor blades, but although she was adequately dressed for winter in order to blend in, Gabby wouldn't have noticed even if she were wearing pajamas. "Gabby, I know you can't relate, but my bones hurt just sitting here, and I'm scared that at any moment my life will come crumbling down around me. Again..."

"Again?" she probed.

Laura took a long, savory look at her sister sitting beside her. "Gabby, if I lose you, I lose the only conscience I've ever had. If I lose you, the world loses the only thing keeping it safe. You'd be fine without me. I'd gone on a killing spree."

*snikt*

She retracted her claws and wiped away the trickles of blood. Afterward she massaged her knuckles and slowly worked her way up her forearm. Unlike Logan, not all of her skeleton had been grafted with adamantium, which was as much a blessing as it was a curse. It meant being lighter on her feet and not having her whole body ache, but while the weight was distributed evenly so as not to throw her off-balance in the middle of a fight, she was constantly aware of where the adamantium was located, as well as her healing factor constantly at work. Even now it was trying and failing to heal her, and also keep her from dying of adamantium poisoning like countless other Weapon X experiments.

From the moment liquid adamantium had been injected into her body and allowed to harden, Laura's life had been on a timer. Her healing factor should've allowed her to live for several centuries in the prime of her life just like Logan, but now she'd be lucky to live to fifty.

Gabby watched silently as Laura massaged her arm. She'd always had a morbid curiosity with pain seeing how she had never experienced any in fourteen years, or thereabouts, and barely even understood feeling mildly uncomfortable. As far as she was concerned, pain was a mostly foreign concept, but it was all her sister had ever known.

"What was it like?" she asked. "When they put the adamantium into you?"

"Like nothing you can possibly imagine," Laura said between her teeth. "Imagine being set on fire, beaten with sledgehammers, and torn limb from limb all at the same time. Now multiply that by a thousand and you start getting the idea."

If getting out of bed in the morning registered a one on Laura's scale of pain tolerance, her bones being coated with adamantium was unquestionably a ten. The only thing that had come close since was having her face melted off, which she rated a six or seven depending on the day.

Gabby nodded and scooted closer. "You're right. I can't even imagine how stubbing my toe or a papercut feels, but can you tell me more about it anyway? Smart people on TV say that talking about your problems helps. I don't know if that's actually true or not, but it's worth a shot."

Laura closed her eyes. Talking was the last thing she wanted to do, but it was also her final option, and the reason she had come out here and spent hours agonizing over her text message before sending it. She hated how Logan had always pushed her away for her own protection, which probably saved her life in the end, but despite how little time they spent together, Laura was keenly aware of his DNA flowing through her veins. Then again, her mother hadn't exactly kept her within arm's reach either.

"The only credit I'll give Dr. Rice is that he didn't try bonding adamantium to my skeleton when I was seven," Laura said. "Instead, he just radiated my cells to force an early mutation. It should've killed me even with a fledgling healing factor, but especially when my powers shouldn't have even activated until I was at least twelve, just like you and the other clones."

"Dr. Rice," Gabby said thoughtfully. "That's the guy in charge of the X-23 project, right?"

"More like saboteur, and stop interrupting. This is hard enough as it is."

"He's dead now, right?"

Laura took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. With Gabby, it was sometimes like talking to a brick wall, or more accurately, a hyperactive caricature of herself that lived in a completely separate reality from the rest of the world. "Yeah, but I was under the influence of trigger scent, so I didn't exactly get to enjoy killing him." She shuddered and reflexively covered her nose. Trigger scent was a specifically engineered chemical that just a whiff of caused her to go into an uncontrollable frenzy and mercilessly kill anyone and everyone around her.

Anyone and everyone...

"Mutants normally don't unlock their powers until they start going through puberty," she continued, "but Rice didn't care. He wanted the X-23 program to fail just to spite Logan. Killing his daughter by grafting adamantium to a twelve-year-old little girl must have seemed poetic to him. And since I was supposed to die anyway, they didn't bother wasting anesthesia on me."

Gabby blinked. "Y-you were awake? Like, the entire time!?"

Laura closed her eyes and nodded, and Gabby grabbed her hand, massaging where her claws retracted. "Sarah told me the procedure only lasted about ten minutes, but she also told me going in that it wasn't going to hurt, so who knows. See where I get my trust issues?" she said humorlessly.

"I'm sorry, Laura. I didn't know."

"I've never told anyone any of this. Not even Logan. That's why I'm telling you now. You deserve to know. Not just because you're my clone, but because you're my sister." The corners of her mouth twitched and she ruffled Gabby's unkempt hair. "I don't know if I was designed this way, if they were just stingy with adamantium, or if it was just to torture me, but there's a lot of gaps in my skeleton where there isn't any adamantium. Made growing pains a bitch."

Gabby chuckled, relieved to hear the familiar dark, cynical humor from her sister. Most people could only hear bitterness, which there was plenty of, but she grew up hearing it, and even heard it from herself on occasion. "What else? Tell me everything. I knew I should've brought popcorn."

Laura took a deep breath, having been preparing what she was going to say all day, if not the past year. "At the facility, there was a woman named Kimura. She'd volunteered for Weapon X, and they did something to her that made her skin invulnerable. She was my handler, and she tortured me almost every day for as long as I can remember. I couldn't lay a scratch on her even with adamantium claws, and every time she was done breaking me and making me beg for mercy, she'd rip my hands and claws off just to prove that she could..."

This time Gabby shuddered, and again caught Laura rubbing her wrists. "The adamantium was supposed to kill me, and as punishment, they exploited every design flaw they gave me. At least I know where my weak points are. That's something, I guess."

She fell silent, and the pair listened to the howling wind and the constant noise of the city below them. Both would've preferred living somewhere out in the country where it was more peaceful, but work called for them to remain in New York City and near the X-Men headquarters. The only bright side to the city that never slept was that once you got used to it, the noise helped drown everything else out, including your neighbor's footsteps, heartbeats, and curious sex lives. For the most part anyway.

"They never did stuff like that at our facility," Gabby said. "It was bad, but my sisters protected me as best they could, and our healing factors weren't like yours. Whenever one of us got injured, we got immediate medical attention, and our handlers got in trouble. Our bodies cost too much to break during training." She laughed suddenly. "Jokes on them. Nobody can break me now. Not for more than a couple of minutes anyway. I think getting flattened by that steamroller still holds the record."

Laura fought the urge to vomit, the scene of her sister being flattened and her head bursting like a tube of toothpaste forever burned into her memory no matter how much damage to the brain she received. "I hope you're right, Gabby. Kimura's still out there, and she'd take it as a personal challenge to find a way to make you feel pain and fear."

'To break you like she broke me...'

Laura closed her eyes and fought back tears, imagining Kimura getting her hands on Gabby. "I don't know why she helped you and your sisters escape, other than to screw with me, but her role in the X-23 program isn't over. That's what I'm afraid of more than anything..."

Kimura found her way into Laura's nightmares more often than not, and not only was she one of the most formidable mutants in the world, but for all Laura knew, she could be making an X-23 army at that very moment.

"If she knocked on our door tonight, there's not a damn thing we could do other than run." She glanced at Gabby to make sure she was listening, but as usual her sister didn't seem concerned. Not being able to feel pain or fear had its advantages, but Laura had a dark premonition it was going to get Gabby killed permanently sooner rather than later.

"Tell me about Mom," Gabby said. "You hardly ever talk about her. Is having a mom like having a big sister but better?"

Laura shrugged. In truth she didn't think of Sarah as 'Mom' per say, and hadn't even started calling her that until after she died. It was strange however hearing someone else call her 'Mom', especially from someone that hadn't even met her. She had no issue with Gabby or her other clones referring to Logan as their father, but Laura's relationship with Sarah had been personal, albeit strained and complicated, and she didn't particularly like sharing it.

"I'm not gonna lie or pretend Sarah was perfect," Laura said. "She was a lot like the other mad scientists we deal with. Ambitious, callous, and able to emotionally detach herself from whatever immoral work she was doing in the name of science. The difference is that Sarah carried me for nine months, and took it upon herself to read to me every night before bedtime. She wasn't perfect, but she protected me as best she could. She loved me, and eventually I realized I loved her too."

"And Rice killed her," Gabby added, blood trickling from where her bone claws retracted. She had better control over her temper than Logan, Laura, and most of their other clones, but someone hurting Laura ranked only slightly behind hurting Jonathan, her pet wolverine. A man strapped to the electric chair while hanging from a noose had a better chance of survival than hurting Laura or Jonathan with Gabby around.

Laura shook her head, and much to Gabby's surprise, a tear rolled down her cheek. "Dr. Rice didn't kill Sarah, Gabby," she whispered. "I lied about that. I killed her. I killed Mom..."

"W-what?"

"Sarah filled the entire facility with trigger scent. I couldn't control myself. I butchered every single scientist, guard, experiment, handler, and God know who or what else. By the time I came to my senses, I'd killed Rice and people even worse than him, and I found Sarah waiting outside to take me to Logan and the X-Men. Idiot..."

Laura wiped away her tears but they were quickly replaced. Besides the odd tear every now and then, which were easily explained away as rain, sweat, or something in her eye, it was the first time she'd ever allowed her sister to see her cry. "Every scientist I've ever met thought they were the smartest person in the room, and Sarah wasn't any different. Rice must have known she was up to something because earlier that day he sprayed her lab coat with trigger scent. The last thing I remember is hugging Sarah, and waking up covered in her blood..."

*sniff*

"Laura," Gabby whispered. "I'm sorry, I-"

"She was smiling at me," Laura whimpered. "She never stopped smiling. Sarah somehow held on until I came to my senses. She hugged me and told me that she loved me, and then she died in my arms. I laid my head on her, listening for a heartbeat that wasn't there, wishing I could die with her." She shook her head. "I should've stayed there and killed everyone, but instead I ran away when I heard helicopters. I knew Kimura would be with them, and even with a head start and it getting dark, I still just barely got away. I've been running ever since..."

Gabby remained silent as Laura sniffled and wiped away her tears. Seven years ago she'd been little more than a wild animal released from a lifetime of captivity. She hadn't understood what love meant, and hadn't exactly felt loved by Sarah at the time, but if nothing else she'd been very fond of her. Over the years that fondness had blossomed into something at least resembling love, and now bordered on adoration even if she didn't want to admit it. The same woman she loved more than anything was the same kind of monster she fought and sometimes killed on a regular basis.

"I'm sorry, Laura," Gabby said, snuggling close. "I know you don't wanna hear this right now, but it wasn't your fault. You said it yourself, you weren't in control. Rice killed Mom, not you."

"Now do you see why I hate myself so much?" her voice cracked. "Why I have to stop any more X-23s from being created?"

Gabby looked up at her with large, puppy-like eyes, which just looking into made Laura want to cry. "You hate yourself. Does that mean you hate me too?"

Laura shook her head and wrapped her arms around her, sobbing. "I could never hate you, Gabby. You're the best thing to ever happen to me. I know I don't say it nearly enough, but I love you. You made me grow up more than living on the streets, being Wolverine's daughter, or being a superhero ever did. I liked Logan, and I admired him, but I never loved him. I never really got the chance to get close to Sarah, and never really allowed myself to get too close to anybody else either. Now I know how Logan and Sarah felt wanting to protect me. Loving me..."

'Loving someone so much it hurts.'

She hugged her tightly, but not as tightly as Gabby who broke several ribs and possibly her spine just to prove how much she cared. Laura groaned but sighed with relief when Gabby finally loosened her grip enough for her body to begin repairing itself.

"You know you can't hurt me," Gabby said. "Even if you did, I'd just heal." To emphasize her point, she drew a line across her forearm with a partially exposed bone claw. Within seconds the deep wound healed itself, but Laura shuddered and quickly wiped away the blood.

"Please don't do that, Gabby."

"Why? You always get squeamish when I do things like that, but we've literally seen each other flattened like pancakes, riddled with bullets, dismembered, disemboweled, burned to a crisp, and lots of other bad things that I'm probably forgetting. Getting your brain scrambled will do that, I guess. Stupid brain. Why can't it just be like my heart and not care if there's a bullet lodged inside of it?"

Laura finished wiping away her sister's blood and quickly cleaned her hands with one of several rags she kept specifically for such occasions. "Gabby, I'm telling you a lot of things tonight I've never told anyone. The reason I don't like you hurting yourself is because I used to cut myself on a daily basis. I hated myself long before I killed Sarah, and with everyone else hurting me, it felt good being the one in control for once. Sarah freaked out the first time she caught me, and for a long time I didn't understand why either. I started when I was seven just a few hours after I got my powers, and I only stopped a year ago. I haven't cut myself once since you moved in."

'And it's been really, REALLY hard not to start again after you left,' she added privately.

Gabby nodded, unsure how she was supposed to feel. She knew from watching television that cutting yourself was supposed to be some sort of taboo or something, but while she didn't quite understand why she and Laura weren't exceptions given their healing abilities, if Laura said it was wrong, then that's all there was to it. "It reminds you of yourself, doesn't it?"

"It makes me think you enjoy hurting yourself as much as I did. That you're just as unhappy as I was. Just don't do it, please? At least not while I'm around."

She nodded again. "If you don't want me to do it, I won't. Unless I get a bullet to the brain and lose my memory. Or if I just plain forget. I promise."

Laura sighed with relief and squeezed her. "Good enough. Thanks, Gabby."

"Did talking help?"

"Maybe. I think so. Too soon to tell." She looked away suddenly. "Now that you know the truth, will you come back home?"

Gabby bit her lip. "So long as we both agree we're not sorry for the things we said, or for me stabbing you, and that both of us are right about how to best help our sisters."

"Agreed."

She hugged her again. "And about forgiving yourself. I'm your clone, Laura. If it means anything, I forgive you, and I love you."

Laura hugged her back, squeezing tight. "It means the absolute world to me. Thank you. I don't know what I ever did to deserve you..."

With their arms wrapped around one another, Laura barely flinched when she felt her ribs break and spine snap. If anything she nuzzled closer, feeling warm for the first time all week, and possibly the warmest she ever had her entire life. For the moment she even forgot about her aching adamantium bones.

"I know you don't think you deserve to be happy," Gabby said, "but you wanna know the best thing about honey badgers?"

Laura sighed but smiled despite herself. "I think I already know the answer, but what?"

"Honey Badger don't care!" Without further ceremony, Gabby rolled off the side of the roof, taking Laura with her who flailed desperately for a handhold or to at least slow their descent. Gabby held tight however, laughing hysterically. "Don't worry, Sis! We'll heal, and I never liked that outfit anyway!"

Laura got a hand loose and threw a few punches that only made Gabby laugh louder, but at least made her feel better. "Just so you know!" Laura screamed. "Honey badgers are more related to skunks than they are wolverines!"

With the concrete fast approaching, Laura held her sister tightly to her chest and angled her body so that she'd land first despite her sister's inability to feel pain. "Gabby, I love you, but sometimes I could kill you!"

"That's what sisters are for!"

"I swear to God, if we lose our memories of tonight because of this, I'm gonna-"

*SPLAT*

(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. I first discovered Laura Kinney (AKA X-23) through "X-Men: Evolution" where she debuted, and you may have caught the Easter egg of her birthday matching her debut. I liked her, and I was vaguely aware of her presence in the comics, but I never really looked into her character until recently when I picked up "All-New Wolverine" on a whim. I enjoyed the six volume series for the most part, but while I had issues with some of the writing and storytelling, I adored the relationship between Laura and Gabby, and Gabby as a whole if I'm being perfectly honest. Shortly thereafter I read the 2018 X-23 series which is almost perfect in my opinion, with my only criticism being some of the plot threads being left hanging. Laura never revealed when their birthday is, nor has she ever revealed much in regards to her backstory and personal issues. "Skeletons in the Closet" was written on a whim and kinda wrote itself in all honesty, and whether you're a fan of Laura/Gabby or not, I hope you enjoyed this character study.

With every clone of Laura, I like to think of each one representing a different aspect of her personality. Gabby is her innocence and love for the world, and by adopting her, Laura has been forced to mature, learn from her mistakes, and put the past behind her. Just being around Gabby helps heal Laura's soul, which is tortured in every sense of the word. In a lot of ways, Laura is the "evil clone" compared to Gabby, and I think that's a really interesting, unique dynamic, especially when it comes to clone stories, which are otherwise overused in comics in my opinion.

The cover image of Laura and Gabby sitting on the fire escape comes from "All-New Wolverine #7".

All credit goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has blessed me with this story and all of you. God bless)