Chapter 10

My Sister's Keeper


Laura spent the rest of the day refusing to leave Gabby, Meg, and Debbie's sides. For the sisters' own safety, all of their belongings in Manhattan had been packed up and brought to The Institute in Central Park where Meg and her mother were now residing, and were now their neighbors across the hall.

She held her sister's hand like a frightened child might the entire day, and not only did she not seem to recognize anyone but her family, but she wasn't comfortable in anybody else's presence. Several of the X-Men came by to check on the reunited family throughout the day, but none of them entered the apartment, and Laura didn't say a word to them, nor even look their way.

Her body shook all day, which she spent the majority of on the couch underneath warm blankets in between Gabby and Meg. When they'd first brought her to the apartment, she'd been terrified that she was being led to another cell, or that it was some kind of trick, and had to be coaxed inside like a puppy entering its new home for the first time.

A living room with a couch, loveseat, and television didn't seem to make sense to her at first. The world was familiar yet completely foreign at the same time. It had taken half an hour or more to get her to sit down and finally get comfortable, but they could tell she still wasn't entirely convinced that she was safe and that nobody was going to hurt her. She kept looking over her shoulder the entire day, flinching at even the slightest sound, and seemed afraid to even blink.

Meg and Debbie were reminded of how she acted when they first met her fresh off the streets and not terribly long after escaping the facility, and often caught her staring at Debbie, studying her features as if making absolutely certain she wasn't Sarah Kinney. Eventually it grew too much for Debbie who was already nearing her breaking point, and seeing the hurt look on her niece's face over and over again, she excused herself into her bedroom where she wept until mercifully falling asleep.

Laura hadn't felt comfortable lying in bed, so the girls camped out in the living room with the sisters and their pet wolverine snuggling on the couch together while Meg slept on the loveseat. Gabby called it a slumber party, and they watched a few movies that Laura previously claimed to tolerate, but she ignored them entirely while they only pretended to watch.

The second day wasn't much better. Laura started speaking again, but only when spoken to first, and mostly just one or two word answers, and once again kept her eyes to herself. It was mostly a repeat of the first day, but the next morning she politely asked to be left alone in her and Gabby's apartment across the hall. She was checked on every thirty minutes or so, with Gabby keeping an ear out for her the entire time, and eventually they just stopped giving excuses altogether.

That entire day Laura sat on the floor surrounded by boxes of her and Gabby's belongings, much of which had previously been Logan's, and later that night, Gabby and Meg camped out beside her, along with Jonathan of course. If Laura got any sleep however it went completely unnoticed.

On the morning of the fourth day, Laura briefly spoke to Gabby and asked to be left alone. Gabby was loath to leave her a second day in a row, but obliged with the intention of continuing to check on her. Every time she did however, Laura was showering, or pretending to anyway, but she at least answered truthfully when her sister asked whether she was alright or not. She wasn't, and wasn't sure if she'd be alright ever again...

Jubilee got the call from Gabby shortly after the shower ended, just as she had anticipated and warned Gabby of, but she still called her crying. Her sister was done clinging to her and was trying to push her away, and was having difficulty understanding exactly why. Despite her considerable life experience, Gabby was still a kid, and probably a couple years younger than she appeared due to Weapon X expediting her childhood with mutant growth hormones, and trauma was something far beyond her area of expertise.

Jubilee hadn't seen Laura since she first woke up, and had only been there to ensure everyone's safety in case Laura became violent again. Thankfully that episode seemed to have passed, only to be replaced by one more subtle and arguably even more sinister.

Unlike the others, she hadn't come by to check on Laura, and only knew how she was doing through Gabby and the others telling her. She very much doubted her vampiric scent would be all that comforting to her, and also doubted that Laura's most recent memories of her were all that pleasant either.

Thus she had opted to stay out of the way, enjoying the wintry sunlight that had only started hurting her the day before, and also hitting the gym for the first time in three years, working on her muscle tone, specifically her abs, before they became fixed in time once more.

Outside Laura and Gabby's apartment in the quietest section of The Institute, Jubilee stumbled as though she'd just been slapped in the face. She doubted Gabby would've been able to smell it, but vampires were about as sensitive to blood as sharks in the water. It thankfully wasn't a puddle forming inside, but rather something permeating the air just like a person's emotions did when mixed with sweat, and had been fermenting for several hours.

Jubilee swallowed and gave the door across from her a forced smile and thumbs up, able to hear Gabby and Meg's quickened heartbeats on the other side, fighting over the peephole. Afterward she steadied herself once more, not looking forward to this visit in even the slightest, and not just because her best friend smelled like a gourmet dinner.

She gave a courtesy knock before entering, and as expected, saw that Laura had locked herself in the bathroom. She didn't bother announcing herself since Laura could smell her scent and hear her footsteps, and decided to procrastinate a little longer by looking around the sisters' new living space.

Laura's impressive book collection had been boxed up and was awaiting assortment on the floor. The greatest Greek and Roman philosophers, every religion ever heard of, biographies, languages, world histories, and much more all made up Laura's 'casual' reading, with the only fiction to speak of being a small collection of children's books.

There were also some old rock & roll and country albums that Jubilee recognized as having once belonged to Logan, which Laura could occasionally be heard listening to. Otherwise she preferred classical music, especially while reading, a habit she had presumably picked up from Hank McCoy.

Besides the bare necessities and practicalities, and a few pictures hanging on the refrigerator, Laura's previous apartment had been almost entirely empty and devoid of decoration. That is except for a pelican statue bought at a local garden shop, proudly displayed for all to see and admire.

Laura didn't love pelicans, and the statue wasn't particularly expensive or interesting to look at, but when asked why she bought the statue, she would simply shrug. Whatever sentimental value it held, if any at all, she kept it to herself and didn't share it with Gabby, who was strictly forbidden from playing with it, and Laura barely seemed to tolerate her or anybody else even looking at it.

Jubilee took a moment to appreciate Laura's showpiece before chuckling and shaking her head at perhaps the best example of Laura's sometimes strange idiosyncrasies. She had enough money to buy any clothing a girl could want but instead preferred wearing what was comfortable. She could afford any apartment in Manhattan but instead chose to live where her estranged father had despite them not always getting along and him only living there briefly, and perhaps more importantly it being impractical for her work.

As far as Jubilee was concerned, Laura Kinney was a living contradiction. A stone cold killer yet also incredibly empathetic. Stoic yet emotional. Detached yet also sentimental.

Jubilee glanced around the sparse room one final time, hoping that perhaps living somewhere new and not belonging to her father might help Laura finally move on and live more like an actual human being, but catching sight of the bathroom door again, she sighed, hoping it wasn't too late.

She avoided the rays of sunlight peeking through the miniblinds and unlocked the door with the wave of her hand. Inside, Laura was shivering in a pair of sweats, slumped against the bathtub with a towel smeared with blood draped across her lap. She didn't react to Jubilee's presence, not even when she took a seat beside her.

"I tried to stop myself," Laura murmured, staring at her wrists. "I couldn't..."

Jubilee nodded, stealing a glance at the bathtub, wondering just how many gallons had been spilled that day. She tried to keep her mouth from watering too badly. "I think just about everyone expected this to happen, Laura. Good thing I drank before coming over, huh?"

"I started when I was seven," she continued, speaking as if to herself. "Same day they coated my claws in adamantium, and just days after they forced my mutation. After everything they had done to me, it felt good to be in control for once. I only stopped last year after Gabby came to live with me."

Despite knowing there wouldn't be any marks, Jubilee couldn't help checking her arms just to be sure. "Would ordering X-23 to stop cutting herself help any?"

Laura shook her head. "Please don't. Not while I'm still trying to deprogram myself. If I'm still cutting myself after two or three weeks, you have my permission, but not now. Besides, if I disobey a direct order, I might hurt myself even worse..."

"Or we could pretend we're back in Paris and you're my portable blood bank again." Jubilee grabbed her left wrist and mimed chewing on her, but Laura didn't react beyond shivering slightly more. "Sorry. Probably not the time or place, and probably not funny either, but I will make you smile and laugh before I'm done here. That's a promise, dude."

Laura gave her a sideways glance. "I seem to recall you making a promise to kill me if I ever lost control again."

Jubilee leaned back, making herself comfortable. "Believe me, it wasn't for lack of trying. I lost control myself going full Draculina. I almost killed both you and Gabby. Sorry about that, and for nearly drinking you dry."

"I'm sorry for stabbing you two hundred and eighty-seven times."

"Was it really only two eighty-seven? I thought it'd be more. Felt like more. Or are you joking? I can't tell with you sometimes."

Laura sighed. "It's mostly still a blur, but that's the number I keep coming to. As much as I'd like to think about anything else, it's what I was programmed to do after a mission, and it's hard for me to think about anything else right now..."

Jubilee looked her over. "When's the last time you slept, Laura? Like actually slept? Not counting the time you stabbed yourself in the head."

"Night of the mission," she admitted. "Kimura didn't let me sleep. Not really, and now I'm afraid of waking up back on an operating table or hanging from chains again. To answer your next question, Gabby made me eat a protein bar yesterday, and I drank a glass of water this morning."

Laura bit her lip and swallowed, quickly blinking something from her eye. "Being tortured was easier back when I didn't know I was a person," she whispered. "Back when I didn't know any better..."

Jubilee grabbed her hand and squeezed, having never heard that tone of voice from Laura even when they were in Paris together.

"Kimura's a sadist, and so was Dr. Rice and a few others, but most of the scientists, including my own mother, looked at me like I was a thing. A worthless freak no matter how many millions they invested in me. I remember being little and wishing I was one of the lab rats. They were treated better than I was, and got more empathy too.

"It didn't matter how much I screamed or begged or cried, they never saw me as a little girl, as a person, and it took me a very long time to realize that I didn't deserve what they did to me. Even if I live long enough to be Logan's age, I don't think I'll ever fully understand people, and I'm not sure if I want to..."

They sat in silence while Laura wiped her eyes and caught her breath. Eventually Jubilee got up to get her some water which she drank greedily before continuing. "I lied by the way. No matter how much I told myself I wouldn't, I still screamed..." She glanced at her wrists but Jubilee quickly grabbed her hand again before she could even think about it. "I would've told them everything I knew about the X-Men if they had just ordered me to. Every secret I know. That's not what Kimura wanted though, and I gave her everything she wanted. I didn't have a choice. I never have a choice, just like she said."

"Nobody thinks any less of you, Laura," she said firmly. "We think the absolute world of you, in fact. Besides maybe the resident vampire or the teenage girl who can't feel pain, nobody could've survived half of what you went through, and I doubt we would've made it out mentally as well as you have."

"I think less of me," Laura practically hissed. "Kimura broke me. Again. And then she put me back together. Again, just like she always does, and probably will again in the future." Before Jubilee could react, Laura extended an adamantium claw straight through her shin, or would have if not for being stopped partway through by something metallic.

She retracted the claw and wiped away the blood, but couldn't help sighing with relief despite the look Jubilee gave her. "Kimura put more adamantium in me," she said. "Not my full skeleton, thankfully. Just the places Dr. Rice purposefully left me most vulnerable. You don't know how badly I want to cut it all out of my body. It's like having her inside of me all the time, but she's right, as usual. Kimura put me back together stronger than ever. Perfectly balanced, and not weighed down like Logan was. I am her perfect weapon. Her bitch. Her Tool. Her plaything..."

"Don't say that, Laura. Don't you say that ever again. Understand? We're gonna find her, and we're gonna kill her. Skin her alive if we have to, and then we're gonna take a long vacation. Somewhere warm with plenty of sunshine, and lots of booze."

"Will it help?" she whimpered, tearfully looking up at her. "Does it help any of the victims I try to get closure for? Am I really making their lives better and stopping future victims from being created, or am I just looking for an excuse to kill again? I honestly don't know. Nothing makes sense anymore."

"It makes a world of difference," Jubilee said, squeezing her hand. "As far as vampires are concerned, blood has to be paid in blood. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and all that. You've done a lot of good, Laura. You're still looking for closure, and you know better than anyone that healing takes time. You just got out of hell. Give it time."

"Kimura, she-" Laura hesitated. "I-"

"I know, Laura. I know. It's called Stockholm Syndrome, or close enough to it. Logan told me all about X-Force's run-in with her back in the day. As much as you hate Kimura, a part of you can't help but feel sorry for her, and deep down a part of you even loves her. Maybe a part of you even sees her as an old friend you grew up with and empathize with. She helped make you into what you are, but she failed to make you like her. Maybe she deserves to be pitied, I don't know, but that doesn't mean she doesn't deserve to be hated as well."

Laura didn't respond, and for a long time the two sat in silence just like they often did in Paris together waiting for the sunrise until Laura finally spoke again. "It was worse than hell," she admitted. "At least hell is warm..."

Jubilee looked at her incredulously. "Did you just make a joke?"

"An observation."

"A funny observation."

"If you consider hell funny."

Jubilee chuckled and wrapped an arm around her. "You're gonna be alright, Laura. You just need time, and good friends by your side."

"Time," she murmured, "that's something Logan had that I haven't. It took him decades to remember all that Weapon X did to him, and the life he had before losing his memory. Time to process and come to terms with everything. I remember all of it. Every single waking moment. Everything they did to me." She looked down at her arms, the urge to cut them and the rest of her body stronger than ever. "I've showered six times today, and I will never feel clean ever again..."

Jubilee kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry, Laura."

"I'm sorry too..."

They sat in silence once more, the sunlight dimming in the other room, and once again it was interrupted by Laura wiping her eyes and clearing her throat. "Has there been any political fallout?" she asked, afraid that World War III might've started while she hid in the bathroom.

Jubilee shook her head. "Kimura's on just about every most wanted list in the world, and the Russian government is disavowing any knowledge of her being in the country or having kidnapped a United States citizen."

"Technically I'm Canadian."

"Was that another joke?"

"Another observation."

"Whatever you say, dude. Anyway, legally speaking, we're telling everyone that you're a US citizen, but as a mutant you're also under the X-Men's jurisdiction. Nobody's making much of a fuss about it, and I doubt anybody will. Kimura's gone underground again, but we'll find her, and when we do, she's gonna wish she'd never been born."

"She already does," Laura said, shaking her head. She sighed and pointed at the desk in the other room. "Take a look inside that envelope, will you?"

Jubilee nodded and grabbed the envelope as well as another cup of water for Laura, but not before stopping for a moment to appreciate her fading reflection in the bathroom mirror.

"What is it?" She opened the folder and discovered a couple dozen hand drawn portraits of men and women. "Wow, these are really good, Laura. I didn't know you could draw."

"You can't always get a picture of the target, so it pays to be able to sketch one. I also have a photographic memory, and I did nothing but stare at those faces for nearly an entire week. It's Kimura's kill list. More than anything I needed to try and get their faces out of my head, but they're also in danger. She seemed to think that seeing these people in person would activate my programming, which means I'm a danger to them and anyone they're around. We need to find out who they are and why Kimura wants them dead, and protect them if we can."

"Do you really think you'd kill them on sight?"

Laura shrugged. "It's in my DNA, and I've done it before. Weapon X built mental barriers in my mind that not even Jean Grey or Emma Frost can break. It's hard enough for me to break patterns and habits once I've developed them, but especially when they've been programmed into me. Maybe if given enough time I wouldn't be a danger to those people, but for now, it's best that I never see them in person or know where to find them."

Jubilee closed the folder and stuffed it inside her jacket. "I've seen your original kill list, Laura. Weapon X might be monsters, but most of your targets were as bad if not worse. You might not wanna hear it, but you did a lot of good in the world even if it wasn't by choice. Anything else we need to worry about? You're not gonna randomly stab somebody for saying a trigger word or anything, are you?

"I don't know," she said honestly. "I wish I did. I was created and programmed to obey and please my masters. As a vampire, you get your greatest dopamine rush by drinking blood straight from the source. I was engineered and conditioned to receive mine by following orders, fighting, killing, and experiencing pain. Drug addicts get their dopamine receptors fried until nothing makes them happy anymore. I wouldn't say I'm quite there yet, but I'm not far from it, especially now. Killing people has never made me happy. Cutting myself is more of a release than anything, but I'm closest to being happy when I'm with you, Gabby, Meg, and Debbie. Otherwise I'm content, which was always enough in the past, and hopefully will be again."

Jubilee smiled, and putting her gloves on, reached into her jacket and retrieved a small box that she handed over. "Since you're letting Gabby keep yours, and seeing how it saved both of your lives, I thought it was only right to replace it myself."

Laura opened the box and found an identical-looking silver cross necklace to the one that she had given Gabby. "T-thank you," she whispered. Jubilee nodded and put it around her neck, and afterward slipped the gloves back off.

"I'm very lucky in a lot of respects," Laura said, absently playing with the familiar weight around her neck she hadn't realized she had missed.

Jubilee chuckled. "Care to elaborate? Most people who've just gone through what you have wouldn't consider themselves 'lucky'."

"I have a healing factor which means I cannot be permanently injured," she said as if having thought this through. "I'm no longer living on the streets, and I no longer feel alone in the world." She gave the slightest hint of a smile before looking away again. "Besides, it would be rude of me to feel sorry for myself when you are also an orphan and spent years homeless, and were turned into a vampire against your will."

She took a deep breath and sighed. "I do not spend much time feeling sorry for myself, Jubilee. I spend it feeling angry and contemplative, but also being constructive and doing everything I can so that nobody else goes through what I did, or ends up like me. Especially Gabby."

"Gabby won't end up like you, Laura. She might be your clone, but she isn't Laura Kinney. She hasn't gone through everything you have, and we're not gonna let her. In fact, we're not gonna let it happen to you ever again, and give us enough time, and we're gonna find a way to make you happy."

Laura didn't respond, and several minutes passed before she spoke again, staring intently at her wrists. "I think I'd like to be alone now, if you wouldn't mind..."

Jubilee shook her head and pulled Laura close so that her head rested on her shoulder. "I'm not going anywhere, Laura, and I'm not gonna let you hurt yourself either. Like it or not, we're getting through this together."

She closed her eyes and nodded, her exhaustion giving way to drowsiness for the first time in weeks, and she briefly wondered if the vampire had hypnotized her when she wasn't paying attention. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Anytime, dude. You know I love ya. Just don't expect me to shower with you. I mean, I will have I have to, but-"

Laura's lip twitched. "Love you too, bub..."


The sun had barely risen the next morning when Gabby opened the door and saw Laura standing outside the apartment, freshly showered and wearing what might've been the slightest hint of a smile on her face. "Hey, Gabby," she said, suddenly looking away. "Um, can I come in?"

Instead of answering, Gabby threw her arms around Laura who held her close, burying their faces in each other's hair. "I missed you," Gabby mumbled, "and I'm really glad you're alright."

"I missed you too, Gabby. Can I-"

"You just missed Meg and Aunt Debbie. Kitty's taking them out for breakfast. We can probably catch them if we hurry!"

Laura shook her head, having sensed Kitty checking on her before leaving with her cousin and aunt, and reminded herself that she and Kitty needed to talk sooner rather than later. Apparently she wasn't the only one with a guilty conscience.

She opened her mouth to speak but promptly closed it and shifted her weight awkwardly, still getting used to the extra weight. "Can I come in?" she asked again.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

She led Laura inside who finally relaxed once the door closed behind her. The apartment was a mirror of her and Gabby's own across the hall, and not unlike their apartment across Central Park. Two bedrooms and a bath, a large living room and adequate kitchen, though it lacked the fire escape that the sisters frequented whenever they started feeling caged from being indoors too long. If they ended up living here long-term, she suspected they'd be getting well-acquainted with The Institute's roof.

Jonathan the wolverine trotted over and Gabby scooped him up into her arms. "He really missed you, you know."

"I missed him too," she said, mindful of his claws when she handed him over. "Thank you for babysitting, Jonathan. My sister needs all the adult supervision she can get."

She took a seat on the couch and Gabby threw herself down beside her. Laura looked away and petted Jonathan absently, mostly to keep her hands from shaking too much. Again she opened her mouth but found herself unable to speak and unsure what to even say.

"It's gonna be okay, Laura," Gabby said, reading her mind. "I know it's gonna take time, that's what everybody's been saying anyway, but I'm here for you, and so is Jonathan, Meg, Aunt Debby, Uncle Wade, Jubilee, Kitty, Uncle Remy, Aunt Rogue-"

"-I get the picture, Gabby," she murmured. "Trouble is I don't know if I'll ever be able to look any of them in the eye ever again."

"Because you were mind controlled and tried to kill us? Please! We're superheroes! Getting mind controlled comes with the territory and is pretty much mandatory nowadays. Just like having an evil clone of yourself. In your case though I'm the good clone."

Laura sighed and shook her head. "I don't like people feeling sorry for me, Gabby. The people I care about most knowing that I was raised from birth to be a killer is one thing. Them knowing that I've been tortured and how exactly is another. Kimura broke me, Gabby." She took a deep breath and swallowed. "She broke my mind and my will, and now everybody knows that torture isn't the only thing she did to me. H-how am I supposed to look anybody in the eye when I know exactly what they're thinking?"

Gabby remained silent for several moments before grabbing her by the hand. "If Kimura broke you, you wouldn't be sitting here talking to me," she said, scooting closer. "You're Laura Kinney, the eldest daughter of Wolverine, and probably the only person on the entire planet who could survive what you've been through. Nobody thinks you're weak, Laura, but if anybody does, I'll kill 'em!"

She released a bone claw for emphasis, but seeing that her sister wasn't in the mood, settled back down and retracted it. "If you really wanna know what everybody's thinking, we're thinking about how much we love you. That's what I've been thinking for nearly two weeks now, and I'm sorry for not realizing sooner what all Kimura did to you. I thought she was just being creepy and weird, kinda like our old neighbor before you threatened him that one time, but when I saw-"

Gabby quickly shook her head, not wanting to remember the video Kimura had sent, and not wanting Laura to know how much she had seen. She might not even know that Kimura had sent a video, much less how much had been filmed. "It's not the X-Men or Avengers that I look up to as superheroes," Gabby continued. "It's you. Laura Kinney, codename still pending. You're my superhero, and right now I think you're everybody's superhero."

Laura turned away and wiped her eyes several times before speaking again. "I'm sorry, Gabby, but I've never felt much like a hero, especially not right now, and I don't really want to talk about this anymore. Especially not with you, no offense. It's supposed to be my job to protect you and make sure you don't wind up like me. That's the promise I made to your sisters. You're the best thing to ever happen to me, a-and I don't want to look or feel as weak as I actually am when I'm around you."

Gabby nodded and leaned her head on her shoulder. "I understand. You and Bellona are a lot alike, almost like you share the same DNA or something. I can see a little of all my sisters in you actually. This is the last time I'll bring it up, and I'll try to act like this talk never happened. The raid on the Weapon X facility went smoothly. Meg and Aunt Debbie decided to come live at The Institute for their protection, and we decided to move in next door to them because the rent was getting too high and killing rapists doesn't pay very well. Nothing bad ever happened. Ever. Not to us anyway."

"I'd really appreciate that, Gabby. Thank you."

"But only if you agree to talk to somebody about what happened," she said. "As much as you might not wanna talk about it-"

"-talking helps," Laura finished, nodding. "Trust me, I know from experience. It's finding the words that's the problem, Gabby. It's always been my problem. I can speak six different languages, and I'm working on six more, but words themselves are like a second language to me. Jubilee and I have already talked it over though, and I'll do my best."

Gabby grinned ear to ear and nodded. "I don't need to tell you that you're the best there is at what you do, Laura, and I don't just mean killing bad guys. Well, that too, but nobody survives better than you. If you can't find the words to talk, then sitting in silence together is just as good. Almost anyway. It's a start if nothing else. Wanna eat popcorn and watch TV?"

Laura glanced at her out the corner of her eye, her lip twitching slightly. "Gabby, you couldn't be quiet if your life depended on it." She let out a long sigh, her body starting to relax, and put her feet up on the coffee table. "Go ahead. I'm sure you're dying to tell me everything that's happened the past two weeks. First thing's first. What's been happening in the exciting world of professional wrestling? There a new champion yet?"

Gabby's eyes brightened and she grinned ear to ear as she began speaking as if she hadn't said a single word in nearly a month and was now making up for lost time. Laura had little to no interest in any of Gabby's hobbies, or what soap opera drama was happening in the superhero community, but she enjoyed hearing the person speaking almost more than anything, even if she was barely listening.

She was just beginning to doze when her ears perked up, hearing what sounded like two women walking down the hall toward their apartment, followed by several more footsteps behind them, and accompanied by a strong scent she recognized but couldn't quite place.

The door opened seemingly on its own, and Laura turned, the scent almost overwhelming now, and was just beginning to stand when Gabby grabbed her hand. "Listen, don't be mad, but if you do get mad, Kitty told me to tell you that this was all Kurt's idea."

"Gabby, what did you do?"

"Promise you won't be mad at me. Remember, Kitty said it was Kurt's idea."

"What did you-"

"BUNNIES!"

Laura's eyes widened as hundreds of rabbits poured into the apartment, and kept coming long after it'd been completely filled. Laura stared, mouth agape when Gabby suddenly screamed and jumped over the couch. "No! Bad, wolverine!" she yelled. "Jonathan, don't eat the bunnies! Bunnies are friends, not food!"

Laura stumbled, rabbits swarming around her legs, and looked up to see Jean Grey standing in the doorway, grinning, but also sweating slightly and clearly concentrating. Looking back down, a white rabbit pawed at her leg, and almost instinctively, Laura scooped him up into her arms. She held him close to her chest, and wiped away a few tears as she glanced back at the doorway and saw her friends and family crowding around, all smiling at her and a few even shedding tears of their own.

Dropping to her knees, she dived into the horde of rabbits, giggling and doing snow angels as they jumped on top of her and buried her under a mountain of fur, suddenly thinking herself the luckiest girl in the entire world...


(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. "Killers By Trade" has easily been one of my all-time favorite stories to have written, and I've absolutely fallen in love with Laura, Gabby, and Jubilee as characters, and I hope I did them justice in your eyes. I write a lot of fics about sisterhoods and found families, but this is probably closest in tone to what I'd like to publish as an author someday.

Laura and Jubilee's relationship is very special to me, and I like Laura seeing her as an older sister of sorts. It's one of the biggest missed opportunities in comics in my opinion, and overall I think they work really well together, and I think Gabby has chemistry with just about everyone. As for the ending, I don't really view Laura as the type of having too many happy endings. She's a sullen, stoic character with mostly "bittersweet" endings, but she's incredibly strong willed and she's surrounded by a lot of great people in her life. She'll be just fine given enough time, and she'll be even stronger as a result. "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger" might as well be a theme of hers, and she is the daughter of Wolverine after all.

As for the chapter itself, it was important to me for Laura to have some degree of closure talking with Jubilee and Gabby, but I also really liked the idea of her friends and family "ambushing" her with a horde of rabbits. I know in the comics it was a puppy that Laura was forced to kill, and I'm sure that very same thing happened in this narrative as well (probably happened quite a bit as a way of desensitizing her), but something about Laura's first real friend being a rabbit really struck a chord with me, and I liked the idea of Jean Grey and the others visiting every pet shop in the city as a means of surprising Laura. Seemed like the nicest thing anybody could do for her at the moment, and perhaps she'll even keep one for future stories/chapters.

Although the current arc has come to an end, I plan on continuing "Killers By Trade" in the future with a time skip wherein Laura (and Co.) takes her revenge on Kimura. At the moment it's planned to be about five chapters long, but I don't have a timetable for it just yet. 50,000 words in 2.5 months has left me feeling a little burned out, but this story was written on a whim, and it could continue on as one as well. If the narrative continues as a separate story however, I'll be sure to mark this story as "complete", so be on the lookout for that.

Thank you again for all of the love and support, friends. If you've enjoyed my interpretations of Laura and Gabby, you might enjoy some of my other fics, particularly those starring Jessica Cruz (Green Lantern) and her sister Sara (beginning with "Avoiding the Limelight"). Regardless, thank you again, and I hope you enjoy the coming chapters and stories.

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