Not only was it a long night, but also a very restless one after waking up at 4 am from that damn nightmare, then not being able to fall back asleep. But the worst part of the night was having the Kid sleep right next to me. I never sleep in the same bed with anyone for the fact that one false move, one really bad nightmare, and that person will be sliced and diced.



So I spent the whole night wide awake, watching her sleep, making sure I didn’t wake her, making sure I didn’t kill her, and just making sure she slept. Didn’t really think much about it before now, but the Kid never slept much. When all the others would pass out in the car, she would stay wide awake watching everyone, sometimes just watching the world pass by. But when she did sleep it was never for long, 2 hours tops. She would always wake up eyes wide, like she was seeing something she shouldn’t be.



There’s something about her, but I don’t know what. It feels like I’m missing something, something involving her. So as I laid there she slept, longer than she had in the last few days. She looked peaceful, like an angel. I started running my fingers through her long, curly hair and thinking about what to do next. It won’t be long before we reach the safe house, maybe by the end of the day, but what next?



I don’t know who’s living in the safe house. I don’t know if they can be trusted. And what about the kids? I can’t risk their lives. And what do I do with them once we are in the safe house? That’s the one thing not put in the pack. Will they continue with school, or do I have to enrol them in a local school, or do they just miss school all together? I’ve never had this responsibility for one individual before, let alone five.



Shit, the Kid just moved. I think she’s starting to wake up. Looking at the alarm on the bedside table, it reads 7:30 am. Looking back at the Kid, I see her bright eyes staring back up at me from my chest.



“Morning, Kid, did you sleep?” She gives a slight nod and turns her head away from me. Her cheeks are blushing, like she’s embarrassed that she fell asleep on me. I gently move her off my chest and sit up, resting my back against the head rest; the Kid sits on her knees in the middle of the bed looking at me.



“How about we get some breakfast soon? I don’t know about you, but I could eat a horse and a cow,” a small smile creeps at the corner of her mouth. Maybe this kid is starting to open up a bit more. I guess after everything she saw in Charles’ office, it’s no surprise she doesn’t want to talk to anyone.



I reach over and pick her up off the bed. Standing, I walk over to the bathroom and place her on the shut toilet lid. “I’m gonna run you a bath. Have you ever had a bath by yourself before?” With a quick nod from her, I turn back to the bath and start to fill it up with some of the motel’s provided bubble bath. “Good, ‘cause I got no idea on how to bath a kid.”



Once the bath is half way full, I switch the taps off and turn back to the kid, “I’m gonna leave you now, but I’m gonna leave the bathroom door open so that I can hear what’s going on, okay?” The Kid gives another nod and slips off from the toilet and pads over to the bath.



As she starts to undress, I walk back into the ‘guys’ room, partly closing the door behind me. I head over to the adjoining door and quickly walk into the ‘girls’ room. I see the pile of bags on the floor and carefully look for the Kid’s bag. Realizing she never had one to start with, I let out a small curse word and walk over to Jubilee’s bed. Shaking her shoulders, I try to wake her, “Hey, wake up!” With no response, I throw back her bed sheet and throw her over my shoulder.



“Hey! What’s the big idea, you lug head?” I continue walking until I reach the bathroom. Placing her back down on the toilet, I give her a stern look. “The Kid is having a bath and I need to go out. YOU! Will sit here and watch her. Got it?” Leaving no room for argument, I head back over to my bed and place my boots back on. Grabbing a clean shirt and my wallet, I head out into the local town.



Thank god the town has a 24-hour market, which just so happens to sell clothes. Looking through the pink, frilly dresses, I felt like a real idiot. Thank god it’s only 8 in the morning and no one’s up yet. I manage to find a few pairs of pants and a couple of tops that would fit her. Throwing in some underwear and socks for her, I head down the food aisle.



Grabbing a few bags of chips and other edible food, I head out for the cashier who just so happens to be a woman in her earlier 30’s. Scanning the items through, she gives me a funny look when she picks up the clothing. “They’re for my kid,” the weird look is replaced by a large smile.



“Oh, how old is she?”



I’m not in the mood for light conversation, so I grunt out “5” and turn to my bags of items.



Once finished in the market I head over to the cafe and order food for everyone to eat at the motel. Just as I’m about to place the key in the lock, the smell of fear hits me in waves, I can hear screaming from inside. Rushing to get in, I throw the bags onto the floor and run to where everyone is gathered. In the bathroom.



All of them are crowded around and looking at the floor. Pushing my way through, I see the Kid laying out cold on the floor, turning blue, and a hysterical Jubilee standing over her.



“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?" Rushing to her side, I place my hand on her head. She's cold and getting colder.



“I DON’T KNOW! One minute she was fine and the next, she’s lying at the bottom of the tub. I only closed my eyes for seconds, I swear it was just for a few seconds.” What?!?



“YOU FUCKING FELL ASLEEP WITH A KID IN THE BATH!!”



“IT WAS JUST FOR A SECOND.”



“WELL, A SECOND IS ALL IT FUCKING TAKES.” Shit, need to stop fighting, got to focus on the kid. Wait, what was that shit Scott made me learn last year? CPR. That’s it.



I place my hand under her neck and lift her chin. Blowing two breaths into her mouth, I start to push down on her chest like Scott showed. Got to make sure I don’t push too hard; don’t wanna break any ribs.



“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,” I press ten times on her chest and blow two more breaths into her mouth. I continue this action. Ten presses on her chest, and two air breaths. They're all crying now, giving up hope. I keep trying; I can’t give up.

“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,” two more breaths, got to keep going, can’t give up.



I can hear Jubilee behind, saying it’s not her fault, trying to defend herself, but I don’t give a shit about her. I’ve got to get the Kid breathing, got to get her heart starting again.



“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,” got to keep going

What’s that?



I swear I can hear...



It’s faint, but it’s there. Just a few more, that’s all she needs, just a few more. I continue with my actions, then suddenly...



*Cough, Cough*



Her eyes are open; she’s coughing up the water. I turn her onto her side so that she’s curling around my legs.



Thank you, Scott.



“Mike, grab a towel; and Jane, there’s a bag with some clothes in it. Bring them here.” Mike hands me the towel and I lay it over her body. Jane rushes back into the bathroom and hands me the bag of clothes.



“Logan, I’m so sorry, I just - I just...”



I let a growl slip from my mouth. “Everyone, out.” I don’t turn to look at them. My concentration is on the Kid who is shaking in front of me.



“Logan, I...”



“I said EVERYONE OUT!”



With that, they all scurry out of the room, closing the door behind them, leaving me and the Kid. Gently I lift her up from the floor and wrap the towel around her tighter. I lean my back against the bath tub and wrap my arms around the Kid, trying to get her warm.



It felt like I was there forever, just holding the Kid in my arms, running my hands up and down her arms to get them warm. Eventually the Kid stop shaking and her body temperature started to rise.



“I shouldn’t have left you,” the guilt was building up now. Xavier had trusted these children’s lives in my hands, and I nearly got one killed.



“It’s not your fault,” a quiet voice spoke to me. I look down at her and she’s looking right back at me.



“Yeah, it is, Kid. I’m responsible for you and I left you in the bath with another stupid kid.” I should have got Jane to look out for her, or waited 'til she got out of the bath before I went to buy her clothes.



“She was tired, and it was my fault.”



“How was it your fault?” ‘Cause as far as I know, I’m the adult. I’m the one in charge, and I’m the one who fucked up.



“I... wantedtoseewhatitwasliketobeafish,” it was quiet and so fast that even my enhanced hearing couldn’t pick it up.



“You wanna repeat that Kid,”



“I-I said I wanted to see what it was like to be a fish. None of the teachers would let me have a bath on my own, or let me go swimming, and I just wanted to see what it was like. It’s my fault, not hers,” she’s shaking again but this time from crying. I pull her closer to me and just rock her.



“If you want, Kid, I’ll teach you to swim, but when I say, got it? 'Til then you can play in the bath when you have one, but no putting your head underwater, okay?”



“Promise?”



“Yah, Kid, I promise,” she’s looking at me with her wet eyes, but the smile on her face was a full blown smile. Teeth showing and all. “Good, now that’s settled, let’s get you dressed and fed, hmm?”



She just continues to smile at me as I reach over for the bags. Taking out a few items, I lay them out on the floor. I place the kid so that she’s not sitting on me and I stand up. Walking over to the door I can instantly smell the sadness rolling off her.



“I don’t know how to dress you, kid, so I’m gonna send Jane in to help. Don’t worry, I’m just on the other side of the door,” she gives a small nod and looks back down at the clothes, running her fingers across them.



As I pull the door open, the rest of them jump up from the bed that Mike and John slept in. I didn’t say anything to them. I turn to Jane and point to the door over my shoulder. “Go help her get dressed,” Jane quickly runs for the door and closes it behind her.



“Logan I-“



“Save it, kid; I don’t wanna hear it. I gave you one job, to watch her whilst I’m gone and you couldn’t even do that. How am I meant to trust you if you can’t do one simple job? You are the eldest out of the group which makes it your responsibility to set an example, to watch over the younger ones, but if you can’t do that then what can I trust you with, hmm?” She’s looking down now, letting silent tears fall.



“Now listen up, all of you. We have to stick together for as long as we need to. I need to know I can trust you with the simplest of tasks. It’s your job now to work as a team and watch each others' backs because I’m not always gonna be here to do it. So get your acts together. ALL of you, understand?” Their all looking down now, but they give of a round of nods to show they understand.



Walking past them, I head back into the other room and retrieve the bag filled with food from the diner. It’s cold now but it will have to do. Heading back into the ‘guy’ room, Jane and the Kid have emerged from the bathroom. Jubilee is hugging the Kid very tightly, the Kid looks uncomfortable and looks over at me.



*Cough*



They all turn to me as I hold up the bag.



“It’s cold now, but still edible, so come and get it,” I lay the different foods out on one of the beds so that they can choose what they want. The Kid walks up to me and just stands by my side. Reaching over on the bed, I pick up a small carton of scrambled eggs and a fork and hand it to the Kid. She gives a small smile and sits on the floor, legs crossed, eating her breakfast. The top I got her is slightly big, but the jeans fit fine.



Its weird how the situation changed in a matter of a night, from letting the kid sleep in my bed, to her nearly dying on the bathroom floor. But that Kid, I can’t put my finger on it. There's something about her, maybe it’s her mutation; don’t really know what it is. Maybe she can control people’s feelings, who knows. But for now I’m not going to worry about that, just gonna eat my breakfast and pray we make it to the safe house by the end of the night.

The smell of the air has change, there’s going to be some more snow, like we need anymore. It’s thanks to the snow that I can’t find the turn off point in the road to reach the safe house. Now I’m a man of the north, and don’t get me wrong I like the snow but sometimes it can be a real pain in the ass at covering up entrances, like now for example.

“Well according to the map, we should be there by now,” Jubilee said, the ‘back seat driver’. She took it upon herself to read off the last of the direction leading to the safe house, guess she’s trying to make up for the whole ‘nearly killing the Kid’ bit. It’s good that she’s trying to take on some responsibilities; however inflicting others upon said responsibility decision is not what I would call helpful.

“Are you sure you read that thing right?” I’ve caught her a few times just starting at the map, willing it to tell her where to go. “Yes I’m sure! Scott taught us how to read maps and navigate and stuff. It should be just here!” she said pointing out the window. Having a look though all I could see was a long group of trees, no path way.

Reaching behide me, I grab the map from Jubilee’s hands and place it on the steering wheel, “Hey!” a cry of protects from her, but I just ignore her and look at the map. Looking at the map just made things worse, it was the wrong way, she had been reading the map the wrong way round. A grawl escapes my lips.

Switching gears, I turn the car round and head back in the other direction, “Logan? What you doing?” I look at Jubilee in the mirror, giving her a death look. “You had the fucking map the wrong way round you twit. Now we have to back track a whole days driving to find the right fucking road. How thick are you really? I swear even the Kid could read a fucking map how is it that you just fail at everything you do?” I know that was low but right now I just don’t care. It’s like she’s design to fail at EVERYTHING she does, why is she even on the junior team? Jubilee doesn’t say anything just turns her head to look out the window.

The road ahead is clear, so I pick up speed trying to make up for lost time. No one in the car is talking, Jane and John were holding hands and just staring into space, Mike looked like he was falling asleep, Jubilee was still staring at the window, and the Kid, was sitting in the front seat, she seemed peaceful just sitting there.

I continue to pick up speed, and stare at the road head, thinking. Thinking about how much life can change within a week. In the space of a week, I’d lost; well I guess you could call them family, a real home, and a safe place. And gained a bunch of snotty kids who don’t know their up from their down. And I’m the one who gets to baby sit them.

What’s that?

The smell of fear suddenly pick up, rising rapidly. Looking in the mirror there’s nothing abnormal happening at the back of the car, they all seem to be the same. Taking another sniff of the air, I turn to look at the Kid, she staring straight ahead, but her eyes were wide open and her hands were curled into small white fists.

She didn’t move, didn’t blink, for a moment it looked like she didn’t even breathe, just kept staring at nothing. Reaching over, I give the Kid a quick shake. “Hey, you alright? Come on Kid snap out of it,” I keep shaking her hoping for a reaction but got nothing in return.

“Come on Kid, snap out of it,” still no response.

“Logan, she okay?” Jubilee asked leaning round the chair to look at the Kid. “I’m not sure, maybe -” the Kid suddenly snaps out of whatever it was and turned her head to face me.

“LOOK OUT” she screams at me, quickly turning back to the road, there on my side of the road, was a large truck heading our way. Reacting quickly, I slam my foot onto the break and turn the wheel. You know in a movie, where everything goes into slow motion? Well that’s what happening right now, the car starts to spin out of control, narrowly missing the truck and hitting the ditch at the side of the road.

The car hit the edge of the road and started too flipped over, as the car continued to flip everyone in the car screamed, everyone but one. I couldn’t help it, as the car flipped I just looked at her, the Kid. All she did was hold onto her doll and stared at me. I could see the fear in her eyes; I stare back at her mirroring the look in her eyes. We hit another bump which sends the car higher into the air; the screams get louder this time reacting. I lean over to the passage seat and cover the Kids body with my own, locking my arms around her. It seems like we were rolling forever, though it couldn’t be more than a few seconds, with a jolt, we stop rolling, hitting the bottom of the hill, right side up.

It was quiet, not a sound could be heard, no screaming, no sounds from the forest, nothing.

Lifting my head, I look down at the Kid, she’s nestled her head into my chest her small hands gripping onto my arms making sure she’s as close to me as possible. I look round the car to check on the others, Jane and John are holding onto each other but seem to be quit calm now, Mike’s placed his hands on the roof and the side of the door to brace impact, and Jubilee is lying unconscious against a shattered window.

“Jubilee!”

Unbuckling my seat belt, I kick open my door and ran round to the other side of the car. I yank on the door handle but it doesn’t open, after a few more tries the door finally opens, and Jubilee falls into my arms.

“Jubilee! Come on Jubilee wake up,” blood was trickling down the side of her head as she lay unconscious in my arms. “Here take this,” I look to see Mike holding out his shirt from me. “Place it on her head, to stop the bleeding,” doing as instructed I place the shirt to the wound on her head and place pressure to it.

It was just like being in the car, time was moving slowly, I could hear Jubilee’s heart beat which was slow but steady, which was a good sign I hoped. Looking up from her, everyone had gotten out of the car and circled around use. The car was a wreck, the roof and one of the doors had been pushed in, the back windows had been smashed, and the whole backend had be crushed in, it was a miracle we were still alive.

“She’ll wake up,” a little voice said, I turn my head to look at the Kid, she’s standing next to Jubilee’s head looking down at her. “She’ll wake up soon,” she sounded so sure of herself, that Jubilee would wake up. But how could she be sure, Jubilee’s lost a lot of blood and that’s a bad bump on her head.

“Logan, what are we going to do, the car is wrecked, we are in the middle of nowhere, and we have no way of contacting anyone,” Mike was panicking now, pasting backwards and forwards.

“Urg-my head, did anyone get the number of the truck that hit me.”

“Jubilee!” Everyone yelled at the same time.

“OW, my head, you guys mind keeping it down” everyone crowded round her as she opened her eyes. The Kid stood back though, just looking at the group. “Here Mike take her for a sec will yah,” carefully handing Jubilee into his large arms. He places an arm around to support her body and gently strokes the hair away from her face. “Thanks big guy,” Jubilee says smiling back up at him.

Standing from the damp floor, I walk over to her Kid. Picking her up and placing her on a large stump. I look her dead in the eyes making sure I’ve got her full attention, the smell of fear rolls of her in waves.

“Listen Kid I’m not going to hurt you, but I wanna know how did you know all that stuff was gonna happen? And that Jubilee would wake up?” She turns her head away from me breaking the contact; she doesn’t say a word just looks down at her teddy.

“I told you I wasn’t gonna hurt you, you can trust me,” I hear her whisper into her teddy “I can’t trust anyone; he said everyone wants to hurt me.”

“Who said? Come on Kid I’m here to protect you not hurt you,” but she doesn’t say another word, just clings onto her teddy.

“It’s okay Kid, I just hope that one day you’ll trust me enough to tell me,” I pick her up from the stump and hold her to my side so that her legs wrap around my body and walk back over to the group.

“Logan what we gonna do now man? The car is trashed and we are in the middle of NOWHERE,” Mike screams throwing his empty arm out to etherize his point.

“We can fix that,” the twins said in unison. We all turn to look at them, but they are now facing the car holding hands. They each hold out the other arm towards the car, after a few minutes nothing seems to be happening.

*CRANK, CRANK*

The car starts to move, twisting and groaning as the twins used their powers to shape the wrecked car back to its normal shape. After some more groaning from the car, the twins turned round to face the group.

“Um-, well that’s just great. But will it work? Also how are we gonna get it out from here?” Mike asked to no one in particular. Still holding the Kid, I walk over to the still dented car and lifted the hood. Inspecting the damage to the engine, making sure it will at least start. I came to the conclusion that the engine would last, as long as it wasn’t put under too much strain. Slamming the hood down, I turned back to the group.

“It’ll do for now. But it will need fixing up once we’re at the safe house. Jane, John do you think you could lift the car back onto the road?” I asked the twins. They share another look between each other, than join hands again.

Just like before, everything went quiet as we stood waiting to see what would happen. The car started to creak and groan like before, but this time the car started to rise into the air. Within a blink of an eye, the car rose up the side of the hill and placed back onto the empty main road. The twins turn towards to the group, raising their hands into the air, the ground beneath their feet suddenly disappeared leaving them all suspended in mid air. Looking down at my feet I see the ground moving farther away as they lifted the group higher, the Kid was practically clawing my skin off as she tried to hold herself tighter to me so that she wouldn’t fall.

Now I’m no chickening, but the thought of floating through the air scared the shit out of me. Let’s just say I was more than grateful when my feet landed back on solid ground again. Looking around the group, the look of relief was mirrored in all of their eyes, at least now we could finally get somewhere. Simultaneously we all moved back to the dent car, Mike carefully moved with Jubilee still in his arms and placed her in the middle of the back seat and slide in next to her. Making sure she was strapped in, Mike placed an arm around her, Jubilee shifted so that her head now rested in the nock of Mike’s next.

I walked over to the front passenger side and placed the Kid back into her seat, however the Kid was reluctant to let go. Her hands were wound so tight around my neck; I thought I would need a crowbar to get her off me.

“It’s alright Kid, you can let go off me now,” but she still refuses, just kept shaking her head from side to side.

“Kid, you kind of need to let go so that we can get moving again,” still nothing.

Turning my head slightly so that my mouth was just above her ear, I whisper gently, “How about this, you let go and when I’m in the driver’s seat you can lean into how’s that?” That seemed to do it, slowly the Kid realised me from her death grip just enough to look up at me with big doe eyes.

“You promise?” she whispered so quietly, that even my hearing had trouble picking it up.

“Yah Kid, I promise,” with those simple words, she realised me complete and sat back into her chair. Before closing her door I make sure she’s strapped in nice and tight, I then headed to my side of the car, checking out the damage to the front of the car as I passed it. The radiator was hissing under the hood, the grill was dented all over the place, and one of the head lights was shot. But the kids did a good job in getting most of damage out.

Settling back behide the wheel of the car, I look around the cab making sure that everyone has their seat belts on, as I turn back to face the front the Kid catches my eye. She looks edgy, unsettled, can’t really blame her after what’s happen, without a second glance I reach over to the Kid and pull her to my side, at first she is a stiff as a board but then relaxes.

Now here’s the part I’ve not been looking forward to, seeing if the engine will turn over, or just explode from the damage it took on the fall, I’m praying for the first one.

“Here goes nothing,” I say, reaching for the key which is still in the slot. Turning it, the car tries to start up, but just cuts out a few seconds later.

“Damn it!” I whisper under my breath, and try again, but as before it cuts out after a few seconds. After several more tries the car still refuses to start.

“Come on you stupid son of a-“turning the key again, and cursing seems to do the trick, as the engine finally turns over and starts properly. From the smell of relief coming from everyone in the car, looks like I wasn’t the only pleased it worked.

I’m sick of driving now, I’m sick of the kids, and most of all I’m sick of the situation. I’d spent most of the night back tracking trying to make up for lost time. But eventually I found the turning that lead to the safe house; it was a small slip road leading into the wood. The road was long and winding leading further into woods and up into the mountains.

“Logan? How much longer? I really need to use the bathroom,” Mike asked for the 5th time, to be far we had been following the road for about an hour now, with no signs of the road ending.

“I swear if you asked one more time, when we reach the safe house I’ll make you pee outside, in the snow all the TIME!” Jubilee responded to Mike, she had woken up just as I turned into the road leading to the house.

Being confided in the car for so long was turning all of them mad. The only one that seemed to stay quite throughout the journey was the Kid, she spent most of the time either looking out the window, or asleep against my side. Like right now, her head was resting against my leg, sound asleep holding on to that teddy of her.

“Well if you like Jubes I could always open the window and pee out of it, but then my ass would be right in your face and I know I’ve got a fine looking ass but do ‘you’ really want to be that close to it?” Mike gave her a questioning look.

“Ewwwww. Logan can you please do something about this, this immature child,” she asked looking at me using the mirror. That’s it, I’m ending this now. Using the same mirror I gave them both a hard stare and a growl. “Listen up all of you. If I hear one more complain about having to use the bathroom, I’ll kick you out of the car and make you WALK the rest of way up are we clear?” both just sat there with big eyes. The thought of having to walk in the snow and needing a pee was enough to shut the both of them up.

Sadly with the outburst at the two imbeciles, my body changed from being slightly tense to stiff as a board and on edge, which was enough to wake up the Kid. Slowing opening her eyes looking around the front cabin of the car, then shot up into a sitting position staring at the road ahead.

“Hey Kid, how you doing?” I asked sending her a sideways glance. But as normal for the Kid she just sat there staring off into space. “The pathway seems to be widening, hopefully we might be getting close to the house,” I said to no one in particular. In truth the road did seem to be getting wider.

“We’ll be there soon,” a quiet voice sounded beside me, I glanced over quickly, but the Kid was just sitting there looking ahead into the road, like she hadn’t said anything. “If you say so kid,” I respond back.

And to no lie, about 10 minutes later the pathway open up to revile a large house in the middle of a clearing. I stopped the car at the edge of the clearing so that I could get a good look of the house before heading over.

“Wow, is that it?” Jubilee asked whilst leaning forward to get a better look. “This place is huge, it’s nearly as big as the school,” Mike added in. He was the right, the house was big with a porch running along the front and sides of the house, maybe even the back. It was 3 levels high with a large round window at the top.

“Do you think it’s safe?” Jubilee asked.

“It’s clear, we can’t hear any thoughts,” replied Jane and John in unison. “Well then let’s take a closer look,” switching gears I started to drive over to the front of the house. I pulled up next to the stairs leading up to the porch and switched the car off. Once the car had stopped Mike and Jubilee jumped out, followed closely by the twins. They wondered off to check out the back of the house and the surrounding area.

I unbuckled my seat belt and turned sideways to undo the Kid’s one. “Ready to see your new home?” I asked reaching over to pick her up and take her out of the car. The second she was in my arms her small ones wrapped around my neck again to hang on for dear life.

“Hey Kid, its okay. Nothing is going to happen I promise,” I told her in a soft voice whilst looking directly into her eyes. I started to walk up the steps and onto the porch. Along the porch there were many potted coloured flowers and a wooden swing hang from the top. Peeping through the window I could see a large lounge area with a grand fire place, a stair case leading upstairs and another room to the side, which must be the kitchen area. Everything inside looked clean, “Hmm, Chuck must have a cleaner to keep it nice. Sure would explain the flowers huh Kid?” I asked turning to look at her again. She was also looking at the inside of the house, eyes darting from side to side taking it all in.

“What do you say we go inside and check it out?” she turned her head to look and me and gave a small nod. As I reached the door, several screams shot out at once. Turning quickly I ran round the porch to the back of the house, where I found Mike and John standing in front of Jubilee and Jane with their arms spread out like they were protecting them facing the woods. Looking towards the edge of the forest stood two very large gray wolfs, both snarling and barking at the kids. I bent down quickly and pulled the Kid off from me. “You stay right here till I come back you get me? Right here!” I told her pointing to the porch. With a small nod I ran from the porch and in front of the other kids, releasing my claws with a *snikt*.

“Get back,” I order the kids with a low growl. They slowly started walking backs towards the porch. I keep eye contact with both wolves making sure their attention was on me and not them. They weren’t happy with that and started barking louder and moving towards the house. “Careful Logan,” Mike said from be hide me. But I ignored him, after having to put up with all this shit for the last few days, the Wolverine in me was looking for a good fight and this was just perfect.

As the wolves moved towards the house, I started to slowly move towards them releasing my own growl at them. When we were about 5 feet away from each other, the wolves suddenly stopped moving and sat down. Just like a dog that hand be trained, they all of a sudden just stopped.

“What the hell?” I asked with a raised eye brow. And that’s when I heard it, the click of a shot gun to my right. Spinning quickly I came face to face with the end of a shot gun.

“Do you’ll mine telling me, what the hell you are doing at my house?” the lady asked.

“Your house? Listen lady I don’t know who you are but this place doesn’t belong to you. Now why don’t you do yourself a favour and put the gun down before things get ugly,” I told her in a hard tone.

“Favour? Listen here sugah’s as long as you’ve got those things hanging from your hands, my old friend here isn’t going anywhere. You understand?” she replied back. I looked quickly at the wolves to see that they were both still just sitting there waiting. Making a final judgement I retracted the claws back in and straighten myself up.

I turned back to the mysterious woman and looked her hard in the eyes. She then lowered her shot gun and stared right back. “Who are you lady?” Mike asked softly from the porch. Without taking her eyes off of me, the lady answered.

“You can call me Rogue. And this is my house.”

Chapter 9

“You wanna say that again darling?” I questioned. What the hell is this chick talking about.

“You heard me, this place is mine,” nodding her towards the house. “And I don’t really like a bunch of strangers walking around my property like they own the place. Now I’m going to say this only once, leave before things get ugly,” she then cocked the brawl of the shot gun and pointed it at my chest.

Raising my hands ups to my face; I tried to reason with her. “Listen lady, we aren’t here to make trouble. We were instructed to come here from Charles Xavier,” at the mentions of his name, the girl’s body tensed.

“You know Charles?” she questioned, moving the shot gun closer to her body. There was a slight smell of fear coming from her, why would anyone be scared of Charles?

“You know Charles?” I asked back, but got no response. “I’ll take that as a yes then? Okay darling we’re from the school, it got attacked by the government. An escape plan was made and we were sent here to the safe house. Now I don’t know why Charles would make this a safe house if someone was already living here but he did, and I’m telling you now I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon. I’ve had enough for the last few days and I need a rest you got me?” well that’s one mean look she was sending my way. Looks like missy here didn’t like what I just told her, well you know what, to fucking bad. If I have to spend any more time in a car with those kids I was going to either de-gut them, or myself. I maintained eye contact with her, if she thinks I’m backing down she’s got another thing coming.

“Is that so?” she spoke after a few minutes of silents. “Well then, you’ll better come inside and get settled,” she lowered the shot gun, de-cocking it as she went and then started to walk towards me. “By the way if you’re going to be living in my house you better learn my name. It’s Rogue not Lady you got me?” Not giving me time to answer she continued to walk towards the house. A noise sounded to my left, alerting me of the wolves. They had gotten up and started to follow Rogue towards the house.

“What about these?” I asked gesturing to the wolves my head. Rogue turned around to look at me, then at the wolves.

“Sasha, Alex, go!” she sound and raised her arm pointing towards the woods. With that the wolves turned and ran into the woods. I looked back at Rogue and gave her a questioning eyebrow, she responded by giving me one back then turned, heading up to the porch, pass the kids and into the house leaving the door open.

“So umm, do we go in, or head straight back to the car?” Mike asked looking to the house.

“I vote the car,” Jubilee answered, also looking into the house.

Moving over to them, I leant down and picked up the Kid into my arms. “Now listen up runts. We are not going anywhere; this is our home for the time being. We’ve got to stay here until there is some sort of contact, you got me?” they all nodded their heads. “Good, now go get your stuff from the car and I’ll meet you inside,” turning, I headed into the house, still holding the Kid to my side. The house was huge; the down stairs was open with a large fire place and a few sofas in front. On each side of the fire place was a top-to-bottom book case filled to the brim with books. Be hide the sofas was a large oak table and a desk, the room also contended a large stair case leading up to the second and third floor of the house. And to the side of the stairs was an entrance which leads to the kitchen, where Rogue now was, washing her hands at the sink. Slowly I moved over towards the kitchen to get a better look.

The kitchen was quite large as well; it held a large oven, lots of cupboards and another table. I watched Rogue as she moved around the kitchen, opening cupboards and removing different items acting like she hadn’t noticed I was there.

“So what kind of name is Rogue?” I asked from the door way. She slowly turned and looked at me.

“What kind of name is Wolverine?” she asked back leaning against the counter top. Wait how did she know my name was Wolverine, I hadn’t said anything and either had the rugrats. Again I sent her a questioning eyebrow, which she then returned. Slowly she relaxed a little and pointed to my neck. Looking down I saw my dog tags hanging loose, I tucked them back into my shirt.

“Names Logan,” not like she would care.

“Marie,” she quietly answered back. “But never use that name, in here and everywhere else its Rogue, got it?” nodding at her, she pushed herself away from the counter and headed towards me. She stood in front of me; keeping eye contact making sure what she said went in. Slowly Rogue turned her attention to the little girl still in my arms?

“And what’s your name little one?” the Kid turn her head into the of my crock neck, hiding her face from Rogue. “She yours?” Rogue asked looking back up at me. “No,” I said shaking my head from side to the side. “And no one knows her name. On the night of the attack I found her in Charles office, hiding in the corner,” Rogue’s head shot back up to look at my face, then back down to look at the Kid. Rogue very slowly and carefully ran her gloved hand through the Kid’s hair and looked hard, like she was studying her.

“Abigail,” Rogue whispered. The Kid went as stiff as a board in my arms; she slowly turned her face to look at Rogue. Looking down at the Kid, I watched her as she watched Rogue, trying to figure her out. “It’s finally nice to meet you Abigail. Don’t worry your safe here now,” Rogue whispered whilst running her fingers through the Kids long, black locks of hair.

“Logan?” John called out from the living room. I watched Rogues face as she heard John calling out to me. Quickly, the mask that Rogue had been wearing was shoved right back on and the hard look returned to her face. She stepped back from us, and headed out the kitchen back into the living room. I followed suit and walked over to the kids to make sure they had all their bits.

Rogue stood in front of the kids, back straight, arms crossed in front of her chest. “Right listen up, for those of you that didn’t get it the first times my name is Rogue but I don’t know your. And since you’ve all come from Xavier’s that also means that you’ve all got a ‘gift’. So I wanna know names and powers. You have 30 second, GO!” no one spoke up or even moved forwards. Rogue watched all of them as they stood in a line.

“Right guess I’ll start,” she sounded annoyed, well good, time someone else was for a change. “My power is my skin. If any of you touches me skin to skin, something bad will happen, you’ll either end up in hospital or if you’re really lucky dead. And in case of mutants I’ll even have your powers. So if you want to stay alive in this house, you’re gonna have to make sure you stay out of my way and not touch my skin. Got it?” they all nodded in sequence, with the smell of fear increased in the room, I turned my head to look at the Kid, and just rolled my eyes at her.

She gave a small giggle then turned her face to hide back in my neck, turning to look at Rogue again she stood there giving me a pissed off look. Hate to say it, but she looks sort of hot when she’s pissed. Rogue averted her eyes to look back to the kids. “Right, now I want names and powers. You first,” she said pointing to Mike.

“Names Mike and I can make things catch on fire. I can do this two ways, either looking at something and think about it being on fire, or touching it and think of it being on fire,” to etherizes his point, Mike turned to the fire place and stared at it, we all turned our heads to look, suddenly the logs that were in the fire place caught alight into a rowing fire. Rogue turned back to Mike with a raised eyebrow.

“Impressive, that’ll come in handy if you every need to run again and have to live rough,” Mike gave a small smile and a nod. Rogue ignored him and turned to look at John. “So what about you?” she asked him.

“My name is John, and this is my twin sister Jane. We both have the power to move things with our minds. When we are by ourselves it’s not as strong, but when we are together we can move heavy things. Like when we ran the car of the road, we were able to pull the dents out and lift it back onto the main road,” John said, beaming at Jane as he talked about what had happen and how they had handled it. Rogue just turned back to me and gave me a questioning look, I just shrugged in responds.

“Okay then, that’s good, but I think you two need to start working alone to build up your own individual powers. If one of you gets caught by the government its not going to do the other one any good if they can’t help you, can it?” John and Jane looked at each other with sad eyes then looked down at the floor clutching hands. What Rogue said to them was cruel, even if it was bit a true. Great now she’s moved on to Jubilee.

“So what about you?” she asked. Jubilee stood with her back straight and looked Rogue straight in the eyes.

“Names Jubilee and I can do this,” with that, Jubilee place her hands out on both side and showed Rogue her powers. Once she had finished Jubilee put her hands on her hips and gave Rogue a smirk. Rogue started clapping slowly. “Impressive,” Jubilee turned to look at the others and smirked some more. “However it’s a little early for the fourth of July so why don’t you take your little fire work show elsewhere,” Jubilee stared at Rogue with her mouth open wide, her face then turned red with anger ”HEY! You listen here lady my powers are good. I took down a damn chopper for Christ sakes. I don’t know what crawled up your ass but that’s no way to speak to us. These powers make us stronger than anyone, and Charles said that with training we can be even more powerfully then we are now,” Rogue stepped right into Jubilee starring her down. In a low hard voice Rogue responded back to Jubilee.
“Now you listen, and you listen good. These powers do NOT make you stronger than anyone else. They make you different, an outcast from the rest of the world. And if you think for one moment that I’m going to allow you to use them for your own good well think again,” Rogue stepped back from Jubilee and turned to address all of use.

“What Charles told you was a complete lie. Sure he told you that you could fight the good fight and all that, but at the end of the day who wins? That’s right Charles, because he wasn’t the one that was out there fighting with his beloved X-Men. And if you think he’s any different than the government well think again. Sure he gave you a roof over your head and an education but at the end of the day you where all training to be soldiers. His soldiers so that he could win his war and prove a point. He wanted you to train, to use your powers to its fullest so that you could fight for him, and you all probably would have done it without a second though. How many times did you see his beloved X-Men come home covered in blood, or better yet come home dead?” she asked us all. It’s sort of true, I did spend most of my time in the med lab after a mission.

“That’s right; Charles had you all so blinded that you couldn’t see the big picture. You were all pawns in his game of chess and at the end of the game how many pawns are left on the board?” no one spoke up, the kids just kept looking from one to another. But I wasn’t going to stand by and watch her bad mouth my friend any long.

“HEY!” I placed the Kid, Abigail on the floor and walked over to where Rogue was standing. “Now you listen, Charles cared for these kids he would do anything for them. He made it their choice to join the X-Men; no one forced them to do anything. He’s goal was to make this world a better place for mutants to live, so that we could live along side humans without fear. And if it meant we had to prove ourselves and fight then we did, and I wouldn’t choose differently,” Standing a foot taller than her, I gave her a hard look. But she just smiled back up at me and placed a hand on my chest.

“You poor man, what did he do to convince you to stay there. Let me ask you a question, did you join the X-Men because it was the right thing to do, or because you felt obligated to Charles to join because he had done something for you?” Well she had me there. Truth is at first I did only join because Charles kept finding links to my past.

“Exactly, and that is how most of those kids felt when they ‘volunteered’ to become an X-Men. Charles had given them a home, food in their stomachs and not once did they question him. Until me that is, and let’s just say the price for not following Charles is a heavy one at that,” she pushed against me to look over at the kids again.

“I’m not Charles, I’m not going to give you the chose to fight the good fight because you are just children it’s not your place. This is my house, my rules and if you choose to break them there is no second chance you’ll be out that door so fast you won’t know what’s hit you. You’ll earn your keep here, doing jobs around the house, be it cleaning, cooking or just getting wood for the fire you do it no questions. You will continue with your school study’s, you will also keep training to control or master your powers but they will not be used to fight wars, they will only be used to fight for yourself when need it. Other than that you will not think of your selves as mutants, you will not use your powers to do your chores. As of this moment you are nothing but normal teenagers are we clear?” with a sad look, all of them slowly nodded their heads.

“Good, now let’s get you all settled, follow me,” Rogue turned and headed over to the stairs. The group picked up their bags and slowly followed Rogue up the stairs, Jane reached out for John’s hand and squeezed it tightly, and Mike place an arm around Jubilee and pulled her into a tight embrace. I bent down to pick up mine and Abigail’s bags then picked up Abigail and held her on my waist again.

“Well, she’s a happy person don’t you think?” I asked Abigail, she in returned placed her head close to my ear and whispered quietly. “She’s lonely; she’s been alone for a long time.”

“Yeah I can see why Charles kicked her out,” Abigail slowly shook her head from side to side. “No not kicked, banished. He banished her,” I looked at Abigail then turned slowly to look at Rogue, she was standing at the top of the stairs looking down at me and Abigail. Wait she wasn’t looking at me, she was looking at just Abigail with a sad look in her eyes. When she notices I was watching her, Rogue looked at me with a hard look; she then turned away and started to walk down the landing.

“Right now listen up, these are where your bedrooms are, the girls have the room on the left and the boys have the room on the right. One of the main rules I have here is that you stay in your own bed at night. If I find out that you’ve sneaked into the other bedroom there will be a price to pay are we clear?” the group nodded their heads in agreement to Rogue. Peaking into the girls’ room it was quiet large, there were 6 single beds 3 on each side of the room with a small side table and trunk at the end of the beds. The boy’s room was a mirror image of the girls.

“Right once you’ve settled into your rooms will meet in the living area to discuss all of the house rules and routines,” the kids broke into groups and headed for their rooms. I walked into the girls room and placed Abigail on the first bed by the door.

“You stay here with the girls, I’m gonna talk to Rogue and find out where I’m sleep okay?” Abigail gave a small nod, I stood and looked at Jubilee and Jane who had chosen beds at the end near the large window. “Watch her,” I commanded in a hard voice. Walking out of the room I closed the door be hide me and found Rogue still on the landing looking down at the living area below.

“So, where do I sleep?” I asked joining her. Rogue didn’t even glance over at me, just kept staring down. “Well that depends you could sleep in the room with the guys,” I let disapproving huff. Rogue turned her head to look at me, “Or there’s another room for adults the first door to the left of the girls room,” she turned her body and pushed herself of the landing rail. As she walked past I grabbed hold of her arm.

“And what about you darling? Where do you sleep,” as I held her arm I let my thumb make small circles over her sleeve. Rogue looked down at my hand then back up to my face, she then placed her right hand over mine and stepped closer to me bring her head up so that her mouth was level to my ear. At first she didn’t do anything, just breathed into my ear, and damn if it wasn’t getting me a little hot under the collar. Rogue then began to speak in a low, husky voice.

“As far away from yours as I can get,” and with that she yanked my fingers back which held her arm and pulled my hand back the wrong way. “And what did I say about touching me,” she then let go and headed down the stairs. Damn that hurt, for a small woman she sure does have some straight be hide her. Shaking my hand out, I reached down and picked up my discarded bag and headed to my room.

The room was large, almost the same as the girls room. The room contained a king size bed with frame, two night side tables with lamps, a large wardrobe and draws for my clothes an en-suite bathroom. On the far side of the room there was a large window overlooking the area, there wasn’t much to be seen apart from trees and the mountains, the closes town was at least 5 miles away so which was located on the other side of the house, so the view was just pure, untouched nature. The Wolverine in me felt at piece with the thought of just the wild surrounding him, through be told so did I. The school wasn’t that far from the city and even from there when the wind blow strong I could always get a whiff of it.

I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out a cigar, lighting it and taking a few puffs letting the scent was over me. As I looked over the view I had to wonder, how was it a girl like Rogue was able to live out here in total seclusion and not go mad, let alone survive out here.

“What have you gotten us into Charles?” I asked looking up towards the sky. Finishing my cigar I turned and started to unpack my things, shoving my clothes into the draws I throw my back pack into the wardrobe and just stood in the middle of the room.

“Now what?” I asked myself, deciding I’d had enough of the room I headed out the door and walked down the landing to the girls bedroom. I popped my head in quickly and saw Jane and Jubilee carefully folding their clothes up and placing them in the trunks. Jubilee had packed some pictures of her friends from the school and was placing them on the night stand next to her bed. I glanced quickly over to Abigail to find her sitting on her bed with her bag of clothes next to her. Walking into the room without knock I stepped over to her bed.

“Need some help there kid?” Abigail turned her head up to look at me and gave a slight nod. Picking up her bag I moved to the end of the bed and open the lid of the truck, I started to tip all of the clothes I’d bought her into the trunk then realised she’d probably wanted them folded up. Quickly tidying up the clothes to look neater I closed the lid and looked at her. “All done,” I turned and walked out of the room and headed down to the boys room to see how they were getting on. Peaking in I saw John and Mike sitting on their beds opposite each other throwing a baseball back and forth.

“Hey you two done unpacking?” Mike caught the ball quickly and both stood up looking right at me. “Yeah,” replied Mike, “Not that much stuff to put away,” he was trying to hide the ball be hide his back.

I gave them a nod, “Good,” and turned to leave. As I moved back out the door I quickly popped my head back in and said, “Oh if you’re gonna play ball inside don’t break anything,” I warn then continued back down the landing. As I reached the girls room again Abigail was standing at the doorway waiting for me to come back. I stopped in front of her and gave her a questioning look. She then reached out and took hold of one of my large hands in her small one and started to lead me towards the stairs. Quietly we descended the stairs together hand in hand, when reaching the bottom Rogue was nowhere to be seen in the living room. So I head over towards the kitchen and there she was, back to the door, leaning back in her chair, feet crossed placed on the table and large bottle of Southern Comfort in her hands.

“Don’t you think it’s a little early to be drinking?” not like I hadn’t drunk at this time of day before. She didn’t move from her positions just lifted the bottle to her lips and took a large pull from it.

“With our lives, it’s never too early to be drinking,” she said without turning round. “Besides it takes a lot more than this,” holding up the bottle, “to get me drunk,” she took another swing from the bottle whilst removing her feet from the table and in the chair to place her arms and the bottle on the table.

“So, where are the others?” she turned her head to look at us. Although she asked about the other kids, I could see in her face she wasn’t really interested about them. With my free hand I just pointed a finger upwards towards the roof. Rogue huffed and took another pull from the bottle.
What the hell is with this woman? It’s not like we wanted the government to attack and force us into her life. You’d think she’d be happy for some company being stuck up here all alone. Now I’m the first to admit that those kids up stairs drive me insane, more so than the other kids at the school. But they need protecting from anything and anyone, including a bitchy, two-faced, head too far stuck up her own drunken butt, putting them in anymore danger or making them feel any less worthy then they do now. Bending down, I place both hands on Abigail’s shoulders and turn her to face me. “Hey Kid, why don’t you go check out the living room while I talk to Rogue for a sec, kay?” leaving no room to argue I gently pushed Abigail back out of the kitchen and closed the door be hide her.

As I turned round to face Rogue, she had moved from her seat at the table to standing at the sink with her back still to me, still drinking. Marching over I grabbed the bottle out of her hand and spinning her around to face me.

“Now you listen here, no one is happy about this situation. Do you think any of us wants to be stuck in this house with a stuck up bitch like you?” she was getting pissed at me, well good. I moved further into her personal space, crushing her body against the counter with mine. “I don’t get what the hell is up between you and Charles but that is not our problem, so don’t take your anger out on them. This isn’t theirs or my fault, so don’t bother blaming us,” her chest was heaving against mine as she breathed hard with anger, my own breath match hers. With my face so close to hers I could see the fire burning in her eyes, the smell of her anger was coming off in waves, and I have to admit it was a damn turn on.

“Logan?” A voice called from the other room. Rogue continues to hold eye contact with me, not even blinking. I hold her gaze right back, not willing to give into this fight for dominances.

“Hey Logan, you in here?” Mike calls out from be hide the kitchen door, Rogue flexes her gaze over to the kitchen door breaking eye contact with me. “I’ll be right there,” I keep staring down at Rogue even though she hasn’t looked back up at me. I watch as her should slump in defeat, still not meeting my gaze. Rogue sides steps away and moves around be hide me, “We’d better get in there,.... before they break anything,” she whispers without either of us turning round to face one another. I hear her slowly move her way over towards the door then takes a deep breath before walking out of the kitchen. With her out of the way I take in a deep breath, run my hands through my hair then turn and head back out into the living area where I hear Rouge laying out the rules.