“Marie!” Logan followed her at a near run.
Her bedroom door slammed shut and locked when he was ten feet away. He heard her throw the deadbolt. “Marie!”
“NO! Leave me alone.” Pressed to the door, he could hear her sobbing. What the hell had happened while he was gone?
“Marie, open the goddamn door.” No response, no sounds from within. “Marie!” Logan pounded one fist on the door in frustration. People were starting to gather in the hallway, their shouts and the uproar drawing attention from the lower levels. He ignored them.
“Marie, let me in, or you come out, please,” he tried to lower his voice a little, but she was still shutting him out. “Marie!” he bellowed again, losing temper by the second. “Open the fucking door NOW!” His fists went hard against the door again, rattling it against the frame.
“Go away!” Her voice cracked and he knew she was still crying, only now she was scared, too. He continued pounding on her door with the butts of his fists, then tried cranking the knob to gain access to her room.
Storm’s commanding voice came from behind him, “Logan! Stop!”
Whirling on her, he snarled down into her face, “Back off, bitch!”
Storm was taken aback, shocked into momentary silence by the seething man who stood towering over her. He seemed ready to snap, or snap her. There were times to deal with Logan and times to deal with the Wolverine in him. At that moment, Storm had no clue which was in control. A wave of gasps and whispers sounded from the group of students gathered a few feet away as Bobby pushed through and wedged himself between Logan and Storm.
Logan merely grinned down at Bobby, sending a chill through Storm. She’d never seen that kind of cold , calculating hate in the eyes of the feral when they weren’t on a mission. Bobby had no idea what he was putting himself in the middle of, and it was her job to stop it from escalating.
“Bobby, there’s no need for your concern, thank you,” her voice was calm and low. She placed both hands on the younger man’s shoulders and tried to press him to one side, away from the confrontation, “Take the students back to their classrooms now.”
Bobby pointed one finger at Logan, and bravely said, “You’re out of line, mister.”
Before Storm could intervene, Logan had audibly snapped Bobby’s finger with a deft twist of the hand, making Bobby let out a yelp of pain, grab at Logan’s shirt with his other hand and was promptly hauled off his feet and slammed against the wall.
“Do not fuck with me, boy,” Logan growled at the younger man, “or I’ll keep breakin’ fingers since you can’t keep ‘em to yourself.” Logan wanted Bobby to know he was aware Bobby had put his hands on Kitty while still with Marie, but that might disgrace Marie since it was private business. He’d leave it just that vague. Bobby’s feet finally touched the ground and again Storm told him to remove the students from the area.
“Logan, stop,” the soft voice broke the tension as Marie eased her door open, eyes red and cheeks damp from crying. “Just stop, please, for me. Come inside,” her hand reached for his, and he let her pull him inside, away from the others.
“Rogue, don’t!” Bobby yelled as Rogue closed and locked her door against the others.
“Talk to me while we’re alone. I can handle it now,” she eased down to sit on the edge of the bed. “I think I can handle it. I’m sorry I ran out in the middle of what you were saying before, but I needed time to accept that you want out, so go ahead. I’m listening.”
“Out of what?” Logan sank down on his knees in front of her, lost in confusion, thoughts still scrambled from the outburst in the hallway.
“Out of us,” her whisper barely registered. She was trembling all over, but her hands remained clasped in her lap to stop the obvious shaking.
Logan sighed deeply and raised his eyes to hers, lowering his voice as well, “Baby, I don’t want out. That’s not what I was trying to say. What made you think it was?”
“You said you made a lot of mistakes lately. I thought I was one of those mistakes.”
Logan took her hands in his and pulled her down on his lap as they wiggled around to lean against the side of her bed. “Being with you is probably the only thing I’ve done lately that wasn’t a mistake. I was trying to apologize for staying away all night and being an ass lately, in a lot of ways. Starting over ain’t easy, and I’m fucking it up royally. How do you put up with me?” He softly kissed her and rocked her against him.
The blushing smile told him she was calming down. “I haven’t really had a chance to ‘put up with you’ since we’ve hardly seen each other these past few days, other than the one night we slept together.”
“Wanna fix that?”
“How?” She flipped one last tear off her eyelashes and stroked her fingers through his hair.
“Move in with me. Today. Right now.” Logan hesitated a moment, then, “Well, after I clean up the place. My room’s bigger than this one, so we’ll fit, together.”
She sniffled and eyed him with a hint of her own hesitation, “You sure you want me moving in with you? Jubes says I snore, and I probably kick around in my sleep, and I’m a slob, and I leave drying undies all over the bathroom.”
“I yell in my sleep, stuff my junk under the bed, leave hair in the sink and bathtub, and I’m barely housebroken. Can you live with that?”
“Yep.”
“We’re good to go, then. And if you’re still willin’ to be seen with me in public after what just happened in the hall, I’ll take you up on that offer of breakfast.”
“Finally got hungry, huh?”
“Been hungry all along, but I didn’t feel like eating. I suppose I oughtta go to Med Lab after that and apologize to Drake. I think I broke his finger right before you opened the door,” he muttered sheepishly.
“You did not!” Rogue was agape.
“Yep, heard it snap. Noticed he’s got another one bandaged, probably from the mission. Did that go okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine. Let’s go. I’ll come back later and get some clothes and stuff for the move.” She stood up and embraced him.
*
Storm’s cell rang in the middle of her last morning class. Mystique’s voice said, “I have some tidbits you might be interested in. Where and when?”
“My office. Can you be here in thirty?”
“I’ll see you then.” The connection clicked closed.
Storm called Rogue, Jubilee and Kitty to her office as Mystique settled into a chair. Bobby had finally gotten the students back in order and gone to the Med Lab, getting his second broken finger splinted. Storm thought it was best to keep Logan in the dark, especially considering his current agitation and his feelings about Mystique’s presence.
“My connection to the Brotherhood tells me that Eric does have a new hireling. I didn’t get a name, but in the course of,” Mystique cleared her throat briefly, “personal conversations, I did gather a few details. The new op is female, a beauty queen sort, and to quote my source, is ‘sportin’ a Texas accent.’ Does that help at all?”
Kitty watched as Jubilee and Rogue both leaped to their feet and grabbed each other, whooping and whirling around in a joyous dance. “I take it this information doesn’t exactly disappoint either of them,” Mystique commented.
Kitty piped in with a smile, “Not at all. They dislike Miss Hanson intensely. It’s exactly what we needed.”
Storm smiled warmly at Mystique, “You’ve earned my respect, if not my trust. Shall we see where it takes us? Are you willing to continue working for us?”
“It’s the best deal I’ve had in months. I’m willing.”
Once Mystique had left the room, the remaining female X-men huddled around the desk. Kitty fidgeted with her crutch and elevated her sprained ankle to the chair arm as Storm stroked her foot comfortingly. “What are we gonna do with her, Storm?”
“The Professor had contacts within the community, people who were willing to handle traitors; sort of a penal system within mutant society. Since Eric’s actions are well-known to the authorities, we could turn her over to the police, but that would require filing a report on Logan’s attack and dragging him into it as well.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea right now,” Rogue added quickly. “Logan’s having a rough enough time without a bunch of cops insinuating into his life, making him feel like more of a victim than he already is, and Logan values his privacy.”
“I know. That’s why I’ve decided to turn Shelly over to the underground system. It’s the best, most humane, most reasonable course of action I can think of, unless anyone else has a better idea?”
“We could give her to Logan for Danger Room practice,” Jubilee giggled.
“She said ‘humane’, Jubes,” Kitty prodded Jubilee with one crutch.
“I think Logan might kill her if he’s involved in any of this, so let’s keep it quiet,” Rogue’s eyes suddenly opened wide with realization. “Oh my gawd, it was her!”
“Rogue, what was her?” Storm came instantly alert.
“The hair! I found long blonde hairs under Logan’s bed today. I made a joke, asking him if he had slept with a blonde, but he said I was the only woman he’d had in that bed, ever,” Rogue realized all the faces around here were staring in surprise. “Yes, Logan and I are sleeping together, and I’m moving into his room today. We’re officially a couple now.”
After a round of giggles and congratulations, with a few jealous comments from Jubilee on her good luck in choosing gorgeous men, Rogue asked for details about Shelly. Storm explained the audio-cellular mutation, and the loose hairs had to be the listening device.
“I’ve been suspicious of Shelly for a few days now, because of the very nature of her mutation. I’ve been keeping an eye on her, and Kurt’s been helping. He’s very good at watching from the shadows,” Storm glowed a little at her mention of Kurt’s name.
“She could have been shedding all over this place since she came here,” Jubilee said, “her hair, nails, skin cells, even dandruff if she has any. She could know everything, even what we’re saying right now!” She dropped to her knees and started searching the floor as the others joined her. Within moments, the women had found a long blonde hair tied around a desk leg.
Rogue dangled the hair from her fingertips, “We are so screwed. Where is she right this minute?”
“Everyone shut up right now,” Storm took the hair, laid it on the desk blotter, put a paperweight over it, then motioned for the women to follow her. Exiting the building, they went to the middle of the back lawn.
“I don’t know how great her hearing range is, but at least out here we’re fairly safe to talk. Shelly said she had a lunch meeting with an old friend, and left the school. I don’t know who the friend is, but Kurt’s following her for us, so we’ll just have to bide our time until he reports in, or she returns, and then confront her.”
“‘If’ she returns,” Jubilee added. “She may already know we’re on to her.”
“I don’t think so - she’s either been busy or away from the building since early today. We can only hope she’s out of range. If she never returns, we’ll know she heard us. If she does return later today, we’ll have a much easier time taking her into holding until the system can collect her.”
“We’d better lock her up somewhere Logan doesn’t know about, or he’ll kill her,” Rogue watched the other women’s eyes meet hers. “Uh, that’s not a toss-off comment. I really do think he’d kill her, since she set him up to lose his mutations.”
Storm wondered which would be the more challenging danger: to contain Shelly until she was taken into the system, or to keep Logan away until Shelly was safely in custody.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Bobby has an attack of misguided courage, Marie and Logan talk it out, and Shelly’s jig is up!