Logan and Rogue were sitting in the kitchen the next morning, bacon sizzling on the double burner griddle on the stove, and scrambled eggs keeping warm in the oven.
They blithely ignored the tired glares Rachel was aiming at them. The girl hovered by the coffee maker, waiting just long enough for it to brew enough for a cup before slipping the carafe off the warmer and pouring it into her waiting mug. She gulped the scalding liquid and resumed glaring at them.
“Sleep well?” Rachel asked archly.
“Eventually, yeah,” Logan replied with a smirk. Rogue sighed and shook her head at Logan, silently telling him not to tease the girl. Her hair slid back off her shoulders, revealing her neck.
“Holy shit!” Rachel gasped when she saw the livid bruise. She gaped at Rogue for a few moments more before turning to Logan. “You abusive bastard,” she accused quietly.
Blinking in surprise, Logan turned to Rogue.
“Um, Rachel.” She coughed to get the girl’s attention. “It’s not what you think.”
“What the hell am I supposed to think? That’s not just a hickey, Rogue. I can see tooth marks.”
“It’s fine, Rachel. Leave it alone,” Rogue insisted.
Slamming her mug onto the counter, Rachel said, “It’s not fine! You shouldn’t stay with someone who mistreats you.”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talkin’ about,” Logan growled, his eyes narrowing.
“Yes I do! My mom was always telling me everything was fine until my bastard stepfather almost killed her. Sick as it was, they used to have nights where they carried on the way you two did last night, and she’d end up with marks on her just like that one.” The girl’s voice was at a low enough pitch that it sounded almost like Logan’s growl.
Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, Logan took a closer look at Rogue’s neck. While the mark had given him a warm feeling of wellbeing earlier that morning, he tried now to look at it without his feral instincts at the forefront. What he saw made him feel slightly sick to his stomach. The edges of the bite were red and puffy, the swelling skin seeping tiny amounts of clear fluid that he knew would eventually dry and later scab over.
Seeing the frown creeping over his face, Rogue sighed again. “Logan, Ah’m fine.”
His chair creaked when Logan leaned forward. Brushing her hair completely away from her neck, he feathered the tips of his fingers over the mark, noting Rogue’s almost imperceptible wince. “I’m sorry, baby,” he rumbled. His lips, lighter than air, replaced his fingers in a soothing gesture of contrition.
Rogue brought one hand up to cup his cheek, a content smile curving her lips. “It’s not like Ah didn’t give as good as Ah got,” she reminded him quietly.
Turning his face into her shoulder, Logan chuckled. He knew she hadn’t done it deliberately, but she had marked up his back in a rather spectacular fashion. This time, however, the marks had healed over during the night. Logan wasn’t really surprised that it was different this time, since Hank had said he might never go through the human-slow healing he had experienced after their first night together. Frowning again, Logan couldn’t help but wonder why it was different for Rogue. She possessed his healing as a permanent ability, so why wasn’t she healing too?
Before he could voice the question, the front door opened and Todd and the kids trooped silently into the room. Seeing that the kids had put jackets on over their pajamas and were sleepily rubbing their eyes, they had obviously just woken up.
“Coffee,” Todd begged, giving Rachel a pathetic look. With a strained smile, Rachel poured a cup for him.
“Me too, please,” Max requested politely as he pulled out a chair for Elizaveta and helped her out of her jacket.
“Sure,” Rachel murmured, casting one last suspicious look at Logan and Rogue. “Hot chocolate for the rest of you?” she asked the kids.
Voices croaky with sleep answered in the affirmative and Rachel busied herself gathering the ingredients for the cocoa.
“Breakfast will be ready in just a couple minutes,” Rogue told them. “Elizaveta honey, you want to go into town with me? I’ve got a couple errands to run today.” Having discussed it with Logan when he returned from his trip into town after the near disaster in the diner a few weeks ago, they agreed that it was still safe for Elizaveta to accompany Rogue occasionally. They thought it would also be good for the little girl to go as often as possible so she wouldn’t develop a fear of going out among non-mutants. Showing a sensitivity that Rogue was ashamed to say had surprised her, Logan had made sure they discussed the situation with each of the boys. None of them would ever be able to pass as human, but since Elizaveta could and was seemingly receiving preferential treatment because of that, Logan wanted to make sure the boys’ feelings weren’t hurt.
Oddly enough, they had all smiled at Logan and Rogue before thanking them for making things different from the way it had been at Xavier’s. Hearing that, Rogue had felt intense guilt for never realizing when she was a student that her classmates with physical mutations that couldn’t be disguised were never consulted before they were left out of field trips.
* * *
“Do you want to try the diner again?” Rogue asked Elizaveta several hours later.
“I am kind of hungry,” Elizaveta admitted, a worried frown wrinkling her forehead beneath the brim of her hat.
“Well of course you are,” Rogue said, jostling the hand she held. “It’s been hours and hours since breakfast.”
“Okay,” Elizaveta said, slanting a calculating look at Rogue. “Can I get a strawberry milkshake again?”
Chuckling as they crossed the street toward the diner, Rogue replied, “As long as you promise not to mention it to the boys. There’s no way to bring milkshakes back to them since town is so far away.”
Enjoying the friendly chiming of the bell as they entered the diner, Elizaveta smiled as she asked, “Would we be able to bring ice cream home? We can make milkshakes for dessert. I don’t need to have one now.”
“Honey, that’s so sweet of you!” Rogue praised, catching Tanya’s eye and nodding toward their table. Tanya smiled and quickly finished her conversation with the man at the grill before heading over.
“Everythin’ been okay since the last time we were in?” Rogue greeted her cautiously.
“Yeah,” Tanya answered, her tone low. “Not a peep from anybody about anything.”
Relaxing, Rogue smiled and said, “In that case, we’ll have lunch here.” As they placed their orders, Rogue swept her eyes over the diner, noting that the man at the grill was looking their way, his eyes fixed on their waitress. “Looks like you’ve got an admirer,” she murmured to Tanya.
The woman frowned and followed the direction of Rogue’s gaze. “Stan?” she asked, her voice colored with surprise and a tinge of distaste. She wrinkled her nose at Rogue. “The man can’t be considered a good catch by any stretch of the imagination. He’s a sullen, know-it-all bigot.”
“What d’ya mean?” Rogue asked, feeling tension gathering in her shoulders.
Propping her hands on her hips, Tanya blew an exasperated breath of air toward her bangs, making her hair stir slightly. “I think he’s just talk, but he goes on and on about how the world belongs to the white man. The human white man. Honestly, honey, I’ve never listened close enough to be able to tell you more than that. The man’s loony-tunes.”
Chuckling uneasily, Rogue said, “Well, good luck with him. Sounds like you’re gonna need it.”
Tanya snorted. “Thanks a bunch,” she said, walking away to give their orders to the man in question. Observing Tanya’s interaction with Stan from the corner of her eye, Rogue didn’t see anything suspicious, but she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that the man might not be as harmless as Tanya thought.
* * *
Rogue and Elizaveta were leaving the grocery store, their last stop before heading home. They carried two bags each, several half gallons of ice cream double wrapped in plastic to prevent leaks during the drive back to the cabin.
“Does Mr. Logan like milkshakes?” Elizaveta asked as they stowed the bags in the back of the Explorer.
Rogue slammed the hatch closed and followed the little girl around the side of the vehicle and held the back passenger door open for her. “Ya know,” she said after a little thought, “Ah don’t rightly know, honey.”
Eyes wide as she buckled herself in, Elizaveta exclaimed, “But you’ve known each other for ever and ever, Miss Rogue!”
“Hardly forever,” Rogue chuckled, winking and tapping the girl’s freckled nose with her forefinger.
“Close to forever then,” the girl insisted as soon as Rogue opened her own door. “You and Mr. Logan have known each other for almost half my life. That’s a long time, Miss Rogue,” Elizaveta concluded seriously.
Rogue shook her head in bemusement as she started the vehicle. “And how do you know how long Logan and Ah have known each other, missy?” There was silence in the back seat as they drove out of town. Rogue glanced over her shoulder at the girl and saw her biting her lip. “Well?” she prompted.
“We-e-ell….” Elizaveta cast her an anxious look.
“Ah’m not gonna get mad at you, honey. Promise.” Rogue was alternating looking between the back seat and the road as she waited for an answer.
“Everybody at school talks about you!” The admission was made in a rushing exhalation.
Rogue blinked a couple times as she deciphered the garbled words. “Still?” she finally asked in disbelief.
“You’re really not mad?” Elizaveta ventured shyly.
“‘Course not,” Rogue said with a shrug. “Ah’m just surprised, that’s all. Ah mean, people were talkin’ ‘bout Logan and me since the day we came to Xavier’s. Ah’d think they’d be tired of it by now.”
The flash of lavender in her peripheral vision told Rogue the girl was shaking her head.
“No, Miss Rogue. Any time new kids come in and they’re scared, somebody tells them about how you came to Xavier’s and what happened to you then. After the new kids hear that, they feel better and they’re happy they’re in a place where people will take care of them. And then -” Elizaveta stopped talking abruptly.
Figuring the girl had stopped talking because she was worried Rogue might get angry after all, Rogue only replied, “Huh.” She was surprised that she hadn’t overheard the stories in all the time she had been at the school. She knew that she and Logan were kind of a legend as far as the students were concerned, but she hadn’t realized that they were routinely being held up as mascots of a sort for the new kids. Wondering if Logan had known about it, Rogue resolved to ask him when they got back to the cabin.
When the silence from the backseat continued, Rogue glanced at Elizaveta. “Honey?” she asked in alarm. The girl’s eyes were wide and staring, her mouth dropped open in shock. “Elizaveta?” Rogue asked urgently, slowing the vehicle.
“No!” Elizaveta suddenly shrieked. “Don’t slow down! That’s how they get you!”
“What? Who?” Rogue asked. Despite her confusion, she looked straight ahead and pressed down on the accelerator.
“I don’t know!” Elizaveta whimpered.
“Okay, it’s okay, honey,” Rogue soothed. At the same time, she tried mentally calling for Logan. When all she got was a blank fuzziness, she tried again, harder, but with the same results. Cursing under her breath that she hadn’t taken Logan’s suggestion to practice her abilities while she had the chance, especially since they had known she had trouble controlling them when stressed, Rogue looked around the interior of the Explorer. Spotting her purse on the passenger floorboards, she cursed again.
“Elizaveta, Ah’m gonna need you to call Logan, okay?” Glancing in the rearview mirror, Rogue saw two black vehicles rapidly approaching. “Ah’ll get you the phone, and you open it up and go into ‘contacts’ and look for ‘Todd’ okay? Press ‘send’ when you’re on that name. Can you do that, honey?” Internally, Rogue was feeling pathetically grateful that Todd had brought a phone with him from Xavier’s.
“Uh huh,” the girl whimpered, her eyes wide.
“Good girl,” Rogue praised, already sliding sideways on her seat closer to where her bag lay. “As soon as somebody answers, you tell them we need help right away and that we’re on the road leadin’ out of town, okay?” Even bending low over the center console, the bag was still several inches out of reach.
“Okay, Miss Rogue.”
Taking a deep breath, Rogue lunged forward and grabbed the strap of her bag. As her foot slipped off the accelerator, she heard Elizaveta shriek, “No! I said you can’t slow down!”
Rogue jolted upright and quickly tossed her purse toward the backseat just as the vehicle behind them slammed into the back of the Explorer.
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Chapter End Notes:
So as I was proofreading this chapter, I almost changed the name of the man at the grill when I realized I called him "Stan." I did not do it deliberately, but I was kind of amused, so as a tribute of sorts to Stan Lee and the cameos he does in Marvel movies, I decided to leave it.