“You hungry, kid,” Logan grinned as he caught her embarrassed flush. Marie’s stomach was growling like a feral animal was fixing to gnaw a hole clean through her belly button.
“I don’t know why,” she growled, “I have been eatin’ since I got in the car.”
Logan had to admit she had finished of two bags of jerky herself and if he hadn’t put the kibosh on her getting the other two he would have starved. He was used to the demands his body made; decent sleep, physical exertion and a more then healthy appetite. He hadn’t exactly known his desires were excessive; not until Marie’s leg started to bounce and she’d devoured the chips, the jerky and a plethora of chocolate bars. The new understanding that her body’s altered state was causing her to grow hungrier gave Logan a guilty twinge. “It’s the healing or the uh-animal nature,” he muttered, glancing at her briefly, “Never figured out which.”
“Oh my Gawd,” Marie exclaimed, “This gnawin’ hunger is gonna be permanent? I’m gonna be as big as a house.”
“It ain’t always like that,” Logan frowned. “You just ain’t eaten anything that will satisfy it; what did you have for breakfast, some fruit and yogurt? We’re almost to North Carolina and I know a good place a few miles from here that’s clean and serves the best beef this side of the Mississippi.”
Marie’s stomach growled again and she nodded enthusiastically, “I could eat a cow; the way I’m feelin’ right now.”
Logan just smiled and figured it would be a bad idea to say that probably wasn’t an exaggeration.
When they pulled into the gravel parking lot of the restaurant the place was packed and only by luck did they find a spot when someone pulled out of their spot. The mouth watering smell of roasted meat filled the air and even Logan’s stomach gave a plaintiff rumble; he was used to that, but he wasn’t used to Marie’s reaction. Beside him Marie growled deep in her throat and her claws released.
Logan caught her around the waist when she moved to scramble from the car, “Marie,” he soothed, “You gotta get hold of yourself.”
Snarling, Marie raked at his restraining arm with her newly developed claws.
“Dammit, Darlin’, you gotta stop!” Pulling her across the seat and into his lap, Logan pressed her back against the steering column to contain her movement and grasped her wrists. His thumbs stroked comfortingly from her wrist to the center of her palm. “This ain’t you, Baby!” Logan pressed his forehead to hers and was relieved when he saw a glimmer of dawning reason. “That’s it, Darlin’, take a deep breath with me and when you exhale you will gain a little more control.”
“L-Lo-Logan,” Marie stared into his eyes with a frightened gaze. The claws retracted and she began to tremble with horrified understanding of what she almost did.
“I’m here,” he released her wrists and wrapped her in his arms. “Trust me,” he murmured as he soothed his palms down her spine. “Another deep breath, good girl, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Bu-but I almost,” she shivered.
“You didn’t,” Logan murmured and pressed a kiss to her brow. “I should have figured you’d be more than a little hungry; this is my fault, not yours, Marie. I’m sorry.”
“Ah don’t underst-stand,” Marie shook her head, “It wasn’t- Ah wasn’t like this before.”
Logan sighed, stroking her hair as he murmured, “It wasn’t part of you then the way it is now; you can control it, baby, it just surprised you is all.”
“Wonder if Ah can’t,” her voice trembled with uncertainty.
“You can…You are,” He smiled, cupping her cheek. “Breathe, see you’re doing fine.” Easing her back to the seat next to him Logan glanced around, but their struggle had gone unnoticed. Pushing his fingers through Marie’s hair to comb it out some he gestured to the brightly lit restaurant. “Come on let’s eat.”
Logan pushed open his door and pulled his leather jacket on as he stepped out. Marie sat unmoving, wide eyes flitting from place to place still afraid. Sighing, Logan rounded the front of the SUV and pulled her door open. “Come on,” he murmured gently, offering her his hand. “I’ll take care of you; nothing is going to happen.”
She stared intently at his proffered hand for a moment, before a small smile graced her lips and she met her gaze in challenge, much the way she had once before. “Ya promise,” her voice was a mix of teasing and seriousness.
“Yeah,” he laughed, reaching to take her hand and pull her from the SUV. “And I keep my promises. Now, let’s get us one of Mama’s steaks.”
“Just one,” Marie whined, but ruined the effect by laughing. “Ah told ya Ah could eat a cow all by my lonesome.”
“Darlin’ one of Mama’s steaks is more than enough for a little thing like you,” He let go of her hand and tugged a lock of silver-white hair playfully.
“I have mah doubts,” she batted his hand away. “I hope you got a lot of money because I have a feeling my new metabolism is gonna put a crick in your wallet.”
“You mean I ain’t gonna get away with just letting you eat the green stuff off my plate anymore,” he frowned.
“Logan,” she laughed, “You’re such a cheapskate.”
“Yeah, but you never complained about that before,” Logan pulled the door open and guided Marie inside with a hand to her lower back.
“Yer broccoli ain’t gonna cut it this time,” she informed him. “I want the biggest, juiciest steak they got.”
“You might have to get a job, kid.”
“Two,” The pretty brunette asked when they stopped in front of the hostess and Logan grunted affirmatively.
Smiling, the plastic smile that every food service worker has perfected she grabbed to menus and gestured for them to follow her.
Soon they found themselves in a quiet booth with two sweet teas; Mama’s doesn’t serve alcohol and the promise of a return by the waiter as soon as they had a moment to decide. Glancing around the bustling dining room Marie noticed two things. First, was that the other tables seemed to be made up of families and second was that the place was done up in an eclectic mix of down home southern styles. There wasn’t a cage or a stripper pole in sight and it perplexed her, “Logan?”
“Yeah,” he barely looked up from the menu, but she didn’t let that detour her.
“This-uh,” she tried to think of a tactful way to ask, but really there wasn’t one. “This ain’t your usual kind of place. They have cloth table cloths and nobody’s screamin’ fer blood.”
“Less you count the guy over at table ten that wants his steak grass-stained and still moo-ing, Honey” A sixty-ish woman laughed as she leaned down to hug a startled Wolverine. “How’s life been treatin’ you, Logan?”
“Better than most I can’t complain, Mama.” Logan smiled a little sadly as he stood up and sat beside Marie, he gestured for Mama to join them; she was a frail looking five foot four inches tall and her long grey hair was pulled back in a ponytail. “This here is Marie,” he placed his hand on the nape of Marie’s neck.
“Marie,” she smiled, as she reached out a hand that Marie took and gingerly shook it. Other than Hank, Jubilee and
Logan she hadn’t touched anyone else and she found the novelty overwhelming. Marie might have missed the woman’s next words except that Logan choked on his tea when Mama added slyly, “She’s as lovely as you said she was, Logan.”
“You okay, Sugah,” Marie asked when he began spluttering.
“Don’t mind him,” Mama laughed, “he can dish it out but he can’t take it.”
“Where is Jack,” Logan growled.
“In the kitchen,” Mama informed him crisply; winking at Marie she lifted her hand calling for their waiter, “where every man ought to me.”
“Yes, Mama,” the waiter asked as he came to a stop at the tables edge.
“Logan will have the twenty-six ounce, medium-rare with an emphasis on the rare; hold the garden but add an extra potato.” She turned to Marie, “And what about you honey, you want a salad?”
“Ah’ll have what Logan’s havin’ except not so bloody and with the garden.”
“Not the dainty type,” Mama enquired, lifting an eyebrow in question before turning her mischievous smile on Logan. “She’s definitely a keeper, Son, and just any girl that’ll eat her wait in beef.”
“Mama,” Logan sighed, looking embarrassed. “You haven’t changed always looking for a way to tease me.”
“I’ve changed plenty, Logan.” She fingered her silver hair, “You look the same as the day Jack found you.”
Smiling across the table at Marie she hitched a thumb at Logan. “He’s a good guy I hope you treat him right, Honey.” Logan growled and swiped his hand down his face. “If you’re so embarrassed go on in the back and say hello to Jack.”
Realizing he was being dismissed Logan grumbled and then headed for the kitchen. Marie watched him go and wasn’t surprised that the minute he was gone from sight Mama pinned her down with a penetrating gaze.
“It’s hard for him,” she started, nodding in the direction Logan had gone. “He hasn’t changed and yet people he knows, friends, both mutant and human all seem to turn old, frail and die. Jack found him about nineteen years ago, now. My hair was still pitch black and yet time has left its mark.”
“Why are ya tellin’ me this,” Marie asked. The woman obviously knew they were mutants but she didn’t seem disturbed by that fact.
“Because I can see he cares for you,” Mama smiled sadly. “We found him in Pennsylvania a month or two after the incident at Three Mile Island, the news said it was a meltdown, but my youngest daughter she told me she’d been held there for experiments and such. Emma was devastated you see because her sister had helped her and the others escape, but my Kayla…Well, she died there on the island.”
“She was,” Marie pursed her lips and looked away. She didn’t think that she could say anything nice about the woman’s daughter.
“She betrayed him,” Mama nodded. “I know, besides having the mutation of diamond skin Emma is a telepath of no small power. She saw what her sister did to save her and she was there when Logan helped them all escape."
"That's a bit mild," Marie muttered, her eyes narrowing. Mama either didn't hear her or ignored the comment.
"When she arrived at Xavier’s she learned quite a few things including the fact that Logan had been left on the island.” Mama smiled, sadly as she remembered. “She called me and I was on the first plane to New York, me and Jack. My Kayla she did what she had to do to survive, but she really did love Logan.”
“Ah still don’t understand why you’re tellin’ me this,” Marie growled, she was becoming upset by the minute. They had known about Logan parts of his past, but they obviously never spoke about it with him. “Do you have any idea what-,” Marie had to pause and take a deep breath to get control of her anger. “He let them do things to him, because of her…Don’t tell me she loved him, because if you love someone you take care of them. You don’t decide someone else is more important; Logan isn’t a piece of meat and the fact y’all have kept his past from him makes me hate ya just as much as Ah hate Charles Xavier right now!”
Mama sighed and her eyes were sad as she looked at
Marie, “We did as Xavier asked us and we can’t take that back, but he will never be able to live a life like the rest of us. We grow old and die and he, well he will be sitting her in another nineteen years looking just as handsome as he does today. He’ll be watching you wither.”
Marie stared at the woman with an incredulous gaze as she hissed, “You think it would be better for him to be alone,” her voice taking on a growling edge as she locked her eyes with the other woman’s. “Let me enlighten you, Mama.”
Picking up her steak knife she pulled it across her palm and though it hurt it healed quickly. “In nineteen years when you and your daughter are nothin’ but desiccated corpses I’ll be sittin’ in the seat right next to him as pissed off as Ah am right now!”
Marie was startled when the woman clasped her hand and began to cry, “Thank you, thank you! I was so afraid he would have to watch someone else he loved die.”
“Marie,” Logan growled as he stalked across the restaurant to her side; his keen eyes trained on the knife that still contained a smear of her blood. “What the fuck is going on here,” he growled.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Bonding and history