Logan drove down the nearly deserted highway, most of his concentration focused on the girl sleeping next to him.
She had been exhausted, but he had felt they were too exposed staying in the motel so near the deaths of Freddy and his crew, especially with Freddy’s blood-soaked car parked in the lot. He wanted to get Marie back to the relative safety of the mansion, and so after she changed into jeans and a shirt she had dozed while he boosted a car from the motel parking lot, switching plates with a third car in the hopes the exchange would not be noticed for awhile.
She had barely stirred as he bundled her up in a blanket and buckled her into the passenger seat. Now she slept next to him, her warm enticing scent filling the car, the sound of her soft steady breathing soothing something jagged and raw in Logan’s chest.
She was something else, this girl. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of her yet. Gutsy as hell, and smart, but he still couldn’t quite figure her. Still didn’t know why she hadn’t just run when she had the chance -- why in the hell she had risked her life to save his. And the way she acted. Tough as nails sometimes, and ruthless when she needed to be -- he grinned, remembering how she had smacked him back to consciousness -- but underneath there was this sweetness to her, an elusive trace of innocence...
He shook his head in irritation. Speculating about her innocence -- or lack of it -- wasn’t even something he should be thinking of. Just a kid, he repeated to himself, even knowing as he thought it that it wasn’t true. In her twenties, wasn’t she? Certainly not an age he had ever balked at before. He had laid waitresses and fight groupies by the score as young as she was or younger without a second thought.
Of course those girls had been around the block, they knew what they were getting into. There was something different about this girl. She had some hard edges for sure, but underneath...there was something soft and sweet and warm underneath, something that called out to him. Made him want to keep her close by, want to keep her safe...
Nothing surprising about that, he tried to tell himself with irritation. God knows how it had happened, but he found himself guardian and unofficial watchdog for a whole school full of mutant kids. Hell, he’d only found the girl in the first place because he’d do anything to get Kitty and Jubilee back. But, he reluctantly admitted to himself, he’d never felt like this about Kitty and Jubes. Protective, sure, but never like this. Feeling like Marie belonged with him, like she fit with him in some indefinable way. Like he wanted to pull her into the shelter of his body, and...
“Goddamn,” he cursed under his breath.
He was a fuckin’ animal, having thoughts like that about the girl. Especially after the hell she had just been through. Just a kid, he told himself again. But she didn’t smell like a kid, her scent soothing and arousing at the same time, making him feel a little drunk and dizzy. And she didn’t look like a kid, now that she wasn’t scared anymore. Now that she was safe with him -- trusting him enough to sleep peacefully right next to him, for some unaccountable reason that made his chest feel a little funny again.
No, she didn’t look like a kid at all. She looked beautiful, is how she looked. Thick lashes lowered to hide eyes that he knew were deep and brown, that could be warm with concern or snap with anger. Eyes that held a wisdom much greater than the sum of her years. A soft pink pouting mouth relaxed now in sleep, but he remembered how it had looked set with determination as she forced him to his feet, or curving into that slow incandescent smile when he woke up. Happy to see him alive, even though she didn’t know him, even after all she had seen him do.
He focused his eyes on the road again with another curse. Trying to keep his gaze off her, but unable to do so for long. Drawn to look at her time and again -- her porcelain skin, the delicate beauty of her features, the soft small shape and the warm enticing scent of her...
He couldn’t get to the mansion soon enough.
________
He saw Marie’s eyes grow wide at the sight of the mansion, her scent spiking with nerves. He had woken her about half an hour out from the mansion, and had tried to put into careful words some of what she could expect. A school for mutants, he had told her, and a rich philanthropist. A few teachers like himself who were a little more...active...in the fight against mutant hate crimes than your average academic.
She had just looked at him in suspicion, as if it might be some sort of joke and she was worried that she was the punchline. He could see now that his description hadn’t really prepared her. Hell, as he drove up the imposing tree-lined drive he could hardly believe he lived in a swank place like this himself.
The girl pulled his leather jacket tightly around her as they mounted the front steps, looking more defenseless than ever. He pulled her close as he opened the mansion door, trying to reassure her with his presence. He would just get her in a room, and go talk to Chuck, and...
Fuck.
The scent of sandalwood and spice was thick in the entryway. Jean glided down the stairs as if she had been waiting for her cue. And she probably had been, Logan thought uncharitably. Jean couldn’t usually get a read on his thoughts, but sensing the presence of his psyche in her vicinity was a much easier task.
Jean paused dramatically at the bottom of the stairs. Just after dawn, and she was completely put together from her blow-dried hair to her Louboutin heels. And he should know, having been dumb enough to have given her that particular pair of thousand-dollar fuck-me heels, hoping to feel them digging into the back of his thighs some day.
That was before he had realized that she was just using him to make Scooter jealous. The Wolverine didn’t play those kind of high school games. He had told her to knock it off right before he left for this mission, and he had a feeling he was going to pay for it now.
Instead of laying into him, however, Jean pasted a fake smile on her face. “Wolverine! So nice to see you again! You would not believe how dramatic Ororo and Scott were last night. I told them you would be just fine, but they would insist that you had suffered some grievous accident.”
Her eyelids, thick with powdery eyeshadow, made a lazy sweep of Marie’s small figure. Logan saw her eyes narrow just the slightest as they registered his leather jacket wrapped around the girl, but she continued her perusal, her phony smile transforming into an ever-so-subtle moue of distaste. “And who is this poor creature? So unlike you to bring back a stray, Wolverine.”
Logan felt Marie’s hurt, and pulled her closer into the curve of his body, rage rising up in his chest. “Dammit, Jeannie...”
Jean clacked forward a few steps, heels ringing on the marble tile, interrupting him. “Just like a man, isn’t it sweetie?” she addressed Marie in mock sympathy. “Why, I expect he dragged you straight out of bed without a moment to make yourself presentable...”
Logan felt the growl rising up in his chest, but before it could emerge Marie shook free of his arm and stepped forward, standing up straight in his ridiculously large leather jacket and throwing her streaked hair back to look Jean in the eye.
“You’re right,” she said, in her usual matter-of-fact tone. “He pulled me right out of bed. But even on four hours of sleep I can still recognize a stuck-up bitch when I see one.”
Logan’s incipient growl turned into a snort of amusement as Marie walked on, spine straight and head high, leaving a flabbergasted Jean staring after her. He smoothly slid out one claw, using the blunt edge under Jean’s chin to close her gaping mouth. Jean shifted her glare to him, but managed to reform her features into a pouty seductive look with an effort.
He grazed the claw up her jaw. “Loooogan...” she cooed. He kept his eyes steady on hers, watching the practiced pout melt slowly away into a genuine expression of fear as the claw continued upward, the tip settling just a millimeter from Jean’s jugular vein.
Jean froze. He pressed the flat end of the blade gently to the skin there, feeling the thrum of her pulse quicken against the surface of the blade.
His growl came out without conscious thought. “Don’t you ever try to hurt what’s mine again.”
Jean’s mouth moved to form words, but a frightened squeak was all that emerged. Logan snicked the claw back in and followed Marie, taking deep breaths to cool the rage still racing through his blood, stunned at his own response. Where the fuck had that come from? Jeannie was being a bitch, for sure, but it had hardly warranted a claw through the neck.
Jesus, something about this girl had gotten under his skin, bringing the Wolverine in all his vicious protectiveness too close to the surface. The sooner he could turn her over to the other goody-two-shoes teaching staff -- the sooner he could break this odd connection between them -- the better.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
My first attempt at a Mean!Jean. I just couldn't resist. This chapter and the next might seem a little uneventful/cryptic, but I promise they are necessary, and things will pick up again. Thanks as always for your reviews!
Chapter End Notes:
Please review! :-D