CHAPTER 29 - Both points of View
“Which way, homme?” the Cajun asked. They were running through halls that smelled like bleach. Red overhead lights flashed and alarms sounded -- they were running short on time. Logan was sick of running into dead ends. The place was a damn death trap of halls and passages.
He and Remy had taken the south end, which is where John had told him he’d seen Marie. But they hadn’t run into any prisoners yet and he was getting a headache from the strong stench of ammonia. He’d turned back twice, thinking he’s smelled her, but the scent vanished and he was getting aggravated.
Shots rang out and he was pelted with at least three gunshots in the chest. He pushed Remy back around the corner and took cover himself. He gritted his teeth and took a second while his body worked the bullets out of his chest. They plinked to the ground, one after another.
Remy stared at his the bullets on the floor. “Dat’s all kinds of sick, homme.” Logan growled.
Remy grinned a cheshire smirk and took out his cards. They turned fire red as he charged them and readied himself.
Logan growled and rolled his eyes. “You’re a fuckin’ show off, Gumbo.”
Remy shrugged. “Dat’s part of de charm. De ladies like Remy to be extravagant.” He leaned around the corner and let them fly. Explosions erupted and smoke billowed.
“No damn ladies here to watch, bub,” Logan said as he charged around the corner into the smoke, roaring in fury.
Remy chuckled. “Who be showing off now?” He grabbed his bō staff and followed.
XXX
He pulled his metal claws up the man’s stomach, disemboweling him in the process. Blood spatter covered the name embroidered on his white lab coat -- Dr. Sanders. His scream was a cross between pain and horror at seeing his intestines spilling out. Logan stared at him with furious eyes.
“What’s it feel like to be sliced open, prick?” The man gagged on blood before falling back and off Logan’s blades. He was the last one in the room of four doctors that Logan had killed slowly and torturously.
He had walked in to find their terrified huddled forms behind a medical table. It was a procedure room, the table ready with straps and plenty of medical equipment to bring back all of Logan’s worst nightmares. And it was chock full of Marie’s terrified scent. The smell of her blood, of her tears...it had sent him into a berserker rage that had him slicing off the first man’s head.
He’d come back to himself long enough to drag out the others’ deaths, allowing him to get the passcodes to the offices. That was when Remy had come into the room. He’d looked around, swallowed sickly and made no comment. Good. ‘Cause with the rage pounding through his blood, a single word from the no-good-thief would only get him a set of claws in the gut.
“Let’s go,” he ordered. Remy followed them along to a corridor with offices. He found the one he wanted and quickly sliced the handle off. “You know anythin’ about computers, Gumbo?”
Remy sighed and grabbed a chair. “Gambit not Kitty. But he do his best.” He worked over the desk as Storm’s voice came over the com-link. “We’ve cleared out the last of the prisoners in the two other wings.” She waited. “I’m afraid Rogue is no longer here. We may have been too late.”
Logan growled and barked. “We’re trying to find out where the shipment went. The locations are encrypted. Shadowcat, can you make your way down here, we might need you.”
“Sure thing. On my way,” she replied.
Suddenly the radio came to life. There was static and then a male voice. “Morris. Morris, can you hear me?”
Logan and Remy gave each other a glance and kept working. The voice came back on.
“Pick up the receiver Morris, dammit. I’m headed North on Route 113 with the Worthington cargo...”
“Put the radio down,” came a swift order.
Logan’s entire body jerked at the sound of her voice. Marie. He jumped at the machine and tried to work it. Remy left the computer to try and help. Logan was almost hyperventilating with adrenaline. Her voice. Her sweet, sweet voice speaking at this very moment.
And then her voice was hard and held an edge of warning. “I said put it down!”
A second and he heard a gunshot before the radio went static.
“Jesus. No!” He couldn’t lose the connection now. He shouted into the handset, finally turned to the right settings. “Marie!” he yelled. “Marie!”
Nothing. He waited, praying. Nothing happened. His mind raced. “What road did he say?”
Remy didn’t miss a beat. “Route 113.” He followed Logan out of the room.
XXX
“Gambit think perhaps we slow down, non?” The boy was holding on to the door handle with a death grip. “Wolverine don’t have great record driving so fast...” The car swung around a corner and Remy cursed colorfully.
“Can it, LeBeau.” He drove like a bat out of hell. Route 113...that was close by, only a couple miles. He needed to catch that truck.
Remy pointed. “Dere is 113, homme.”
Logan took the corner and floored it down the small back road. So close. So close. It was agonizing going down the empty road. Minute after minute ticked by. They were nearing the end of 113 where it emptied out onto a major highway and it would be impossible to find her after that.
“Come on, come on...”
“Up dere!” Remy said, pointing to clouds of smoke billowing up from a jacknifed truck.
Logan’s heart took off at a gallop.
“Fuck!”
He swung the car to a stop a hundred feet from the wreckage and threw himself out of the driver’s side seat. He ran towards the overturned truck. Remy climbed out from his side of the car and followed.
“Marie!” Logan yelled as he ran up to the truck. God. Marie in another car accident. He couldn’t even handle the thought. A quick look into the driver’s cab and he ruled that out. Only a disfigured man half hanging out of the window. He ran around to the back screaming her name.
“Marie, baby!”
Remy was already trying to pull back the door when Logan got there. He released his claws and sliced through the metal. Remy pulled the loose piece away and Logan climbed through. He froze. Her scent was thick with blood. It was so strong.
“Jesus, Marie, answer me,” he begged.
He followed the scent into a crate and froze, claws automatically sliding out.
Sabretooth. The air was thick and musty. Logan felt a growl start low and deep in his throat. He moved around slowly, trying to find the owner. It was difficult in this big box where everything was so contained. Two bodies crumpled up in corners, not hers.
He turned around and there he was. Sabretooth’s form hung from overhead, his body held in place by metal locks around his wrists. There was one at his neck also. His head hung at an odd angle.
Logan looked at him in confusion. Why wasn’t he healing? Blood pooled down out of his mouth and his eyes were open and vacant. The smell of death was starting to take hold.
He backed away, looking around. She’d been here. Her smell was stronger, but it was caked in blood. He found a spot on the floor of the container -- now basically a wall -- where her blood had pooled and now ran down in little rivers to the floor. He stared at it in horror.
“Homme!” Remy called from the entrance. “Dere is a trail of blood out here.”
Logan jerked his head away from the wall. He ran back to the entrance and climbed out.
“Where?”
“Here,” he said pointing at a small opening on the side. There was blood smeared on the outside of the truck and lightly spattered on the snow just to the side. He would have expected more blood in the direction she had gone but there wasn’t.
There were, however, footprints. Small, even footprints leading off the road. He followed them to the edge of the road and took a long inhale.
His heart soared. “Marie.”
He turned to Remy. “Stay and wait for the team. I’m going after her.” He didn’t wait for Remy to nod before taking off into the woods. Wolverine, the hunter, came to the surface, ready to track her. He slowed to take a few sniffs and then took off at a run.
He judged the time of the radio contact with how long it had taken them to get out here. Knowing her pace at a normal run, he judged her to be no more than a mile ahead of him. She was injured too, which would slow her down. And the footprints were of her bare feet, which meant she’d be slowed down even more.
She was probably trying to get as far away as possible, not knowing where she even was. The disorientation would drag her down even more.
But she was also strong willed. He couldn’t really put a judgment on how far or how fast that would drive her.
He picked up speed as her scent grew stronger, closer. He was breathing through his nose, staying on her trail with little effort.
Had she known Sabretooth was dead? It wasn’t like her to run against the wind. She would know that Sabretooth could follow her scent as he was doing now.
He growled in aggravation when she was further ahead than he had thought. He needed to get to her now. She was hurt and he needed to heal her.
Her scent was close now. He was so close. He pushed forward, easily covering the distance.
Then he saw her small figure a hundred feet or so ahead, weaving through the trees. Her bare feet were moving more quickly than he would have thought possible considering her injuries and the freezing cold.
He stopped. “Marie!” he bellowed through heaving breaths.
She stumbled to a stop. For a moment, she stood there, motionless. Then her head snapped around and he finally was able to see her beautiful face again, albeit from a distance.
“Marie,” he called to her. “Darlin’, it’s me.”
He could see the air leaving her mouth in strong pants, fogging the freezing air.
“Logan?” she called. And he heard the crack in her voice, the tears that were seconds from spilling over.
He took off again. She covered her mouth with one of her shackled hands as a sob escaped her trembling body. She stumbled towards him. He closed the distance between them.
XXX
She’d been running as hard as she could for a while now. Her feet were beyond numb. She worried about frostbite, but the two times she’d stopped to check her feet, they looked pink and healthy, so she kept moving forward.
Creed’s healing factor was coursing through her veins, making her heart beat steady and strong despite her exhaustion. She wouldn’t be able to keep going too much longer. She knew from Logan that the healing only covered physical damage, not mental. She hadn’t slept in two -- maybe three -- days.
Her mind was starting to fade in and out. She saw black shadows across her vision every couple of minutes, signs of sleep deprivation. She’d keep running, but she wasn’t sure if she could keep running in a straight line. God, where was she? She could be in the middle of nowhere. How was she going to find help? If she could just reach a road, she could find the nearest gas station, use the phone. But what if they tracked her there?
She was passing through a thick patch of trees when she heard his voice.
“Marie!”
She froze. Was her brain playing tricks on her? It wasn’t her inner Logan, he was safely locked away. But his voice was so crisp and clear, so real.
She had to know. She turned her head to look.
And there he was. Standing in his uniform, breathing heavily, the moisture from his breath fogging up. She blinked slowly, trying to make the hallucination disappear. But when she opened her eyes, he was still there.
“Marie.” He took a small step forward. “Darlin’, it’s me.”
Her throat clogged up and she could feel the tears rise involuntarily. “Logan?”
Then he was running toward her again. Her hand shook as it came up to muffle the pathetic sob that escaped her mouth. She tried to run to him, but her legs decided now was the time to start giving out, leaving her hobbling shakily instead.
He closed the gap between them in seconds and she threw herself at him, bringing her shackled hands down around his neck, her face burying itself under his chin. He caught her weight easily and crushed her to him, her feet dangling.
“Logan,” she cried into his neck.
He had one hand tangled in her dirty stringy hair, the other wrapped tightly around her torso. “Jesus Christ, Marie,” he said hoarsely. She felt his hands running over her body, checking her for wounds. “Are you hurt?” he asked desperately. “Let me see, baby.”
She gripped him tighter. “I’m okay. I’m okay. Logan, just don’t let go,” she whimpered.
Her whole body convulsed as she sobbed into the warm skin of his neck. She couldn’t get anything out but his sweet name. “Logan...oh, Logan.”
He was talking softly into her ear through her hysterical tears. “I got ya, darlin’. Shh...I’m here.”
It took a minute for her to release her death grip. The second she did, he pulled her arms down, released his claws and sliced the shackles from her wrists. They fell to the ground as she wrapped her arms back around his shoulders. He pressed his forehead to hers. “Don’t you ever say goodbye to me again, Marie,” he ground out. “Don’t you dare. Don’t you fuckin’ dare.”
She nodded, tears still streaming down, leaving tracks through the dirt on her face. He kissed her for all she was worth then, his mouth moving frantically over hers. He suddenly pulled away, closing his eyes and letting out a shaky breath. When he opened them, he pulled himself away and started to look at her.
“Fuck,” he said, seeing the blood covering her shirt and arms.
He grabbed at her blood-soaked shirt and pushed it up, looking for the wound. His eyes scrunched in confusion. He moved to her face, pushing back the hair and turning her so he could look. When he peeled off one of the bandages from her arm to see only perfectly smooth skin, he looked back up at her.
“What the...”
“Creed,” she said by way of explanation.
“You touched him?” he said in horror. He grabbed her face in his hands and looked in her eyes. “How much of him is in your head?”
“None,” she assured him. “I didn’t take his personality.”
“Just his healing...” he said.
She nodded.
“How much?”
She held her breath. “All of it.”
“What?” he said softly.
“I took all of it, Logan. I pulled until there wasn’t a drop left to take.” He was speechless. “He threatened to come after you. He was goin’ to try and use me against you...”
He hushed her. “Don’t worry about that now, Marie. Just...” he buried his face in her neck and breathed her in. “...Let me smell you. Let me...” His inhaled breath froze and so did hers.
His grip on her grew tighter for a moment. He let out a shaky breath and then inhaled again, testing her scent. And this time, he pulled away and looked at her, his eyes wide.
“Marie...”
“He was gonna use that against you too.” Her eyes grew hard. “I couldn’t let him do that.”
He was staring at her. And for the first time, she was completely in the dark about what was running through his head. Usually, she had at least some idea. Not this time. His eyes were unreadable. She held her breath, waiting for his reaction.
And then he was kissing her like he was trying to lose himself in her. When he pulled away he was growling softly. “I didn’t realize...the other day...it was so faint. I could barely smell it.” He smiled. “It’s so much stronger now.”
She blushed. “Is that a good thing?”
He smiled, the expression making him look suddenly much younger.
“Yeah...” he said. “It’s a good thing.” He kissed her again and lifted her off her feet, sliding his gloved fingers into her hair again. He growled softly. “You have no idea what it’s doin’ to me to smell that on you, darlin’.”
She chuckled. “We’ll have to talk about that a little later. Right now, I think I just want to get warm and clean.”
His eyes changed and he growled. “Fuck. I’m sorry, Marie.”
He pulled away, keeping a hold of her arm and walked next to her in the direction of the road. When she wobbled along the first few steps, he cursed and scooped her up into his arms.
“Logan,” she said with a laugh. “I’m not a baby.”
He scowled. “You think I’m gonna let the mother of my child walk through fuckin’ snow wearing nothin’ but lab scraps?”
“That’s really sweet, Logan. But with this healin’...”
“Fuck the healin’, Marie. I don’t give a shit. Even if you weren't knocked up, I wouldn't let you go traipsin’ around in the snow barefoot. Now shut up and let me take care of you.”
She sighed and obeyed, ignoring his comment on her condition. She rested her head against his shoulder as he carefully walked back the way they’d run. The gentle beat of his heart and gentle rhythm of his warm breath soon lulled her to sleep.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
IMPORTANT: If you haven't read the chapter 'COVER', which I forgot to post two days ago, go and read it.
Well, here it is! The next chapter. I just couldn't wait to post it! I know I'd be jumping out of my skin waiting for the next chapter. And all of the reviews have been so wonderful that I felt obliged!
Well, here it is! The next chapter. I just couldn't wait to post it! I know I'd be jumping out of my skin waiting for the next chapter. And all of the reviews have been so wonderful that I felt obliged!
Chapter End Notes:
Awww...Well...There's still one more chapter to go...but don't go thinking it will be up by tomorrow. It's not written yet...remember I posted the last three chapters all within two days and I need time to catch up! Give me two days to get that one up before you start flaming me... : )