CHAPTER 1

The weeks following Logan's departure were everything else than peachy for Marie. After her grumpy protector had left the mansion, the other students' opinion about the once untouchable girl didn't stay behind her back any longer. Even as Logan was still around, Marie didn't miss the with hatred filled glares her former friends cast her way. But with him gone, she had become the perfect target for pranks, gossip and vandalism.

One day, she just returned from her college-classes, Marie found her normally locked door standing ajar and her once long-sleeved shirts and sweaters were spread on the floor while the cut-off sleeves were arranged on her beddings, reading 'TRAITOR'. She had cried silently, before approaching Storm about the new incident.

The brunette knew that the weather witch didn't approve of her choice to take the cure, but her former teacher still treated her like before. Like every time, Storm held a speech that the culprits shall make themselves known and apologize, but as always nobody knew anything.

It hadn't taken her long to make plans for a life away from Mutant High and so she left with a quick good-bye to Jubilee, Kitty, Piotr and Storm and a letter for Logan - containing her cell phone number – cutting her last ties to her life as a mutant.

With her few savings from a summer job as sales clerk and a few bucks slipped into her jeans' pocket by Logan, she made her way to McLean, Virginia, where she had found a cheap and small apartment and a job as waitress at a diner, just a block from her apartment building. This was just a part-time job to bridge the two weeks before she could start at her real occupation as assistant teacher at The Langley Primary School. Marie had already applied for the job the same day her clothes were destroyed and thanks to her status as 'cured'- mutant the brunette received a positive answer.

After the disaster at Alcatraz, the government had passed a new law that mutants and former mutants have to be more integrated into society to lessen the likelihood of a war or attacks. So new 'integrating' schools popped up out of nowhere across the whole country – the high financial support from the state hadn't anything to do with this occurrence - at least officially.

Marie was looking forward to spend her days with kindergarteners, helping them explore the world and teaching them. In order to earn more money for the years to come, she would resume her job at the diner at the weekends. She would need the money soon.

X

Sure to have left her past as a mutant behind her – nobody except the school's headmaster knew about her being a 'cured' mutant, for everyone else she was a normal human woman – Marie strolled over to a booth across the TV taking the order of a new customer. Her heart sped up when she saw the dark hair on the back of the man's head and her breath caught in her throat when she saw the sideburns on the man's cheek. 'Logan?' A small glimpse of hope sparked that her first and only lover was looking for her, but when the young brunette stopped at the table and the man turned his head to face her, the cat-like grin she was faced with made her heart skip a beat.

"I knew I smelled someone familiar. Whatchaya doin' here so far away from the geeks, frail?"

His piercing blue-grey eyes froze her to the spot, flashes of a tree trunk crashing into a truck and Magneto telling her that she would die flickered before her mind's eye. She saw his grin widen at her fear, his sharp canines reminding her of what kind of animal sat before her. She pressed her eyes shut for a moment, steadying her nerves. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction to flee from the diner like the prey, she was in his eyes.

With a deep breath Marie opened her eyes and glared back at him. "Taking your order, Sabretooth." She noted his short hair, shaved face except for the all too familiar sideburns and his clean black button up and jeans. If it wasn't for that voice and his hands, she wouldn't have recognized him as one of her kidnappers.

A few chuckles escaped his lips, mocking her bravery while his gaze roamed over the girl's black skirt, skin tight sleeveless blouse and came to a stop at her bare hands that clutched her notepad to her stomach protectively. "Let me guess, they didn't want you any longer?" His eyes didn't leave her uncovered hands, though he had to admit that there were other body parts of her that were much more appealing to look at. 'The runt doesn't have a bad taste in females, no wonder he protected this one so fiercely years ago.'

"Ah'm not paid for small-talk." She saw his nostrils flare and knew the moment his brow moved upwards that he knew it.

His eyes traveled upwards to her pale face. "Congrats, Stripes. And who is the lucky guy? Or has he already met the runt's claws?" Her fastening heartbeat and the change in her scent told Victor, he had hit a sensitive topic, but her features betrayed his initial assumption. After a moment of scrutinizing the girl's expression, another thought dawned on the feral and his eyes widened in realization. "It is the runt's."

'He hates Logan! He's gonna kill mah baby and me!' Marie glanced around her, seeing the knife and fork lie on the tabletop next to the mutant's clawed hands. The exit was on the far end from her current position, so her X-Men training told her, her best option was to take the fork and stab him into the eye – Logan had taught them to play dirty – and run for dear life. 'And then? He'll heal in no time and kill me! Ah'm dead!'

But to her bewilderment Sabretooth's expression became serious, but not in a predatory way. "Does he know?"

"Huh?"

Victor saw her eyes swap from the silverware to his face briefly and back. Rolling his eyes about the girl's obvious plan, he covered her chosen weapons with his hand and slid them a safe distance away on the tabletop, out of her reach. "Does the runt know?" His voice was edged with impatience.

Marie stared at the man before her, still not believing that she was still alive and he was sitting in front of her calmly. "Umm…"

"Is this a 'yes' or 'no', Rogue?"

The ring of her old codename broke the spell and she shot a glance over to her other patrons, before bending a little more towards the other mutant. "Mah name is 'Marie', if ya can read mah name tag."

He had to grin about her boldness. "Where is he?"

"That's none of your business."

'Sure it is, if that idiot of brother of mine lets his child grow up without a father, only because that dick is on his year long journey to find himself!' Victor growled at the thought of his baby brother hunting after his past in the Canadian wilderness, but stopped immediately when he smelled a new wave of fear from the girl. "So he doesn't know about his cub and you have no clue where that idiot is at the moment?"

"The baby is mah responsibility and not Logan's. Can we finally close this topic, Sabretooth?" Feeling that the immediate danger was over – her intuition after month long study of Logan's behavior told her so - Marie fetched her pencil from her pocket and opened her note pad. "If ya won't kill me now, ya should finally tell me your order."

"Victor."

"What?" A frown found its way onto her forehead as she stared at him confused.

"Victor. My name."

She almost groaned at the sight of his cocky grin spreading about his features. "Fine. What do ya want, Victor?"