"Wake up kid."
Marie flinched as her eyes flew open. Looking around she noted they were no longer moving, instead they were parked between two buildings, facing the highway. The sun was just peeking over the horizon.
"Where are we?" she asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to get them to stay open as she yawned.
"Somewhere that serves breakfast, didn't catch the name of the town," Logan replied, as he stepped out of the truck, stretching out his back and rolling his shoulders as he went. "You might want to jump in the back and get a jacket and shoes," he commented, "And hurry up, I'm starving."
With a nod Marie opened her own door and jumped out of the cab, almost landing in a heap on the ground.
"You alright?" Logan called in amusement, from where he was unlocking the camper at the back of the vehicle.
Marie staggered and limped a bit as she made her way back to the door. "My leg has gone to sleep," she replied, not looking near as amused as Logan was, as she rubbed at her tingling leg trying to encourage the muscles to wake up.
Logan handed her her boots as she sat in the doorway and she hurriedly tugged them on, noting she was still wearing Logan's socks. No way she was taking them off now, they were nice and toasty, much better than her own, if he wanted them back he'd have to ask for them. Once she had both boots on, he handed her her now dry coat.
"Don't worry about gloves for now, it'll be warm inside," he said, as he locked up the truck, and led her the short distance to the diner he had spotted as he drove through town.
They seated themselves at a table in the back corner, as a plump, middle-aged waitress called a cheery 'morning' from the kitchen. She hurried over to their table with a coffee pot and a couple of mugs in short order, two menus tucked under her arm. Depositing the mugs, she then handed the menus over, as she filled both cups with steaming black coffee.
"I'll give you a minute to decide," she commented, before she moved away, returning briefly to leave a creamer and sugar pot on the table.
"What'll you have kid?" Logan asked, briefly perusing the menu. "Marie, what's wrong?" he asked, noting her sudden silence. He glanced over to see she hadn't even picked up the menu.
"I don't have any money," she whispered, flushing slightly.
"So?" Logan replied.
"So, I can't pay for food," Marie answered exasperatedly.
"Didn't ask you to, my shout, pick whatever you want," Logan stated, "And don't just go for whatever's cheapest, you'll eat a decent meal or I'll pick for you next time," he added. He looked pointedly at her a moment later when she had still made no move to pick up the menu. She realised he was serious at that point and finally picked the menu up.
The waitress appeared again a moment later, notepad in hand. "Ready to order?" she asked chirpily.
Logan nodded for Marie to order first. "I'll have the Breakfast Special," she answered.
"Make it two, with an extra side of bacon," Logan added, handing the two menus back over.
"Sure thing, that'll be out in a few minutes," the waitress replied, gathering up what she needed and retreating again.
After a few minutes and a few sips of her bitter black coffee Marie spoke. "So, where are you heading?"
"I'm heading for my cabin, up near Whitehorse, in Yukon," Logan replied.
"How far away is that?" Marie asked, "How long would it take to get there?"
"If you drove hard out it's almost a full 24-hour drive, weather dependant at this time of year, but I've got a few more stops to make on the way so I probably won't be getting there for about another two weeks," he answered.
"Do you know how far to Alaska from there?" came the next inquiry.
"It's about five hundred kilometres to the border from Whitehorse, or twelve hundred to Anchorage," Logan replied.
"How long is that in driving time?" Marie pressed; she wasn't familiar enough with metric measurements to be able to guess.
"In good weather, that's about thirteen hours to Anchorage, if the weather packs up though you can get stranded somewhere for a week easily."
The waitress interrupted their conversation then with their food, returning a moment later to refill Logan's coffee. She offered Marie more too but she shook her head, asking instead, "Do you have orange juice?"
"Sure do sweetie, I'll grab you a glass," the woman smiled and bustled away.
Logan smiled at her as he tucked into his breakfast before Marie shyly said, "Sorry, should have asked you first with you paying and all," she trailed off.
"No need darlin, I told you, order whatever you want, if you want to get something to-go to snack on later you do that too," Logan assured her.
Her glass of orange juice appeared beside her then, she didn't get a chance to thank the waitress as she was gone as quickly as she'd appeared, off to serve new customers who had just entered.
"So, where's our next stop?" Marie asked, sometime later, once she had wolfed down most of her breakfast.
"We're going to stop off in Rocky Mountain House, need some supplies that they're more likely to have than a smaller town. We'll stay over there for the night, then there's a fight at Drayton Valley on Thursday, then Whitecourt on Monday, Grand Prairie on Wednesday, Fort Nelson the next Saturday. And that's when I drop off the fight circuit, I don't do the fights further north, too close to home, so we'll head direct to Whitehorse from there, won't do the whole thing in one go though, it's a twelve hour drive straight, so we'll stop over midway, assuming you don't mind six hours in the truck, we can make more stops if you'd prefer?" Logan laid out his rough plan for her, he was surprised how easy it had been for him to just assume she would stick with him for the duration of the trip.
"I- I don't want to be a pain, or slow you down, or get in your way," Marie replied, looking uncertain.
"It's no trouble," Logan replied, "It's not like any of my plans are set in stone, I just drift really, so if there's any sights you want to see along the way let me know." Marie smiled, seeming reassured, as she picked at her breakfast some more. "You full kid?" Logan asked concerned, the meal hadn't been that big.
She nodded. "Yeah, I haven't had much to eat since my money ran out so, this was kind of a lot in one go." She finally gave up the pretence and set down her fork, moving on to sip at her orange juice. Logan just nodded in understanding, and made a mental note to grab some snacks for her to top up on between meals, until she could adjust to eating more.
They sat in companionable silence for the rest of the meal before Logan signalled for the cheque. Marie excused herself to the bathroom before they got back on the road, when she came back Logan was gone. She momentarily panicked until a noise behind her drew her attention, and she spotted Logan coming out of the men’s room. He just grinned at her as he walked past and told her to hurry up.
--
About an hour later they pulled into a carpark at a sizable outdoors store.
"Come on kid," Logan commented, as he disembarked the vehicle.
"Oh, it's okay, I'll just wait here," Marie replied, kicking her feet up onto the dash as she snacked on a bag of potato chips.
"That would be pretty pointless given most of the stuff I'm here for is for you," Logan stated.
"Logan, I don't need anything, you don't need to buy stuff for me," Marie said, sounding annoyed.
"You're wrong kid, there's plenty of stuff you need, decent shoes for one, and gloves, I don't need to buy you stuff but I've got plenty of spare cash that you need more than I do so I'm going to anyway, now haul ass." He slammed the door shut behind him, so she couldn't argue with him anymore, and waited for her to follow him.
The store was just opening as a sullen Marie followed Logan inside, she groaned as he grabbed a cart on his way in. True to his word the first thing he went for was a decent pair of boots, he handed her several pairs around her size for her to try on.
"Pick two pairs," Logan said, once she had found the size she was comfortable with.
"But Logan--" she started.
"Don't argue kid, pick two pairs you like or I'll pick for you," he said again, as he walked away.
She hurriedly grabbed two pairs of sturdy hiking boots and followed after him, dropping them in the cart as he was throwing a dozen pairs of thermal socks into it. Next he moved onto the gloves, picking out materials by feel he handed her a pair of alpaca wool gloves and made her try them on. Once he was satisfied they fit he added three pairs to the growing pile in the cart, and added a pair of waterproofed leather gloves as well. After that he moved to the womens wear section of the store, adding some thermals that he figured were close enough to her size, then he moved on to the jackets, finding a down jacket that looked her size he handed it over to her.
"Try it on," he directed. She scowled but this time pulled it on without complaint. It was just a bit too big so he reached for the next size smaller when he heard an exclamation from behind him.
"Shit, no, no way Logan, three hundred bucks, I can't take this," Marie started up her complaints again.
"You're not taking it Marie, I'm giving it to you, I mean really, what am I going to do with a women’s jacket anyway," he joked.
"Gee I don't know, how about don't buy it in the first place," she replied sarcastically.
"Will you stop, please. Money means nothing to me, I've got more than enough, and if buying you this stuff means I can sleep better at night knowing you aren't going to freeze to death the minute you’re out of my sight, I'll gladly spend as much as I need to, okay?" Logan assured her.
"I just... I don't want to be a charity case," Marie muttered.
"Darlin, that's your pride talking, don't let your pride get you killed, trust me, I've been down that road myself, it's okay to take a hand up from someone every now and then, one day it'll be your turn to be doing the giving, for now you're getting. Now try this one on," he handed her the second jacket.
They left the store about two hours later, Marie now had so much stuff Logan had even bought her a new pack. He'd also gotten her a variety of basic survival items, and a sub-zero sleeping bag and a snow-rated single person pop up tent. Dumping everything haphazard in the back of the camper, Logan suggested lunch before they went to find somewhere to stay for the night.
Once they had ordered lunch, and were sipping drinks while they waited for their food, Marie turned to Logan again. "Thanks Logan," she stated simply, she had a feeling he wouldn't appreciate a big show of gratitude.
"You're welcome... don't mention it again," he said with a grin. She smiled back and they settled back into a companionable silence while they waited for their meal.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000