Chapter Three- Marie
I wanted a shower. The feeling of ickiness practically crawled up my skin. I felt my inner Logan snarl as he smelled himself on me, and having him stomping around my brain like a tiger in a cage wasn’t helping my stress levels. I stuck some ear-buds in my ears and looked out the window of the bus, blindly watching the scenery as it passed. I knew that I’d have to change buses at the next stop, but for now I was fairly comfortable enough to let my mind wander.
I felt like a coward for running like a scared little kid, but the feelings that I’d had--the isolation that kept me from really being a fully functioning member of the team-- just hit me all at once. I had packed haphazardly, more interested in getting the hell out before Logan woke up.
You do know that you always have a place here, my dear. I had had a mental image of Charles sitting in a old-fashioned chair, his fingers resting on the arms as he stared broodingly at a an abandoned chess board. It had still been odd enough to have what he sent me seem just as real as what my eyes saw. It wasn’t like that with Logan, or Erik, not even with David or Carol or any of the others that had lived in my head. Maybe, I had replied. But I don’t think so. This is a place for mutants, Professor. I’m not a mutant anymore. I had been grateful that I didn’t see anyone on the stairs. The mansion had been strangely quiet. That had seemed so strange, given the way my life had rocked on its axis. It seemed like there should be a more obvious commotion going on. I had made it all the way to the garage before ‘Ro had stepped out of the darkness, her shadow detaching itself from the brush and flowers. The light above the garage had burnt out and no one had gotten around to fixing it.
“Rogue, please... You don’t have to do this.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her to call me Marie. Her normally calm visage showed signs of the wear and tear that we had all been through. Well, that they had been through. Instead of helping them with everything, I had been hung up taking care of number one at the ‘Mutant Rehabilitation Clinic.’
“I know. But.. I think it’s something I need to do. I’m not runnin’ away, ‘Ro. Just leaving for awhile.”
Liar. I almost jumped at hearing Logan’s dark growl in the deepest part of my mind.
“It just feels wrong, Rogue. Why don’t you wait. Have some food. We have the debrief and...”
“No, ‘Ro.” I forced a smile. “I don’t think that’s gonna work. Look. I just need to get away for a bit. get my head on straight. My mind’s full of a lot of crap right now and I just need some time to get everything straight.”
There were two protesting squawks from my head. I felt Logan’s unwilling smirk at my choice of words.
“And what about Logan?” For the first time, ‘Ro sounded frustrated.
“What about him?” My eyes had narrowed. “Y’all locked him up.” I had frowned, the thought of them hurting Logan still enough to piss me off. “He was so ripped up by what he had to do to Jean that he just lost himself for awhile.”
“Rogue, I don’t think that--”
“Look. It doesn’t matter. He’ll be fine. How about this? Give me a week. Some time to... figure some stuff out. Then I’ll be back and we can talk, okay?” I pushed my hand through my hair. My own temper had never been exactly what you’d call sweet as sugar, and her concern was annoying me.
She didn’t look happy, but knew better than to argue. I wasn’t the same kid that I had been when she found me. She signed and stepped forward to pull me into a rough hug. That had been shocking enough. Her hands had been soft as she held my shoulders. Her white hair had slid against my face and I had flinched away before remembering that there was no reason to hide anymore. The cure had killed my skin. This was the reason that I had done this. This ability to touch.
“Promise that you’ll be careful?” She let me go and I was shocked to see that she still looked upset.
“Yeah. Of course.”
She sighed once more, stepping back. She had picked up a tote bag and handed it to me. “Money. A cell. You will check in in a week, or I’ll send out the cavalry. Don’t think that I won’t.” I didn’t have the heart to remind her that most of the cavalry had white headstones in the garden. I knew better than anyone how much it had hurt us. ‘Ro, Hank, Nightcrawler and Logan were now the de facto leaders of the X-men. It still seemed strange that Scott and the Professor weren’t going to somehow swoop in and fix everything. Yeah, I watched the news. There was still a mess to clean up both in Washington and in San Francisco. A mutant mess.
I had nodded, taking the bag without a word. I had turned to slide into the car seat, but had stopped with my hand on the door. I could see my face in the mirror. “‘Ro? You know that he’s kind of ... protective about me right? He’s gonna be worried that he hurt me. Please... tell him that I’m fine, okay?”
“I will.”
“Thanks.” I had whispered it, sliding into the car. My only thought was to drive, to get away. It wasn’t until much, much later that I realized that I had taken Scott’s Mazda. I’d been so exhausted that I hadn’t even smiled at the irony. From there it wasn’t much to find a bus station. I just drove until i ran out of gas, then grabbed my duffel. I took the money, but left the phone with the battery out of it on the seat before locking it up. I left the keys inside, hidden in the glove compartment.
“Is anyone sitting here?”
The words jarred me out of my mind and I jumped a little in my seat. I hadn’t even realized that we had stopped.
Rogue? You need to rest. We should find a hotel. We can move on in the morning. Erik sent me an image of comfortable sheets and a hot shower and I almost whimpered.
“No, I’m just getting up, in fact.”
“Shame.” He smiled at me as I stood up. I grabbed my stuff and I yawned, habit making me avoid the touch of everyone else as I stepped off the bus. I didn’t even know what city we were in. And yes, before you ask I am a little suspicious of Erik being so concerned for my well-being. For the first two years or so, I just kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I mean, I was hyper-aware that this was the guy that once tried to kill me. But this younger version seemed... I don’t know. Not like my dad, really. More like a very favorite uncle. He was the one that told me to try honey in my tea when I had a sore throat, for Pete’s sake.
Rogue, you know that you can trust your Logan to give you the week that you asked for. Please, my dear. Find somewhere to relax. We can discuss our plan and get started when you’re not so tired.
“‘Kay.” There was a Holiday Inn to my left and I stumbled inside, spoke to the clerk and got myself a room. I jacked the air way up then made my way to the shower, dropping clothes as I went.
You gonna lock the doors kid? Or are you lookin’ for every damn transient asshole to break in?I I sighed then walked naked to the door and locked all the locks. If I hadn’t been so tired, I would have laughed at the lengths the three personalities in my head all went to make sure that they didn’t catch a glimpse of my nakedness.
Look, can you chill the hell out please, sugah? You’re giving me a headache. It’s true. He was. he was like his hairy, growly bucket of man angst and I was just too damn tired to deal with it. I dug in my bag for my soap and shampoo and shut the door, opting to leave the fan off. I wanted a hot, steamy shower.
I yawned, stretched and stepped into the tub, pulling the cheap liner shut behind me. The water felt amazing. I swear to god, I found each and every sore spot on my body. There was a hell of a bite on the back of my neck. He’d broken the skin in two small places and they stung like a bastard when the shampoo hit them.
So far, I’d done a pretty bang-up job of not freaking out about the fact that I’d had sex with Logan.
There was a snort from inside my head and I rolled my eyes. Look, don’t you think I deserve a little tiny bit of panic? I mean, there were some pretty damn crazy extenuatin’ circumstances.
Indeed. Erik and I have been discussing several different plans. I hope you do not mind my dear, but I have taken the liberty of...shielding you from some of your more disparaging emotions.
I frowned, rinsing my hair. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what I felt about that. I don’t know if I like you mucking about with my brain. I mean, more than you already have. It’s kind of freaky to have you in my head.
I felt Charles- it was getting increasingly more and more difficult to think of him as the Professor- chuckle in my head. I assure you that it’s a lot more ‘freaky’ for me to be residing in one of my former student’s heads. While she’s showering, yet.
I blushed.
Right. Well you guys go away for awhile so I can finish washing. Ow. Ow, ow ow ow ow and fuck a freaking duck, ow.
Back at the mansion,I had pretty much thrown on clothes and taken off for the hills. It was still embarrassing to wash the rest of my body. It was a lot harder to ignore the fact that someone else had touched me there. My left nipple was a little sore. So were ... other places. My blush turned a little deeper. This was ridiculous. Millions upon millions of girls lost their virginity every single day. I shouldn’t be making such a huge deal about it. I just stood there under the spray for a moment, forcing my thoughts back to their numb state.
The important thing was the Logan was okay. I’d get my mind straight and go talk to him.
Later. Right now I wanted to fall on my face. I wrapped a towel around my hair, and one around my torso, securing it between my breasts. I was too tired to do much more than brush my teeth. There had never been someone so ready for sleep. I barely managed to set the alarm before I was asleep.
I woke up ten minutes before my alarm was getting ready to go off. Blinking, I stare at the red numbers, waiting for the radio station to come on. I’ve never been a fan of mornings. The air is cold. I’m completely comfortable and wouldn’t mind going back to sleep.
Guten morgan, mein kind.
I grunted a mental reply and ignored Erik’s dark, rich laugh. Don’t ask me how, but yep. Magneto was one of the most obnoxious morning people I had ever met. Charles, bless his soul, was more or less ambivalent to mornings. He had told me that after so many years of training students, he preferred to have a bit of a lie-in when time allowed. I suppose morphing himself into my brain allowed, because based on the four or so days that he’d been in my head, we didn’t usually hear from him until at least noon. And even there he was a bit bleary-eyed. It was pretty darn cute, actually.
I heard a snarl from my inner Logan and hid a smile. I did kind of miss him. Even though this was just a bit of him, it was still nice to let him out of his cage. I hadn’t been trying to be a bitch when I locked him in my mind. Just.. knowing that he thought of me as a kid sister, or worse, his responsibility, made it painful for me to hear him in my head.. And boy, was he pissed at being locked up. Now I could feel him as a constant, seething presence in the back of my mind. He never tried to talk to me even though I had made an attempt to sort of make nice. Smartass comments and the occasional growl, yes. Conversation, no. I mean, had been with me the longest after all. But he had just snarled something and stalked off to another corner of my mind. I think Charles had tried to talk to him, to calm him down, which had only ended up in Logan telling him to fuck off.
I sighed and rolled over.
So, was all that a dream? I had the feeling that both Charles and Logan were still asleep. If Erik had been real he’d be making muffins or something; he was in that good of a mood. Maybe in an apron. I snickered and stretched, wincing a little when my back popped.
Not exactly. And please cease picturing me in that ridiculous costume. I squinted and the pink, frilly apron morphed into a bright red Kiss the Cook apron. I felt Erik rolling his eyes and had to smile again.
While the two slugabeds are asleep, I thought you and I should have a chat.
I raised an eyebrow. Did you now?
Indeed. Not to put too fine a point on it, but hiding from your Wolverine will be an exercise in futility. Bei ihm ist eine Schraube locker! I have no wish to meet him when he believes you are angered. I have several ideas on how best to hide, but we will need some time to put everything into place.
That’s...for Erik... pretty much a sonnet. The German tripped me up for a moment, but along with his personality, I also inherited his understanding of his native language. And it was pretty amusing the way he would occasionally drop something in there.
Okay. But if we’re going to be plotting then I want some coffee. I roll out of bed and shiver at the cold air. It doesn’t take me long to dress. While I do, I call for room service. I’m suddenly absolutely starving. I eat hugely of everything, pack and check out of the hotel.
The next few hours were spent at both the airport and the various bus stations. I knew Logan would be able to track me, no matter what stealth I thought I was employing. But Erik had the idea of me giving him several different trails to follow. He wouldn’t be able to discount any of them, not knowing which one I was actually using. I guess Erik had some expertise tracking in his past. I never would have thought of getting onto several different buses as though I was lost, touching as much as I could to make sure that my scent was still there. I bought several different bus tickets from several different areas. It even got to be fun after awhile.
Around two, Charles talked me into going to an Internet cafe. I wanted more coffee, and I had the feeling that he was finally ready to tell me his plan. Logan had been quiet. Maybe he knew that I didn’t want to think about it. I mean, I kept having random thoughts of, oh I better tie my shoe I-had-sex-with-Logan be careful not to trip over that curb I-had-sex-with-Logan. I could feel Charles’ and Erik’s amusement and had pretty much told them to stuff it. That was one subject I wasn’t going to discuss.
I ordered something unpronounceable that was more sugar than coffee and some kind of cheese-stuffed danish thing and made my way to a table in the back. I got out my laptop and frowned when I saw that I had an email from both ‘Ro, and Jubes. I admit a tiny, little part of me had hoped that Logan might try to contact me, but given that I’d just spent the better part of the morning attempting to throw him off my trail, I could admit that this was a little bizarre. Then an even bigger part of me wanted to faceplant for worrying about Logan instead of my so-called boyfriend.
To: Rogue@xmen.org
From: Storm@xmen.org
Subject: Checking in
Rogue, I hope that this finds you well. Dr. McCoy has made me aware of some rather interesting information. Please contact me at your earliest convenience. I did give you the phone for a reason, you know. :) Many of your friends are worried about your abrupt disappearance. I thought that you should know.
‘Ro.
I sighed. She was about as subtle as a hurricane. Which fit, I suppose.
To: Storm@xmen.org
From Rogue@xmen.org
Subject: Re: Checking in
Yes, I’m fine. Please don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself. I’m not ready to come back yet and I’ll be sure to tell my friends that you didn’t send me off on a mission of doom or anything. I’m not sure what Dr. McCoy would have to say to me, but he is welcome to email me whenever he wishes.
Rogue
To: Rogue@xmen.org
From: Jubilation.Lee@xmen.org
Subject: What the actual fuck, girlfriend?
Dude. You have no idea what the hell kind of shitstorm you set off. I don’t know what is in your head right now (haha get it?) but there are rumors flying around about you like crazy. Did you really go get the cure? I.. okay I can understand that. I hope you’re not running away because you are having an angstoramma pity party. You know the Prof would flip his shit if he knew you left. Well, okay if he were alive. This is your home, Roguey.
I have some crazy news for you. The Wolverine is driving us absolutely fucking nuts. Not to overuse the animal cliches, kiddo, but he’s acting like a bear whose paw got chopped off. Or like a bear who’s lost his favorite honey pot. ;) You thought he was badass after those fuckers broke into the mansion? Shit. It’s not worth your life to talk to him. I don’t know what kind of magic Ms. Monroe has to keep him here but whatever it is, he does NOT appreciate it! You know I can’t help but wonder if you taking off and Wolvie’s piss-poor mood are related....
I debated whether or not to tell you this. Your so-called boyfriend and Kitty were kissing the other day. Kitty looked horrified when I saw them, but Bobby just smiled at me. He looked like someone came up behind him and hit him with a bat around like, the back of the head. Now I know why Wolvie calls him the Iceprick. Anyway, not tryin’ to piss you off girlfriend, but you gotta know that you jetting off caused a bit of tension here on the homefront. Come back soon when you can okay? I miss you. Please, please don’t forget that I’m always in your corner.
Love, Jubes.
I had to bite my lip. I purposefully took a bite of my danish thingy and two sips of coffee before responding.
To: Jubilation.Lee@xmen.org
From: Rogue@xmen.org
Subject: Re: What the actual fuck, girlfriend?
Aw, Jubes. I’m sorry. Yeah, I’m having some craziness and had to go to deal with it. I’ll fill you in later. Please try not to worry. Logan will get over it, and Bobby and Kitty... well. I saw that coming. I can’t even say that I’m all that upset so don’t go frying them on my behalf. But that’s more the kind of thing that I need to talk to you about in person. I’ll call you when I can, kay? Love you babes.
Rogue.
Right then. Shall we continue? I believe that if you log into my banking accounts you will find sufficient funds for us to continue our plans. I appreciated Charles’ inturuption. He told me what bankinng site to go to and gave me his password to login.
That’s about the time I spit my coffee all over myself. I mean, I knew that Charles Xavier had to be Loaded. Capital ‘L’ loaded.
That is only one of my personal accounts. He didn’t even sound smug, although I could feel Logan’s eyes bugging out over his shoulder. Okay then, shall we continue? I believe ten thousand or so shall do to begin. You can just transfer it over to your account. Once we graduated, the Professor had insisted that we start a bank account. He even gave each graduate a few thousand dollars to get started in whatever life they chose to do. It was ridiculously easy to transfer the funds to my own account.
Holy shit, kid. I like to see people get ahead in the world, but that’s a little ridiculous. You know that when he comes to find you, the first thing the other X-Geeks will check is your records to see if you’ve used your debit card.
Excellent point, Logan. You will, of course, have to withdraw several hundred dollars, most likely from several different machines.
Wait. Visions of being robbed and killed danced in my head. You want me to carry that much money around while I go in and out of bus and train stations?
Not exactly.
Look. I’m all for going along with getting you out of my head. I’ve been a pretty good sport, if I do say so myself. I haven’t fought you or tried to do anything terrible to work against you. I mean, I’m not trying to be rude or anything, but I’ve had a rather eventful week. So, do you think that for once... you can just tell me the Goddamn plan already?
I hear Charles sigh.
Charles, alten freund, she is correct. She has been most patient. And you of all people know that the Rogue isn’t exactly known for her patience.
That’s the damn truth.
The worst thing about having these voices in my head is that I can’t shake them when I absolutely fucking want to.
“That’s it. I’m done.” I stand up and start to move my trash towards the can when Charles actually sputters a little.
No! Okay. Okay- my apologies. You are right, Rogue. I do tend to play my cards close to my chest. It usually serves me well.
Yeah? Tell that to Jean.
The spike of pain isn’t imagined and is felt from two of the men in my head. I feel like crap for even mentioning her. It was a low blow, but I really wanted answers. I was getting a little sick of following along like a puppy, especially given that it was my body that he was living in. I grab my laptop and my coffee and stalk off down the street. I see a bus go by and it finally dawns on me that I’m in Albany. Jesus. Maybe I do need my hand held if I am just now figuring out where I am.
I purposefully block the chorus in my head out, imagining that each of them has duct tape over their mouths and are sitting in an empty room with no doors or windows. I take pity on Logan and give him an ashtray though. It always gives me a bit of a headache when I build my mind’s walls. I’m not sure if it’s because they’re so powerful or if it’s because I’m so weak, but when I’m done I just want to lay down. I see an ATM and make a withdrawal. They’ll only let me take $500 at a time, so it’s a bit of a drag to have to go from ATM to ATM, but I do it. I take buses at random, stopping whenever I see a bank.
It starts to get dark and it’s chilly enough that I don’t want to walk. I catch a cab and tell him to drive me to one of the cheap hotels by the airport. I know that Logan would never fly on a commercial airline and tends to avoid airports like the plague. I had a quick thought of him being detained by airport security and had to grin a little. I walk from the hotel that the cabbie drops me off down to another. I check into another hotel and sign into their wireless, then slowly let down my mental shields. Logan and Erik are amused at my little stunt. I think it’s the first time that they’ve agreed on anything.
Charles jumps in like three hours haven’t passed. We need to get to Colorado. He blurts. With your Wolverine, we desperately need to sufficiently muddy our trail or we will have very little chance of making it there. He sighed. In Denver is an associate of mine called Moria McTaggert.
I feel Erik’s shock, but am too enthralled at finally getting some damn answers to be distracted.
She does not know that I am still alive. Well, mostly alive.
“I’m not dead yet!” I say in a terrible British accent. I get the impression of Logan shaking his head. Charles sends me the impression of raising his eyebrow and I try not to blush. Not a Python fan then, I guess. It’s a lame attempt to make a joke.
You know how we worked together to wall off parts of your mind; subverting the personalities that your mutation absorbed. I believe that I can show you how to do the same with my own presence. If your mutation worked much like I anticipate, then your skin is like ... He trails off for a minute and I sip my coffee, making a face at the fact it’s gone cold. Your skin worked like those walls we created. I hope that you can reverse that process to reunite my consciousness with a body. Moria has one such in her care.
So I guess we’re going to Colorado? We need a car.
Indeed.
I start my search online, looking for something that will get us to where we’re going. It’s ridiculously easy to find a vehicle on ebay and I use the lobby payphone to call and make arrangements to look at it in the morning.
I got some of the money. I was going to get more later. Maybe when I go and get dinner.
Excellent. I can feel Charles over my shoulder as I count and am surprised that I have a little over $8000 in fifties and twenties. Shit. I’m suddenly nervous, staring down at the mass of cash. The last time I was on the run, I made it to Canada on three hundred dollars. This seems ridiculous. I hide the stack of money in a trashbag under the trashbag in the bathroom.
I kind of hope that I don’t have another one of those dreams like I did last night. It had been nice to see them, but I knew that it was dangerous to ... well this sounded silly, but to get too attached to the three in my head. They weren’t real. Even Charles... he wasn’t really the Professor. He didn’t even look like him. To be honest I wasn’t half- convinced that this was all some kind of hallucination. Imaginary friends meet Rogue, ex-superhero.
I sigh and go to find another few ATM machines. And a pizza. I’m freaking starving. I drain another two machines before I find a Mellow Mushroom and follow my nose and the scent of peperoni, sausage and mushrooms to a booth in the back. The temperature has dropped again as I walk down the street back towards the hotel. So, how is this going to work? Am I just going to show up in Colorado and knock on your friend’s door?
Not exactly. That’s a little ... complicated, unfortunately. We shall have to hope for a bit of luck I’m afraid.
You know, you used to tell me that we made our own---
LOOK OUT, KID!!
Before I even know what is happening, I’m diving to the left, rolling away from the street. I can hear Logan snarling in my head when the vehicle drives off the sidewalk I had just been on, tires squealing as it sped off.
Marie!
Rogue!
Rogue!
I must have whacked my head a good one. For a second I thought I saw a familiar form in the driver’s seat, but the thought slips away from me with the surge of pain from my head. Logan, Erik and Charles sound frantic. Fine... I’m fine.
“Hey, are you okay? Damn kids. Think they’re livin’ up the thug life when they borrow their damn parent’s cars for a joyride!” I flinch back from the older guy’s hand by sheer habit and then feel like a moron when he looks down at me concerned. “Hey now. Are you okay? Did you hit your head?”
“I.. yes. Yes, I’m fine. Thank you.” He helps me to my feet and hands me my satchel. A small part of me wonders if he’d be as nice if he knew I had almost four thousand dollars in there, then I feel like an ass for being so uncharitable. “Thank you so much. I’m fine- just bumped my head on the step there.” I jerk my head to the left, indicating the pawn shop’s stoop.
“No problem, miss. You be careful now. Have a good night.” He gives me a searching look for a second then seems to shrug and continue his business.
I bit my tongue a good one. Between it and my head I just want to go to sleep. The rest of the walk to my hotel is thankfully uneventful. Logan, Erik and Charles have settled down, knowing that my head was pounding. I skip the shower and just strip, wanting to be in my jammies and go to bed. I have a lot to think about. Colorado. I’d never been there before, and it seemed kind of weird to just show up on someone’s doorstep, but I had to trust that Charles knew what he was talking about. Surely he had his own best interests at heart. He wouldn’t do anything to mess up getting out of my head.
Maybe they respected my wishes. That or Charles is still wary of my little temper tantrum from before, because I sleep like the dead. If I dreamt, I don’t remember it.
The next morning Erik is with me again when we go to the address from the ebay bid.
Can I ask you something? He seems a little surprised, but I get the feeling of assent. Does it bother you that Charles is calling the shots? I mean, you’re not exactly a wuss here. Before he got here you were... I don’t know. Different somehow.
He smiles as I slide into the cab. I have been friends with Charles for... a very long time.
How did you meet?
He saved my life.
Unwittingly the image of Logan offering the seventeen year old me his beef jerky pops in my head. Even more unwittingly, the image of him lying on the ruined mattress, his face soft in sleep pops into my head and I feel my face heat with a blush.
Erik laughs. And does this still make you blush? How remarkable. You have in your head the very best and worst of humanity, and a yet you still are emabarassed at the memory of your lover.
I do the mental equivalent of a shocked sputter while Erik laughs again. To answer your question yes. A very long time ago I made the mistake of not trusting Charles. I thought him much too idealistic. Naive. I spent much of my early life trying to catch a monster, never realizing that I was slowly becoming a monster- just as evil in my own right. I had the chance to... possibly eradicate part of that darkness. Charles would have done anything and everything to help me. But I..Scheiße. We’re here.
I blinked. Erik never talked about his past. Ever. I knew of course. Everyone knew what had happened to him when he was a little kid. Hell, entire histories have been written about it. But he clearly did not wish to discuss it, and I had always tried to respect that.
“Miss? We’re here. That’ll be seven-fifty.” I give him a ten and slide out of the back. The house is actually a duplex, and I can see the car in the driveway. It’s obviously been freshly washed and waxed and I smile a little. Logan would have kicked my ass if I didn’t at least know how to make sure that the car- a late model Toyota- wasn’t at the very least roadworthy, but I appreciated the attempt to make it look nice.
“Hello there miss. Can I help you?” The screen banged open and a balding man with glasses peered out over the tops of them. He was rail-thin and looked like a strong wind would knock him over.
I smiled. “Hello. My name is Marie Lensherr. I called last night about the car?”
It was Erik’s turn to sputter. My grin grows wider when I get the mental equivalent of seeing him shoot his coffee through his nose.
“Yes! Yes, it’s right here. It was my mother’s.” The man’s voice chokes up for a second and I look away as he blinks back tears.
“Um..” I never know quite what to do when other people cry.
“Oh, no. Please excuse me.” He clears his throat and becomes more business-like, listing all of the car’s qualities. I notice there’s a huge dent in the right front panel. “Quite honestly, I should never be allowed behind the wheel of a vehicle.” He points to his glasses and winks. “It’s in excellent shape. Mother rarely drove anywhere. I just... it would just be easier if I wasn’t seeing it every day.”
I nod and pop the hood. “Oh goodness! How nice that you know about cars. I’m afraid I was never inclined that way.”
“Yes. I.. I had a great teacher.” Which was true. Logan was one hell of a teacher. He had us putting together and taking apart engines as part of the senior curriculum. Hell, his finals were evil. He would take us out into the woods with the car, do something to the engine, then just stand there with a stopwatch, waiting for us to fix it and drive back to the mansion. Bobby called him MacGyver behind his back. Very, very behind his back. The thought of Bobby and the mansion makes me sad for a moment until I shake it off.
I was glad to see that the man hadn’t lied. It seemed to be in a really good shape. We haggled for a little bit- not very much to be honest- and ten minutes later I had the title, a Toyota and was $7000 lighter. The man, Frank, seemed shocked that I just handed him over that much cash, but by then I had my gear in the passenger seat and the keys in my hand. I stopped at Radio Shack and bought a GPS and was on my way. I grinned to myself. As screwed up as everything was, it was still nice to finally be on my way. It wasn’t until I was driving on I-90 that I thought of the slight hitch in Charles’ plans.
Charles... you know that I never gained control of my skin. That’s why I got the cure in the first place. Have you thought that I might not be able to... fix you?
Nonsense, my dear. At the risk of sounding like one of your teachers- I believe that you can do anything that you want to do. I feel tears deep in my throat. As freaky as this is, I’m sort of glad that I’m not alone in all this.
You were never alone, kid. Logan’s mutter is very faint, but it still causes me to blink hard. I suddenly miss him, and feel ridiculous for doing so. I was the one that took off, right?
Sometimes I wish that I hadn’t gotten the cure. I never thought... I never thought that I would feel so empty.
Ah. Well, that is actually part of what I wished to tell you. Now you must prepare yourself. This is going to be a bit of a shock. I sit up straight, gripping the wheel a little harder. If Charles Xavier, the man who takes weird mutations as a matter of course over his morning tea (Earl Grey, hot.) tells me to prepare for a shock, you know it’s gonna be pretty epic.
The thing about the cure is... it’s not what we thought. Your so-called cure? It isn’t permanent, Rogue."