Marie was awakened by a muffled scream coming from the person next to her. Fully and completely conscious, she raised herself up on one elbow in order to get a good look at Logan’s face. Sure enough, his features were contorted as he was lost once again in the grips of another nightmare.
Remembering what had happened the last time she had woken him abruptly from a nightmare, Marie began running her hand up and down his arm in a soothing motion, whispering softly in his ear. Still, Logan continued to cry out, his body writhing as though in some incredible agony. Suddenly, Logan flung his head back, a loud, primal scream erupting from his throat. There was so much pain in that cry that it brought tears to Marie’s eyes.
“Logan, wake up, sugah,” Marie murmured, his lips only millimeters from his ear. “Ya need t’ wake up now. Wake up, Logan.”
Logan continued to shake and sob, his pain clear in every line of his body. Biting her bottom lip nervously, Marie carefully rolled Logan onto his back, being sure not to wake him. Scooting back against the headboard, Marie lifted Logan’s head onto her lap to ensure that she would stay out of range of his lethal claws.
“Logan, wake up,” Marie said more forcefully, smoothing her fingers through his hair. “Wake up, Logan.”
With a sudden cry, Logan shot into a seated position, his claws extending as the propulsion carried him forward onto his elbows. His arms gave way almost instantly and he collapsed forward, sobbing into the bedding.
“Oh, Logan,” Marie whimpered, pressing herself over Logan in a full body hug.
“Why did they do this to me?” Logan sobbed into the mattress. “Why? What did I do that was so terrible?”
Marie’s heart shattered into a million pieces at those wretched words. Sliding off of Logan’s back, she nestled her body as close to his as possible. With a gentle hand and coaxing words, she was eventually able to convince Logan to turn his head in her direction. When their eyes met, Marie was floored by the amount of pain that she saw in them. Too much pain for a single person to bear.
“Ya didn’t do anything, Logan. Nothing at all,” Marie insisted, her hand smoothing his hair away from his face.
Logan shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut tight. “No.... No. That’s not true.... I had t’ have done something for them to do all that to me.”
“That’s not true, Logan, an’ ya know it,” Marie chastised him, pressing a kiss to his forehead. She held him tightly in her arms, her chin resting on the top of his head. “If ya were a bad person, ya’d still be out in the snow. Ah wouldn’t have brought ya into mah house if Ah believed fer one second that ya were a bad person.”
“But you couldn’t have known that then. I was almost dead at the time. For all you knew I was some murderer,” Logan reminded her, snuggling deeper into her arms, searching out the comfort that he sought to deny himself.
Marie squeezed him tightly, holding his shuddering body against her own. “Ah knew that ya weren’t a murderer because o’ where Ah found you. In the forest, far away from any nearby town, wearin’ only a pair of shorts in almost three feet o’ snow. Ah don’t know how ya got there, Logan, but Ah doubt that ya got there by choice.... ‘Sides, Boris was the one who found ya. If he hadn’t like ya, he wouldn’t have come t’ get me. Boris wouldn’t let anyone near me that he though would hurt me. So if Boris trusts ya, ya hafta be a good person.”
“That’s a lot of trust to put in a dog,” Logan mumbled, his sobs diminishing to choked off whimpers.
“After he stopped me from pickin’ up a hitchhiker who turned out ta be a rapist Ah learned t’ trust Boris’s judgment,” Marie told him, running her hands up and down Logan’s back as she spoke. “Hasn’t led me wrong yet.”
Instead of saying anything, Logan held her tighter. Marie could feel a wetness seeping through the thin tanktop that she wore-- Logan’s tears. Unable to think of any words that would console him, Marie simply held onto him, letting him clutch at her as he would. She knew that it meant more to Logan than any words would. No matter how much she tried to convince him that he wasn’t a bad person, it wouldn’t be her words that he would believe, but the actions that she put behind it.
So instead of trying to reassure him with words, Marie held Logan as he cried himself back into oblivion. Logan’s sobs continued until exhaustion finally won out. Even though she knew the apparent danger of sleeping so close to Logan, it didn’t deter her in the least. She trusted him not to hurt her and knew that this was the best way to prove it to him.
“Ah’ll prove t’ ya that yer not a bad person,” Marie murmured into Logan’s hair.
Her gamble proved correct when, the next morning, Marie woke up to find Logan staring at her, seemingly awestruck by that fact.
“I didn’t hurt you,” Logan mumbled, reaching a hand out to trace the different contours of her face. “You were right here the whole night and I didn’t hurt you.”
Marie nodded her head, leaning into Logan’s touch. “Ya didn’t hurt me, sugah. Ah knew that ya wouldn’t hurt me an’ ya didn’t.”
“That was a foolish thing to do,” Logan breathed out as he buried his face against her breasts. “There was no telling what could have happened.”
Marie pressed her cheek against the top of Logan’s head, relishing in the warm blanket that Logan created when he rolled them so that he was lying mostly on top of her. Wrapping her arms around him, Marie shifted so that she was more comfortable under Logan’s larger frame.
“Is it so hard fer ya t’ believe that Ah trust ya not t’ hurt me?” Marie asked him as she traced patterns up and down the curve of his spine.
Pushing himself up on his elbows, Logan stared down at her with a lost expression on his face. “Maybe it’s that I don’t trust myself. I don’t know anything about myself. Who I was. What I was. All that I know is my name, the fact that I have those damn claws and the nightmares. That’s it. All that I am is those three things.”
Marie shook her head, reaching up to cup Logan’s cheeks in her hands. “It’s barely been a day, Logan. Ya can’t expect t’ know everythin’ about yerself in less than a day. Give it time, Logan,” she murmured, her right hand lightly stroking his hair while she stared straight into his unblinking hazel eyes.
“It’s what I don’t know that scares me,” Logan admitted, dropping his head back down onto her shoulder.
Logan’s body came crashing down on her suddenly, sending all the air shooting from her lungs. Logan tensed immediately as Marie struggled to force air back into her lungs. Glancing over Logan’s shoulder, Marie came face to face with Boris’s slobbering face and promptly rolled her eyes.
“We were already awake, Boris. We didn’t need an alarm clock,” Marie scolded, shoving Boris’s head away from hers as his doggy breath overcame her.
With a bark, Boris bounced off the bed and took off down the stairs.
“What was that?” Logan gasped, pushing himself off of Marie and onto his side.
Grinning, Marie sat up and drew the blankets up around her tanktop and underwear clad body. “Boris is mah alarm clock. He wakes me up at the same time every day. Visitors or not visitors. Now we hafta get up. In another three minutes, Boris’ll be right back up here demanding to go outside.”
Not waiting for Logan’s response, Marie rolled out of the bed and made a quick dash for her terry cloth robe which was lying over a chair near the window. She pulled it on hurriedly, tying the sash around her waist before the cold could seep in. Once it was on, Marie turned back to the mess of clothes that littered the floor and picked out the wool socks that she had discarded some time during the night.
As she made her way to the stairs, Marie caught sight of Logan who was still lying on the bed. Making a tiny detour, she smacked him lightly on the chest and continued towards the stairs. “Come on, lazy bones, or Ah’ll send Boris up here after ya.”
Even with the broken night’s sleep, Marie felt more alive than she had in a very long time. She was filled with so much energy even though she had never been much of a morning person. Boris noticed it as well, his head cocked to the side as he sat in front of the back door.
“Boris, go upstairs and get Logan,” Marie ordered, absently waving her hand towards the stairs as she set about making coffee for the two of them. True, she didn’t know if Logan liked coffee, but she was going to make enough for two anyway.
Barking gleefully, Boris took off at a charge towards the stairs, his steps echoing loudly as he raced towards her bedroom. Hearing a muffled exclamation, Marie burst out laughing, nearly spilling the coffee grounds on the counter.
“Don’t hurt him, Boris!” Marie shouted up to the second floor.
“Mar-- Marie, call you... call your dog off!” Logan called, his laughter filtering down to where she stood.
Rolling her eyes, Marie snapped her fingers a single time. Almost instantly she heard Boris sprinting back down the stairs followed shortly by a gasping Logan as he trudged down the stairs.
“How on earth do you get him to listen to you like that?” Logan demanded as he headed into the bathroom to wash the dog slobber off his face.
“Boris loves me, don’t ya, Boris?” Marie cooed as she let the rottweiler out the back door. She immediately shut the door as a draft of cold air blew against her bare legs. She watched through the window as Boris took off around the side of the cottage and rolled her eyes. Undoubtedly he was off chasing some form of wildlife that was foolish enough to venture out in such cold climates. Most likely a rabbit. Boris loved hunting rabbits.
“D’ ya like eggs, Logan?” Marie called towards the bathroom as she turned away from the door.
Logan came out, a confused expression on his face. “You know, I really don’t know. Guess we’re going to find out.”
“Ah guess we will.”
There was a slight pause then Logan asked, somewhat hesitantly. “Um... Marie.... Weren’t you wearing a lot more when you went to bed last night?”
Her cheeks flushed bright red, Marie glanced down at herself then over at Logan. “Well.... Yes. Yes, Ah was. See, Ah kinda have this little habit of sheddin’ layers while Ah sleep. Never remember doin’ it in the mornin’. It just kinda happens.”
“Oh. I was just wondering, you know. Seeing as how you were wearing all sorts of clothes when we went to bed and woke up wearing that little bit of clothes,” Logan said gesturing towards Marie where her robe hid the near nakedness of her body.
Their eyes met suddenly, only for a moment, before both of them turned and headed in different directions. Logan towards the stairs and Marie towards the fridge. Just as Marie opened the door, she heard a loud thud and a strangled sound from Logan.
Spinning around, Marie’s eyes fell instinctively on Logan’s prone body. She was about to run over to him when she caught sight of someone else in the room.
A soldier armed with an empty syringe.