“Ya people are fuckin’ insane! Ya do know that, right? Fuckin’ insane!”
Marie was currently pacing back and forth across the interior of a state of the art jet. The group of leather clad super heroes had saved her from Erik’s machine, which she was incredibly grateful for, but she wasn’t entirely in the trusting mode. At that point in time, the only mutant she trusted was Logan and, to some extent, Victor. She had no choice when it came to Victor. Logan was alone with Victor so Marie had to trust that Victor wouldn’t do anything that would hurt Logan.
“You must calm down, child. There is no need for you to get so worked up,” the white-haired woman said. If Marie remembered correctly, her name was Storm.
Marie spun around to face the other woman, her eyes wild. “Ya expect me t’ calm down when Ah’m stuck on a plan with a bunch o’ people that look like they came outta a BDSM movie? Ah don’t know anythin’ ‘bout ya save fer the fact that yer mutants just like those bastards ya took me from. Fer all Ah know yer as bad as them!”
you’ve gotta be kiddin’ me, chica! As much fun as it would be to be a bad guy, us X-Men fight the good fight!” an over-exuberant Asian girl cheered. “We kicked old Magnethead’s ass from here to next week!”
“How about turning down the decibels a bit, Jubilee?” One Eye called back as he piloted the jet. “I’d like to keep my hearing intact.”
Jubilee stuck her tongue out at One Eye and made a face. “So I’m a little pumped, Cykes! What’s wrong with that? We just kicked a bad guy’s ass! Mags is gonna be stuck in jail from now till Doomsday!”
“Chére, Remy believes he can help you spend your energy,” said the Cajun with red on black eyes.
Jubilee lowered herself onto the Cajun’s lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “We have company, Remy. We have to behave.”
“Don’t mind me, Ah won’t pay attention if ya start suckin’ face,” Marie assured them, turning to face out the window. “All Ah care ‘bout is gettin’ t’ Logan.”
Leaning back in her seat, Marie let her eyes slide shut, her mind going back to the events of the past few hours. All of the fear and terror she had felt being tied up in the hull of the boat, not knowing what was going to happen. It hadn’t helped much when she had gotten sea sick. Not having any control over her powers, Marie hadn’t wanted to risk creating a hole in the bottom of the boat. That would mean instant death and she had every intention of getting out alive. Marie wasn’t going to leave Logan by himself.
Marie could vividly remember the way her arms had ached from being bound behind her back so long. Her seemingly endless tears had made her head throb. But that was nothing compared to the pain that she felt around her heart. Logan was hurting and there was nothing she could do about it. All that she wanted to do was hold onto Logan and let him know that everything was all right... but she couldn’t do that.
Before she had even been taken from the ship, the X-Men had shown up and dispatched of Erik and his crew of bad guy mutants. Trapped down below the water level, Marie hadn’t seen any of the fighting, only heard the sounds and felt as the ship was rocked back and forth, throwing Marie around the bottom of the hull. She had a large bruise on her right shoulder from all the rocking. Logan wasn’t going to be pleased when he saw it, but at least they would be together for him to see it.
Still, despite the fact that they had saved her life, Marie didn’t completely trust the X-Men. Most people didn’t go flying around in big black jets rescuing people in distress. Or, if they did, they certainly didn’t do it wearing skin tight black leather. That was the job of comic book heroes and they weren’t anywhere near Gotham City.
“Are we almost there?” Marie called up to the front of the jet, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. She pulled her feat up onto the seat, clutching at her legs and lowering her head on top of her knees. “Logan’s gotta be flippin’ out by now an’ Ah don’t want him t’ hurt himself.”
“This Logan doesn’t sound like a very rational man,” the redhead, Jean if she remembered correctly, said as she sat down in the seat directly across from Marie.
Marie stared daggers at her. “Well how would ya feel if the only person ya had in the world was suddenly taken away from ya an’ there was nothin’’ ya could do ‘bout it? Ah think that Logan has every reason t’ be a little freaked out.”
There was a snicker from Jubilee’s direction. “She sure told you, Jeanie.”
“Be nice, chére,” Remy chided, his obviously fake French accent very thick.
Rolling her eyes, Marie turned in her seat so that she was completely facing the window. From her body language, Marie hoped that the redhead got the message and stopped talking to her. Marie didn’t want to talk to anyone. She just wanted to get back to Erik’s island hideaway and to Logan who had to be going completely insane by that point.
Biting her bottom lip extremely hard, Marie struggled to keep herself from crying. She didn’t want these strangers to see her weak. Marie was going to stay strong and not let them know how scared she was for Logan. Her ordeal was over. Erik was on his way to a plastic prison and the rest of his comrades had been disposed of in a more permanent manner.
As soon as she caught sight of the island, Marie was on her feet and pacing once again. She was full of so much nervous energy and she didn’t know what to do with it. She wanted to run, she wanted to scream, but in the small confines of the plane, it wasn’t an option.
Marie was thrown to the ground at One Eye’s less than perfect landing. Scrambling to her feet, Marie was rushing towards the door before anyone else was even out of their seats. Thankfully, someone near the control panel had though ahead enough to open the door. There would have been hell to pay if Marie had to wait any longer than necessary to get to Logan.
“LOGAN!!” Marie screamed as she burst into the hanger. “LOGAN!!”
Sprinting towards the main corridor, Marie continued to scream Logan’s name, praying for him to answer her. Running had never been Marie’s favourite pastime, but she needed to get to Logan as soon as possible. She was frantic, completely terrified of what had happened to Logan while she had been gone. It had only been about twelve hours that she had been gone, but Marie knew for herself how agonizingly long those twelve hours had been. It had been hell for her as well.
“Logan!” Marie shrieked, her voice cracking as more tears filled her eyes, making her vision blurry.
“Marie.”
At the sound of Victor’s voice, Marie came to an abrupt stop. She would have toppled forward had she not been caught by a pair of strong arms. Gripping his forearms tightly, Marie steadied herself, staring up at Victor’s worried face.
“Where is he?” Marie whimpered, running her fingers through her tangled hair to get it out of her face.
“Logan’s hurting,” Victor told her, a great sorrow in his dark eyes. “He keeps screaming and hurting himself. I can’t make him stop.”
Marie nodded her head, scrubbing at the tears which covered her cheeks. “Ah know, Victor. Tell me where he is an’ Ah’ll help him.”
“He’s in the garden.”
Patting his chest, Marie gave him a grateful smile before jogging in the direction of the garden. Her desperation had faded somewhat, but she was still anxious to see Logan. However, when she heard Boris’s frantic barking, Marie’s speed increased. Logan’s mangled scream had her running full tilt towards the garden which was only around two more corners.
As she had expected, Boris was standing guard over the door to the garden, whimpering and pawing at the door. Walking up to her beloved rottweiler, Marie knelt down beside him and wrapped her arms around his thick neck.
“Ah’ll take care o’ Logan. Ya go find Victor an’ keep him company while Ah go in there,” Marie told her dog, patting him on the back as she stood up once again.
Boris slurped at her hand once then trotted back down the way that Marie had come.
Taking a deep breath, Marie placed her hand on the door knob. Pausing a few seconds to gather herself, Marie opened the door and peered into the garden.
Tears filled Marie’s eyes when she saw the mutilated condition of the once beautiful garden. It had been destroyed beyond all recognition. Plants had been uprooted, statues shattered into thousands of pieces, trees sliced in half. In no way, shape or form did the enclosure resemble the magnificent garden that Marie had watched Logan and Boris play in not too long ago.
At the back of the garden, Logan was clawing at the wall, his bleeding knuckles leaving red smears on the grey bricks. He was shirtless and his body was covered with sweat and blood. Unable to see his eyes, Marie was unsure of his mental state. Not that it mattered. All that mattered to her was Logan and how much he was hurting.
“Logan,” Marie called, once again wiping the tears from her cheeks.
Logan’s fist paused in mid-swing when he heard her voice. Spinning around, Logan’s wild eyes scanned the interior of the garden until they came to rest on her. For several long minutes, Logan stared at Marie as though he had never seen her before.
Letting out a choked sob, Logan collapsed to his knees. Calling out Marie’s name, Logan fell forward and began to sob into the dirt. With his hands he grabbed handfuls of dirt as he continued to call Marie’s name.
Tears in her own eyes, Marie raced to Logan’s side and dropped to her knees next to him. She gathered Logan up in her arms, pressing her face into his hair as she pulled his head onto her lap. She murmured a series of nonsensical words in his ear, clutching at him and smoothing her fingers through his hair. When his arms went around her waist, Marie clutched at him even tighter.
“Ah’m here now, sugah. Ah’m here. An’ Ah’m not goin’ anywhere. Never again,” Marie whispered in his ear, not knowing if Logan heard what she was saying, but saying them nonetheless.
“Took you away.... Wouldn’t come back. Couldn’t come back. Couldn’t come back. Never gonna see you again,” Logan sobbed into her stomach, his lips brushing against her bare midriff.
“But Ah am here,” Marie told him. “Ah’m holdin’ ya right now.”
Rolling onto his side, Logan stared up at Marie. The amount of anguish that she saw in his eyes terrified her. Leaning forward, she placed a soft kiss against his trembling lips. At the tender contact, Logan attacked her lips with a ferocity that she had never felt before. She kissed him back just as hungrily, snaking her fingers into his hair and pulling his face closer to his.
Somehow, Marie found herself stripped of her clothes and lying on her back on what had once been a plush expanse of brilliant green grass. There were jagged tears in it now, but Marie didn’t care. All that she saw and felt was Logan whose lower body was slamming into hers with a force that she easily matched. One hand was on his hip and the other in his hair, holding his face close to hers. Marie could feel the salt from their tears on hers lips as their mouths ravaged each other’s. This was a side of Logan that Marie hadn’t seen. It was an animalistic side that Marie knew should have frightened her, but it didn’t.
Both of them reached their climax at the same time. What they had done hadn’t been about love. It had been about desperation and need. Logan held himself up on his shaky arms, pressing soft kisses to Marie’s forehead. She met his eyes briefly and what she saw shocked her. Logan looked so completely lost at that point and it broke Marie’s heart. Not only that, he looked broken. Something in him had been shattered when Erik had taken her away from Logan.
“Everythin’ is gonna be all right now, Logan,” Marie assured him, pulling Logan’s head down onto her shoulder. She kissed his forehead, smiling softly at the feel of his lips moving against her throat.
Logan’s tears exploded once again. He held Marie against him, burying his face against the curve of her shoulder.
“Yer awake now, sugah. No more dreamin’. Yer awake,” Marie told him, running her hand up and down his back, knowing that that was what Logan had needed to hear. “No more nightmares, Logan....”