That night, Logan dreamt. This wasn't a buried memory. No, it was a different dream than the ones that usually plagued him. A far different one...
He dreamt of walking down a long corridor, the metal walls sterile and cold. There were others with him, behind him, this he knew but in the dream, his eyes remained on the twisting corridor before him. A scream shattered the silence of the dreamscape and he suddenly found himself running through the gleaming passageways, lungs struggling to suck in air through a throat constricted by terror. Voices behind him, shouting his name.... he ignored them and ran on. He had to.... he had to find the source of that scream... He skidded around a turn and his heart stopped in his chest. There on the cold floor was a crumpled body. Head turned slightly to the side.... soft, dark hair partially obscuring a slack face... He fell to his knees beside the still form and reached out with a shaking hand to brush the hair away from the shrouded face.... Kiara's face...
"Logan, I'm sorry..." Jean's voice rang in his ears, as he threw back his head and howled at the heavens all the rage, all the pain, all the grief that was shattering his very soul...
The sound of his own voice crying out in anguish brought Logan abruptly awake. To find himself sitting upright in tangled sheets, cold sweat trickling down his face and body, with Kiara reaching out a soft hand to his shoulder, fear and concern warring on her face. Her face... Before she could react, he pulled her to him and buried his face in her hair. Inhaling deeply, letting all of his senses calm his racing heart with the knowledge that it was a dream. That she was alive. That she was here. Here in his arms and not lying on a cold metal floor... He closed his eyes tightly against the remnants of the dream, willing them to go away.
"Logan?" Her muffled voice was tentative, and he had to clear his throat to answer the unspoken question he could hear there.
"It was just a nightmare..." She shifted a little in his arms, reaching up with a warm hand to stroke his face. He closed his eyes at the sensation. She's alive... she's not dead...
"Want to talk about it?" Her hand ran comfortingly up his face, through his hair, to massage the back of his neck. Chasing the demons away...
He thought about it then. Thought about telling her of the horrifying image of her lying dead on a cold floor somewhere... and realized that he couldn't. Even though the sharpness of the nightmare was fading with every waking moment, the sense of dread that had accompanied it made his throat tighten. He knew that there was no way he could hide that fear from her if he began speaking about it so, rather than frighten her, he chose to downplay it. To bury it inside... where the other nightmares lived...
"No, it's already fading," Logan sighed, as he lay back down, Kiara enfolded inside one arm to snuggle against his chest. The sensation of her fingers gently stroking the soft hair on his chest brought calmness back to him, and he could feel his eyelids beginning to droop as Kiara spoke again.
"Will you tell me about them?" Her voice was soft, hushed, and the warm breath against his bare skin almost tickled.
"Them?" he murmured, absent-mindedly caressing her hair.
"These friends of yours that we're going to meet. What are they like?" Beneath the curiosity in her voice, he could hear an undercurrent of uneasiness, and he fought to bring himself more awake.
"Alright.... well, first, there's the Professor. Charles Xavier. He's the guy responsible for everything - it's his mansion the school and the team are based at. He's older, paralyzed and in a wheelchair, but, both from what I've seen and what I've heard, he's the most powerful telepath in the world." He felt Kiara tense at his mention of Xavier's abilities, and he hurried to continue. "But he's a really good guy. Helped me out a while back, gave me a place to stay, a home to come back to if I wanted it. Helped me to find you..." His voice drifted off, as he gently squeezed Kiara to him. He felt the tension leak out of her and felt her chuckle against his chest.
"Well, then he can't be a bad guy, now can he?" Logan laughed at her assessment of the Professor.
"I don't think he's even capable of being bad." Kiara laughed again, and Logan felt a moment's deja vu at the musical sound. He could remember liking that sound, wanting nothing more than to hear it over and over again...
"So, who else is there besides this Professor Xavier?" Her words brought him out of his reverie and he smiled against her hair.
"Well, there's Scott - they call him Cyclops..." He couldn't help snickering at the foolish way the name sounded.
"Cyclops?! What, does he only have one eye, or something?" The snicker developed into full blown laughter and it was a minute before he could answer her incredulous question.
"No, no, that's just a sort of... codename, I guess. His ability is to shoot a concentrated laser beam from his eyes. But he can't control it, so he has to wear this special visor. Hence, the name Cyclops..."
"Well, what is he like?" The words were out before he could stop himself.
"He's a dick." This time it was Kiara's turn to laugh out loud.
"Sounds like you don't like him much."
"He's alright. He means well, I guess - just way to stuck up. The word 'relax' is not a part of his vocabulary..." A giggle from Kiara. "He's the leader of the X-Men, Xavier's right hand man."
"Who else is a part of these... X-Men?" He could hear the amusement in her voice over the name, and again smiled into her hair. This had to be just another one of the things that had drawn him to her in the first place...
"Dr. Jean Grey. She's their resident scientist, has the ability to move things with her mind. And some ability at telepathy. She's Cyke's fiancee." He felt a brief surge of phantom jealousy at the memory of Jean, but it passed quickly. Jean belonged to another man. And he could never feel for her the sheer depth and intensity of what he felt for the woman who lay in the circle of his arms.
"You... feel something for this woman?" Kiara's voice was hesitant when she spoke, but he could fairly smell the jealousy beginning to radiate off of her.
"No. I mean, I did. Once. Before I found you again. Now there can never be anyone else..." He planted a reassuring kiss on her forehead and felt her relax back into his embrace. He had a suspicious feeling that there was a smug look on Kiara's face at that moment, but he kept his smile to himself.
"Alright. Is that it?"
"No. Then there's Storm." Another giggle from Kiara.
"Do they *all* have these codenames?"
"Yeah..." he laughed.
"Do *you*?" He blushed at the memory of the name he'd been known by on the fight circuit, the name on his dog tags.
"Wolverine." Silence. Then a stifled giggle.
"Well, it certainly suites you..." The teasing tone in her voice was too much to bear. A second later, Kiara was gasping for mercy through tears of laughter, as he ruthlessly tickled her. "Stop! Stop! I promise - no more laughing!"
"Well alright, then..." he growled in mock annoyance. "Where was I? Oh yeah, Storm. Also known as Ororo Munroe. Dark-skinned woman, long white hair. Has the ability to control the elements - she can make it rain, lightening, control the wind. Stuff like that. She's really very nice, though. I think you'll like her."
"I'm sure I will, Logan."
"And then there's Marie. Rogue, as they call her..." His voice softened at the mention of her name, and he found himself slipping back in time to that moment outside Laughlin City, when he'd let a half-frozen slip of a runaway into his truck and into his heart.
"You care for her..." This time, there was no jealousy radiating from Kiara. Only a softness, a compassion.
"Yeah... we sort of fell together before either of us ever met the X-Men. Teenage girl with a rather nasty mutation - anyone touches her bare skin, she sucks the life energy right out of them. Poor kid ran away from home. No where to go, no body who understood..."
"So, two people, alienated and alone, found companionship and belonging in each other..." Kiara's shrewd grasp of the bond that existed between him and Rogue startled him. In a few words, she had seen right into his soul, and understood it. Had put into words the amorphous feelings that had floated around inside him. He nodded slowly.
"Yeah. She knew what I was, and didn't fear me. She trusted me. In a battle with other mutants, she was drained and dying. I.... I touched her and she absorbed my healing ability. Enough to save herself. But along with it, she got inside me head. I'd say we got inside each others... She's a special kid. I promised her I'd protect her." He felt slightly silly admitting those last words, admitting to caring enough about a teenage girl to risk his own life. But again, Kiara simply nodded. Understood,without having to ask any further what he had meant.
"I know, Logan. I can't wait to meet her..." Her hand came up to gently brush against his cheek before falling back down to rest on his chest.
"You'll like them. You'll like them all, I promise. They're good people. People we can trust," he whispered softly into the skin of her temple.
"I only trust you, Logan..." was the mumbled response he got, as he felt Kiara's body relaxing back into sleep. Her breath deepened and he found himself following her down into a deep, peaceful slumber. His last thought that, by the end of the new day, they'd reach their destination. And maybe, finally, find some answers...
All references to characters belonging to the X-Men Universe are (c) and TM the Marvel Comics Group, 20th Century Fox and all related entities. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, duplication or distribution of these materials in any form is expressly prohibited. No money is being made from this archive. All images are also (c) and TM the Marvel Comics Group, 20th Century Fox and all related entities; they are not mine. This website, its operators and any content used on this site relating to the X-Men are not authorized by Marvel, Fox, etc. I am not, nor do I claim to be affiliated with any of these entities in any way.