Disclaimer: Lena, Caleb, Annie, assorted bar patrons and fastfood clerks are the products of my fevered imagination. Everyone else in the story is property of Marvel. Uncredited song lyrics are from the Golden Palominos.
"You are such an asshole, Caleb."
"Thanks Lanie. That's a nice thing to say."
"I leave you by yourself for three hours, three freakin' hours and you manage to break a rib. Oh no, wait," she corrected herself, "two ribs." She deftly traced his rib cage and he hollered out when she hit the broken ones. "So did you at least manage to save the damsel in distress?"
"Jeah, but not to hear her tell it." He put his hands on his hips, thrust out his jaw and did his best Jubilee impression. "Looky here, mister. I'm like totally capable of takin' care of myself. If ya weren't in my way I would've landed just fine. Next time worry about saving yer own skin."
"Well, good for her. You don't need anyone encouraging you to be a hero."
"Are you done picking on me? Can you fix my ribs now?"
"I don't know, Cay. Maybe I should just tape 'em up. Then you can show Jubes how tough ya are."
"Lanie!"
"Just kidding." She moved down into his body and got to work.
"Jer boy's pretty good, by the way."
"He ain't my boy, Caleb and you better stop callin' him that."
"Jeah, whatever you say, Lanie. I'm just sayin' that man is scary in a fight."
"He's wicked fast, isn't he?" She didn't look up but Cay could see the big smile pulling up the corners of her mouth.
"Jeah, he's fast and he hits like a Mac truck."
"Believe me, if you're still standing, he was pulling his punches."
"I don't know about that, it was pretty crazy in the end."
"Nah, unless Logan completely loses control, he's completely in control. He knows where every punch is going and how hard it's gonna land. I've never seen anyone with that kind of finesse." She stopped herself from going on when she saw the appraising look in her little brother's eyes. She blushed and looked down.
"If you aren't interested in him, why do you talk about him like he's some kind of movie star?"
"I don't. What you're hearing in my voice is professional pride. He's some of my best work."
"Sure, chiquita. You keep tellin' yourself that." He teased her.
"Caleb, I'm finished but it would be really easy for me to go back in there and break your ribs again."
"Okay, okay I'll leave you alone."
"No more Danger Room for you today. Got it?"
"Jeah, Lena."
"Try and do a better job of stayin' in one piece, okay?" She knocked him lightly in the jaw.
"Okay. Thanks, Sis." He hopped off of the table, kissed the top of her head and ran off to catch up to the rest of his new friends and hopefully, find a way to get back on Jubilee's good side.
Looking out from the window of the infirmary, Lena soon saw him join the pack of kids on the lawn. She smiled wistfully. It was good to see Caleb getting involved with the other kids. She wished that she were as good at that sort of thing. It didn't help that she had to keep so much about herself quiet. A lot of the people here still treated her with suspicion. Still, things were improving. The Professor really had done his best to see to that. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice Logan's presence until he spoke.
"How's the kid?" He asked from the doorway. He was still in uniform; he had pulled the mask down so that it hung from the back of his neck.
"Well, he's sixteen and he doesn't think he can die. That's a problem," she remarked dryly, still looking out the window, "but I guess they're all like that at that age. Otherwise, he's fine; I fixed the ribs. How about Jubilee?"
"Bruised ego, it'll heal. Caleb did pretty good on his first sequence, broken ribs an' all."
"Yeah well, he's a scrapper."
"When are they gonna get you in?"
"Henry made them hold off another week. I go in next Tuesday."
"Nervous?"
"Should I be?" She looked at him finally and her eyes widened a bit. It was the first time she'd seen him in battle togs. He looked formidable, or maybe lethal was the word she was looking for. She looked back out the window again quickly; there was definitely something unsettling about the way he looked in uniform. It made her heart beat faster.
"Probably not. They won't throw you anything ya can't handle."
"Guess we'll find out on Tuesday. I uh, better get back to work." She walked quickly out of the room, turning sideways to avoid brushing against him. She hadn't touched him since the night in the lab.
He wished again that he could get to the bottom of her strange behavior. Why did she hold herself back? He knew she didn't want to admit her attraction to him but it was as if she wouldn't even admit it to herself. Since the near kiss in the lab, she'd done her best to avoid him. He'd let it go and taken the time to try and calm himself down. Three whole days away from her was as long as he could manage. Then he'd jumped at this chance to talk with her. And the minute he'd seen her, everything had gone back to square one. The beast inside him rose up on all fours and paced, restlessly. It had plans for her; he could hear those plans, see them in his mind's eye. He wondered how he was going to gain Lena's trust when he wasn't sure he could trust himself.
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"Eeuw, what's that smell?" Jubilee asked.
"Lampblack, Lena uses it to make her metal zippers and gear non-reflective." Logan answered her, keeping his eyes on the action down below on the Danger Room floor. Lena and Caleb had both opted to wear their own uniforms for the session. That meant kevlar vests, black cargo pants, black tennis shoes, fingerless gloves, facemasks with anti-glare eye shields, and any number of vaguely identifiable tools hanging at the ready.
"Why didn't she just get a regular uniform?"
"Sez she's more comfortable in her own clothes. It's her first session, nobody felt like pushing it."
Lena and Caleb were teamed up in this sequence. Lena had asked for a stealth scenario since that was what they were used to running. It wasn't much different than the contracts that they had taken on before specializing in computer security. In the scenario, Lena and Caleb were supposed to find and rescue two hostages in a secured warehouse.
Everything went well until Caleb's ponytail holder popped off on the way out and tripped a motion detector. With the alarms going off, Caleb dropped to the floor and protected the two hostages while Lena moved forward to see what the alarms would trigger. A laser cannon fired over her ducked head and she called out to her brother.
"Cannon's at 10o'clock, Caleb. Take it out."
"Jou got it." Caleb fired an electrical burst at the cannon, disabling it.
Lena felt footsteps coming closer to her. So she flattened herself against a nearby pallet of boxes and pulled out a mirror to get a view around to the other side. Some sort of robot was headed her way. Two more were following it. She clambered up the stack of boxes and leapt down onto the lead robot. She straddled its neck and drove her hand down into its wiring. With some difficulty, she got through to its central core and took control of it.
Once Caleb was sure that Lena had the robot in hand, he started leading the hostages to the safety zone to end the program. Lena made her robot fire on the other two, taking them out and then she shut it down. She jumped off of it in a rolling dive and came up with her taser at the ready in case anyone tried to go after her or Caleb. She joined him at the safety zone and they pushed the end button together. The lights came up and the simulation ended.
"Not bad guys." Jubilee called out from the control room.
"Would have been better without the equipment failure, Jubilee. Hey Caleb, ya wanna add 'secure ponytail holders' to the checklist?"
"Sorry about that, Lanie."
"I'm just kidding, Cay. That was definitely in the acts of god category. Anyway, we did okay. Didn't we guys?" She hollered the last question up to the control room.
"Ya dance when ya move, Lena. This ain't about looking pretty. It makes it too easy to take you down." Logan's voice boomed over the PA.
"Damn, Logan, good eyes. Yeah, I know I do that. It's because I'm so used to using music for timing."
"Just vary your pace more and don't keep everything on a beat." This time Logan spoke to her directly as he climbed down the ladder to meet up with Lena and Caleb.
"Yes, Lena. That went pretty well." Scott took over the microphone. He was running the training session and he didn't like the way Logan was butting in. "Since Logan seems to think that he can follow your movements, I'm going to set up a scenario where you and Caleb will go against him and Remy. That ought to make for an interesting challenge."
Fight Logan! Lena didn't even want to think about it. The idea of a hand-to-hand fight with Logan in the dark terrified her. She blanched noticeably and the smell of her fear hit Logan like a punch. The last thing he wanted to do was to make her more afraid of him.
"Naw Lena, ya don't have to go up against me if ya don't want to." Logan climbed back up the ladder and flipped the microphone off. "What in the hell are you playing at, Dead-eye?"
"I'm trying to run a training session, Wolverine. I want to know how she performs under pressure."
"That ain't pressure. That's sadistic. The last time she had to face me, she tried to kill herself. I've been her nightmare for years and you want her ta go up against me on her first day of training?"
"If she goes out on missions, she'll face worse than you. For the team's sake, I need to know if she can handle her fear. I need to be able to trust her."
"An' ya can't trust her can ya? Can't go runnin' to Jeannie or Charlie to make sure she's on the up an' up. So yer gonna grind her into the ground just ta see what she's made of 'cause ya don't trust yer own instincts. Ya think I don't know what this is all about?"
"I don't care what you think. This is my training session!"
"Logan, it's okay. I'll do it." Lena popped up from the ladder and into the control room. "Scott's right, I've gotten a free ride long enough. If I can take you on, I can face anything."
"Are you sure, Lena?"
"Yeah, so let's get to it before I lose my nerve." She flashed a tight smile that could have been a grimace and headed back down the ladder. "And, Logan."
"Yeah, Lane?"
"Don't you shortchange me. You come at me with everything you got. Okay?"
"Of course, Lena. You just stay focused an' you'll do fine."
The scenario was simple. Capture the flag in an office building at night. Logan and Remy defended while Lena and Caleb attacked. Lena took to the roof immediately and found access to the building's air ducts. She pried off the grill and threw two tear gas bombs down into the tube. She hooked up her gas mask and found her way to the back door where Cay was waiting for her signal. Once he was in, Lena headed back to the heating duct and climbed in. She was going to try to get to the rear office while Cay ran interference.
Remy put on his own mask when he smelled the gas. Logan didn't bother. The gas wouldn't stop him; it just effectively blocked his sense of smell. Lampblack or no, it wasn't going to be easy to track Lena and Caleb by scent. Score one for you, Lena, he thought to himself.
Logan heard the door. He tapped Remy and signaled that one person had come in through the door. Remy went out to deal with that attacker while Logan stayed behind to guard the flag. Then he heard the echo of something in the ductwork. Without making a sound he traced the noise back to its origin. With a claw, he ripped open the duct and pulled an end free from its moorings. He stuck his head in to grab at Lena.
As soon as his head was in the duct, she hit the button of the attack alert siren. The metal tube of the duct amplified its effect. Lena wished she had earplugs but she knew that the sound was much worse for Logan. It dropped him to his knees for a second. She took that opportunity to get out of the tube and give Logan a whack to the nerve center between his neck and shoulder blade. Knowing he wouldn't be down for long, she ran straight for the office and the flag.
Once she had the flag, she ran to rendezvous with Caleb. She was a few yards away from him when Logan caught up to her. Fear coursed through her veins as he came at her but she didn't fall apart. She dove away from him leaving Caleb a clear shot. Caleb fired an electric burst from his hands. It hit Logan in the center of his chest and played havoc with his metal skeleton. As she came up from the dive, she saw Remy charging up a card to throw at Caleb.
"Duck, Cay!" She hollered out as she leapt onto a desk and tackled Remy. She tried to knock the wind out of him with her knee but failed. Remy wrapped his arms tightly around her and tried to roll over on top of her but she had a hand on his face and she stopped his body. As his arms went slack, she pulled away from him and ran for the exit with her brother. They wedged the exit door closed behind them and headed for the safety zone pumping their legs for all they were worth. Logan was right behind them. The door had only distracted him for a second. Remy followed behind trying to charge a card.
Caleb was the first to reach the safety zone. Lena ran into him as he pushed the end button. She bounced off of him, turned around and accidentally got a good look at what was bearing down on them. Logan was heading for them with his claws out and his eyes full of fire. He stopped abruptly and sheathed his claws when he heard the end bell but the sight of him was too much for Lena. She backed away in terror. Logan pushed past Caleb and ran to her side. He picked up one of her hands and held it to his face.
"Not bad everyone." Scott's voice boomed from the PA. He was oblivious to the drama in the safety zone because he was focused on Remy. "Gambit, why didn't you throw a card at them? You had a clear shot!"
"Wanted to but Chere over there jinxed me good."
"Excuse me?" Scott asked from the control room.
"Lena did somethin' to me when she touched my face. Now de cards don't charge."
"Lena, what did you do to Gambit?" Scott asked her.
"I flipped his switch." She answered grimly. Scott didn't say anything and she figured he was waiting for more information. "I turned off his power."
"I didn't know you could do that."
"I can't always; it depends on the power."
"Can you turn it back on, Chere?" Remy asked.
"It'll come back by itself in a little while but if you don't want to wait, I can do it now. Come here." Lena took Remy's hand and reset his control over his power. Then she got up and pulled the facemask down and the hood off of the back of her head. She was more tired than she'd been since the surgery. She'd spent the whole day in the Danger Room. The morning had been taken up with what felt like an endless series of obstacle courses until Scott felt that he knew what she was capable of. Then she'd been given twenty minutes to grab lunch while he programmed the scenarios.
Jubilee threw towels down at the assembled group. All of the combatants grabbed one and headed out of the Danger Room. Logan draped a protective arm around Lena's shoulders as they walked. She knew she should pull away but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Scott met them in the hall.
"I want to try one more scenario."
"Run it tomorrow, Lena's done for the day."
Scott was about to take issue with Logan when he noticed the expression on Lena's face. "Lena, are you alright?"
"I'll be fine, Scott."
"She'll be better than fine. You did a good job in there, darlin'. You and Caleb won both scenarios. That's not too shabby for your first day. Now go ahead and get cleaned up. We're gonna celebrate. Losers buy."
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"So this is the legendary Auger Inn?" Lena looked around the dimly lit bar taking in the atmosphere, which, at this early hour, consisted mostly of stale cigarette smoke.
"Yep, what'll ya drink?"
"Guinness Stout with a Unicum back. And grab me a dinner menu too. If I drink all that on an empty stomach, it'll lay me flat."
"Gotcha, what about you, Caleb?"
"Dos Equis."
"He means a coke." Lena countered.
"This ain't the kinda place that cards y'know."
"C'mon Lanie, when jou start caring if I drink a little?"
"When I spent the whole day jumping through hoops to make Scotty happy. I'm not about to lose any of the ground I've gained by bringing my baby brother home drunk."
"Aw Jesus! What am I doing here? Jubilee can't even come 'cause she got homework and now I can't even have a drink."
"Sorry kid, can't say I didn't try."
Logan joined Remy at the bar and Lena and Caleb grabbed a table.
Dinner went well. After a full day's workout, including a fairly extensive exercising of her powers, Lena was ravenous. She tore into her double order of ribs and didn't look up until she felt Logan poking at her legs.
"Hey! What's the big idea?"
"Just tryin' ta see if one of these is hollow, darlin'. Where the hell are you putting all that food?"
"Damned if I know but I got room for another Guinness if you're still buyin'."
Caleb and Remy wondered over to the pool table while Logan got Lena's refill and a boilermaker for himself. As he walked back to the table with the drinks, he saw that she had finished the rest of the plate. A streak of barbecue sauce graced her cheek and he couldn't help laughing at her.
"What?"
"You really get into yer food don'tcha?" He reached over and brushed the sauce off of her cheek with his finger. Then he sucked the sauce off of it. "You taste pretty good, Lena." He winked; trying to be casual about the flirtation, not let it get too intense. He didn't want her to bolt.
Her hands flew up to her reddening face. "Did you get all of it?"
He lifted her chin to examine her face in the light. "I don't know, Lane. Maybe we better just take ya out in the parking lot and hose ya down."
She scowled at him and stuck out her tongue.
"Naw, I'm just kidding. You're clean." He sat back down and took a swig of his beer. "How you feelin' now? Better?"
"Yeah, I really did need the food, thanks." She settled back into her chair and pushed her dinner plate away. Before she drank the rest of her first beer, she drew a smiley-face in the foam on the top of the second one. When she caught his quizzical look she explained, "They serve the Guinness too cold. By the time the smile goes away, it'll be the right temperature."
"Ain't you the connoisseur?"
"I just like things the way I like 'em." She looked in his eyes. "So do you think I managed to pull myself off of Scott's shit list today?"
"If ya didn't, it's his problem, not yours."
"Except I'm still the one who's trying to get him to let me take a look at the security set up at the mansion."
"At least he's lettin' ya sit in on the security team meetings."
"Yeah, Forge set that up for me."
"Well I know Jeannie's been bugging him pretty constantly about it. Sooner or later, she'll wear him down. Ya shouldn't let it bother you so much. You should be concentrating on getting better."
"Oh no. I don't have to worry about that. Didn't I tell you? Henry gave me a clean bill of health."
"Why didn't you say somethin' then? Guess we're celebrating more than I thought, huh?" He thought about their agreement but he didn't bring it up. He tried to gauge her mood. It felt like she had finally put the incident in the lab out of her mind. This was the most open and relaxed she had been since that night. He just had to be careful.
"Yeah, yesterday was my last check-up. My numbers are all good and my weight's on the plus side of a hundred for the first time in a long time. Henry was so happy that he danced me around the med lab."
"Do tell."
"I think he was just overjoyed to get me out of there before I broke another piece of equipment. Been a long time since I danced a polka though. I'm afraid I was a little rusty."
"How about your two-step, Chere?" Remy joined the conversation.
"Oh that ain't rusty at all, that I could do in my sleep. Why you wanna know, Rem?"
"Well my two-step's pretty good too an' since I just whomped yo little brother's behind; I thought I'd celebrate by dancin' wit' a pretty girl."
"Yer on if you can find a good song on the jukebox. I'm gonna try and clean myself up. Be back in a second." She got up from the table and headed towards the Ladies' room while Remy fished some change out of his pocket and headed over to the jukebox.
Logan tensed up a bit as he watched a scruffy looking character follow Lena down the hall. He pricked up his ears and got ready to move if he had to. The character waited until Lena came back out of the restroom.
"Hold on there, pretty lady," he grabbed her arm and she passed by. "What's yer hurry?"
Lena sized him up. Guy probably thought he could scare her. He was strong but unskilled and fairly slow. She didn't like the sensory readings she was getting from his skin. She didn't want to make a scene; he wasn't worth it. "Sorry Sweetie, I promised one of my friends a dance. I gotta get back."
He responded by pulling her closer and tightening his grip. "Naw, honey. I don't think I'm gonna let you leave just so's you can go dance with that mutant freak. Didn't chew take a good look at his eyes? Pretty little thing like you oughta be with a real man." His free hand roamed down her side.
Lena grabbed his hand, pulled it upright and twisted it in one fluid motion. The man went immediately down to his knees. "One, I don't like people gettin' in my way. Two, I don't like it when people badmouth my friends. Three, I don't like strangers touchin' me. I'm afraid that's three strikes, buddy." She twisted his hand a little bit further and he cried out. "Let's talk about the hold I got you in. Amazin' how much it hurts considering that I can't really do any permanent damage with it. Of course, it ain't the only hold I know." She leaned closer to speak right into his ear. "Don't get me wrong, they still hurt like hell but some of 'em well some of 'em are downright vicious. They'll crush every bone in yer wrist. Now are you gonna get yer useless hide out of this bar on yer own or am I gonna have to embarrass you in front of all yer friends?" She let his hand go and he shot out of the hallway like somebody had lit a fire under his tail.
Logan relaxed a bit realizing he should have given Lena more credit from the get go. Then he straightened up again when he saw the expression on the guy's face. Guy wasn't finished yet; he grabbed a friend and headed to the parking lot. Logan caught Remy and Caleb's attention and signaled them to follow him. Good thing, too, because the redneck and his friend were heading towards the bikes.
"I'd seriously reconsider that if I were you, friend." Logan spoke in a calm voice. Only the fire in his eyes belied the threat that he represented.
"Yeah and who's gonna stop us, little man?"
"Me and my mutant freak friends here." The guy and his friend backed down as Remy and Caleb came up behind Logan. Before the creep could back completely away, Logan lifted him up by his shirt and waved one set of claws under his nose. "Just so there's no misunderstandings, bub. You are now responsible for the health and welfare o' those scoots. If I find so much as a smudge on any of 'em, I'm taking it out on your hide. Got me?"
"Okay mister, Jesus we weren't gonna do anything to yer bikes."
"Sure ya weren't." Logan, Remy and Caleb headed back inside.
"There you are. Thought I was gonna be stood up."
"No, Chere. Logan jus' wanted some backup t' keep things from gettin' ugly. We can have that dance now."
"That asshole was goin' after my bike?"
"Yep, don't worry about it, Lena. He won't be bothering any of us again."
"Thanks, Logan."
"Well I figured if ya didn't want Caleb going home drunk, ya probably didn't want to be involved in anything that might end up requiring One-eye to bail us out of jail either."
She smiled at him as Remy grabbed her arm and led her to the small dance floor. Logan couldn't take his eyes off of her as she danced. In a black T-shirt, a pair of faded jeans and the smallest pair of engineer's boots Logan had ever seen, she moved perfectly, following Remy's lead without any hesitation. Lena's hair was twisted up in a clip and the long ends of it fountained out of the top. It looked for all the world like a squirrel's tail. He found it all to be incredibly charming. And she was better. She was healthy. It was definitely time to find out what it was like to dance with Lena.
"Okay, Cajun." Logan tapped Remy on the shoulder. "That's two songs. It's my turn now."
Remy passed her over to Logan and before she knew it, she was in his arms. There really wasn't any way for her to get out of it gracefully and now that she had made contact with his skin, it was hard to want to. The rush she got from reading his sensory inputs was probably the closest she'd ever get to feeling what passion must be like.
He was a fantastic dancer. She knew he would be. He had all the prerequisites, a perfect sense of balance, brute strength, animal grace and a genuine desire to have a woman in his arms. And in his arms was definitely where he was keeping her. He hardly swung her out at all, just once or twice and that seemed to be an excuse to pull her back in hard enough to cause her to crash lightly into his side.
She was cheating. Of course she was cheating, why hadn't he thought of it before? With a talent like hers, she never had to wonder about where a guy was gonna lead her next; she already knew. No wonder there was never any hesitation. Still it was wonderful to take control of her, feel her follow his lead with just the slightest of cues, like she was an extension of his own body. She was so soft and warm right up against him and she smelled like something good to eat. He reigned in his thoughts. It wouldn't do to go too far down that path. Wouldn't help him find a way to reach her.
As he twirled her around the dance floor. He was pleasantly surprised to see that she seemed to be showing more signs of interest than she had before. Still, when the next song came on, a nice, slow ballad, she pulled away and told him that she had to go.
"Well, it doesn't look like Caleb's ready to go." Logan gestured over to the pool tables where Caleb was racking up another game.
"I can head back on my own."
"Ya got yer tracker?"
Lena was silent for a moment before she admitted, "No, I didn't think I'd be alone tonight. But it's just back to the mansion. I'm sure I'll be fine." Since none of the telepaths could locate them, Scott had insisted on equipping her and Caleb with tracking beacons. They weren't supposed to go anywhere alone without them.
"But if Scotty finds out"
"Logan, I have to get back."
"I could come with ya, if you made it worth my while."
"Ah, I should have guessed where this was going." She handed him the keys but grabbed his arm just as he was about to sprint out to the parking lot. "Let's make sure we're clear here. I love that bike more than I love you."
"I ain't gonna hurt yer bike, Lena. I'm trusting you to drive my Harley, ain't I? That is, if ya think ya can handle the Harley?"
"Don't you worry about me. I've had nastier things than that bad boy between my legs. You just concentrate on getting my bike home in the same condition it left in." She leaned over and fished his keys out of his jacket pocket and went out the door.
Good lord, he thought, was that a come-on? He couldn't even tell. Knowing Lena, it could have been her idea of a joke. Still, he dared to hope that things were about to go in his favor. Caleb and Remy were staying behind and that meant that Lena would be alone in the lab. He decided that he was going to keep her company that night.
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