Originally written on Sunday, 09 September 2007. Arriving at the mansion and after from Logan’s POV.
Adult language, violence.
Morrigan was daydreaming, her eyes half shut and unseeing as she slumped against my side. “We’re almost there.”
She blinked, straightened up to look around. “Pretty ritzy area. The neighborhood association might do some bitchin’ about my truck.”
Amused, I grunted and pulled her a little closer. “Don’t worry about it, angel.”
Her eyes softened as she glanced at me, and I remembered our brief discussion over my calling her that. She obviously didn’t think of herself as angelic, but I damn sure did. I was positive she didn’t because of what happened. They didn’t just let her walk out, after all. There had to have been some killing…tough as she was, she wasn’t someone who’d kill easily. She wasn’t like me.
I wasn’t surprised by how well we fit together. After all, I’d spent 3 years chasing her from town to town…my subconscious must’ve known more than the rest of me, right? She was mine, that’s all there was to it. I’d kept her grounded enough to get over the worst of her inner beast waking fully.
“You live here?” she asked, then whistled softly as I guided the truck into the drive. I didn’t like that ‘you’. It wasn’t ‘you’ and ‘I’ any more, and she really needed to learn that.
“We live here,” I answered, then kissed her on the temple.
“Well, guess if they can put up with you, they can deal with havin’ me around.” She sounded a little uncertain, and I wanted to reassure her, but Kurt teleported into the truck right then, with his usual smokescreen. I quickly rolled down the windows as we both coughed.
Morrigan didn’t flinch or tense up as she saw Kurt looking at her curiously. I was proud of her for that. He could have teleported himself out of danger if she’d freaked, but that wouldn’t have made a good impression, her trying to skewer the blue elf.
“You found her.”
“Found me?” Her blue eyes travelled back to me. That boy had a big mouth on him.
“I got…” Frantic? Crazy? “a little worried when I didn’t track you down as easy as normal.” There, that was good.
“How…sweet.” Ouch. ‘How sweet’…great. She’s relegating you to a mush ball.
She offered her hand to Kurt, introduced herself, tickling the boy almost purple, from the expression on his face.
That’s my girl. Make friends here, give me more ways to hold onto you, just in case.
I think the welcoming committee was almost too much for her. I had a reason to wait until last to introduce her and Marie. I knew what the poor kid had been going through. I loved her to pieces, but not the way rampant rumor had it. No way. As I introduced her to Morrigan, she shot me a relieved, affectionate look. Morrigan looked suspicious.
I smiled smugly as it became obvious my two girls were going to hit it off just fine.
Marie snatched Morrigan away that evening. I gave them a good half hour before slipping out of the TV room to find out how things were going between them. I caught part of the conversation as I neared the kitchen.
“I mean, hell, girl, you took the cure just so you could touch him!”
“Ah know, that’s what Ah’m sayin’!”
Oh, yeah, they were tight already. I smiled.
“So, did you?” I stopped, curious.
“Did Ah what?”
“Touch him?” Very curious…I realised I was holding my breath.
“Oh, you naughty girl!”
I briefly considered ripping Bobby a new one. No…can’t do that. Marie loves him, Bobby is totally gone on her, and he’s a good kid. Besides, the point, now that I did have a girl of my own…I really liked the sound of that, ‘my girl’…was to kill the gossip for Marie’s sake. Mincing Bobby into tiny pieces wouldn’t do that, and might cause some problems with Morrigan. See, I do think things out sometimes.
They burst out laughing, making me smile. Hearing my two girls happy made me happy. God, I’m turning into Scott. That thought wiped the smile off my face and I walked into the kitchen. They looked at me, eyes twinkling, and I wondered for just a moment if I’d missed something said earlier in the conversation. Decided I didn’t want to know, wasn’t going to ask.
I am not that stupid.
Bobby came in, they traded a look, and cracked up again. I got the joke this time, but pretended not to as Bobby looked at me in question. Ain’t gonna answer ya, bub, sorry.
Even though she didn’t sound worried, I made it very clear to her what my feelings were for Marie when she brought the subject up as we undressed for bed.
Man, I totally slipped up, though, mentioning Oprah. I could see the ‘How CUTE!’ just zinging off of her. I think I distracted her pretty neatly, though.
Three things made that first week unforgettable…even for me.
First, Morrigan and Marie bonded, and blew the hell out of the Curse of Logan. Yeah, that’s what they called it. Made me laugh, but disappointed the hell out of all the kids but Bobby.
Second, my angel flashed a little demonic fang one afternoon, in the very full TV room. “Look, Logan! Oprah’s on!” God, I’ll never live that down.
Last, the incident in the woods. We were a little busy, so neither one of us heard Jubilee come walking along.
Damn sure knew we’d been spotted when she started squeaking her head off, and those fireworks of hers warmed up my ass. I didn’t think Morrigan was ever going to stop laughing. It wasn’t funny.
Okay, it wasn’t THAT funny.
Morrigan started getting a little cranky after the first week. She was at loose ends, and made sure I knew it, too. I wanted her to want to get involved, not be the one to suggest it first.
“There’s nothin’ for me to do here. All of you have jobs to do.”
Damn if my heart didn’t do a little dance to hear her say that. I played the moment for all I was worth, too.
“Well, ya could…” I let my voice trail off, as if I was thinking, but I didn’t plan to say another word.
She sat up, glaring at me huffily, and damn near bit my head off. She blindsided me with talking about getting an outside job. I told her what I’d been planning to all along. “Talk to ‘Ro…she’s in charge.”
“Logan!”
“What?” I slid out from under Morrigan’s truck, which I’d been doing an oil change on. Marie’s face was dead white with panic.
“Sabretooth…Morrigan’s….HURRY!”
I was out of the garage like a shot. Red rage burned over me as I rounded the corner to the sight of that motherfucker slinging my angel into the wall of the mansion. She was covered in blood. I slammed into him and started ripping, uncaring of any wounds he managed to inflict on me. She’d done a lot of damage, herself, and came back in to do more. He got a lucky strike in.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget the sound of her skin ripping. That, or the sight of her going limp after he backhanded her into the wall again.
He ran as soon as he got the chance. I’ll kill that motherfucker someday.
When I’m injured that bad, I go into a coma. Morrigan apparently didn’t understand that was how it was supposed to work. As I hovered over her bloody, torn body helplessly, her eyes shot open, then closed again.
“What the hell was his problem?” she croaked.
I froze…I wasn’t expecting her to regain consciousness yet. “Angel.”
“She’s not finished healing yet, Logan,” Hank said, filling a syringe with something.
“I can see that, Hank,” I shot over my shoulder at him. Clearly…half her face was still so much raw meat. She was babbling something about a semi, her voice raw. Blood trickled out of her mouth.
That’s not good. I forced a laugh out. “Ya tore the semi up pretty good, angel.”
“Damn straight. Be fucked if I’m gonna get the hell beaten out of me without leaving any marks.” Ferocious words, accompanied by her trying to sit up. I pushed her back down, wincing in sympathy as she yelled.
“Why is she awake?” I asked Hank as he walked up to my side.
“I don’t know,” he answered. We both ignored her for a moment as we shared a look. What the hell was going on?
“This will help.” Hank injected her with whatever it was in the syringe.
“Hey!”
“Sleep, angel.” I was half out of my mind as she smiled faintly as the drug took effect.
It was the longest twenty-four hours of my life, waiting for her to finish healing, and wondering what might be going on inside her head.
I fucked up. I admit it.
Hank explained to her what had happened, and her eyes darkened, a considering look crossing her face. I didn’t like that look a bit. I don’t think she was even aware of it.
“Too dumb to play dead.” My words hung in the air for about one second, then she turned to me with eyes blazing.
“Fuck you.” She added a thump to the back of my head as she stormed out of the medlab.
Ouch. Way to go, Logan.
Her hitting me pissed me off.
No…I’ll be honest. It scared the living shit out of me. See, back at the cabin, or on the road, no matter how bad it got at times, she never tried striking out at me. Not even when I would have to hunt her down when she took off a few times. Never, not once. It wasn’t a good sign, as far as I was concerned. The rage just doesn’t go away, you have to handle it constantly. Like I’ve said before…Morrigan wasn’t like me. She wasn’t….hardened.
I could end up losing her after all. I’d be damned if I was going to let that happen.
I got myself under control over lunch, gave her a little time before following her up to our room, which looked like a hurricane had hit it when I opened the door.
I didn’t care as we talked and she seemed fine. The photo album seemed to be important, and it felt good to lie beside her and listen to her tell me who was who in the photos in it. She missed her family. It was obvious they’d been very close. Maybe, just maybe, I could help with that.
Her voice was high, a little frightened as she spoke into the phone.
“Mama?”
“It’s me, Mama. There’s something I need to tell you.”
Good job, Logan, I told myself as I kissed her on the head and gave her some privacy.
4.jpg){kind=icon}
