Author: Restive Nature
Rating: up to NC-17
Disclaimer- I in no way, shape or form own the characters of Dark Angel or X-Men or anything related to them. I simply like to play with them for a short while.
Summary: Max is once again on the run. But this time a safe haven awaits her in the form of Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Children.
Pairing: M/L
Chapter Sixteen
“So what do you think Chuck?” Logan growled as he paced around the professor’s study. He had just finished relating all the details of the strangely vivid dream that he’d had. And to his utter grief, the professor had schooled his features to the calm mien that Logan so hated. The professor was aware that it bothered the wild man to a degree to be presented with a cool façade that he had difficulty deciphering, but Charles did it anyway. Unknown to Logan, it was more for himself than it was to keep information from other people.
“I think,” Charles answered calmly and he moved papers around his desk, “that it was a very interesting and detailed dream.”
“That wasn’t what I was askin’,” Logan growled.
“I know,” Charles replied with a trace of amusement. “But you asked what I thought and I gave you an honest answer.”
Logan paced a few more steps, realizing quickly that Charles was going to make him ask. After all that time combing through his memory, months and months ago, to discover why the mutant Magneto might want to attack Logan, Charles had become surprisingly reticent about discussing Logan’s past. His excuse was that Logan needed to discover his memories on his own. But still, he had to try.
“Do you think it was a memory?” he demanded, stopping his pacing in front of Charles’ desk. He leaned on the desk. It was a slightly threatening position and it would have had a lesser man than Charles a little apprehensive. As it was, Charles just glanced up at him before turning his attention back to the homework that he’d graded and would be returning this morning to his first class.
“Perhaps it was,” he offered mildly.
“Perhaps?” Logan repeated incredulously. “Come on,” he growled, thumping his fist down on the solid oak wood. “You’re the big power around here. You’ve got to be able to tell me something!”
Charles sighed resignedly, letting a paper settle before he answered the angry mutant. He carefully molded his features to calmness once again before looking at Logan full in the face.
“We’ve discussed this before Logan,” he counseled gently. “I can’t just pick up a thread of your memory and follow it through to conclusion. It’s a tangled knot that needs to be carefully worked through. One wrong move and the whole thing could collapse.” Logan opened his mouth to interrupt but the professor wouldn’t let him. “Sit down please.”
Logan looked as if her were going to protest, but finally, he sank his behind into the closest chair. “You’ve got to be able to tell me something.” He paused, thinking back through what he had told Charles about the dream. There was no detail that he had left out.
“And therein lies the problem,” Charles said, causing Logan to startle in surprise.
“Stay outta my head Chuck,” Logan growled, “unless you’re invited first.”
Charles laughed, the inconsistency of the man before him greatly amusing him. “Come in, get out. Go away, come here,” he chuckled. “And you were thinking out loud Logan. Naturally I responded.”
“Oh, sorry,” Logan was chagrined. He smiled ruefully, understanding what made the professor laugh. But the response was automatic. His life had been in shambles and sometimes his mind was the only thing he could keep that was totally his alone. It was natural that he’d want to keep it private. It was an instinct that moist everybody on this earth wanted to exercise. “But you were saying.”
Charles nodded and then continued with the previous line of thought. “You memorized every detail of your dream, to tell me. This was thoughtful of you. But that creates the problem of true memory. So instead of this now being a dream, with the possibility of being a memory, it actually is a memory to you.”
“Because I remember it so well?”
“Precisely,” Charles agreed. He spread his hands expansively across the desk. “And while I am unwilling to sift through the memory, I am more than willing to discuss the possibilities of what this could be and to help discover if there were any truths to this dream.”
Logan mulled that over. To have the professor’s brain power on this was better than nothing. “All right,” he agreed. “Do you have time now?”
“I don’t,” Charles informed him gently. He glanced up at the clock on the wall opposite the desk, behind the rows and rows of school desks. He preferred having the student’s attention on him and not on the time. “Class begins in a few minutes. Perhaps this evening?”
“Okay,” Logan agreed as he rose from his seat. “Right after supper.” He headed for the door, hearing the professor’s acceptance in his mind. He deftly avoided the students on his way through the hallway. And he wasn’t such an oddity anymore that any of the student’s stopped and stared.
It was Logan’s attuned senses that let him know that Max was in the immediate vicinity, because his mind and eyes certainly weren’t paying attention. He stopped short before bumping into her. And once again, with his thoughts still on his dream, he had the strangest sense that he somehow knew her. And remembering back to the instant in the morning, where she and the girl from his dream had been superimposed in his mind, it was easy to understand why. Certainly they had a few things in common. Similar brown eyes, with a wide-eyed knowledge of things unspoken of. A similar complexion. And just that quiet ability to unnerve him. Not many people had that last ability, but around this school, they had it in spades.
“Hey,” Max greeted softly.
Logan smiled; slightly embarrassed now for the way he’d taken off in the morning. It was faster than his escape from the occasional one night stands he indulged in over the years. “Hey.”
Max, felt the comfort level, if there was such a thing, disappear from both of them almost as soon as they got within a few feet of each other. She made to move around him and continue up to the room she’d been given. But Logan reached out with a hand, landing on her arm.
“I’m uh, sorry about this morning,” he offered. She nodded and said nothing, so he continued. “It’s just; I had a really vivid dream that might have been a memory. And I needed to talk to Chuck before I forgot anything.”
Max felt relief course through her. It wasn’t anything she had done. She could tell that he was hiding something from her. But then, it was probably the same something that he hid from everyone. “Did it help to tell him?” she asked, interested for many reasons, concern for his amnesia only a part of it.
“A little,” he admitted. “It got the dream straight in my head. But that’s about it.” He proceeded to tell her Charles dream into memory theorem.
Max laughed about it. “It makes sense,” she muttered. Seeing his slightly perturbed face, she cocked her head to the side. “Memory is a tricky thing. That’s why the fish is always bigger than it really was, when someone tells you about catching it.”
He understood that really well, having heard some pretty big fish tales himself. He laughed as well and if it was slightly rueful, neither one mentioned it. “So…” he drawled, wondering how he was going to fill his day until he was supposed to meet with Charles. He supposed he could sit in his room all day, chewing over old things that he hadn’t figured out in the years previous. Or maybe he could find something a little more constructive to do.
“So?” Max echoed, teasingly. Logan smiled and she answered with one of her own.
“Do you want to go to town with me?” they asked together, and then laughed again when they’d realized what they had done.
“I thought we could bum around,” Logan offered, “maybe see the things you didn’t see the last time we were there.”
“I thought that there wasn’t that much to see,” Max teased. “But sure. I have a couple things to pick up, if you don’t mind?”
“Like shopping things?” Logan said with a soft groan. Max shook her head yes and his groan grew. “Oh I suppose I could go shopping with you.” But then he was quick to amend the deal. “But then we get to do something I want to do.”
“And what would that be?” Max asked, her voice pert, though her mind was roaming in directions far better left to the bedroom.
“I think you might have to wait and see,” Logan smirked back. He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Are we going to need a car, or is it little stuff?”
Max thought for a moment. “Well, I wanted to pick up a dress and a few accessories. The car might be better.”
Logan nodded, though he wondered how much shopping they might have to do. Especially since she’d already mentioned a dress. “Do you know where you need to go?”
“Anywhere that they sell good clothes for an evening in New York,” she smiled widely. Logan’s eyes widened as he realized the purpose behind the trip.
“You still want to go?” he demanded a little brusquely, his face thunderous as he remembered what Jean had done.
“I do if you do,” Max laughed and the tone immediately calmed him down. Without having it said, he knew that Max and Jean had somehow managed to clear the air. And while he was singularly unimpressed with Jean’s actions, this whole mess was between them and like most males; he knew to stay out of it. But a little clarification wouldn’t hurt.
“I’m game,” he assured her. “But what about Cyke and Jean? Do you still want them along?”
“That’d be fine. Jean and I managed to ah, clear the air, this morning,” Max shrugged. Logan nodded, relieved that it had been dealt with. “But I got the impression that they’d go no matter what, since they don’t often get the chance.”
“They don’t,” Logan confirmed gruffly, though in truth he wasn’t absolutely one hundred percent sure about that.”
“And there’s nothing to say that we have to spend all our time with them, right?” Max added. Logan fought to keep the wolfish grin from his face. No there was certainly no rules about this coming weekend, except one. And that was to enjoy themselves, come what may. But first, there were things to take care of. And if this weekend was on, then maybe some new clothes for himself were in order. And who better to ask for help, than the woman he was looking to impress.
“Let’s get moving then,” Logan headed towards the staircase, wanting to get his jacket and wallet. Max followed behind, intent on getting her things as well. They parted at his door and Logan dropped his voice, one hand on the doorknob. “So I’ll see you downstairs in a couple minutes?”
Max turned and slowly backed away, heading for her room. She winked audaciously and smiled. “It’s a date!”
Chapter Seventeen
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