Logan wasn’t too sure about bringing Marie into the dive bar that they ended up at about four hours after they left the mansion. It was something that he was used to, but he wasn’t too sure about exposing Marie to something like that. He knew full well that they had met in a bar, but even back then Logan hadn’t been too fond of the idea of little Marie in a bar. Marie was an innocent and shouldn’t have been exposed to that side of life. It was dark and disgusting and not the place for someone as bright and vibrant as Marie. However, Logan knew from personal experience that it was the dives that served the best food.
“Please tell me that we’re here to get food,” Marie pleaded as Logan brought the bike to a stop.
Turning his upper body around so that he could see her, Logan felt his breath catch in his throat. Marie had already removed her helmet and was in the process of running her fingers through her tousled hair. With flushed cheeks and the wild hair and dark eyes, Marie was one of the most exotic creatures that he had ever seen. There was still an air of innocence around her that made Logan feel all the more guilty for thinking such thoughts about Marie.
“We’re here to eat,” Logan confirmed, his voice trembling slightly as he spoke. He berated himself internally for being so flustered. He was the Wolverine. He didn’t get flustered. Besides that, it was Marie. Sweet, gentle Marie. She was barely more than a kid.
To Logan’s complete surprise, Marie was grinning from ear to ear when he said that. “Really? Ah was beginnin’ ta miss places like this. The school was a bit too proper fer mah tastes.”
That caught Logan completely off guard. “That you or me talkin’, kid?”
Marie shrugged non-committal and slid off the bike. “Beats me, sugah. Ya comin’ in or do Ah have ta get us take-out?”
For a minute, Logan was extremely tempted to take Marie up on her offer. But that would have involved Marie going in there without him to protect her from the scum that frequented places like that.
“I’m coming, kid,” Logan said, practically vaulting himself from the bike. Taking the helmet from her hand, Logan allowed Marie to link her arm with his as they headed towards the bar. It wasn’t very manly, but Logan didn’t care too much. He had long ago stopped caring what others thought of him.
As soon as they stepped into the smoke filled bar, Logan felt immediately at home. This was his environment. For fifteen years, he had existed in places like this. He felt comfortable here, the exact opposite of how he felt at the mansion with Chuck and his lackeys.
“Gawd, Ah love the way this place smells,” Marie murmured as Logan led her through the bar to a more secluded area.
“You like the smell of this place?” Logan asked incredulously as he slumped into one of the chairs at their chosen table. “This place stinks like a Cuban cigar shop.”
Marie inhaled deeply as she slid gracefully into her own seat. “Ah know. Ever since Ah got ya floatin’ round in mah head, Ah’ve been cravin’ the smell o’ cigars.”
“Jesus, kid. I didn’t mean for that to happen,” Logan apologized, hating himself for corrupting Marie the way he had. He wanted to keep as many of his less admirable habits to himself and not pull Marie down with him.
So it was a completely shock when Marie’s smile got bigger.
“Ah never said it was a bad thing, Logan. Ah’m actually quite fond o’ the smell. Have been since long before Ah met ya,” Marie assured him, though it did nothing to quell Logan’s internal condemnation of himself. “Mah Daddy used ta smoke cigars when Ah was younger and the smell always used ta remind me o’ him. Then after... after what happened with David.... Ah couldn’t stand the smell of those things. They’d remind me o’ mah father and how much he hated me after he found out what Ah was. Ah’d walk inta bars an’ smell the smoke an’ it made me wanna gag. Ah just felt so sick when Ah smelt it. Then Ah met ya. And Ah touched ya.... Now the smell reminds me o’ you and Ah know that ya don’t hate me. Fact, with you Ah feel safe fer the first time in eight months.”
For several minutes, Logan was completely and utterly shell shocked. That was, by far, the last thing he had expected Marie to say. Still feeling in awe of the slip of a girl in front of him, Logan gave her a grateful smile. For the first time he didn’t feel the least bit guilty about what access to his thoughts and feelings had done to her. He had taken away something that was bad and replaced it with something good. Something that she didn’t have to be afraid of or ashamed of. Logan felt as though he had done some actual good for the first time in his life without meaning to. It wasn’t like when he had saved her life on the Statue of Liberty. That had been intentional. Logan had known full well what he was doing. This was simply a side effect. Something he hadn’t done intentionally and turned out better than he had thought possible.
“You’re making it sound like I did something good,” Logan mumbled staring down at his lap. “I can almost forget that there are a whole lotta bad thing that go along with whatever good being in my head produced.”
“The good more than outweighed the bad, Logan. Right now the bad doesn’t even count. A couple nightmares more than makes up fer bein’ able ta feel safe fer the first time in so long,” Marie told him, reaching out to place a hand on his arm.
It seemed that with every moment that passed, Logan felt more and more human than he had in the past fifteen years of his life. And it was all Marie’s doing. If he made her feel safe, she certainly made him feel human.... And then some.
“Order me whatever ya’ll think Ah’ll like,” Marie said suddenly, snapping Logan out of his thoughts.
Jerking his head back, Logan stared up at Marie who was now standing next to him. “And where are you gonna be?”
The grin that she cast down at him sent shivers up Logan’s spine. “Ya’ll see, sugah. Trust me, ya’ll see.”
Logan said nothing as he watched her practically skip between the tables until she came to a small stage in one corner of the bar. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she was going to do. He’d seen places like that countless times and dreaded them each and every time. Somehow, this time it didn’t bother him that much. Of course, the guy who was currently butchering a Steve Miller classic was something that Logan could have done without.
Karaoke.
“Hey, ya’ll,” Marie said hesitantly as the musical butcher left the stage. “This is a favourite song o’ mine that’s taken on a whole new meanin’ fer me over the past few weeks....”
As the music began, Logan recognized the tune instantly. He glanced away from Marie for a moment before returning his gaze to her, lending her his support.
It wasn’t hard for Logan to figure out what Marie was singing about. As clueless as he was about most things, this was crystal clear for him. The tiniest of smile spread across his face as he listened to Marie’s beautiful voice singing words that had never really meant much to him before.
Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table.
But you only want the ones that you can’t get.”
“What can I get ya, bub?” the gruff voice of a waitress asked, interrupting Marie’s song.
It took everything in Logan not to pop his claws and growl at the woman who had dared to interrupt him while he was listening to Marie. Instead, he growled out their order, his eyes never leaving Marie. “Two hamburgers, fries, a beer and a coke.”
Something in his voice must have offended her because she came back a few minutes later, slamming the drinks on the table. Part of Logan’s beer sloshed onto the wood, but he didn’t notice. All that he could see was Marie who was staring right at him as she sang.
Never in all the years he had been listening to the song could Logan claim that he had actually listened to the lyrics. To him, it had always been simply a slow moving song that he would listen to when he wanted to calm down. Nothing more. Now they were filling Logan’s mind with thoughts that he had no right thinking.
An atomic bomb could have gone off under him and Logan wouldn’t have noticed. His hand was trembling as he reached blindly for the beer that the waitress had placed there only a few minutes before. He didn’t take a drink or lift the glass off the table. He simply held it, the chill from the drink in the glass reminding him that he wasn’t dreaming. Marie was really up on the small stage, singing for a bunch of drunks in a dive of a bar.
And staring straight at him while she did it.
At first, Logan didn’t even realize that the song was over. Even as the bar broke out in applause for the beautiful southern belle, Logan could only sit there, staring at her. The girl who had saved his life in the most important way possible. In the short time that he had known her, Marie had somehow managed to work her way into his heart. An organ that he had thought died in him when the doctors injected him with adamantium.
For the first time in fifteen years, Logan cared about something other than himself and now he knew, without a doubt, that she cared about him.
And, if he wasn’t mistaken, it was possible that she loved him just as much as he loved her.