Logan had been riding for what felt like days when, in fact, it had only been a few hours. It was as though something was eating him from the inside out. It wasn’t his conscience. Logan had stopped paying attention to that a long time ago. A part of it was guilt. Logan had promised Marie that he would look out for her and he had failed. Marie was in danger again because he had been unable to protect her.
Guilt wasn’t all of it, though.
It felt as though a large part of Logan was missing. Like he was hollow. There was a big part of Logan that was missing and Logan knew that that part of himself belonged to Marie. In the few weeks that they had known each other, Marie had become a large part of who he was.
That simple fact scared Logan more than anything else had in the fifteen years that he could remember living.
Around three-thirty in the morning, Logan finally came to a stop at a dive bar in northern Ontario. Since he’d been in little more than a daze while driving, all that Logan had been paying attention to was the red neon sing that flickered the word “BAR” at the side of the road. It was only after he turned off the engine that Logan realized where he was.
The bar that Marie had sung to him at.
Logan had barely been able to restrain himself from destroying something before he fired up the engine again and high tailed it out of there. He couldn’t set foot in that bar knowing that Marie wasn’t there to be with him. It would drive him completely over the edge if he did something as simple as set foot in there.
In the end, Logan didn’t stop that night. He kept riding until he ran out of gas at about ten o’clock in the morning. Logan would give Scott credit for picking out a bike with amazing gas mileage. He didn’t know of any other bike that could travel so far without needing to refuel.
Logan stopped at a small diner that had a gas station out front. He was exhausted and starving, but determined not to stop any longer than necessary to eat. Sleep would come later. That night or, even better, the following morning. Logan wanted to get as far as possible in as little time as he could manage. The sooner that he got to Alkali Lake the sooner he could begin searching for Marie.
Parking the bike in front of the main window of the diner, Logan strode into the building, scanning the interior with his hawk-like eyes. A part of him was hoping to see Marie even though he knew that his chances of finding her were very slim. Not so far away from where he had lost her.
“You gonna stand there all day, buddy, or are you gonna take a seat sometime soon?” a shapely blonde waitress asked, appearing suddenly at Logan’s side.
Logan growled slightly at the intrusion into his thoughts. “Get me an order of all your breakfast specials and then bring them over to where I’m gonna be sitting. Got that?”
The girl nodded meekly and darted towards the kitchen. She kept casting glances at him over her shoulder as she relayed his order tot he cook. Logan merely smirked in her direction and stalked towards a window seat where he had a good view of the bike. If anyone tried to take the bike, they’d be introduced to a very pissed off Wolverine.
As he sat there staring out the window, sounds from the portable television set on the counter caught his attention.
“.... discovered by Senator Robert Kelly. The mutant is a seventeen year old girl with the ability to drain the life from other living things with skin to skin contact....”
Anything else the announcer might have said was completely lost to Logan. He was on his feet in an instant and sprinted towards the counter, knocking over people as he went. Something deep inside of him was screaming with rage, begging to be released. Another part of Logan was desperately praying that he would not see an image of his beloved Marie when he finally got to the television.
All of Logan’s prayers were useless because, sure enough, when he finally saw the television screen he found himself staring at a school picture of Marie taken earlier in the year. She was grinning from ear to ear. Completely carefree. She still had a few months before her life was turned upside down when she learned about her mutation.
“NOOO!!” Logan bellowed, his claws extending as waves of rage and sorrow began to crash over him. The emotions nearly drowned Logan. vAs the diner’s other patrons stared at him in a state of shock, Logan punched his fist through the television screen, a primal scream erupting from his throat. Before destroying the television, Logan had been able to catch one other thing in the broadcast. The location of the press conference.
Washington, D.C.
Not bothering to get anything to eat, Logan rushed out of the diner and went straight for his bike. He refueled quickly, shoved a handful of bills at the attendant and was gone.
Logan was breaking speed limits all the way across the province. He sped as fast as the bike would go, swerving around other vehicles, barely avoiding other cars on the highways he traveled. There were countless times that Logan was nearly driven off the road because of his reckless driving.
Logan, please pull over to the side of the road, Chuck’s voice burst into his mind.
Fuck off, Chuck. I don’t have time to talk to you right now, Logan snarled, keeping his eyes focused on the road.
Logan, I saw the new broadcast and I know where you’re going.
Then you’ll know that there’s no fucking way you can change my mind. So buzz off, Chuck!
There was a moment of silence and Logan was sure that Chuck was going to leave him alone. Of course, Logan should have known better.
Would you please pull over to the side of the road, Logan. Scott is coming with the jet to pick you up. You will get to Washington much faster in the jet than you would on Scott’s motorcycle. Chuck attempted to rationalize with an unrational Logan.
You think I’m gonna trust you geeks after what you let happen to Marie? No fucking way, Chuck. I’m doing this myself. No interruptions from your pack of brats.
Logan, I realize that your feelings for Rogue are very strong, but you need to stop allowing your anger to control your actions. You need to calm down, Chuck said as though he were talking to a petulant child.
Logan’s temper soared to mythic proportions when he heard that. You want me to calm down? Marie’s life is in a whole mess o’ trouble and you want me to calm down? Are you insane? I am not calming down, Chuck!
Logan, I’m begging you to pull over and allow Scott to pick you up, Chuck pleaded.
With an angry growl, Logan jerked the handle bars and pulled over to the side of the road. He’s got five minutes to get here, Chuck. Five minutes.
Thank you, Logan.
Five minutes.
It was taking everything that Logan had in him to stay by the side of the road for the five minutes that he had promised Chuck. Every instinct in his body was shouting at him to fire up the bike and take off towards D.C. He wanted Marie out of danger as soon as possible and, unfortunately, that meant flying in the jet with Scooter. Logan didn’t doubt for a second that the rest of the geek squad would be on the expensive hunk of tin as well.
“You’ve got thirty seconds, Scooter,” Logan grumbled, pulling back the sleeve of his leather jacket to look at his watch.
Twenty-nine.
Twenty-eight.
Twenty-seven.
Twenty-six.
Twenty-five.
Twenty-four.
Twenty-
“Well I’ll be damned, Logan mumbled when he saw the massive jet speeding his way. “Looks like I’m gonna have to play nice, after all.”
Unmindful of the passing cars, the jet began to lower itself down in the centre of the eight lane highway. Logan merely rolled his eyes as he watched the jet lowering itself in the centre of the noon-hour traffic. Cars were swerving every which was, some of them nearly hitting Logan. Logan merely rolled his eyes and waited for the jet to finish its decent. As soon as the ramp on the bottom of the jet was open, Logan revved the bike back up and rode up it.
“Get this jet moving, Scooter,” Logan shouted as he brought the bike to a stop in the interior of the jet.