Logan and Scott - Welcome back, Logan

[x-wolverine.livejournal.com]

Logan, freshly-returned from Canada, goes up to see Scott. Scott's really not in the mood to deal with Logan. So much so that Logan gets slugged in the jaw. After Scott takes a small nap, he's far more friendly and amenable. Logan then borrows Scott's bike to follow up on something Scott told him.



One of the first people Logan needed to check in with was Scott Summers. As Headmaster and as CO of the X-Men, he deserved to hear about his time in Canada first-hand. So he made his way up to where he remembered Scott's suite being, only to be greeted with an empty room still in the process of being remodelled. Worst yet, there was a lingering scent of something in the air - fishtank, mostly, and something that tickled the back of his brain but refused to come out. Shrugging, he stepped back into the hallway and sniffed the air. Ah, there we go. Down the hall.

Scott was sitting at the desk, typing away on his laptop (brand new, of course; the other had met an untimely fate via collison with the wall) when the knock came at the door. "Just a minute," he called, saving the file and heading over to open the door.

At which point he stopped, stared, and wondered just what the fucking hell he had done in a past life that warranted a month like this.

Logan quirked an eyebrow at Scott. "Rough day?" he asked. "You look like shit."

"Rough month. What the hell are you doing here?" Scott turned away from the door, letting Logan follow him in if he chose. "Are you back? Where's Marie?"

"She's still up North." he said. "Last I heard they got most of the shit outta her head." Including him, but that was a discussion for another time. He took the invite and stepped into the bland, unfurnished suite. He couldn't help but crinkle his nose at the smells - it was the olfactory equivalent of walking face-first into a steamroller and getting flattened. "Plan on stickin' around for a bit. Place got big while I was away - lots of new faces. You and Wheels have been busy." he said with an easy grin.

"You've been gone for a while," Scott said, sinking down on the couch and watching Logan examine the room. "Lots of changes. And if you're back..." Logan, back on the team. There were lots of good reasons to be happy about that. Really there were. He mustered up a faint smile. "We could use you."

"Don't get gooshy on me, Scott. It's embarrassing." he teased, leaning against Scott's doorframe. "Already talked to Chuck. Looks like I'll be teaching self-defense if anyone wants it." he commented. "Stopped by Alkali Lake little while ago." he said quietly. "Left her a little something to mark the spot."

Had Charles actually left it for him to tell Logan? Scott tensed, but then reminded himself that there was a certain amount of sense to that.

"That's nice," he said, almost inaudibly, "but currently she's in New York."

Logan blinked. "She's what?" he asked stupidly.

"Alive. She was knocked out by the water, wound up with amnesia." Short. Efficient. Briefing. This was a briefing. "Lived in Canada for two years until she started having TK fits, at which point she was by chance directed back here." Scott rose from the couch, heading over to the window. He couldn't quite control his face, and he had to. With Logan especially.

"She came back about a year ago," he said quietly. "Saw me, and her memories came back. We got married at Christmas. Last month, she left me. So she's now in New York."

Logan took a few moments to pull himself together. "Huh." he said, still at a loss for words. "If you're fucking with me - if this is your idea of some kind of sick joke - I will kill you." he growled. "I was there. I saw her die. I kept you from going berserk and following. Now you're telling me she's alive?"

Scott's shoulders sagged, just a little. Look at him. He turned away from the window. "Not a joke," he said quietly. "Ask around." It was all he could manage, and he turned back to the window so Logan couldn't see the struggle on his face. Not that it mattered; this was Logan, after all, and Scott winced and straightened as his stomach twisted.

Logan walked in to get a better look at Scott's face. "What'd you do to your head?" he asked.

Scott rubbed at the scars. "Molotov cocktail," he said tiredly. "I didn't see it coming in time - we were doing riot control in Seattle back in November. Blasted it when it was too close. It shattered my visor, took out my eye. Bright side is that I've got control now."

"Huh." he said, aware that he was repeating himself but not having much luck at coming up with something else to say. "Looks like I missed all the fun stuff. Bein' injected with glowing green shit and spending days in the MRI machine ain't my idea of a good time."

"Fun. Yeah, it's been a whole lot of fun." It slipped out before he could stop it, and Scott turned away from Logan's curious regard, going back over to sit down.

Logan shrugged. Sounds like fun to him. "You sell your car? Didn't see it downstairs." he asked.

"I wrapped my car around a tree a few weeks ago. It's there while I decide whether to work on it or take a baseball bat to it. I'm still debating."

Logan blinked at that too. Things had definitely changed at the Xavier Institute. "Wrapped it around a tree." he said disbelievingly. "Right."

"Black ice, and I was going too fast. Plus I was on my way back from hearing Jean tell me that she married me out of pity." Absurdly, Scott was smiling, although it certainly wasn't a happy smile. "So, you know, I really wasn't focusing on the road."

That definitely didn't sound like the Jean he remembered. "Pity, huh?" he said with a rough chuckle. "Sounds like she hit just about every button you have. She tell you you're suffocating her and that you're an obsessive anal git?" he taunted. "She's right, but you ever think that she was trying to fuck you up? And you let her do it?"

He hadn't hit Bobby. He hadn't hit anyone. But all of a sudden, he was hitting Logan.

Logan let Scott take that first shot. After all, he probably deserved it. He stepped back and hoped Scott hadn't just broken his hand against his jaw. "That all you got to say, Slim? You got no balls to stand up and have some confidence in yourself, and anyone who gets under your skin gets to eat fist? Or maybe you're just gonna blast me out through that wall?" he said angrily. "For fuck's sake, Scott, have a little pride in yourself."

"Why?" His hand hurt like hell, but damn, that had felt good. "Have pride in myself? My wife is sleeping with my teammates and sending me the fucking videotape, Logan!"

Logan grinned. "This isn't like the Jean I remember. Yeah, I've been away for a while, but this ain't right." he commented. "You ever figure that someone got to her to get to you?"

"To me? No. That someone got to her, yes. Possession, mind control, the whole long list of shit that's happened over and over again around her. I've thought about all that." Scott shook his hand, wincing. "No way to prove it. It feels like her, on the link."

"Then get Wheels to plug his brain into the big machine in the basement and find out. If she's in New York it shouldn't be difficult." he pointed out. "But I guess you'd rather sit in here and cry about it."

Son of a bitch. Sanctimonious son of a bitch, walking in here and acting like he was the first one to think of any of this, the first one to do anything... Scott snapped all at once, and thankfully just went for Logan's throat, instead of blasting him through a wall. One lecture from Cain in a week was enough.

Logan went backwards with the force of Scott's charge, and then completed the roll and used his legs to flip Scott out into the hallway, using the far wall of the hallway as a backstop. He then leapt back to his feet to face Scott. He kept a very wary eye on Scott's head, expecting to have to try to dodge optic blast.

Scott hit the wall and was dazed for a moment, just briefly. But he was staggering back to his feet almost instantly, swaying a little as he headed back into the room, right back at Logan again. He didn't know precisely what the hell he was thinking - wasn't thinking, really. Hand to hand with Logan was dumb, but maybe he wanted to be dumb, and maybe someone would just do him the favor of putting him in a fucking coma already, before the month got any worse.

Logan ducked under the grab, then stepped in to wrap his arm around Scott's throat, cutting off his air and putting pressure on both the carotid artery and the jugular vein. Nap-time would ensue in a few minutes if he got lucky. He also clumsily projected his thoughts down in a generally Xavier-words direction to see if he might want to lend a hand before this got even messier.
Scott's knees were buckling even before Charles reached out, firm but soothing. All of the stresses of the last month, the last week in particular, plus the attack on the weekend, had left him in as depleted a condition physically as emotionally, and the lack of air started to take him out much faster than it would have at another time.

Once Scott was out Logan let him fall, then picked him up to put him onto his bed to sleep it off. He could come back to in a few minutes. "Welcome to Xavier's, Logan. Hope you survive the experience." he muttered to himself as he waited for Xavier to tell him it was safe for him to go or for Scott to wake up from nap-time.

---

Logan was still there when Scott came to. He coughed, one hand going to his throat for a moment, and then slowly sat up, his head spinning. Oh, he felt very odd.

"Please tell me you're another fake memory," he croaked, seeing Logan sitting there. "And I thought the Friday night that didn't happen was bad..."

"Sorry, Slim." he said with a grin. "You can't get that lucky."

Scott swung his legs over the edge of his bed, then sank his throbbing head into his hands - only to stop, wincing, as one was very sore. "I hit you," he muttered, working the hand experimentally. Didn't seem broken. "I think I was supposed to offer you coffee." Oh, that was funny. Hysterically funny, and he started to laugh.

Logan grinned as Scott lost it. Good, no real harm done. "Yeah. Not one of your smarter ideas, Chief."

Scott waved a hand at him, still choking on laughter. His emotions were seesawing wildly, and he didn't entirely trust himself to even try to talk right this second. Charles was murmuring at the back of his mind, and Scott took a shaky breath, nodding in response.

Logan gave Scott enough time to pull himself together. "Gonna borrow your bike." he said, not making it a question.

"Did you just ask to borrow my bike?"

"Nope. Just letting you know in case you want to wrap it around a pole." he said with a grin. "Should be back sometime tomorrow."

"Yeah. Whatever. I haven't been using it lately, and I think I'm grounded until I can be trusted to go out and not get my mind fucked," Scott said a bit dizzily, sinking back against the bed. "Jean's fucking X-Men, strange telepaths are fucking up my brain... I think I need to give up on March. Really do."

"Never liked March anyway." he said with a grin, standing to head for the door. "If you ask me nicely, I'll even put gas in it for ya."

"Too kind. Make sure you say hello to 'Ro before you wander off again."

Logan stopped to nod. "Will do." His odds of actually finding Jean in New York were about a few million to one against, but since when had he ever let the odds stop him? "Get something to eat, take a shower. You stink." he said with a smirk before ducking around the corner.