Logan and Garrison - Beer-Fueled Smart Bomb

[x-wolverine.livejournal.com]

Logan's back from Canada, and Garrison picks him up at the airport to offer him a ride back. Logan being Logan and Garrison being Garrison, they stop for beer first.

Backdated to Feb 6th.



Garrison stood leaning against the concrete pillar in the airport arrivals area, watching the flood of people pushing their way out past the luggage carousels, and collecting their bags. He had no idea which flights were spilling in, but the boards said that the Air Canada flight from Toronto to New York City had landed fifteen minutes ago, and that meant his charge should be appearing any minute. He grinned briefly when he considered the text message he'd gotten from Heather, giving him the flight number, arrival time, and suggesting he not get killed again on the way to make the pickup. Yup, she was still a bitch.

He supposed that he should have been wondering why Logan was choosing now to return to the school, but Garrison figured that he might have a fairly good idea of the reason. He never claimed to understand Logan entirely, but he felt he had a pretty good grasp of his friend's attitudes, and one of those was trying to be where he could face unfinished business. The school represented that in a way.

Logan finally appeared, carrying nothing more than a small Beta Flight duffle with him. He'd always been one for travelling as light as possible. He paused in the middle of the human traffic, forcing it to flow around him, and took a moment to get his documentation and his head together. Being stuck in a stinking aluminium can with a hundred or so other travellers was not a feral's idea of a good time under ideal circumstances, and this barely counted for that. His hand went automatically for the pocket where his smokes lived, but he cursed when he realized he didn't have any. "Flamin' Americans." he grumbled audibly.

"You know, as annoying as it might be, it's still a hell of a lot warmer in the plane than making this trip on your bike, eh?" Garrison said from his perch, reaching into his pocket and tossing the pack of cigarillos to Logan underhand. "Good to see you home, Old Man."

"My bike's still at Xavier's." he pointed out, picking the smokes out of the air with an effortless grab and looked his friend over with a critical eye. He seemed ... off, somehow. But a quick sniff of the air said not a shapechanger, not anyone but Gar. "Want to go grab a beer before we head back?" he offered.

"Yeah, we can park in at Harry's. I'm on the garage pool these days." Kane said, heading for the door with Logan. "Did I tell you that Johnny's playing Harry's now? Crazy night after that shit with Manhattan." He used the remote to unlock the door of one of the mansion's generic sedans, part of the small fleet of loaner cars for those who needed a vehicle and didn't have one at the mansion.

Logan waited patiently until they left the airport and got into the car before he lit one of the cigarillos up. Grinning around it, he turned to half-face Garrison. "Heard you got Fucked up and Dead." he commented. "Then got better. You dealin'?" he asked in his typically gruff way.

"To an extent." Kane said carefully. He wasn't going to lie to Logan, but the truth is that he didn't know what the trust was. He thought that he was handling it, but every day brought a new reflective moment. Kane had already booked an appointment with the FBI shrink, since the trauma had some similarities there. "I don't know, man. I don't know if I've changed, or am just seeing things the right way for the first time, or stripping away old bullshit. It's a little confusing to sort out."

"I'll bet." he said around his smoke. "Know a thing or two 'bout waking up as some kind of thing." he said casually. "Not the kind of thing you just up and deal with." he added. "Piece of advice?" he asked. "One day at a time." he said. "You're still you."

"Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself but... you know. It's not as easy as it sounds." Garrison looked over at Logan and grinned. "It's good to see you, Logan. Heather said during your therapy, you had some kind of breakthrough about your memories? Something happen there? She said it was your business to tell."

Logan shrugged, uncomfortable with talking about it as he usually was. "Bits. Here and there. Nothing coherent." he said, chewing his cigar a little. "Lotsa death, though." he added a few moments later.

"Huh." Kane said, wisely taking the cue that this wasn't the time yet. "Did you know Lil is down here now? Says she even separated from Madison, which isn't all that much of a surprise, but still. They were like the eternal dysfunctional couple. She's even got a job at Harry's, so don't be surprised if she's behind the bar when we get in."

"Heather mentioned something like that, yeah." he said. "Haven't seen Mads in a while. Guess the geek's spending all his time in his lab." he said with a shrug. Laboratories were not anywhere close to his favorite places to spend time. "How're the kids?" he asked, and only those who knew him well would hear the note of concern in his voice.

"Good as can be expected. Bunch of them are now in the New Mutants, this thing the Professor set up based off our Beta Flight model. There's some team building going on, but a couple of them are, well, brain damaged teenagers who already know everything. I don't know, it's going to be a little weird for you coming back in, man. It looks a lot the same, and some things are totally different--" Garrison paused as he pulled into the off ramp, and turned towards the bar. "I'm about three months behind myself."

"Just gotta figure out if there's still a place for me. For us." he said. It was something he had thought about, but the ultimate decision wasn't in his hands. His track record was not exactly stellar, although he'd performed excellently in the field. Just stay away from princesses and try not to actually teach anything and he'd probably be OK. "Hear the team went off and got big on me." he said. "Lotta newbies."

"Couple of oldies too. Jean-Paul showed back up a couple months back. We're a Hudson away from Alpha Flight South down here." Garrison pulled the car into the lot, and killed the engine. He hated driving these underpowered cars, or worse, the tricked out sports engines that sounded like a damn video game. He really needed to replace his car. "Let's see, there's Janet and Zanne. Tabs came back. Kyle and Alex made the team.It's a bit of a madhouse, really."

"Huh." Logan said, thinking that over. "We still playing defense or are we taking it to the bad guys these days?" he asked as Garrison wrestled the underpowered car into a parking spot. "Got a whole lot of people wearing black leather, seems like."

"A bit of both. I think Apocalypse's attack on Manhattan changed everything in some ways. Now with SHIELD being the primary responders for mutant terrorism, I'm told we're considered a less public option based on how annoyed Nick Fury is that day. There's some ugly feeling stirred back up by New York, and I've seen calls for mutant registration on some of the not entirely wingnut blogs. FBI's seen a jump in recruitment for anti-mutant groups too, and not just the FoH." He pulled open the door and held it for his shorter friend. "Same time, there's been some pro-mutant groups starting to make real noise too. I think the Professor's still trying to figure it out, and is trusting in Scott and Ororo's judgement for now."

"Saw that on the news. Heather had to do some fancy talkin' to keep me from headin' down myself." he admitted. "So what you're tellin' me is that it's a whole new game out there. Fine, that's Summers's and 'Ro's problem. Me, I just go where they want and do what I'm told." he said. "Better for everyone that way."

"Makes it sound like you're a beer fueled smart bomb." They walked into the familiar environs of Harry's Hideaway, and after a moment of hellos with the servers, grabbed a booth in the corner. Their usual pitcher and couple of shots came quickly, and Garrison raised his glass with a toast. "Well, welcome home, Logan. I'm glad you're back."

"Some days I wonder. And yeah. Thanks. Good to see you in one piece as well." he said, toasting Gar back. "Too ornery to die."

"Or a lot luckier than I deserve to be." He said, as the frosted glasses clinked together with a liquid chime.

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[x-diamondlil.livejournal.com]

Lil wants an Alpha Flight South t-shirt.