Log: Kyle, Laurie & Wade

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Backdated to September 10th, around 5pmish.

Kyle and Laurie talk about their missing memories from Genosha and decide to ask Wade for explanations.



Laurie flopped down beside Kyle on the couch, careful not to spill any of her coffee as she glanced at the television. She'd managed to put on matching clothing this morning, but only just and she was basically dreading having to go into any of her classes tomorrow. She was currently pondering if she could get someone to give her a drop off on their way to their own classes, but she couldn't remember if anyone went near her new school.

"What are you watching?" she asked, finally realising that she didn't recognise the cartoon at all. "Also, I think I may have insulted the coffee machine."

"I have no idea." Kyle had a tablet pc, a bowl of fruit and half a gallon of apple juice, and hadn't even looked up at the TV. "It was on when I got here to do grading." He glanced up at it, and scratched his head. "I bet Dori'd know, but she has a late meeting for her lit mag and I try not to text her too much during."

"How much grading have you got left?" Laurie asked curiously before taking a sip of her coffee. "Also, I feel a need to ask you as the only teacher I can noogie with impunity, what's with all the homework? I've been back at school for a week and I've already got a tonne of class reading to do."

"Don't look at me. I'm strictly anti-busy work." Kyle said. "This is summer reading, and mostly I didn't pick or assign it. I dunno, maybe your profs want you to know what a spleen is before they make you remove one?" He started to grin, and his face shadowed for a moment and he looked away. "Not a whole lot of grading, just a couple more of the distance kids essays. Mostly complaining about Jane Austen which I totally cannot blame them."

"What's wrong with Jane Austen?" Laurie asked, picking up the remote.

"Oh jesus don't even get me started." Kyle said, with a eye roll. "Mostly it's the Old - you know, classic novel everyone is supposed to read, totally outdated and not relevant to any teenager ever. Except Hope's obsessed with her. I actually dove into some goddamn feminist freaking theory and I am seriously concerned that the dude police are gonna show up and revoke my balls for that. It's not like I can give my normal line though. can't really say 'hey, I'm a dude's dude and I only nail chicks who can kick my ass or sew it back up. Or, you know, both."

"I've never read her," Laurie admitted with a smile and a raised eyebrow. "But I have the excuse that I've never read most things that are considered fiction except the stuff you've told me I 'should totally read, omg dude, why haven't you?' The 'Pride and Prejudice' movie with that hot British guy wasn't bad though."

"I'd say read them just for knowledge, but mostly I'd say read them because watching you get angry at a book is hilar." Kyle said. "Also, b-t-w's, I'm dropping a big ol' like, cool zombie book on you for reading and giving me impressions of. The kids are doing this zombie themed thing, and it's actually a pretty cool book, so I was thinking I was gonna assign it, but I wanna run it past a few peeps first, and you're my "oh god fiction sucks" person."

"At least I wasn't the person that went to the zombie farm with you, otherwise I'd suggest Haller," Laurie noted with a nose wrinkle. True, she'd decided to give fiction a chance, and the books Kyle had given her had been good, but zombies, book zombies as opposed to television zombies which were things like 'The Walking Dead', she wasn't sure. "Question, will this bore me, or make me want to throw the book against the wall like all the dream analysis books I've been reading?"

"Yeah, not even. I don't say the z-word around Haller, he doesn't remind me that sometimes he's a chick in his head." Kyle said, with a shrug. "It's a decent book, reads like non-fiction that's fiction, if you're into the sort of war anthology thing." He scratched at one ear absently. "Totally not dream analysis and why in the hell are you even reading that crap? You know better, didn't you have to take at least one psychology course or something to be a pre-doctor-person?"

"Do I need to read a physical copy, or have you got an e-book I can load on my phone?" Laurie questioned, taking another sip as she thought about Kyle's other question. "I did, but it's not really telling me why I'm having these dreams. I read all the files when we came back from Genosha, I know it's got to have something to do with that but I just can't seem to figure out what it's coming from. What do you remember?"

"Three weeks of suck and Marius being naked in my arms and I am not into dudes like that." Kyle said dryly. "The whole thing sucked, and I'm pretty sure there are parts I don't wanna remember, because I know for damn sure there are parts I don't." He inched closer to the edge of the sofa he'd been sprawled on, putting himself another hair's width away from Laurie. "And I've got it on e-book or audio. Audio's pretty badass, they got a bunch of different actors to read parts."

"I don't remember anything, not anything after they took us into the mutate chamber. It's frustrating, I know the dreams have to have some basis in reality but I can't tell how much, and I hate it," Laurie replied, fists clenching tightly around her cup before releasing. "how about I read the ebook and then listen to the audio? That way I'm not spoiled by it."

The two conversational tracks might seem strange to a mere observer but they didn't feel at all weird to Laurie. To go from impassioned speech to a mild noting of intent was just par for the course. She did however, frown at Kyle when he shuffled away.

"You okay?"

"Up to you, I'll drop both off for you." Kyle said. "Eh, I'm okay mostly. I just... you know, the whole like last two days we were in Genosha are one big blur and I came out of it like, covered in blood and I swear to God I don't remember getting that tore up, you know? And I am not invested in turning into Logan, and waking up one day and not knowing who the fuck Batman is."

"I'll let you know what I think of them," Laurie murmured, putting her cup down now she'd finished her coffee. It had taken her months to even begin to come to terms with the large gap in her memory, especially since she knew something bad had happened in that darkness. She could well understand now why Logan had been so deeply disturbed and disturbing. It was an itch that you couldn't scratch, whether you wanted to or not. "Think any of the others would tell us what happened in the gaps?"

She wasn't sure they would, the reports had been clearly designed to be 'just the facts' and hadn't included any extra information other than that she'd had to be subdued.

"Dude I haven't even asked." Kyle said. "And I dunno who all is around. Warren's in DC, Jubes is over in the city and she'd almost be like, too foreward with it. That girl is made of bluntness sometimes, and I dunno about you, but Ms Frost freaks me out. Not Adri, Adri's cool, but her sister? I always worry that if I say the wrong thing she's gonna like, turn me into her freaky love puppet." He set down his tablet pc and papers and stretched his legs out. "I dunno, I mean if you really wanna know more, I guess we could track someone down but do you really wanna know? I guess we could find Wade?"

"Yes...maybe, I don't know?" Laurie replied in quick succession, the conflict showing in both her words and her face. "I hate that I don't know, but I also wonder if not knowing is maybe better? What if I did something truly terrible and that's why no one is telling me anything. What if I killed someone? But then I wonder if, if I did kill someone and they know and I don't, are they all waiting for me to go off the deep end and kill someone else, and that's why they haven't told me. So, um...that's usually when I freak out and have a panic attack and have to breathe into a paper bag."

"Whoa. Whoa whoa hold the train. Okay, first of all, and dude, I know this from personal experience, brainwashing doesn't mean we're waiting for you to crack and off someone." Kyle explained, a bit hurriedly. "I mean, you're not all secretly running a 'when is Kyle gonna chew someone's ear off again?" pool, so we're not running any kind of "Hey, when is Laurie gonna melt brains." pool. Second, if you'd killed someone and peeps knew, the Prof'd tell you if it was pressing on your mind, or Haller would or Scott, or whoever was in charge of your meltdown. Third, okay, well I know shit-all about what happened because I was figuring I came down with a nasty case of Logan, you know, healing factor affecting the brain, but lets find out. Lets go get Wade and be like "Dude, be honest with us, okay?" because he would, he's that kinda dude."

" I know you're right, I would guess that's why it's called an unreasonable fear. Okay, we'll talk to Wade, I doubt he's going to tell us anything worse then what we might imagine."

***

"So, do you think he's going to mind if we just rock up to his door and ask him, or should we have a plan?" Laurie asked, feeling nervous now that they'd actually decided to ask Wade what he knew of what had happened. "I wouldn't want to say the wrong thing."

"It's Wade. There is no wrong thing." Kyle said. The older man was remarkably easy going, in spite or, or maybe Kyle, thought, because of what he did for a living. "We text him, make sure he's not in the city, and if he's here we go offer him tacos and pick his brain."

"Has anyone ever asked him why tacos?" Laurie asked, suddenly curious. "And soft or hard tacos?"

"Because tacos are awesome. It doesn't need to be questioned." Kyle said. "Come on, you know if we don't go find him, we'll just put it off until we're both super crazy or something." Because now that they'd talked about it, he really really wanted to know. Which was exactly why he hadn't talked about it! He pulled out his phone as he stood up. "Texting now. Because procrastination blows."

"You think anything with meat in it is awesome," Laurie noted, but peered over his shoulder to see what he was texting. "Think he'll even have his phone turned on?"

There was a ding from said phone as Wade walked into the room. "Of course he has his phone on - when does he ever not?" The mercenary grinned at Laurie and Kyle even as he reached for his phone. "Who's got their phone on?" He checked his text message and snorted. "Wait, it's me." Holding the phone out so Laurie could see the text from Kyle, he jiggled it a little. "Ta da. What can I do for you two fine examples of responsible youth?"

"How do you even do that?" Kyle said. "And, uh, actually like serious type question, because neither of us can remember. What the actual fuck happened when Laurie and I beat each other up in Genosha? Because I mean I get that she wouldn't remember, but I'm actually kinda wigged out that I can't, because I have never actually gone Full Logan before."

"It would be good to get the full story," Laurie acknowledged, glancing at Kyle before turning back to Wade. "I've been having some fairly intense dreams, and I'll admit that it's been causing me issues in my waking hours as well. It would be nice to know the full details, if only so we can integrate them into our coping strategies."

Wade paused to consider that for a moment, then nodded. "I can see that." He pointed at Kyle and said, "After I go through all the details, you're gonna have to explain to me what Full Logan means cause I have a feeling it's not really awesome."

The mercenary frowned a little, then rubbed at the back of his neck. "So basically they messed with your head," he said, pointing at Laurie. "You were full-on like. Kill kill kill because the lady who was making you do stuff decided we weren't worth capturing and torturing or whatever. I think you'd had a lot of other stuff done, too, because you were healing super fast and you had some pretty wicked claws."

Turning to look at Kyle, he continued, "You went up against her because you were better equipped to handle her. The rest of us were basically trying to deal with the dudes with guns. McSparkles was doing something to our brains to keep us from feeling pain, but you were pretty far beyond that, anyway. I mean, raging dude. Like, you would've killed her if you could." Looking back at Laurie, he gave her a rueful smile. "You totally made me have a heart attack. Literally. Those pheromones of yours kicked my ass. Temporarily.

"I think Emma found something in your brain that wasn't meant to be there, at least that's how I think she said it," he continued, glancing back toward Kyle. "She tweaked it. I shot Laurie but it kind of only phased her a little - sorry." Wade looked back toward Laurie. "It was just an ass shot, but I was trying to distract you. Things sort of wrapped up after that, but I'm not surprised neither of you remember much, given the circumstances and all the mind melding stuff that was going on."

Kyle had one finger up for most of Wade's explanation, and pointed it at Laurie. "I am not integrating shit into any strategy, Hermione. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't gonna wake up and forget who the fuck Batman was someday." He leaned against the back of the sofa, and stared up at the ceiling. "Well, the Frost going in my head explains why I don't remember it much. That's not, uh, the first time I've flipped my shit, though usually you know, I hallucinate myself talking to me and I'm an asshole to myself. Which hopefully means I don't be going all Logan. Dude forgets shit all the time, I mean seriously, the not knowing who Batman is? Not a joke. Man is a billion years old and has no idea who the hell he really is."

"I...," Laurie began, looking between the two men with something akin to bewilderment, with a heaping side serving of disbelief, and something that could be said to be approaching non-copinghood. "killed you, and then you shot me. But not before I tried to kill Kyle as well. And you're both entirely okay with this beyond the fact that you, Kyle, who was not just trying to burn me over my choice of wording, were worried you'd suddenly turned into a non-Canadian, non-incredibly hairy version of Logan. Although, now that we're talking about it, do you ever cut your hair? Because I think Flock of Seagulls called and they want their hairstylist back. Also, also...YOU! Man who loves Bea Arthur way too much to be healthy. You shot me in the ass. How was that going to be helpful? I thought they taught mercenaries to aim for the head, especially after people kill you. I could've....What if Kyle had died?"

Shrugging, Wade said, "Kyle's healing factor works faster than mine. If I managed to not permanently die when you were trying to purple-zap me, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't've, either. Besides, that was like the second time I died in Genosha. The first time, I threw myself out a fourth floor window. Also, I'd like to see you shoot somebody you know who doesn't have a healing factor in the head after they've been brainwashed. And after you've fought for days and slept in the bush and thought your girlfriend was dead and had previously mentioned brainwashed friend attempting to kill you. Just sayin'."

"What he said." Kyle said, half-grinning. "and Laurie, dude, hi, welcome to the brainwashed club. If I wasn't okay with it, I mean as much as you can be okay with that shit, I'd be like, refusing to leave my room and totally jumping at every little thing. It's try to be chill with it, and zen, or freak the fuck out all the time and freaking out all the time is not even like, at all productive." He pointed one finger back at Laurie and smirked. "And no mocking my hair. You'd have bad hair too if you spent the last three hours grading essays and trying not to pull your hair out."

Laurie took a deep breath in, and held her hand up to both of them before she turned and walked away for a moment, counted to ten while she tried to figure out what the hell about this was freaking her out. It wasn't as if she hadn't read the X-men report which had the broad strokes if not all the detail obviously. The only things she could really think of was that once again her unique abilities had been used to kill someone, and almost kill another. Given that, there wasn't a hell of a lot she could do about it right now, she'd just have to have yet another chat with her therapist about how, just because you could do something didn't mean that you definitely would, and the fact she worried about it meant that she wasn't likely to turn evil and go on a killing spree any time soon.

Having talked herself as far out of her issues as she was likely going to get, she walked back to the others, smiling at them wryly.

"Okay, freak out over, at least for now. I don't promise I won't have a freak out sometime later tonight and need to call my therapist for some quick 'You're not crazy, just traumatized' talking down. Sorry I questioned your 'shoot them in the ass' methods, Wade. I'm just...a little weirded out by the whole thing, although on the up side, I appear to have been made a member of a new club. Also, I have now killed at least two Xavier's people, and almost killed another. I can't be sure, but I'm almost positive that you're meant to get some sort of congratulatory toaster from the Brotherhood or something after that."

It was a fairly lame joke given the circumstances but it was the best she could do at that particular moment in time.

"Toasters are for losers," Wade said, waving one hand through the air. "C'mon, I'll buy you a burrito. Burritos are for champions." A slow grin spread over his face before the mercenary sang, "A we are the champions, my friends..."

"Oh my god no." The expression of horror on Kyle's face came with him rolling upsidedown on the sofa, and burrowing his head and shoulders under one of the cushions. "Laurie make him stop! please!"

"And we'll keep on fighting - till the end," Wade crooned, bending down to get closer to Kyle's cushion-covered head. "We are the champions. We are the champions... no time for losers, cause we are the champions..."

"You are both weird," Laurie informed them, but the grin put paid to any censure that her words might have contained. She didn't know completely why but she felt better. Not completely cured of all worries and issues but she figured nobody who had really lived a life ever was. It was simply enough to be here with her friends, amongst the silliness.

It was in this mood that she started to sing along with Wade, throwing her hands out in an expansive gesture as they repeated the chorus.