(Under heavy rewriting) The Wolf and The Wolverine Book One (Completed ✔️)

Chapter 8: Same Type of Ugly

"How could they do this?" I Shouted to the room full of my quiet colleagues. Everyone remained still until the professor spoke up. His hand on his chin like always. "I don't know what this means, but there's a lot more at play here than what is being shown." I sat down and wore an expression of concern and fear while my stomach churned and my thoughts continued to race in my head. "All we can do is watch and wait. Everything that is taking place is now entirely out of our hands." I glanced across the space and watch the Cowboy clad man listen and never say a word. He was like an unmoving object, not quite like a stone, but almost like a mountain. He gave a silent heavy sigh and kept his arms crossed. There was a rage growing in him that everyone could feel but never acknowledged, like it was the pink elephant. The team was uneasy and looked to the professor for guidance though they knew that wasn't going to happen this time around. There was something so different about this whole situation but nothing said and done could give us answers. "I want everyone to put this out of their minds. Go, and get some rest, we leave for the school in the morning."

_

A sleepless night was becoming normal for me. I laid in my bed motionless and exhaling at the dismal thoughts keeping me down. I stayed awake thinking about what could happen with the release of Magneto and how underhanded everything seemed. Sitting up in bed I watched as the city glow flooded into my room by the crack of the tasteless brown curtains. While I drew them back the shriek of the curtain rings gave way to the skyline. I drew one of the curtains back and stepped onto the patio. The cold air of the night hitting my skin and causing a chill to run up my body in a shiver. The sound of the crowd from earlier that day caught my attention as I leaned over the balcony watching the mob shout and chant at the fantasied destruction of my kind. I drew a long breath and opened my eyes to see the vivid colors of many cars and city lights of Washinton DC. I felt a wave of sadness come over me while I sat back in a chair, my eyes wandering over the town.  I thought the crowd would leave the building after the wind picked up and the temperature plunged. I was wrong. The reverb of a gunshot caught my attention. Looking over the edge of my hotel rooms' patio I saw the angry throng of people lighting torches and police starting to make arrests and interfere with the hostile scene. Several other people came to their balconies to see what had started the commotion. Then their eyes were drawn to me. No doubt my face along with the X-Men had been painted all over the TV screen from this mid afternoon. After I saw a woman scoot her child back into her room another shot rang out. It just missing me and the bullet finding itself in the concrete just off to the side of my rooms wall. Just my luck.

With my heart beating out of my chest I got down on my knees and crawled to my room. I turned off the lights, I grabbed a sweater and my room key before stepping out into the hall which had a type of serenity aside from the nonstop chanting outside the building and now sirens joining them. I clenched my jaw while I looked at the last room of the hall. Naturally, it was Logans. I didn't want to bother him, but I also didn't want to be alone. Before I went and knocked on his door I tried for Storm, then Scott and Jean, and even the professor. They all seemed to be either out on the town or asleep. I took a breath and raised my hand to the door, with three raps, I let the silence fall again. Not hearing anything coming from the other side of the door. I thought the same thing of Logan that I did of the others. That is, until I heard the knob turn. The door cracked open, my body tightened in fear of what I had just done. An eye from the darkness, then a slight appearance of his body. Black sweatpants and a shirtless torso was all I saw aside from his very darkened face. I could see the light of a TV and a show I couldn't make out from where I was standing at the door. "What." He said firmly. His eyes studying me like I was an enemy or even pray. He seemed distracted his demeanor showing he wasn't in the mood to be messed with in the slightest. "Remember when you said you experienced a lot more than anyone else?" He was still, and let me finish the thought for him. "You were right." His eyes narrowed waiting for me to add something. I drew a shaky breath, fear and adrenaline rushing through my veins. "I got shot at." His face never changed, like he was unphased and not surprised in the slightest. "And you're here so you can sleep with me." My body jumped at the sentence. I was surprised he even said such a thing. "Well hate to break it to you doll, but you're not my type." My face fell into a scowl. "Like I'd ever sleep with you. I just don't want to be alone and everyone else is either busy or asleep. Now I'll leave you alone if you want me too, but I just didn't feel comfortable being by myself." He scoffed at that as the door came open a little more. As he leaned forward a little more. I rose my brows watching him as if to say "Do you have anything else to add before you insult me a little more and I leave?"  His stance relaxed and he moved out of the way of the door. He looked to his room, then back to me, his eyes resting on me a little too long, but there was a calculative expression, like weighing the options or outcomes. "You can stay until you've calmed down." He opened the room to me, I saw the old western playing on the TV, gun shots running alongside the horses thundering hooves. There was of course a bed, a chair, and a desk. Logan stood behind me watching, I stood in the middle of the room not knowing what I was allowed to touch or sit on. "Take the bed, wasn't sleeping anyway." I glanced back at him, this time I noticed a towel hanging over his shoulder, the shower was on and I realized what I'd done. "I'm so sorry I intruded on you like that." I was still nervous but this time more confident than before. "Like I said, I wasn't sleeping anyway." He put his hand on the knob to the bathroom then before he went in he saw me standing next to the bed. "don't touch anything." He warned while his finger was pointed in my direction. "I'm not a child, you can stop treating me like one." He scoffed, but this time it was more like a laugh, the ghost of a smile making itself known in the darkness.

I sat on the bed for I don't know how long, watching the movie on and off. My thoughts taking most of my headspace. I came back to the conclusion that I shouldn't have come back to the school, no matter how selfish I would seem. Hearing the faucet squeak and turn the water off I guessed Logan was finished showering. A few moments later I see the steam billow out from the room and the light flick off. The large figure sauntered over to the bed lifting the covers then getting underneath without a word. A sigh of contentment escaped his lips but his eyes were tired. We both sat there and said nothing. Then he glanced over in my general direction as I acted as if I was paying attention to the movie. "Why did you come down and talk to me that night?" The question jerked my heart. "Because, I know what it's like to be feared and to hurt someone." I could feel tears coming to my eyes. "You said I'm not as bad as I think I am. Do you believe that?" He asked as his attention was wholly on me. "I do, but I'm not sure you do. I think you do everything you can to prove to yourself that you're better than you want to be. You prove that to everyone else, but you feel like you'll never prove it to yourself." The conviction of those words made me cry, I'd let myself vent and let go of my biggest insecurities, and yet they were supposed to be meant for him. Logan was still, his eyes flicking over me before he propped himself up on his elbow. "Do you believe that about me? Or yourself." He watched as I faced him, this time his hardened scowl softened, but his expression was serious. I wiped the tears away and locked eyes with him. "I left the team before the final fight with magneto. There was a student, Bobby drake. He was young and cocky. There were more of them than us..." I took a breath to compose myself, I saw his face in my dreams and my nightmares constantly. "He died that day because they didn't have a medic on the team. I was the team medic. I let him die alone and scared. All because I was too afraid to go and stand for what is right. I backed down when I shouldn't have." My heart felt heavy, and yet like I had been shot through the heart. Logan's face didn't change. For awhile he studied me, I got myself back together enough to talk again. "So now you know my darkest mistake. My selfish one." I said as he finally spoke. "Don't think you're the only one on this team who has skeletons in their closet. Me more than anyone else." He left our conversation at that, it was a strange comfort. "Sometimes you need to hear someone else's situation to relate to your own." I said under my breath. Logan laid back down and this time seemed to get comfortable and close his eyes. "That's the point red. We're all pretty much the same type of ugly. But the difference is how we live with ourselves."