What If? Episode 907

New Guardian

By dawn, the two travelers had burned through a tank of gas and put a couple hundred miles behind them, though Logan had been sure to stick to the back roads and off of the freeways. More important than the distance was the fact that the kid had started to relax a little bit. Whatever had been nagging at him in that place was long in the rear view by the time they stopped for a bite to eat and to regroup.

The buzz of having traveled a great deal in a short amount of time was disorienting as they took a seat in some greasy spoon diner near Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The waitress came over and Logan gave her a little smile as he ordered his coffee and took the menu. "Get what you like," he told Scott. "I've got you covered." Logan opened up the local paper ready to do his usual litmus test of how tolerant the area was toward mutants. If it wasn't good, they'd head right out after they ate.

Scott frowned at the headline on the paper Logan was reading as he looked at the menu. More headlines on Mutant Registration. How dangerous these people were ... how uncontrollable their abilities were, and Scott had to wonder about it. He didn't think he'd known any mutants to be able to judge properly. But if the paper was anywhere close to right, he wasn't sure he wanted to.

After the two of them had gotten through breakfast, Logan was just drinking his coffee and leaning back, being sure to not watch Scott outright, though he knew the kid had to be sore from riding on the back of the bike for that long on his first trip. They needed to get moving, but he didn't want to push the kid.

Logan let out a breath and tipped back his mug. "You don't look much like a troublemaker to me," Logan said easily.

"I'm not," Scott said quickly.

"Then why ..."

"I'm a brain case," Scott explained with an almost bitter tone. "That's why they couldn't get me adopted. There's something majorly wrong with me."

"Bull," Logan replied as he pulled out his wallet to take care of their tab. "I don't buy that for a second. There's not a damn thing wrong with you."

"That's what the doctors said though," Scott replied, obviously frustrated. "I was in a coma for almost a year."

"And now you're not. You healed. You can walk and talk and all that crap. Seem fine to me," Logan said as he got to his feet. "You ready to go?"

Scott looked a little surprised for just a second before a little smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Sure," he said, following quickly.

"Let me know if you need a break on the road, alright?" Logan said. "I know it's not easy to get used to travelling this way."

Scott just nodded and before Logan started the bike up, and then paused. "North, East, or South? I don't have an end destination in mind and it doesn't make one difference to me which way we go."

Scott paused and rested his hand on the back of his neck for just a moment before he shrugged lightly. "Um ... North I guess," he said, earning a little smirk and a nod from his new default guardian.

"Perfect. North it is," Logan agreed, though he missed the little smile Scott had as he turned the bike down a different road and opened it up.

It was quickly apparent that Scott was not up to long term travel on the Harley. From Iowa, the two of them headed north into Wisconsin, but they hadn't gotten too far before a summer storm came in and the two of them found themselves finding shelter to save themselves from the weather.

It was impossible to travel by bike and not get soaked at best - or hit by some idiot that couldn't see them at worst. And although Logan would normally risk it, he sure as hell wasn't going to do so with Scott along for the ride.