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History Chapter Three
After that, Jubilee couldn’t stand _not_ tagging along after. Logan didn’t say anything against it and slung a companionable arm around her shoulders. She snuggled into it gratefully, reassured by his touch, and fell in step with him. She couldn’t help but get nervous -- jealous, even, when she was being honest with herself -- whenever Wolvie... got involved. She didn’t like the feeling, and it was worse when it was someone who pre-dated her. Who had A History with Wolvie. She didn’t like the feeling, but that didn’t mean she could will it out of existence. After all, when it came down to it, Wolvie was all she had left.
And he just had a way of getting into _trouble_ without her around to protect him.
She heard water splashing into the bathtub as they went into the cabin. Eve came out with a bottle. “I was just going to shower until I saw that gorgeous tub. But... bubble bath, Logan?”
Logan swung the knapsack to the floor. “Ain’t mine, darlin’. _Someone_--” and he fixed Jubilee with a mocking glare, “Someone blabbed to the women about the tub, and now I’m lucky if I get a chance to use it at all.” The huge tub had been a luxury he had added recently. I was deep enough to remind him of a Japanese bath, which he had found that he missed. Problem was that the others had found out about it, and quite often, he came in to find himself locked out of his own bathroom, especially after a mission.
“Like you’d really complain about finding any of them in your tub,” Eve scoffed.
“But they lock me out,” Logan said, rather plaintively. “I don’t know why they don’t just rally to have one or two put in the mansion.”
“They don’t have to,” Jubilee chimed in. “They have yours.”
Logan growled playfully and gave her an affectionately rough shove. She giggled and fell over, tucking in a roll and flinging a few sparks at him. “Ya wanna end up in that pond again?” he warned.
She stuck her tongue out at him, then shrieked and dodged away when he took a step towards her. Eve sidestepped the whole scuffle, grabbed her pack by one strap and dragged it along with her. She stopped by the dresser long enough to pull out one of Logan’s T-shirts. Jubilee abruptly abandoned the wresting match to watch her. That jealous feeling was back again, at the easy, familiar way Eve was moving through Logan’s home, how she knew where things were without asking, that he kept his shirts in the third drawer down. It was part of The History they shared. Without her.
She swallowed past the sudden thickness in her throat.
“Jubes? You ok, kid?”
“I wish you’d stop calling me kid,” she said softly.
“I call everyone that.” His voice was amused, but she could hear concern behind it. Probably anyone else would miss it. But she never could. “It would be like askin’ you ta stop bein’ a wise ass.”
“Impossible,” she agreed with a sigh. She risked a glance at him, and at least he was looking at her and not at the bathroom door, where Eve had gone. “Were you two really close?” she asked, looking away to study her fingernails. The paint was chipping on her right thumb. Wolvie sometimes teased her, that the polish might burst into flames from one of her paffs, especially considering the hotly-bright colors she used.
“I guess so,” he said, with his characteristic vague-ness. “Haven’t seen her in... oh, over four years, I guess. She probably knows it down to the hour.”
“Is that a ‘woman-thing’ remark?” she huffed, crossing her arms.
“No,” he said considering. “Evie just keeps track of things like that. Ya know I’ve no memory for it.”
“Hmm.” She stole another glance at him, and this time, he _was_ looking at the bathroom door. She sighed. _Guess that’s my cue._ “I’d better go.”
“Jubes?”
She stopped at the door. “Yeah?”
“Danger Room tomorrow? Say, around ten?”
She grinned. “Cool! Oh, Wolvie, we haven’t done a session together in ages!”
He returned the grin, wishing it was always that easy to make her happy. “I know. I’ve missed it, darlin’.”
She waved and bounced out of the cabin, feeling at least a little better.
And, at least, she wasn’t bored anymore.
***
Logan tapped on the bathroom door.
He heard a soft chuckle. “You’ve seen me in a tub before, Logan.”
He pushed the door open. “Yeah, I know. But that was awhile back. And I’m a little cautious when it comes to women in my bathtub. ‘Ro nearly fried me with a lightning bolt once.”
“Is adamantium an electric conductor?”
“I _don’t_ wanna find out. But she never forgot to lock the door again.” He settled on the edge of the huge tub and playfully swiped at the bubbles and blew some at her face.
She batted it away. “You wouldn’t be getting away with that if I wasn’t so tired,” she warned.
“’S’why I’m doin’ it.” He patted the tub ledge. “Lemme see that ankle.”
Eve sloshed around, repositioning, and balanced her leg up on the ledge beside him. Her ankle was more than twice its normal size, and her skin was indented from the cloths she had wrapped around it at some time as a make-shift brace. Logan prodded at it gently. “Hell, Eve, Jeannie’s right. Hank should be lookin’ at this. If you don’t want to go back to the house, I’ll call him over.”
“It’s a sprain, Logan,” Eve said wearily. She winced when his fingers pressed a little harder. She tried to pull away, but he caught her shin, holding her leg still.
“How long were you walking on this?”
“It happened yesterday, but I hitched rides mostly, afterwards.”
“I’m surprised you could get your boot on.”
“I wrapped it right after it happened.” She regarded her ankle as if it didn’t belong to her. “Got my boot on again right away, and didn’t take it off again until I walked in your door. Of course, I hadn’t been able to lace it up, and I didn’t dare take it off before then, because I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to get it back on. The last ride took me through most of the night and almost to the school’s gates.”
“You should have called.”
“I should have called,” she agreed, but he could tell it was out of fatigue and not because she truly agreed with him.
_Then again, the last guy ya had lookin’ after her really was a great choice. How’d she know that anyone I send would be any more trustworthy._ “I would’ve come got you myself.”
“Yes,” she agreed again.
“I shouldn’t’ve let you go in the first place. Should’ve kept you here, where you’d be safe.”
“I haven’t been here for two hours, and you want to start that argument again?” Her eyes were closed, but her jaws clenched.
“It’s my nature, darlin’.” He gently set her leg aside and went to the medicine cabinet. He came back with a pill and a glass of water. “Here. Painkiller. Leftover from when Jubes broke her leg.” He shook his head at the memory. “You think _I’m_ a bad patient!”
“At least you heal quickly, to spare us from throttling you.” She swallowed the pill, which only convinced Logan that she really was in a lot of pain. He knew she hated meds, especially ones that blunted her thinking. She had lived for too long on the edge of her wits, to let those wits go easily. She read his expression and shrugged. “It wasn’t bad, while I was hyped on caffeine and adrenaline, but it’s wearing off, and hurting like a bitch.”
“I can have Hank here in five minutes.”
“I jus’ wanna sleep.” She rested her head back against the ledge and her eyes closed again.
“Then you’d better get out ‘afore you drown yourself.”
Her mouth curved in a smile. “You’re fussing, Logan.”
“It’s why ya came home, darlin’,” And he quickly left the room, before he could hear her say that this wasn’t her home.
But with his acute hearing, he heard her anyway.
When she hadn’t come out a while later, he looked in again, wondering if she had fallen asleep in the tub after all. It was empty, and he checked the bedroom.
Eve had all but collapsed on the bed. She was laying on her side, with her face squished so deeply into the pillow that he was rather surprised she could still breathe. He could see the points of her shoulder blades through his T-shirt. “We’re going to have to fatten you up a bit, darlin’.”
She didn’t even move. The dog was curled in the crook of her legs, with her chin resting on Eve’s leg. “I don’t ‘member sayin’ _you_ could sleep in my bed,” he said to the dog, who gave a low contented growl. “You don’t look like you’ve missed any meals, either,” he growled back. It was just like Eve to go hungry, but make sure her dog didn’t. He shook a blanket out over her. One arm hung over the edge of the bed and her fingers twitched slightly.
He knew what she was looking for.
He retraced her steps until he found her hiking boots. Inside the right one was a slim dagger. It looked pathetically small to him, no better than a letter opener. He had never liked the idea of it being her weapon of last defense. She just didn’t have enough skill and experience with it.
But that wasn’t the only thing she refused to listen to him about.
He went back to the bed and squatted next to it. He slipped the sheathed blade between the mattress and box springs and gently rested her hand on the hilt. Her fingers curled automatically around it, and she sighed in her sleep.
One night, Jubilee had fallen asleep while watching television. He had carried her to bed and tucked one of her stuffed toys in her arms. She had sighed just like that.
He patted Eve’s hand, then the dog’s head. It was too early for him to sleep yet.
He’d keep watch over her. This time.
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