The roar of the gun shot deafened Logan. Remy crumpled to the ground before him. With a roar Logan leapt at Samuel, too hurt and angry to even notice that his claws were extended.
The guards rushed into the room, brought by the shot. When they saw Logan standing bloody over their former employer�s body they did not bother to hang around for revenge, but took off running back the way they had come. For now at least Logan was alone. Samuel might be dead. Logan found he didn�t care. He would try to feel guilty later, when there was more time.
He knelt by Remy�s body. The boy was very pale, but with all the blood on his hands, Logan couldn�t tell how badly he was bleeding. His hands were shaking so badly he couldn�t even find the wound.
Remy opened his eyes. �Christ, Logan, it took you long enough. Were you waiting for him to actually shoot me?� He sat up abruptly. �Do you have the com?�
Logan stared at him. �What?�
�The com, so we can call the others. Unless you maybe want to take a cab back to Westchester? You have it?�
�I�m naked.� Logan�s brain felt fuzzy.
Remy sniffed at the obviousness of the remark. He walked over to the back of the room and poked around in the boxes a little.
�They�re over there.� It was one of the men who had been chained to Logan. Logan looked up startled. He had forgotten they were there.
Remy grunted and after a little hunting tossed Logan a ball of clothes. �Put these on and call the others. I�ll free these two.�
He bent to pick up a knife that one of the guards had dropped and walked over to the men. �Your night out hasn�t turned out how you planned, has it fellows?� He said in a friendly voice. Then before they could respond he pressed the knife firmly into one of the men�s groins. �Let that be a lesson to you. Maybe you should think twice before you go preying on the helpless for kick, you sick fucks.� He deftly picked their locks. �Now get out of here before the others show up. They ain�t as nice as I am.� He turned back to Logan. �Are they coming?�
�They should be here in about three minutes.�
From far away came the sounds of sirens. �We�ll hope that�s soon enough. We have to destroy the stash.�
Logan looked at the boxes in dismay. �All of it?�
�All it takes is one sample for some bastard to NMR and replicate. Can you do the computers?�
Logan nodded. Hank had given him a disk designed to wipe the files of any computer system.
�I�ll take care of the boxes.� Logan didn�t ask Remy how he planned to do that. He walked over to the nearest terminal and shoved in the disk. From behind him a massive explosion almost swept him off his feet. He turned to see Remy stooped over in front of the rapidly charring boxes.
�Son of a bitch.� Remy gasped, holding his head in pain.
�Are you okay?�
The kid nodded. �It�s the collar. I didn�t think it would hurt so bad to charge through it.�
Logan wanted to ask him what he thought it would feel like, forcing his powers through a caustic neural device. But this didn�t seem like a terribly helpful question in the circumstances. The building was coming down around their ears and the sirens were getting closer.
�Time to run.� He scooped up Remy and threw him over his shoulder as he headed for the door, ignoring the loud protests and the pounding on his back. The cold air felt good on his face after the smoke of the warehouse. He looked up to breathe it in gratefully and saw the silhouette of the Blackbird as it touched down in the parking lot feet from him. The door opened and there were Hank and Storm standing in the doorway, ready to help boost them up.
�Everything okay?� asked Hank as he handed them in.
�Peachy,� said Logan. �Let�s go home.�
The next few hours were a whirl of activity. The first stop back at the mansion was the med lab, where Hank gave both men a work over to make sure they were alright. The work over included an MRI for Remy, which came back clear.
�It hurts like a son of a bitch.� Remy complained.
�Well it should.� Hank said, somewhat sourly. �You ran roughshod over a Genoshean collar. You�re lucky you didn�t stroke out entirely.�
Remy pretended to sulk a little. �Well I try to keep your life interesting, Henri. Without me who knows but that you�d be a dull boy?�
�I appreciate you efforts on my behalf.� Hank said dryly.
Logan watched the kid carefully. His haziness had cleared on the plane, but he was still confused. What the hell was going on here anyway? He�d seen Remy get injected, but here was the Cajun, laughing and joking like nothing had happened.
He cornered Remy outside in the hallway. They were on the way to the debriefing, the first of many. Both men were exhausted, but they knew that the first DB had to be done now, while the details were fresh. Later the story they told would be slightly different. They would forget some details and remember others. That was how it worked.
But Logan wasn�t prepared to walk into the room without some answers of his own. �How�d you do it?� he asked.
Remy shrugged a little. �It was a cheap collar.�
�Bugger the collar. I saw you get injected. You should be dead, both of us by now.�
Remy began fiddling with the bottom of his shirt. �I switched the vials.�
�When? How did you even know where they were?�
�When I was sucking Samuel�s fingers. He leaned forward. I saw them. I had a spare. They never search you, you know, if they think you�re harmless. I only got one though. He had two in his pocket. So I figured, fifty-fifty chance is better than non, oui?�
�Fifty-fifty.� Logan didn�t want to think about it. It would go to the back of his head with all the other things that had happened over the past few weeks that he needed to think on and desperately didn�t want to. He had another thought. �So you were fine that entire time.�
�Oui.� Remy was still fidgeting.
�And you still�.� Logan remembered the way Remy�s lips had felt on his skin. He felt himself getting flushed.
�Oui. It was needed, I had to get close to pick your locks. It was no big deal.�
�Of course not.�
�I am sorry if I offended you. I know you are not used to having men touch you like that. I thought, �he is a professional, he will understand.� Was I wrong?�
�Er. Yes. I mean no. You were absolutely right. It was, after all, meaningless. Right?�
�Of course. What could it possibly signify after all?� Remy headed into the meeting room where Scott and the Professor waited. Logan followed, his gait a little cramped.
All through the meeting he watched Remy. Outwardly the boy was fine. He talked about his experiences openly, if not easily, with little emotion in his voice certainly, but not unnaturally so. Logan was pleased to see that Scott actually flinched a few times during Remy�s recitation.
At the end of the story Scott spoke up. �Fantastic job both of you. The pair of you have single handedly destroyed one of the most insidious drug rings in the world. Everyone will be dying to congratulate you, I�m sure. Do you want to tell them yourselves?�
�No!� said Remy quickly. �I mean, I don�t want anyone to know it was me.� He looked nervously across the table. �You can tell them about Logan if you want. Leave my name out of it.�
�Remy,� Scott was obviously puzzled. �You did an amazing job. You deserve credit. We don�t have to tell them everything if you would rather-�
�They�d know.� insisted Remy. �As soon as they heard my name they�d know what I did. Tell them it was Logan, leave me alone.�
Scott gave in. �Alright Remy, if it�s important to you. It�s the least we can do really.� He walked around the table and clasped Remy�s shoulders awkwardly. �I can�t tell you what an amazing job you did, or how good it is to have you back.�
Remy smiled and said the right thing, like he always did in fraught moments. But Logan following behind them frowned. He knew the kid was not alright. He had a brittle quality to him, one that Logan had never seen before. It was as if the mask the kid had constructed so carefully�the one that looked just like himself was slipping. Logan was afraid that it would crack. Who knew what would happen to the kid then?
They both finally got to rest after that. Like Remy, Logan claimed to be going directly to bed. He kept finding excuses to pass in front of Remy�s door though, cursing himself for being every kind of coward, afraid to knock, afraid to leave the kid alone.
Finally he realized that if he didn�t make sure Remy was alright, he would never get any sleep himself and he was bone tired. He knocked gently on the door.
�Go �way Logan.� Came a voice.
�How�d you no it was me?�
�Who would it be?�
�Storm?�
�She�s on patrol. I�m tired. Go away.�
Logan cracked open the door. Remy was sitting in his armchair, wrapped in a blanket staring out at nothing. He looked painfully small. The room was filled with the smell of blood.
Logan froze, then panicked for the second time that day.
Remy sent him a sarcastic look. �Calm down,� he said. �You�re off the hook. I didn�t slit my wrists on your watch.�
Logan felt a wave of relief, replaced almost instantly by one of embarrassment that he was so easy to read. �You�re hurt.�
�I�m just bleeding a little.� Said Remy.
�From what?�
�The rape. It�s to be expected. I know how to take care of it. I have a lot of experience.� There, that wasn�t gracefully done, but it should be enough to send his unwanted guest running for the door. Logan was a good friend, none better, but the man was a coward about somethings. He had made no secret of how uncomfortable Remy�s lifestyle had made him. Now his flush made it impossible for him to pretend he didn�t understand Remy�s meaning.
But he surprised Remy by saying doggedly. �I thought people were supposed to get, you know stitches, or something. Why didn�t Hank take care of it?�
�He doesn�t know.�
�Doesn�t know? Why the hell not?�
�Why would he?� Remy looked Logan impassively in the face.
<Why would he?> He knew what kind of mission Remy was coming back from. Hank wasn�t stupid. At the very least he should have checked for diseases�.for�.. Suddenly everything clicked into place. Hank didn�t know. Black out operations were on a need to know basis and Logan had assumed Hank had been told what was going on. But why would he? He was Remy�s doctor, he would never have approved. He had no idea where Remy had been these past few weeks.
Well bully for Hank. Logan felt a little rush of relief that one less person was involved in this mess.
�Get up. We�re going to see Hank.�
�No fucking way.�
�Yes.�
�I ain�t gonna go to Hank and tell him everything he�s ever heard about me is true.�
�Don�t be stupid-�
�Stupid? I�m not the one that�s stupid. You really think I�m going to tell him I�m some sort of hustler, some sort of cheap whore-� his voice broke, �someone who can only do a mission by screwing his way through it? I can�t. I can�t.� he repeated more softly.
Logan felt his heart break. �Remy you have nothing to be ashamed of. You did a good thing, a brave thing. You helped-�
�Bullshit. I didn�t help anyone. You don�t know those boys Logan. You think they were grateful for being saved? You think the ones that would have gotten the shot tomorrow or the next day would be grateful? They�d hate me for taking oblivion from them. I know, I�ve been those boys. I�d hate me too.�
Logan didn�t know what to say. He wanted so badly to hold the kid, to stroke his hair, to give him comfort. He couldn�t though, so he just repeated, �C�mon. Let�s go see Hank.�
�I told you, I�m fine.�
�Fuck you. Don�t say that!� suddenly Logan felt his own self-control snap. �Don�t sit here in that chair, loosing blood and telling me your fine. You ain�t fine.� He was out of breath. �If you admitted you were hurt, I could help you heal. But if you just keep saying you�re fine, when I know you ain�t, how do I know you ain�t broken? How do I know you ain�t broken past any point where I can reach you?� His voice cracked. �How do I bear that, Remy? If all that�s left of you is what�s sitting in that chair telling me your fine, how can I am I supposed to live with it?� He paused and caught a ragged breath.
Suddenly, where he was and what he was doing crashed down on his head. Shame threatened to drown him. �I�m so sorry.� He stood up, on shaky knees. �Your injured, and I� God� I had no right to put that on you. I�m sorry.�
�Logan?� Remy looked stunned.
�I�m sorry.� He said again as he turned blindly towards the door. Out. He had to get out of here. The knob turned beneath his fingers and he was free.
�Logan.�
He hadn�t taken two steps before he heard his name, felt a hand on his back turning him around. Then Remy�s lips were on his, a kiss passionate in its intensity, but sweet, almost pure.
Remy raised his hands to cup Logan�s chin and stroke his face, gently. Then he pulled the shorter man into an embrace. �I never knew.� He whispered. �I never knew.�
�It doesn�t matter.� Logan couldn�t figure what the kid was about, but he wanted to release him from any imagined obligation.
�God Logan, it matters to me.� Remy cupped his hands around Logan�s face. �To me, it�s only ever been you.�
Logan didn�t know if he could believe him. When had he ever had a right to expect that kind of joy. For an instant they held each other�s eyes, and every doubt, every uncertainty and misgiving rose up between them.
Then Logan brought his mouth up to Remy�s and allowed himself to believe.