A little after dark Heidi met Logan out in the garage and started walking toward her car when he stopped her. “Don’t you think it would be obvious to your boss that it was us in that car?” asked Logan as he walked up next to her. 

      Until he said that Heidi hadn’t thought about Max. She wanted to drive, if any thing to get rid of some pint up frustrations, and she wasn’t comfortable taking any of the other cars in the garage. Frustrated that she hadn’t thought of Max she folded her arms across her chest. “So you don’t think you can protect us?” she asked spinning around to look right into his eyes.

      Logan knew she was baiting him and wasn’t in the mood to argue with her. “If you want to go to your apartment then we take a car Max won’t recognize,” he answered eyeing the black Stealth Twin Turbo Scott had just finished revamping with a new sound system, and a few extra’s to make it go really fast. He left Heidi at her car and walked over to the driver side of the Stealth trying the door but found it locked. Remembering Scott had slipped a set of spare keys in a magnetic key box under the rim of the front tire; Logan reached down and quickly found it removing it from the box. He opened the door and pushed the power locks before looking over at Heidi who was still standing next to her car. “So are you going to stand there or are we going to get going?”

      Instead of answering him she simply glared at him with the belief that sooner or later he would see things her way and they would take her car.

      Knowing they had at least three hours down and back, Logan shut his eyes and then opened them. He walked over to where she was standing and instead of asking her again if she was ready to go he leaned slightly forward and in a move so fast that she didn’t have time to think, Heidi found herself slung over his shoulder as he stocked back to the other car. He put her in the passenger seat and before she could start yelling at him he shut the door in her face. When he slipped into the drive seat of the car he could feel her anger, and ignored it turning the key in the ignition. The car engine came to life in almost a soft purr and once they were out on the road Logan pushed the car to its limits finding that it took to the curves almost as good as the bike Scott had rigged. 

      They had been driving for a little over a half hour when he decided to try starting a conversation with her. “So are you going to stay mad?” he asked keeping his eyes on the road.

      Heidi had been staring out the window the entire time they had been on the road and kept her eyes focused on the passing landscape. “Maybe,” she said not willing to give him a real answer. She had never had anyone treat her in such a barbaric manor, and was still seething over his earlier actions.

      “Look, we needed to get going, and if I would have left it up to you we would still be there instead of on our way.” Logan wasn’t good with apologies, not when he felt he was in the right. After a few more minutes of silence he tried changing the subject. “So do you have any family?” he asked not knowing about her parents.

      “Nope,” she said still peering out the window.

      He mumbled under his breath, “What did they disown you because of that stubborn streak you have?” He had not intended for her to hear him but she did.

      Heidi looked at him. “No they died when I was 18, is there anything else you want to know Logan?” He didn’t say anything after that and Heidi was grateful. She was finally seeing the real side of him and was glad she was now before she got too emotionally involved. More time passed by without either one of them saying a word and Heidi started to wonder a little about his past. “How long have you been living at the Mansion?”

      Logan pulled out onto the main freeway heading toward Manhattan and shifted before he answered her. “Two months more or less,” he said wishing he would have brought a Cigar, before he dismissed that idea. She likely would have gotten mad about that as well.

      “Did you go there on your own?” she asked.

      “No. One of the Professor’s enemies tried to take Rogue, though at the time we didn’t know she was the one he was after,” Logan tried to explain. He looked over at her and found her figiting with her hands, and could tell she was uncomfortable for some reason. He idly wondered if some man in her past had treated her poorly, and that was the cause of her discomfort. Without his senses to guide him Logan would have guessed she was a confident strong woman, and for the most part that seemed to be right but he also thought that her confidence was a wall she had put up to protect herself, and thought about his own life. He was just now letting people get close to him due to other circumstances different than her own, and it amazed him how their lives seemed to parallel one another. “So what did he do?” Logan finally asked.

      Heidi looked over at him her brow furrowing. “Who?” she asked not knowing what he was talking about.

      “I thought maybe at one time some guy must have really hurt you, because you don’t seem all that comfortable talking to me,” he finished. Logan wasn’t one to beat around the bush, and waited for her to explode. He looked over at her when she didn’t answer and found her looking out the window again.

      She was both angry and confused, not understanding how he seemed to know her so well. She had a feeling he wanted an answer and gave him the only one she was willing to give, “I don’t want to talk anymore.” After responding she shut her eyes and soon fell asleep.

      An hour and a half later they arrived at her building. By that time Heidi was awake because Logan needed her to tell him how to get there. She had him park in the garage and when the car came to a stop, and she was about to get out he put his hand on her arm.

      Too tired to tell him she wasn’t a child Heidi decided this once to let him lead the way and when he opened the door for her she got out, and when he was ready they headed upstairs to her apartment.

      They took the express elevator to her floor and when the door opened Heidi led Logan to her home. She dug in her pocked and swore under her breath, looking at him. “I forgot the keys. Look just…” before she could say anything Logan stuck out his left hand. A single blade came out from between his knuckles and he placed barely more than the tip into the lock. In a moment it clicked and the door opened. Logan withdrew his hand and Heidi watched the blade go under his skin.

      “That isn’t a bad skill to have, I guess having you here wasn’t such a waste,” Heidi said walking into the apartment leaving him in the hall.

      He sighed wondering if he should continue to get to know her. They seemed to bring out the worst in each other, and at times he was ready to show her a thing or too about being stubborn. He shook his head and after entering her small apartment he shut the door staying there while she milled around putting things into a large Green duffle.

      The drive back to the mansion was a little less tense and this time when Logan asked her about her life she was more willing to answer. At the moment she was telling him about the most difficult time in her life, when her parents were killed. “I was staying the week with Anna because they were going to an archeological convention in Baltimore. The day after they left Anna and I were in her room listening to a new CD she had burned when her mom came in and told me about the train derailment. They never found out what happened, and after that I was pretty much on my own. I stayed with her family but her parents were on the verge of a divorce, so that was that.” Heidi said finding that it was getting difficult to talk about that painful time in her life. She felt a tear roll down her cheek and wiped it away hoping he hadn’t seen. When she put her hand back on her lap she felt his hand cover it and shuttered when he gave it a squeeze before he moved it away. 

      “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you talk about that,” Logan said. He was beginning to see why it was so difficult to get to know her. It seemed as though her past was as unpleasant for her as his past was to him.   

      When they arrived back at the mansion it was half past four in the morning. Logan parked the Stealth in its spot, and shut it off. He got out of the car and found the key box, putting the spare set back so Scott wouldn’t have anything to complain about, except the gas. On the other side of the car, Logan opened the door, and after slinging Heidi’s duffle over his left shoulder he lifted her out of the car, managing not to wake her as he shut the door with his foot. He carried her up to her room where he laid her on her bed slipping off her sandals before he covered her with a blanket. For a few moments he watched her sleep and then remembered he had an 8am class so he left for his own room to get a little rest before starting his day.

      Sometime later Heidi woke up finding herself in her own bed, and felt her cheeks warm as she realized how she got there. Logan must have carried her up here, but what amazed her was that she didn’t notice. Most of the time she was a light sleeper, and several times a night she would wake to some sort of natural noise, or a dream. Heidi peered over at her clock which read 5:17am, and sat up. She wasn’t comfortable wearing her jeans to sleep in and in a few minutes she was dressed in a long shirt, feeling more comfortable. When she settled back in bed she thought about the events earlier that evening, realizing that there was a lot more to Logan than what she had first thought. She thought back to the garage, and shook her head no longer angry at him for putting her in the car. He and his barbaric ways of doing things were getting to her and she quickly tried to think of something else, something safer than where her earlier thoughts were bound to lead her. At this point in her life she wanted to focus on her career, and that thought brought a frown to her face. By now she doubted she had a career to go back to. For the next few minutes the young woman tossed and turned, and when it was evident she wasn’t going to get any sleep, Heidi got up and pulled on a pair of pajama bottoms before heading down to the kitchen to find a snack and to think.

      In the kitchen Heidi found a half a plate of cookies, and after taking three of them and pouring a glass of milk she walked into the next room, a TV room that had a large Screen TV, as well as a pool table, and a chess table. The TV was on and Heidi found a boy sitting on the sofa across from it. When his eyes blinked the channel would change. “Hello,” she said.

      Jones looked over at the person who had just greeted him realizing he didn’t know her. “Hi,” he said. When she asked if she could sit next to him he nodded his head and when she offered him a cookie he took one. “My name is Jones,” Jones said.

      “I’m Heidi. So you are an early riser?” she asked as he started to change the channels.

      “No, I don’t sleep,” he said finding a station playing cartoons. “Do you like getting up early?”

      Heidi yawned before she answered him. “No, I just couldn’t sleep.” She finished her cookies and watched Looney Tunes with him for a while before she went back to her room. She tried going back to sleep and this time she was successful, hoping that with a little rest she could figure out where she needed to go, knowing that staying here was just not an option for her.