A Year and A Day
Seattle, Washington
by
Jenn



July 15, Seattle

Dear Jubilee,

Well, I've solved--okay, I didn't solve, but I heard about it--the Great Contact Mystery and rescued a cat from a tree. I also had an epiphany and have eaten the best damned hamburger in the world.

Damn, he moves fast. Gotta give the man credit.

Anyway--oh, you probably want to know how all these circumstance came about, right? Well, it's sort of weird..

What you may not know about Seattle--it's rainy. Hehehe, aren't I just the comedian.

Things I have learned:

One--cats here don't like water here any more than cats anywhere else

Two--A hamburger can minister to a mind diseased.

Three--Logan has spectacular taste in women, and grind that into Jean's head while simultaneously reminding her just how wondrous Our Fearless Leader is. Do it twice.

Well okay, let's begin with the fun stuff--Logan was here, he left, *c'est la vie* and all that right? Now, either my tracking skills are just beyond words to describe good or Logan is getting sloppy.

The beauteous Dina the Paralegal told me that Logan had mentioned something about a contact in southern Washington. Down in a tiny little town called Derry, in which I spent a forgettable three nights, Logan got picked up for speeding--do you hear the lack of shock in my voice?--and according to all known reports, he was headed back into Seattle. That's good--I'm happy, because I'm not just looking for Logan, I'm touring the damned continent, and I haven't seen Seattle yet.

Well, I'm back under my name again--I'm figuring if someone can track me up here, well--well, I can handle that. And I'm now a month and a half behind His Elusiveness, so he may hear about the weird gloved chick stalking him--and a part of me wants him to because--and you know, babe, it just occurred to me--what the hell do I say when I see him?

Yes, these are the thoughts that are keeping me up at night. As if I needed any worse nights than I already have.

Well, at the time I was thinking this, I'd just made myself comfortable in this remarkably clean little Holiday Inn. Checking outside--decent neighborhood, no hookers, no dealers, and no wanna-be thugs, which means Logan is moving up in the world, don't you know. As per standard operating procedure, I left all my needed stuff in a locker at the airport and just brought some ID and some cash and a card.

Now--it's rainy and chilly and stalking the streets just isn't an option when it's like this and anyway, I'm hungry, so I call a cab and go a-looking for the neighborhood Dennys or Chilis or whatever.

No, I didn't feel my destiny on the horizon--I mean, the cab was crappy at best and I was nervous about where to put my feet--you have no idea what condition my boots are in right now. No, I didn't have a sudden inevitable sense of foreshadowing that they always have in those romance novels--well, I'm not a romance novel heroine either, so maybe that's why I seem to be lacking that. No, the clouds didn't ominously darken with potential meaning, because they were already pretty damned dark, and no, I didn't suddenly get a chill up my back--well, I was already chilled so maybe I did get one of those but just put it down to my general state of miserable wetness.

What I got was a really good idea--right in front of me was one of those neighborhood bar/eatery-type things and well, I could get my hamburger and ask questions all in one convenient location. So I inform the taciturn driver to come to a stop and he does--and I step right out in a puddle that nearly swallows my ankles.

Little bastard. There went his tip.

So I plod along through the water until I get to the sidewalk-which isn't much better--and my hat comes off--of course--so I go chasing it as it floats merrily down the road and in the process the braid comes loose and my hair gets wet in the puddle during retrieval of said hat and--well, shit.

And when I look up, there's this woman staring at me. Mouth kind of agape in *such* an elegant fashion, let me tell you.

It took me two steps to get a hand around her throat before she could do whatever it was she was going to do.

"Who are you?"

She kind of moves her mouth. Oh yeah--the whole strangulation thing. So I drop her back on the ground and she starts rubbing her neck like I was trying to break it or something--geez, Jubes, I think I left bruises. I felt a little bad, and she sputtered for a minute--

"Rogue?"

That stopped me.

"Whose asking?"

She gets to her feet--she's got balls, Jubes. Looked me over once and I'm getting kind of edgy, which she notices and she motions for me to follow her into that little bar place. And I see no reason why I can't be intimidating and eat a hamburger--I've seen Logan look intimidating trying to wash dishes, so it can be done--and she knows the management, so I get a table quick as can be and they are already getting my order before she says anything more.

"You gonna tell me what this is about?" I ask her--I try to kind of growl it, but I'm also trying to control my chattering teeth, so that didn't work out too well.

"I've been waiting for you."

The only thing she had going for her at this point was that she was half a table away and I don't have nine inch metal claws to put through her. But she must see me getting ready to do something and I'm pulling off a glove under the table so I can get some answers direct from her little skull, so she puts both hands on the table where I can see them and doesn't seem inclined to make any sudden moves, which is all to the good, Jubes, because I've noticed I'm getting a little twitchy.

"Look, I just have some information--Anna gave me a message for you."

"What city and when did I know Anna?" I ask.

"Austin, Texas, June 20th," she answers promptly. "Codename, Rogue, name Marie Summers AKA Elizabeth Andrews. Westchester, New York."

Hmmm. The odds that some of those Brazilians finding out that much was pretty slim, so I sort of relaxed into my chair.

"All right. Who are you?"

"Mary, primary contact for Washington state--I've worked under Anna since Eric went freelance."

So Jubes, I've always had a suspicion that Xavier had a pretty good underground system going--at least in the US--and the one in South America isn't bad either. But the level of sophistication is amazing--the thing is, a lot of his improvements occurred real quick, and not when Magneto left--no, they occurred when the Mutant Registration Act thing was on the table. I'm guessing here that if it had gone through--well, we wouldn't be living in Westchester anymore.

"So we know each other," I said finally, and considered my course of action. "What'd she say? Is she okay?"

"She's safe and already made a report to Professor Xavier. This is for you, since she understands you are not in direct contact with the Professor."

So she knows about that. Well, it's not that I don't want to write--but I'm moving a lot, okay? So I only have time for one letter.

"How'd you know I was going to Washington?"

"Anna said that was your target's next location. I anticipated your arrival a week earlier, however." My *target*. Hehehe.

Yeah, my sort of unscheduled stop in San Francisco and LA. Sorry, hon, I don't have time to explain now.

"Okay." Fair enough--I've only been in town a day so she's good at what she does--and I did leave Anna a vague idea of what part of Seattle I'd be hitting after I went to Derry, so...well anyway--

"The Specter isn't who we thought he was."

See what I mean about foreboding? She makes it sound like Magneto's out of prison or something.

"Okay."

You see, I hate to say this, but I haven't really been thinking about the whole Contacts MIA thing much. I've been musing on--well, Logan and sort of caught up in some personal issues I'm trying to resolve. Anyway, here's the short version.

Mary has to leave Washington--it seems that there's a leak in the chain here, and some anti-Mutant groups are sniffing about her little rescue operation. So she's being succeeded by someone else--I don't remember the name and its not important for the purpose of this conversation anyway. She's going to meet up with Anna somewhere or other and start a new center somewhere else--I guess Xavier will give her the orders or something.

Anyway, when Logan was here, it seems the anti-mutant protesters sort of figured out who he was and tried to track him down. They didn't have much success. Now, here's something new about ye olde Wolverine--since he's wandering about the continent anyway, the Professor asked him to do some checking on how reliable some of the contacts are, since obviously every good organization has some bad seeds. And it seems Specter isn't exactly what he appeared to be--he was in with Magneto and has been playing both sides--keeping his rep as Xavier's representative and giving Magneto's people information. So that girl from Chicago I told you about? Well, she somehow figured out what he was up to and made a run for it, which is why it took her so long to get to Austin. Logan didn't know that when he left Chicago but by the time he got to San Antonio, he picked up the rumors and left Anna with some things to think about. So she sent word up here that Specter was missing and presumed to be the one that was scaring the contacts, and that the girl and the lawyer from Austin were missing.

Have I totally confused you yet? Shorter and sweeter version.

Specter is a Bad Guy. Chicago girl knows which ones of Xavier's underground are in Specter's pay. She runs to Austin and she and lawyer dude disappeared. Better yet--every single person she's made contact with has vanished--see, she was trying to follow Logan's trail as well so he'd find out. And it gets even ickier, because now Mary and Anna both think that maybe Specter wasn't just in the pay of Magneto--she thinks he's also selling info to anti-mutant groups.

Hence that mob after Logan. What exactly he knows remains a mystery, but I think I know--I think he knows what's going on in Rio and I think he knows that Specter is involved.

Which means I have a debt to collect from that son of a bitch.

Sooo--anyway, you're wondering about the cat. That's a little later.

Now here's the fun part.

Well, I get my hamburger and Mary drinks tea and we chat about things that aren't world issues for a bit. She's remarkably nice and really understanding about the whole choking thing, so I'm having the first quiet and civilized meal I've had since home. She asks what I'm doing and it's odd, I actually tell her all about Logan and the running and Laughlin City and what I am trying to accomplish, and she sort of smiles into her cup.

"So you're chasing him down."

Well, yeah, I guess so.

"Uh-huh." I'm trying to get through all those fries--honey, these people are great, they feed you really well. I may put back on all that weight I've lost at this rate.

"He's an--interesting man."

Immediately, I stop chewing--I think I stop breathing--and then I look at her hair color and *damn*--she's a redhead.

Shit. Here I thought I'd finally talk to a chick he didn't nail.

She must've seen my expression and laughed.

"No--it was just that night."

Honey, it's always only one night. So I finish chewing my mouthful and swallow and start fumbling for my money when she grabs my wrist--didn't I tell you this lady has balls?--and looks real concerned, which is really sweet and I would have appreciated a lot more if I hadn't just heard she's done the nasty with him.

"Does that bother you?"

You know, it did. Hookers, strippers, even one night stands he picks up from bars, okay. I can live with that. But she's--she's nice and well-dressed and speaks decently and I'm sure she doesn't frequent bars.

Looking at her, you know what really just rips me up?

She reminds me of Jean. All that cool serenity and that controlled power and--and Jubes, she's beautiful. Not pretty or cute--but beautiful and intelligent and kind and--shit. And I want to hate her, but I can't hate her any more than I can hate Jean--and I tried, dammit--I'm twenty-two going on a thousand in some ways, but that inner peace, that--that--that way they have of calming you down just by looking at you--only experience can bring that, and ya know--I really don't think I can ever have that. I have too many people in me I fight every day to be Marie. And maybe that's what Logan is looking for, why he looks at Jean like that--he doesn't just want to screw her, you know, he wants *her*. He wants that balancing peace inside that he doesn't have--that I don't have.

"What do you think you're going to find, Marie? When you find him?"

And I think about that--and all those questions you and Scott and Ororo asked me and yelled at me and everything--well, it all started to sort of make some sense. I told you I was going after him to find out if how I felt about him was remnants of a crush or hero-worship, if I was trying to replace my father, if it was all based on gratitude--but that's not why I went at all. It's not, Jubes, because I knew when I left that it was a lot more than that. He's been in my head and held me when I cried and touched me when no one else would. And he helped train me and called me kid and ruffled my hair and smiled at me the way he smiled at no one else.

So what am I going for, since now I have the proof right in front of me that Jean is the one he wants, Jean is what he needs? I could pack up right now and come home, put on that uniform and be his friend and his partner for the rest of my life. And suddenly, I want to and maybe she sees it, and she reaches out and touches my hair--not my face.

"One more question--is it worth it, to know?"

Wow, and that was easy. Risk is what I am--I'm a fucking walking bag of risk, and a long time ago on a road you've never been on, Jubes, Logan knew what I was and picked me up anyway.

"Yeah."

And she smiles again, real sweetly, but her eyebrows go up high and I have no idea what she's thinking then.

"I think Logan's going to be surprised."

And isn't that an understatement. But she didn't mean it like that--and she shakes her head and pays for my dinner and we share a cab back to my room. We part on good terms and she tells me where he's going next.

So life is good.

But of course, nothing is *ever* that simple. Well, okay, this was kind of cute.

I grab the little duffel I picked up in San Antonio and go out the door, look just casually over to the other side of the road-

--and there's some kid, standing out in this godforsaken rain, staring straight up into the only tree in sight--and I mean that, greenery is scarce here, hon--with the most heartbroken look on her face I've ever had the misfortune to see. And the tree--apparently making up for the fact that it is pretty much alone in the apartment complex--is *huge*.

My cab will be here in five minutes and I fight it---but geez, even I can see what she's looking for--her pet cat.

So--I'm such a softee.

Well, the cat didn't take it well at all--I was *rescuing* the little bastard and he fought me the whole way down, and the only thing that saved him from being choked was the fact that he couldn't do very much damage when I was wearing so many layers of clothing.

And my cab waits--see, my luck has returned!--and I get in and make for the airport, because I'm off to Canada-

--and the weird thing is--somehow, I know it will all end in Canada, one way or another.

But you know what else, babe? It's going to be the one way, my way. So that's it.

See ya, sweetie. Give my love to Scott and Jean and the others.

Marie Summers



CHAPTERS:   Prologue   Des Moines   Chicago   Jackson   Harlingen   Interlude   Austin/Los Angeles   Seattle   Vancouver   Calgary/Regina/Winnipeg   Niagara Falls   Epilogue




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