SquidgeWorld Archive

"K-kiss me... right here, r-right now." Remy blinked back the tears that made his vision swim as Logan applied more pressure to his wound.

But the blood flowing from the wound didn't slow much.

Logan shook his head not trusting his voice not to betray him. It would be admitting defeat. Kissing Remy now meant he believed the kid wasn't gonna make it.

"Where the Hell is Blue?" Logan's voice was rough with emotion when he did gain enough control to speak. He was looking around wildly, the doctor was somewhere behind them and just to their left when Logan saw the kid take the bullet and crumble to the ground. Remy coughed, and Logan's attention snapped back to him. He changed position slightly to block the sunlight from the boy's pale face and noticed blood on his lips. He saw that Remy's eyes had slipped shut and with his free hand he gently tapped his cheek, "Stay with me kiddo... open yer eyes and talk to me, not much longer I promise... Blue's gotta be close by, he was right behind us!"

He had a gut feeling that it probably wouldn't be soon enough. There was a growing puddle of blood under the boy, but Logan refused to give up. He pressed a little harder hoping against hope that it would be enough.

Dazed red on black eyes opened slowly and Logan sighed silently... not gone yet. His boy was a fighter. He smiled down at Remy and let his free hand slide from the kid's cheek back into his silky red-brown hair. Remy's breath hitched as he turned into the touch. Logan wanted nothing more at that moment than to be back in their room at the mansion, or off in the woods, in the danger room... anywhere but there. "That's my boy... I know it hurts, but ya gotta hold on a little longer. Can ya do that? Can ya do it for me?"

Remy winced and tried to curl up around the pain as he gave Logan an almost invisible nod.

"You gotta lay still boy, the bullet passed clean through ya and I can't get it to stop bleedin'." As crazy as it seemed, a hand full of idiots with high-powered guns were actually holding them down. "Hank!" Logan tried again to get the doctor's attention, wherever he was, and was repaid by a shower of bullets passing just to his left.

"Logan," Remy's voice was a breathy whisper. He wouldn't be able to stay conscious much longer, "love y'..."

Logan's breath caught, and his heart skipped a beat.

Remy never said those words to him before.

He'd been hurt too many times to open himself up to that kind of pain again, and Logan understood that. He knew Remy loved him. He didn't care that he found it hard to say the words. He could read it in Remy's eyes, and feel it in his touch. It was as true as anything he'd ever believed.

"I been tellin' ya that for months, and you pick *now* to say it back to me?" He absently smoothed back soft hair as he asked. He let a soft smile, he in no way felt, play at his lips. Remy didn't need to see how this was tearing him up inside. Once the kid was safe at home he'd go out into the forest and howl at the sky, or destroy the danger room... He had his own ways of releasing the anger and fear that was building inside of him.

Remy's lips curled into a tiny smile, " was waitin' f' th' perfect... moment."

Logan bent and kissed his clammy, cool forehead. He was going into shock, and there was no way to stop it. "I love you too Brat, now hush up and let me save ya so we can say it some more later." He watched as a shiver passed through Remy's body and moved closer, covering him with his own. He was glad that Storm wasn't around to come with them today. She would be hovering, and he wasn't in the mood to share Remy right now. If his gut feeling was right, and the kid.... he shook himself away from that thought, Remy was *not* going to die!

" Logan!"

Logan silently thanked whatever was out there watching over mutants today, and sighed with relief. "Where the Hell ya been Blue? Kid's shot and I can't stop the bleedin'! Get yer ass over here now!"

Hank peered out from behind a large cement planter identical to the one Logan and Remy were behind. They were in front of the building the three X-men were trying to enter when they were ambushed. It was a homeless shelter for mutants, and the FoH had been sending threats for months. The police had been notified, but they didn't seem to care.

The team was here just yesterday; this was supposed to be a routine follow up. Logan, Remy and Hank were sent to make sure there were no injuries or issues left to deal with. They never expected that they'd have to defend the place from the bigots again so soon. They weren't even in uniform. "I'm pinned down! I can't get to you!" As if to prove the point a bullet struck the planter just inches from Hank's head. A cruel laugh could be heard echoing off the building. "I was able to get a message to Jean, back-up should arrive soon!"

"Soon ain't good enough!" Logan shouted back. Remy moaned pitifully as another wave of pain washed through him. Logan looked over at Hank, pinned down only a few hundred feet away, then back at Remy, who was trying so hard to pretend he wasn't hurt as bad as Logan knew he was, and he made up his mind. "Darlin'... Remy, can y' hear me?"

Remy tried to nod but he was so cold and so tired all of a sudden...

Logan grabbed his chin roughly, and squeezed to get the boy's attention. "Kid! Remy! Open yer eyes and listen t' me!"

Remy licked his dry lips, and forced his eyes open. Logan never used that tone around him, and he was shocked to hear it now.

Logan sighed and let his own eyes close for a second, "That's my good boy." His tone was infinitely gentle now as he captured the dilated red on black eyes and held their gaze,"Darlin' you need help, and Hank can't get t' ya. Remy? Remy!" The red on black eyes were closing again.

Remy's eyes fluttered open again, and he tried to take a breath to say he was listening, but he choked and coughed up blood instead.

"Fuck!" Logan's hand had long ago fallen asleep from trying to stop the blood flowing freely from the kid's wound. His head pounded from the noise of the high-powered weapons the bastards had somehow gotten hold of. But worst of all was the fear in his gut that he was gonna have to watch the kid bleed to death right before his eyes when help was so close!

Remy forced his eyes opened again, and found he was staring into worried blue. He concentrated on his lover's face and whispered, "l-listenin' ch-cher...so cold... tired... not doin' s' good..."

"I know darlin', I know. Listen... I gotta make a diversion so Hank can get over here to you, do you understand? I gotta get their attention off him, and onto me, it's the only way."

Remy weakly tried to reach out, but was stopped short by the throbbing pain, "non..."

Logan let his free hand brush back a tear on Remy's cheek, and then took one of his hands. "Cajun... yer gonna bleed t' death if I don't and I will not let that happen! I love you Rems, I wasn't just spoutin' words when I said it."

Remy's eyes refused to stay open, "was afraid t' say... but always felt..."

Logan kissed him, totally aware that Hank was probably watching them closely by now, "I know darlin'. "You trust me, you hear? You hang on just a little bit longer." He placed Remy's hand on the blood-saturated shirt he took off, and was holding against the wound, "I need you to concentrate and press real hard. You'll only have to do it for a few seconds, until Hank gets here. Can ya do that for me?" He was using Remy's natural need to please to his advantage. If Remy were doing this for him he'd try harder to hold on and accomplish the task.

"Hank! Get ready to haul your furry ass over here!"

"Logan, I do not understand? How are you-"

Before he could finish asking the question, Logan stood up with an unholy roar and moved away from his shelter beside the Cajun. Shots rang out from three different locations and his body was riddled with bullets. He fell to the ground with a smile on his face... he stayed conscious long enough to watch Hank move to Remy's side. The kid was finally safe. He let the pain and the darkness drag him down, and trusted the healing factor to save him as it always had before.

The ground shook as the Blackbird suddenly hovered above them, and the X-men acted immediately upon getting a fix on the snipers. The battle that had been going on for close to an hour was over in a matter of seconds.

But was the price for their delayed arrival going to be too high?

*****

Logan clawed his way back to consciousness from darkness not unlike death. He took his time, not in any great hurry to see the stark white walls of the med lab. He heard soft whispers that sounded far away, but grew increasingly louder and clearer. There was some kind of cold fluid being forced into his veins and he growled softly.

"Ah... it's about time Logan. I was beginning to fear that we took too long getting back home." Hank and Scott came into his less than perfect view, and Hank asked, "Do you know where you are? Do you recognize me?"

Logan blinked a few times to clear the fog from his mind, "R-Remy..."

Hank chuckled, relieved that one of his patients was finally awake. "No, you are incorrect, I am-"

"Where Is Remy?"

Scott quietly excused himself, and Hank used the time to drag over a chair. "I want you to stay in this bed for at least another hour. You were hit by more than three dozen bullets, even you need time to recover from that."

"Where is he?" Logan felt a cold hand grip his insides as Hank took off his glasses and looked down at the floor. "Is he-"

"How long have you two been involved?" Hank caught his eyes and held his gaze.

" 'S been nearly six months now. Blue... "

"I thought Scott-"

Logan shook his head, "He made up his mind a long time ago. He don't want to lose Jeannie. I was just somethin' he needed to get out of his system. I can live with that. I *can't* live without the kid ... Blue, this is it, Scott... Cyke was nothing. I really love Remy." His eyes tried to find reassurance in Hank's calm features, "Please tell me... did I wait too long?" Hank's continued silence was killing him. He should have made a move sooner...

"He's alive Logan, and he wouldn't be if you hadn't sacrificed yourself. I can't say yet if it was enough to save him though. The bullet damaged his liver... he lost a great deal of blood. I used every bag I had available to perform the surgery and repair the damage. I can't give him anyone else's blood; you know that. We just have to wait and see."

Logan closed his eyes a moment and let what Hank said sink in. Something about Remy... the X-factor in his blood, or his previous involvement with Sinister... made it impossible for him to accept blood from any of the X-men. Any foreign blood acted like poison in his system. Hank had to force him down to the lab regularly to give pints of blood that he kept in case of such an emergency. If he used it all during surgery...

"He will be able to replenish the lost blood on his own, but it will take time. I'll be able to safely say he will make a full recovery in about forty-eight hours."

"I want to see him."

"No, Logan you need-"

"I *need* to be with Remy, Blue. I can get through to him, make him hold on, I know I can." He paused then, and the look in his eyes when he continued made Hank's huge heart ache. "Please Hank, I can't lose him. He said he loved me, finally found the courage to say the words... do you have any idea how hard that had to be?"

His words trailed off and Hank patted his shoulder. He was the only one who knew anything about Scott's little experiment with male sex; he still felt that Scott used the older man. Logan had gone along because, at one time, he felt attracted to the team leader. It lasted only a few weeks, and in the end both men knew it wasn't going to work. He was the only one who knew Logan preferred men to women. Men could handle the...what were Logan's words..."the needs of the beast."

Hank offered to be his "friend" all those years ago when Logan first arrived because Hank, more than anyone else at the mansion, understood the animal lust that wanted to take over at times. He offered himself, and in that offer Logan found his first real friend. He never took the large blue doctor up on it, but he could smell that Hank was sincere, and knowing what the man was willing to do for him meant the world to Logan.

"Alright, I can see how much this means to you." He stood and watched Logan as he got slowly to his feet. Even his phenomenal healing was put to the test by the high-powered weapons the FoH used on them. Remy was lucky to be alive.

They stopped just outside an open door and Hank placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "He will need a lot of help while he is recovering, I'm sure he would much rather have it be you at his side." Hank smiled at the true love and concern he saw in Logan's eyes. He stepped back out of the way as Logan passed him to sit beside the young Cajun.

*****

Hank watched silently from the doorway as Logan carefully took Remy's hand in his and placed a soft kiss on the back of it. The smile on Logan's face when Remy's fingers curled around his hand was enough to warm his heart. He slowly backed away from the small room so the two men could have some privacy. It looked like Logan, and the beast he carried inside him, had finally found what they'd been searching for after all these long years. There was a kind of peace that descended on the man the moment he laid eyes on the boy this time... Hank smiled as he realized his friend wouldn't have as much time for him as he used to.

He'd found his heart's true home.