tampered | (no subject)

"Course," Logan answered and chucked another nicely cleaved wood block into the pile that was getting rather large by now. Without his shirt he looked every much a mountain man. He wiped sweat from his face with a handkerchief from his back jean pocket and stepped away from the stump, his own tools smoothly retracted into his hands.

"Break time," he took a seat in the other lawn chair it squeaked beneath him. For being the next stage of human evolution, this life was jarringly domestic. In some ways.

Logan squinted and looked over at Jean beside him.

Jean smiled and offered him a glass. She twirled her finger around in the glass letting the ice touch her fingers, she grabbed one cube and put it to her mouth.

"At least the ice didn't melt before I got it up to my mouth, this sure is great weather." She said rolling her eyes.

"Is it always this unpredictable here?" She asked. She wasn't sure exactly what to talk about so small talk it was for a bit.

Glass in hand, it was more than a bit difficult to not watch what she intended to do with the ice cube, but Logan focused on downing the cool water.

"Sure is. Believe me, it gets more nutty," that was the only way he could think of describing it all. Insane. "Better to be on guard."

Was he really telling Jean Grey this? She and Scott were the enforces of the team. That was true, for his time.

She sighed and looked up at the sun. She thought for a second she saw the Phoenix in the suns center. She turned her head away quickly.

"It's nice though, in it's own way. There are some good people here. Then again there are some that remind me of those back home, crazy, power hungry, and evil." She said. "Guess there's no escaping those types."

She looked at him. Studying him over for a second.

"Who are you? I mean...really? Are you really Logan? Sometimes I think it's just a dream and nothing here is real. It's all so mixed up." Jean said.

"Yeah, there are some good types I guess. A good number of bad ones. I think you should be extra careful." Logan wished that those words didn't make him feel like he was some sort of teacher again. She just looked so young.

Those eyes of hers were on him. He looked back. No tingle in his cranium so no mind reading. "I'm really Logan." Whoever that was. "I don't know what kinda proof you'd like but this is all real."

"Yes sir." She said mockingly.

"I can handle myself pretty well though. And it looks like there's quite a few nice guys that could come to a damsels rescue." She laughed. She really didn't need rescuing from anyone, except maybe her own mind.

She thought about looking into his mind, finding out if she was from her world or from some other parallel world or just another time in her world or something. She decided she'd wait on that.

"I don't think there's really any proof that can be given. If it's a dream it's a really long weird one." She said. "There's something different about you though..."

Logan's mouth curled into a smirk. "Nice guys like Greed right?"

Another gulp and the glass was empty. Logan placed it down in the grass that almost seemed to wilt beneath the heat.

"I don't think a dream is a dream without being weird." After a brief scrounge in pockets, Logan found his cigar.

"Greed seems extremely nice. He invited me out to lunch." Jean said with a slight grin.

Sometimes she enjoyed games a little too much.

"True I suppose. So maybe this is just a dream? My dreams are usually very different then this though. My dreams are part of the reason they say I'm crazy." She said forcing a smile. "Then again this is a pretty crazy dream."

"I bet he did. If you would have said no there are several other meals to invite you too." A click or two of flint and Logan's cigar was lit. "His appetite ain't in his stomach."

Are dreams ever really this long? "There are a few ways to figure out whether or not you're dreaming. Besides pinching yourself."

"You sound like you don't like him much. He certainly was very flattering." Jean said. "I thought you were going to give those up?" She smirked.

"Really? What kind of things are you thinking about? I don't think the pinching really works though personally." Sighing she took another sip from her glass.

"He's called Greed for a reason. And that's not because he'll call you back after a nice lunch."

After a puff or two he raised an eyebrow at her question. "Maybe you came from a dream. I never said that."

Logan sat and looked upward to the sky thoughtfully. After a moment or two he spoke again. "Read anything?"

"Maybe he just needs a nice girl to settle down with," She said in jest.

"Maybe I did. Or just another time, world, dimension, or some other strange thing." She sighed.

It was so hot it felt like it was all over. The feeling of the Phoenix.

She looked at him with a question, "Hmmmm?"

He couldn't think of a remotely acceptable response to that other than 'his own hand' so Logan said nothing.

Another swipe of the handkerchief was needed to pull the sweat from his skin and stubble. This better end soon. "Time and space would sound like the best culprits, dimension maybe. I'm sure we'll figure it out soon enough."

Logan sighed and smoke rolled from his nostrils. "You can read here can't you?"

Jean watched Logan for and just lost herself in her own thought, she shook her head and turned away so he wouldn't notice. It scared her sometimes. Her feelings for him, they were so jumbled she couldn't pick them apart.

"I suppose we will. Am I different to you?" She asked in a low voice.

Jean pondered for a moment, the Logan in her time was immune to most mind reading, was this one not? She wasn't sure if she should try to enter in, she'd tried at home with her Logan before and it never went well. Hell, she hadn't event known that he was sent to the school to kill the Professor until he told her.

"Yeah, I can. It's just in my home, you're immune, I might have tried eventually but it wasn't my first thought to read since I just assumed you'd be immune," She said.

The lawn chair creaked more as Logan leaned back a little to shut his eyes. Jean wouldn't do anything. No matter what place they were in or dimension she came from, he was certain that she wouldn't be out to get him.

"Yeah. Older but I'm not talking granny. Decent age," thoughtful chew of the end of the cigar before continuing. "Married to Scottie." Mention the Phoenix? Nah. Not now.

Where did she come from? It'd be handy to be a mind reader. To figure out what Kurt means half the time when he says something. To be able to get to the bottom of this whole City business. That'd be sensible, something that this place Logan knew for sure wasn't.

"Immune? That's just something. I'm not an open book but wouldn't say I'm immune. I just think if there are this many people with this many independent thoughts going, can't be a dream. You know?"

Jean flung her head back and laughed, "Married to Scott? He has a hard time event asking me on dates!" It took her a minute to stop laughing, if Scott were to ask her to marry him he'd probably do it in some obscure way like giving a ring to her as a gift so he could avoid direct asking.

She wondered if she should mention anything about him. Or more to the point, him and her. She was curious if they'd known each other in his world.

"You're a bit different truthfully. The reason you were picked to kill the Professor by Magneto was because he couldn't read your mind so he wouldn't know your plan." She said. "So did we know each other...well?" She figured she might as well ask but didn't want to be too direct about it. It'd be pretty embarrassing to say something about their old relationship and have him not know a thing about what she was talking about.

"I have pretty detailed dreams," she said jokingly.

Apparently Scott from where or whenever Jean was from didn't have the right sort of confidence. Logan tapped ash from his cigar and scratched his chin. "That bad? Huh. Well, it's the truth. You both're crazy about each other." He had to set the record straight. There was no other option. That was the truth.

"Magneto?" he growled and shook his head disapprovingly. "No way I'd ever do anything for Magneto. Or kill Chuck."

As if that wasn't enough to mull over. Logan knew what she was trying to say. "We are good friends, Red."

Jean laughed half heartedly, she loved Scott that was true, but he was so...oh she didn't know. Just difficult. "It's just frustrating having to wait for someone to make a move when you know what they're thinking," She said.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better you changed. And after I was captured by Weapon X and spent time there, I was able to understand more about why you would have even considered it..." Jean trailed off.

Jean wasn't positive what that meant, but she decided to just let it go. She could avoid mentioning anything about her sex life, that wouldn't be hard at all. It's not like she enjoyed talking about it anyway, certainly an uncomfortable subject. Yes, she'd avoid that unless it was mentioned first.

"I'm glad that much hasn't changed then," she smiled.

Logan on the other hand found that rather funny and laughed without restraint. "We all have drawbacks."

He settled and grew a bit more serious. "Weapon X there too, huh? Speaking of crazy and every other thing this place is, at least it isn't that."

There was a lot that he couldn't remember, a lot that he didn't want to remember. Weapon X was a prominent blot on his mind and probably would always. "They didn't do anything to you did they?" If they did, there wasn't anyway he could do anything to them even if he wanted to.

"Yeah, not too much." The cigar was nearly gone, burning lower and lower between his fingers. There was still a connection. One way or another, she was special to him nothing was going to change that.

Jean shot him a glare but she didn't mean it. "It's a really irritating drawback. Girls don't really like having to take the male position," at that she couldn't help but laugh a little herself.

She looked down into her lap. She couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye, this subject wasn't one she was proud of. "They took us...it was a bad fight. There were too many of them and they took me and the Professor out by blocking out telepathy. If...if only I could..." She stopped before she could say her thoughts. If only she could control the Phoenix powers, then she could have done something more to help.

"We were locked in cells. They experimented on us, made us do a lot of horrible things. They sent us out to do their bidding. They made me-," she stopped for a moment trying to pull herself together. She almost couldn't say it. Tears fell down her face despite her fighting against them. Her voice grew quiet.

"There was a man, he was a scientist. He was just doing what he was told, he had a family, he hadn't done anything to me, but I killed him. They would have killed Scott if I hadn't! But he was human and I killed him!" She said crying.

He wouldn't say anything more about Scott's personal problem. It was too easy anyway.

The subject matter had Logan rapt at attention now. As if his own head wasn't filled with unpleasant thoughts and snippets of the lab and what they did to him inside and out. And to think of Jean in a place like that.

Sprinkle of salt in tears, distinct and different from sweat caught his nose before they began to fall. "Hey, Jean...It's okay, darlin'." Logan dropped his cigar and crushed it under his boot heel and put a hand on her shoulder. "The guy knew there were risks. There always are. What he was doing, that wasn't right. I'm sorry you had to be the one to do it."

Jean was fighting with the tears, trying her hardest to stop but they just kept coming. He didn't understand.

"He...he wasn't one of the men who tested on us. They used us for missions. They sent us to this place to do their dirty work there. He was just some worker there. I'm not event positive what they were doing. I know it wasn't anything good, but still he hadn't done anything to me. He hadn't tried to harm anyone I cared about. But they had put these things on us that would explode if we didn't do what they told us. I told them they could go ahead and kill me. It was fine, I wasn't going to kill that man for nothing. So they threatened Scott instead. I had to make a choice...he wasn't the last person I'd kill anyway. So I shouldn't feel bad, humans are right mutants should be but down. At least I should be. I should have stayed locked up in the mental institute. At least people were safe then." She looked up at him, trying to face him. Should she go on? Tell him how she burned every member of the Hellfire club down? How she killed others? How she just lost control? She was disgusted with herself. Looking away she tried to hide herself in her hands. Damn, being able to disappear would be a good power right about now.

Logan got up from his seat and knelt in the grass, hand still on her shoulder. "You didn't have a choice. I'm sure if you did you wouldn't have done anything they wanted you to. There's a lot about us that most people won't understand. It isn't simple right or wrong, crazy or not."

He looked into her face, features similar. Jean's eyes had the same intelligence and spark. "Xavier wouldn't want you talking like that. And I don't either."

She looked down, away from him, and Logan put his other hand on her shoulder. "Jean, I know what it's like to feel like you're just some kind of bomb ready to go off. Not your fault. Why blame yourself? Best you can do for yourself and anyone else is be the best you can."

Jean looked up and attempted to smile, she didn't know why but he always had a way of making her feel better. He'd asked her once why she found him so attractive, she still didn't know the answer. "I guess...I just can't stop thinking there must have been something I could have done." She said quietly.

"It's hard not to talk like that when it's the truth," She said. There was no hint of sadness or pain, it was said just as if it was a matter of fact.

"Yeah I suppose," her voice trembled, it was a simple brush off.

At least she was trying. Logan smiled a bit himself. "A lot of things could have been," and didn't he know it, "but there are a lot of things that can be. Right?"

His smile faded a little. Jean would never say something like that. Mutants being eradicated... that was just not something she would say. Nonetheless, he could see the self loathing and fear of herself in this Jean that fueled these thoughts. "No, it ain't. We've got a right to be here just as much as anyone else."

As long as she wasn't crying. For now he let her dismissive comment remain.

Jean let a little sigh slip out. She was afraid she might be hurting him. She shouldn't have been bothering him with these thoughts. They were her own to live with.

"I didn't mean all mutants. There are plenty of good mutants out there that have control and can help people. Like Scott and the Professor. I just meant me..." She trailed off. She shouldn't be thinking so negatively. It wasn't fair to others for her to be so self pitying.

"You know, sometimes I can see the fear in their eyes, we're supposed to be a team, a family, but they fear me," She sighed more heavily this time.

A moment of silence and then she laughed quietly. "I'm sorry Logan, this isn't your problem. We should talk about something else, something that isn't all about me and my self pity party," She said.