Chapter 14

Travis stirred her cereal around the bowl lazily. The bowl of cornflakes had long lost integrity as anything resembling cereal. It was more akin to milky mush than anything else. And still, she stirred. With her head propped up in her palm and elbow propped up against the kitchen counter, she browsed through the Sunday edition for any news that seemed familiar or sparked a thought. Something about a building being blown up, an unexplained gas leak, or something. Anything that would give her some clue as to what Wade might be up to.

Aside from the mention of the growth and revitalisation of Stark industries that triggered a whole other thought process, there was nothing really of interest.

She sighed and folded up the paper before she stood up to drop the bowl of inedible mush into the sink.

It had been more than a month since Wade left the mansion. In fact, it had been exactly six weeks and four days. Since then, she had been progressively getting stronger under Logan's tutelage. The first couple of weeks had been horrible and even the students smirked and laughed at her every time she emerged from the Danger Room. Not maliciously of course. Though most of them underwent their training with Scott and focused more on the bending and controlling of their powers, almost all went through some kind of physical training with Logan. Sympathies were shared all around. Many commented on how harsh Logan seemed to be on her.

Some of the braver students asked why she was undergoing physical training when her powers didn't manifest physically. That and they wondered why she never attended any of the Professor's meditation lessons on controlling the mind. She always laughed the questions off and replied with a vague answer of wanting to push herself. It seemed to placate most of them. She never trained with Scott though. Since she didn't actually have any powers to speak of, there didn't seem to be much point. That and despite everything, Scott still seemed to hold some reservations of her being there.

Logan himself never asked for her reasons of being there day after day. He also never spoke of her supposedly future-seeing powers.

She suspected that he knew that she wasn't a mutant.

He treated her the same. He gave encouragement when she was falling behind (admittedly in the form of almost indecipherable growls and grunts) and admonished her when she failed to meet her full potential (also, unsurprisingly, in the form of growls and grunts that were equally hard to decipher). In a short span of time, she had managed to lose quite a bit of her soft roundness. She was leaner, faster, and stronger and her new body reflected that. It boosted her confidence a bit despite the fact that she was still the same short, stocky, 5'3 girl with small breasts.

But at least now she was able to throw a mean punch.

Logan had also started teaching her how to disarm potential threats. They covered everything from having a gun being pointed at her from a variety of distances to being a number of choke and strangle holds. Anything he was willing to teach, she learned eagerly.

That was how most of her mornings and early afternoons went. After that, she would either hold sessions in the music room for a few of the students or be supervising outside. With the warming weather and the lengthening of the days, there were more and more sports and other miscellaneous activities being conducted out on the large back lawn of the mansion. Travis found herself to be extremely busy; it seemed as if she was constantly running from one place to the next doing a variety of small duties.

Some nights, when she finally collapsed into bed, she fell asleep immediately. Other nights, she tossed and turned and worried about Wade. It was still strange to come back into an empty room but she supposed it was because she hadn't been alone ever since Mystique kidnapped her.

And though she was surrounded by the teeming masses of students and teachers alike, she still felt devastatingly lonely.

The adults treated her like a colleague at work. Logan treated her like a mystery to be unravelled. He never asked questions but she could feel it in the way he stared at her when he thought she wasn't looking. He was friendly in a gruff sort of way but there were points in their conversations that she felt like he was trying to prompt a response from her. The students treated her like an authority figure. The only person who treated Travis like herself was Hank and he was rarely around because of his responsibilities.

But that was not to say that she wasn't finally starting to feel at home at the Xavier's Institute.

She was starting to gain respect from the student body and many of them were opening up to her. John Allerdyce, of all people, was finally speaking to her. It wasn't anything prolonged but the occasional quips and smirking witticisms he threw her way sometimes still caught her by surprise. It was no big secret that the fire-controlling mutant didn't like her when she first arrived. But then again, he wasn't the only one. It was like being beaten to a pulp by Logan on a regular basis had created an acceptance of her in their ranks.

It was really strange.

Instead of the usual sullen looks and quiet avoidance, she now received nods and hellos in the hallways. Everybody was polite enough not to mention The Incident or the fact that her favourite battle-scarred weirdo wasn't around anymore. Not that she had any issues with the change but it made her wonder if she'd preferred being in the sewer systems with a grumpy Mort grouching at her. Trying to keep track of everyone's names, faces, and mutant powers gave her a tremendous headache.

But it was Sunday. And Sunday meant the day off from one of Logan's pummeling sessions… and Hank was back from whatever political mutant affairs related conference slash meeting he always seemed to be at.

So... she had another person to bother.

She quickly washed up her bowl, towelled it dry, and placed it back on the shelf before she made her way down into the large compound beneath the mansion.

In one of the larger metallic hallways, she bumped into Logan. He had a towel draped around his shoulders and was walking back from a training session in the Danger Room. Travis rolled her eyes. Did this guy ever take a day off?

"Hey sweetheart," he nodded in her direction and she scrunched her face up at his chosen term of endearment. She knew he was purposely calling her that to annoy her because he always broke into a large smirk at her displeased reaction.

"Hey Logan," she greeted back and they stopped in the middle of the hallway. Logan was rubbing at his neck and shoulders absently. His muscles seemed to be straining out of the white wifebeater he wore. The man positively glistened with sweat. If he were to pose, he would've been picture perfect for a poster in a hormonal teenager's bedroom. Travis winced inwardly. She still couldn't get over how almost everyone in this universe was not only incredibly good-looking but also in the best shape of their lives.

"Yer lookin' for Blue?" he asked, having not noticed her reaction to his musculature.

She nodded, "Yeah. Haven't gotten a chance to pop down and say hi yet."

"Off you go then. He's been workin' on somethin' in that lab of his. Can't tell ya what but ya know it's excitin' when he won't even look at ya," he chuckled. Then, much to her annoyance, he reached out and ruffled her hair. He grunted in laughter as she tried (unsuccessfully) to swat his hand away. Travis growled at him, "Cute, Logan. Real cute."

He merely smirked in response before he waved his goodbye and headed upstairs for a much-needed shower. That left Travis to trot towards the direction of the lab excitedly. Hank was working on something new? She wondered what it was.

It was always nice to have Hank around. They had gotten close ever since he nursed her back to health. He was comfortable to be around and she really enjoyed the fact that she didn't feel self-conscious about her looks or stature. It was very hard to feel self-conscious when your companion was a large fuzzy blue thing in spectacles.

She rounded the corner and arrived at the door to Hank's lab. With her knuckles, she rapped sharply twice before there was a muffled "come in" from the other side. She pushed the door open and stepped inside. As she always did before, she marveled at the myriad of half-finished and half-started projects that littered helter-skelter around the room.

"Hey Hank," she greeted. The large blue mutant was hunched over a microscope and absently waved a greeting in her direction. Travis closed the door behind her slowly before she made her way towards him. While she patiently waited for him to finish jotting down notes from whatever he was observing, she took a brief glance over at the files and scribbles he had lying around. She knew better than to completely distract him from his work and he never minded when she read his notes. Besides, it was rare that she could decipher what his notes meant. She did not come from a science background and all the medical jargon that Hank was prone to using was like a foreign language to her ears.

Finally, he spun around in the chair and removed his glasses. He greeted her with a smile though she thought he looked a little troubled and tired.

"What are you working on?" Travis asked curiously as she wheeled the chair she was sitting on over. Hank tapped his chin in thought though Travis felt like his eyes were boring a hole into her forehead. She frowned up at him, "Hank? Are you okay?"

He seemed to contemplate his reply for a moment before he stood up and gestured for her to follow him. He led her to the other side of the lab where there were three slides presented on a large screen. Travis squinted at them. They looked like they were moving.

"What is it?" she asked, rocking on the balls of her feet. Hank looked at her, brows furrowed and she wondered briefly if something was wrong.

"These are cell samples I took from you when you ah… had your incident."

"O…kay?"

"The three different samples were taken at different times during your recovery. It was mostly for my own curiousity at your faster healing abilities despite not possessing the X-gene." He then looked up at her, suddenly a little uncertain and more than a little bashful as if he had just realised he had inadvertently intruded on her privacy, "I hope you didn't mind…"

She waved him off, "You healed me and took care of me Hank. I don't think I can begrudge you anything."

He gave an uncertain smile but plunged on.

"In any case, the one to the far left is the most recent one. It is curious that it is still moving despite being under a slide for two weeks now."

"O… kay? So what does that mean?"

"Travis, take a look closely at the movement of the cells."

She squinted harder at the screen. They were certainly moving though it seemed to be at a really slow pace. It took her a moment but she finally realised the problem with the cellular behaviour.

"Are they… are they merging?" She thought cells normally multiplied through division… not come together to form one. That wasn't how the rules of reproduction worked.

"Not just merging. Compare it to Logan's cellular structure; his healing ability is a sped up version of the process where cells multiply, divide and die at a rapid rate to heal an injury. Yours… They're not merging at all. They're reverting."

Travis looked up at blue mutant, wide-eyed, "What do you mean... reverting?"

Hank looked down at her with a frown. He cleaned his glasses with the corner of his shirt before he placed them back on.

"I mean, my dear Travis, you're healing faster than normal because you're not healing at all. Your cells are reverting to their original state… For lack of a better explanation… they're going backwards."

Travis stared at him. She was sure her jaw was hanging open.

Her mind went blank.

Then she became very, very angry.

"But… how is that even possible?!" she exclaimed incredulously, throwing her arms into the air, "I'm right here! This is me! The present and now! I'm not moving backwards or anything…!"

"I do not know," he said with a sigh, choosing to tactly ignore her outburst, "I have been trying to pinpoint the origin of this and as of yet, I'm drawing a blank. It makes no sense."

"No shit it makes no sense!"

"Travis-"

"No! What the fuck! Is it not strange enough that I'm even fucking here? Why did you even look into it and then tell me when you don't even know?! What the fuck possessed you to… to…!" she exclaimed at him, "And after all the shit I went through, I'm going to find out I'm some kind of walking time paradox?! This is just not cool. I mean I just…! I just… …." Her shoulders slumped as she swayed on her feet. She staggered back and leaned heavily against the desk. She felt defeated. Nothing in this stupid world makes any sense.

A pair of blue hairy arms enveloped her. Hank rubbed her back and made soothing noises at her. It took a while for her to realise she was shaking and she allowed herself to be calmed down by the large mutant. It wasn't as if she could've gone anywhere. If he squeezed those massive biceps of his, they would disintegrate her head.

Travis sighed as she buried her head into his chest. He always smelled nice... for a big furry man. "I'm sorry Hank. I shouldn't have yelled at you." There was a pause as she tried to gather her thoughts.

"I know you're just trying to help…" she murmured softly. She leaned heavily against him.

"I'm sorry," he rumbled as he continued to rub her back, "I'm sorry I broke the news so… crassly. I should have had all the answers before breaking the news to you."

"No… no…" she mumbled back, "You didn't know…"

"I have been trying to find an answer to this question but it seems only to lead to more and more questions."

"It just doesn't make any sense," she whispered, her voice taken away by the shock, "Time is always acting on me. If I hit myself and develop a bruise, that bruise is only possible if time is working in a linear fashion."

Hank made a thoughtful noise as he gently released her, "Yes... you do have a point. These are characteristics of the cells I've removed from you. Yet, this might not be the case with your own cells. Maybe it is merely existing in a separate vacuum. There must be an explanation for this. I just have yet to touch on it," he told her with an encouraging smile. She did not reply. She didn't think she wanted to know any more... and she was certainly not in the mood to ponder her existentialist self. She felt utterly drained from the implications of what he had told her.

There was a period of silence before the large blue mutant sighed and took off his glasses. He placed them gently down on the table before he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. Then, he turned back to her and held his arm out. Travis looked at him in confusion.

"Come on. It's too beautiful a day outside to spend it inside in the lab," he told her. Travis managed a hesitant smile before she took his arm.

Hank never spoke to her about the subject again.

All in all, it had been a tiring two weeks. In an attempt to push what Hank had revealed to her out of her mind, she threw herself into Logan's training and her general duties around the school. Her escalating anxiety was not helped by her constant worry about Wade as she continued to search the news for any hints and clues about what he was planning to do when he left. Part of her told her she was being silly for watching for the mercenary. Sure, she considered him to be friends… but if the example of Weasel and Hydra Bob from the comics were any clues… Wade's friends got injured a lot.

Mostly because Wade was the one who ended up stabbing them.

Perhaps it was better that he stayed away.

Not that she had much time to think. Even Logan had commented on how hard she was pushing herself recently and had given her two days off from the training in hopes that she would relax. She normally went up to the Music Room to sit on the balcony and read or to tinker away on the piano but she found she couldn't stay in that room without thinking of songs from her world. That usually triggered a whole new cycle of brooding.

Instead, she found herself back in the gym, trying to tire her mind out with various activities. At the invitation of a couple of students, she tried her hand at rock climbing before settling on bouldering. It was fun, social, and she was constantly pushing herself.

Every night, she collapsed onto her bed with her limbs trembling with fatigue.

And every night, she had blessedly dreamless sleep.

Well… almost every night.

She opened her eyes with a frown. It was dark in her room… but that was normal. She didn't sleep with a nightlight. But something didn't feel right.

She shifted in her bed as she strained her ears in the darkness of the room.

There was a slight shuffling sound near the door and she froze, unable to move. Her heart hammered against her chest as her mind went through a million scenarios of her recapture… She clutched the duvet to herself desperately, feeling her hands get clammy in fear as she tried not to make any sounds.

Dark room… flickering light… grunting… heavy breathing…

Then there was a familiar sound of snapping spandex followed by a string of curses as somebody tumbled onto the floor. The tension left her just as suddenly as it had manifested. She reached over to click on the bedside lamp.

Though she had to blink at the sudden invasion of light, the sight that greeted her was a familiar one.

"Hey sweetcheeks. Didja' miss me?" the familiar red and black masked man asked sheepishly as he tried to disentangle himself from his suit. Through the dim light of the lamp, she could make out the planes of scarred corded muscle of his back and arms. He kicked away the offending suit.

"How did you get in?" she asked as she shifted in the bed to make room for him. The mask smirked at her.

"You're seriously going to ask the great Deadpool that question?"

She rolled her eyes though she fought the grin on her face, "How did you get in without alerting Logan?"

"Poo, you're no fun." He crawled beneath the covers wearing only his mask and a pair of boxers with bright yellow ducks on them.

"Where have you been?" she asked sleepily as she settled back into the bed. She curled up close to him, grateful for his warmth despite the increasingly warming weather.

"Ya know how errands are… Didja miss me?" he asked teasingly as he poked her in the side. She reached over to turn off the light, "Course I did."

"Really?" he sounded surprised before he draped an arm around her and pulled her close. He was a wall of warmth against her back. "How much didja miss me?"

She chuckled as she twisted around in his grasp to face him. It was pitch black in the room but she could feel him grinning at her. "Logan was insufferable without you around. And the students weren't scared of going around corners in the hallways without you jumping at them any more..."

"You miss me that much huh?"

She laughed and in a surprisingly bold move, she leaned forward to place a small kiss on his chest. "I've missed you," she conceded and pressed a hand to the area where she left a kiss. Idly, her hands traced the myriad of scars that crisscrossed his body. She felt him stiffen at her exploratory touch before the tension slowly dissipated under her ministrations.

That one small act surrender thrilled her.

There was a hot exhale against her forehead before a lipless mouth pressed against her skin, warm and calm. There was a soothing silence before his mouth nuzzled her cheek to press kisses there.

"I've missed you too..."

She couldn't explain why she suddenly felt light-headed at his admission but she wisely chose not to dwell on it.

A warm hand ran down her side to slip under the t-shirt she wore to bed; it rested in the dip of her waist, branding his touch into her skin. It was such a simple action. So small and almost inconsequential considering what they had already shared in his dilapidated apartment. And yet, she shivered in anticipation. It was as if all her nerves were both cold and on fire at once.

A teasing warm breath ghosted against the curve of her neck. She could feel his smirk, "Cold?"

In retaliation, she ran a hand down his side to rest on the elastic hem of the boxers he had stripped down to; a few fingers slipped in to teasingly stroke his hip. To her extreme satisfaction, she felt him inhale sharply at the sensation.

"No," she said, a smile curving against his chest, "Just a bit too hot."

He chuckled but sucked in a quick breath when she slipped her hand beneath to give him a firm stroke. His strangled grunt was like music to her ears and she pressed against him. His hands tightened around her as she continued to stroke him while peppering small kisses on his scarred chest. He exhaled loudly into a groan as his hips bucked against her.

"Stop," he hissed at her, "Stop moving."

She did. She frowned up into the darkness where his face would be. "What's wrong?"

"You're not drunk are you?" he asked hesitantly. Travis scowled. She slapped her hands against his chest as she tried to tear herself away from him. She was furious with the implication, "What?! No! I'm not drunk. I haven't touched a single drop since you left."

"Good."

The next thing she knew, she was flat on her back. Hungry lipless lips assaulted hers and she hardly had time to gasp before her world exploded with the sight, touch, and smell of Wade Wilson.

"I want you to remember this," he growled against her mouth. Before she could retort, she felt him grinding up against the sweet parting between her thighs as if showing her just what he wanted her to remember. Her back arched and her hips bucked against him instinctively. She managed a strangled moan before any other words were swallowed up again by his mouth. He himself settled into her, cradling her in his arms protectively. A warm wet mouth press against her neck and she craned it to the side, an instinctive act of surrender and he growled his approval.

Then she was drowning. It seemed as if all she could do was cling on to him. He was suckling on her lips, biting and nipping before slipping in his tongue to give her a taste of him. His hands seemed to be everywhere. One of them stroked her side while the other tangled up in her hair, pulling her head back as he feasted on her mouth and neck. His legs pinned her down while he pressed against her. He gave her no doubt how much he wanted her.

Her own hands found little purchase on the slick scarred skin. She clawed at him, scrambling to find a good hold to anchor herself. He chuckled against her, finding amusement in her own brand of desperation.

"I'm going to make you remember me… Remember tonight…" he hissed as he trailed kisses down her jaw to her neck. She shuddered against him. She hadn't heard his voice like this before… It was raw. Animalistic.

While one hand still clutched her hair, exposing her neck, the other hand trailed down her neck… to her collarbone… to the dip in the middle of her chest. She heard him suck in a breath as his fingers trailed down one breast. A firm pinch of her right nipple got her whimpering. He chuckled again as his hand continued to drift down. He stroked her stomach and she arched into his touch, demanding his hands to travel lower. He acquiesced, sliding the warm palm down before his finger dipped between her trembling thighs. Before she had a chance to wrap her mind around what he was doing, he stroked firmly back up.

She inhaled sharply. She could feel herself twisting inside as the little bundle of nerves in the center of her screamed for attention. He groaned against her neck, "You're so wet... fuck, you're so wet for me."

A finger stroked down, just grazing against the sensitive nub and she bucked against his hand. The man had the gall to laugh before he bit down on her shoulder. She brought her hands up to pull his face towards her, eager and desperate.

"Please..." she keened, "Please Wade..."

A finger slipped in and she arched into him, a wail of pleasure as hips bucked against his hand, desperately seeking for more. She didn't even care if the students or even Xavier himself heard her.

"Wade..." she breathed as the digit explored her, "Wade... please..."

"Fuck," he swore, "I can't take this."

"Then fuck me. Please fuck me. Please..." she cried, already delirious with need despite the little ministrations he gave her.

That was when he kissed he properly.

It was like the first time. Everything was a haze, as if she was still drunk. He tasted sweet and syrupy. His tongue stroked hers, demanding and gentle at the same time. She was so entranced by his kiss that she didn't notice him positioning himself against her slick opening.

Then, with one swift motion, he plunged violently into her.

"Wade!" she cried out. Her eyes flew open.

She was alone.

Panting hard, Travis jerked out of bed.

Her room was dark. She fumbled for the light. The bedside lamp flickered before it switched on. She sat up and looked around the room.

Empty.

Travis groaned as she rolled over. Her hands desperately sought the aching need between her legs. The dream was so real... and so fresh... All the sensations that Wade had inspired in her was clutched tightly in her mind as she replayed them over and over again.

When she came to completion, she sagged against the bed and drew the covers around her tightly. She felt cold without the searing heat of the dream.

"Fuck," she said.

She missed Wade.

She really missed him.

And she knew she missed him because she had all these messy, confusing tangled up feelings in her chest.

"Fuck."

This definitely complicated matters.

She rolled over and shoved a pillow over her face as she screamed into it.

"FUCK."

A/N: =D