A/N :sooo all the documents on my laptop got wiped out and i was too exhausted to rewrite the whole thing again. im ashamed it took me this long. I'm so sorry but if you're still reading this ur awesome i love you. i hope this makes up for it haha (probably not)

~O~

Once is an anomaly. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern

~O~

The moment Marie heard the crackle of static and dial tones indicating someone picked up, she had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep herself from yelping in joy.

"Hello? Hello, oh thank god!"

"What the hell do you want?" The voice on the phone snapped irritably, sharply punctuating the static drone on the line. She was appalled at the harsh tone that replied but she crossed her fingers hoping if she got him to understand her cause, he'd help her out nevertheless.

"Please listen to me," she started, knowing what she was about to say wasn't going to be the most believable thing to tell someone a phone call. Her breath was still hitching and her sinuses were all backed up like a clogged pipe so she coughed to clear her throat, forcing her voice to sound firm. "My n-name is Anna Marie D'Ancanto and I've been-"

"Look, kid," the man spat, already addressing the notion that she was clearly just another teenager messing around with him. "I'm not interested—"

"I've been kidnapped," She cut him off, desperate to cut to the point. "I need your help."

There was an uncomfortable silence, before the voice responded. "Kidnapped, huh?" Marie could almost imagine the twisted smirk on his face as the man replied with a mocking lilt in his voice. It didn't sound like he was going to be an eager listener, judging from his lack of concern. But she was growing desperate and her kidnappers could walk in on her at any minute. Time was already a commodity she didn't have and every second she was about to spend convincing him was about to become wasted chances of getting out alive.

"I'm telling the truth. I don't know where I am-I'm locked in an attic somewhere." She could almost hear his mind deducing her possibly obnoxious motives as he listened silently. "Please, you have to believe me."

He only blew air out of his nose and Marie could tell the person on the other end was so ready to snub her frantic pleas and drop the phone. "Nice of your kidnappers to lend you a phone."

"They didn't give me a phone, no-"

"Then if you're really in trouble, kid, why don't you call the cops and quit wasting my time?"

"Please listen to me. The phone I'm on is shattered. I've only been clicking wires together for hours, trying to reach someone. Anyone." Marie explained, her grip on the receiver tightening with anxiety. "Please don't hang up. I might not get anyone else-"

"Listen, I've already got my own problems-"

"They're going to kill me." She was on the verge of crying, drained of vindications and because the only person she could reach was a man who could not care less about her pall of misfortune. It took every ounce of strength to not burst into tears, deciding it was better to use what was remaining of her cracking voice and hitching sighs to give a calm, solid response. "All I'm asking is ten minutes of your time for you to get to the police station."

"Well, I can't help you with that," He said. Marie felt her heart drop at how quick his verdict was to shrug off her desperate circumstance. "You expect me to come knocking on the front door of the very people who're after me?"

It dawned on her now.

He's a fugitive. Of all the people she could've called.

~O~

Logan was appalled that this kid was pulling it this far. He didn't know what kind of sick practical joke this was but he did not have time for this bullshit, not when he's running for his life and it all depended on his determination to get out of there without interferences. He glanced at the long stretch of the road slowly being illuminated by the approaching sun and noticed how fast the day break was catching up in his attempt to escape the city within the night. He couldn't afford a delay, and this woman was a dangerous risk all things considered. Logan was about to throw the phone in an attempt to end the conversation when she stopped him with a question.

"What's your name?"She asked, deflecting his immediate thought of tossing the phone out the window. "Tell me your name."

For a while, he stayed silent, almost like his name was something he couldn't recall and he was trying to remember the last time he heard someone ask him without the intention of throwing him to prison. People only knew him by his image inside the ring, usually accompanied by varying stage names, but that didn't matter to anyone; only that his fighting skills were enough to cash out an entire club. His lips stalled from replying, but the answer was itching to roll out of his tongue and he wondered if it would risk his identity in any way.

He shifted the phone to his other ear and scoffed his response.

"It's Logan."

"Logan," she repeated in bated breath, "I know I haven't given you reason to believe me, but I can't prove anything to you if you won't listen," she told him and he could sense she was edging close to desperation.

"Look I'm sorry kid, but-"

"Logan please," she quietly said in a voice that sounded like seconds from tears, "I've already seen people killed before me. I don't wuh-want to be next. I-I—" He almost couldn't understand the following string of words because she gasped and hiccupped as if there was a clog stuck in her windpipe.

"—I'm just living on borrowed time and you're my only chance of getting out of here…" she pleaded. "…alive."

"I-"

Logan stopped himself before he could give a definite answer, quietly debating the issue in his head. He knew that the sensible thing to do was to put down the phone and avoid the problem altogether. He already had one psychopath wrestler and the entire police brigade on his tail. The last thing he needed was this girl tagging along in this hell of a ride. Besides, even if she were telling the truth, what could a fugitive on the run and go possibly do? He was the last person anyone on earth should run to for help.

He watched the road in front of him blur away as most of his concentration was suddenly fixated on how he was to respond to the situation.

As he weighed the pros and cons of the situation, she spoke. "Logan?"

There was something about the way she kept repeating his name; some unexplainable appeal making him lower his guard and feel the sudden need to oblige. Since when has Logan ever done favors for complete strangers? If it didn't benefit him on his end, chances are, those favors aren't worth his time.

"Logan? Logan, don't go, please."

He's not sure what came over him, but he was suddenly overwhelmed by an urge to do something. An inherently familial instinct to protect something so…helpless. The sentiment is bothering him so much that there was only one way that he felt would alleviate his situation.

As long as he doesn't have to take this matter to the police himself, he figured.

"Let's say you're not screwing with me," he growled, "And I end up actually helping you, under no circumstance are you allowed to tell anyone that you've talked to me."

"I won't!" She didn't miss a beat replying. "I promise you that."

God, now he really hated himself for being that idiot who jumps into the abyss of one problem after another.

"And the second—" Logan flinched, still reluctant in his decision but gave in anyway. "The second I give this phone to someone who can actually help you, that'll be the last you'll hear of me. Got it?"

The voice on the other end sobbed in joy. "Y-yes, that's all I need. I can't thank you enough," she cried.

"I haven't done anything yet, kid."

"You've done just enough," she quietly whispers into the phone. "Thank you."

Now that twisted the thought processing gears in Logan's head. He'd never received such an impression from anyone. Of course, he didn't have a heart made out of stone, but he gave a somewhat similar amount of fucks a brick could towards anything that didn't concern him. He shouldn't really be giving this much thought to a stranger's words, but it was just alien to him how someone can speak so softly and genuine.

Still, he couldn't help but feel wary of ulterior motives. "You better not be screwing with me kid," he warned, despite the unlikely chance. "What did you say your name was again?"

"M-marie," she whimpered. "My name's Marie."

Marie.He repeated in his head and imagined the combination of letters spooled out in front of him. It had been a while since he'd etched a name to his memory.

"Why'd you get kidnapped?" Logan questioned as he turned his attention back to the road. "Are you a daughter of some rich tycoon or somethin'?

"N-no. We don't even have any money."

"If you ain't rich and it's not ransom, what do they want with you then?"

For a moment, she was silent, and Logan kind of suspected she knew the horrifying reasons but decided to deny it. "I don't-I don't really know. But Logan, they'll be back any moment, please hurry."

"Alright, alright, jeeze." If she were even acting at all, he was kind of impressed at how convincing it was.

Logan drove a few more kilometers at a faster pace until he caught sight of bright flickering neon lights of a gas station tucked in between the canopies of the forest around it. They were four rusty fuel pumps sprawled across the lot, and didn't seem like it was handled with daily maintenance as the dispenser nozzles were left snaking in coils on the concrete. He wasn't sure if this was the place to take this matter to, but he could probably find someone in there with a heart more Samaritan than he had.

"I really appreciate what you're doing for me." Logan heard Marie say as he hopped off the truck.

"I'm not anyone you should be thanking, kid."

He pushed the door open and glanced around for some kind of manager running the place at this hour. Business appeared to be down seeing the place to be devoid of both furniture and people. He spotted an elderly man slacking back on his chair, almost tipping it over except his feet up on the counter kept him on balance.

"Hey would ya mind?" Logan tapped the bell, jolting him awake and sending him flying backwards. After recomposing himself, the shopkeeper rubbed his eyes and peered at his customer as if he'd never seen one up close.

"Uh…can I help you?"

"Yeah, actually. There's a woman on the phone," Logan produced the cellphone from his pocket, "She needs help and she needs you to ring up the police for her."

"And you can't do it because?"

Logan was almost tempted to use his claws in order to rush things to his favor, but decided to keep his resolve. The man already looked suspicious, so it would probably be best to remain calm and collected.

"Because they won't listen to me but a sensible guy like you oughta do the trick."

There's a look of befuddlement in the shopkeeper's eyes, but he didn't have a lot of options, so he reached out his hands to grab the phone. For some odd reason, Logan felt his hands try to snatch the phone back in reflex, but he kept himself in check and brought his hands back into his pockets.

As he watched the man intensely listening to Marie explaining her situation, he cautiously glanced around and checked the view outside the windows, hoping not to spot a party of police cars lined up. For a brief second, Logan thought that maybe he could run away right now. He could just shove this problem straight into this shopkeeper's hands and get on with his life being chased and pursued without the extra baggage weighing him down on the long run.

The shopkeeper was still nodding and raising his eyebrows and giving Logan weird looks, like-knowing glances or something, but he's not sure what. "Alright...okay…uhuh, I'll—I'll see what I can do," he turned to Logan and handed him back the phone. "Hold this." He instructed before heading upstairs to probably do whatever it is Marie asked him to.

Logan brought the phone up to his ear again. "Are you okay now, kid? Did he talk to you alright?" he asked. Some people would consider that as being worried and checking up on her but no, okay, it's definitely just Logan's professional curiosity.

"Y-yes. I think so. Everything's good now I think and-" The sudden pause puts Logan's ears on alert. Something was up and it didn't look good. That's when Marie began panicking. "Oh no, shit oh jeeze oh my god," Marie's voice inexplicably shifted to an apprehensive and wavering tone that completely unnerved Logan.

"Marie, what's happening? Is everything okay?" He suddenly heard footsteps approaching in the background, and it escalated Marie's breathing leagues greater. "Oh god," she panted and he heard her clamp down the phone with jittery hands, the rubbing static indicating she was tucking the phone somewhere hidden.

"Where is he?!"A voice erupted, and Logan just swore a ballad of fucks to himself. This did not look good. At all.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about—" He heard her hastily explain with a quivering answer.

"Where the fuck is that other mutant?!"

Logan could hear choking and rasping and it made him clench his fists in uncontrollable rage.

"Paul, put her down."A softer but nonetheless undercutting voice chides, before a thud hits the floor followed by a desperate gasp for air. Logan paused for a millisecond, keenly spotting an unintentional name drop. Paul?

The noisy static was horrible, but he wasn't mistaken. He could practically recognized that voice from anywhere. "I'm gonna find that mutant and let her watch me kill him just like she killed my brother!"

"Don't hurt him!" Marie was begging. "Please!"

"Shut the fuck up, mutant bitch."

That was another thing he didn't expect to overhear.

Marie. A mutant? Logan just pieced the final parts of the puzzle, and it all made sense now.

There were too many things going on, and Logan wasn't sure what stands out of the situation more; the fact that the woman he was talking to was one of his kind, or the insanely wild coincidence that the guy he clocked in the ring was apparently her captor. Unknowingly, this made him far more invested in her situation than he could have ever been if he weren't aware of this trivia. It's like a switch just turned on inside of him; Paul suddenly became his common ground with Marie, and now he wanted nothing more than to punch the living daylights out of him for trying to be involved in his life a second time.

"You gotta stop, big guy. He wants her alive. Do you hear me? After he's done experimenting on her, then she's putty in your hands."

It was silent in the background for a solid minute. Logan almost didn't dare to breathe or cough if that meant carelessly exposing himself…especially Marie.

"Fine."

The shuffle of footsteps indicated they left already, but after what seemed like forever, only then did Logan hear Marie slowly fitting the receiver again in her ear, choking and exhausted.

"Marie, are you alright? Kid, talk to me, are you there?" He pressed, and he didn't even care anymore that he sounded so concerned and worried which was exactly what he avoided doing in the first place.

"Logan, they're gonna kill him,"she sobs into his ear.

"Who?"

"B-bobby. They had both of us, but I-I don't know where he is now. They took him away but it's too late-"

"Look, Marie. It's gonna be fine. You're gonna get help, alright? There's help coming." Logan knew he had neither the authority nor the judgment to predict what would happen, not when his own safety is on the line. But he didn't care if he knew it comforted her in any way.

"It's gonna be alright, kid, okay? I'm gonna-"

Something interrupts him, and now it comes in the form of an astonishing streak of consistent bad luck, because Logan is revisited yet again by what appeared to be vague, but vividly distinct noises of police sirens ringing aloud in his ears. How the hell did they find him-

He froze, the revelation of betrayal unfolding right in front of him. The innocent looking shopkeeper sauntered down the staircase, feigning surprise when Logan called him out on his crime.

"You fucker," Logan spat. "You called them here?!"

"I know the smell of mutants when I see 'em," he retorted with a sneer. "Plus, the woman on the phone gave your name, huh? 'Logan'. I knew that fucking face of yours was familiar."

"Logan! " Marie quipped from the phone."I'm sorry, it wasn't-I didn't mean to—"

The shopkeeper pulled a gun from his hip. Logan immediately thought how it's such an unfair and fucking annoying coincidence that everyone who harbored anger and hatred towards him just happened to own a fucking gun. "Game's over, you beast. You can hand the phone over. I'm sure the cops'll help her out after she just turned you in."

Logan didn't move.

The world, as he was reminded of once again, was just a plain succession of disappointments. Trust collapsed as easily as a receding trail of dominoes, and built as fragile as a house of cards. He can't talk to a single soul without rendering himself vulnerable to demise, and the one time he offers a move to help someone, the universe still decides to pull a checkmate on his stand.

He's gone this far to help Marie and logically, this should be the end of the line. He's done enough favors to earn a reprieve himself from all this bullshit.

And yet, he wasn't planning on giving her away. Not to them. Not to those human assholes.

"Marie, are you listening?" He whispered, mouth unnoticeably moving. She made a sound that affirmed she was. At this, Logan took a deep breath to ready himself for indulging in what might possibly be the most impulsive split second decision he has ever made. "I'm gonna find you myself."

Before the shopkeeper could pull the trigger, Logan erupted into mad dash towards him and grabbed his arm holding the gun to level his aim at the ceiling, producing a gun shot that burst through the roof. Disarming him in the process, Logan fluidly snatched the gun and tucked it under his belt. The man didn't even put up a fight, seeing it only took him one blow to get conked out. He scoffed at his disheveled challenger. "If you're gonna pick a side, at least choose one that stands a chance."

Once again, before the police managed to arrive on the scene, Logan was already gone. And he had brought Marie with him.

He made a pretty rough escape because there was a loud clash of things in the back of the truck that probably broke in his haste to leave. But he wasn't about to go check what sort of stuff he ruined back there. For the meantime, he wasn't planning on making detours anymore. Detours apparently lengthen the journey instead of truncating the stretch for him. But he didn't care anymore. If he were to help Marie, there was no one he could absolutely trust but himself.

"Logan?"

He didn't even realize how long they haven't talked ever since his narrow escape. He's sort of just unconsciously holding the phone to his ear, all senses directed to being alert for any signs of military pursuit.

Logan cleared his throat to answer her. "Yeah?"

"Why are you still helping me?"

Even though she's inculcated the question so much, the answer still remains an enigma to him; that he has strong overwhelming need to protect her. But he wasn't about to tell her that.

"Because I'm just like you, kid," He told her instead. "I'm a mutant."

Marie sighed into his words, not even surprised that they both belonged to a class of outcasts and pariahs. "Why does everyone want to kill us?"

He knew the answer to that all too well. "They're scared of us. They're scared of what we can do to them." He explained simply, and it was true. Fear corrals people into a mass of angry mobs desperate to kill off anything remotely threatening. They lose their humanity in the process, even when it's exactly what they're fighting to keep in the first place.

"Logan,"she breathed, completely exhausted."I'm scared."

"Listen to me, Marie. I'll do whatever I can to help." He assured her, in what basically constitutes as the sincerest thing he's ever said today, probably ever. "I'll take care of you."

"You promise?" She asked wistfully, and if it offered her a tiny sliver of hope, Logan was more than willing to give that.

"Yeah," he said without missing a beat. "Yeah, I promise."

Logan thought it was stupid how prepared he was to make that one commitment he's never ever given to anyone before. And yet, he had never been so sure of anything in his life.

So much that he didn't even notice that his foggy breath indicated an unusually sudden drop in temperature coming from the back of the truck.

:^)