Back from the dead, I know. I want to finish all my old stories I left hanging.

"Mallory, it's me." Laura called softly through the door. There was a breath of noise as a key card was swiped, and the door swung open.

"Thoughtful." Mallory said, smiling. A lot of people wouldn't have been as smart or considerate.

"Thanks." Laura said, glancing around the room, carrying a duffel bag slung around one shoulder and a shopping bag in the other hand. She sniffed something, her mouth twisting into a half-smirk, but she didn't say anything.

"So, what's up?" Mallory asked, glancing out the window, admiring the view.

"We could play poker." Laura offered, taking a deck of cards out of the shopping bag.

"I was always more a blackjack girl." Mallory said. "Less mental games and more numbers."

"Good with math?" Laura asked, filling a cup of water, if only for something to do.

"It's only adding and subtracting, like +1 and -1, I sure hope I can still do that." Mallory said. She sighed. "So how's life at the legendary Xavier School? Got a boyfriend yet?" She had half expected spewing of water and an irksome look, but Laura just arched an eyebrow. "No?" Mallory asked.

"Didn't really seem worth the time… and, it's kind of awkward at a school where everyone knows your background, if your background is like mine." Laura said.

"Should give it a try anyways." Mallory said, rubbing her eyes, finally showing signs of weariness. "Boys can be very forgiving. And you know what they say… eating creates appetite." Laura just shrugged. Mallory smiled ruefully.

"This isn't going to be what you want to hear… but the simple truth is, meeting a good man who will love you, and you love him, is the greatest thing that could ever happen to most women. Probably 99%, at least." Mallory said. "And at the end of the day, men aren't in a very different boat."

"Yeah, believe me, I was pretty damn surprised too." Logan said, glancing around, trying to focus both on the tiny voice in the cell speaker, and listen to his surroundings. "But it was him. The contract must be pretty high. Or they offered him lifetime free pizza."

"Do you need backup or a pickup?" Xavier asked neutrally.

"I don't think so, but if you can check police activity… any BOLO's or warrants on Mallory. She acts like she has some high friends who can fix this, but she's been wrong before." Logan sighed. "Talk about escalating quickly. First a contractor tried to grab her in that diner, and now the nutcase Wade…"

"I'll get a few people combing for information." Xavier said. "And remember to use appropriate caution… Deadpool could be formidable."

"You're telling me that? I've fought him before, I don't remember seeing you duke it out with him." Logan said sarcastically.

"Your charm is as wonderful as always, Logan." Xavier said dryly.

"I have to say, this is pretty different from the last time I was hiding out." Mallory called over as Logan walked in, holding a bag of takeout food.

"That fun, huh?" He said, tossing Laura a burger, then Mallory.

"Hell yeah." She said, unwrapping her food and inspecting it. "On my own, one person coming through the door could kill me. Now, a SWAT team could barge through, and I'd feel bad for them."

"Really?" Laura asked, surprised. Mallory shrugged.

"Well, not really. They spend enough time raiding people when a cop knocking on the front door would've done it, so turn around is fair play." Mallory said.

"You're not a very sympathetic person." Laura remarked.

"It's not a sympathetic world." Mallory said cheerfully, walking over to Logan to grab some fries off the tiny hotel desk. "Were you thinking you were psychotic, and all the normal people were Christians weeping in church about how some people can use harsh language or something?" Laura was silent for a moment, and Mallory gave her a look.

"You were, weren't you." She said, looking half amused. "You got to school, and decided you were some killing machine in a world of innocent, sweet people."

"Not precisely." Laura said, a little hesitantly.

"Kiddo…" Mallory sighed. "You're going to meet plenty of sheep in life. People who follow the rules to the letter, let themselves be cheated and hurt and robbed just so they can lift their heads up and say they have 'honor.' Those people are excellent examples of how *not* to live."

"Shouldn't we follow the law as much as possible?" Laura asked. "Be peaceful members of society, all that?"

"Okay, simple example." Mallory said. "Asset forfeiture laws. In many States, there are asset forfeiture laws. The idea was to make it easy to seize the cash and property of drug smugglers and dealers. Nice idea, right?"

"Okay." Laura said, looking intently at her.

"Thing is, police departments quickly realized what they could do with it." Mallory said, pausing for a gulp of water. "Google some articles, and you'll find more than a few lawsuits about it. Police in many states and cities use it as an excuse to seize anything of value from people they stop, without reason to suspect they are criminals. One case ended up online, a Vegas winner in… Nevada? Colorado? Being stopped and thousands of dollars in winnings being seized. The trooper is on camera telling him 'you can go ahead and try to get it back, but you wont' be able to.' The guy fought it and won. It's legalized armed robbery. "

"So the lesson is, no one really plays by the rules, at all." Laura said. "Laws are cobwebs. Strong enough to snare the weak, but too weak to snare the strong."

"Basically." Mallory said offhandedly. "Laws aren't moral dictates. Jesus didn't come down to New York and say it's immoral to have a 10 or 15 round magazine in your sidearm."

"I understand." Laura said. "Really, I do."'

"That's why breaking the law isn't as serious as a lot of people make it. Politicians break the law and have the law broken all the time." Mallory said. "For example, the Obama administration took major steps to stop illegal immigrants from being deported, sued States that wanted to enforce immigration law. At the same time, they were helping gun runners take thousands of weapons into Mexico."

Two bags of popcorn and a movie later, all three of them were looking restless.

"Now I do feel like a security guard," Mallory remarked sadly, staring at the ceiling. "Sitting around eating junk food, watching tv. This is exactly how security guards spend their time."

"Think of it like a vacation." Logan sighed.

"A vacation is when we book a decent hotel room in the mountains, or on the beach, because we want to." She said, stretching. "You can come too, Laura. You get summer vacation?"

"I better get a vacation." Laura said seriously. She paused, smirked a tiny bit. "You sure I won't cramp the private time?"

"Nah, two rooms." Mallory said, not missing a beat.

"Yeah, father-daughter bonding time is pretty important, I hear." Logan said casually, downing another beer. "It's good you recognize that, Mal. Wouldn't want to set a bad example." Mallory almost choked on a piece of popcorn, laughing, but sat up slowly.

"So who's up for pool? They've got a nice one downstairs. As long as there aren't little kids peeing in it or anything."

"If someone shows up looking for you, don't you want to have something more dangerous than your cleavage on hand?" Logan remarked.

"Precisely why I'm not going alone." She said cheerfully. "You're both better at concealed carrying than me." Laura suddenly looked interested.

"I never thought to ask, but can you swim?" She inquired of Logan, curiosity on her face. He froze, his mouth slightly open in surprise. Mallory looked like she didn't know whether to shriek with laughter or stop her. "Given that you had the adamantium process over your entire skeleton, your body is denser than water, even if you have a deep breath. Can you stay afloat?"

"I am a little bit surprised, I admit," Laura said, grinning, treading water next to Logan in the 8 foot section. Laura was moving lightly, almost causing no ripples as she kept her chin slightly above water.

Logan was paddling like a competition swimmer. He gave it another ten seconds, then thrashed to the shallow end, sighing as his feet touched bottom.

"Given you've got, what, a hundred more pounds on you than what most men have?" Mallory laughed, looking pretty great in a red bikini.

"It's a challenge." Logan admitted, looking like he had just had a workout. He slicked his hair back, wiped a little water out of his eyes.

"Thank God neither of you can rust." Mallory teased, sitting cross legged, her eyes flickering over the windows looking out at the gray sky and snowflakes. "Having to oil yourselves would get old fast."

"Don't even say that." Laura said sternly. She noticed Mallory looking around. "Don't you think one of us would smell trouble coming?"

"Not if it's outside." The woman said. "And the stupidity and arrogance of highly educated, successful people is breath taking sometimes. I don't want to take part in it. Trained professionals get sloppy, lose focus for a few minutes… bad things always happen right then."

"Why work in this field?" Laura asked, a little curious. "You've got limited time. You're not Logan. You get shot, you might die. Why risk it, when you could probably get some safe job pretty easily?" Mallory shrugged.

"You've been in just fights, I'm guessing? Where you knew you were morally right, and knew the person you were fighting for had your back?" Mallory questioned. Laura hesitated, made a "so-so" gesture. Her mother had sent her on one or two moral assignments before her death.

"When you're fighting a just cause, you know you're doing good, and you know you're getting paid for it… it's a tempting feeling, once you've had it." Mallory said. "It beats a job where you're doing nothing. You get a sense of achievement, excitement. Hard to let go."

"But are you?" Laura asked. "Next year, there will be tens of thousands of new murders, thousands or tens of thousands of new kidnappings. The monsters never die, they just change shape."

"True." Mallory said. "But if we don't fight this year, what will be left?"