Running to Stand Still

Logan woke first in the morning, his body aware before the higher brain functions kicked in, and he felt the warm female body wrapped around his. He knew as soon as she woke upt sht she was confused and a little afraid, but the scent of fear was suddenly replaced by one of contentment and peace.

"Mornin'," he greeted, smiling at her. "Sleep good?\ "O "Oh, definitely," she replied, stretching. "I'm a little sore, though."

He laughed when she blushed. "You'll get used to it. How's about you get a shower in your room, I'll get one in mine, and we'll meet downstairs for breakfast?"

Kat pouted. "Aww, c'mon, don't you wanna get all naked and wet?"

"Sounds tempting, darlin', but --" He was cut off by a knock on the door. "Who is it?"

"Scott," the muffled reply came.

"Hang on," Logan replied. He got up from the bed and grabbed a pair of sweats that were lying on the floor, pulling them on as he walked to the door. "Whatcha need, Scooter?"

Scott glanced around Logan's bulk, not surprised to find Kat lying in his bed. "Kat, you've got a visitor."

She sat up, clutching the blankets to her chest. "Who is it?"

"They're in your room. I think I'll let you find out who it is." t not nodded to Logan and left.

Kat and Logan shared a look of confusion, and he was the first to speak. "C'mon, get some clothes on, and I'll walk ya to your room."

She nodded and grabbed her leather pants, discarding her ripped underwear in the trashcan. She put her shirt back on, smiling at Logan when he handed her one of his flannel shirts.

"I still think that shirt's too revealing," he grumbled half-heartedly as they walked the shirt distance to her room. He opened the door for her, smelling the apprehension coming off of her in waves, but the next scent he smelled was outright hatred as she saw who was in the room.

"Mom," Kat said, face carefully neutral as she dropped her boots next to the closet. "What brings you here?"

Lise Maximus smiled guiltily from where she stood, looking over the knickknacks her daughter kept on her dresser and desk. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your … friend?" she asked, eyeing Logan's shirtless chest.

"I asked first."

"Fair enough." Lise took a step forward. "Your grandmother passed away a few days ago, Kat. I had to come tell you."

Kat's anger flared. "You couldn't call and tell me? Shit, Mom, I've been here almost two years and I haven't heard a word from you, and you finally came to tell me that Gram died?"

Logan couldn't help the soft growl from deep in his chest. Kat obviously had issues with her mother, and even if he couldn't step in to help, he could be her support. He put a hand on her shoulder, watching as her hands curled into fists.

"It's been hard, Kat. After your stepfather died --"

"After I killed him, you mean." Kat laughed, a bitter, frightening sound. "You're still afraid of me, even after all this time. Your own daughter …" She shook her head wryly. "It's kinda funny, in an ironic sort of way. First I'm afraid of someone who's supposed to be my father, and then my own mother is afraid of me."

Lise swallowed past the lump in her throat. "I'm sorry, Kat, but I'm only human. I barely knew that mutants existed until I found out you were one. It was all I could do to convince the police not to take you after Jonathan's death." She held her hands out as if to offer apology. "The world hates mutants, and none more than those in positions of power. They're afraid of your power."

Logan finally found cause to speak. "Pardon, ma'am, but no one understands that better than those of us called mutants. We live in fear everyday of intolerance, of death, of loneliness. Your supposed understanding is lost here."

She raised an eyebrow and he could see where Kat got the gesture. "And just who are you?"

Kat sighed. "Mom, this is Logan. Logan, my mother."

They merely nodded at each other until Lise spoke again. "Just why are you following my daughter around half-dressed? And if I'm not mistaken, that has to be your shirt she's wearing."

"And what bloody right do you have to question me?" Kat asked. Her temper was just getting started, and if Lise kept up, things would get broken.

"I have a right to question you when you're barely a minor," Lise replied. "Your bed is still made, so obviously you didn't sleep here last night. My only guess is that you've been off with this man doing God-knows-what."

Kat laughed again, this time with complete incredulity. "This is real funny, coming from you, Mom. You were my age when you got pregnant, and if that's not hypocritical I don't know what is." She shook her head. "I'm 18, have been for eight months now. Sometimes I feel so much older because of the shit I've had to put up with in my life.

"You forced me to come here, because you were afraid of what your precious little daughter had become, of what I had always been. I hated you for that, and part of me still does. But I've found family here, Lise." Kat felt no remorse in calling her mother by her first name; she was no real mother to her anymore. "I've found friendship, and understanding, and support here." She reached back and was reassured when Logan slipped his hand into hers. "And love. I've found love in the most unlikely place, and I'm not about to let you ruin that."

Lise opened her mouth to speak but Kat cut her off.

"I'm not finished yet! I grieve Gram's death, but even more than that I grieve the death of a mother, because I don't have one anymore. When Jonathas hus hurting me, you turned a blind eye to it and in some ways you're just as much to blame as he is." She pointed to the door. "I don't want to see you again, and if you ever come after me, you're as good as dead."

The room was left in dead silence as Lise Maximus walked to the door, watching Kat the whole way. When she stood just outside the room, she gestured to the dresser and a box that sat on it. "Gram wanted you to have it." With that, she was gone.

Logan closed the door, waiting for Kat to fall apart. To his surprise, she calmly walked over to the box and opened it, and only then did she start to cry. She dropped the box back on the dresser and fell to her knees, eyes shut tight as sobs shook her body.

He knelt beside her, drawing her into his arms as she cried. It took him a few minutes to realize that she'd started laughing. "What's so funny?"

"The look … on her face … when I kicked her … out," Kat managed between hiccuping coughs. "God, I've been wanting to do that for years."

He nodded. "But you're okay now?"

"Yeah, I think I'll live." She pulled them both to their feet, leaning up to kiss him. "Thank you for being here. You gave me more strength than I had."

He kissed her forehead. "C'mon, shower and then breakfast. We're supposed to be picking Secret Santa's today." He frowned when she started laughing on her way to the bathroom. "What's so funny?"

\t imt imagining you dressed up as Santa," she called back, shutting the bathroom door behind her.

Logan just grumbled and headed for a shower of his own. He spent more time in the shower than she did, but wasn't surprised to find her sitting on his bed when he came out, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, his flannel shirt over that.

"It looks good on ya, darlin'," he said as he dressed. He leaned towards her and sniffed. "Smells good, too."

"You get way too much enjoyment out of me smelling like you," Kat said, shaking her head in amusement. "But I have to admit that it's not a bad thing."

"Damn straight." He glanced in the mirror and then reached for her, pulling her off the bed and heading for the door. "I'm starved, how bout you?"

Kat grinned. "Yeah, I worked up an appetite after last night."

He stopped for a moment just inside the room. "Kat, are you sure you're okay with what happened? I mean, you're not regretting it?"

She frowned. "Logan, will you stop with that? I\ine.ine. I wouldn't have done that if I hadn't been ready, and I'm not regretting it. If I regretted it, I wouldn't have stayed with you afterwards." She smacked him lightly on the butt. "Now c'mon, I need some food. I'm wasting away."

He poked her in the ribs. "Got that right, darlin'. Let's put some meat on those bones o' yours." He hauled her into his arms, flipping her neatly over into a fireman's carry, grinning to himself as he walked down the stairs with her beating on his back with her fists.

Scott was already in the kitchen, deep in discussion with Rogue, but he spared them a look that involved a raised eyebrow. "Logan, I thought you'd mastered those Neanderthal tendencies and realized that dragging a woman around isn't proper etiquette."

Logan answered with a middle finger and set Kat down in the chair next to Rogue.

"Whatcha doin' wearin' Logan's shirt?" the southern belle asked, watching Logan paw through the cabinets and fridge for breakfast.

Kat grinned and shrugged. "It was the only thing to wear this morning."

Both Rogue and Scott gave her astonished looks. "Ya slept with 'im?" the young woman asked.

"There was sleeping involved, yes," Kat replied, becoming somewhat uncomfortable with their scrutiny.

Scott placed a restraining hand on Rogue's arm. "I'm sure she doesn't want to be grilled about her sex life." He turned to look at Kat. "Are you doing okay? You didn't have any relapses or anything …?"

She shook her head. "Nope, not a one. I got a weird question for you, though," she added, looking to Rogue. "Do all men have some sort of internal heater?"

"I was wondering that last night," Rogue commented absently, picking at the bacon on her plate.

It was Kat's turn to gape. She'd caught the blush creeping up Scott's face and put two and two together. "So, I see I wasn't the only one getting some action last night," she said, smirking. "How'd you get around the whole deadly skin thing?"

"Bodysuits," Scott answered. "Very thin bodys." ."

Kat grinned and hugged Rogue. "Congrats, Roguey. I figured Scott needed a nudge in the right direction."

"Thank God he kicked the Ice Queen to the curb," Logan commented as he set a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon down in front of her, along with a glass of apple juice. He'd heard the entire conversation. "Don't know how much of her cold looks I could stand, even if they weren't directed at me."

"Thanks," Kat told Logan.

"No problem."

"Well, she's not a problem anymore," Scott replied in regards to Jean. He looked to Kat. "How did things go with your mother?"

She shook her head. "We had a nice little discussion, and I told her in no uncertain terms that she's never to come near me again. I think I scared her." That last part was accompanied by the corner of her mouth lifting in a half-smile. "I told you about her, Scott. She was never much of a mother to me."

Scott nodded. "Yeah, I remember. You're very brave to have done that."

Kat snorted. "How do you figure that? I was scared to death while doing it, and besides, my family is here now." She reached out to touch Logan's shoulder as he set his own plate of food down and took the seat next to her. "And she wasn't happy about seeing me with Logan."

"Was he wearin' any more clothes than his usual?" Rogue asked.

"Sweatpants, and that's all. We'd just come from his room," Kat replied. "Okay, the look on her face when she saw us together was even more priceless than when I kicked her out."

"She looked a bit dejected when I showed her out."

"Well, she lost a daughter and a mother. Can't blame the woman, even if I wanna rip 'er a new one," Logan grumbled.

Scott frowned. "You grandmother died?" he asked.

"Yeah." Kat smiled weakly. "The bitch could come and tell me that Gram's passed away, but she couldn't even send me a fucking card for my birthday. I think she enjoys hurting me."

Logan touched her arm, seeing the way she was clutching her fork until her hand was trembling. "She's gone now, darlin'. You saw to that." He leaned over and gently kissed the top of her head. "Eat your breakfast, or I'm gonna feed it to you."

"That, my dear," Scott said to Rogue, "is our cue to leave," Scott said, pulling Rogue to her feet. "We'll see you guys in the living room later." With that, they left.

"You okay?" Logan asked, noticing Kat's brooding expression.

She reached into the chest pocket of the flannel shirt she was wearing and pulled out a silver chain, at the end of which dangled a heart charm. "This is what Gram left me." She let the chain fall into Logan's outstretched hand.

"What is it?" he asked, turning the little heart over. What he saw there made him glance up at her sharply. Written in curving script were the words 'Love, Daddy.' "Is this what I think it is?"

Kat nodded. "It's from my father, and there was a note with it." She pulled said note from the same pocket and handed it to Logan, watching as he read it over with an increasingly dark expression.

"She knew it all this time and never told you?"

"Who? Gram, or the bitch?"

"Your grandma."

"She didn't find out until the very end, right before she died. I don't know how she kept my mother from opening the box and finding out what was inside, but here it is." Kat lowered her eyes from Logan's piercing gaze. "God, I could kill her for this. Telling me that my father had left before I was born, when he'd really been killed." She shook her head in disbelief. "He was a mutant, like me. God!" She shot up from her chair, hugging her arms around her body and she walked to the window.

Logan got up to comfort her, startled when she pulled away from him.

"Logan, I gotta be alone for awhile, okay?" She didn't wait for him to answer, instead taking off out of the kitchen and then out of the mansion.