Brand New Yesterday

Part Une


It had taken Logan a long while to get over him, even after he had been discharged from the med-lab. It had been a week since Renot and Logan had a terrible and unforgettable parting of ways. Logan relived it every time he closed his eyes. "NO!" Each scream sounded more and more agonising. Hands reached out for the young auburn haired man as they both fell into the firey pit below them. Sweat poured off of Logan's face and his chest heaved with forced breaths.

Logan held onto his lover's hand until the hand and the body attached disintegrated away, leaving only a smoldering Logan to scream and force back tears. After that, nothing was found of the young man that had fallen beside Logan. Logan lay alone in tatters of clothing and pieces of broken heart. Most of his skin had been singed away, leaving only his metal skeleton in the majority of his body.

Jean and Scott had found him, lying in a twisted position, shaking with lips uttering words that had no sound. Carefully, they collected him and brought him back to the mansion, only to wait for several days on word of his condition. Both were given orders to keep everyone from seeing Logan's condition, all except Xavier.

"What if he doesn't make it?" The question on everyone's lips was voiced by a worried Jubilee.

Storm took the young asian in her arms and held her close. "Logan will pull through, child."

For days and in different shifts, the whole team had gathered outside of the locked room, inside the med-lab, to hear or see some sort of spark about Logan's progress. Rogue sat curled next to the door with her arms wrapped around her drawn up legs, while Storm paced and Jubilee chewed her left thumbnail. Jean had retired to the library and Scott resigned to having a basketball match with a few kids, upstairs. All kept their minds focused on their teammate.

Screams of ungodly pain and anguish echoed throughout the entire bottom level. Logan was awake and had been awake for sometime but it wasn't until he had tried to move and stand up that the pain and rememberance hit him the hardest.

"Please Logan, you must lay down and rest. You are not fully healed from your injuries." Xavier, who had stayed with him through the days and nights, spoke softly and as gently as he could. Flinching as Logan howled in pain again, Xavier had had enough of being ignored and put a stop to Logan's movement, forcing him to lie back down on the padded bed.

Logan struggled to speak, voice hoarse from screaming and injury. "Let me go. I have to find him."

"Renot is not to be found, Logan. Though your body is equipped to heal and regenerate, his was not. I am sorry, Logan. I can assure you, he was gone before his body--"

"Shut up."

Charles paused and stepped back. He hadn't needed his wheelchair in a good long year, and he had enjoyed putting his legs to good use. Xavier and Renot had often walked within the confines of the courtyard, talking about the future, and the past. He smiled as their last conversation had been that of how to ask Logan to marry Renot. "I apologise."

Logan stared up at the ceiling and asked in a flat voice, "when can I go back to our room?" He stayed on his back and hadn't bothered to move, even after Charles released his mental hold on the Canadian.

"You have started to regrow your skin cells. I suppose within a few days, you will be perfectly restored and mostly healed. For now, rest. I will be back in to check on you and bring you food." Charles turned and sighed, not looking back at Logan. It was heartbreaking to see a good friend have the new-found love of his life be ripped from his grasp as quickly as it was. Slipping out of the room, he explained to the worried team members about their comrade.

~~~~

Several days later, Logan was more than eager to get upstairs and into his own hard, cold bed. He had fully regenerated his skin and only a few joints ached when he moved.

Charles had seen fit to release him from his medical bindings in the lab, and let Jean and Storm escort Logan upstairs.

"Logan, we have all agreed to set up a monument in honour of Renot. The ceremony is this evening, if you are up to it." Storm cradled Logan's left arm over her right and patted his hand gently as they walked.

Not answering but counting footsteps up to the door, Logan thought about what was said. "Just get me to my door, Ro."

"Logan, we understand what you have been through. Ren-" Storm paused as Logan stopped and looked at her, daring her to finish the name. "He was a good friend of ours, as well. He will be dearly missed."

Jean held his right arm and glanced over at him, every few minutes. She could tell he was hurting both inside and out, so she didn't push the conversation. Searching his brain for whatever torment his expression admitted, she found herself rudely shut out. "Perhaps, you'll feel better tomorrow?"

"Yea, perhaps." Shrugging off both women, Logan continued down the hall to his door and growled as his hands were not able to turn the knob on their own. Grunting a "thanks" to Jean's mental help, he went in and slammed the door shut to wallow in his remorse. Inside, he punched at the walls and tore apart the bed only to sink down to the floor in a fit of tearless cries and curses.

Curling up on the hard, wooden floor with only his pillow and soft wool blanket, Logan found himself dozing as he stared out at the pinkish orange sunset. Rolling onto his back, Logan grunted and turned his head away from the window. Keeping his eyes closed and voicing his little movements in soft vowels, Logan began to see himself relive the last few moments of Renot's life. "No, no. RENOT!" He sat straight up and stared at the complete darkness.

Something inside him wanted his lover to be there, wrapping his arms around Logan and hushing him back to bed. After looking about himself, Logan came to see the reality of things. He was on the floor of his disheveled room, clutching his blanket in one hand and his pillow in the other, and his lover was nowhere in sight.

He paced back and forth in his room, not bothering to clean up, before going back to his spot on the floor. Sleep didn't come easy for him, so he lay there and stared up at the white ceiling for the rest of the night. The face of his lover ran through his mind, jumping the hurdles of love and joy and lodging itself firmly into the cement of horror. "Renot" was constantly being mouthed as he dozed. No matter if his eyes were open or closed, Logan saw the fate of his terrible lover as if it were the proverbial carrot before the mule.

With his breath cut short, and his brow forever glistening with sweat, Logan found himself tossing and turning the rest of the night away. His only moment of satisfaction was seeing the faint gleam of light from the forthcoming sunrise. He had survived the long night without killing himself from grief. His one regret was that of having the image of his terrible lover being firmly cemented in horror.

~~~~

Days later when Logan had become tired of being kept inside, he decided to venture into town and get some air. Passing an estate sale, Logan stopped and admired the wares from the gate at the end of the circular driveway. Letting a dresser catch his eye, he wandered up to it and found himself staring at it. An elegant white dressing table with a rounded square mirror stood in the middle of the collection.

"Very nice piece, isn't it?" A young looking woman with an auburn streak in the middle of her long silver hair, came over to tell Logan about the piece.

"Yea. Very nice."

The woman smiled and ran a hand over the polished top. "My father owned many nice things but this piece, belonged to his employer. It was a gift from a childhood friend and father just couldn't part with it. It is over eighty-five years old. I hate to sell it but, I need the money to pay for my father's funeral. It is one of the oldest pieces in the collection."

Logan's eyes widened as he watched a young couple and their snotty, little girl stroll over to admire the furniture. He paid special attention to the child who kept an eerie grin on the shiny panels of the dresser while armed with a barely together Daphney Diapers doll and a green crayon. Before the child and her parents came too close, Logan found himself blurting out, "I'll take it."

Smiling and nodding, the woman glanced back at the piece and added, "good. Will this be cash or card?"

"Cash."

Again a nod. Leading him over to the picnic table she had used as a cashier table, she gave him the rest of the details about the furniture she had sold him. "It comes with a key. You might want to lock all the drawers before you go to bed, at night. And if the mirror breaks, make sure the drawers are locked before you clean up the glass. My father was always a stickler for tidiness." She wasn't much taller than Logan but tall enough to notice the same look in Logan's eyes that her father held whenever he looked at the dresser; utter sadness.

Logan turned back to stare at the dresser once more.

"If you like, I will place it back in the garage until you can bring a vehicle here to retrieve it." The woman handed him his change from ninety dollars, and half-smiled at the sale of a dear piece she had come to understand.

Turning to face her once more, a thought came into Logan's head. "How long will you be out here, today?"

Glancing at her watch, the woman thought and summed, "until six. I will tuck it away and when you come back, I will have my son, Yasha, help you move it into your vehicle."

"Sounds good. Thank you." Slipping the change in his left pants pocket, Logan strolled down to the gate and paused as he watched Yasha carefully load the dressr onto a dollie and roll it back into the garage. Lighting a cigar that he had been carrying for most of the morning, he was rather pleased at himself for buying something that had reminded him nothing of the attrocities from weeks prior.

Continued...