x CHAPTER THIRTEEN x
here comes trouble
~<x>~
The bell above the door of the diner Josie walked into echoed through the room, alerting the waitress and the lone customer sipping a cup of coffee. He turned his head slightly, double taking as she walked up to the counter. Josie felt his eyes on her, practically undressing her right there and then as she smiled at the waitress who begrudgingly turned her attention from the man.
"Hi! I'm picking up for Josie."
"Wait here."
Josie nodded at the waitress and stepped back from the counter trying not to look at the handsome stranger who had finally turned back to his coffee. Looking over at the empty seat beside him, the man pulled it out slightly and glanced from her to it, "Might as well sit down. The cook likes to take his time."
With a small smile Josie sat beside the stranger. He took another sip of his coffee then looked down at the map laying in front of him. A red line trailed through it. Not one for silence, Josie motioned toward the map and asked, "Where are you headed?"
"To see an old friend. A few, actually."
Looking at the map again, Josie noticed the address circled and widened her eyes, "I'm sorry to tell you this but your friends aren't there. The school shut down years ago there's only a house and the caretakers now."
"What? What happened?"
"The war. What were your friends names? I used to teach there, perhaps I knew them?"
The stranger looked at Josie then, really looked at her and couldn't help but notice how similar she looked to his Josie from the future. Could this be the very same woman who helped him work through the trauma of his past, the one who helped him realize he wasn't a mindless killing machine?
Josie looked up from the stranger as the waitress approached with her bag of food. Smiling, Josie handed her the money and said keep the change before standing to take the bag and leave. As she turned to say goodbye to the stranger he was pulling on his jacket.
"I'll take you back to the school. It's too far for you to walk."
"How did you know I walked?"
The stranger smiled then and put on his sunglasses as they approached the door to the diner. He held open the door for her and let it slam shut behind him. Once they were at his car he stuck out a hand, "Call it a hunch. I'm Logan."
"Josephine March. Though I suspect you knew that already." she said suspiciously as she combed through his aura. Yellow - optimistic - and pink - friendship more so than love - made up his aura. The colors dyed together like a spiral T-shirt she used to make with her students for fun. It was refreshing as she had grown used to the grey, brown, and black of Charles and on occasion Hank. She hopped into the passenger seat, Logan shutting the door behind her before making his way to the drivers side.
"There's a lot I know but I think we should wait until I see the professor to explain." Logan said before he was revving the engine and speeding off down the road.
"Or you could tell me now and I can help you get the message through his thick skull."
Logan glanced at her oddly. Did he really think she couldn't feel the importance radiating off of him? The desperate plea for help? When he shook her hand he had no idea how much she had seen, how many emotional memories she had combed through.
"Your future is at stake, Logan. It's all riding on Charles, you'll need my help, trust me."
And so, Logan began to tell the story of his future, of the worlds future and how important it was that Raven be stopped.
~<x>~
Hank had answered the door unhappy about the addition of Logan to Josie's party of one he was expecting. While he let Josie through, Logan was still asked to leave.
"Hank-"
Josie watched as they struggled at the door before eventually Logan made his way into the house looking around calling out for the professor.
"I already told you there's no professor here!" Hank tried to tell Logan again causing Josie to roll her eyes.
She turned to go into the kitchen to put down the bag but heard the distinct sound of a fist hitting flesh and turned around to find Hank on the floor and Logan bounding up the stairs. Josie rushed to his side and noticed his skin begin to turn the blue he had been trying so hard to hide.
"Why did you bring him here?!" Hank seethed before charging off after him.
With an annoyed huff, Josie went back to the bag of food she left on the table in the foyer and brought it into the kitchen. There was crashing and Josie couldn't help but flinch at each sound. She put out the food she ordered for Charles and Hank still listening to the obnoxious boys wrecking the foyer. Josie wasn't in the mood to deal with them at the moment and knew Hank could take care of himself. It finally came to an end with the sound of Charles asking what the bloody hell was going on. Thankful for the peace and quiet, Josie sat the the table and began to eat her pancakes.
Of course, this peace didn't last long as an intense wave of red - anger - washed over her. It reminded her of Erik, the man she told herself to forget. It was impossible for him to be here and yet... Josie immediately stood from the table and briskly walked into the room to find a seething Charles, a still optimistic Logan, and a confused Hank. No Erik. Never again would there be an Erik.
"Idiots." Josie muttered as she left the house to clear her head. She walked the gravel paths overgrown now with disuse, the very ones she and Alex would frequent in between classes. There was an even more distant memory of herself opening up to Erik on a walk, the first time she acknowledged her feelings for him.
As she approached the place where she took him into her deepest darkest memory, she thought back to what he'd said...
...Erik stopped walking and held out a hand, Josie's gaze falling from his face to the open palm outstretched towards her pocket. Hesitantly, she lifted her still magenta fingers and placed her hand within his own. He turned her hand over so her palm was facing towards the sky.
Josie looked away from her hand to Eriks face where she found his eyes searching her own. "Why do you keep hiding?" he asked softly...
"I've stopped hiding now look where I am." Josie mused bitterly as she looked down at her tie dyed gray, brown, and blue finger tips that slowly spread to the rest of her body.
"You're not alone. You're never truly alone."
Josie turned to find Charles walking towards her with a small smile. She turned away as he stopped to stand beside her, "I thought you couldn't look into my head anymore."
Charles chuckled, "I've memorized that color chart of yours. You're blue which I suspect means your moody and sensitive more so than spiritual or trying to be kind. Brown is your self-involvement meaning you're in your head and lastly there are speckles of gray. You're exhausted and sad. You looked just like this after Alex left. You think you are alone."
Clenching her fists together, Josie willed away the tears brimming in her eyes, "Alex isn't coming home, is he?"
"I don't know, Josie."
"And Erik? Logan wants us to get him out of his well deserved solitary confinement to help us stop Raven. If he knows what she will cause in the future... he won't let her live to change."
"I don't know that either. I do know that I will need your help through all of this. You and I know Erik and Raven better than anyone else in the world. When the time comes, if it comes, you will stop him. I know you can."
With those words, Josie finally turned to look at Charles. His aura was yellow, burning as brightly as the sun above them. He was back, the man she would follow through any battle was finally starting to come back. He held out a hand to her and she took it, allowing him to tuck it into the crook of his arm.
"I have one condition if I am to help you spring Erik from his cell."
"Go on."
Josie's face light up in a brilliant smile, "I want to be the get away driver."
Charles laughed then and agreed as they walked back into the house to discuss their plans.