x CHAPTER FOURTEEN x
prison break and the kid
~<x>~
Josie waited in the car when they went to convince Logans speedster friend, Peter, to help them break Erik out of the Pentagon. She had been polite even as he zipped in and out of the car before the boys even made it to the front door. She was even willing to give him the front seat until he tried to touch the gun in the glove box. He was fast enough to move his hand before she slammed the cover shut but unable to get away from the revulsion rippling through him until he had to open the door and puke.
Charles had suppressed a laugh while Logan smirked from the back. From then on Peter had been a perfect gentleman for the rest of the ride. It had been roughly twenty minutes since the boys had all gone into the pentagon and the nerves were building in Josie by each passing second. She willed away the ice blue overcoming her body and allowed a peaceful green and self controlling orange to take its place. The radio was turned up and "Who Loves the Sun" by The Velvet Underground was just beginning to play.
"Who loves the sun / who cares that it makes plants grow-" she sang as alarm bells rang. She turned up the music, her smile growing as she sang instead, "Here we go!"
The music was loud and that familiar feeling of an adrenaline high hit Josie. It was a feeling she was accustomed to in the CIA but it had been so long since she'd felt it now it was overwhelming. She looked to the door and saw Logan first, then turned to find Peter in the front seat.
"Josie, go!" Charles called as they neared the car.
"Finally." She breathed before she was stepping on the gas and moving through traffic.
Peter attempted to change the channel and gagged causing Logan to once again smirk and Charles to say her name in playful warning. The drive wasn't as eventful as Josie hoped it would be but she did get to follow down the maze of roads that made up the city she once called home.
Peter was laughing at each sharp turn while the men crammed in the back were less than pleased with the reckless driving. Logan, aside from the obvious discomfort he felt from being cooped up in the back seat enjoyed seeing how happy Josie was. He had only seen her as the somber woman who alongside Professor X had coaxed him out of his self loathing.
Once they'd arrived at the small landing strip where Hank was waiting with the jet, Josie was immediate in parking and exiting the vehicle. She came onto Peter's side and opened the door to get to the glove box. Not caring that he refused to get up, Josie opened the box on his lap and pulled out the gun before shutting it behind her.
"Whoa. Take a guy to dinner first."
"Oh grow up. As if you'd be so lucky."
Erik smirked while Logan pulled Josie back from Peter by her waist. The smirk fell immediately from Eriks face when Josie made no move to get Logan off of her. Logan nudged her in the direction of the plane and she wasted no time in walking up the steps to take a seat at the back.
Logan entered soon after her, sitting at the seat across from the aisle beside her. He took out a newspaper while Josie went to one of the cupboards to get out the book she'd started on the flight to Washington, DC and was hoping to finish by the time they got to Paris. Logan glanced over at her book as she finally sat back down to open it. He watched as she took off her shoes and curled her feet up onto the seat, the book resting on her knees as she held it open.
Erik walked out of the bathroom, buttoning up the shirt Charles had packed for him to change into. He glanced at Logan, his gaze hardening once he saw what Logan was looking at. He quickly reached for the paper in front of Logan but was unable to move it as Logan let his bone claws free.
Unimpressed Erik moved away from him to sit in the middle of the plane, "Imagine if they were metal."
Josie rolled her eyes and Erik looked at her before looking at Logan tauntingly. They exchanged a brief conversation before Logan was explaining the purpose of Erik being broken out of jail. This took all of lift off and once Hank had said they were okay to move around Josie breathed a sigh of relief when everything was silent.
Of course, nothing good ever lasts. The silence was broken when Erik started to ask Charles about his powers. Josie looked up as he looked down after mentioning his lack of sleep from all of the voices in his head. She quickly reached out to Charles and offered him some of the orange -confidence- of her aura. He glanced up at her as the feeling washed over him and she smiled but he didn't return it.
"What do you know about it?" Charles asked Erik who was staring at him angrily.
Josie could feel the crimson cloud she had once been so familiar with grow and expand until it began to consume her too. Setting aside the book completely, she looked down at her skin, there was red lines spidering throughout her body before a flash of ice blue. She looked up at Erik and concentrated on dulling the red but it had grown deeper in the past 11 years and there was little she could do but suffer this anger right along with him.
"You have no idea what I've done." Erik replied cooly but Josie knew better.
"I know that you took the things that mean the most to me."
"Charles-" Josie whispered as she tried to stop him from making the crimson cloud surrounding Erik any bigger. Logan looked over at Josie questioningly before concern took over seeing her body slowly turning red.
Erik stood and Logan intervened, "Sit down!"
There was a hand held up before Erik was saying, "Let him come."
That was when something inside of Josie began to truly bubble and fester. Charles was angry now, angry and desperate as he shoved Erik. She couldn't listen to what they were saying she could only endure the piercing headache that shot through her as she saw through a red haze that suffocated the plane. Then the plane itself was being suffocated as Eriks anger took real control.
Josie whimpered and shut her eyes tightly trying to push Erik and Charles emotions from her to find something to feel for her own. Logan tried to get to her but was glued to his seat as Hank started to lose control of the plane. He leaned an arm on her chair to steady himself trying to watch what unfolded between Charles and Erik while also trying to figure out what was wrong with Josie.
"Josie, hey, look at me," he tried to reach her but she was whimpering and when a small trail of blood fell from her nose he began to panic, "Josie! Focus on me, snap out of it!"
She wasn't listening to him, she wasn't listening to anyone. Josie was trapped in both Charles and Eriks pain as she was forced to comb through the terrible memories trapped within Eriks aura. She saw each of the people he named dead, watched as they were taken and experimented on. It was horrific.
Hank was trying to get Erik to calm down while Charles fell about the cabin. Listening to Eriks tirade now, having no choice as she'd run out of memories to invade, Josie was reaching her breaking point.
"Hiding. You, Hank, and Josephine. We were supposed to protect them! You abandoned us all." he finally finished as the plane began to stabilize.
As soon as Logan could stand he was at Josies side taking the hands from her face to get her out of her head. She was muttering in a language he couldn't recognize but whatever it was had made Erik turn around to look at her.
"Josie, open your eyes. Get out of his head. His feelings are not your own, do you understand me? You are not whatever that asshole is feeling."
Breathing heavily Josie opened her eyes to look at Logan, her hand coming up to swipe under her nose at the blood. She looked down at the color and pulled it immediately away from her as she swore, "Shit. I can't- Logan I-"
"It's alright. I get it. Go get cleaned up."
Nodding absentmindedly she got up and went into the bathroom to clean the blood from her face. Josie turned on the faucet and flinched as she remembered the emotional memories she had been forced to witness by Erik. Quickly scrubbing at her face, Josie turned off the faucet and took one of the hand towels to pat her face dry. She pulled the towel away slowly and looked into the mirror at herself, "His feelings are not your own."
Meanwhile, Charles had gone up to the cockpit while Logan went back to his seat and pulled out a cigar. Lighting it, he couldn't help but scoff, "So you were always an asshole."
Erik looked away from where Josie had been sitting to the man, "I take it we're best buddies in the future."
Logan nods and looks up at him, "I spent a lot of years trying to take you down, bub."
"How does that work out for you?" Erik mocks.
Logan begrudgingly admits he's a survivor and motions behind him to where Josie had gone off to, "You know, really should learn to control your anger or dial it back a bit until she's not in the room."
"What are you talking about?"
"Her mutation. She doesn't just see what people feel, she takes it on if it's intense enough. She can't distinguish what she feels from someone else and you're little tantrum just overloaded her system." Logan finished before he took a puff of his cigar.
Erik glanced at the bathroom door and went to take a step but thought better of it as he turned back to his seat. This was a long flight and there would be plenty of time for them to talk.