"Gambit don't change tires, mon ami."

"Shut yer trap an' hand me the spare, Cajun."

Gambit stared at Logan, the brawny man crouched by the front right tire. He held a flashlight and was closely examining the sharp rock piercing the rubber treading.

Deciding a fight was not worth the effort, the lanky Cajun pocketed the cards he had been shuffling and headed for the back of the jeep to look for the spare. The black woods surrounding the narrow highway loomed above the vehicle, and Gambit shivered as he fumbled in the dark for the latch to open the back of the jeep.

"Gambit city born and city bred. Dese woods ain't to my liken, Logan." He called up front.

"Quit yer yappin', Cajun. I sure as hell didn't drag ya' out into these parts."

Too true, Gambit agreed mournfully. When he had heard that Logan was going up to his cabin for the weekend, Gambit had asked to go along. He wanted to get away for a little bit—Rogue, Bobby and Storm were gone on a mission, and he was tired of Bishop constantly watching him no matter where he went. Gambit would not put it past the man to stick a surveillance camera in his toilet!

Still, he had not anticipated the lonely tracks of mountain and forest, the isolation... or nights that were truly pitch black.

A swift breeze passed over his face, carrying the heady scent of pine sap and rich earth. He inhaled deeply, savoring the essence of the woods. On the other hand, this was something he could never find in the city.

"Smell dat, mon ami?" Gambit called to Logan. "Dat is grand, non?"

Silence.

Gambit frowned, and walked around the jeep. Logan stood silently, body rigid. His face was tense and lost in concentration. His nose flared as he sniffed the air deeply, and he clenched the flashlight in his right hand, the light pooling onto the tire at his feet.

Gambit swiftly seized a card from his pocket, but did not charge it.

"Logan," he whispered tersely.

Another sniff. "There's someone in the woods..."

Logan's eyes narrowed, and abruptly he shut the flashlight off, leaving Gambit in total darkness. He began to protest but thought better of it, clamping his jaw tightly in irritation. His eyes quickly adjusted to the lack of light, though he could only make out the barest shadows. As he expected, Logan had already disappeared.

May you live in interesting times...the words passed through his mind. That old Chinese curse was working over time in his life—in the lives of all the X-men for that matter. Interesting times. Why couldn't they even have a flat tire without there being some sort of catastrophe?

A deep throated cry of pain cut through the night, the sound echoing around Gambit. That was followed by other noises—Logan swearing in frustration, branches breaking...chains rattling?

Gambit strained his eyes, searching the woods for any sign of his friend, and within a few moments, he caught a glimpse of shadowed movements beneath the trees.

"Open up the back door, Gumbo. And grab a blanket from the trunk." Logan's gravelly voice resounded. Gambit stared a moment longer before following the order. When he returned to the side of the jeep with the blanket, Logan was already there, leaning over the back seat with the flashlight on. Gambit stared down into the car.

"Mon Dieu." He gasped.

A young woman lay stretched out on the seat, face white and locked in a grimace of pain. Her T-shirt was torn in several places and the remains of her jeans barely covered the mangled flesh of her left leg. A huge trap bit into her ankle, the rusty iron clamping down angrily on the white flesh. The remains of a chain dangled out of the car, banging on the jeep's metal frame.

Gambit's eyes rose again to her face. Short brown hair lay plastered to her head, and her pale cheeks were sunken in. Eye lids clenched together tightly, her lips compressed into a thin line. She did not make so much as a whimper, though Gambit could not imagine how much she was suffering.

"Hold her leg, Gumbo."

Gambit hurriedly reached out and grasped the woman's leg just below her knee. The position was awkward, and Gambit could feel blood soaking into his palms. He shoved the flashlight into his other hand, the beam directed towards the trap.

Gambit caught a quick glance of Logan's face, blue eyes seething with barely suppressed fury. Gambit quickly looked away. He never was more glad that Logan was his friend and not his enemy.

"Ok, darlin'. Just hold tight, an' we'll get this thing off o' your leg." Logan spoke reassuringly. A far cry from the expression on his face.

With a confirming glance at Gambit, Logan took hold of the steel trap and with a powerful wrench, pulled the jaws apart. The woman jerked once, her body trembling with fatigue and pain. Yet she remained silent, lips so white Gambit could barely discern them from the rest of her pale face. Both men grimaced as the teeth of the trap left her leg, tearing more flesh in the process of removal.

Logan threw the trap into the back of his jeep, grunting in disgust while Gambit tore a few strips from the blanket to tie around the woman's bleeding leg. He could see dirt mixed into her wound, and long, red scratches marred what little uncovered flesh she had.

"This girl needs a hospital, mon ami."

Logan ran a hand through his hair. "There ain't any near here. The most we can hope for is some town doctor, and the nearest town is still an hour away."

"Then we get started, eh?"

They reached the town of Eversted in thirty minutes. Gambit was sure that no two men had ever changed a tire so quickly, while Logan drove his jeep on the curving highway with a single minded intensity that Gambit thought he only reserved for when he killed people.

The woman spoke once during the drive, asking for their names. Her voice was high and sweet, her words a gentle though pain filled murmur that floated from the dark confines of the back seat.

"Don't worry darlin'. You're in good hands." Logan spoke gruffly.

"He be right, chere." Gambit echoed, twisting around in his seat to look at her face. "Remy and Logan keep you safe."

He stared into her eyes—dark pools that seemed to take up her entire face. She blinked several times before closing them, and Gambit thought he saw her nod slightly.