Anne gave Logan directions to her home, a cabin perched on the mountain that over shadowed Eversted. They left the main road outside of town, driving on a gravel track that wound up through tall evergreens, pines, elm and oak. Sunlight poured down through the canopy, bathing their faces in intermittent patches of golden light. The jeep's engine could not drown out the sound of bird song, and the scent of sap and fresh earth overcame the smell of car exhaust. Anne leaned back in her seat, her eyes half closed and her face slack.

Logan and Gambit looked at each other and shrugged. The higher they went into the mountains, the more silent she had become until now Anne seemed to be in some sort of trance. Gambit looked out at the trees they were passing and shivered. Intelligent? Aware? Trees grew everywhere. How could he expect to do anything out of doors anymore and not feel like he was being watched?

The forest thinned and Anne's home came into view. The cabin was a large, sprawling affair with thick ivy and rose vines creeping up the walls. Wild flowers bloomed profusely and the faint sound of moving water tickled Gambit's ears.

Logan nodded approvingly.

"Nice place."

"Glad you like it," Anne's voice drifted from the back seat. "Mom always enjoyed having a more "wild" look to the place, although most of our visitors didn't approve."

Logan grunted, climbing out of the jeep.

"Some people think dandelions are the devil incarnate."

Anne chuckled.

The cabin was just as pleasant on the inside, the faint scent of cinnamon and jasmine filling the air. To the left of the door was an airy sitting room, bright rugs and well used chairs scattered across the bright pine floor. Directly ahead a rail-less planked staircase rose to the second floor. A large, tidy kitchen sat on their right.

"Mi casa es su casa!" Anne called, disappearing immediately up the stairs. "My home is your home!"

Even as she spoke, Logan was sauntering into the sitting room. Gambit followed him, his sharp eyes honing in on the photographs perched on the mantle above the fireplace. He found one that showed Anne as a tiny girl, hugging the massive trunk of a tree. She was dressed in a white on green polka dot dress, and her dark hair hung past her ears in pig-tails. Her eyes shone with happiness.

Logan was scrutinizing another photograph, and Gambit looked at it from over his shoulder. Anne stood in the center of the picture, perhaps five years younger. There was a very attractive woman of middle years with her arms around Anne's waist. Definitely her mother, Gambit thought. A man stood behind them, his brown hair shot with gray. He had a ready smile, though Gambit did not think he was one most women would call handsome. His features all seemed to be the wrong size for his face, but that grin...Anne took after her father, all right.

Logan stirred restlessly.

"Nice lookin' family."

"Yeah, Logan. Dey look real thick wit each o'der."

The faint sound of foot fall alerted them to Anne's presence.

"That was taken just a month before they were killed. Car accident." Anne told them, observing the photo they had been staring at. "My dad's name was Perry. Perry O'Hanrahan. My mother's name was Annabelle."

Anne looked wistfully at the photograph.

"I was named after her...but no one ever called her Anne. Wouldn't have sounded right. She was too elegant and sophisticated for anything less than Annabelle."

"It's hard losin' the people ya' love, darlin'." Logan commented softly, his eyes distant.

"You understand," she whispered, her cheeks reddening as she caught herself staring. Anne tore her eyes from Logan to look at the picture one more time.

With a deep shuddering breath, she removed it from the mantle piece. She took down the other photos as well, and it was only then that Gambit noticed the duffel bag at her feet. Anne had also changed out of the clothes that Logan had bought for her. Faded jeans hugged her slim legs, and she had put on a brown leather jacket over a tight white T-shirt. The heels of her boots tapped against the floor as she moved.

Anne straightened from tucking the photos inside of her duffel, and swung the bag over her shoulder.

"You pack fast." Logan looked at her pointedly, taking the duffel from her. She smiled her thanks and shrugged.

"I've always known that there might be a time when I would be forced to leave this place. I've been ready for a long while now."

Anne took one last look through the cabin, a myriad of emotions dancing across her face. When she shut the door behind her, her fingers lingered heavily on the brass knob.

As the men approached the jeep, she muttered something and ran off along a trail into the woods. Logan and Gambit looked at each other questioningly, but did not follow. Logan pulled out a cigar and leaned against the hood of his jeep, eyeing the area where she had disappeared into the forest.

Anne reemerged ten minutes later, her eyes red as though from crying.

"I had to say good bye to a few friends." she explained.

That was all Anne would say about the matter, and they did not press her for information. Logan took one last look around the cabin, and frowned.

"Ya' got a car ya' want ta' bring?"

Anne shook her head ruefully.

"It's in the back, but it's a junker. I would just as soon never see it again."

Logan nodded, and motioned for her to climb in.

As they drove away, Anne twisted around for one last look. Then, with firm determination in her eyes, she turned away and kept her eyes planted on the road ahead.

"So, where are we going?"

They had driven out of Eversted less than an hour earlier and were moving south along the interstate. Anne had been somewhat prepared for someone to stop them, but they didn't meet with any resistance. She wondered if the town was hoping she would leave.

"Well?" she asked again, looking expectantly at the two men. Logan had just lit up another cigar, and he stoically puffed at it. Gambit stared at him for a moment, and then twisted in his seat to look at her.

"Gambit and Logan takin' you back to our home, chere."

"Well gee...that answers everything. And why do you call yourself Gambit? I thought your name was Remy."

"'Gambit' is his code name, darlin'."

Anne's lips twitched and she crossed her arms across her chest. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but why does he need a code name?"

The two men looked at each other. Gambit sighed.

"You see, chere, Gambit and Logan not like normal guys..."

"No, you certainly aren't."

He looked at her suspiciously. A secretive smile played along her lips and her eyes seemed a little too bright. Frowning, he continued.

"You know dat Gambit and Logan are mutants, an'...an'..."

Logan growled around his cigar.

"Just spit it out, Cajun!"

Gambit threw his arms up in the air. "Fine! Anne, de two of us—"

"-are both members of the X-Men." She sat back, waiting for their response with a smug smile on her face.

Logan and Gambit turned in their seats to stare at her. The jeep began to swerve off the road, and Logan recovered from his surprise to steer the car back into its lane.

"We have it written on our foreheads or somethin', darlin'? Or did ya' read our minds?"

"Read your minds? That would be far too rude." She smiled mockingly.

"I may have spent the past few years in the sticks, but that doesn't mean I didn't keep up with what was going on in the world. I thought you two looked familiar, and when you told me you were mutants, I began to put two and two together. You boys have been caught on camera one too many times destroying the peace for your faces to be easily forgotten." She winked mischievously.

"Nice thinkin', darlin." Logan nodded approvingly, puffing at his cigar. "Ya know where we're goin' then, dontcha?"

She furrowed her brows. "I've got a fairly good idea, but exactly why you're taking me there is beyond me."

"Thought we already discussed this, Annie."

"No, Logan. When I asked what would happen after we left the town, you said to take things one step at a time. Well, we've left, so I think now would be a good time to ask the question again."

Logan shrugged, glancing at Gambit who was watching him just as expectantly as Anne.

"The X-Men take in all mutants that need help."

Her eyes narrowed, and she slowly folded her arms across her chest. "And I qualify as needy, huh?"

Gambit's alarm bells shot off.

Play it cool, Logan, he prayed silently. Gambit t'ink dis one woman we don' want pissed at us.

Logan eyed Anne appraisingly from his rear view mirror, cigar hanging loosely from between his teeth.

Oh Lord. Dat man is gonna blow it.

"Chere," he spoke up quickly, almost wincing as the full force of her withering gaze fell on him. "What Logan tryin' to say is dat de Mansion is open to any mutant, 'specially friends. And you chere, are definitely dat."

Her eyes softened only a fraction, and her gaze flickered once more to the back of Logan's head.

"I appreciate what you fellows are doing for me, but you should know that I can take care of myself. I am not a charity case, nor will I let myself become one." Her words were edged with steely determination.

Logan nodded approvingly.

"That's what I was waitin' ta hear, darlin."

"Glad I passed the test," she drawled sarcastically.

This time, Gambit did wince.

"Pull the car over, Logan." she commanded.

They were driving in the middle of the wilderness, and there was not much of a shoulder. Logan obeyed silently, pulling the jeep off the road as far as he was able to. A few cars passed, the passengers giving them curious looks.

The two X-Men twisted in their seats to stare at Anne. Logan looked as impassive as ever, but Gambit felt like he was staring down the barrel of a loaded shotgun.

She gritted her teeth. "Now that I have your complete attention, I'd like to set a few things straight. First of all, you asked me to come with you, not the other way around. True, I had to leave, but it didn't have to be with the two of you...I could just as easily have gone on my own.

"My intuition that you two were X-Men also had no bearing whatsoever on my decision. In fact, from what I've heard, hanging around with the X-Men should be listed on the top ten most hazardous things to do." Her voice was scathing.

"The truth is though, that I like the both of you a lot. God only knows why, because it's been years since I felt that way about anyone." She sighed. "I want—no, I need friends...I've been alone too long."

"We are your friends, darlin." Logan spoke quietly, his eyes troubled.

Anne studied him, her gaze piercing.

"I want to believe that, Logan." she said, her voice unexpectedly soft. "But you've got to understand that I take friendship seriously. I'd do anything for someone I called a friend. Anything. But that means you have to care as much as I do, and if you trust me so little that you have to use word games to be sure of my motives, then you might as well let me off at the next town."

Gambit held his breath. This was something only Logan could fix.

Logan watched her somberly.

"I'm truly sorry, darlin'. This ol'canucklehead sometimes forgets what it's like ta' be on the receiving end o' my mouth." He shook his head. "I take friendship as seriously as you do, Annie. I've just been burned so many times that its become part o' my nature ta question everyone. Even the people I care most about."

Anne's eyes softened.

"I'm sorry too, Logan. We've known each other such a short time that you have every right to want to test me. It's just that here I am, miles from home with two men I met only yesterday. If I'm ultra-sensitive it's because I want to make sure I made the right decision to leave with the two of you. That you genuinely are my friends and this isn't some game for you."

"Chere," Gambit ventured quietly. "Gambit and Logan don' make friends easily. Dere's too much 'bout us dat keeps people away. But dere's something different 'bout you dat's not like de o'ders. Gambit speak from de heart when he says dat he wants to be your friend. Gambit hopes you feel de same."

"I do." She answered softly, a rueful smile pulling at her lips.

"Darlin, I swear that if this old canucklehead ever hurts ya' again, ya' have my permission ta beat the crap outta me."

The tension broke when she chuckled.

"Who are you kidding? You're built like a tank. I'd probably break my wrist if I tried to knock a few teeth loose."

Logan snorted.

"It's the thought that counts, darlin'."

"You guys are terrible." Anne laughed affectionately, shaking her head.

"You still mad at us, chere?"

"Nah. I almost feel embarrassed for making such a big deal out of it."

"Don't be, darlin'. Ya' had every right ta' bawl me out. I was testin' ya'."

"So," she began after a long moment. "Is anyone going to object to you bringing me to your home?"

"Prob'ly, chere." Gambit answered truthfully. "Fact is, Gambit don't give a damn. Like Gambit said, we three a trio, and no one's goin' to break dat up."

"Amen to that, Cajun."

Anne smiled at them, a trace of wonderment in her eyes.

"Well, what are you waiting for boys? Let's get this show on the road."

"Yes, sir." Logan chuckled, revving the engine of the jeep and pulling back onto the interstate.