YOU'RE LOSING ME ✦ WOLVERINE

CHAPTER SIX

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7TH — 2007

THE NEXT MORNING, Clara left a sign attached to the garage door hatch, saying:

Need to catch up on another client's computer. Will continue working on the motorcycle tomorrow. — Clara

She had dragged her desk back inside, into her office where she worked on electronics. Same with her office chair, the one that Logan had been claiming for the time being.

She looked over the three computers that she needed to work on, and picked the one that needed the most work.

She set it on the desk, and then sat down in the chair. She looked intently at it, and then tilted her head to the right.

It turned out that Bucky hadn't given her her healing power that night, all those years ago, when he had helped hook her up to that machine in her father's workshop. No, it had given her a power. It had taken her many, many years to understand why she had such a deep understanding when it came to electronics. Why hacking them was so easy for her.

It wasn't until she had read another mutant's research papers on the powers that had to be seen, that she realized what it was called.

Technokinesis.

Her healing power had mutated that night, after Bucky had tried to kill her. That was how she had survived his assassination attempt.

In her mind, she was searching through the depths of the computer, finding the problem so she could figure out how she could fix it. She always worked like this in silence, it helped her concentrate best. A side effect of it was that her eyes turned silver, due to the connection between her and the electronic. It was easier for her eyes to turn back to normal when the room was quiet. When it was loud, it messed with her concentration. She had a feeling Logan had noticed her eyes the other night after she had fixed Jerry's TV.

She learned she was able to best access her power when she tilted her head to the right, like she was leaning to look at something. Her head rested on her shoulder as she eventually settled her hands on the keyboard, and the computer's screen turned on.

The lights flickered for a moment, another side effect to her powers. If they became too...Loud, then the lights in her office began to flicker. That was the best term she could put for it, as she had never talked to another mutant about it.

Well, besides Jamie. But he hadn't talked to many mutants either. She hoped he was doing okay in college, as a mutant...It wasn't easy for them.

Eventually, Clara called it quits for lunch. She'd been working for at least three hours, and her brain was starting to hurt. It always did if she worked herself like this for hours, so she decided to take a lunch break, and maybe take the rest of the day off to nap and rest her eyes so she could recover from straining herself like this.

Rubbing her eyes, Clara reached into the top drawer, pulling her cell phone, keys, and her wallet out. Surprisingly, she had a text from Kiera.

Missing you lots! I'm thinking about coming to visit you soon!

Her texts were always so long now that she had gotten a fancier cellphone. Clara still had a plain old flip phone, so she struggled to text back: Miss you too, Kiera-vera. When?

Getting up from her desk, she turned the light off in the office as she left. She walked down the dark hallway towards the front of the shop, and unlocked the four locks on the front door.

She opened the door, and took one step outside, then nearly shrieked. "Logan!" She took a step back inside, then came all the way outside, hand on her chest. "You just scared the shit out of me! What are you doing out here?"