YOU'RE LOSING ME ✦ WOLVERINE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

On the hour car ride to the mansion, to keep Clara's anxiety from overtaking her, Logan told her to think of superhero names for herself.

"I haven't ever tried to think of one for myself before," She admitted, looking out the window. "HYDRA named me the Summer Soldier. So because of that, I never really wanted one."

He reached over, taking her hand in his, and said, "We'll come up with a great one for you."

She laughed, shaking her head. Logan had decided to drive them, in case she got too anxious.

When they finally reached the mansion, Storm could see the anxiety on Clara's face. She hugged her, whispering in her ear, "You'll be safe with us the whole time."

Clara hugged her back, and just nodded. They were then lead to the jet, where everyone else was waiting.

Charles was sitting in the front, Erik at his left, and Storm to his right. Hank was sitting behind Erik, and an empty seat was left open for Logan. There were two benches in the back of the jet, where Bobby and Marie were sitting.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Logan demanded, pointing at Erik, who turned to smirk at Logan.

"He's helping us with the sentinel problem right now, Logan," Charles responded, not looking up from the jet's controls. "We have a deal right now."

Logan glared at Erik, before silently moving to his seat. Clara moved to the back of the jet to sit with Bobby and Marie, and said, "Hey, guys."

"You doing okay, Clara?" Bobby asked, and Clara weakly smiled back in response, and he reached over to her. "We'll make sure it all goes smoothly. These sentinels haven't gotten very smart yet, as far as we know."

She nodded, and leaned back against the wall, feeling...Overwhelmed. The last time she had been on a plane of any sort, was when she had been set free from HYDRA, something she had forgotten to mention to Logan.

She longed to sit next to him, but she wasn't a core member of the X-Men. She longed for his comfort, but this was a mission, not something fun that they were all doing.

"If you want to change into your uniform in the lavatory, you can," Marie said to her, handing her a folded stack of black clothes.

Clara took them, and quickly ducked into the lavatory. Once she had changed, she rebraided her hair into a single braid down her back, and zipped the front of her new uniform closed, a small golden X embellished on the chest.

She took a deep breath, looking at herself in the mirror. She had never...Belonged to anything like this, before. Belonging felt...Nice. Working with other mutants felt nice.

Coming out of the lavatory, she asked Marie, "Where can I put my normal clothes?"

"Oh, here," Marie got up from the bench, and opened an compartment above them. "Go ahead and put them up here."

Once she had stashed her clothes away, she sat back down with the young couple, and strained to eavesdrop on whatever Logan was talking about with the other X-Men up front.

"What are we up against here, Charles?" Logan was asking.

"These sentinels are...Advanced," Charles replied carefully. "More than I've ever seen. But they aren't able to kill easily. Right now, they're being sent out to search for mutant safe houses. We've found one that has just been released."

Their voices faded once again into the background as Bobby and Marie began to quietly talk to each other, and Clara leaned into the wall behind the bench again, crossing her arms.