This story contains some marvel characters and ideas that are all theirs, any I have made up are all mine. None of what is written in any way reflects the views or ideas of Marvel or its affiliates or the actors who portray those characters. This is pure fiction. It also contains some delightful man loving, (Just wait one more chapter!) if any of that stuff offends you, or if it is illegal were you are, then you may kindly exit the page! For all others please enjoy!

() = Thoughts

Jinn: A beyond the X-men Story

By the time we reached the gates to Poe ranch Hank had mostly calmed back down, and any lingering anger vanished completely as a wave of shock rolled through him.

"My goodness! What happened to that poor truck?" I glanced at him and grinned.

"Well doc, that beauty is Pompeii's crowning achievement." I stopped the jeep when we had pulled even with the wreck. "Notice the dramatic U shape of the bed, and the subtle annihilation of the cab. I think of it as Picasso meets the impressionist era."

"Holy shit!" Storm chimed in from the back seat. "Are you sure it was a horse that did that?" I laughed and nodded as Hank slowly turned in the passenger seat to look at me.

"Slone...What happened to the tires?" I peered around him at the wreck and thought back to that day.

"You know I'm not really sure. There were five of us out here that day, including the man who owned the truck, and believe me no one looked away for so much a second. But somehow or another during the middle of Po's rampage the front tires just, disappeared. And towards the end, when he was kicking and stomping away on the back to get that shape, the whole rear axle just came flying off. Eventually we found the axel and one of the rear tires, but no one has seen the others in years." I turned back to the wide eyed, panicked pair in my jeep. "The stable hand, Jerry, thinks that Po ate them, but I'm with Tom in thinking that they are under the truck somewhere."

"You want to bring a horse that dose that, to trucks, to a school?" Ororo pointed to the wreck, her voice almost a squeak.

"Don't worry about it." I started down the drive again, turning for the barns. "Po is a lot calmer now, mostly he won't even acknowledge that other people are even there. Though sometimes he takes exception to a person he really doesn't like, and spits on them or rears up at them, but he hasn't actually tried to hurt anyone for a long time now."

"Well...That's...Good I suppose." (Awwwww!! Fuzz-ball is just so cute when he's all nervous and stutterie.) Though if anyone else tried to make him feel that way I think I'd have to rip them apart. (Wonder why I feel so protective of him?)

"Ok then everybody out!" I pulled up to the main barn and got out of the jeep and moved my seat to help Ororo climb down. By the time we got her out Hank had moved around to my side to help, and I could hear Tom's distinct swaying footsteps coming around the side of the barn towards us. (OK Slone! Deep breath and don't panic. Tom won't freak...Please don't let him freak!)

"Slone? What are you doing back here tonight?" His soft tones reached me about the same time that the wind carried his scent over, wrapping me in the only happy memories my childhood held. Suddenly it was all I could do not to collapse in tears and beg him to keep loving me. (Fucking perfect! I'm turning into a God Damn lifetime movie! Next thing you know I'm gona get cancer, be pregnant and single, and possibly fall in love with a serial killer or demented millionaire! Gee the possibilities.) I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity and pulled myself together enough to turn and face Tom.

"Hey I got some people I want you to meet." I raised my voice so Tom could hear me startling Hank and Storm, who had not heard his question. There was just enough time for me to suck in a deep breath and mentally brace myself before Tom was standing about three feet away. His attention was locked on Hank when his eyes crinkled up around the edges, mouth spreading wide in a grin that made him look more like a man made of straw than ever, and his body swayed gently from side to side. The picture of an old scarecrow in the wind.

I spent the next hour and a half explaining what had happened after I left the ranch earlier, leaving out the part where I may or may not have broken my neck, no need to worry the man about my future neighbors, while we loaded an old trailer up with all my tack and the other things I would need to take care of Po in a new barn. Seeing all the extra room I had in there I decided to move my bags from the back seat of the jeep over as well. To say that Storm was pleased about not needing to preform anymore Olympic stunts to enter or exit the jeep again was a vast understatement. Though that had been fun to watch. (Teehee!)

"Ok all I need to do now is collect Po and head out." Tom looked up at me as I spoke. I watched as a sad smile entered his eyes, and could smell his sudden grief. "Hey now, none of that!" I scolded and wrapped my arms around him in a gentle hug. "What's the matter old crow?" He laughed and hugged me back.

"I just never thought I'd see the day when you went away." His voice rasped in my ear, a rough sounding whisper, overlaid with the scent of pumpkin spice coffee, his blend for bad days, sunshine, straw and tears. (Ah. So that's why Hank gets to me. He smells just like Tom dose when he gets sad.) "I love you so much Jay-Bird! I hope you know that you'll always have a home here." I stepped back and smiled up at him.

"Gee Tom, what was the point in your lying to the DMV for me to get an early license if I don't use it to get here? Honestly old crow! The school is only about 2 hours away, and we've got that new mare coming in next week for training. You really think I'm going to miss out on that?" He laughed a little at my tone of voice, some of the sorrow leaving his scent, while the tears stopped. "Besides with Joe kicking me out and all I was thinking that maybe I could stay with you on the weekends that I come over. That's if you don't mind?"

"Mind? No I don't mind Jay-Bird. You're like the son I never got the chance to have, and I would love for you to stay with me whenever you want." His scent was all joy now, eyes crinkling and body swaying.

"Ok then, I'll call ahead to let you know when I'm coming. Now go feed your horses before they decide to eat your barn." He laughed again and started to walk away. "And just for the record Tomas Poe, I love you too." He gave me a wave over his shoulder, but never turned back, saying good bye to Hank and Storm as he passed them walking back to me. (Nice of them to keep their distance for that emotional train wreck.) Hank continued all the way to the trailer, while Storm stopped half way to answer a shiny metal thing that might have been a cell phone. Maybe.

"He is a good man." Hank said as I gestured for him to follow me over to the pasture. "But out of curiosity, why do you keep calling him `old crow'?"

"Oh, that's because I mistook him for the scarecrow in the wizard of Oz on the day we met. Took him almost a week to convince me that he really was just a rancher, and by that time he was calling me Jay-Bird all the time, so it's all fair." I whistled as I opened the pasture gate, grabbing Po's lead from the rail where I'd left it. "Now just keep your distance for a bit while I introduce you." Hank nodded and backed up as Po reached me and the gate.

"Oh my stars and garters! That is one big horse!" I couldn't help myself then. I laughed in his face.

"You know doc, they say that if you keep making a face eventually yours will freeze like that." I clipped the lead to Po and turned his head to look at Hank. "Awww isn't he just the cutest when he's blushing?" Po whinnied and did a happy horse dance. "What do you think boy you want to say hi to the adorable monkey man?" I got another whinny from Po as Hank blushed more, turning a rather spectacular shade of navy. Seizing the moment I lead Po over and encouraged him to smell Hank, but once the initial greet was over and Hank stopped being flustered, Po went back to his normal evening mode. Namely, trying to get me to feed him while we walked back to the barn and trailer. "Ok Po, you and I are moving up in the world. We're heading to the big apple, and a posh new school where, hopefully, they can teach me how not to spontaneously combust inside barns! What do you think about that, humm?" Po snorted and shook his head, scent and body posture combining to say `silly human. Forget about moving. Where's the food!?' Hank and I both laughed at Po as we came around to the back of the trailer and into Storms line of sight.

"Dear god! Where did you find that beast?" She exclaimed, lowering the cell phone thing from her head. "No wait! Don't tell me! I don't want to know where giant truck demolishing horses come from!" I grinned while Po turned and posed to best show off his size. (Crazy horse thinks he should be worshiped or something.)

"You sure about that Ms. Monroe? After all I would hate for you to stumble on them one day by accident." Storm just shook her head and went back to her conversation. "Alright doc, could you go to the front of the trailer, and hold the side door open? I want Po to have plenty of light going in."

"Ok then." Hank moved around to the side and called down when he had the door open. "It's broken Slone. I'm going to have to stand in the doorway to keep it open is that alright?"

"Sure. Just hold tight this won't take long." I guided Po up the ramp and into the trailer, getting him settled in and secured in record time despite Po's mission to try and eat Hank's bow tie. "Oh stop that you!" I scolded as I moved to leave the trailer. "You'll get your dinner when we reach the school." Future meal now secure, Po settled down and almost instantly went to sleep. Funny how much he now likes trailer rides considering how he reacted the day he was brought to me.

Less than 5 minutes later we had the trailer locked up and everyone piled back into my jeep. As we pulled back out onto the road Hank explained to me that Storm had come with us to give me an orientation on the school and what I could expect from my classes, but with her still trying to solve a problem involving 6 students, an Olympic sized pool, and 12 gallons of Jell-O, we should find something else to talk about. Translation, with her busy, and me trapped in a car for the next 2+ hours he wanted the chance to badger me into medical testing and pick my brain about my scene of smell.

Two and a half hours later and I was ready to throw myself out the door for a break. Not only did he manage to talk me into full genetic testing, but he had somehow managed to wrangle me into agreeing for him to try and find my biological father. And that was only the first hour, during which Storm ended her conversation and promptly nodded off to Hank's medical drone. (Fucking traitor) The second hour held such delights as `how does the smell of underarm sweat differ from genital perspiration?' (Honestly, I've spent years trying my very best to avoid making that comparison, and one blinking, hope filled, curiosity coated monkey later, and I was wracking my brain to come up with an answer. God damn hormones!)

Alas, traumatic moments of self-discovery cannot last forever! Hank reached back and prodded Storm into the land of the living when we made the turn onto school grounds.

"Ororo dear, which way to get to the barn from here?" He asked.

"Huuummmm..." A sleepy Storm poked her head forward and squinted down the road at the biggest mansion I'd ever seen. "Oh, just keep to the left up here and we'll swing past the garage, turn right and the barn should be right there."

"Alright, there goes the garage." Who the hell has a 10 bay garage? "Here is the corner, and oh-... It's... attached. You're, barn... is attached to the house."

"Yes well there are some free standing barns just down that foot path over there, but when we dropped down to two horses it was just too hard to try and get the kids out there in the snow or heavy rain. So about 5 years back the Professor had this one built." Storm kept talking as I turned and backed the trailer up so we could unload Pompeii. In fact she kept up a running explanation the entire time we were unloading Po, and emptying the trailer, she covered the layout of the grounds, school, and where I was allowed to ride during the mornings vs. the afternoons. I honestly begin to wonder if they called her storm because of the way she could talk! Somehow she managed to explain things quickly without rushing words or skipping over parts, and all while multi-tasking! By the time we had Po settled into a stall with his evening feed, and all my personal stuff unloaded, she had covered the basic layout of the school's interior, namely where I could get extra food between meals, and was just starting to explain some of the class options I would have when her communicator beeped a message at her. "Damn! Hank, can you show Slone up to his room? I've got to go break up a fight in the girl's dorm."

"Not the Carter twins again!" Hank laughed when Storm nodded and waved her off through the tack room, which apparently lead to the school interior. (Rich people. Can't even be bothered to put up with a little weather.) "I'll take the boxes if you get the doors." Hank offered.

"Sure." I put on my backpack, and grabbed my duffle with one hand while opening the door with the other. "But how are you going to know which room to put me in? Storm never said."

"Well that's the easy part, with the rising mutant population we are usually running at full capacity. I know which room to put you in because it's the only open room in the boy's dorm. Now hit the elevator button for the 4^th floor."

"Ok then. Any chance of there being one of those communal kitchens on that floor? I still need another thousand calories to round out my diet today." And suddenly, I remember why I had decided to not tell him anything else about my mutation, after all there are only so many questions one can handle answering about their dietary need, digestive movements, eating habits, and sleeping patterns. I think he only stopped too add my name to the allowed list of students for the 3^rd floor staff kitchen because it gave him more time to look adorable while asking embarrassing questions.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Hank smelled shocked, and looked like someone had just murdered a basket of puppies in front of him. (Poor little fuzz ball) This was the first question of his I hadn't been able to answer.

"I just don't know doc. I've never passed out from exhaustion or anything like that, but I do feel the need to sleep. Though sometimes I just ignore it, like when the mares in the barn are foaling. We had one week where I was up for 4 days straight, bouncing between school and the three mares we had foaling, and I didn't feel tired or anything. So I guess I don't need that much sleep, but I really do enjoy sleeping so...?" I shrugged.

"Hum." We stepped off the elevator into what was obviously an attic hallway. "Oh well, we can come back to that tomorrow." I rolled my eyes and followed him down the hall to the end. (Now why did my hormones have to decide that that this big goof with 8 million uncomfortable questions needed to be happy?) "Anyway this is your room Slone. Your roommate is probably sleeping so we're going to want to get all the questions out of the way before you go in." I waited, mentally bracing for another onslaught of questions, when his silent expectant expression clicked in my muddled brain.

"Oh! Oooohh, you mean my questions." Hank laughed.

"Yes Slone, I mean your questions!"

"I don't really have any right now, you showed me that kitchen on the 3^rd floor so I know where to get dinner, and other than that, the only thing I want right now is my bed."

"Alright then let's get your stuff put down and then I'll stop badgering you." (Evil bastard is actually aware of his extreme questioning and amused as hell about that!)

"Sure you will. For now anyway!" Hank chuckled as I opened the door and stepped through. Right into an oven. Damn the room was so hot that I actually felt warm. I opened my mouth and breathed in to question Hank about this whole hot box routine when my roommates scent hit me. (Crap. I'm doomed.) It was the smell of a sun warmed rock, and moist green life, it reminded me of a marsh land, without the decayed vegetation scent that usually made me gag. It did however contain the scent of alpha male, and at a level I had never encountered before. Tom was never going to let me live this down, because for the first time in my life I was aroused by the scent of another man's dominance. (Double Crap!)

"I forgot to tell you." Hank whispered. "Your roommate's mutation leaves him with a weakness to the cold." Hank gestured to the cocoon of blankets piled on top of the bed closest to us as he placed the boxes on the ground by the door.

"That's ok." My voice came out sounding breathless. (Hope the fur ball won't notice.) "The heat doesn't bother me." I quickly set my bags down on the empty bed and all but rushed Hank out of the room and back into the hallway, before I completely lost it and got hard over the scent of a man I had never even meet before.

"I'm sure your roommate will explain everything to you in the morning but you should know now that the pair of you have very similar mutations." I think if I hadn't still been focused on HIS scent, then the level of excitement coming off of Hank would have landed me on my ass. "You both have animal based physical mutations, with a secondary elemental based mutation that appear to have no correlation with your animal based abilities." (Ah. So Fuzz ball wants to compare and analyze us. Guess that explains the never-ending questions.) "The possible variables that lead to this development are exten-. EEEEEHHH!"

"Ppphhhhhtttttt!" I tried to smother my laughter as Hank jumped and pulled out a device similar to Storms communicator. Only bigger, and far more complex looking.

"Oh no!" Hank gasped, scent suddenly flooded with panic. "My cultures!" And he was off. Sprinting down the hall to the elevator in an obvious state of agitation. Rather reminded me of a new mother who suddenly realized that she has left her baby at home, alone when she went shopping. Shaking my head at fuzz-ball's antics I looked around and found the door to the stairs and went down to the 3^rd floor, and my long awaited dinner.

Storm had explained to me that the 1^st floor is class rooms and the student cafeteria, the 2^nd floor is student housing divided by east and west wings according to gender, the 3^rd floor is for the staff/teachers, and until recently the 4^th floor was storage and additional class rooms. But they had converted it to more male student housing about a year ago to keep up with the growing population. She also said something about construction of a new school, on the other side of the country that would be twice the size of Xavier's, but until it was finished we would all be packed into rooms like sardines. Though from what she said I think that I'll be happy to stay on the 4^th floor because unlike the original dorm rooms which sleep 4-8 student per room, the smaller attic room only sleeps two. (Though after smelling my roommate I wonder if maybe I would be better off in a room where I don't have the desire to start humping the blanket covered anonymous lump that is my roommate.)

I got to the kitchen at that point and took another look at the list of allowed students. Hank said that I wasn't the only student at the school with unique dietary needs. (Glad I'm not alone in the stuff your face diet plan.) I was curious about who else might be on it, but the only other student name on the list was Nicodemus Roth. (Weird name)

Stepping into the kitchen I noticed a clock on the stove showing the time as 10:07pm. Had it really only been 7 ½ hours since Tom had stopped me in the quarantine pen? It's amazing, 7 ½ hours is all it took for me to become an orphan, almost die, create actual enemies in the people who came to `help' me, become friends with a giant blue monkey, basically be exiled to a school for out of control freaks, and develop an unnatural attraction to a man I've never seen. (Happy Fucking Birthday To Me!) Looking around I spotted a plate of chocolate cupcakes, a tentative sniff reviled their icing to be fudge flavored. (Well now, no reason my birthday dinner can't start with desert.) I grabbed one and started eating while I opened the fridge. Inside was a drawer full of meat, not just lunch meat or hot dogs, but honest to god MEAT! I shoved the rest of the cupcake into my mouth and started digging. (OOOOOOHHHHHHH!!! T-bone!) Prize located I grabbed the 4 pack of thick cut steaks and moved to the freezer. Minimal probing revealed a bag of tater tots whit `Scott Summers' scrawled across the front. (Heaven! You do exist!) Some general sniffing around provided me with tinfoil, a sheet pan, frying pan, and garlic salt. A perfect birthday dinner in the making!

I got the tots in the oven, and had the first steak cooking, debating whether or not I could eat two of them, or if I should just put the rest away, when I heard footsteps coming down the hall. The steps were soft and even with weight behind them, the quiet tread of a larger predator. I might have felt threatened by the sound of them, but I could also hear the distinct sound of a man yawning, and a stomach growling. So being a good little home maker, I seasoned one of the remaining steaks for myself and one for the new guy, popping his into the pan with the first one.

"Is that steak I smell?" His voice was deep and growly, like a bear coming out of hibernation.

"Yup. T-bones with some tots in the oven. You want some?" I asked while poking around the drawers looking for utensils.

"Wouldn't mind a couple steaks." Tongs appeared next to my head along with his scent. Warm, brown musk, much like a bear or wolf, complete with the undercurrent of violence I had smelled on any large predator I had ever meet. Not anger but the potential for it, like nature created the smell to tell prey animals that this creature is dangerous. He also smelled of alpha, though not as strong as my roommate, or even the professor, but this man was no one to fool with. His current emotions left me reassured that at the moment he wasn't a threat, hungry and curious, gearing toward amused. I took the tongs. "Those tots wouldn't belong to Summers, would they?" I shrugged.

"Snooze you lose." He rumbled, amused and oddly pleased, guess Scotty-boy wasn't his favorite person either. "I'm Slone. You want your steaks bloody or dead?" He rumbled again, a second amusement spike telling me that he was probably chuckling or something.

"Bloody please. Names Logan nice ta meet ya bub." I glanced over at him for the first time and almost laughed myself. Leaning against one of the side counters in low riding boxers was one of the most muscular men I'd ever seen. And if I hadn't meet Hank today, he would also be the hairiest. Masses of chest, leg and arm hair, not to mention the beard and full head of thick black hair, he could have almost been the bear I'd compared his scent to. "So what's a little fella like you doing cooking at this hour?" He asked.

"Oh you know, the usual. I got abducted by a bunch of cyborg wannabes and a giant blue monkey, who never bothered to feed the massive metabolism that comes with my mutation." He rumbled again, whole body shaking with his mirth. "And please don't call me `little fella' makes me feel stupid." He grinned, brown eyes shining and flashing slight k-9s.

"What are ya going to do if I refuse?" I removed the first two steaks and popped the others in, before turning and giving him my best, big eyed, boy next door smile, showing off my own k-9s.

"Why nothing much." I batted my eyes and layered the innocent tones on thick. "Just light your shorts on fire!" Cracking my mental fire door open, then closing it fast had a wave of fire moving through my hair before it went out. My smile widened at his shock before he started rumbling again.

"Fair enough kid! Is one of those for me?" He gazed over at the steaks longingly and it was my turn to laugh.

"Yah, just find me a spatula for the tots and you can chow down," He smiled and pulled open a drawer on the opposite side of the stove from me, producing a spatula and handing it over with a flourish before grabbing another plate from the cabinet above. I slid one of the steaks onto his plate, then opened the oven and seasoned the tots before stirring them and closing it again. Man I just love convection ovens! They make cooking things so much faster.

"So what kinda mutation ya got that ya need this much food just for dinner?" Logan asked as he grabbed utensils for us both and condiments from the fridge, arraigning them on the small breakfast table, before he sat down to eat.

"Not entirely sure, Hank says it's some kinda balance for the energy my body spends on senses, healing and the fire thing." I flipped the last two steaks and turned to look at him again.

"Hey if anyone can figure out your mutation it would be the fur-ball. Man's a god damn genius."

"Yah I kinda figured that out today when he had two million questions about the differences in how emotions smell."

"You can smell emotions?" Logan asked while forking a large piece of steak into his mouth.

"Sure. Don't everybody?" He snorted and I grinned. "Seriously though I really do smell people's emotions. For example right now you smell of satisfaction, probably from the steak, and curiosity, as well as fading amusement, and a growing scene of shock."

"Gee kid. All I can tell is that your male, not scared, and that you personally smell like sun warmed grass. So what all can you tell about me?" He asked amusement reentering his scent. I shrugged and pulled the last two steaks out of the pan and the tots out of the oven turning it off, before I walked over to the table. Moving one of the steaks over to his plate I set mine down, leaned forward, closed my eyes and breathed him in.

"You have an animal based mutation, some kind of forest dwelling predator. You smoke cigars, Cuban I think. You use mint scented body wash, vanilla shampoo, and you wash your cotton sheets in tide, with unscented dryer sheets. You brush your teeth with generic Colgate, and use degree active deodorant, the one with the red writhing, I don't remember the name. You wear a lot of leather, and favor denim pants, going off the faint oil and gasoline smell I'd say you drive a motor cycle. You had sex about two days ago with a woman who really likes lavender scented body products. And under all that is this metallic undertone that I can't place. Do you have a lot of surgical metal in you or what?" I opened my eyes and stepped back to view his stunned expression.

"You can smell all that?" I nodded and sat down at my place digging into my steaks.

"Yup. Though it's harder to get that much off a normal person, you're one of the few who doesn't douse themselves in gallons of chemicals every morning." He rumbled again the shock fading from his system.

"That because my sense of smell anit as bad as most peoples. Nothing like yours but enough that those chemical products burn my nose a bit." I shuddered and nodded agreement as I devoured steak. It was a few moments of agreeable silence where we both shoveled in steak like we hadn't eaten in days. "So where you from kid?"

"Holburn, it's about two hours from here. You?"

"Canada mostly." I glanced up at the uncertain tone of his voice and nervous scent. "Can't really remember much of my life, but I've got the Professor helpen me with that. In the meantime I'm teachen here and enjoying good food!" He saluted me with a bite of steak before popping it into his mouth.

"What do you teach?" I asked trying, and failing, to picture him in front of a blackboard.

"Gym mostly, with some advanced self-defense classes on the side." I'm sure my eyes lit up at the mention of self-defense, because he started rumbling again the moment I begin to question him about fighting styles as we ran out of meat and divided the potatoes. Though once those were gone we both agreed that we could eat more and attacked the plate of cupcakes, where it was his turn to question me about my study of Tie Chi. When the cupcakes were gone we moved on to other topics. I told him about Pompeii's history and he told me about his most horrifying moments as a teacher. Including a day when a female student tried to get out of class by claiming that her tampon was falling out. We only said good night when the cupcakes were but a distant memory, and all the dishes were clean and put away. (After all we can't have Scotty Boy knowing that his precious tots were eaten! Hehehehe!)

"Now you've got ta promise me that tomorrow when they test your powers ya show me what Tie Chi looks like in fast forward." He grinned at my exasperated sigh and continued. "They're going ta have ya fight someone anyway might as well be me!"

"Yah whatever." He rumbled and I smiled. "Night Logan."

"Night kid." I glanced at the clock again as we headed our separate ways 12:28am. And I still have to make my bed not to mention deal with the fact that my roommates scent drives me crazy. (Fanfucking-tastic.) I contemplated ways of dealing with my roommate problems on my trip back up the stairs, and was still at a loss for how to cope by the time I was standing in front of our room again. Maybe I could sleep in the hall. (Or you could grow the fuck up and make your bed.) I sucked in one last breath of roommate free air, then opened the door and walked in.

The glance at his bed confirmed that whoever he was would remain a mystery until morning with the blanket cocoon still in place. I tried to move as quickly as I could while unloading my bedding from the box I'd put them in, and got the bed made in record time. Though not fast enough to be done before mystery man's scent gave me a raging boner. (Just great.) And there was nothing to be done about it. I just knew the second I started to jack off my roommate would wake up and, according to my run of recent bad luck, turn out to be Mormon and deeply offended. Or worse he'd be strait and flattered but completely crush any hopes I currently have about going there. Sighing for probably the hundredth time today I pulled off my boots, sweater, and pants, before climbing into my new bed. Which was a considerable upgrade from my previous bed, though the general room temp had me moving my quilt down to the foot of the bed and debating a moment before taking off the t-shirt. The irony of the situation hit me then and I had a hard time not laughing out loud as I realized that I was about to spend the most uncomfortable night of my life, sleeping in the most comfortable bed I'd ever had the pleasure to curl up in.

As always constructive criticism is appreciated, please send questions, comments, or concerns to mrgood447 at Gmail. I'm happy that I am finally posting two chapters inside of the same month. But I refuse to make any more guarantees about future updates because life loves to shoot me in the foot. Not literally, though at this point it would not surprise me. So here is me, hoping that I don't drop off the face of the inter-web again. Mr Good