Hiya.  The following is a work of fan fiction for which I've 
borrowed Logan of the X-Men, who's the property of Marvel 
Comics.  I make no money from this.

Everything else in the story is mine.  Don't use without 
permission.  There is a Great and Terrible penalty for any who 
dare to do so.  What is it?  I dunno, but I've heard it involves 
Richard Simmons.

Not recommended for kids.  Violence and a bit of bad 
language.  (Yeah, like you don't get your fill of that from 
TV...)  I'm labeling this "R" because of the subject matter, 
though there's nothing explicit.

I was in a "mood" late at night, and so this little story came 
out.  It's probably the shortest Kai and Logan piece you'll ever 
see from me.  Anyway, this is depressing and not in the least 
vital to any other stories.  It's just a "day in the life" for the 
twosome.  If you were wondering why in "Kai & Logan & 
(ulp!) Me!" Kai mentioned that it was better to deal with the 
hooker Candy having a problem than JoJo, here's your answer.

Comments to Kaylee1109@aol.com.  Communication is our 
friend.  

"Kai and Logan: Some Can't Be Won"
by Kaylee (Kaylee1109@aol.com)

Night air from the open window cooled the sweat on their 
bodies.  She lay half on top of him, her head turned sideways 
against his muscled chest to listen to the steadying heartbeat.  
One of his arms was draped across her back, and the other 
hand was running through her damp hair with a slow, 
rhythmic motion.

The quiet of their breathing was disturbed by a shout from 
downstairs.  She raised her head, staring intently at the wall, 
and listened as he did.  Something crashed and 
broke...shattered like glass.

"JoJo," he said after a moment of listening.  "We'd better go 
check on her."

They slid from the bed and donned clothing with the speed of 
long practice, neither looking overly anxious at the sounds of a 
fight from below.  He reached the door first, she a step behind.  
Together, they took the stairs down and stopped in front of a 
closed door with peeling white paint and the designation "2B" 
stenciled in the original dark wood where there once had been 
imitation brass decals.  

Another crash from inside.  A woman screamed an obscenity.  
He closed his hand over the knob and started to turn it.  
Frowned and murmured, "Locked."

"She knows better than to lock the door when she brings a 
john home."

"Yep."  He stepped back, then rammed his shoulder against 
the door.  Poor-quality wood gave easily beneath his strength.  
The door slammed open and banged against the inside wall, 
bouncing off to swing back a little ways towards him.

But they were already through.  His dark eyes sized up the 
situation in a heartbeat, and then he was closing fingers on the 
throat of the heavyset blond man and wrenching him off of the 
half-naked hooker.  The man choked and tried to swing an 
uncoordinated punch.  He simply ducked his head to the side, 
then nailed his free hand, clenched into a tight fist, against the 
john's face with something near his full strength.  The man's 
head lolled back and he went limp in his grasp.

In the meantime, she knelt down by the sobbing, glaring 
hooker.  "JoJo...are you all right?"  The thin, dark-haired 
woman sat up stiffly and scrubbed at tears furiously.  Her eyes 
were red-rimmed and she had an ugly swelling already rising 
on her jaw.

"You shouldn't've done that, Logan," she ground out between 
gasps for breath.  Her eyes shot to the woman kneeling at her 
side.  "I didn't ask for your help."

Logan hadn't dropped the john.  He turned his head to look at 
JoJo, mouth set in a grim line.  "Looks like he was gonna hurt 
ya bad, Jo."

A gentle hand from the woman touched her chin to turn the 
swollen jaw into the light.  "He already caught you a good 
one."

The hooker slapped the hand away with a little cry.  "Leave 
me alone, Kai!  You don't understand!"  She scrambled to her 
knees, heedless of her near-nudity.  With a life spent giving 
her body for money, a little thing like nakedness meant 
nothing to her.  She scrambled across the floor and stood to 
pull the john away from Logan and ease him to rest against the 
wall.  Her words became soft croons.  She cradled the head of 
the man who had been hurting her against her slight chest, her 
hands tender on his face.  "You'd just better go," she said to 
them in an undertone.  "Leave us be."

Kai took a step forward, eyes showing her indecision.  "JoJo, 
he was _beating_ you."

"We had an argument.  He was angry.  He was just being a 
little rough."

"He's just another john, Jo."

Dark hair swung as the almost-pretty face shook from side to 
side.  "No.  No, he's my boyfriend.  He loves me...he really 
does.  He just has this temper..."

Kai's eyes narrowed.  She looked as if she was about to say 
something else, but Logan put a hand on her arm to silence 
her.  "We're right upstairs if ya need us, Jo," he said quietly.  
"All ya gotta do is give a holler, ya hear?"

JoJo nodded without looking up at them, her voice still 
lowered and murmuring to the unconscious man.  Logan drew 
Kai outside, shutting the door behind them.  Her face was very 
still, her eyes troubled.  His jaw was set and tight.  They didn't 
speak as they went upstairs and back into their apartment.  
Neither showed any desire for sleep again, so he went to the 
refrigerator and pulled out two beers, handing one to her 
where she sat on the couch and sitting down beside her in 
silence.

"Logan, it's wrong," she said eventually.  "Wrong."

"It's her choice, darlin'."  He looked as frustrated and furious 
about it as she.  "It's her life."

"It won't be for long, the way he was going at her."

>From downstairs, they heard the sound of sobbing.  A door 
slammed, then banged open again because of the broken latch.  
Footsteps headed out of the building, followed by the 
screamed words, "Don't you leave me!  Don't you fucking 
leave me!"  In the parking lot a motor roared to life, then tires 
screamed to mark his exit.

"That's her choice, too," he told her after a minute of listening 
to the broken wailing from down below.  "He'll calm down 
and come back, and she'll beg him to stay."

"And then he'll beat on her all over again."  She sighed and 
leaned her head against his shoulder.  "This is one we can't 
win, isn't it?"

"Only one person can win this."  Another crash from JoJo's 
apartment as she vented her frustration by breaking something 
she cared about.  "And she gave up the fight a long time ago."

They didn't sleep again that night.

--end-

Notes from Kaylee: Ugh.  I think I read too much on domestic 
violence before writing this.  But hey, people...it's out there.  
And it's ugly.  And the bad part is that you really can't do a 
hell of a lot about it if the person being abused is an adult and 
doesn't seek or accept help.  Would Logan and Kai have gone 
back later, found the guy, and smashed his teeth down through 
his throat?  Probably.<g>  But you're not gonna see that 
happen in "our" world too often, so I didn't show it here.

Kaylee