"Come on Rogue, just let go. Let me help you," Bobby's words were heated as they reached her ear, his breath fluttering on sensitised skin as her silk clad hand glided along his pulsing erection. Bobby was almost naked under her nylon-clad skin, the skin-tight suit
stretching as she bent over him struggling to ease his frustration and her own. Her body trying to use the memories she'd absorbed to reach the pinnacle she'd been after for nearly six months of frustration and near misses.
"Rogue!" Bobby's hands grasped her breasts, the fingers already cold turning into freezing points as he finally released between their bodies. The heat and smell of it a
total difference to Bobby's touch on her encased skin, it smelled of darkness, of warmth where as Bobby was about coldness, even now as he was pulsing in her palm she could feel the heat dripping out of her into his hands as his fingers swept across her goosing flesh. Keeping her own frustration quiet Rogue just slid down him, taking the only touch she could get from him without killing him. Her skin seemed to be more sensitive to cold, when she was cold she took more than usual from those who touched her, as if her body was trying to warm itself
by taking the minds of others.

Standing at the end of the bed looking at the pinked sculpted flesh under her gaze already falling asleep she knew it wasn't going to get any better than this. She didn't trust him enough to let go; she couldn't rely on him when he was lost in his own rush to get what he
wanted. He might have the responsibilities of an adult but in many ways, he was still a boy.
Moving quietly Rogue went to the bathroom, stripping the skin-tight bodysuit off her skin stepping under the shower washing away the frustration sweat that tickled her nose. Trying to ease the pressure herself and succeeding somewhat but the feeling was always empty,
half of what she could have and she knew it. The memories in her head told her so and it made her bitter against the efforts Bobby had made to make her comfortable, to let her relax with him.

She'd come a long way in the six months they'd been together, she let him touch her for one thing, his fingers would be covered with a thin layer of ice and he'd dance them across her bare skin. The danger of her touch would never fail to get him excited, he'd touch her until he couldn't wait any longer, the look in his blue eyes telling her it was time for her to dress and him to bare his skin. It was always the same; she'd end up covered his hands stroking her through the fabric
covering her, sometimes silk, but most times her nylon body suit. It gave her the most freedom, it gave them both the most opportunity to touch but as yet, she hadn't let Bobby explore her. She still held back, the confusion and fear of absorbing him riding high in her mind, she wanted to be relaxed with him but she couldn't. There was
something holding her back and until she could figure it out, she'd be stuck here doing the same thing. Stepping out of the shower she dressed back into her jeans, the familiar feel of the soft denim making her smile, throwing on her shirt she left her underwear behind
in Bobby's hamper along with the bodysuit. They'd get washed later tonight, she had some work to catch up on, shaking her hair out sweeping it up on top of her head with a practised twist. Pulling the small metal spike out of her jeans and skewering the knot in place, she left Bobby to dream the afternoon away.

The argument was in full swing when she arrived in the library, they didn't even notice she was there until it was too late. By then the damage had been done and she knew exactly what her boyfriend and teammates thought of her. Kitty spat out the truth tainting the air a deep crimson with it, making the world shift on its axis for a second before righting itself. "I'm telling you Jubilation Lee, Bobby told *me* he was coming. He's coming on Spring Break to Miami, sharing a room with Pete, Amanda, Stuart and me. Although I don't expect we'll be out of the room much, seeing as he's dumping her before we go." The silence that filled the air as she came out of her listening place made the tension between Scott and Logan look like a small disagreement between old friends. Slowly walking to her table, the books held in her hands as if it was nothing to do with her, that the
conversation she'd heard had been about someone else. Seating herself and flicking the text book open to the lesson she had to cover before the end of the week, she heard several people quietly slip away before raising her head to see Kitty giving her the evil eye. She didn't get upset she just smiled at her, it solved her problem when
she thought about it, just that it hurt like hell to learn about it this way. Her eyes watched Kitty walk away, her head held high and her steps light as she left the library by phasing through the wall.

Jubilee was still there, her eyes filled with unshed tears, wiping them away with the back of her hand she dropped herself into the seat opposite her own. Shutting Rogue's textbook with a quick snap making her look up into her red eyed gaze, "Come on we're going out, I can't
stand to be inside here with that bitch. Let's go max out a card."
Jubilee's answer to most of life's problems was shopping, to lose the emptiness you felt by filling it with stuff to occupy your mind while you felt like hell. Rogue never thought it worked but it kept Jubilee happy for a while until the next disaster. Giving up on the study Rogue looked at her friend, she dressed how she felt, colours that blinded the eye if you weren't careful but she really didn't feel like going shopping around a thousand other people. Shaking her head, she allowed herself one tear as the enormity of what had just occurred hit her, Bobby had been using her and in a way, she'd been using him too.
"Nah, you go do it for me. Ah'm not feelin upto seein' folks right now. Get me somethin colourful but not too much of a strain on the eye okay?" Jubilee nodded and gripped her covered wrist with her own small hands, the tears running again as she did it, the smile a
counterpoint to their traces down her skin.
"Hey at least now you'll be free to play the field, there's a couple of hot bods that've been asking about you. I'm sure we could find you a replacement in a couple of days, that is if you want one?" Rogue shook her head slowly, the smile slipping from her gaze but not from
her lips.
"Ah think ah'll keep to mahself for a while, ah have this to finish first," her hands brushed the college textbooks in front of her. "Ah was bein distracted anyway, not giving it all ah could. Now ah have the chance to get a better grade." Jubilee just nodded and squeezed her wrists with her own delicate fingers.
"I get it, you're not ready but Roguey babe, we both know the best way to get over a hurt is to get right back on the horse." Smiling at her friend Rogue shifted her arms away making Jubilee let go of her.
"Ah know, it was coming to an end anyway. Ah'd seen them together after missions, ah'm not stupid Jube's ah knew something like this was comin. He deserves better Jube's, just like ah do."
Jubilee sat back and saw the adult in her friend, she knew she'd be okay it was the loss of trust between her and Kitty that had hurt the most.
"Something bright but covering yeah?"
"Yeah you got it, go find me it, make me beautiful!" Rogue laughed as Jubilee sprang out of her seat, her hand saluting her friend in a military style. Putting on a serious face she saluted back, her voice deepening as she gave Jubilee her orders, "Go do recon, select the
perfect outfit, NOT yellow," Jubilee's face went to a smirk and pushed her tongue out quickly before Rogue continued. "An outfit to make the gods notice me again, something grown up but not slutty, something adult but not old." A dangerous thought drifted through her mind and Rogue smiled as she watched Jubilee react to it, "An if you can find it in leather, buy it."
"Leather?"
"Yup leather, suede as well if you can, its soft on mah skin."
Jubilee looked at her friend and quirked an eyebrow, a copy of Logan's own particular look crossed her small face as she questioned Rogue.
"You been near the Wolvester again? Absorbed him in training?"
"No why?"
"Just the leather thing Roguey that's all, it's something I'd expect from him. He never lets that old ratty leather out of his sight, I'm sure he's a bit too attached to it if you ask me." Her face made a suggestive wink and Rogue exploded with laughter, the sound ringing out in the quiet space of the library.
"No, you've got him ah'll wrong. It's just his oldest thing, holds memories Jubes, good ones." Seeing her understand she waved her closer until she was close enough to whisper to her. "Go to the store near that expensive jewellers, the one Scott got Jean's wedding ring
from. They had some nice suede stuff in there last time we were at the mall, something nice an `restrained' if you catch mah drift." She saw Jubilee running through the stores in her head and she locked
onto the one Rogue was talking about. They'd been in once and had run out just as quickly, they hadn't been ready for what had lain inside the doors but now Jubilee liked to have a rummage around for new ideas.

"You sure?" Rogue nodded a small flush coming to her face as she thought about what she could come back with.
"Remember though, nothing yellow or bright red, mah skin's too pale for those colours." Jubilee was bouncing away from her; her voice carrying over the shelves of books lined row upon row.
"Yeah, yeah, I know something autumn coloured I did do your colour chart if you remember." With that she was gone, going hunting in the world of the mall and Rogue settled back into her books. The world carried on even if you didn't want it to, being an adult meant you still did what you had to even when you don't want to.

Dinner came, there was a split in their usual table, Kitty and Bobby were doing a united front, while Jubilee was seated with the rest of them giving the pair of them daggers from across the table. When she'd joined them all she'd sat next to Bobby as usual, Jubilee almost spitting feathers as she ate her dinner until she'd just looked at Kitty and spoken to the entire table. "Kitty, you an Bobby
make a good pair. Almost as good as Scott an Jean, ah'm just sorry y'all didn't talk to me before today. Just because ah've got a temper don't mean ah'd hurt ya, just that it'd have been nice to be told before ah walked in on your plans for Spring Break." She then turned
to Bobby and fixed him with a hurt smile that turned everyone to her side in one simple movement. "Bobby ah know you didn't love me, hell all we had was a mad rush tryin' to beat the odds of mah skin. Ah'm dangerous an ah should've been thinkin instead of just lettin mah
hormones get the best of me. Ah could've killed you Bobby and people need you out there, Kitty needs you, she's always wanted you an now she has you. Ah wish you both well cos life's too short to hold a grudge." Jubilee snorted at that comment and a whisper was heard
going around the table, `you could if you were Logan'. Smiling at the comment Rogue just hung her head for a second before lifting her eyes to everyone sat around the table, "Yeah your right but ah'm not him an ah don't have the time." Finishing her speech she picked up her empty tray and walked away from the table, the heat of unshed tears prickling her eyes.

Not seeing the lounging figure seated in the corner, his gaze centred on the table she'd just come from and the looks of shame that filled the faces there. The figure watching her walking away back straight and head held high, even though she was falling apart inside, pride
keeping her up when she wanted to crumble. Smiling to himself as he looked over to the two new lovebirds holding hands, the closeness making his own thoughts run along different lines. Listening and watching the group quietly from his hidden corner, only moving when Jubilee left the table, he had some catching up to do.

The boxes were on her bed along with her underwear from earlier in the day, Bobby had dropped them off in her room. Taking the soiled things she threw them straight in the trash she wasn't going to wear them again, not ever. That part of her life was over, Bobby was over and she wasn't going to associate herself with that nylon bodysuit
any more, if someone wanted to touch her she'd be the bare one from now on. She deserved someone who'd understand the danger and still want to touch her because of who she was not because the touch itself was an aphrodisiac to them. Smiling she touched the smallest box laid on her bed, curious she lifted the lid, a deep burgundy silk shone out against the pale tissue of the box. Lifting the entire thing out a set of pyjama's revealed themselves to her gaze, perfect in shape and form, shedding her shirt she pulled the cool silk over her skin.
The colour matched her skin, making the deep colour seem darker and her skin more delicate, leaving the sides open walking to the mirror in her room and seeing herself revealed in it. Her breasts were surrounded by the dark material making her look older, stronger, more herself shifting the fabric over her body and watching her reaction flush across her skin. That something so simple could cause her frustration to peak again, the hunger never satisfied because she'd never have someone who'd dare to be with her in that way. Besides she could never live with the guilt if she hurt someone, she knew that
and quickly drew the sides shut looking at the top now as something to sleep in. It covered her arms down to her palms, neatly and shapely, Jubilee had outdone herself there was definitely something to be said about having your own personal shopper.

Turning to the other boxes, she lost herself in the exploration of the rest of them, leaving the largest for the last, knowing exactly where it had come from.
A rainbow of autumn colour was on the bed, from burnt oranges to vivid blue's, scarves, gloves, shirts in cotton, silk, lycra. A couple of pairs of sheer patterned leggings that would leave nothing to the imagination when she wore them under a skirt. Touching the box lid Rogue took a breath before opening the lid, inside was something
Jubilee had bought for her, for the Rogue she knew. Inside the tissue were three items, shaking a little she lifted the first one, A bustier made of a deep green coloured suede, the straps at the back were adjustable so it would grow as she did. It swept upward over the
shoulders lined with silk and boned it would make her look wonderful, dropping it on the bed her hands went to the next item. Bigger than the last the item unfolded, revealing them to be tooled leather, thin dark brown leather, again lined with silk. Thin but tough the pattern
on the legs a tribal design chasing down the sides of the legs, knowing when she put them on the pattern would shift and move with her. The pattern even went over the seat, there were no pockets in these trousers, everything about them was made to be `second skin' and Rogue smiled when she thought about Jubilee buying these for her.
The last item was under the rest and it took a while to uncover but when she did the sight of it made her wish Jubilee was here so she could hug her. The coat was perfect, deep brown leather, long, supple but feminine, the coat could be worn as a dress if you tied it right
or as a coat to cover other things. The back was boned like the bustier giving support and shape to the wearer, there was even some leather food packed inside the box and a care leaflet. Taking new hangers Rogue shook out the new additions to her wardrobe and fitted them inside, a new leaf had turned; she wouldn't hide what she was
anymore. She was dangerous, her skin could kill but it didn't mean she wasn't capable of feeling another's touch, when she'd packed everything away and tidied the boxes Rogue went to find Jubilee. She owed her a beer and she'd drive, hell she might even wear her new stuff tonight, the thought riding high in her mind she went to find her.

Jubilee was sat in the kitchen, her face down in a bucket of ice cream; she looked up at the sound of her footsteps and whooshed out a sigh of relief. "Glad it's you, I don't think I could go through another question and answer session like that one again." Rogue was about to ask when Jubilee just grabbed her arm as she got up from the table, "Come on we're blowing this popsicle stand for a while and you're buying." Realising her friend had the same idea as she had Rogue just let herself be led back upstairs, they'd be going out tonight and god help any man who came near.

They'd been at Rosie's for about an hour when Jubilee finally told her who'd she'd been talking to in the kitchen, "Rogue you'd better warn Bobby when we get back, he's in for a rough time of it."
"Why?"
"I've just had the pleasure of a conversation with our resident terror, Logan. He wanted the skinny on you and Bobby, he didn't look happy when I told him about this afternoon." Rogue didn't understand this; Logan had been her friend ever since he'd brought her here. He'd tried to be there for her but his own life had made their
friendship a little distant but she knew she could always talk to him if she needed to but him actually asking someone else about her? That didn't look good, usually he went straight to the horses mouth if he wanted to know something about her, she did about him.
"What did he ask you?" Jubilee picked the label on her beer, the almost distracted look on her face not fooling her friend who knew she'd told him something she shouldn't have. "JUBE'S! What did you tell him?" Her gaze shot back upto her friends face, the look of guilt running through her as she answered.
"He asked me if Bobby had taken you yet." The look of shock in her gaze must have spoken for her because Jubilee began to fill the silence building between them. "I didn't tell him anything, I avoided the question, you know side stepped it but he just kept badgering me. Asking me if Bobby hurt you, if that was the reason Bobby had split up with you because he hadn't yet." Seeing Rogues eyes fill with a kind of anger that she hadn't seen since someone had called Logan an
animal in front of her Jubilee tried to make things better. "He pulled his claws on me Rogue." The words snapped her back to the now, Logan her protector, her saviour had pulled his claws on her best friend, her face went serious as she realised how scared Jubilee had been.
"Did he threaten you?" Her tone was even but the implied threat was heavy in the air, if he had she'd be seeing him herself and he'd regret seeing her.
"Not really…"
"Did he or didn't he? Jube's tell me the truth!"
"He said if I didn't tell him he'd shred my wardrobe while I was wearing it." A coldness slid over Rogue, Logan had threatened her to find out something he could've asked her about if he'd wanted to. "Rogue he didn't mean to scare me he just wanted to know what was
going on with you." Rogues attention rested on her friend, even now Jubilee was trying to defend him, knowing that if she was there was more to this than she knew about. Grabbing her hand she pulled her arm over the table so her bare skin was visible, "Jube's you tell me
exactly what he asked you and what you told him right now or ah swear ah'll touch you." The threat was empty and they both knew it but it drove home her need to understand and know what the two people who meant the most to her were doing talking about her instead of asking
her what was wrong.
"Okay."

Jubes outlined what she'd spent nearly an hour trying to avoid saying to Logan that her relationship with Bobby hadn't been what she'd thought it would be. That he'd been selfish a boy instead of a man, putting his own needs first instead of hers. Using her as an aphrodisiac, he'd get his pleasure with her as much as he could then
he'd find Kitty and fuck her into the floor. Telling him of her frustration, the six months of trying to trust him, not knowing Bobby had stopped trying three months into their relationship. Rogue just sat there, Jubilee had told him everything she knew, even if she'd guessed Bobby was cheating on her, hearing it confirmed from her
friends mouth made it sting all the more. Squashing the hurt down she looked at Jubilee, her fear shining out of her gaze.
"Rogue I'm…." she held a hand up and Jubilee stopped. The silence filled the space and Jubilee shifted in her seat about to leave when Rogue grabbed her.
"Where you goin?" Jubilee looked at her friends gloved grip on her arm before looking at her face.
"Thought you might want me to leave." Rogue shook her head a sad smile on her face as she guided her back into her seat.
"Why would you think that, you were honest with me Jube's, it hurts but at least you didn't lie to me. You were cornered by the resident bad ass and if he was in a bad mood he'd have done what he'd said Jubes, ah know he would." Jubilee was about to say something in the
negative until Rogue tapped the side of her skull, "Where do you think ah get mah temper from, ah wasn't always such a bitch ya know."
Jubilee clutched her hands in her own and the moment passed, dressed in her new trousers and coat Rogue steeled her heart. Time she told someone to keep his nose out of her business; she did out of his life, never asking for more than she knew he was willing to give her.
Well she wasn't in need of rescuing anymore she'd do this on her own and he had no right to force someone else to tell him what he should have asked her in the first place.
"Come on Jube's lets go home,
ah've had enough today. Ah just want to go to bed and wake up to a different tomorrow." Smiling Jubes went to pay their tab leaving Rogue wondering how she'd tackle Logan when she saw him not realising he was waiting for her back home.


She was beat; Jubilee had left her to find her own way to bed the rest of the mansion was quiet and all she was hoping for was some downtime alone, unfortunately that wasn't going to happen. Opening her door she almost walked into Logan's chest, he'd been reaching for the door handle when she'd opened it on him. She nearly got out `What the hell…' before he shut the door on her and locked it; her anger peaked when she heard it ready to speak when Logan just pushed her against the closed door. He was flush against her so she could feel every piece of him, her hands had gone up toward his chest trying to
give herself some room but he gave her none. Her brain was all over the place, what was he doing, what did he want from her, he'd been distant for a while and now he was here in her room trying to fix something he had no idea about. "Logan, get…" she had no time to finish the sentence as something warm and soft met her lips.

She froze as her brain finally kicked in and told her what was happening Logan was kissing her. Logan, her friend, her protector, her once saviour was kissing her, the silk slide of his lips against hers made thought almost impossible as her body reacted to the stimulus. Grabbing hold of his shoulders and keeping him close to
her, feeling his hands slide down the coat she was wearing to her hips. Lifting her a little so he could slide himself against her, her thigh brushing against his groin, making him rumble with her touch.
His own weight and muscle grinding into the apex of her thighs making her slide against him with the feelings that were building in her, the frustration of months boiling over inside. She knew how Logan did things, he took what he wanted when he wanted and at the moment, he
wanted her. It wasn't perfect and it certainly wouldn't be permanent but it was all she had and she'd take it as far as she could without dropping the ball. Feeling her relax into him Logan pulled back from her, letting her see him in the light of her room, there was a sheen to his skin, reaching up a gloved hand she slid a finger along his cheek. An oily substance was adhered to the thin leather of her glove, unscented but definitely a barrier, catching the smile on his face Rogue shed her gloves. Reaching out a shaking finger she drew the bare skin along his stubbled cheek, the glide of the substance
didn't retard heat or feeling just her mutation, the wonder of it made her still in his embrace her gaze questioning. One heated word whispered into her ear solved the question, "Hank," the large blue doctor had a supply of barrier creams and oils he kept for emergencies, Rogue wasn't the only student here with skin issues.

Logan had raided Hank's supplies, a thought about how far Logan covered himself with it crossed her eyes, as if he'd heard her he moved back so her hand could drop down his skin. Knowing she was lost in the touch of her own skin on someone else's, keeping up the pressure on her hips with his own as she slid her fingers down his
neck. Watching him shift the corded muscle as he bent his head away so she could touch more of his sun darkened skin, the feeling of his blood racing under her pads exciting her more than the constant grinding at her sex. She could feel herself tightening inside, her breath coming in short deep gulps, her other hand still gripping his shoulder with covered fingers, her slight glance toward them enough of a message for Logan to react to. Snatching her hand with his own he tore the glove away, revealing her pale skin and bringing the pale digits to his mouth.
The feel of his tongue on her skin was enough to coalesce the nebulous twitching in her groin, making it spike as her naked fingers gripped the back of his thick neck, her mouth tripping over words she had no knowledge of as they fell from her lips. Her brain focussed entirely on the feelings Logan was creating with his mouth on her
fingers, just how he was able to do it eluded her but she knew Hank had once told her about the different types of skin, about how her internal passages were different. All that mattered right now was that they didn't stop what they were doing, tightening herself on the strong muscle lodged at her centre as the wave broke over her, seeing
Logan's nostrils widen as he caught her scent change. His eyes darken with something she'd seen before, only glimpsed in memory but here with her causing her a little frisson of fear to colour her scent.

Logan rumbling, as he smelled her fear mixed in with the release of her endorphins, her skin flushed pink as Logan shifted her again. Never letting her get far from his grip or his weight on her, the sound of metal unsheathing brought her home a little but not enough to figure out what he was doing until it was too late. The sudden
feeling of air on her sensitive core was replaced by oiled fingers as they widened the tear he'd made with his blades, slipping two fingers deep inside her, the muscle fighting to relax. The intrusion making her body spike with pleasure again as it hungered for the touch to
continue, to ease the ache that never left her.

Her own hands were locked around his neck and in his mouth, pulling the still warm fingers from his mouth he dragged them down his body slowly as he shifted his own fingers inside her. Letting her feel all the textures as her fingers passed them, rubbing them against his groin, letting her feel the pulse of him under her fingertips, the soft denim almost like silk to her. Releasing her hand as he began to unbutton the denim under her fingers, she was still stroking the hardness under them, each pulse of blood read by her. Unnerved she didn't want to touch him, what if she hurt him? What if he hadn't covered himself properly, the thoughts were lost as Logan took her soft hand and wrapped her around him. The heat from him almost burned her, the growl nearly deafening as he moved her hand along the slicked length, dropping her gaze she saw her hand wrapped around him. The possessive hunger it brought to the surface of her obvious to her subconscious as to where it had come from, it was Logan's.
The sight so completely different to the times she'd held Bobby like this, Logan's heat was burning her palm, even the tight dark curls at the base of him were glistening. He'd covered every inch of himself with this stuff, just so he could touch her, so he could do this. Her heart flared as she let the feelings flow through her, bringing her own store of Logan toward the surface of her mind.

Tightening her grip on him made Logan force her head to look at him, releasing her hand from his own he grabbed her hair and pulled her to him. Digging his own fingers deep inside her, pulling and pushing the sensitive flesh until the feelings were drowning her, his lips and tongue not giving her chance to speak or breathe. Finally, when Logan pulled his head away, she felt him grip her hips tight moving her as he slid into her shifting her hips wider as he began to move. Lifting her legs to wrap around him feeling him go deeper, her naked hands lost in his scalp, taking handfuls of hair and gripping tight
as he fucked her. The door rattling in the frame with each thrust into her body, breaking her open, breaking her in like a horse, the sides of her quivering vagina clenching and gripping the intrusion taking as much pleasure from him as she could. She was backed against
the solid door, the unrelenting force Logan was pushing into her wasn't like anything she'd imagined or experienced in memory. He was almost brutal with her, breath heavy and laboured, eyes almost black, teeth clenched, his hands digging deep into her hips knowing she'd have bruises tomorrow all over her back and hips, some with his fingerprints in them. Somewhere inside her mind, she knew who was in charge, it wasn't her and it wasn't Logan, it was Wolverine. The thought of him taking her made her resolve crumble a little but the sensations were drowning out her mind.

Yet, all the while the hunger screamed at her, the need overpowered her sense of thought, of propriety, her needs were being met and she could trust him. She didn't care if it lasted one night or for the rest of her life, all that mattered was the now, feeling his jaw clench a little harder as her body began to shudder. Her clit over
stimulated; the nerves began to pulse in unison with his thrusts into her body, the faster he went the higher she went until there was nowhere left to go but down. She ached with it, her nerves screaming out, there was nothing to focus on, nothing to release the pleasure
through. Her gaze met the darkness lodged in Logan's own, the bared teeth and hunger in him reflected in her own state, needing a release he gave her one. Diving at her covered shoulder, he bit her, hard.
The stimulus enough to break through the feedback in her body, gripping his body tight with her thighs until she thought she'd break him. Her fingers digging into his scalp keeping him there as he nailed her to the door, the joints beginning to creak as he finally came inside her, the deep pulsing setting her own aftershocks going.
She was too tired to care then; her body had had enough, the touch, the bite, the sheer force of him overpowering her mind and senses. Sensation was beginning to be painful to her and she tried to move away from his body but he held her still, pressing against her and holding her thighs with his hands. The deep rumble that left his
still clenched teeth, her flesh still held in his grip of his feral teeth recognisable as a word to her mind, `Mine', a smile dropping over her face before darkness and relief took over. Blotting out the world in a darkness where the quiet inside her body lulled her to
sleep, the hunger finally filled, the need sated.

When she passed out on him he'd wondered about leaving her alone, waking up by herself then he'd remembered the last time he'd left her when she'd needed him. No he'd wait for her to wake up and then he'd set things straight, settling back on his side of her bed he waited
for her to come back to herself. He'd expected her to do this, after having no touch for so long any touch would over stimulate her eventually, smiling to himself he waited for her.

Rogue ached, there was a sticky feeling that was oddly familiar but it wasn't the same as usual, the cramp wasn't the same. Her period ached where this was a faint pleasurable throb, then everything hit her at once, Logan, the door, her trousers. Sitting bolt upright she
reached over to her lamp for it to switch on by itself, Logan was sat there in her chair, half-naked his skin still glistening with whatever it was he'd put on himself. Just seeing him sat there made her body ache, reminding her of a predator just waiting for lunch to
walk by, his jeans were still open and he noticed her glance at the open buttons. Cocking his head to one side he smiled at her, the darkness in his gaze deepening a little as he spoke to her, "Still hungry?" Rogue didn't know how to answer, things had just taken a very odd turn for her in their relationship and she needed to know
what was going on. Logan got up so her head was now at his groin level taking her chin in his hand he lifted her head so she could see his face. Her own skin betraying her as she coloured pink at his suggestion, moving her backward onto the bed again, covering her with
his own bare skin. "I asked you a question," the tone filled with something like possession, expecting her to answer him. As she moved the muscles of her back protested, the pain becoming recognisable now, her shoulders hurt where he'd hammered her to the door, dropping back onto the soft surface of her bed she let him rest over her. His fingers traced over her face, the rough skin on his hands lighting up trails over her, closing her eyes for a second to concentrate on them, their thick strength as they traced over her soft lips. Her tongue flashing out to taste the skin that was touching her own, the tang of the oil burning her tongue a little, the pain worth the light she put in Logan's eye. His purr rumbling over her enough to make her
body quiver again, her voice found as he moved down to her lips again.
"Why now?" He didn't stop moving, he just licked the side of her mouth with his tongue, making her heart speed, the look in his gaze telling her why, she belonged to him, had done since he picked her up. She still needed to hear it and tried to push him back a little, the darkness grew in his gaze and he bared his teeth as he held her
flat to the bed, suddenly all business and seriousness.
"You're mine, that's all there is to it. No matter where you are or who you're with, You're Mine. Never forget that Marie."
The tone was all Logan, to prove his point he pressed her down into the bed with his groin, already hard and aching to enter her again, she couldn't help but react to him. Her hips moving with his, her breasts meeting his chest and a sigh out of her throat, a dark smile covering his
lips adding, "See you know it too." Kissing her hard and rubbing himself along her until she was covered by the mixture of the oil and his scent, her body humming with need again. Her hands on his back, clawing his skin as she fought for purchase on him as he shifted along her body.

Suddenly he was up and off her, pulling himself straight and leaving her room, the only thing marring his exit was the door that didn't close properly anymore. Leaving her flushed and gasping on the mess of her bed, the knock going unnoticed until Jubilee poked her head inside and saw her friend in a state, "I was just going to have a
raid on the fridge, do you …Jeez Rogue you okay?" Blinking at her friend Rogue just shook her head as the first tear dropped out of her, things had happened and she didn't know what to do about it.
Jubilee just ran over and hugged her as she protected herself against Rogues skin with a shirt she picked off the floor. Only when she'd been holding her for a while did Jubilee notice it wasn't one of Rogue's, the red check that was glaring at her could only be one person they both knew. Curling up behind Rogue as she laid down to sleep, Jubilee hoped tomorrow would be a better day for all of them.

It was in the shower that the damage of the night before became obvious, the mirror across from the shower showed the marks Logan had left on her skin. Their darkness making Rogue remember the depths of Logan's eyes when he'd told her she was his, the pleasure she'd taken
from him when he'd said it. When he'd first brought her here she'd been filled with memories from him; the rescue on Lady Liberty had left her with some permanent additions to her own mind, his temper being one of them. Yet she'd never gone looking inside the pain
wracked ball of emotions he'd left her with, Xavier had told her it'd be easier to just let them fade into the background, she had only now she wished she hadn't. There were times she could just look across the room and know what he was feeling or what he was about to do, as
if she was there inside his head. As if her subconscious had integrated him into her psyche without too much of a problem, she knew he'd be looking for her today probably to finish what he'd started last night. He wasn't someone who left things half finished and neither was she, the idea of being owned was at one point something she wanted and yet parts of her fought against it. She was herself first, she might have several other personalities fighting in her head at times but she owned the body they were in. Hers was the core personality they drifted around like clouds around a mountaintop, she was the solid force in her own mind and she wanted to find out about someone she'd absorbed. Asking him face to face
would get her nowhere, she knew that he'd just avoid the question and do what he liked, he was strong enough the bruises on her skin were testament to that.

Rogue felt the memory of his words surface, he'd called her Marie, she hadn't even thought of herself as Marie for nearly three years now but he still must do. Shutting off the warm water Rogue towelled herself down before picking out a decent covering outfit, flicking her small mobile open she dialled Jube's number. The plan already
forming in her mind as Jube's answered, "Hey Jube's you know that clinic in the Mall, the stop smoking guy? Is he still there?" The smile that accompanied Jubilee's answer lit the mirror reflection, Jubilee was asking her why and Rogue decided to let her in on her plan. "Just going to see someone and ah don't want someone watching me as ah do it. Too many nosy telepath's round here for me to do what ah want here, so you up for a trip to the Mall?" She knew Jubilee's answer she was born for the Mall and any trip wasn't perfect unless one of the Malls were included in it.

Rogue outlined her plan as they drove to the Mall, the way she figured it she'd have to go back to the event itself and reopen the memory something she knew a decent medical hypnotist could do. There were risks, she might let someone else out of their box in her head and the last thing she needed was Magneto running around her mind
causing havoc. So she was going to concentrate on the first few moments of her coming round on top of Lady Liberty, the point where she was a mixture of both her and Logan. Every plan had its dangers and this one was no different, except here the danger was only to her sanity.

The room was quiet, soft-calming music was playing and the room was semi-lit, Jubes was holding her hand as she closed her eyes and listened to the voice telling her to relax, to go back into her mind. To look at the memory like a picture in her head, a part of it but yet separate from it, calm and relaxed. The mental exercises Xavier
had given her came in useful here as Rogue felt herself drifting away into the memory. She was in control here and able to look outside of herself as Logan held onto her, seeing the blood running from the wounds all over him. The terrible damage he'd sustained fighting
Sabretooth, the slashes across his stomach revealing his internal organs, the marks across his face deep and down to the steel covered bone. Seeing him holding onto her in desperation, the look of pain in his eye before the connection opened and he rushed into her mind, feeding her with his life, his very essence. Now she let her self
feel what she was gaining from him, the power of it hit her, a mixture of relief and need wrapped up around something else. Hanging on to the feelings as they opened up inside her mind, letting the image go as the feelings widened out inside her, seeing the patterns, the images that had been in Logan's mind as he'd held onto her.

Her stood in the snow, her duffel at her feet, the spike of hatred he'd felt as he'd left her behind on the road knowing she'd be dead in an hour. The next, her in his cab sat next to him, the scent of her filling him with something like hunger but his mind pushing the desire away telling him she was too pure for him, too good for him.
Next was her on his claws, the depth of his disgust as he'd hurt her, she'd only come to help him again and he'd repaid her by hurting her, nearly killing her. The pain in his gaze too much for her to understand, it paled against the dreams of torture she'd shared with him, the hurt here was sharper, harder, honed to a point. His
inability to save her when Magneto came for her was next, the rage he'd felt at being so stupid, so foolish as to think it had been him Magneto had wanted, that he could've picked him up on the fight circuit without a problem. No, it had been Marie he'd wanted from the
start and he'd led them to her knowing Magneto could feel him as he moved across the country, the taint of metal in him a unique signature.

All of this was in his head when he'd held her, willing her to live to forgive him for letting her be taken away from him, when he wanted her so much but knew she'd never be his. She was too good for him, pure, not for the likes of him, not for a killer like him, an animal who deserved nothing pure or good in his life, she was beyond his
touch and he'd give everything he was to make sure she survived. It had been his fault she'd been caught in the first place, if he hadn't stabbed her she'd have stayed put, been safe, protected by the school. When he'd been fighting Sabretooth the image in his head had been all her, stood in a red dress, surrounded by creatures in the
darkness at her feet, hands like Sabretooth's had reached out to her shredding the dress, making her scream. The laughter ringing in his head spurring him to win at any cost, knowing what would happen to her if Sabretooth got hold of her body, knowing it was the same as he'd once thought and crushed down. Just the thought of Sabretooth's
hands on her covered skin made him angry past any logical thought and uncovered the animal underneath his mind.

Wolverine burst through her memory, the power in him, in the movements and thoughts echoing through her body making her twitch in Jubilee's grip, the one word repeated over and over in Wolverines head focussing him on Sabretooth. `MINE', Wolverine had laid his claim on her, when Logan had promised to take care of her on the
train, Wolverine had claimed her as his own. She'd given her assent for him to hold her, to touch her, to comfort her and he'd taken that as her agreement. From that moment onward she was his and he'd die to
keep her.
The touch Logan had given her was now brought into focus, seen
through three sets of eyes, her own, Logan's and Wolverine's. Seeing
Logan pull off the glove of his suit and hold it to her skin, his
thoughts all about how he'd failed her, not been enough to keep her alive, his uselessness and worthless promise he'd made to her.

Wolverine screaming in rage at losing the one thing he'd hoped for, the one mate he'd been given only to have it ripped away from him by something he hadn't had the power to destroy. Blaming the man for his lack of strength and power, loading on the pain, the guilt all on him, until the pull started. The small pull turning into a river as
Wolverine pushed everything he was into her, his strength, his will, his power into her body, making her come back, willing her to live even if he died doing it. The whispered half remembered prayer that flowed with it a fragment from Logan's mind as he gave her everything
he was, let it go freely without regret, she would live that's all that mattered to him. His *mate* would live. She would live. An image of her smiling sat next to him in the truck was the last thing on his mind and the feeling that went with it was nothing like brotherly, he
wanted her, loved her and he'd die for a smile from her heart.

Her eyes opened and she saw Jubilee looking concerned at her, "If that's you in there, let me know if I can have your cd player." Rogue quirked an eyebrow and saw Jubilee stiffen as the thought of losing her friend went through her head, stopping Jubilee with her other hand against her mouth.
"Why so you can just play that god awful stuff y'all call music? Jubilation Lee ah'd rather drop it in the lake before ah gave you mah baby." A bright smile erupted over Jubilee as she gripped her friends hand tight.
"Nice to have you back chica, thought I'd lost you there for a moment. Everything okay in there?" Her eyes looked worried but Rogue knew she'd have to go and talk to Xavier about this today the way her mind had just absorbed all of this without damage had confused her.
That her subconscious had dealt with the intrusion by absorbing it all, making sense of some of her reactions over the past few months. Smiling at Jubilee Rogue got up out of the comfortable couch she'd been laid on, "Yeah Jube's ah'm fine." What she didn't say was there in her gaze and Jubilee knew better than to ask her about it now.

After paying the man, they both wandered around the stores for a while until Rogue had had enough of the crowds and the annoying laughter of the mall rats. On the drive home she was silent as she picked through the extra pieces that had been revealed to her, the traces of behaviour she'd only noticed now she had the clue to them.
When she'd been with Bobby at the foosball table, the look as Logan had gone out of the door, she'd caught the end of it and seen only what she'd thought was loneliness.
Now she knew different, he'd left because of Wolverine, he'd left because of her, because Wolverine wanted her. The man was torn between finding out the truth about him and the future he had at the mansion, Jean or no Jean, he might flirt with Jean but he wanted to *own* her. An when Wolverine wanted something he took it, it was the only way to survive in the world he lived in.
It made an odd sort of sense to her now, the way he'd asked Jubilee about her relationship with Bobby, he was scared about her rejecting him, about him losing her again. So he'd let Wolverine do it his way, take her and show her how much he wanted her, that no matter who she
was with he'd always be there. Just the memory of his skin on her own, the scent of his breath on her made her flush with heat, Jubilee noticed and pulled the car over to the side of the road.
"Okay I know you didn't want to tell me with all the ears of the world listening but we're alone now Chica and I'm not moving this car until you spill some of what's going round your head. I can see it and I don't like it when you keep things bottled up, you tend to explode at the wrong moment." The quirky smile she gave her friend was ironic, she knew without a doubt who that odd little quirk had come from now, Logan.
She'd always been a firecracker when she'd been younger but nothing to the explosions she did now, taking a breath, she turned in her seat to face her friend.
"Ahlright, what do you want to know?" Jubilee gave it some thought before talking.
"What did Logan do to you last night? When I saw you on the bed there I thought he'd `hurt' you." Rogue knew what she was asking and she wasn't about to lie to her to protect him, she was concerned about her and at the moment she was the one person she could rely on.
"He didn't `hurt' me Jubes but he did `take' what he thought belonged to him, he even called me `Marie' Jubes, he still sees me as Marie, not Rogue." Jubilee's hands dropped off the wheel and she just looked through her friend.
"You mean he…" Rogue could see her friend winding herself up, if she let her get the wrong impression here one of them was going to end up in the infirmary and it wouldn't be Logan.
"Jubes, it's not how you think. Do you really think ah'dve let him touch me like that if there wasn't a part of me that had wanted him to?" Rogue could see her friend working it out, hoping she'd understand what she was trying to tell her, that on one level she'd wanted him to touch her, to take her, to make her his. She'd known
about it all along inside her head and it was making her wonder if that was the reason she hadn't had the courage to sleep with Bobby.
She'd needed to trust him but she couldn't, he wasn't the right person and now she needed to know if it was her decision or if it had been the part of Wolverine and Logan she'd taken inside her mind. "It's difficult Jube's ah need to know just who was in charge up there last night, whether it was something ah wanted or was it
something ah picked up from him. It's going to be hard enough explaining this to Xavier without you getting all over my case as well, hell Jubes ah thought you'd be happy for me. Ah got what ah wanted, what ah've been bitching about for the last six months, just it was with someone else, someone who ah know loves me more than
Bobby ever did. Ah just don't know what comes next Jubes, if this gets out he'll be for the high jump, X-Man or no. Scott'll try to kill him and Jean; gawd knows what she'll do to him but when this blows up it'll change things Jubes. Wolverine ain't known for keepin' things quiet you know that an Bobby better watch himself too."

The same thought went through them at the same time, it was Thursday, that meant danger room practice and the rota was on the wall, they did a session with an alpha team member every week. This week it was Logan, he had the whole day to run the rest of them ragged and Bobby
was on this weeks list. Jubilee threw her seatbelt on and checked the rear-view mirror before speeding back onto the road, both of them willing the car to go faster. Knowing that if they didn't get back in time Bobby was as good as dead.

The scene that met their eyes was one they thought would never happen, the kids were streaming from the front doors, knapsacks in hand and all deathly quiet. Jean was hoarding them onto a bus while Storm was already seated inside behind the wheel, Seeing the two of them Jean sent a thought their way, `Danger room, both of you now!
Get suited up and move!' the final child on board they pulled out and away from the school, Jubilee turned to her and they both heard the sound of things breaking inside. "Let's hope that's not Bobby's head."

Inside Rogue was in turmoil, had she caused this? Had she let Wolverine out by her allowing him to touch her? They both moved quickly, getting to the secondary changing room and pulling on the leather armour they wore everyday in training. Although by the sounds of it this was no training exercise, this was for real. The scent of the leather reminding her of the trousers Logan had ruined, looking over to Jubilee and seeing her ready to go both of them wearing their game faces they went to find the source of the disturbance.

They were halfway to the danger room when the doors exploded outward, Hank had been propelled bodily through their closed surfaces, his large frame showing signs of injury, claw marks, ones that rang huge bells in Rogue's head. A dirty scent of sewer water and uncleaned cage met her nose, listening to the growls and smashing sounds that
were coming from the danger room and seeing several bodies in leather trying to subdue something that was almost out of the doors. The colour of ripe wheat caught her eye; deep growls she knew from personal experience, then the roar that met her ears as the bodies covering it were flung aside. Sabretooth was inside the mansion and
he looked pissed, without even breaking stride Rogue grabbed Jubilee and ran in the opposite direction. Hearing the roar coming from Sabretooth's throat her fears were confirmed, he was back for her and nothing would keep him from getting her this time. Running back the way they came Rogue shouted to Jubilee as they ran, "Find Logan! If he knew he was here he'd have killed the fucker by now, tell them to leave him alone, it's me he's after so let him come after me. Ah'm not
the same little girl he remembers Jubes, just go and find Logan he's got to be somewhere round here!" Jubilee peeled off from her friend as they both cleared the outer doors of the mansion; Rogue could hear Sabretooth's feet pounding on the wooden floors as he followed her.

Looking at the forest ahead of her across the lawn Rogue took off, the ground flying under her feet grateful for once for the training runs she'd had to endure over the last two years of her life. She knew these woods like the back of her hands and she knew where the dangers were, hopefully she could lead Sabretooth through a few
before he got wise to her. That hopefully would buy her some time, powering away from the school Rogue missed the sight of Logan's bike passing the school bus on the
road, visible from the steps of the school. The way it slowed to an almost crawl then powered away like all the devils of hell were behind him, the grim determination on his face was nothing to the visions Jean was trying to keep out of her head as she helped get the children to safety.

The bike shifted through gears faster than it ever had done, the gates were broken open by his passage through them, scenting the chase he just turned the bike toward it, carving a strip across the green velvet. Releasing the bike when he could no longer follow on it into the trees, his blades snapping free as he vaulted from the seat, a feral snarl on his face as he went after his enemy. Hearing the footsteps of others behind him, he wanted to stop and tell them to go
back but he didn't have the time, he had to find her before Sabretooth caught her. This time he'd kill him, make sure he was dead, decapitate him and bury him deep, drain the body dry then burn it in the open air, burying the ashes afterward. Racing through the forest he caught Marie's scent, her sweat, her fear, adrenaline
pumping through her system filling the air with a scent trail wide enough for anyone to follow never mind Sabretooth. In the distance he caught sight of Sabretooth's back as he went over a ridge, knowing at
last where she was taking them both, the river. There were hiding places down there, some shelters and rock caves, if she was smart and calmed down enough, she could lose him there. Striking out on a different route he headed directly for the river, if she took the way
he was thinking she'd come out near the rock formation, when she got there he'd be waiting for them both. The darkness slipped from his eyes and into the forest around him, birds scattered, small animals fled at his approach sensing the death that was passing through their small lives.

Stitch, she had stitch! Of all the times to get winded she really didn't need this now, Sabretooth had had a hard time with the bog back there, she knew the route and had almost sunk twice herself but judging by the angry sounds behind her ol' Sab's had gone down few times. The last ridge was ahead of her then she'd be at the river,
getting across without drowning was another matter right now but she had at least ten minutes head start on Sabretooth if that last roar was anything to go by. Pulling herself over the ridge she could hear the river running fast and deep, her eyes quickly scanning the rivers edge and finding nothing nearby to help her she went down the side of the ridge. Scanning for the supply dump they'd left here last month, there were weapons here, alright a camp knife wasn't much but it was better than nothing.
Moving fast she covered the bank and was working her way north when Logan just stepped out of the brush and grabbed her, a cry stopped by his hand over her mouth, his heated skin touching her own without a barrier. The drain was almost instant and she pushed his hand away
quickly, Logan was still holding her up but he was a little wobbly.
The calm rage he'd been feeling had been passed directly to her, the anger at Sabretooth for trying to harm his mate, to take what was his again, for that he'd die and no one was going to tell him different. The calm look he gave her being reflected in her own gaze, she knew the plan he had, to kill Sabretooth the quickest way possible, he needed her to be calm and to do as he asked.

She'd do it, anything he asked of her because she'd seen the depth of his care for her, his love for her in that small touch on her mouth. With everything else she'd seen today in her head it made sense that he'd want to finish this himself, he would tolerate no rivals or dangers to her and that in its own way terrified her. The look in him
as he held her to his chest, pulling them both down into the scented brush plant, her rear settling in his lap and listening to him rumble and grow hard under her. Even now he wanted her, wanted to claim her in front of the rival, in front of the enemy that was approaching fast and god forgive her part of her wanted him to.
Holding herself still as the sounds of Sabretooth's approach got nearer, his scent filling their noses the closer he got. Borrowing Logan's senses for a while had made all the difference to Rogue, the calmness she felt at
Sabretooth's approach wasn't one she'd be feeling otherwise. An itch was under her knuckles and she flexed her fingers, the tearing of her skin almost making her cry out as the bone blades forced their way out of her hands. Still dripping with blood, she didn't see
Sabretooth lock onto the scent of fresh blood but Logan did, powering out of the brush toward the enemies unprotected back.

The roar echoed around the river the scream of Logan as he drove his claws through Sabretooth's unprotected back, slicing his spinal cord through. Rogue was following Logan's lead, the bone claws that were pushed through her skin were aching in their need to rend through her enemy, seeing Logan being thrown clear of Sabretooth. Smashing into the rocky river bed, her anger spiking as she saw Sabretooth move his waist above the damage done to his spine, knowing she didn't have long before he could move again. Diving low, she slashed across his thighs, dragging her hands under his groin, opening the arteries
there, feeling his blood hot and rich splash against her skin. Diving back repeatedly as the skin healed up, shredding everything she could while Sabretooth tried to heal the damage done to his spine. He couldn't bend to get at her so she dealt her own punishment to his
body, letting the calm rage fill her as she heard the wet footsteps of Logan running toward her. The swish of air over his claws, Sabretooth's roar cut short and the thump of something heavy landing on the riverbank. Looking over to see the long dank blonde hair of Sabretooth laying a few feet away, the eyes still blinking, mouth moving in a silent cry.

It smashed through her, she was underneath a dead body, his blood was covering her, and her hands were filled with
it, snapping the blades away she pushed out from under the body. Nudging the legs as she did so and watching it fall forward, blood still flowing from the corpse, her eyes finding Logan stood drenched in arterial red, his eyes dark and the look in them all about her. There was a coldness about him as he stared at her, a glimpse into
the heart of Wolverine. He'd killed him for her, she'd never have to hide again, he'd killed his enemy, his rival, Wolverine had no one else to fight for her.

She was his now.

Bile rose in her throat, hot and acid she turned throwing everything up she'd eaten that day, when Scott and the rest of them finally found them Logan had already cut Sabretooth into pieces and was dragging wood into a pile. Silence was the only thing that reached her ears; shock went through everyone as they watched the body of
Sabretooth being burned there. Logan had growled at anyone male who'd gone near Rogue, his claws singing out when Scott had tried to approach her. Jubilee finally getting close enough to her to touch her, seeing the fear she had in her gaze as they watched the flames
devouring the body. Seeing Jubilee leading Rogue away Logan just walked over to them both, his charnel covered hand reaching out to touch Rogue's skin, seeing her friend flinch away but Logan was faster. His touch on her face making her lock eyes with him as she pull began, the smug self satisfied look on his face as she drained
him again. Forcing her to accept him into her, just as he had the other night, the rush of him entering her mind making her scream in pain. Jubilee pulling Rogue away from him bodily and seeing the adamantium-weighted body fall to the riverbank, unconscious and spasming like a landed fish. Scott running over and keeping the thrashing body still with several others using their weight to keep
Logan steady.

Tears were forcing their way out of Rogue, as her mind screamed with the intrusion of Wolverine, his thoughts howling out his possession of her, she was his, he owned her and Rogue felt fear of him fill her for the first time. Watching the leather clad hands of their friends
pick up Logan and move him homeward, her eyes taking in the bonfire and wondering if he would burn as quickly. They didn't understand what was happening to her, what Wolverine was showing her inside her mind, that no matter where she was he'd be there. No matter what she did he would own her heart and soul, she had nothing without him
there and it terrified her, shaking her to her core as she realised how much of her wanted him to do this to her. How much of herself did she really have left inside her and how much had Logan given her when she'd died up there in New York? Leaning into Jubilee she let her
friend pull her toward home, knowing she'd be seeing Xavier before the night was out.


For everyone's safety Logan was locked up until Xavier had chance to talk to him, the way he'd attacked and disposed of Sabretooth was disturbing. Rogue herself had been looked at with some dismay as the report had been given to him, a gentle probing of her mind made her
defences shoot up blocking his view into her. Logan was their first priority though and she'd be having a quiet talk with Xavier soon enough.

Four days passed before Rogue felt in control of her own mind again to even chance the sight of Logan, the rage and power he'd put into her mind was something else entirely different. Wolverine wasn't anything like the Logan she knew, he was harsh, cruel almost, uncaring about those around him. All that had mattered to him was
that she was his, her mind body and soul were his to do with as he pleased, her first night of sleep had had to be drugged fogging out the dreams Wolverine was playing through her mind.
The next time she wasn't so lucky, seeing herself stalked by him in her mind, going through the dream landscape. Running as fast as she could trying to get away from him but ending up in his arms where he held onto her, tight. The feral grin that was across his face twisting the features she'd once loved into a visage that reminded her of Sabretooth, all cruelty, all desire and she was the prize. She'd woken from that one with a short scream, Jubilee was staying with her sleeping on the floor next to her bed and she'd woken with her. Jubilee's questions had gone unanswered as she'd tried to lock up the image of Wolverine in her head, seeing him stood half naked in
her mind just smiling at her. His words echoing through her blood, `You're mine and you know it.'
After that he left her to sleep, keeping out of her dreams but Rogue could still feel him watching her in there, as if the more he touched her the more of him
she took. The more she took the more like him she became.

When she did finally get to see Xavier he was looking a little worse for wear himself, dealing with Logan must have been harder than she thought. His smile was still warm as she seated herself across from him, "Ah Rogue, how are you coping with what happened by the river?"
She felt unsure of where to start really, whether to tell him everything since she woke after Liberty Island or to just let him look for himself. So she decided to ask about Logan instead.
"How is he?"
"Logan?" She nodded quickly as the pale skin of her mentor shifted in the morning light coming into the room, the soft features turning into a frown, care coming into his gaze as she knew something had happened between them. "He's leaving us."

The words fell into her ears like snow; the effect however was something entirely different, a chill raced through her veins, almost seizing her heart still. Xavier must have been reading her reaction as he added, "It's what he wants Rogue, he doesn't believe he'd be
safe to be here. Not after what he did to Sabretooth, Wolverine's too dangerous to have around here." As if speaking his name made the force inside her mind rise to the surface making her hands turn into claws, seeing the man seated in front of her as the threat to her life. About to move when the whole world locked up around her,
hearing Wolverine scream in impotent rage as he tried to get her muscles to move. The grey eyed gaze of Xavier coming closer until he was close enough to see the darkness in her own eyes, the one that didn't belong there.
"Rogue, are you still listening to me?" Inside her head Rogue screamed out to Xavier, buried under the rage of
Wolverine, trying to get him to see her, to hear her. The spark of recognition making Xavier smile, "I'm going to remove him Rogue, I have to if I don't he'll swamp your mind, do you understand?" Barely able to move she whimpered her assent, seeing her agree Xavier
concentrated on the form of Wolverine in her mind, "This may be painful Rogue." Pain was something she'd had to get used to over the years she'd been here, bruises, hurtful words and now this.

It started slowly. The pain was like her skin being peeled away, the only way she could express it was being frozen, the scream in her was primal as she watched Wolverine being stripped away from her. The form of him being unmade in her mind, stripping him layer by layer,
each layer built of the anger and rage that had kept him alive.
Memories and feelings blew through her like a tornado, the pain of it excruitating, seeing a piece of him drift high, the memory of his possession of her that night. Reaching out she snatched it away from Xavier's gaze, holding it tight to her chest, absorbing it into her,
hiding it from him. Watching until there was nothing left of him, even Logan was just a shadow now, Magneto was cleansed from her mind, his grandfatherly smile blown to pieces. Until for the first time in forever she only had herself inside her head, the feeling making her
instantly lonely when Xavier pulled out of her mind. When he finished she'd passed out, slumping to the floor, unaware of anything but pain and her mind's need to run from it.
Inside she was still clutching her last piece of Logan, his love of her, the one moment she'd felt him; all of him give himself to her. Wrapped around the single spark
of light Rogue let the darkness win.

She woke to find Jubilee resting on the edge of her bed, drool running down her face as she slept, her gaze grazed the clock, the digits reading 2.45am. Her ears catching light steps outside her door, the small light in the hallway blocked for a second by two booted feet knowing who it was Rogue bolted out of bed. Going around Jubilee, she wrenched the door open, seeing the large back of Logan
walking away from her down the hallway. Frozen in place for a second he stilled and when she didn't speak he carried on moving away from her, his hands holding bulging duffels as she used the doorframe to keep her stable. Tears were forming but who they were for she had no idea, were they for her for what he'd done to her, what he'd forced into her, what he'd claimed from her and having claimed it no longer needing to be here with her? Or were they for him, the loss of the only home he'd had, that Wolverine had wrecked something again, that he'd been made the pariah for killing an enemy that had tried to kill everyone he'd come in contact with. Was that it, had he begun to believe he was turning into something like Sabretooth, unsafe to be around, she had to know if it was her, was it her that was driving him away?

Moving like a zombie Rogue managed to get to the top of the stairs just as he was unlocking the main doors, the tears falling now hot and fast stinging her skin. "Logan!" he didn't stop, he just opened
the doors and stepped through them, pulling the heavy wood closed behind him. As she reached them, she could see him stood behind the patterned and coloured glass holding the doors closed, his strength keeping them shut as she pushed her own code into the keypad to get it to open. Shaking in fear as she realised he didn't want to see her, didn't want to hear her, knowing he was keeping her away from him wrenched the words from her lips the ones she'd always said she'd never use on him. Knowing that if she ever said them he'd be tied to her more than he'd wanted to be, yet he'd been the one to tell her
she was his and now he was leaving her behind.
"I Love You, Logan please!"
Her hands pulled at the door handles, even putting her foot on the other side of the door as she pulled with all her strength. Knowing it wasn't enough her sobs draining her of strength as she slid down the door, resting at the bottom of it until the shadow of Logan left the glass. Knowing he'd let go, of her, of the school of everything.

Anger burned up through her, how could he do this, just leave her after he'd told her she was his, she knew what Wolverine had meant, that she was his mind body and soul and now he was leaving. Running away because of killing Sabretooth, the memory opened in her mind. Wolverine stood there drenched in blood; his eyes dark and the cold
reptilian smile that had lodged in him. Wolverine wasn't safe and she'd feared him without the softness of Logan to balance him he was a killer plain and simple. Tearing open the doors she couldn't see him in the darkness but she knew he could hear her, "You bastard, Ah'll find you! Ah don't care how long it fucking takes me Ah'll find
you! An when Ah do Ah'm gonna find a way to kill you, you son of a bitch!"

Her voice was hoarse but she screamed out her pain into the darkness, the hurt and emotion rushing around her filling the darkness with the scent of tears. Moisture dropped from his chin as he watched her screaming into the darkness, her sobs wracking her frame as lights
came on behind her, Ororo and Jubilee coming out to her. Guiding her back into the house, supporting her as she cried, seeing Pieter pick her up in metal coated skin when she collapsed. The pain that sent a bolt of hatred straight through him when he saw her pale skin bruised
by his touch, he'd destroyed the one thing he'd loved, made her hate him. Closing off the emotion before it crippled him entirely, walking to the road where he'd left the truck he'd asked for. Leaving for the road again, drifting aimlessly across the world, no contact but that he initiated, even then it would be rare. Dangerous animals aren't meant to be caged, no matter if its love or bars made of brick and stone, turning the engine over he drove away determined not to look back. If he did, he knew he'd die from the look in her eyes the one
he'd put there.


Things changed, time had moved on whether she'd liked it or not, five years had gone by everything had changed including her. Her mind had recovered, healed and become stronger, finally able to be itself without the rest of the people inside it. She graduated, finished her
training, became a team member fought the good fight and against all the odds they were winning.

It had been the grassroots people that had begun to turn the tide, families who weren't afraid to have children who were different living next door to them. Neighbourhoods that supported every child, mutant, human, disabled, black or white, schools that were accepting
of `special' children, athletics teams that were proud of their mutant players. It was small but it was there, the news spread of tolerance and the gifts these new children could give to the world. When people understood the genetics of it, that a third of the population carried the gene for mutation it made every single human being capable of having a baby born with extra `gifts'. There were still problems in the world, hell yeah there were problems but they were helped by the world now, no longer alone. Having someone who could dry water up in seconds helped when you were in a flood situation or someone who could flow through rock like air to find stranded miners deep underground. Most of the missions they went on
were natural disasters, the clean up and rescue of both humans and mutants, when people were in trouble it didn't matter anymore who they were. If they could help they would and the call had come from the Forestry department about a fire in one of the national parks, the thing had been going for days burning out of control. Destroying
virgin forest, thankfully away from the major population centres but now it was threatening a lodge and small town, the population was just around three thousand nestled in a deep valley that was surrounded by the fire. The fire department of the town had done as much as possible but the roads had been cut off by the fire, turning the tarmac into sliding tar rivers that had burned fiercely adding to the flames.

They were stranded and calling out for help, just the thing for a weather witch and a now invulnerable woman to deal with, Storm and Rogue had been coming back from a mission when the call came through from Scott. It would mean a slight detour but it wouldn't be too much
of a problem for them, the mission had been a bust anyway. Tracking a `mutant dealer' over the border to Canada only to lose him in the confusion of an airport put on bomb alert. They'd find him again of that they had no doubt whatsoever, just that it would have to wait,
there were other lives to save right now.

"We're coming up on the valley Rogue, do you want to fly down or stay with me?" Rogue took a quick look at the plume of smoke ahead of them hanging there like a curtain, dark and soot-filled, snapping her seatbelt free she stood up her decision made.
"Ah'll go have a look see, see if there's anyone near the fire line, Ah can't see much from up here Storm. Ah'll let you know when ah'm clear so you can bring the rain down." Rogue was about to drop out of the blackbird when Storm spoke her tone clear in meaning.
"When the storm breaks Rogue you'll need to be under cover, the topography here isn't shallow, the rain will probably turn into a mudslide or flood for a few moments. I'll get the authorities to understand they might have a few houses to rebuild but it'll be better than burning alive." With her message understood Rogue dropped
out of the plane, the ability to fly catching her as she fell into gravity's grip. She thanked Carol for the gift, feeling her soft presence inside her mind as she powered away toward the edge of the fire.

She'd been searching the fire line when she'd come across the small compound, wire fenced, steel struts hammered into the ground wrapping the entire shack in a protective embrace. Seeing no-one around she dropped down vertically into the compound, her feet landing on the soft earth, just before she turned round she heard the click of a
shotgun bracing herself for the impact teeth gritted. She really should shout before she entered places like this, she had a bad enough bill for uniforms as it was. The sting of the shell as it ripped through the tough leather was nothing to the shock of seeing who'd shot her. Turning round to see his warm gaze made the hairs on
the back of her neck stand up just before she realised she had a hole just where her heart would have been if she'd been facing him. Her fist swung before he even had time to register she was still standing, the pain of hitting his jaw was enough to make her wince, but seeing him out cold made her smile. Flicking her radio on she got
through to Storm almost immediately, "Honey you ain't gonna believe who just shot me." Her voice was shaky even to her and Storm picked up on her nerves.
"Rogue are you alright?" rubbing her hand over her face and feeling the heat coming from the raging fire storm which was now consuming pine trees just to her left she hefted the dead weight in her arms. Considering what Storm had asked her as she hefted his body over her
shoulder before taking off into the air, her voice deadpan as she answered Storm.
"Never better Ro' never better." Rogue knew not to use their real names on air, only code names for her to slip like this she must be upset Storm was about to ask her what was happening when Rogue cut into her thoughts. "Ah'm comin to you an Ah have a passenger, he's
out cold at the moment but he won't be for long. Do we still have that tranq gun on board?" Storm answered in the affirmative, "Great get it out we might need it."

Carrying Logan back to the blackbird resting in front of the fire station, she hoped they had enough
restraints left in the med bay. They weren't for him, they were for her, dropping down to the bird as Storm ran out of the plane, taking him inside as Storm began to move the winds and weather patterns.
Strapping him down into the bed and locking his hands down with restraints, dosing him just to be on the safe side. Leaving him there as they both dealt with the sheet of fire that was now cresting the rise and threatening the small town, the rain when it came was like a wall of water. It drenched everything it touched, including Rogue;
her tears were lost in the stream of water that was running down her face as she helped people. Wave after wave passed over the fire, drowning it out, stopping it's progress until it was finally out, the townspeople thankful and busy repairing their small community.

Finally finished they both walked inside to see Logan awake and laid on the medical bed, his face stoic and neutral. Swallowing her heart Rogue just went over and snapped the restraints for him, not daring to look in his eyes as he sat up, her voice hardly shaking at all
when she spoke. "Ah don't know what state your homes in Logan, the fire was already at the fence when ah got there. There might be something you could salvage but ah doubt it, the fire was pretty intense then." Storm was still watching him as Rogue moved away seeing his hand move toward her just missing touching her. Without
saying another word Rogue left the blackbird, her voice cracking as she radioed to Storm, "Ah'll make mah own way home Storm, see ya later." Leaving the two of them just looking at each other silently until Storm just closed the ramp and began to fire up the plane.
Moving forward Logan sat in the empty co-pilots seat, the scent of Rogue still on the straps, watching his fingers caress the fabric before putting it on. Storms voice icy as she spoke to him, "She's not the same person Logan, she's changed, too much in some ways." The weather witches eyes boring into him, the intent in them clear for
him to read, his voice a whisper in the noisy cockpit.
"She's not the only one." His eyes finding her flying ahead of them, hair streaming in the cold wind, the bolts of white locking his eyes to her form before she powered away from them both leaving his eyes aching for another glimpse of her.

Of all the things, of all the people! Rogue raged against fate, the force that seemed to have it in for her, just when she'd gotten control of her mutation after college there had been the accident.
The accident where she'd taken Carol on board, she'd been coming home with Carol, the new teacher at the school, when the front right tyre had blown out. They'd crashed and Carol was in pieces, her mutation was near invulnerability, strength and flight she'd been the one that had taken the brunt of the crash. They'd smashed into a semi the car crushed and crumpled on her side the only thing she could see was her hand, the fingers flexing and trying to grasp her own. Carol's voice
had found her, asking her to take her gifts, to help her die, to end the pain, she'd done it, the slow burning trickle of her power had been a relief for Carol. The voice in her head giving her the company she'd missed, since that day Carol had never intruded, never shouted
only supported.

Yet now when she needed her support Carol was nowhere to be seen, as she flew the memory of Logan touching her opened in her mind, Carol was showing her the one piece she'd saved of him. She'd quashed that memory for five years, keeping it and him at bay, she'd thought about
going after him but it was pointless. What would she say to him that would make any difference anyway, he'd left her, he'd shown her what he'd thought of her and she'd decided to make the best of it where she was. There was nothing out there for her but pain and she'd had enough of that.

The touch of his fingers on her skin, the heat of him as he'd held her close to him, writhing over her body imprinting himself in her muscle memory and mind. She'd avoided touch since then, she'd had lovers, mainly one night stands with the minimum of touch and she never kissed them. Never let her lips touch theirs, never let them get close to her emotionally Rogue had locked that part of her off and now she was faced with the person who'd helped her make that choice. Unknowingly treating men the same way he'd treated women, easing the ache in her body by finding the harshest men she could find. Ones who'd think her a prize to be kept until she ended up
punching them across the room or alleyway, making sure they understood she was no-ones prize, she belonged to herself.
After the invasion of her soul from Wolverine, she didn't let anyone close not anyone male anyway.
Clearing her mind as the school came into view she saw the hanger doors open for the Blackbirds descent, wishing she could just disappear for a while but it wasn't possible she had commitments, pupils relying on her. She'd just have to deal with it, making sure that she didn't spend any time alone with him until he left again,
after all that's what he did the best, leaving.


Storm shut down the engines and did post flight checks as Logan just stared out of the cockpit windows; there was a smaller second jet in here now as well as a simulator. Things had moved on without him being here, the changes were noticeable to his eye including the amount of students, there were more, much more. Storm was reaching
between them to finish her checks when he grabbed her gloved wrist, her eyes went instantly white and the smell of ozone filled the cockpit. His bones began to ache and he released her wrist quickly, watching the soft dark brown enter Storm's eyes again. "If you want to know something Logan just ask." Her tone was all ice and he could scent her anger at him filling the small space, nodding he unbuckled himself, standing up he just turned his back on her walking away to the lowered ramp. Storm heard the sing of his blades and turned to see his hands pulled forward, the only thing she could see was the
six red points coming out of his back, from the position she knew the wounds were fatal. As Logan fell to the floor her hand hit the alarm, the sound echoing through the hanger like a banshee scream, his blades didn't snap away like they had on Lady Liberty he was holding
them open as he bled out. The smell of blood was rich in the air as she pulled the hands away from his body, the wounds sucking air into them as the blades fell out. Logan's eyes were shut tight, the tears in the corners of his eyes were falling and Storm realised for the first time just how damaged Logan really was.

Rogue had just gotten into the showers when the alarm sounded, naked she almost ran out into the hanger but she had to throw something on or she'd be a danger to whoever was in trouble. Control took effort and when her adrenaline was firing, she was patchy at best. Her mind
instantly went to their new passenger, Logan. She should never have left Storm alone with him, she wasn't defenceless but Logan was stronger, much stronger than her. Swearing a blue streak she flew over dressed in her gym outfit, tight black lycra bodysuit that velcroed together at the sides. When she arrived there were four
others hefting a body out of the blackbird, her blood sang and she lost focus for a second until she saw who was coming down the ramp running with the four. Storm, she wasn't hurt but the scent of blood was all over her, her white hair had traces of red in it as they moved as one toward the med bay. Storm seeing Rogue shouted out over the hanger, "Get Hank ready, major injuries to the spine and heart."
Storm watched Rogue hang there for a second in the air before moving, her face confused as Storm shouted at her. "ROGUE! MOVE IT OR WE'LL LOSE HIM!" The words were all she needed to hear, following an order was second nature for her now, it was only afterward she wondered
what would've happened if she'd dawdled a little. Flying off she went the quick way to med bay and informed their doc that they had a casualty coming, deciding to stick around to see the damage wrought on him by Storm. When he came in and the injuries were registered by her eyes she'd fled, Storm hadn't hurt him, she had.

Darkness, pain, nerves firing as they healed along his internal organs, wanting to move but finding himself restrained for the second time that day, the scent of antiseptic and fur filling his nose. Head strapped still his only view the ceiling of the med bay, going through the last few hours of his life. Waking up to see someone
dropping down into his compound, gun already in hand, the slight form not registering to him as female. Wolverine was in control out here, he called the shots, kept Logan safe from everyone and everyone safe from him. He'd scented intruders before knowing they hopped his fence
hoping to find something about the `mountain man' that only occasionally went to resupply himself at the local store. He'd come here after two years of wandering, hoping to be left alone in a small hamlet of people who thought like him, that didn't want the rest of so called civilisation interrupting their way of life. But as
everywhere else there were those who were nosy and he'd decided to deal with them permanently. So he'd fired into the back of the black clad intruder, not recognising the leather uniform until she'd turned around, when she'd
turned he'd thought all his nightmares had come true, he'd killed her. He'd killed Marie. The look of rage that had covered her face as she'd swung round to hit him, the snarl of hate across her face something he recognised as the blow stunned him.

Just beginning to feel the fire on his skin as he fell, he'd known the fire was coming but he hadn't moved, what was the point? There was none and he'd just wanted to die out there, hoping that the gun he'd had in his hands would have been enough to injure him beyond his bodies ability to repair itself and leaving the rest for the fire to dispose of. Leaving nothing but a metal skeleton behind to be buried by the ash of his home, so when the person had arrived he'd been annoyed at being denied even this piece of privacy.
Waking to see the inside of the Blackbird, the scent of rain and ozone sharp in the air mingling with the scents of the metal and plastic but underneath it all was the scent of Marie, the imprint of her still in his mind and he felt the stab of pain go through him again. His last image of her screaming at him that she'd find him and
kill him, even if it took her forever she'd find him. He knew she would find him one day and she'd kept her word, of that there was never any doubt, so when they'd landed he'd decided to finish the job he'd started in the forest. Hell he was doing her a favour, putting himself out of her misery, his last gift to her after everything else he'd taken from her. He could give her this at least, but now it seemed as if he couldn't even do this right.

Silent tears were falling from him as the large furred face hovered over his own, he didn't care anymore, Wolverine was curled up in a corner of his mind lost, alone and afraid for the first time in his life. He had nothing to live for, there was no point in trying
anymore, everything had died in him when he'd seen her eyes look at him. She hated him, hated everything he was giving him the final piece to the puzzle he'd been trying to work out since he left here. He'd turned her into him, destroyed the one piece of light in his life and turned her into a monster, he didn't care if Xavier sold him
to a lab maybe it'd be better for everyone if he went back to being an animal without a name or feelings. At least then he'd have a purpose, one where he didn't have to feel or think, watching the blue furred face of his carer pass over him again Logan made his mind up.

He'd get them to kill him, force them to destroy him utterly. He'd wait, play possum until it was time, until he was ready, let them do what they wanted to him, until it was the right moment. The blue face was talking to him but he ignored it, preferring to get lost inside his own mind, filled with images of Marie turning round with anger
written all over her face and her eyes filled with hatred. Marie, he'd get Marie to kill him, it was what she'd wanted wasn't it? The logic of it making a sick kind of sense to him, the only way to free herself of him was to kill him, to know he was dead at her hands.
Wolverine uncurled a little at that thought, yes she'd do what was right, give him a proper death like they had with Sabretooth down by the river. He could touch her again, make her drain him to near death and then kill him, using his own claws on him to take his body apart
before he could heal. A plan of action formed in his mind, a faint smile ghosting at the edges of his lips as the thoughts solidified, yes if he played this right he'd be dead within the week. Closing his eyes to the brightness he slid away into the pain, holding onto it,
cherishing it as he would something precious, like he did her once.


Jubilee found Rogue sat on the roof with a bottle in her hand, there were several others nearby, all empty. "Hey you're not planning on going flying are you? You know what happened last time you got drunk and decided to go for a joyride?" Rogue snorted over the beer bottle,
she remembered all right, she'd almost downed a jumbo jet. She'd decided in her ultimate wisdom to race it and had ended up smacked flat against the windscreen making the pilots panic and dive. Luckily she'd rolled off the plane as it dove, finally levelling off a few thousand feet lower she'd decided to head on home her buzz burned
away by the adrenaline powering through her system. Xavier had given her a lecture nearly an hour long that day, she knew she had to be more responsible with her new gifts but she needed to break free once in a while and just enjoy them. She did it sober though now and the
thought of flying at the moment only brought back the recent memory of carrying an unconscious Logan in her arms.
She could still feel the weight of him if she concentrated hard enough, could still smell him on her uniform and damn it if part of her didn't like it. That's
why she'd gotten the beer and headed for the roof, everyone knew to leave her alone when she was up here, it was her space to sort out her head. So why Jubilee was up here finally peaked her interest.

"What do you want Jube's?" She cast a sidelong glance at her usually bubbly friend, seeing her head held down and her hands picking at her clothes, something she only ever did when she was upset. "Jubes?"
Raising her head Jubilee let her see the sorrow outlined in her expression.
Jubilee didn't always listen in to conversations but this one had been important to hear, Xavier was talking to the Doc about Logan, about what he'd picked up from him when he'd been to see him down in med bay. Logan had refused to talk or to look at anyone, the only way he would allow anyone near was to have him physically restrained at
all times. Doc McCoy had put several lines in him to help him recover from the self-inflicted injuries he'd sustained. He'd gone for a few moments, when he'd returned Logan had managed to chew through the long lines severing all help until he'd strapped his head down. That
had prompted him to call Xavier to scan him finding out his state of mind and the conversation Jubilee had overheard, knowing Rogue needed to know before anyone else told her what to do.

Swallowing her nerves Jubilee spoke her voice quiet and filled with a timbre Rogue had never heard before. "Rogue, Logan's ill." Rogue snorted and lifted the bottle to her lips, both of them knowing Logan
never got ill, a spike of anger flared in Jubilee to see her friend acting so callously to someone she'd once loved with everything she was. "Not physically Rogue, mentally."
That froze the bottle in mid raise as Rogue turned her head to look at Jubilee seeing her curiosity peaked, "He's given up, he wants to die." There was an
almost soft glimmer in her face before it was replaced by a drunken sneer; her mouth open to make a retort she'd regret immediately and Jubilee knew it. Beating her to the punch with her own words, "He's waiting for you to kill him, after all it was the last words you said
to him five years ago. Seems like he'd finally got tired of waiting for you to show up and had decided to do it himself before you dropped in on him. But now he's here he's just waiting for you to go and get it over with, Hank's got him strapped down and dosed up just
so he can't hurt himself." Jubilee watched her friend sink into herself as the nights of bitter talking came back to haunt her, all the times she'd wished him dead at he bottom of a mountain pass or in a lab somewhere. Jubilee's words landing heavily on her as she turned
and left her alone on the roof, "Looks like you got your wish Rogue, just he wants it to be up close and personal so he can see you kill him. Do us all a favour, put him out of his misery, he's been hurt long enough don't you think?" With that barbed comment, she left her alone on the roof, mulling over the circumstances of his departure
all those years ago.

Draining the bottle she flung the empty far out into the empty air, knowing it would land on the grass below, she'd pick up the empty before she went in. Broken glass no longer bothering her skin, even the touch of another human being no longer held any fear for her as long as she concentrated beforehand and switched her skin off. She
ran the memory through her head, this time with Carol watching her from the sidelines. She'd never looked at it when she'd been here with her; she'd stopped trying to understand why he'd left her that night.
Carol opened the memory up, spreading it wide open so she
could see everything, the way his shoulders had slumped when she'd come out of her room. The scent of despair that had hung around him as he'd moved away from her, not looking back, every muscle tight and focussed on his goal. Making her see it as an adult would, that he'd
hurt her, badly and he didn't want to hurt her again, he'd loved her, claimed her as his own and he'd almost driven her mad with his selfishness. He'd had to leave, if he'd stayed she wouldn't be Rogue she'd be a copy of him, knowing that Wolverine loved to touch her as often as he could, to imprint himself in her. Her mind flashing back to the underbrush where it had been Wolverine that had grabbed her, his bare hand on her mouth filling her with the rage he'd felt against Sabretooth. Wanting to kill his rival at any cost, even if it meant hurting her to do it, Wolverine wasn't safe to be around especially when he'd already claimed her sexually. Wolverine wanted
her and that had been his way of showing her she belonged to him, by killing the rival, any rival for her attention.

The sense hit her then, clutching at her heart like ice shards tearing it open, if he'd stayed he'd have tolerated no one near her, not even Jubilee. He'd have kept her closeted, stolen her away and hidden her from everyone, so only he could see her, only he could
touch her, talk to her, love her. Logan couldn't allow that to happen to her, she needed much more than he could give her, much more than his small world would ever provide her with. It didn't matter that he loved her, that he needed her, what mattered was `her', so he'd had
to leave, had to go away, had to lose himself in the world waiting for the day when she'd find him and kill him. Knowing he'd heard her words that night as she'd screamed them out to the darkness, her memory showing her the dark silhouette crouched behind a seat at the
far end of the garden. Logan had seen her, heard her, smelt her anger, rage after she'd told him she'd loved him, needed him, and he was leaving her. Carol's softness embracing her as she realised the truth of it all, he loved her enough to let her go, to be herself not
a puppet to his wills or desires. That's why he'd held the door shut on her, listening to her tears and words as he'd been trying to be strong enough for the both of them. One day she hoped she'd understand why he'd done it, why he'd held the door shut, keeping her from him. She'd gotten it backwards, he was protecting her from
*him*, from what he could do to her, what he wanted to do to her. He knew she loved him but he loved her more and leaving was the only option he'd had, so he'd taken it. Severing all ties with everyone, no contact, no touch of another person who knew him, alone again in a world where he'd known love and had ruined it with his own selfishness.

Tears pricked at her eyes as she stood up, pushing off the edge of the roof leaving the other bottles up there to be collected later.
Snagging the empty bottle that had thumped into the grass she went to find Xavier, if what Jubilee had told her was true then he'd know.
Carol hugged her mentally and returned to the darkness of her mind, sure that Rogue had understood the message she was trying to show her. Logan had left because he loved her, enough to protect her from
the biggest threat to her, thing was they were one and the same.
The office door was already open when she got there, the voices inside were raised and Rogue slid inside without being noticed. "What you're asking me to do is despicable Charles, I won't do it. I don't care how badly his mind is damaged I'm not going to induce a coma from which he might never recover." Doc McCoy was angry, his
shoulders were hunched his hands pushing down on the elderly desk of Xavier making it creak ominously. Xavier's calm voice wound out across the room as Rogue slid into a seat at the opposite end of the room, "My dear Hank, I think you're underestimating our friends
regenerative abilities. I've seen him take physical damage much worse than the injuries he's sustained and pull through within a week. Even as much as to be a bother to the staff down there making them discharge him early, all I'm asking is that you give his mind a
chance to rest, to come to terms with being here."
Rogue knew what Xavier wasn't saying, to come to terms with seeing her. Doc McCoy blew out a huge sigh, all the tension dropping from his body as the tone deepened and set in the rich tones of the doctor.
"I'd do it if it would any good Charles, but it won't." Rogue watched Xaviers face change as she listened to the diagnosis with him, "He's not responding to stimulus, even his body is beginning to reject the fluids I'm putting in him. It's as if he's given up, there's nothing
I could do if I put him into such a state, in fact it'd just shorten the expectancy I have of him at the moment." The shock registered across Xaviers face, McCoy continued. "If he keeps going downhill like this I doubt he'll last the week." The silence that followed the
statement was complete, as was the guilt that landed directly at Rogues feet, she'd brought him here, she'd saved him from the fire, she'd stopped his plan only to cause him more pain. A long slow drawn out death instead of the quick relatively pain free one he'd had in store for himself in his own home, alone away from the eyes of those who'd judged him and found him wanting. Her included. Her voice split the silence making both men turn to look in her direction, the pale mask of her face burning into their minds, "I'll do it. If he wants
to die, I'll do it."
Xavier looked within her mind and saw the guilt laying high in her mind, feeling his presence Rogue showed him the memory of the night he left, her words, her anger, the pain in him as he'd left her. Her eye shed one tear which she quickly wiped away forcing a smile onto her face as she stood up, the look of compassion on McCoy's face something she really didn't want to see.

Dropping her gaze, she walked out carrying the empty bottle with her, her soul feeling as empty as the glass in her hand. Xaviers thoughts still touching her own, telling her to go when she was ready but not to have a closed mind to Logan, to just see him first. She nodded
silently in agreement before taking the stairs two at a time as she ran for her room, her safe haven from the rest of the world and the memories of a night where a glass door had separated her from the one thing she'd needed in the whole wide world. Eye's blurring as she
opened her door, lungs burning with the weight of emotion resting on her, the pain of knowing it was her decision. Her actions that had brought the one person she'd loved trusted with her very soul to this point, to this desperate level. She knew if Wolverine had given up
there was nothing on earth that could keep him here, he'd kill himself by degree's, shutting out everything he could. Forcing his body to reject the nourishment they put into him, even at the lab they'd never managed to break him but she had. When she'd seen his eyes before she'd laid him out everything had been there for her to
see the despair in his eyes as she'd swung for him.
The resignation that their appointment had been met finally, that she'd found him and so it was natural to let her win, to give her what he thought she wanted from him. His actions in the Blackbird had solidified that;
she couldn't run away from him any longer, her words had finally come back to haunt her. Thing was she hadn't meant any of them, not a single one.
Curling up on her bed, she wished for the comfort she'd felt when she'd known he was just down the hall, he was here but the Logan that had left wasn't the same as the one that was here now. Her own guilt wouldn't allow her to seek relief from the pain she felt of her actions and words of five years ago, even Jube's her partner in crime
was on Logan's side. She'd sat and listened to every bitter word that had flowed from her mouth, her anger at Logan leaving her after taking her body, showing her he didn't care about her skin, about her ability to kill him with a touch. He gave her everything, then took it away again, leaving her bereft and adrift in a world of sensation she couldn't understand or fathom.

Even after Xavier had removed Wolverine from her mind, she still had some of his habits, his mannerisms; she'd scrubbed them from herself when she'd found herself
doing them. Hating the memory it made her remember, that someone had jilted her, seen her and found her lacking, thing was she'd been wrong. He'd never seen her like that, only she had and the truth had been hard to swallow, it had been there all along but she'd never had
the sense to look at it from his perspective until now. Biting her gloved hand Rogue cried like she'd never done before, rocking back and forth on her bed wishing for all the world she'd had the sense to look for him before now. But it was too little too late and inside she knew the strength Wolverine had inside himself, if he wanted to
die he would and nothing she or anyone else could do would stop him.


It wasn't so bad lying here, Jean had been to see him, her voice sweet and syrupy trying to get his attention, trying to get him to focus on her. Her hand had touched his skin but the sensation was dry, without fire or spark, the touch of a professional, a doctor's cool embrace on his skin. She didn't matter, the goal was in sight and nothing would keep him from it, even her soft voice inside his head telling him she'd loved him wasn't heard. He just closed his mind to her by throwing up images of the lab, of the things he'd gone through, seeing her face pale at the sight of the torture; the sight of exposed bones and flayed nerves. His face screaming in agony past endurance, losing to the beast that lurked inside his mind, the one that roared forward making Jean pull away as he flinched on the bed, his blades firing into the restraints he had on his hands locking them out. Jean drifted away; his ears catching the conversation between the two doctors, discussing his treatment, how they could keep his kidney's functioning when his body refused to expel waste.
Poisoning himself from the inside out, destroying the tissues of his body on purpose, his mutantcy giving him some protection but the cumulative effects were beginning to take their toll on him. He'd been there for three days already and his body was beginning to eat itself, he knew the burn of his muscles was his own system running flat out to live. Yet Wolverine was in control of his mind, the
stubborn will to die was everything, there was nothing left to live for, he knew she wouldn't come to see him. The hope had been dashed on the first day he'd been down here, Jubilee had come to look at him, listened to her small footsteps as she'd gone around him. Smelt her tears as they'd flowed from her knowing she was grieving for him
while he was still alive, it gave him some hope that one thing. That someone understood, that this was what he wanted, to be left alone to die, to give up, to stop fighting, he'd heard her small voice whispering in the darkened room as she'd left, echoing around his sensitive ears. "Don't leave us Logan, we still need you. I still
need you."

The words had hurt to hear but they didn't matter in the end, the one person he'd hoped to tell him she cared wouldn't come here, not until she was certain he was dying. His own inner sense told him that, the animal part of his soul knew she'd come when he was close to death
just to see him fade away or nudge him over the edge. Personally he couldn't wait, maybe then she'd forgive him, when he was dead and gone she'd maybe understand why he did what he did to her. Letting out a deep breath, he felt the soft touch of Doc McCoy rest on his arm as the door swung open the scent of Jean leaving the room. The
swinging door bringing another scent closer to him, of someone out in the corridor, someone he wasn't ready to see yet, Marie.

Doc McCoy was resetting the drips in his arms when she looked through the small window of the med bay, Logan looked so small lying there, so frail, nothing like the man she'd once known. So full of life he'd made everyone else fade into the background, so alive he'd made the
room spark with his energy, everyone knew when he was home, the whole school felt different he was that much of a force.
Yet now he looked a shell, he looked like a dead body, her mind throwing up an old memory from Magneto of the camp. You could tell those who'd given up already when the train had pulled in, they looked the same way Logan
looked now, tired, defeated, drained. Steeling herself, she walked through the doors, seeing Jean's face look away as she passed into the room knowing she blamed her for all of this. She was right of course but it didn't help her cope with her own fear of his reaction to her presence. Her footsteps echoed around med bay as she came
closer and she could see Logan beginning to struggle against the straps that held him down. McCoy turned to see her, his heavy gaze quickly running between the two of them, coming to her just before she got to the bed and turning her away taking her further into the med bay. "Rogue," his whisper was soft and she knew it was something Logan would hear no matter how softly they talked. "Please, give him a chance, if you can help him back do it. At the moment we've got him stable but if he continues to slide we have five days at the most."
Her eyes met Hank's and she saw him wince at the look in her eyes, she hated herself for this, for what she'd done to him, for what her love had created.
"Doc, I'm not promising anything. I'm not even sure he wants me here," Hank turned her to see Logan moving slowly on the bed testing the straps that were holding him down.
"That's the most movement I've seen from him since he came down here Rogue, I think he wants to see you don't you."
Hank let her go and walked away through the far door, knowing he'd come running if she shouted for him, leaving her alone with him, alone with her guilt and pain.

It took her nearly four minutes to get to the side of the bed, she could smell his sweat, and the feral taint that she'd craved in the months he'd been absent. Her gloved hand touched his thigh through the scrubs they had him in and he stilled his voice dry and shallow making her eyes blur with tears as it reached her ears, "Marie?"
He still called her Marie, the last time she'd heard that name he was above her grinding his erection into her willing body, making her wish she could stop time so she could never have to lose this feeling of closeness, of utter surrender. His eyes had burned with possession; it had scared her to be under that gaze, under the weight
of him feeling so vulnerable but safe at the same time. He'd never hurt her intentionally she knew that but there was a part of him neither of them had reckoned on, Wolverine.
She was surrounded by other males all the time, team mates, friends, students, Wolverine wouldn't allow that, she knew that now and so he'd left her, the only choice he'd had left.

"Rogue Logan, my name is Rogue," Logan shook his head eyes closed and his throat tight, his lips trembling as he smelt her sorrow, her pain at seeing him here. He'd expected her to be happy, to want to see him like this, not to scent her distress, feeling her hands slide down to
his hands and the locked out blades there. The scent of copper filled the room as she undid the strap on his left wrist keeping the arm down, she'd nicked herself on the sharp edge of the blade, it was funny how her invulnerability worked. She could be knocked back by a
truck and she'd have nothing to show from it but a knife could still cut her skin if she wasn't careful and that was what she was counting on.

Her touch on his skin was making him hope, the gloved hand
touching him wishing her hand was naked so she could end this, so he could give her what she'd wanted.
"Logan, look at me." He shook his head, keeping his eyes closed. Gathering her strength she pulled his bladed hand up to her chest, her voice shaking as she guided the three blades to the correct spot hoping he was too locked up in his own mind to not notice. Ready at last she blew out a deep shaky sigh, her mind at rest and her mind
calm even though Carol was screaming at her not to do this. "Logan, look at me," shaking his head he kept his eyes away from her, the glint of hazel showing under the dark lids. "Well at least you can hear me," holding the wrist firm in her new strength she carried on. "Logan, I understand why you left, you were protecting me, keeping me safe from him, you couldn't control him here I know that now." She saw his eyes open a little and her grip increased on his wrist keeping it still in place, "I never wanted to hurt you Logan, I love you and if you're going to leave me again; I want to go first. At
least then I'll have someone to wait for."

The words spoken she stepped forward, the slide of the metal entering her flesh was something she'd remembered, the closeness of the touch, the feel of warmth running down her body as her blood flowed through the open
wounds. Hazel eyes snapped forward to her own as he felt her move, the warmth on his hand familiar, too familiar as the scream was thrown out of his throat to the calm sterile air of the med bay.

She watched him struggle, her hand still holding him tight to her, the one thing she wanted from him, release. She smiled through the pain as she felt her heart stutter, half raising her hand to his straining face and throat, the fire in him awakened again. The rage in him forcing itself forward, Wolverine snapping the blades back
away and out of her body, his hand reaching to her skin grasping it and finding nothing, no pull no healing being passed to her. She'd won, he was back and willing to live, thing was she wasn't, not after this, not after seeing what she'd done to him.

It was a small thing, a circle coming closed, she'd taken him the first time she'd touched him and now she was giving him back. Falling forward, she heard the straps strain and snap, blackness filling her world as she finally gave in to the siren song that was calling her. Free to wait for him, free from her skin, from the guilt, from everything a small smile resting on her pale blue lips.

It seemed like hours but it was only a second at most, the movement so soft he never even realised until she was on his blades and the blood was flowing down his hand. The smell of copper and iron rich in his lungs as she flowed out over him, his eyes focussed on her totally imprinting her every inch. Even down to the smudge of grease on her shirt from breakfast, the scream was out before he even knew it, the bellow loud enough to raise the dead. Snapping the blades away and straining to touch her with his bare hand the strap at his elbow keeping him from grabbing her. Her face drifted lower and he
touched the pale skin waiting for the draw of her gift, to give her everything he had to give. He waited but there was no draw, no drain of his gift, just a smile on her face as her eyes drifted shut, the words she'd spoken ringing around his head.
"I love you and if you're going to leave me again I want to go first. At least then I'll have someone to wait for."
Hope burned through every single cell of his body, Wolverine surged forward, the restraints feeling like cotton as he snapped them catching her fall to the floor, listening to her body dying as the stain of blood ran down her front. Knowing he'd hit her heart dead on
and she was almost gone, holding her bare skin and wishing for a miracle, for her to take what he had to give her.

Hearing Hank run through the doors toward them both, knowing that he was too late to save her, neither of them aware of the third party watching all of this, Carol. As Rogue's control slid away Carol pushed herself
forward, slipping the switch of her skin, firing the deadened nerves into overdrive as her body sought life, any life. Hearing the first breath enter Rogue's lungs, the heart beating again and the rush of another mind entering the darkness with her.
Logan's mind.

The rush was total, her body took everything he had to give her, every emotion, every piece of healing, everything he was. Hank just scooped the two bodies up Logan holding onto Rogue tightly with his damaged arms, blood slick on the floor, the sound of the medical
emergency klaxon bouncing around the med bay.
Jean flying through the doors her face set being followed by Scott and several others including Jubilee. Hank dropping the pair on the floor next to the emergency equipment, Hank separated them gently, both of them
breathing shallowly, the deep wounds now only surface cuts on her chest and back. Obvious to everyone what she'd done, the only question was why, Jean's face looked shocked as she saw the damage healing up before her eyes and the weak smile that was on Logan's
face. Probing his mind to feel the self satisfaction of Wolverine knowing he'd brought her home again, he'd saved his mate. Pulling away she left Hank and his team of helpers as she went to the wall, her mind a jumble of emotion as she called her mentor. He had to know
what had happened, Rogue had tried to kill herself using Logan as the weapon, he blamed himself enough for her state she could only guess at what his reaction would be when they both woke up. She wanted them separated just in case and she was going to insist if necessary, Rogue was unstable as was Logan and Jean could see this pulling
everyone else into it if they weren't careful.


The grey blankness of this place wasn't what she'd expected but it was something to start from, looking around herself she saw the figure of Carol stood watching her, her blonde hair perfectly tied back. Her gaze solid on her and her graceful form strong, Rogue went toward her smiling hoping to touch and speak to the woman who'd given her the strength to carry on when everything had seemed to go wrong.
"Carol?" She didn't answer her she just turned her back on her and walked into the grey distance, fading through a section of the grey. Rogue ran after her, straight into a room she wished she'd never see again.

They were stood in her old room, the couple on the bed were locked together in passion, she could see the fire in their gazes as they touched, rocking against each other in their need to lose themselves in the other's body. Recognising herself held under Logan's frame,
bite marks covering her skin, bruises peppering her pale skin especially around her hips, long finger marks and crescent scars where his nails had dug into her soft flesh. He was brutal with her, his hands locked around her wrists as he fucked her hard into the bed, the selfish behaviour of his own pleasure at her expense was
obvious to her gaze. This wasn't Logan it was Wolverine, this would have been her fate if he'd stayed, if he'd allowed himself to touch her again. She tore her gaze away from the couple on the bed and the moans that were issuing from her mouth, ones she knew she'd make if
he'd touched her like that. A needy whine coupled with a wheedling tone of compliance, she needed him and she'd let him do anything to her as long as she had him, be anything for him as long as he needed her.

Logan's voice came over the couple in the bed and Rogue saw Logan stood there looking at the animalistic side of himself with utter disgust and disdain. "Do you understand now? Do you get it?" Her eyes wide as she realised what this meant, it meant she wasn't dead, Logan was in her head with Carol, Carol had used her skin on
Logan. As the realisation passed her eyes Logan was there holding her bare skin in his hands, his presence large and comforting in her mind. "She did it for us, for both of us. I didn't want to lose you."

The shock was total, she'd thought she'd succeeded, that she'd died, she'd ended this mess but she'd ended up trapping Logan inside her again. Carol rounded on her, eyes blazing and the tone of her voice scathing.
"You're one selfish little bitch do you know that? I gave you everything I was, every gift I had so you could use it to help everyone around you and what have you done with it? I should have just let it go, you don't understand how selfish you've been by doing this. You'd have let Logan remember his last few days filled with the
guilt of knowing that your death had been at his own hands? All you were thinking of was your own comfort, your feelings of guilt, not that you'd leave him with a memory that he couldn't forget, another reason to hate himself. You really are a piece of work Rogue, a real
piece."

Carol turned her back on them both leaving her in the grip of Logan the true enormity of what she'd done falling into sense. She'd hurt him again, made him into the killer he'd always thought himself, killing the one person he never wanted to harm because she couldn't cope with seeing him or learning how much she'd destroyed him. Logan felt her try to bolt out of his grip and he just wrapped her up in his solid strength, her struggles to get free only gave him more chance to hold onto her, to wrap himself around her further until there was no separation between them.
He was rocking her gently backwards and forwards, like a mother does to a new born, his breathing calming her slowly as she came down from her panic. It was enough to break her wide open, her mind screaming for release she
found it in the embrace of the one man she thought she'd driven away from her. Her rock, the stability she'd been lacking for so long the piece of her that had been torn from her mind unknowingly by Xavier had been the one piece she'd needed above all else. She needed him, all of him, and that revelation made her understand why she'd risked everything by grabbing the last memory of his touch from Xaviers wraith like embrace of her mind.

Snatching the memory of his love, his touch on her skin, the moment when she knew beyond all doubt that he loved her, needed her and she'd acted like a child when the true
enormity of his desire for her became known to him. Here she could touch him, hold him, feel him next to her, understand his need for her to live even if he died doing it. Her head snapped up and the words died in her throat as he understood her question, the look in his gaze unsure as she saw his last image of her before she'd drained the consciousness out of him. Her in his arms, the look of peace on her face and the ache in his chest enough to crack his ribs wide open, then the rush of her skin and he'd pushed everything into her not knowing if he was alive or dead, only that she'd be alive and that was what mattered. Getting her mind under control she
concentrated on waking up, of forcing herself awake leaving the warmth of his embrace knowing she could cope with him being here in her head if he was still alive. If not she'd cross that bridge when it came to it.

She was in a cell, clear plastic but a cell none the less, through the clear wall she could see Logan, his eyes wide open and watching her. He was moving even before she blinked, his hand resting on the wall between them the look of despair in his eyes so deep and strong
that she almost shut her eyes to it. He slid down the wall between them his hand still laid against the plastic wall, the need in him palpable but the small camera's in the ceiling were beginning to turn as the others realised they were awake. Hearing them coming and knowing in some part what they would want to do with them both she moved quickly. Concentrating she felt the curious itch in her hands as the blades fired, bringing her hands back she struck the wall between them, her strength and power driving the bone through the plastic. Listening as Logan did the same, her mind concentrating at getting to him, to touch him, to feel his skin under her fingers,
tearing at the plastic wall that had separated them not knowing how long she'd been apart from him but it wouldn't last much longer. His scent was strong in her nose when she pulled down half of the wall, he'd been there a while, there were foodtray's in his half of the
cell uneaten and set solid with age. She'd been out for a while then, as soon as he was able Logan dove through the gap to her almost impaling himself on her claws, his body wrapping around hers and holding her as the sobs wracked through him triggering her own stumbling rush of words.

Hank was there she could hear him, smell him through the door but he didn't enter he was watching them both
through the screen outside. He went up in her estimation when he fended off both Xavier and Jean, his voice raising and thundering through the lower level as he fought for their privacy, for their needs. After they'd all left Logan finally spoke his voice still raw as he held onto her, the word he spoke making her fall apart at the seams to be remade in his embrace. "Marie."

Rogue had been made; she'd been a construct, a wall to hide behind, a face to show to the rest of the school. The thing to be in the hallways and the open spaces of the school, Rogue took the blows, rolled with the punches, understood the need to be cruel when the
situation needed it. How to choose between teammates when there was something undefeatable in front of them, how to best use her skills to win, to beat the enemy at any cost. Logan had never been part of Rogue, she was something else entirely, Marie was someone who'd needed Logan, someone who'd expected love from all those around her because that was what she gave. She'd given up being Marie after Liberty Island, thing was Logan hadn't given up on her, he still wanted her and that was what Rogue couldn't understand. An what Rogue couldn't understand she destroyed like a spoiled child would, thing was she almost brought Logan down with her.

Her voice was dry as if she'd been asleep for a long time, the words almost sticking in her throat but she managed to get them out, "Ah'm here sugar, ah'm here." Lost in his embrace she let herself go, let the grief go, let the hurt die inside her soul, feeling Logan and
Carol inside her head retreat so she could be alone, be herself, be Marie again. His bare skin touched hers and she could feel his almost regret as his fingers passed over her, the words he spoke to her registering somewhere as she lost herself in his arms. "I can't heal
you anymore darlin' your skin it don't affect me anymore. Looks like third time was the charm…." His voice melted into a dour note, as if this was something she didn't want, that she didn't want him to touch her, to hold her close to him and breathe her into his very heart.
"Ah don't care," she felt his arms stiffen as he listened to her, about to move her away from him when she grabbed hold of him and pulled herself deeper into his shirts and body. "Ah don't care because ah have you in here," she pointed inside her head, "An your ahlive out here too. That's all that matters to me Logan." She found his reddened eyes and the wetness still on his skin her heart wide open to him as she spoke, "Your ah'll that's ever mattered to me Logan an that's why ah hated you for leavin' me, even when it was for mah own good." She'd never felt so raw, so open, so vulnerable than
with him right now, stood in the wreckage of the quarantine cells, both of them barely hanging onto sanity, needing the other to be honest with them, to say what they felt without price or judgement.
To know it had been worth the pain, to have this moment of clarity between them when everything would either fall apart or into place. The three words dropped onto his skin like rain in the desert, soaked up immediately and cherished for the precious gift they were, "Ah love you."

After that, there were no more words, only sleep; him wrapped up behind her on her bed. Both clothed but aware of the camera above them in the ceiling watching their every move, knowing it wouldn't be long before someone came to see them. When the visit came it wasn't who they thought it would be, Jubilee and Hank with clothes and packs in their hands, Jubilee gave Marie a set of keys and an envelope.
Hank destroyed the camera's with a quick twist and reach, ushering them out silently Jubilee took the back route to the garage. Getting behind the driving seat of the large truck Logan had commandeered for himself when he'd first arrived she told them to hide until they were clear of the grounds. Seated together in the back seat they hid in
each other as Jubilee drove them into New York, wrapped up together, each piece of the other so intertwined that there was no sense in keeping them apart any longer.
Jubilee just prattled on as she drove telling Marie that she'd been out for a week, that she'd been kept in isolation with Logan since she'd tried to kill herself. Jean was worried that Logan would attack people if he was left alone with her without protection, she told her
that she'd been the one trying to get him to eat. He'd refused everything she'd brought him, letting the food go rotten and not bothering to pass the old trays out to her, she could slide food in but not enter without alerting everyone else.
When they arrived at Grand Central she hopped out, making Logan take the driving seat, giving him the pink slip and insurance for the truck. Her last words were hopeful, "Come back when you make me a auntie. Not until you hear me, that's an order from Wheels himself."
With a flurry of yellow, she was gone, back into the crowds that were passing the truck as if the world hadn't just changed for the two of them. Nervously Logan looked at her, waiting for some sign of her acceptance, she gave it willingly, resting against him and putting her head on his shoulder as his arm crept over her own shuddering
body. Nothing was the same yet it was; they were back where they'd begun, just the two of them, a truck and the whole world ahead of them. Opening the envelope Jubilee had thrust at her earlier Marie saw a map and money, a letter with directions and a deed. A home waiting somewhere out there for them to find, seeing Logan's fingers go over the map, recognising the names and places, his brows knitting together as he looked at her. "Far?" Logan nodded, licking his lips before speaking to her.
"You wanna go straight there?" Marie shook her head, they'd know where they were going, she wanted some time alone with him before they came back into the fold. Seeing the relief in his gaze as he gunned the trucks engine, his small smirk coming back and the small
light in his eye that she knew she'd put there by her answer. "Long way it is," and as the buildings slowly faded into grassland Marie felt the ghost of Rogue finally fall away from her shoulders. She could be Marie again, find out who she was and exactly what the
relationship between her and Logan was, it wouldn't be easy but then the best things never were.