How many times would it take them to notice? How many times would it take her stealing beer and going off in one of Scott's cars for them to notice something was wrong with her? Everyone was still smarting, she knew that, it was written all over their faces, the looks of
helpful nothing as she wound her way through the school. Children coming in, hoping to find something that was once here, something she once believed in before Jean fucked everything up.

She still couldn't bring herself to fully hate the woman who'd caused all this pain, the monument to her in the garden being visited by the new kids as they realised who she'd been, what she'd been and why she'd had to die and by whose hand she'd met that death.

People had pulled away from Logan, even Ororo did it, she didn't want to be alone with him, always making sure the door to her office was open when she spoke to him. Siding with Hank about the decisions that were made about security and the new younger teams. Logan was left with teaching the kids about what was important - control.
Thing was it looked like Ororo didn't beleive Logan had any himself and that made her own feelings toward the weather witch become bitter.

She'd tried talking to Bobby about it all, but he'd been in shock when she'd come back changed, different, a mutant in soul only, her body was now human. But they'd found out that the cure wasn't one, it only rewrote lower mutations, not something like hers, not a level five like she was. She'd seen the file in Ororo's office, kids
that were once settled back at home were requesting to come back, their mutations had resurfaced. She'd cried for a week in-between hiding her now scratched arms and body, knowing that sometime soon her skin would become deadly again.

Bobby had been distant from her ever since she'd slept with him, giving him everything of herself but he'd given her nothing emotional, making her feel empty and used. The mistake compounded now she knew that it would be the only memory of her sexual life, good enough to go with the other disaster of her life. The day she became a mutant, kissing the one boy that had been brave enough to
face her mother down and charm her with his own rugged good looks.

********************************************

It was three am when she pulled into the garage, silence was at a premium here now and she revelled in the deep silence not realising she wasn't the only one enjoying it. Only when her door opened did she realise she wasn't alone, her tear filled eyes not recognising who it was at first."Move over, you're in no state to drive anywhere. Suprised you didn't put yourself through the glass."
Laughing darkly she snapped the seat belt she had wrapped around her.
"Safety first Logan, just cos I hate my life don't mean I want to end it." It was too hard to do this right now, she didn't want to deal with him on her case as much as everyone else was. She made to get out and his hands just gripped her own, crushing in their strength. He snapped the belt open and flung it aside forcing her to move over as he got in, blind she just did as he'd asked.
Shifted over and wrapped herself up in her own misery as Logan turned the engine over pulling out of the garage again. Quietly, much more quiet than she'd been coming in, the silence made her own torment feel worse and she let herself get lost inside it as the silent world slid by.

Travelling in the darkness reminding her of that night that had changed so much for both of them, the unspoken things that had passed between them when she'd handed him the dogtag at her wrist. She'd worn it all the time he'd been away, against her bare skin, even when she'd been with Bobby; she'd held a piece of him closer.
His name was at her throat by day and by night he was in her hand, clutched like a raft to the drowning. He'd meant more to her than a protector and he'd known that in the moment she'd handed it over to him, the scent of Bobby had told him just how much he'd hated that she wore it at all.

They went for ten minutes before he even tried to speak to her, his even breathing becoming more erratic the further from the school they got. Using the window to reflect his image to her eyes she could see his struggle, trying to keep his emotions in check, trying not to let everything overwhelm him, trying to save her again.
Blaming himself for not noticing her fall, not seeing her until she had hit bottom or near to it. He was driving but his motions were clipped, angry, not at her but at what he hadn't done, he'd promised and he'd let her down. Which to him was something unforgivable and it was breaking him.

The darkened streets were rolling by and the late night life of Westchester was sparse, the lights from a small motel were swimming into view and she just pulled the steering wheel round before he had chance to react. He controlled the turn she'd forced them into, coming to rest in the centre of the parking lot, engine gently
ticking over and the look of anger quickly rising in Logan's eyes as he looked at her crying face. "Marie what the fuck..." He never finished his thought because she put her hand upto his mouth, the touch of her skin on his own making silence come through his body.
Making him realise how much he'd failed at the single touch of her skin, that he hadn't stopped her, that he hadn't looked for her when she'd gone. Thinking she knew what she'd wanted, that she was doing it for herself when he knew for certain it had been for Bobby. So he could touch her and she could feel worthy of his touch, when there had been nothing wrong with her in the first place.

She got out, wiped her eyes and made for the office, paid for a room coming back with a key her body moving with determination. If he wanted to follow her he would, she knew that and nothing she said would change what he thought or what he did. HE was the Wolverine for gods sake, the man who'd killed the woman he loved because she
was destroying the world. He'd been the only one who could've done it, the only one Jean would have let near enough to her. No one asked about the cost to Logan though did they, not even Ororo when they'd prised his hands from her body. They'd left him to suffer alone as they'd taken Jean from him, not even Hank had had time to
talk to him, she'd been too wrapped up in Bobby and Kitty to look his way either. Not until the funeral, then it had seemed too late for her to try, but now maybe there was a chance. He'd come to her and she'd make him do it again.

It was an hour later when he finally came inside the room; darkness was losing to the rising sun and he looked like he'd travelled all the way here on his back he looked so haggard. He sat on the bed, the weight of him sending creaks through the shoddy frame. Turning into the comforting size of him she let herself breathe him in, her
hands tightening on the solidity of him. Feeling the metal on his bones as sure as she'd put it there herself.
"Logan," Her voice was small, quiet almost so unlike the one she'd used to scream at the others in the hallways of the mansion. She felt his breath shudder, the wreckage of his body as he finally let go of the burden he was carrying. Collapsing into her softness, feeling the razor slide of his tears on her skin, his grip bruising, her ribs creaking with the pressure of him. She'd accept the pain gladly; she'd dealt her own wounds to him that had been just as bed but hadn't been visable until now.

********************************************

Neither of them remembered how they became naked,or how they'd managed to pull the other into the embraces they had on each other.
Her legs wrapped around his waist as he moved inside her, hands either side of her head, his body arched above her own. Trying to hold back from hurting her, knowing he needed to, to show her what she'd done to him by her giving what had been his to someone else who hadn't cared about her. She'd touched his face then, when his eyes had darkened just before he'd gone over pulling her with him
with the friction and force of his body against her own. Her whispers caught by his ears, as loud as a hurricane to him. "I'm sorry, it should have been you. I never stopped loving you."

Those simple words, snapped all she'd felt wide open, laying her bare to him, to do what he wanted with. He owned what was left of her and he knew it, just as much as she owned what was left of him. He'd shuddered above her as she'd gripped him never wanting to lose him but knowing she would. Her traitorous skin would turn against
her soon and she'd be untouchable once again but at least she'd have this. He'd have what he deserved, what she'd promised him at the beginning, on the train, in the machine, in the tunnel, in the same car he'd driven them here in, in the hallway that day when she'd left to get the cure.

He'd given her life once and she'd been wanting to throw it away again because she couldn't have what she'd thought was hers to have.

Bobby.

He'd been safe, a little boy to the men in her mind, only when she'd seen him in the hallway after Alcatraz did she see exactly what this had cost him, what her running away had cost him. He'd made a decision and she hadn't been the one he'd chosen, even then she tried to trap him. Giving him what she'd thought he'd wanted, her body but it wasn't enough, hadn't been enough and she'd remembered
the look on his face from the memories of Logan after he'd fucked a hooker. Blank but satisfied, no emotion, no feeling but relief and then she'd known exactly what she'd done to herself and the one man who did love her, Logan.

They rested there the entire day, both of their phones vibrating and ringing but they ignored them. They needed this, this time together, alone, away, healing together, touching, holding, tasting, making memories that might never be repeated but it didn't matter. Only when they checked out that night did Logan speak to her, the tone
filled with extra meaning only she could pick up on. "When we get home move your stuff over," she'd looked at him about to argue when he'd just shifted his stance and growled. There was no arguement with this, it wasn't a request,it had been an order and she'd follow it or else.

The journey back was just as quiet but she knew the next few hours wouldn't be; especially when she moved her things into his room.
He'd taken what he'd earned and she deserved whatever he wanted to give her both good and bad. They'd both made bad choices but life went on didn't it? After all, all we can ever ask for is what we deserve don't you think?

Everything was quiet when they got back, kids were already in class, but faces appeared at windows and both of them caught the tension that was swimming around in the air. Moving sluggishly Logan gripped her arm tight and pulled her bodily to the front doors, Ororo was
already there waiting for them both. Her face telling them both exactly what she thought of their unscheduled trip away from the mansion, she got out, "Logan where the hell have you been? We tried calling but you weren't answering. I nearly sent out the Black..."

He rounded on her then, all animal as he slammed her back into the wooden panelling of the hallway. His hand around her throat, tightening slowly as he just stood there, anger pouring off him. Ororo so stunned she didn't even try to defend herself at first not until Logan began to growl. Ororo tried to get free but he had a grip like iron on her skin and the quiet shade of Rogue had nothing
to say about his treatment of her either.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP! I'M NOT HIM, I'LL NEVER BE HIM, SO WISE UP!" he just dropped her then, the light finally going on in her head as she realised just exactly what he meant. He wasn't Scott, he didn't leave plans with people of where to find him or how to contact him if he was needed, he just left. Luckily no one but the three of them
had witnessed his treatment of Ororo, if anyone else had seen it Marie was sure that Ro' would be asking him to leave.

Marie caught Ro's eyes just as she was pulled away by Logan, his grip on her just as tight; the look that passed between them one of loss, understanding and grief. What was happening wasn't right by anyones rules but it was what was going to happen. Logan owned her, had the moment he'd given her the tags to look after, she'd made the mistake not him and now she was paying for it.

Hallways that were familiar passed by, the scents and sounds of children all around, the room she'd been in when the attack had come, still showing the bullet hole in the frame. He threw her inside her room, pacing in the hallway as she packed her things. She took only what she'd bought with her own money, leaving behind nearly everything else. All in all she had two bags of clothes and nothing else, knowing Logan traveled light and she'd have to as well eventually so she did her cutting down now. Seeing her finished he tore the bags from her hands, holding them in one hand and pulling her with the other. Several teachers saw them along the corridor leading to his room, their voices stilled by the look in Logan's
eyes daring them to comment. Eyes dropped to the floor or to her own blank visage, she was lost inside her own world, where Logan made the rules and she followed.

If Scott had been alive he'd have fought Logan about it but he wasn't here, he was six feet under outside. Well if you can call a molar and a pair of glasses bodily remains, same with Xavier, a bit of dust that was scraped from the chair after Jean had torn him apart with her mind. Throughout all this she remained silent knowing that as soon as they were behind his door he'd talk to her, point out the rules to her, the ones she needed to
follow. A path, a way to go, anything but this drifting miasma of pain that never left her.

He'd claimed her, determined not to lose any more time than he had already. Jean, he'd loved her but he'd known that it hadn't been her that had wanted him; it had been Phoenix, her subconscious. The one that had killed Scott and Xavier, she hated with a passion that he understood. She'd been controlled, diverted, made less than what she
was by well meaning idiots who didn't understand what it meant to her to have the freedom of her own will.
At the moment of her death she'd understood, she let him kill her, she'd thanked him as the blades had sunk into her body shredding her lung and kidney. A quick death it was what she deserved after all, he couldn't have hurt her anymore than she'd already hurt herself.
He remembered the look on her face as she'd realised what she done to Scott, that she'd killed him. Destroyed the one man who'd loved her with all he'd had but he wasn't enough for Phoenix, no man was and that was the rub. He'd been a toy, a pleasure for a moment when he'd wanted everything. No the one who'd held everything for him had
given it to a boy for nothing more than a turn in the sheets, to feel normal.

So when Ororo got on his case about where they'd been for two days he just snapped, slamming her 'do-gooder' ass into the wall and letting her know just how much he wasn't Scott. Ro' was afraid of him and her scent had spiked into true terror for a moment and Wolverine had lapped that up. He needed her to fear him, he wanted
it now, before he'd felt guilt about it but not now. He had nothing to apologise for, didn't they know who he was, what he was? He wasn't a damn teacher, he was a killer, plain and simple, he looked after what was his an thats all. When he'd let Ro' go he'd pulled Marie with him, she was living with him now and that would be the
only way he'd stay here.
Flinging her into her room he watched her pack as he paced outside in the hallway, flexing his hands trying to calm his anger down, tyring to calm the rage he felt. All throughout this Marie was silent, as if she understood exactly what he needed from her, silent compliance. When she'd finished he just snatched the two holdalls from her and took her wrist again, dragging her to his room in the
teachers wing.

******************************************

The door shut he threw her bags into a corner, the lock snapped home and she knew her life would be mapped out in this room, he'd define her until she was sure of what or who she wanted to be again.
Grabbing her shoulders Logan pulled her round to the bathroom, standing her in front of the mirror he began to strip her. His face grim, his eyes dark and the set of his mouth cruel, ripping her skirt apart and balling it up. Her clothes would never be worn again, they weren't part of who she was anymore. Standing naked in his grip, her eyes filling with tears as he checked every single
piece of skin on her. Stripping her bare so she had no defence from his scrutiny, his search of her soul that lay on her skin, taking her hair in his fist he pulled her back into him. Her reflection trying not to meet the cruelty in his mirror reflection, feeling his heart beating out of his chest knowing this hurt him as much as it did him but he needed to do this to her. She had to see what he saw, "Look at yourself. You sold yourself Marie, you sold everything you were for a fuck, a cheap fuck with a boy who could take any cunt that passed by. You gave him everything, everything you promised to ME!" Behind her back he was struggling to keep still, he wanted to let her go, to hold her, to touch her, to tell her he was sorry but he had to do this. He HAD to show her what she'd done to him, how much it had hurt him to know she'd given herself to the boy when he'd been waiting for her. He thought she'd understood that but she
hadn't and so they were here, her naked and him torturing her with it.

"I love you, do you understand Marie? I LOVE YOU! Not a little, not in a brother way or a protective way but a MAN'S way. Don't you know how hard it was to leave you behind, to step out of that door knowing you needed me? Knowing that you needed time to grow up, to choose your own way, to choose ME." Tears were flowing but from
which one neither of them could answer, the pain covered too much, hid too much. His head dropped into her neck the wetness on her shoulder telling her she wasn't alone in her grief. "All I ever wanted was you and you gave yourself away while I wasn't looking. While I was chasing her, trying to stop her from killing everyone, if I'd wanted to fuck her Marie I could have, down in Med Bay. Jean wanted me but I knew it would be wrong, it'd hurt you so I didn't. I loved her Marie I can't deny that but you *OWNED* me, from the moment you shouted out in the bar in Laughlin. You cared for me, you cared but you gave it away to someone who could only pity you because of your skin." He lifted his head and caught her red eyed
glare in the mirror, "It was never about your skin with me Marie, if it had been I'd never have touched you on the torch."

He tore away from her then leaving her naked and crying in the bathroom, naked with herself, with the truth of her decisons for clothing. She heard the door unlock and open, Logan stepped out of the room his words enough for now. He was empty and he needed time to recover before he saw her again, turning on the shower Marie stepped inside. The water cleaning her skin as if she'd been on the road for months. Her tears mingling with the warm rain taking her shell with it, she was new when she stepped out of the bathroom.
Logan was sat on the bed his face impassive but his arm reaching out to her, taking the invitation she crawled into the space he'd carved out for her. Still too emotional to speak he just stroked her hair, listening to his heartbeat lull her to sleep. Safe for the first time since he'd rescued her from herself, she could be Marie again, Bobby had taken Rogue and that name no longer meant anything but pain. She was Marie now.

The next few weeks went by as if nothing had occurred, the school still had classes, tempers flared and food was eaten in vast amounts by the staff and students. The only clue that not everything was happy in the mutant paradise known as Xaviers School for the Gifted was the tension that pervaded the air whenever Rogue left Logan's room.

It drifted with her quietening hallways, making eyes drop to the floor as she passed as if looking at her would incur some wrath that would drop on them from above. Which knowing her room mate would be forthcoming if anyone hurt her, it was the way they all held their
breath around her while she moved like a ghost through the rest of the living bodies around her.

It came to a head in the library of all places, she'd gone there to relax, to hide in reality from the quiet that followed her. Here at least it was normal to be quiet; in here you were meant to study but the young voices she heard were something she never thought to hear.
She didn't know the kids, they were a new addition to the school and as such didn't know the history between the two people they were talking about. But she listened anyway.

"I'm tellin you, Mr Logan is a killer! He was the one that killed Doctor Grey." The kids were encouraged to call Jean by her title, not by the one that the rest of the world knew her as 'Phoenix' the one who'd nearly killed them all. A younger girl who had bright blue
hair running down her back and onto her arms shook her head as she listened to her friends take on the story.
"Nah you got that backwards, the way I heard it, it was the only way Mr Logan could have saved us all. She was crazy, mad, cuckoo you know? She was dangerous and I'm glad she died." Even though Jean was resting just outside in the garden Marie couldn't help but feel a glow in her heart when she heard that come out of the young girls
mouth. What came next froze her rigid with rage, "Although I have no idea why Mr Logan puts us through the wringer so much, I mean its not as if we'll ever need to do what Rogue did. I mean after they found out the cure doesn't work and Professor Xavier died trying to save us from Dr Grey we're fine. I mean sure I'll train to defend others sure but I'd not cross over the line you know. I'd not take the cure no matter how much they tell me I'm a freak." The first kid snorted through his nose as he listened to her, answering her jibe
at someone she knew nothing about.
"Yeah sure Chrys, like you'd ever look normal with your feet anyway. Bet if you'd been taken for the cure your daddy would have used your shoes as extra boats for fishin'."

This made a smatter of laughter go around the rest of the kids but it had been the calm voice of someone she knew that had made her come out of hiding and into the circle of kids. She knew his tone, the eveness of it, the controlled way he could form every word; crafting it so it did the maximum damage.
"You don't know the pain Rogue went through with her mutation, she was cut off from the world entirely. Even a small touch could kill the person she touched, the only one who will be safe with her is Mr Logan, when her mutation returns..." she could even see the blond
hair and the way he'd be turning his head to scope every single face as he said this to them, making sure he reached them. "She's been through a lot but then so has every one of us here." The girl with the blue hair spoke up again and Marie moved closer.

"But she didn't fight did she? She left and took the cure when she could have been helping, fighting by everyones side. She was trained you said, just like everyone else but she chose herself over others like her." Bobby's voice was cultured and smooth when he answered her and Marie could feel herself crumbling in the assault on her
from the one person she'd given herself to.
"Yes that's true but Rogue's talent wasn't very useful when we were up against human's with guns. They were armed with the cure and Rogue wouldn't have been much use if she'd been hit, even Magneto was brought down by them and you've seen how powerful he was." She chose that moment to come out of the shadows into the sunlight, her
eyes burning brightly as she heard the gasps and movements of the kids. Finally Bobby's head turned to look at her, there was nothing in his gaze but honesty. He'd told the truth according to him, the kids around him were silent but they caught the air of anger around her and kept their mouths shut.

"Why don't you tell them why I wasn't there Bobby? Why don't you tell them about the three months you pestered me for sex, the times you tried to force me into things I wasn't ready for? Bobby?" She knew her voice was breaking, her emotions were running riot and her skin was tingling. Angry tears were spilling over her face as she
walked toward him, pushing all her anger forward into her skin, into her hands she reached out to Bobby. He didn't move and that was all him, thinking she was still safe, it was only when he began to shudder and a feral light shone in Marie's eye that one of the kids bolted screaming for Ororo. She didn't let go until Logan tore her hand away from his skin, the red mark she'd left on his face looking like a burn. Bobby just faded out as the link broke, Logan tore her round his hands covered with his bike gloves. The smile on her face on he knew well enough, it was his own when he'd found someone he'd
been 'looking' for on his trips out. Dragging her away as Bobby began fitting again, Hank flying to the aid of Bobby the rumours already building around her as he led her away.

Inside she was lost in the madness of revenge, she'd pushed out, she'd made him feel everything he'd made her feel. She was still alive and so was Bobby, Logan wasn't talking to her but he knew she wasn't right. He locked the door with both of them behind it and they didn't come out for three days, when she did things had changed again, they were leaving, maybe for good.

The morning Ororo came to their door wasn't her first attempt at getting Logan to reconsider but it was her last. Bobby had made a full recovery but the mark on his skin hadn't faded, it wouldn't either. She'd marked him for life, all the rage and hurt she'd felt had been pushed into him, given him back the blame he'd shoved onto
her own soul. Logan thought Bobby deserved it; he'd killed Rogue with his lack of care and now he was making sure Marie had everything she could possibly need, away from here.

Everyone was watching as the arguement raged, Logan just carrying their bags down the stairs, tying them into the truck. Not answering her jibes and comments aimed at trying to get him to feel guilty about leaving them in the lurch. Sure they had teachers coming out of their wazoo but they didn't have a tactician like him, they
didn't have anyone who knew weapons like he did. At that sentence Logan threw his roladex at her from his old desk, the cards spilling everywhere on the stained concrete of the garage. Ororo was at her ropes end, she'd tried to talk to Logan about treating Rogue. About her need for counselling, for her need for control, for her home here and the friends she still had here.

It had been the admission of her life here that had Marie waking up to what was being discussed here, that she was being touted as insane to keep Logan from leaving with her. At those words she just moved toward Ororo, her hands uncovered and her face smiling blankly. Logan wasn't watching her and she knew she could get a good
touch in before Logan could grab her. If she wanted to know what was going on in her head she'd show her, she'd let her deal with the pain she had rolling around her nerves. The deadness that only Logan eased with his presence, that he still held hope for her, the person
she'd been before all of this, before the battle, before the choices both of them had made.

She was so close to her, just a hand width away when Logan just snatched her away from Ororo. His voice rumbling through her skin making it tingle all the more, "You've done enough 'Ro. You told her she was a traitor for doing it, for not being the perfect little
soldier you expected her to be. When all she wanted was a place people wouldn't flinch when she came near them." Logan growled his last words so only Ororo could hear them and her usual settled frame shuddered when she heard them. "An you did flinch didn't ya?"
He'd said his piece, they were leaving and that was that, where they were going was another matter entirely. No one here would know and he'd never let them near again if he had his way but Marie when she did heal might want to do some rebuilding with some of the people here. Hank especially, he was someone she could touch, he understood
her need to be normal, he'd never treated her like a traitor.

It seemed only fitting that the last person to see them had been the large doctor, he'd just pressed a small phone into Logan's hand. The only words swapped between the two men short and efficient, "I'm on speed dial. Number one, anything you need just call." With that he
turned away and went to walk back to the mansion, Logan's voice cutting through the engine noise to bring the larger man's attention back to Logan behind the wheel.
"You know they won't leave you alone here?" Hank looked tired just then and he nodded as he walked away his hand waving his goodbye as he walked back down the gravel drive home.
Marie remembered the tired look in Logan's face when he just reached out and stroked her skin, taking in her mixed emotions and fears about where they were going and what they'd do out there alone.
Smiling he just threw the truck into gear and pulled away, where didn't matter or what they did when they got there. All that did matter was away.

****************************************

Six months passed.

Marie was herself as much as she could be with the after-effects of the cure still playing hell with her mutation. Some days she was safe to touch, others she would project her feelings onto people around her. They travelled as much as they could, never staying anywhere longer than a week, criss-crossing the country and it was this that kept them under the radar when the news came out. Someone
had released a virus made from the cure, the thing was specifically designed to attack mutants. When Logan had heard it he'd looked at her face as the shock showed in her eyes and in his mind.
They were moving in fifteen minutes, by the hour's end they had a truck filled with stuff that they'd need out in the middle of nowhere and Logan had pushed speed dial four times with no luck.

At the moment they crossed the border into Canada he'd been waiting for someone to answer the damn phone when the voice he'd been waiting for answered at last. "How bad?" Marie watched the confusion run across his face as he drove them along the dark stretch of road that was leading them north-west into the heart of the plains. Logan switched the phone over to his other ear so Marie could listen too, the voice on the other end sounded tired, old, worn out.
"We had the first case three months ago, I didn't know what it was. I was called in as consultant but the thing is it's out and the kids who've been exposed..." Marie opened her mouth for the first time in a month, her voice cracked as the words fell out.
"Who?" The silence that met their ears was soon filled by the baritone she once loved to hear say her name.
"Kitty, Angela, David, Bobby is struggling at the moment but he won't be long if the disease follows it's course. It lurks in the body, waiting for the right moment to strike, then it takes over the bodies immune system. Destroying you from the inside out, at the most you have a month after you show symptoms. Bobby's had three weeks."

She wanted to smile, to feel joy at the death that was being written across the world. The joy of it, the utter freedom it gave, death walking on feet of air that everyone could feel and know. A touch from a loved one would be as deadly as her own could be, the irony of it wasn't over as she brought her mind back to listen to what
Hank was telling Logan. "The kids that took the cure, they seem to have some immunity to it, somehow the changes that were wrought by the original cure seem to make the virus die before it can replicate to cause any real problems." Logan's eyes met Marie's the relief in
them palpable, what Logan said next made her wonder why he'd given the people who hurt her a chance.

"Hank get over the border as soon as possible, head for Alberta. Take everything you can muster and get moving, now. Things are going to go south and New York will kill you all if they get the chance. I'll find you after we get settled. Hank, take only those who'll go. Leave everyone else behind, it's your only chance." The silence on the other end finally made Logan hang up and they travelled in silence for hours until the dawn light was creeping into the world.

Only then did they pull off the main road into the scrubland and bed down in the truck. Logan pulling her into his arms, seeing the nerves arise in her gaze as she realised the world had changed again. She'd had a few months of peace, a few months of piecing her shattered self together with Logan to help her find who she was
again.

Angry she looked at him, her eyes blazing.
"I'm not sharing you," the statement making him smile warmly, making him pull her closer to him. His hands winding through her clothing to touch her skin, making her needs pull to the surface of her.
"I know, but they deserve a chance Marie. Life's too short." She nodded as his hands began unwrapping her, life was too short but for her a grudge would always be there. They hurt her badly and she wouldn't give them a second go at her or Logan, she was herself again, stronger, harder, tougher. As the pleasure followed the trail of Logans skin over her own she let herself forget the news for a while. They were heading for somewhere safe and Logan wanted her with him, he loved her and she'd been feeling that for a while now and she was determined to keep it all for herself no matter what the
cost.

The bluff wasn't perfect but the water source was clear of
pollution, Logan and Marie spent the first months wandering before winter hit. The people they saw were wrecked, looking for someone to take charge of them, to tell them what to do. The only ones who seemed to understand what was going on and how to survive were the
truckers they met. Logan was enough of a brawler to make it not worth their while challenging him over Marie, she'd touched a few and she'd put them down permenantly. Seperating her own consciousness from theirs was easy, her own emotions flooded them in the moments before their deaths. She made them feel the fear she had, the self loathing and hurt that others had given her. Only Logan touched her skin, only he held her, only he understood why
she'd killed the men who'd wanted to hurt her.

Alberta wasn't perfect but it was big, the land mass alone was enough for them to get lost in. They'd made a permenant camp just five miles from the Peace River, the town was enough to raid if they needed to. When they'd reached it law and order had long gone, the radio Logan had brought with them spoke erractically and randomly.
When it did it was usually to tell anyone who was listening to get to a medic centre, or if you were sick to just stay put and put a piece of white cloth outside your door.

Logan had just kept quiet as the world fell apart, building the shelter they needed, Marie had been learning too. She learnt what foods they could glean from the abundance around them, the roots and tubers that were plump from a summer. When the berries came she ground what she could, dried the rest over fire with the meat that Logan hunted. Keeping the fires small just in case, they didn't see anyone they didn't want to for nearly a year. Spring had finally warmed the ground through when the sound of the bear trap went off, smiling at Logan as they both pictured the meat that would soon be drying and filling their bellies.

When they reached the ridge, the movement of people made both of them freeze. Signalling Marie Logan told her to go to the left he'd go right, silent and deadly they split up, a perfect hunting team.
She had no qualms at killing out here, Logan had pointed out to her what humans were really like underneath. Savages three meals away from anarchy, pull the plug and watch the monkeys dance. If what she'd seen in the town nearby had been anything to go by Logan was right about human nature.

The town had been a wake up call for her, blood covered many cars and bikes. Dead bodies were in the streets showing wounds that weren't just death blows, they'd been mutilated afterward. Some even had pieces missing, Logan hadn't kept her from anything, she needed to know how dangerous life was now. He'd made her take a gun but
only to use it at long range, even then only when there was no other option. The houses were the worst, the ones with the doors wide open, showing how it used to be, how the life within them had suddenly halted. As the virus had turned against the ones that had used it, the little pieces of life trying to find new hosts and finding it in those who carried the X-Gene. Justice Logan had called
it but the words had been dead ash in his mouth, he'd been disgusted at the sight of so much death. Yet there was nothing they could do but survive it, pick the world clean of what they needed and live.
Logan was a survivor and he'd made Marie one too, she wasn't the same girl that left the mansion a head case. She was something else entirely.

*********************************

He'd watched them try to get someone out of the trap, their co- ordination made them obvious, these people had been trained. Narrowing his gaze he breathed in their mixed scents, tired, hungry, despairing; yet there was a familiar scent mixed in with those below. One he knew, one that made the now defunct phone at home seem
familiar, the dark blue hand that came above the rim of the pit making his memory fire; Hank!

**************************

Marie almost screamed when Logan just walked out of cover, they could be armed, they could kill him, she knew how much it took out of him to heal and he was just walking toward them! Anger flushing her system she dove out of cover toward the group her hands bare; curled into claws ready to attack if she needed to.
Her eyes met a face she once knew, the scar going across her once smiling face twisting her skin. The old name almost out of her mouth as the blue hand flailed for help out of the hole, seeing the colour she never expected to see again; her anger faded like mist. Throwing herself down into the ground and pulling with all her strength, her bare hands gripping the blue furred hand as the tears rolled down her face. Only when the head moved upward to see who was helping did she smile, the amber gaze still cared for her, still held some warmth for her and her heart leapt for it.

********************************************

Logan watched as Marie pulled her one friend out of their bear trap, wrapping herself into his fur as he listened to her voice. He'd been everything for her for too long, she needed others to round her out again. He knew she wasn't healing as well as she could but her safety had come first and he'd made her safe, just that there were
pieces of her that he couldn't heal with kisses or touches in the night and screamed promises.

He scanned the rest of them, only three other faces he remembered, Peiter being one of them, his frame still big but his skin hung off his bones. Jubilee was another the scar that ran down her face taking in one now blind eye telling of the struggle they'd had to get here. The other was Anne, a kid whom Marie had been tutoring before everything had collapsed around them at the mansion. The
others he didn't know and he didn't want them near him. Jubilee walked toward him, her scent showing her fear but she didn't show it in her movements.
"Logan," she waited for him to answer her but he kept silent, recognising his intent she carried on. "We're passing through, on the way to the coast. We need somewhere to hole up and heal up for a while." She turned her head to look at some of the other kids they had with them. Their scared faces showed enough of the journey for
him to know it hadn't been easy on them. "We won't be staying long. Some of us just need a break, we've been running for nearly four months now. No matter where we go someone seems to be there before us, usually humans." There was a lot she wasn't saying but the way Peiter stood a little straighter told him what had usually happened when they stayed somewhere. It opened something in him that he didn't want to recognise, leadership.

****************************************

Marie was lost in touch, in sensation, just smiling her head off at the big blue man that was in her arms. His rich baritone making her skin shudder as he held her close to him, "Rogue, you look so well! How long have you been out here, have you met up with anyone else? Have you both been alright? Have you seen any sentinels?" The words
didn't matter to her, all she cared for was the touch of another person on her skin. Someone who once cared for her, she felt glad that Logan had phoned that warning now, she'd thought he'd done it to get at her for a while. But he'd been right she'd had friends there, not many but some, tears drying in Hanks fur she turned to
see Jubilee trying to talk to Logan. Her hands gripping his fur tightly as she saw the scar running down her face, Hank's deep sigh and the voice that filled her world told her what had happened.

They'd been gathering food from a storehouse, Jubilee was the last to come out but she'd found a young child hiding inside the storehouse. Scared and frightened half to death the child had seen him and freaked, pulling a blade down Jubilee's face taking an eye with it's passage. She'd just held onto the child as Hank had come over to them both, trying to save the child, to help it but as soon as they'd camped for the night the kid had run. Jubilee had been in a bad way for weeks, the socket becoming infected and if it had been anyone else but him with them Hank was sure they'd have lost her.
Hank raised his arm to wave at Logan and saw a slight nod in his direction. Marie let him go and went back to Logan, needing the comfort of his embrace,of his security seeing others from before had disturbed her inner calm. She no longer knew where to place them in her world, were they enemies or not? Looking to Logan she tried to find the words to express it but came up short, instead she showed him using her skin. The tumult of emotion running through him, she caught his reaction to her touch; smiling as he just growled at her. Telling her they'd keep a distance, let them camp here, eat here but they'd be seperate as much as she wanted them to be.

Inside Logan couldn't help but wonder how things would turn out; the past was here for her to face, everything they'd been running from had found them both. Watching the little band of survivors he knew that they wouldn't last much longer without help. That they got here at all was a testament to how luck played it's part in survival. No things were going to change again and he doubted that either of them would be happy about it.

That first night was the worst for her, she kept expecting someone to come and seperate them. Knowing that there was someone from her rigid life before resting only a short distance away made her nerves go through the roof. Logan had had to wrap himself around her just to get her to settle, his hand constantly in her own trying to comfort her as the emotions began their rollercoaster ride again.

He'd finally had enough when the moon had set, she was still half awake and they needed rest or tomorrow would be even worse. "Marie." he shook her from the half sleep she was in, noticing her eyes that were red-rimmed and scared. "We gotta talk." Shifting her around so she was resting in his lap, his back against the wooden wall he'd
built to protect them.

Moving silently she knew it would come to this, her fears finally coming true. They were going to take him away from her, make her leave him behind. Somewhere in her own mind she got control of the voice that was whispering into her ear and squashed it flat. If he'd meant that she wouldn't be here right now would she? She wouldn't be
wrapped up in his arms, she wouldn't be able to feel his love for her growing at her thigh as he moved her into him. His face was calm and the emotions she could feel from him were concern; he was worried about her; so she listened.
"Look I'm not going to sugar coat this Marie I'm not like that but you gotta understand somethin'." She nodded as she watched the struggle for words to explain what was happening around them. "We've got a responsibility here Marie, you've seen them kids." She nodded yeah she'd seen them but she'd seen worse travel on by, Logan's mood
changed and she caught a spark of life in him that she had never given him rise in him. "They need help and we can give it, if we choose to."

She froze in his grip, he wanted them to stay here! He wanted them to stay with them, he saw her work out what he was trying to get through to her and tightened his grip on her. "They won't be here Marie, they won't be near us. Maybe a days walk away but they need somewhere to stay, somewhere safe. Hank's a mess, he barely had the
strength to get out of the trap. Pete's a bag of bones and can't even use his power; if he does he collapses afterward. Marie we've done it, we're 'living' they're not even surviving. All the fancy training, all the soft living, all the crap Xavier fed em didn't do them any favours darlin', we made it. You an' me, together, we did
it and we're gonna keep on doin it too. Just cos they're over the next hill don't mean anything is gonna change between us. Once they have the basics they're on their own again, your mine always have been, always will be an' nothin is gonna change that darlin'. Nothing."

She really wanted to beleive him, she did, even when he turned her back to the bed showing her exactly how much he loved every inch of her body she still couldn't help quieten her mind. Letting herself get lost in the assurances he gave her, that he'd always put her first, put them first. She'd been shaken and the only way open to
him to prove what he'd said was to do it and it was the unknown that frightened her.

******************************************

Over the next week they got their story, about how Hank had been doing some tests on the people who were down in medbay already. He'd injected Peiter first, he'd been down there with a concussion from the danger room, thing was the lack of beds had meant he'd been exposed to the sick and as such he'd been given the only thing Hank had.

Hank had tried it first on himself, that had been a given if Logan remembered anything about the big guy. Jubilee had been later, she'd been out at the mall when a group calling themselves the Friends Of Humanity had chased after any mutants that had been obvious at the mall. She'd gotten involved and earned a knife wound in the back, after being patched up she'd been innoculated too, Anne was a test case, she'd been for the cure but it hadn't worked for her at all.
Her powers had remained the same after the cure, so Hank had used her immunity as a test for the others. Thing was he never had the time to do it, what Logan had told him came to pass just a week after the mall incident.

They came in armoured cars, guns blazing, mouths screaming
obscenities at children as they fired, Ororo tried to stop them but was almost cut in two by the gunfire. After they'd seen their leader destroyed the rest of the teams just melted away, everyone took what they could and left. Death was already following them, the virus showing symptoms on at least half of the people that had raided the school. Hank's worse decision had come at this time, he'd grabbed the ones he could, the walking wounded and left the rest. They were dying anyway but the wrench had taken it's toll on the big man, forcing him into a depression that had been hard to come out of.

He'd left to the sound of his lab being smashed apart taking any hope of a cure with it. He'd prepped a suv in case and was glad he had that day; taking only three others with him, guilt was something that you felt later and it had hit him hard. They'd been travelling West hoping to find a space to run into but there had been chaos everywhere. Everyone was a target now and thats when the sentinels had been deployed, law and order were long gone by then.

Hank described the sentinels as robots, large machines that were programmed to find life and destroy it. People weren't afraid of them at first, that was until they began taking humans as well as mutants. They'd been programmed to destroy anyone who had the virus, thing was everyone they met had it or carried it. Hank's face told
him enough of what he'd seen happen on the roads with these things.
It was winter when Logan's comment about Alberta had been brought up into his mind, instead of keeping still and waiting for winter to fade they struck out in it. Heading due north, walking mainly after the suv had been destroyed by humans, the things they could use had been stolen and the rest burned.

Food wise they'd been eating what had been left in pantries along the way, resting in houses when there was no other shelter. Picking up the rest of the kids as they went, some of them were definately mutants, others they weren't so sure of. Two had died on the way here, malnourishment and scurvy, Hank's eyes had grown wet at that, listening to him curse the world as he'd held a child in his arms dying from lack of vitamins. He'd had surgery as a toddler, scar tissue that had been built over his blood vessels broke down, he bled to death in minutes. His skin showing the dark stain only after
Hank had put him to rest in a house which they'd burned.

Marie listened too, the journey sounding like a nightmare, one that kept coming, kept showing you worse sights the more you walked into it. She didn't look at the young kids, she couldn't but it was Anne who came upto her. Resting her head against her shoulder and crying, the tears making her own hard resolve crumble, the tears she'd held in check for so long broke through. Destroying her old heart, washing away the pain she'd held so close to her skin, seeing the remnants of the ones who'd hurt her laid so low. The ones who'd survived were only there by chance, by luck, she'd been with Logan,
seeing him as a lucky charm for a moment. Someone who knew the world like this, someone who'd seen the evil men do to each other in good times; so when this happened he'd been ready. So had she in a way, only seeing someone she'd cared about injured, abused, hurt made her rethink her position. How lucky she'd been, how much Logan loved her for real, how much he'd given up for her the moment he'd known what she'd needed.

She caught him watching her reaction as the words slid out of them all, how Jubilee had had to use her body to gain food and shelter for the rest of them. How Peiter had had to rescue her more than once from cages where men kept their women to 'protect them from others'. Life had cost her friend more than she'd ever thought, survival had given Jubilee a haunted look and a face that no longer
smiled. The kid who loved to shop was nowhere to be seen, only a hardened veteran of life was there in her form. It hurt to see, it hurt to realise what she wasn't the only one suffering, she hadn't been the last to know what pain was at the hands of another.

It tore her open, flooding her with images of her own killing, her own cruelty to others, the part of her that was carried by these people coming home to her. They knew her as the Rogue, the one who cared, who smiled, who laughed at the world when it told her she couldn't do something. But Rogue was dead, a memory, she was Marie
now, and the two couldn't exist in the same space, Marie was harder, stronger, forged in the wilderness by pain, anger and hatred.

When Jubilee called her 'Rogue' she snapped her head round to glate at the young woman but found her voice quietening to a normal tone when she saw the dull shine in her one remaining eye. "I'm not Rogue, she died the day I left the mansion Jube's. My name's Marie, my real name, the one I took back from everyone who hated me, called me less than what I was. Rogue was a mask, a childs mask and just as hollow. My name is Marie."
Jubilee just nodded slightly and asked if she could use it, Logan watched her reaction as she flushed a little, her emotion riding high as she answered her.
"Sure." She was risking herself here, letting someone who wasn't Logan inside again but she wanted it if truth be known. The smile that covered Logan's face was real and the heat in his gaze was pride, he was proud of her so it must have been the right step.

She let Anne hold her a little more, shifting into the embrace of another human being, one she'd cared for once before the crushing weight of hate had squashed her ability to feel. She just let the tears fall, knowing they wouldn't stop for a while, all the while seeing Logan smile and give her strength in his gaze on her. He
loved her, was proud of her, needed her and that was the one thing that surprised her. He showed her that in his gaze, in his movements toward her, he needed her as much as she needed him. And she liked it.

The winter winds were cutting, it was only August for fucks sake!
The unseasonal weather had Logan worried, the animals were beginning their migrations early and he didn't have enough food cached to last them the winter. The small underground icehouse was already in use with the fish that had been caught from the rapids a day's hike away. Something was wrong with the world and Logan didn't need Hanks brains to work out what was going on, something had happened somewhere and they were going to have to struggle through the next couple of months.

Marie was becoming more self assured, more the woman he knew she was underneath but he hadn't thought about what she'd do or feel about what he had in mind. The cabins over the south ridge housed the kids and Hank, he tried to remember not to call them kids anymore.
Jubilee was no longer a child, neither was Pete, only Anne seemed to retain some childish joy at life. But then she tended to look after the other younger kids.

Thinking about them made his mind go back to the day he'd finished the kids housing, the way they'd shuffled inside, looking at the rough beds and mattresses stuffed with grasses. Anne had been making sure the kids were picking their own spaces when one of the younger ones had just picked his hand up and pulled him to her small bed in
the corner.

Not knowing why but glad of the contact from the small child, he let her pull him to the corner when she just hopped up on the mattress.
Pulling her thin skirt up over her bony hips and dropping her tiny chest into the soft hay beneath her. His gasp had made Anne turn round, he had to give her some credit she didn't even blink when she pulled the kids skirt back down and sent her outside. Telling her to go see Jubilee and tell her she'd done it again, Logan was stunned by the little childs actions. As if what she'd done was the most natural thing in the world, that offering herself to a man was something she always did.

Anne waited until she'd gone before talking to him, her voice small and hollow in the dirt floor room
that was now their home. "Don't be mad at her, she doesn't know any better. We found her at a truck-stop, she'd been there for a while chained to a sink, thats how she'd survived. The water tank still had water in it, so she was only thin when we found her, we think the corpse in the front was her abuser. She called him Harry, when
someone does something nice for her she just does it. She doesn't even see it as bad, Hank thinks she'll grow out of it eventually but we don't tell her it's wrong. It wasn't her fault."

His hands were itching when he left, the little smiling face that was now talking to Jubilee was lost in the excitement of having a real bed again. One someone had made her, not bought or told her to share. Jubilee noticed his hands and she clutched the little girl to
her as Logan walked away, re-enforcing her teaching that she didn't need to offer herself like that. The look in Jubilee's remaining eye told him she trusted him, trusted him with the information, expecting him to act as he would anyway.

He'd used the anger to cut the roof of the other cabin, that someone had done this on purpose made his blood itch. He was glad the fucker was dead, the little girl found him later, tired and sweaty from using up his anger. She just touched his cheek and he saw her gaze
enter his heart, she knew what had happened to her. She was aware of everything but she wanted the dream like everyone else did, that life could be normal again. He didn't speak but he did hold her, squashing her tight to him as he looked out over the valley. Her small body breathing in his scent and smiling, he hadn't hurt her
and given time she'd understand why he was different from Harry. She was a mutant of that there was no doubt in his mind but what her mutation was he didn't know. Whoever had given her up didn't want a daughter like her and so had given her away when the cure had worn out of her system. Where had Xavier been for kids like this one?
Where had been the compassion for her when they were talking about the problem with humans and mutants?

He'd be there for them and he'd made the promise to himself before he realised what he'd done. He'd have to talk to Marie about it, what he needed to do, what he wanted to do with them. He couldn't let them suffer more than they had already, they were his, they were in his territory now. He'd lead them better, show them how to live well, how to survive. Yet this was all academic if the weather continued to worsen, the first snow would be down in weeks not months. He'd have to get everyone organised gathering food now, and that meant getting Marie to teach them the plants they needed to collect.

Letting his breath out he went to see Marie inside their own house, the weather gathering on the horizon. He could hear her humming a tune, since the kids had been here she'd been smiling a little more.
Her cheerful nature coming back out but her steel was still there just under the surface and he hoped she wouldn't use it on him now.

The kids were eager to help, the lessons on foraging were quick and easy to get through to them. Having a few extra hands to process the actual plants was a bonus, Pete and Logan had gone to the town to raid for storage vessels. They'd brought back much more than that, new blankets, warm clothing, boots for the kids, even a bright yellow slicker for Jubilee.

The weather was turning fast and the natural resources around them were having trouble keeping up, so much so that the rut was held in three inches of snow. The older elk that were having to plow through snow to chase younger males away tired quickly. Logan found two that
had died from exhaustion, the meat had been divided quickly between the two camps equally.

Over the weeks Marie noticed the skin of the kids fill out again and a air of normalcy overcame them. Hank was still trying to get as much equipment he could scavange from the local area. They already had solar panels and a wind turbine, something that Marie had been happy to let Hank provide for their own cabin. Hot water was always
a premium but now it was provided by the low voltage system they had that relied on light not direct sun. So even in winter they'd have power and battery cells to store what they didn't use. The day she'd turned on the old cd player Logan had found and brought back up her
heart had leapt at the sounds coming from it. Music, real music was playing and she hadn't realised how much she'd missed it until it was there again.

More things came into their home, making her realise that yes she'd survived but they too had been surviving, not living. With the small amount of pleasures she had she was living again, really living again. As herself, as Marie not Rogue; she even went with the last raiding team, when the snow was just beginning to become heavy
signalling the last time they could move out of their respective camps before spring. Logan was concerned with necessities but she wanted some sort of luxury, exactly what she didn't know until she found it. Christmas was a couple of months away but it was in her mind as she looked around the large store. Grabbing a rucksack she
just pushed in things that she knew would be useful, bath salts, moisturiser and her hands were just piling into the rest of the toiletries when she saw 'it'.
The thing was perfect, beautiful, simple, complete and she just grabbed it shoving it to the bottom so Logan wouldn't know what it was. Smiling to herself she went and got some things for the kids too, bath toys, sponges, games for winter nights. She was happy, really happy for once, she had Logan and she had a family of sorts.

It still hurt to see the kids flinch when a noise they weren't used to happened, making her remember when they'd first popped corn by the open fire. The sounds so much like gunfire that they'd all paled until Logan had just told them to calm down, no-one was around but them. The kids trusted him, especially Frankie; she'd been found at
a truck stop, they'd stopped to get water and she'd been tied to the sink inside. A man was dead in the front of the small shop his body decayed and dried but the cuff she had on her wrist could have slipped off easily but she'd remained. Too shocked to move except for water, she'd taken to Logan when he'd been making their home.
She'd watched him work too, the little dark eyed gaze never leaving his body until he'd come over to her to go home. Only then did Frankie look away, a sadness filling her and making her own heart ache with it.

She'd asked Jube's about her and the tale wasn't a good one, she was about ten, they weren't sure because Frankie wasn't. All she remembered was being left behind there by her dad and the man she was left with owned her. He never gave her his name so she called him Harry, she'd had a friend once called Harry and he said he was her friend. Every time her 'friend' came to see her he'd touch her,
show her how to do things he liked and finally how to react when he did something 'nice' for her, like feed her. So now when anyone did anything nice to her she just got in the position she understood, only when she saw her do it to Hank after he'd given her a package of clothes and food did she really understand what Jubilee had meant.

Frankie had just knelt down, her face lookng upward to Hank and she could see the tears in the large mans eyes as she did it. He told her to get up but she didn't she only turned on her knees and offered herself to him. Lifting her skirt to show her now plump naked pink backside to him, they'd tried to get her to wear underwear but she didn't use it. Harry had gotten that habit out of her, Anne was the one who'd rescued Hank, she'd just picked up Frankie and told her she didn't have to do that anymore. Hank wasn't like Harry, he didn't want that from her, all he wanted her to say was 'thank you'. Frankie just smiled at him and said her thank you,
walking away still unsure with the package just for her. Hanks look on his face was one of rage mixed with sorrow, the same one she'd seen that day on Logan's face when they'd walked home from their camp. Now she knew why, she'd seen it for herself and she understood why he'd been more willing to help them all.

**************************************************

The camps were safe, Logan had been working hard on keeping their profiles low in the terrain. Even the wind turbines were locked onto sturdy trees so they wouldn't be noticed unless you were looking for them. Now that had been a marvel to see again, to see hot water and
electricity get put into the small home he'd provided to them all.
Marie's reaction to the hot water had been to bathe and drag him with her. That had led to some fun that had left both of them wondering how they'd managed without it for so long. But the best had been seeing her face when the music had started, the cd player was old, nearly an antique in the old world but it worked. Her face had woken up, something inside her had shifted and he knew she was nearly home, nearly back to what she had been before everything had taken over her life.

Her skin had settled down, she still had to be careful touching but if she put her mind to it the only thing she did get was the surface thoughts of someone, not their powers. His own thoughts on what they'd do next in spring made his heart troubled, would they move on or would they stay? The homes he'd helped build would get them through the winter safely but they'd need reworking if they wanted
to stay for longer.

Their own relationship had shifted, his and Marie's; he wasn't her protector anymore, he was her partner in all but law. They made love as often as they could, hell Pete nearly walked in on them once but he'd heard the man coming up the ridge and he'd been loud on purpose. Pete had hung back waiting until they'd both been ready for
a visitor, he appreciated the man's quiet thoughtfullness in everything he did. He was kind to the kids, played with them constantly, taught them things they needed to know without losing his temper.
When his weight had come back a little he even showed
them what his skin looked like, making all of the kids look in wonder at him. Anne was the one who showed them it was okay to touch him like that and the fear of his new look soon went away. He'd used his claws on the building of the houses and the kids didn't shy away
from him, maybe it was that reason they didn't. They'd only seen him use them for good, to build something, to make something. He never let them see him hunt, there was something inside him he wasn't comfortable showing them yet. If they stayed maybe he would but if they didn't he wouldn't burden them further.

Marie was looking at the kids a little differently and he could sense a shift in her; she was looking ahead of her now and that meant kids of their own. Would she want kids with Hank here, having a doctor on hand is always useful and if he wasn't here he doubted he could handle everything himself.

He saw her coming out of the store looking for the sleds, him Hank and Pete had been loading up with more dry supplies and tinned stuff. She'd wandered the aisles alone so he didn't know what she had with her but the grin on her face made his own smile grow as she came up to them all. "Hey beautiful, got what you need?"
"Yup, and I got stuff from the store too." The words made his heart hitch a little, she never stopped surprising him with her words. Now she felt more secure in herself she'd been sharing more of what she thought with him.

It didn't seem much but to someone who only used words when he needed to it was a huge step in the right direction. Squeezing her to him she got herself settled on the sled, she'd be better riding than trying to go through the drifts. Getting everything tied down they pulled their respective sleds away from the town.

Logan watched the other two men disappear over the hill, their last wave as they crested the ridge telling him that they wouldn't see them again until the worst of the snows were over. The food they had cached was enough to get them through, and the tinned supplies were staples. Their own supplies were enough to get them right into
spring, he'd made sure of that. They had pickled wild onion, cabbage, peppers, dried apples, blackberries, huckleberries, cranberries, so many things in jars that he had to ask Marie what they were but she seemed to know the layout of their shelves in the small cold cellar. She was putting the little bits of tinned luxury she'd picked up at the store, hams, turkey, beef,peaches, pineapple,
honey in tins, olive oil he'd spied there too, along with several jars of what looked like dried tomato's in oil. The dried stuff was upstairs in the dry stores cupboard and that was groaning with stuff. He wanted to be prepared and he was, last winter they'd been moving around trying to find somewhere safe. Now he had it but he
was wondering how much of it Marie was willing to share.

When they finally sat together in front of the stove his heart was nervous about telling her what he was thinking and what her reaction would be. She beat him to it as she glided her fingers over his knuckles, "Why don't you just come out with it and we can talk about what's on your mind Logan? I can feel you getting more wound the longer you leave it." Her smile was still there, as was the light in her eyes, it might not be as bad as he thought it might be so he plunged on.
"What would you say if Hank and the rest of them stayed here, over the ridge permanently?" She looked at him her features showing her thoughts as they passed through her mind, finally finished thinking she opened her mouth to answer his question.
"I kind of thought they would be, I know Jubilee is still talking about moving on but I don't think she realy wants to. I mean if they've had a hard time getting this far west I hate to think whats laying in wait beyond here. I know there were plenty of people who took the cure but not everyone will understand or be willing to take in a new group of people. Even if most of them are young kids and female."
Logan just looked into her face, seeing that she'd really thought about this; really given it some serious consideration. Seeing his stare she touched his face, her fingers resting calmly against his skin, sending her own thoughts into his, her security about the people she had around her, inluding those over the hill.

"I know I wasn't very pleased when they first came here Logan, I know that but I wasn't really myself then. Wasn't really 'ME' if you get my meaning;" he just nodded, letting her continue. "We need more than just us here Logan, I know we both do. I mean I'd drive you
insane with girly stuff eventually and you'd need to have some other male company even if it's to beat the hell out of them in the guise of training. We're living again Logan, really 'living' and that means sharing ourselves with others too."

"I mean look at Frankie, she's been hurt enough already, she still looks as if she's about to break you know. As if everything she has is going to disappear and she'll be back at that damn truck-stop. I know the rest of them aren't as bad as her but if they leave I won't be able to rest thinking that she could end up there again. Not at
that truck-stop but somewhere just as bad, Hank wants to put down roots as does Anne. But what about the rest of them? I mean we're going to have kids showing their 'talents' real soon if I'm any judge and Terry already has trouble keeping his feet on the ground."
Looking at her Logan could see her mind working, the way she'd already had plans in her mind to help out the kids around her, how she could bring them along without fear of themselves. What she said next made him do a double take, "Jube's needs to collapse, she's running from everything like I did. Thing is you can't run from
yourself, she's not sleeping much I know that. Hank tries to hold her when she's sleeping but she just wakes up and pushes him away from her. Hank's hurting about what she had to do, that she had to be the one to deal with the humans they met on the road and what happened to her."

Her eyes met Logan's own she he knew she knew more
but wouldn't tell him what she did know. That was between her and Jubilee.
"She suffered Logan, but it's poisoning her the longer she holds it in. She won't break down until she knows their safe, settled but she just won't believe it yet. When she does she'll need us all, you included." Her finger poked him in the chest making him growl a little, her expressive face taking a serious cast. "She needs to see you haven't changed toward her, that you still think her worthwhile. Doing what she did took a lot out of her and I doubt if it had been me that I'd have even made it this far." Logan was about to tell her different when she stopped him with a kiss, light but filled with emotion. Her gaze filled with pain and he understood the weight of
what she knew about Jubilee, it had been bad, very bad and she needed him to just trust her on this.
"Okay I'll talk to her when we see them next."

Settling down in his arms Marie just let the warmth of their fire go through them both. Sitting in silence they felt the snow landing heavy on the roof, the quiet of the world only punctuated by the crackle of the wood burning. They had peace, each other and a future, one that would take work but then everything that was worthwhile took effort. He'd put the work in on her and look what he
had, a woman he was comfortable with and was comfortable with him. When they went for christmas dinner to the other camp he'd spring his surprise on her then, she didn't know they were going in the first place but Hank had suggested it when they were loading up the sleds. The look of hope in Pete's gaze and settled it for him, they
wanted them there and he was sure Marie would like it too. Smiling he let himself drift off into contentment wrapped around the jewel of his life.

**********************************************

CHRISTMAS DINNER
***************
"Come on Marie, move it. We've got to go get ice to melt for water. Move it or I'll dump you in a drift!" Snarling she threw back the covers on their warm bed. Why the hell they couldn't use the snow that was packed around the house she didn't know. Although she had to admit drinking water was better from ice, the sled was out in the
bright sunshine. Logan was dressed in his buckskins and furs and her thoughts suddenly went back to the bed she'd just left. Catching her smile and leer he just straightened himself further and growled, knowing that one she just pouted as she closed the door to the cabin. Griping and moaning she got on the sled as Logan began to
pull it along, there were several bags alredy tied to it and she shuffled them around her.

"Why are we taking stuff with us?" He didn't even stop as he answered her, breath clouding behind him like fog in the crisp cold.
"Because we might need it, clean ice is a hard thing to find Marie. We might be longer than we expect. Better to be prepared than not be." Nodding to herself she agreed, good ice was a rare thing but when they did get it there was nothing sweeter; it beat evian any day.

They were coming back with a good haul of crystal clear ice wrapped in hard packed snow when Logan turned the sled a different direction. The sun was just over half way, telling her it was around 1pm when they changed direction again, they were coming down into the other valley. Where their friends lived, the small columns of
smoke visable in the stark crisp air. Logan stopped a way away and turned back to judge her reaction, her warm smile had him beaming at her in moments. Her words giving him even more energy than he thought he had, "You know something, I love you Logan, for doing things like this for me. I love you, c'mere."

He dropped the leather ties and let her touch and kiss him, her face flushed with heat as he pulled away, his own eyes glittering with passion held in check. "I'll show you my apprecaition when we get home." He had
enough confirmation of this good idea and he pulled them both the rest of the way. The shouts of the kids telling Marie they'd been expected. The colours of their clothing standing stark against the white of the world, making her smile as the words they were shouting reached them. "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

Hank had the food ready, Pete gave them a warm drink as soon as they entered the large house, Anne was playing with the kids who were throwing off coats and running to help Hank with the dinner. Only Jubilee was quiet,sat in a chair watching the fire, Marie looked over to Logan and he just nodded at her and left her to talk and play and help out. He went over to Jubilee and sat next to her,
noticing how she flinched back from him, giving him more room. Her face was pinched and bitter, the smile that had once filled her was gone. Even her clothes were muted, no sign of yellow on her, muddy browns and greys, taking his life in his hands he reached out behind her. Pulled her into his shoulder and just took a drink, her body was rigid trembling with the effort to stay still. Getting no
negative reaction from his touch he just pulled her closer so his arm was wrapped over her own. Her quiet shudders told him what he didn't need to see,his nose told him what was happening, salt hot and wet.

Her shoulders finally relaxing as she slid into the solid warmth that was next to her; letting herself finally feel what was eating her up inside. Knowing that the one person who was with her wouldn't let her fall, wouldn't let her go easily. He'd left everything behind for Marie, a life, friends, a home and she was herself again.
He was there and he hadn't changed even though the world around them had,Marie came over a little while later. Putting herself on the other side of her, resting her head on her arm, touching her skin gently. Her words settling gently on her shattered self and knowing it was the truth.

"It gets better Jubes, it does. You just have to
want to, you're not what you had to do Jubes, what you did was survival. You kept them alive, now it's your turn, let them help you, let us help you. Your staying here Jube's, there's nothing over the next hill but more pain and more running. Thing is you'll never out run it, it's in here." She tapped her friends chest seeing her
shadowed eyes meet her own, "We won't let you fall Jubes, you're home now." That broke the wall and Jube's finally let herself grieve for everything she'd lost, wrapped up in Marie's arms she let the world fall away knowing that Logan was there to catch them both. His solid weight holding them together, a stability that they all needed,
someone who wouldn't put an ideal above common sense.

Seeing the two of them in his arms, he looked over to Hank who was silently crying. The relief in his features overwhelming as he saw Jubilee letting go, knowing it was okay for them to be here, to settle here. They had a hard road ahead but they'd had a great start; things would only improve from now on. Hank began dishing up food to the kids around him, every single one happy and smiling, the looks on their faces enough for Logan. He might not have been there when the mansion went south but he was here to help pick up what was left. They'd cope.

Looking back at the women in his arms he watched as Jubilee released Marie, her eye red and tired. Moving into his grip she rested her head on him as Marie stroked her short hair, her whisper only for him. "Thank you, thank you for being here." His answer loud enough
for Marie to hear.
"Your welcome kid, you're family." Feeling her hold on him increase he just let the world get on with itself, he had important things to talk about and do. Most of which were in this room.