They walked silently down the hall, civilian attire soft and comforting after the stiff thick leather they'd donned all night. He was stoic, withdrawn, looking to her watchfully as they plodded back to their separate rooms.
She would look to him from time to time, and try to smile. He tried very hard to smile back, but the smile wasn't in him. He'd been too damned worried for her, too damned scared when he couldn't find her for that split second in the lab offices. Her smile was difficult because of what she had seen, and what she'd been through. She didn't realise that simply talking could be so exhausting, but facing off her worst and most intimate enemy drained her like nothing she'd ever known.
Her eyelids lolled up and down, and he sighed.
"You look ready for bed, Kid."
Rogue nodded wearily. "I am so ready."
The smile Logan had been chasing splashed on his face a brief moment. They slowed as they reached Logan's room, and he stepped awkwardly, frowning.
"Uh..." He cleared his throat. "You okay? After, I mean... with Magneto an-"
"Ah'm fine," she said, nodding. "Thanks for helping me out of the - you know..." She mimed the office partition around her and Logan nodded thoroughly.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said, waving a hand, "It's nothing."
She looked up to him, large brown eyes warm. "It's not nothing to me."
For a moment, he felt lost in those eyes. Such kindness, such understanding. He couldn't fathom it, that such tenderness was for him. He didn't feel like he deserved it, what she so freely gave him day in and day out. All he knew was that without it... He didn't want to think about being without it. It scared him too much. He pressed his lips together, sighing softly, and hesitantly, he brought his hand up to her shoulder. She looked down to it, and then to him, and with the tiniest of rumbles he pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her.
She stood there for a moment, a little uncertain of what to do, her hands inching their way around his wide form.
"What's this for?" she said, a touch breathlessly.
"Not gettin' yourself killed," he replied, stepping back. After gazing at her one more time, he brought his still gloved first knuckle to her chin, nudging it gently. "Night."
She smiled broadly. "Night Logan."
Although she was tired, her smile was bright. It filled Logan with something intangible, and as she turned and strode down the hall, hair bobbing, wafting the most delicious perfume, Logan retreated to his room. He closed the door behind him, and the smile lived in his mind, vivid, lasting. It didn't leave him, and it stayed with him as he collapsed in bed, drifting off to sleep.
Her hand shook as she reached for the telephone, her breaths shallow and hot. Her eyes hurt, and the glasses pushed up into her hair stung at her scalp. The steady beep of the internal line sung at her from the handset, and she pressed a button. Her voice was scratchy from disuse, and the voice on the other end of the line, although well spoken, was just as rough.
"Henry," she said, "Have you hit the government initiative files yet?"
"I am reading these a second time," said Hank.
She blew out a sigh, fighting tears in her eyes. Tears of frustration, of fear, of grief. "I can barely- " She lost her breath, covering her mouth, eyes stinging and welling. "I'm sorry... I'm tired... I wouldn't usually-"
"These are not usual circumstances," Hank replied. "We should tell the Professor of these files."
"I know," Jean said, "I know, I just... It's going to be a blow to him."
"It will also clarify things," he said, "Including why Magneto felt compelled to break into the genetics laboratory."
"Oh yeah," said Jean. "It clears things up real nicely."
She sat there for a moment, quiet, sharing the silence with Hank, clicking through the files. She felt like she'd been kicked in the stomach. Everything she'd done, everything she'd fought for... she felt like it was all wasted, all decimated in a few words.
Mutant gene inhibitor, in the form of an easily transmissible virus. The government, whether the President knew it or not, was taking up germ warfare to clean up a portion of society. The uncontrollable element. The wild card.
She blew a sigh through her cheeks again. "We're screwed."
"Not entirely," said Beast. "We've discovered their plans early, and with dubious thanks to Magneto's terrorist efforts, have all the information they gathered in their research efforts. Counteracting any virus they manage to develop may not be too difficult."
"I have a bad feeling about this, Hank." She shook her head, scrolling through one of the documents. "A really bad feeling."
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