Rogue watched as a handful of people slowly filed into the room, searching for somewhere to sit. She knew every single one of them from the years she had spent here, most of them a friend at one point or another.
Colossus was the first to enter, a smile playing on his lips. He still looked quite young and fit, but his hair was graying at the temples, and she couldn’t help but notice the crow’s feet and deep laugh lines. She hadn’t noticed how old he seemed to have gotten over the last twenty years when she had ran into him earlier.
After Colossus, Gambit strolled in, still looking as if he was no more than thirty, although Rogue knew that he was actually forty years old. He swagger was still cocky as ever, and, as his eyes connected with hers, Gambit winked at her with a light flirtation. Rogue couldn’t help but wonder if he still spoke in a third person.
Cloud entered next, and Rogue was taken aback by her beauty. She had really grown into herself as the years past. Her black hair reached low, just past her lower back, and was thick and shinned with health. Her wings were stronger from years of training, and her movements came with an ease that was impossibly more graceful than when in her youth. Her eyes shined with a wisdom that could only have come from age, although her healing factor made her appear to be no more than eighteen years old.
Rogue was mildly surprised to see Oscar following Cloud, noticing the love that shone from his eyes as he watched the woman in front of him. Just like the others, he had aged well, and Rogue couldn’t help but wonder if the two best friends were something more now.
She was so caught up in her observation of Cloud and Oscar; she didn’t notice the last person who walked into the room until he was standing in front of her.
“Hello, Rogue.” She looked into his eyes, startled by what she saw there. She never thought she would ever see those eyes again, and, suddenly, all the memories she hadn’t thought of in years of her time here and her time locked away in a cage in Northern Oregon came flooding back to her.
“John,” she whimpered as she threw her arms around him. He encircled his arms around her waist, and, with everyone watching, the two held each other tightly, both overwhelmed by the sight of one another.
“It’s good to see you,” he whispered, pulling himself away from her embrace before he found himself skewered by Logan’s claws. “You look good.”
“You too,” she whispered back, unconsciously raising her hand to the scar on just under his left ear. It was where he had been shot. Who ever had done it had wanted him to bleed out. She lowered her hand slowly, knowing that Logan was probably having some inner conflict watching the two. She understood what he must be going through. As much as she loved Logan, John had been her first, and she would always hold a separate place in her heart for him, just as Logan did for Jean. “Did you ever remember what happened?”
“Mostly, but not everything. I doubt that I will remember it all. Those people in there, they were sick, right?” John asked slowly, finding a chair waiting for him next to the window. The others kept quiet, waiting for some kind of cue from the Logan or Rogue. They all knew that Rogue and John had been through too much together, and that they needed the few words before they could start planning. “I mean, they were… twisted.”
“Yeah. They took my baby, John,” Rogue whispered as she sat on the bed next to Logan. She didn’t say anything as Logan slid his arm around her protectively, letting everyone in the room know where they stood in their relationship. Rogue leaned into his body, not caring about the possessiveness. Hell, she was feeling a little possessive, too. “They left me to die. If Logan and Cloud hadn’t come along…”
“We’d both be dead,” John whispered slowly, his eyes locking with hers. “I’m sorry I didn’t want to remember.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t forget,” she replied. She paused for a moment, looking at the familiar faces she had missed for all these years. “But we can play catch up later. Right now, we need a plan to get my daughter and Scott out of there.”
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