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Story Notes:
I've been stuck on The Only One Who Can for months and had to write this to bust my smut cherry.

NC-17 chapter already written, so have no fears you who may have felt I left you hanging in TOWC Not beta red, so please ignore any typos. I live for your responses, so please review!
Author's Chapter Notes:
I live for your responses, so please review!
Logan revved his bike at the front of the Xavier Institute and waited not-too patiently as the wrought iron gates swung slowly inward. As much as the namby-pamby poshness of the school irked his macho sensibilities he did appreciate the effectiveness of the security system as he practically felt a dozen camera lenses focus on him as he tooled up the long and winding driveway. Couldn’t be too careful with all the mutant hating wackos these days, but still it always raised the hair on the back of his neck to know he was now on a heavily surveilled campus where any of a dozen X-geeks could be watching his bike growl across the gravel driveway…and one special girl, maybe she was watching too.

More likely she’ll be there right when I come in the door all smiles and “Where the hell have you been?” Logan thought with a tight smile crinkling his usually snarly countenance.

Or maybe she wouldn’t be there; she wasn’t expecting him back today. Her birthday was still a week away and normally if he was out on a trek he only showed up the day of. Two years ago he arrived up on a tree limb outside her bedroom with only 5 minutes left to her birthday and tossed her a pack of Xavier-forbidden cigars she likes; she'd leaned to ruffle his hair through her gloves. He’d given her a wink, paused only to say he’d be back in a few months, to which she’d smiled and thanked him for coming back just for her, then he’d slunk back the shadows and evaded the motion sensors and cameras to depart the Institute once more, with no one but Rogue aware he’d been there.

Well this time I’m back for a good long while, an early 21st birthday present I guess. He very much anticipated her first smile when she saw him arrive out of the blue, with no warning, and gunned the bike a little harder across the property, sliding to a stop with a spray of gravel that threw small stones again Summer’s new annoyingly red sports coupe that was parked ostentatiously in front of the main doors. Logan stamped down the kickstand, slung the bike’s saddlebags over his shoulder, and took a slow turn around the shiny Alfa Romeo that just screamed Fearless Leader. “First ding is always the hardest,” he said to no one in particular as he slid out one claw and left a 12 inch scratch across the trunk of the car.

Satisfied he’d greeted Scooter properly now, he turned his face up to the sun, took a deep breath and so many things about Xavier’s he’d tried very hard not to miss came rushing back to him: the smell of the freshly cut lawn, the far-off shouts of teenagers playing on the basketball courts out back, the pops and crackles and shrieks from the training obstacle course in the woods where the older students trained, the sight of Storm’s carefully tended flowerbed. He took another deep breath searching for the scent that always confirmed he was home.

Home he thought. That sandlewood and citrus smell of Rogue’s, that was what he wanted, that was home, and the look of delight on her face when he popped up unexpectedly early. He sniffed again, turned his head from side to side, studying the Institute grounds intently, then marched up the marble stairs to the massive oak front doors and unceremoniously flung them open, one of them banging hard against the paneled wall behind it.

“WHERE IS SHE?!”

“Welcome back, Logan,” Ororo said, her face as tranquil as ever as she descended the grand staircase. “We weren’t expecting you until-“

“Cut the crap Ro. I know she ain’t here. Where is she?” Logan demanded.

“Logan, how do-“Storm’s pale blue eyes widened slightly at the look on his face.

“Logan!” Scott called from the top of the main staircase, “She’s-“

“I know she’s not here! What’s going on?” Logan stalked towards the Fearless Leader and leaned aggressively into his face and the two men automatically fell back into their old ways instantly, each tensing up and squaring off.

It was like their caveman greeting ritual, Ororo observed sardonically.

“Logan, calm down, Rogue said she just wanted to get away for a while and-" Scott’s hand unconsciously went to his visor, fully aware there was an even chance he would need to blast Logan at some point during his stay.

“And you LET her go? Who’s with her?” At the look Scott and Ro traded Logan’s hackles raised up even further. “No one is with her? Are insane? What if the Brotherhood-“

A calm, British voice cut through Logan’s tirade with a force that no one could deny. It resounded both in the hall and in their minds. “That’s enough Logan,” Professor Xavier said as he wheeled into the main foyer. “Come to my office, please.” Logan paused then nodded abruptly, pausing only to SNIKT! the claws on his right hand and point them menacingly at Summers before he followed the Professor down the hall.

As Professor Xavier prepare a cup of hot tea for himself he also drew 2 fingers of single malt whiskey for Logan and placed it in his friend’s hand before wheeling behind the desk and folding his own hands with a patient expression on his face.

“If you’re giving me a drink now, I know I’m not going to like this.” Logan’s brows furrowed down in a hawkish glare as he eyed first the Professor, then the whiskey. He sighed and knew he’d probably need this to deal with whatever the Professor was about to tell him. He tossed down the fiery liquor down with a deep sigh, set the tumbler down firmly, then leaned towards the Professor and said slowly and with not-a-little growl in his voice, “Tell me Chuck, is it Magneto?” He fists clenched on the polished oak desk surface as he waited for the bad news.

“It’s nothing like that Logan. Please, be calm.” He paused, as though weighing how to best phrase something unpleasant. His words came out carefully measure to tamp down the tension he could see rising in his old friend. “Rogue said she had figured out something very important and she needed…some time to absorb it…on her own before she decided what to do…with the rest of her life.”

“The rest of her life…” No, Logan did not like the sound of that at all. “What the hell does that mean? I thought she was going to stay with the X-men, be a teacher, housebreak the next generation of mutant teenagers, all that crap!” His voice was getting louder.

Be here when I came home he thought to himself.

Professor X smiled at his friend, “I’ve never quite heard the import of what we do here summed up quite so succinctly, Logan. ‘All that crap?’” The Professor quirked a sardonic eyebrow at Logan.

“You know I what mean, Chuck” he ground out between clenched jaws. “What is going on with her? Where is she hiding?”

Professor Xavier quickly brought his hand to his mouth and coughed, but it sounded like a stifled laugh to Logan’s ears. “What?!” he snarled, leaning over the desk further towards Charles.

“Logan…you misunderstand the situation. Rogan hasn’t run away. Please.” He gestured to Logan’s abandoned seat and reached over to refill the man’s tumbler with another couple of fingers whiskey.

Logan snatched up the drink and tossed it back just as Professor Xavier leaned back into his chair and said pleasantly. “She went on vacation.”

Logan choked.

“In Florida.”

Eighty dollars a bottle aged whisky spewed across Xavier’s desk, just missing the Professor who had judiciously moved his chair away from it, having expected just this sort of reaction. He wheeled over to Logan and gave the big man several surprisingly hearty thumps on the back as he gasped and spluttered at the burning in his throat the news and the liquor has created.

Logan leaned back in his hair, and rubbed his face with hands hard, as if to scrub away what he’d heard. “Florida? Chuck, what the fuck is going on?”
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