“Marie, you okay?”

She knew she was standing there looking like a deer caught in a car’s headlights yet she could not make her tongue move to talk. For a moment she wondered if it was possible that her heart could explode because of how fast it was beating. Logan had a confused look on his face and she could tell he was concentrating on her rapid heartbeat.

“I..um, I f…forgot the popcorn,” she blurted out like a bubbling fool.

“Okay, where did you forget it?” Logan asked as if talking to a child that had lost it’s toy.

“Kitchen.”

As if her racing heart wasn’t bad enough, she felt her face turning ten shades of red. She made a mental note to flay Jubes later for doing this to her. She was completely fine until she went and ran her mouth and got Marie’s mind turning.

“You gonna go get it?” Logan asked.

Without a word, Marie turned and walked none to slowly towards the stairs. She just needed a moment to get herself together before she made a total fool of herself, scratch that an even worse fool in front of Logan. This night was not starting off good at all.

Walking into the kitchen, she went for the sink instead of the cabinet that housed the popcorn. Grabbing a glass, Marie filled it to the top with water and downed it in seconds. She closed her eyes and made her body calm itself. This was completely ridiculous, I mean it was Logan for crying out loud. She had had a crush on him for years and she never freaked out like this.

Taking a few more minutes to relax herself, Marie turned and headed back to Logan’s room. As she made it to the stairs she saw Jubes, Kitty, Remy, Bobby, John and Piotr walking towards the front door. She knew they were headed out to a movie, they had asked her to go but she had other plans obviously. Jubes turned around and waved, all the while smiling the biggest smile. If looks could kill, Jubes would be dead at the front entrance to Xavier’s home.

“I’m gonna kill you,” she mouthed.

Jube’s laughter filled the foyer and grated on Marie’s nerves. “No you want chica. You will be thanking me later!” With that, the door closed and Marie was thrown back into silence. Shaking her head, Marie climbed the stairs and headed back towards Logan.

He was still standing out in the hall when she arrived. Her heart had calmed down, yet she couldn’t help the bit of butterflies in her stomach as she looked at Logan. He was wearing jeans that were as tight as if they were a part of his skin. She wanted to thank the makers of those jeans right about now. He had opted to take his plaid shirt off, that he was wearing that day, so he was standing in just a white wife beater. She changed her mind, she wanted to thank the people that made wife beater shirts instead. On Logan, it left little to the imagination.

“Where’s the popcorn?” Logan asked confused.

Without thinking, Marie hit herself in the forehead as she remembered she had forgotten to pick up the popcorn. How in the hell would she explain this one.

“Marie, you are starting to worry me darlin’. What’s going on with you tonight?”

She had to think of something fast. “I…I guess I’m just tired. It’s been a long day you know.” she said with a small smile. “I don’t really feel like popcorn anymore. If you want some I can go back down and get it.” that was as good as she could come up with and she said a little prayer that it would work.

Logan just grunted and turned to go back in his room, holding the door for Marie to enter. She wasn’t for sure that Logan bought that little lie but he didn’t push her for more information. She had been in his room more times that she could count but tonight it looked different. It took a moment for her to realize what the difference was. Most of the time Logan’s room was a mess and he didn’t care to clean it up even if Marie was coming over to watch a movie or a game, but tonight it was spotless.

“I…I thought it was time to clean up a little, was getting too clustered,” he mumbled.

“Looks nice,” she said smiling.

The game had already started and they had missed about ten minutes. Marie felt kinda bad for that, she knew how important this game was to Logan. It was the playoffs after all.

Without a word, they settled on the bed and watched the game without a word. Marie could feel the tension in the air and again cursed Jubes for earlier. For one horror-stricken moment, she wondered if Jubes had said anything to Logan and that’s why he too was acting so strange. No matter what, something was off, and if was surly going to be a very long night. Little did Marie know, that would be true in the worst possible way.

Three hours and six beers later, Marie was surfing through the channels. Without a word, Logan had reached for the remote and passed it to her. She was feeling quite tipsy at the moment and couldn’t help it if she past some stupid commercial that made her giggle like an insane woman. Ever so often she would see Logan smiling at her as she laughed.

She finally landed on a T.V. movie that was one of her favorites. It was about a woman that had had an accident and forgot everything about her life. She didn’t know her name or the people in her life including the man that she loved. It was a depressing movie but had a happy ending. Marie found that she couldn’t turn the channel even though she was sure that Logan was not interested in a movie like this.

“I bet it would suck to not know who you are?” Marie said in her drunken haze without even thinking.

When she realized what she had said, she sat up immediately and turned towards Logan. “Oh God Logan, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” she said frantically.

“Hey, darlin’ calm down. I’m not mad,” he said softly.

“That was so thoughtless of me. I mean with the beers and this movie, I just kinda let my mind and mouth run away with me.”

Logan sighed, “It’s a horrible thing to wake up one day and not know who you are or where you came from. To be honest, I wouldn’t wish that on my worse enemy. Not even Magneto, even though I hate the son of a bitch.”

Marie felt tears form in the corner of her eyes. She never was a good drunk and now she had just made Logan rehash some horrible memories.

“Don’t do that Marie. You’ve always been able to say anything you wanted to me. If you want to know what it’s like to not have your memories, I’m the best guy to ask.” he said half smiling. He was trying to lighten the mood for her behalf to make her feel better about this. All it did was make her burst into tears.

“Hey…hey,” Logan said as he wrapped his arms around Marie. “I promise darlin’ it’s okay, no harm done.”

She leaned back so she could look at his eyes. She could tell if he was lying by his eyes. What she saw there took her breath away. He was looking at her with such love and warmth that for a second she wondered if the beers were playing a trick on her.

“Then, you find something in your life that doesn’t make the pain quite so hard to deal with anymore,” he said softly.

Marie could not speak. She just stared at Logan as he stared right back at her. She watched him raise his gloved hands and wipe the tears away. On instinct, her eyes closed at the feel of his touch. It was as light as a feather yet she felt it through her entire body.

As if a string was pulling them, they both leaned in to each other at the same time. Their breaths, caressing each other’s faces. Again Marie’s heart begin to race as she felt Logan’s hand on the back of her head, cradling it in place. This moment was one that she had dreamt of for a very long time but did not dare let herself believe that it could actually happen.

Only inches apart, reality came crashing down on Marie. Her eyes went wide as she realized what was about to happen. “Logan,” she said worriedly.

“Hm,” he said dazed.

“Logan my skin.” She tried to get out of his grasps. He was too close, way too close. Just a few more inches and he would be touching her skin.

Without a word, Logan leaned back enough to reach into his side drawer beside his bed. What he pulled out stunned Marie. There laying in his hands was a silk scarf.

“You…um, left it one night. I thought I’d leave it right there in case you…we ever needed it.”

“Logan I’m confused here. You want me…as in want want me?” Marie asked shyly.

He hesitated for a moment. She could see the conflicting emotions dancing in his eyes. He wanted her, yes, but he also thought it wasn’t such a good idea.

“Marie, I shouldn’t want you. I could name many reasons why this right here is a very bad idea, but in truth it doesn’t change how I feel about you. I’ve been fighting it for a long time now and I will let it go if this isn’t what you want but after earlier tonight I figured out that this might be what you want after all,” he said smiling.

She couldn’t help it, she joined in his smile. This was crazy, she knew it, yet it felt right. She wouldn’t deny that she wanted this man with ever fiber of her being.

“Now if there are no objections I’d like to kiss you now.” Logan said as he placed the silk scarf over Marie’s mouth.

One second, that’s all she needed to feel Logan’s lips upon hers. Just one second yet fate had other plans. Before she could experience the thrill of being kissed by Logan, Professor Xavier’s voice rang through her head. She could tell that Logan was hearing him as well. He had a look of pure rage on his face so deep Marie was afraid he would forget that she was so close to him.

Marie was troubled by the Professor’s voice. He sounded strained, stressed.

“Did you get that Marie?” Logan asked barely containing the rage.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Logan stood from the bed pulling Marie with him. She was caught between feeling total disappointment to total worry. She had wanted to kiss Logan badly yet the Professor’s voice sounded urgent. Without another word, they existed Logan’s room and headed for Xavier’s office.

An hour later all of the X-Men were seated around a very tired looking Xavier. He had not spoken to them, letting them know what exactly was going on and it started worrying Marie even more. She could tell that Logan was getting pretty antsy himself waiting on their leader to speak.

“I have received some rather disturbing news from one of my informants. About two hours away from here, totally hidden away from the outside world, lies a compound. It has been in existence for several months now under my own nose.” Self loathing rang from Xavier’s words and it scared Marie. “This compound is run by our own government, and in this compound exists some forty-five mutants.”

“A Lab?” Logan’s strained voice interrupted the Professor.

“Yes Logan, a Lab. They have been experimenting on these poor mutants for months now.”

“Professor that’s impossible. After everything we’ve done to aide the humans. After everything Hank’s done in his position with the government, they shut those Labs down.” Scott said shocked.

Marie was horrified. It just didn’t seem real. How could the government go back to their experiments after all the good that had been done between the human/mutant relations. Xavier had to have been wrong.

“I have pictures of the compound from the inside and the outside. I assure each and everyone of you that this is happening.”

With that, Xavier pulled out a file and opened it, laying each picture out one by one. Marie did not dare get close enough to look at them. What she saw from her seat beside Logan was enough to make her physically sick. Children, looking as thought they hadn’t eaten in weeks, their eyes sunken in to their faces, stared back at her from those pictures. She felt Logan stiffen beside her and reached to grab his hand. He held on to it as if his life depended on it.

“How long have you known about this?” Logan asked accusing.

“I swear to you, the moment I got the proof in my hands I called this meeting to order. Not for one second would I have let this go on any longer.”

“What are we going to do Professor?” Storm asked softly.

Taking a deep breath Xavier spoke, “I’m giving you all five hours to rest and get sober. It is nine o’clock right now, at two in the morning we move in and get those poor souls out. I have all the Intel we need to get this job done. I’m going to need each and everyone of you in on this. I’ve called Hank and filled him in on what is going on and he is on his way as we speak.”

No one said a word. They all stared at the nameless faces sitting on Xavier’s desk. Everyone was too shocked to do anything but stare.

“Please, all of you do what you must to be ready. I’m going to need each one of you to have a clear head about you before we take on this mission, the newest member’s especially.”

Marie’s first thought was that this was a nightmare, yet what she did not know is that her nightmare was just beginning.