Story Notes:
Rating/warnings are for later chapters, these chapters will be marked clearly, and I think I've written in such a way that you can skip them, if you don't want to read them, and not lose the story line.
It had been six months, Rogue realised, as she regarded her reflection, in the full-length mirror before her, and considered the situation she currently found herself in.
Six months to the day since she'd nearly died.
Six months since Logan almost died saving her life.
Five months, three weeks since Logan left.
Four months, one week since she'd utilized the combined knowledge and memories of Logan and Erik to ace the placement exams Ororo made her sit for official enrolment at 'mutant high'.
Three months since she'd officially graduated High School on the coat tails of that knowledge… she sometimes wondered if she should feel bad for doing that, Logan told her she shouldn't, Erik was just silently smug.

Since officially graduating, a year earlier than her peers, she'd thrown herself into personal study, mainly on the topic of history, trying to match dates and places to the memories she sometimes found herself contemplating, memories gleaned from either Erik, Logan, or occasionally a weird mash up of the two. This had seen her be assigned the position of assistant tutor for Ororo's history class.

She'd also thrown herself into training, partially for something to do but mostly to shut Logan up, as he continually berated her for being too distracted and unprepared. She'd worked out fairly quickly though that he was mostly mad at himself, for walking away and leaving her at the mansion alone. Teaching her how to protect herself was the next best thing to being there to do it himself. Real-Logan might have trusted the X-Men but Mind-Logan had decided he'd got to know them well enough to conclude 'they couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery', or so he said.

Scott had walked in on one of her early morning solo-but-for-Mind-Logan training sessions, and asked her to join the Junior X-Men training group. She'd agreed. Then she'd quickly been promoted from just weekday group lessons, to additional thrice weekly one-on-one lessons with one or more of the Alpha Team. Logan always preferred the one-on-one lessons with Scott, so he could gloat over the fact that Rogue actually could kick his butt; she'd even sent him to the med lab, with profuse apologies on her part, a few times.

And that, is what had landed her here, standing in her private room, in front of her mirror, dressed in the black X-Men leathers she'd been handed that morning, when the Professor and Scott had told her she would be going on her first official mission. It was a lab raid, medium security, their intel suggested it was primarily a records dump, they were hoping it would contain information that would give away the locations of other labs in the area, however, there was also a possibility of mutants being housed on the single sublevel.

Though neither man wanted Rogue on missions yet, it was determined that this mission was perfect for the traits she'd been honing, mostly gleaned from Logan, and would be helpful on this mission. So, it was a one-off, she was told. Mind-Logan was bitching about Scott not being man enough, and 'sending a kid to do his dirty work', while simultaneously telling her it would be a piece of cake after reviewing the available intel and mission brief, and threatening her that if she got herself hurt he'd 'find his sorry ass in whatever hole he'd crawled into up North, just so he could kick her ass for getting herself hurt'.

They weren't leaving until 9pm, but Logan had made her suit up and go directly to the gym that morning, to 'break in the leather' he'd claimed, though she got the distinct impression he just wanted to ogle her ass and boobs in the multiple mirrors. He'd never admit that's what he was doing but she was sure it was, not least of all because of how he got all growly and non-communicative, and went to sulk in the back of her mind whenever she asked him if that's what he was doing.

She was grateful to him though, the leather had been really stiff and tight when she'd first put it on but it had progressively gotten more pliant over the last several hours, she now had a full range of motion, and the leather barely creaked as she moved. She'd eventually called it quits and gone back to her room to try and sleep before the mission, no point going if she was going to be too wired from excitement and tiredness to actually be of any help, she'd need full focus tonight.

And now here she was, half an hour to go.

Her phone rang.

Rogue turned and regarded the landline phone on her bedside table, that phone had never rung, she didn't even know the number for it, she'd assumed it was just an emergency line for her to ring out on. By the third ring the thought suddenly occurred to her, she should probably answer it. She dove across the bed, grabbing the handset.

"Hello?"

She expected Scott, or maybe the Professor, calling her down for another pre-mission briefing. Instead, "Hey kid," Logan's deep voice replied. Rogue lay there in shock, how she managed to keep hold of the phone she wasn't sure, though sitting there with her mouth open, not even breathing let alone replying, probably wasn't the brightest move.

"You there Marie?" Logan spoke again.

"YES!" Rogue shouted, suddenly remembering how to speak, before realising she didn't have to shout for Logan to hear her. Dropping the volume, she continued, "Sorry, yes, yeah I'm here, sorry just had a total mind blank, you were not who I was expecting to be on the other end of this call... How are you?" she asked, hurriedly.

Logan chuckled. "Yeah, I've been meaning to call but one thing after another you know, I'm good. Figured I'd check in and see how you're doing, it's been..."

"Six months," they both said simultaneously.

It was Rogue's turn to laugh. "I was actually just thinking the same thing myself, and how so much has changed in the last few months... I finished high school, I admit, I shamelessly raided the knowledge stores of the folks in my head to pass everything early, I'm assistant teacher for History now, and I've been training, both for personal reasons and then for the X-Men too; you should come back, see if I can kick your butt like I can kick Scott's."

"Oh well, that settles it, I definitely have to come back soon, definitely want to see you kick Scott's ass," Logan replied, "Doubt you'll be able to kick mine though kid, sorry."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Rogue replied, lying back against the headboard of the bed, intent on enjoying this rare social call, "The you in my head has given me quite a few tips on how to best you."

"Don't listen to that guy darlin', he wouldn't know what he was talking about," Logan replied, starting to sound mildly uncomfortable. "What else has he been telling you?"

Marie smiled to herself. "Well let's see, how to drive stick, how to best Scott in hand-to-hand, how to not get caught sneaking booze, hot-wiring cars - though he did say that was for emergencies only and driving Jubilee to the mall was not an emergency - and apparently, I look hot in skin-tight black leather." Marie heard a muffed choking sound through the phone. "Are you okay Logan?" she asked a moment later, when Logan finally managed to catch his breath.

"Just what the hell are you doing dolled up in skin-tight black leather?" Logan demanded.

"I'm hardly 'dolled up'," Marie scoffed, "I'm just breaking in my X-Men uniform," she told him.

"Why the fuck do you have a uniform? You're too inexperienced to go on missions," Logan stated matter of factly.

"Yeah, it's not ideal," Marie agreed, "But it's just this one tonight, it's an important one, it's not too dangerous but it's going to need a bit extra man power than just the Alpha Team. Scott only agreed to me going because of how my training's going, and..." she stopped, unsure of whether to tell him what else she'd been working on lately.

"And?" Logan prompted.

"And, I can still access some of your healing and senses, which are going to be needed for the mission tonight," she told him.

"Then they can come and get me and I'll do it, they shouldn't be dragging you into this." Logan was pissed now.

There was a knock on Marie's door just then and she called out a quick 'come in', expecting Jubilee, however Scott walked in as she continued her conversation with Logan.

"There's no time for that Logan, it's got to be tonight and..." she started.

"I don't give a fuck, you are not going in there Marie, where the fuck is Scott, what the hell is stick-up-his-ass-Summer's thinking agreeing to this shit!" Logan was obviously pacing now, shouting and growling down the phone.

Sighing exasperatedly Marie replied, "Hold on I'll ask him ... Scott 'what the hell were you thinking' allowing an in training X-Man to go on a low-level, medium security mission, which she's been training for to the point where she can even kick your ass?" she sassed.

Scott tried to refrain from laughing at her tone, clearly meant to hint at Logan that he was being overbearing, all he replied with was, "We're leaving in 10 minutes. You can hold your own and this is a simple in and out mission, I wouldn't have agreed otherwise." Then he turned and walked out.

"That's not good enough," Logan fumed down the phone, obviously having heard him despite the distance.

"Well sorry, he's gone, and I have to go too," Marie replied, "Why don't you give me the number wherever you are and I'll call you when I get back so you know I'm okay?"

"I won't be here when you get back," Logan replied, "I'm pulling out now, gotta kick a cyclops ass, you better in one piece by the time I get back there... Be careful Marie."

"I will be," Marie replied, "You always make sure of that ... How long until you'll be here?" she asked, hoping against hope that he wasn't bluffing and he really was going to come back, even if it was only to kick Scott's ass.

Logan sighed, and she could hear him running a hand through his hair as he was obviously considering his answer. "Two days, I can be there in two days."

"Cool, I'll see you in a couple of days then," Marie smiled again, "Drive safe."

"Yeah, yeah, now you better go before Scotty boy comes looking for you again, actually, on second thought, hide somewhere so they have to go without you," Logan replied.

"Ha, ha, very funny Logan, I gotta go, bye?"

"See you soon Marie," he replied, hanging up before he had the opportunity to try again to convince her not to go.

Marie felt a stupid grin break out across her face as she suddenly realised, Logan was indeed coming back. Dropping the phone back on the cradle, she jumped off the bed with a whoop and raced down the hall and into the elevator to reach the basement levels where the rest of the team were gathering. She burst into the hanger, almost skipping, her unusually chipper attitude drawing the attention of everyone in the room. Suddenly noticing the four sets of eyes turned towards her Rogue sobered some.

"Sorry I'm late," she apologised.

"You're bang on time actually but don't do that next time," Scott replied, "And what did Logan want?"

"Logan!?" Jean and Storm looked surprised, looking between Scott and Rogue.

"He's coming back," Marie replied, suppressing the stupid grin before it could break out again, "And sorry to say Scott but I think he's gonna kick your ass the first thing back."

"Figures," Scott shrugged, Rogue could tell he still had his own reservations about letting her come on this mission.

"I guess I better make sure the med lab is well stocked when I get back," Jean joked, throwing the large med kit on board the jet. The team had a smaller 'standard' med kit but lab raids had their own expanded version as Jean tried to prepare for any eventuality, even though they weren't expecting any mutants at this lab it was best to be prepared.

"When are we to expect Logan to return?" Charles asked Rogue directly.

"He said two days," Rogue replied, "I can make sure his old room is ready once I get back if that's okay?"

"That would be wonderful thank you Rogue. Did he mention anything about his search by any chance?" the Professor queried.

"Uh..." Rogue dropped her voice so only the Professor could hear her, "He avoided talking about it, I took that to mean he didn't find anything." She shrugged resignedly. She'd known, and the Logan in her head had agreed, it was a longshot anyway but hope is hard to kill, even for Logan.

"That is unfortunate," the Professor added, "You'd best be off now, good luck."

Rogue smiled back at him and jogged onto the jet, Scott moved on board behind her, closing the hatch behind them. Storm was already at the controls firing the jet up, and Jean had just pushed the last cargo hatch closed before directing Rogue to a seat and making sure she got her seat belt on; gloves made most things tricky, seat-belts included. As the jet lifted off, she pushed the news of Logan's impending arrival to the back of her mind, running again over the procedure for the upcoming mission, her job was only really to scout the basement level and be sure there were no mutants being held down there, evac if needed.
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