Marie woke with a start in the middle if the night, she couldn't help the feeling that something was wrong. It was almost as if she had had a nightmare but she couldn't remember it. It had started the night Logan left; he had gone with the X-Men two days earlier on some long-distance mission they asked for his help on. The mission involved tracking, and hopefully evacuation, of mutants being held captive so, though he was loathe to leave, he had agreed to go, on the provision that Jean stayed at the mansion in case Marie went into labour.

When Marie had mentioned the odd night-time happenings after the first time, Jean had brushed it off as normal pregnancy related sleeping disturbance. Probably coupled with the foreign feeling of sleeping alone, since it was the first time she and Logan had been apart for months. So, Marie tried to shrug off the ominous feeling hanging over her and resolved to simply go back to sleep.

Over the following weeks the disturbance continued, neither Logan or Marie could pinpoint a trigger, it didn't seem to be anything physical and Logan, Jean, and Helen all continued to reassure her that it was likely nothing.

Until, in the early hours one morning, Marie woke half the floor when she sat up bolt upright in bed, screaming in terror.

Logan jumped awake faster than he had ever come alert before, and was out of bed, with claws drawn, before he had even opened his eyes. When he saw Marie huddled on the floor in the corner of the room, rubbing at her arms and gasping for breath he sheathed his claws, leaping over the bed to get to her.

"Marie, what's wrong, are you hurt?" he asked concerned, he tried to reach for her but she visibly flinched and flailed at him, seeming to be trying to push him away.

A knock at the door preceded the arrival of Jean, followed closely by Scott and Ororo. Logan was concerned he might have hurt Marie when his claws came out, and that was why she had flinched from him, but he was relieved, though at the same time troubled, when Jean reached out for her and she flinched again, murmuring a plea to 'don't touch me'.

"What's wrong?" Logan asked Jean, as she checked Marie over carefully, doing her best not to touch her and cause her more distress.

"She's still asleep," Jean commented, sounding worried, "But I can't reach her telepathically, whatever she's dreaming about it's blocked, someone go get the Professor, Logan try talking to her, see if that's enough to get her attention and draw her out," Jean suggested, as Scott hurried out of the room to wake Charles.

Logan switched places with Jean, sitting next to Marie and talking to her softly, she seemed to calm down after a couple of minutes and he gently reached out and touched her. After another minute jerk she relaxed and fell, as if unconscious. Logan caught her as she fell, turning distressed eyes to Jean as he cradled Marie to him but before either of them could make a move Marie jumped awake.

"What- what happened?" she asked, looking around her confused; how had she ended up on the floor and why was everyone in her room.

"What do you remember?" Jean asked, switching back into doctor mode and again attempting to examine Marie.

"Going to bed, but I feel like I did those other times, like I just woke up from that nightmare that I don't remember,” she said softly, brow furrowed in confusion, cuddling closer to Logan for comfort.

"So, you don't remember what you were dreaming about?" Jean asked, it was odd for a person not to remember a nightmare that had caused such an extreme disturbance.

"No, just... just that something wasn't right. Like... something had me and it wasn't right, something was touching me," Marie said, but shook her head when nothing became any clearer. "What happened?" she asked again.

"Shit darlin, you screamed loud enough to wake most of this floor, hid yourself in the corner and wouldn't let anyone near you, scared the hell out of me kid," Logan told her, hugging her gently, careful of her huge belly.

"Well, so much for sleeping in on our first day of summer vacation," Marie said with a grim chuckle, as Scott returned with the Professor. "I'm sorry for waking you all," she apologised.

"It's a little more concerning than that Rogue," Jean added. "When I realised you were still asleep I tried to access your mind, to get you out of the nightmare, but whatever it was that you were seeing was blocking me from getting to you, it would seem that whatever it was is blocked from your conscious mind too, that's probably why you can't remember it when you wake up," she explained.

"So, a repressed dream, or memory maybe?" Marie asked uncertainly.

"That is possible," Charles agreed. "I can see if I can unbury it, so it won't plague you anymore, if you would like?" he offered.

Marie thought for a moment. “What if that makes it worse, what if it's something I don’t want to see?"

"What if it's not one of your memories?" Logan suggested, "Maybe it's a memory from one of your passengers trying to get out?"

Marie considered that idea, it was possible, maybe even it was her subconscious mind entering into the void. She agreed to let the Professor have a look and see what he could find but after twenty minutes, and them both ending up with nothing more than a headache, they gave up; he had not been able to determine what it was she had seen. Even the version of Logan, that lived unrestricted in her mind, didn't understand what had happened.

Marie thanked him anyway, and promised to come and see him if she had anymore issues, before everyone made their way back to bed. Jean offered her sleeping pills, if she wanted to see if they would help, but Marie declined.

Logan fixed her a cup of tea and they sat up together for a while longer, until Marie began to feel sleepy again, and Logan carried her back to bed. He stayed awake the rest of the night to monitor her sleep, and make sure she didn't have any more nightmares.

When she woke the next morning, Marie gazed up at him adoringly as she pressed a soft kiss to his chin. "You're so sweet," she told him, with a loving smile. Logan just grinned and kissed her in return, before asking what she wanted for breakfast.

--

After the middle of the night shock, the mystery nightmares returned to their earlier presentation of barely waking her, and leaving Marie with nothing more than a mild feeling of unease. Both she and Logan were happy that there hadn't been another big one but still worried about what exactly it was that was causing them. Logan was particularly concerned it might be something connected with his nightmares, despite the fact that Marie had stopped having his nightmares within two weeks of him touching her last time.

As night after night passed, and the strange nightmares became less frequent, and less severe, they were almost forgotten.
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