‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

She is outdoors…

…..working in her greenhouse

….because her mind is in turmoil

….because she needs to be alone

….because she does not want to say or do anything that she might regret later.

-----

“’Ro darling,” the cultured female voice stopped her on her way from her classes.

“Yes Ms. Frost,” she turned to her *flashily* dressed colleague.

“How would you like to have lunch with me?” the other woman offered. Although her voice was even pitched, the tone and her body language all hinted to some hidden agenda. “And please, do call me Emma.”

“Ms. Frost,” she provided a *unfeeling* smile of her own. “I am sorry, but I already have lunch plans…..and please, do call me Ororo or Ms. Monroe. Only my friends call me ‘Ro.”

If her comment had the desired affect or not, she did not know verbally, although the slight twitch of the nerve on the forehead of the other platinum-blonde haired woman, told her everything she wanted to know.

-----

“Why did I do that?” she berates herself. “Why did I stoop down to her level?”

Closing her eyes, she takes deep breaths, dissipating the ominous clouds threatening to unleash her fury.

“I should know better than to indulge a trollop like her.”

“I should be able to rise above all this.”

“Why did I do it?”

----

“Oh,” the *Queen* smiled her plastic smile. “Maybe some other time.”

“Sure,” she nodded and started walking away, the woman falling in step with her. ‘Not in this life time.’

“Do give my regards to your feral colleague,” that stopped her right in her tracks.

“Pardon?” she turned to find a smug expression on the other woman’s face.

“Your lunch *plans* are with him, aren’t they?” she made her blood boil at the loss of her mental privacy.

“Ms. Frost,” her voice dropped to a cold growl. “What I do with my time is none of your concern. In addition, if you know what is good for you, you will refrain from invading my mind.”

-----

‘Shouldn’t have said that,’ she thinks, now that her mind has calmed a bit, being with Mother Nature being an immense help.

She knows that reply of her gave the White Queen the opening she was looking for.

It also gave extra ammunition in what she is now sure was a premeditated attack by the ex-Hellfire club member.

“What am to do now?”

Lost in her thoughts, she does not notice a figure observing her from among the branch of a tree, just ten feet away from her. His characteristic scent carried away to the other side by the flow of the wind.

-----

“Sure darling,” came the condescending answer. “After all it is your time, your life. I was just being social. After all, we have been working and staying in the same place for the last three months.”

“Yes we have,” the weather mistress replied smoothly. “Although I must say, that with just one more month left in the term, I find it odd that you would want to *develop* a friendship, with ME of all the people.”

“Oh dear,” her comment was shrugged off with an experienced ease. “I am just worried about you. Just as I am worried about the others…..”

“Sure you are,” She couldn’t stop herself from remarking.

-----

He observes her, silently, from his treetop perch.

He enjoys it, watching and analyzing people, especially those who are like him….and let not like him.

She is a mutant, just like him…..she is not a *visible* one, unlike him.

She was the first one whom he saw here, the first one who befriended him here, cared for him.

So he watches her, because he cares for her.

He watches…especially today, because he can sense her unrest.

Momentarily closing his eyes, he says a small prayer for her.

-----

“Come on Ororo, there is no need to snippy. Its your choice with whom want to fraternize romantically. Although I must say, the healing factor must work wonders in the bed. Maybe I should ask his usual clientele, but I don’t fancy going to roadside brothels,” the other woman’s words cut deep, but she maintains her silence.

“Wonder what Jean’s views might be on this topic,” unknowingly for both women, the arrow has just hit the bull's-eye. “Isn’t he supposed to be carrying a torch for her?”

“You will have to ask either of them about that,” she finally does answer, flinching slightly because she knows that the torch has been doused.

“I don’t understand what Scott is doing with someone like Jean when with his looks he could do so much better.”

------

Finishing his prayer he opens his eyes, they yellow gleaming in the dark shadowy branches.

Looking at her last position, he finds that she no longer there, only her clothes remain, neatly draped over her worktable.

Looking around and then up, he sees a figure retreating into the sky.

“Ah, riding the winds,” he says to himself. “Vonderful.”

Returning his gaze back to the ground he catches sight of another figure hidden by the shadows, his form completely garbed in the murky darkness, all except for the red glow of his cigar.

He looks deep in thought, his eyes following the aerial dance with a fanaticism. It’s as if he is seeing a goddess.

“Good luck mein friend,” he whispers just for his ears, and *BAMF*, he is gone.

------

“Ms. Frost,” she has had enough. “If you take me for a sounding board for your thoughts, you are sadly mistaken. Now if you excuse me.”

“Sure darling, no hard feelings,” the words keep flowing with their steady rhythm. “I wouldn’t want to have the Wolverine throw a hissy fit. Not without you being there. You seem to have a knack at soothing the savage….beast.”

“Thank you for the complement,” this time she is able to twist the words just as well. “You are very perceptive.”

That has the desired affect.

“Now if you excuse,” they reach the dining hall. “Although I would like to say that it has been a pleasure, I don’t fancy lying,” the word *fancy* is used in the same fashion as the other woman had just it just minutes ago.

“Have a peaceful day Ms. Frost, if you can manage one.”

-----

“Now why did I have to say that?” she says to her winds, ignorant of the interaction taking place on the ground.

“Logan.”

“What is it Jean?” His voice is just as teasing as it used to be before they….before that night, when she first came to him.

“I need to talk to you.”

“Talk?” he arches an eyebrow. “We usually don’t *talk*. You sure you want to do it with me?”

“Yes,” he green eyes flare with barely contained fire. “I cannot do this anymore.”

“Alright,” he flicks the ash of his cigar. “Cannot, hmmm…..what about don’t?”

----

“What do you mean?” she asks with suspicious confusion.

“You said, you cannot, but can you say you don’t want to?” he asks frankly.

“Scott has asked me to marry him.”

“Good for you,” his heart clenches with the faintest of yearning he used to have at one time…before she chose the other one, the *Good* one. “Give my congrats to one-eye. But that still doesn’t answer my question.”

“I-I don’t want to,” the words sound hollow even to her, let alone to him, who can smell the lie just as easily as he can hear it.

“Good,” he chuckles as he shakes his head and starts to walk away.. “Nice to know where I stand.”

------

“And Red,” he looks over his shoulder.

“Yes,” she doesn’t lift her head to see if he is looking at her.

“I’ll be in my room….see you tonight.”

---

Note: Couldn't think of an appropriate title for the chapter, so just used the general idea.

Hope you liked it and will review it!!

‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

Late night at the Xavier Mansion,

A lone figure sits in the kitchen table, a now cold half-drunk cup of coffee lying before her.

‘Why am I even thinking about this?’ she tells herself as she caresses the still unfamiliar diamond ring on her left hand. ‘I should be in bed.’

Still she thinks, not because she loves the other…..well not as she loves the first, her fiancé. The man who has proposed to spend his whole life with her.

She thinks, because of habit, because of hate….because of lust.

Yet she hesitates. Hesitates because of her love, her fear and….

-KRRRAAKKA-BOOM-

…because of that.

‘She knows’

------

“Hey ‘Ro,” he walked to the greenhouse, having given her enough time to don her clothes after she had returned from her aerial dance.

“Hello Logan,” she smiled softly as she looked up to face him.

“Got some time,” she sensed his unease. “I gotta talk….I-I got somethin’ to tell to ya.”

“Yes,” she answered hesitantly.

Hidden in the shadows, the other woman watched as the calm azure of the sky turned darker, first becoming a darker blue and then finally a near black, grey, just as the emotional state of the usually calm weather goddess.

Its color turned from its cerulean to a multitude of colors. Red for her anger, green for her jealousy, yellow for her pain, with the overall background turning from a serene white to an ominous black.

‘He was telling her.’

-----

‘He’s told her,’ the realization had hit her like a ton of bricks.

‘What will happen now?’ she has been thinking since the first thunder boom in the sky, the first lightening flash, the first raindrop. She has been since this afternoon

And its almost midnight now, and its still raining.

‘I have to avoid seeing her,’ had been her first thought once her mind was able to comprehend the situation that was developing before her eyes.

That task had been accomplished with comparative ease, not because of any special effort on her part, but because the other woman had left on her own. She had only returned a couple of hours earlier, taking the aerial route to go to her room, thus averting the chance of any confrontation.

------

She watched as they talked.

She could and should have left, but she stayed, both due to a fear of being detected by the other woman and due to her own morbid curiosity. What would happen?

“Me”, “Jean”, “Almost four months”, were the words she had been able catch, and they had been enough. She got the gist.

She didn’t hear what the soft spoken Ororo’s reply was, but the instant darkening of the sky and the eerie glow around her ‘friend’ didn’t bode well.

However, Logan’s next words let her know that too.

“What do you mean how could I? She came to me and not the other way round.”

Again, she was unable to hear the reply to that comment, barely squelching the temptation to let her telepathic shield down and directly read their thoughts. She was afraid that given her own emotional nature, she would be caught.

“I don’t give a shit about one-eye. Its not my fault that they couldn’t…”

*SLAP*

------

‘She slapped him,’ the action still astounds her, not because Ororo lashed out for herself, but also for her and Scott. Even after what Logan had told her, she still cared enough to stop him from saying anything…. ‘She slapped him.’

It was that slap that once and for all brought out the feelings that the intensely private Storm had towards the equally if not more private Wolverine.

She hit him….she lost her temper. ‘Does Logan even know what that means?’ Jean thinks in awe. She is able to count the times that has happened….count it using just one hand.

Once again her thoughts take her back to the greenhouse.

-----

The slap echoed, stopping him from completing his sentence. His mouth hanging open both from the action and from the force behind it.

“Ororo…” he momentarily lost all fight, all temper.

“What do you want me to say Logan?” she was the one on the offensive now. Her head held high, her cerulean eyes white with power, with rage. “What do you WANT ME TO SAY?”

Instead of answer, the unshakable, unbendable Logan, merely hung his head in shame, not for his actions, but for the tears he could see in those beautiful eyes, their saline taste and smell filling the air around them.

Hiding like a voyeur, the redhead watched and heard with bated breath, waiting for the silence to end.

However, the next words she heard shook her to her very core.

“Was it….was she worth it?”

-----

The striking of the clock tells her it is midnight.

Closing her eyes, she listens to every gong, mentally steeling herself for what she is about to do.

Just as the last strike takes place, she pushes herself off the stool she has been sitting on, puts the empty mug into the sink….and starts walking…..towards his, Logan’s room.

‘What are you doing?’ a small part of her cries out. ‘You are engaged.’

‘Just one more time,’ another one tempts her.

‘No, just tell it is going to end….no more,’ an almost sane part suggests. ‘….and then go to *your* room.

Still mulling over the options, she doesn’t realize that she has reached his room and even knocked on it.

For a few seconds there is no silence from the other side, giving her the hope that maybe he is not there, maybe….

“Come in Red.”

----

“Yes,” he had answered truthfully, not lying to her. He had never lied to her. True she didn’t know about his ‘thing’ with their teammate, but that was only because she never asked about it.

“Yes?” she sounded confused. “To what?”

“Yes…to what you asked.”

“I asked two questions,” she clarified. “Was SHE worth it? Was doing it worth it?”

“Yes,” he repeated his earlier answer. “Both.”

Taking a few moments to absorb his answer and the stark honesty behind it, Ororo generated a small rain shower over freshly planted tulip bulbs.

“Why tell me?” she finally asked.

“’Cause I can’t do it any more. I don’t wanna do it any more.”

“Is that the real reason,” she asked icily. “Or is just because she is finally engaged now. You cannot have her and want a replacement…..to warm your bed. Want me….”

“NO,” the ferocity in his voice was instant. “Never. Never you. Never.”

Once again silence filled the time and space between them.

------

The room is dark, making it impossible for her to see anything except his silhouette against the rain-spattered windows, the glow and smoke of his cigar pinpointing his exact location.

“Logan…” she starts hesitantly.

“Why are you here Jeannie?” his gruff question cuts her off.

“I-I don’t know.”

“Do you wanna do it?” He doesn’t specify *what*. He doesn’t need to, both of them know what he means.

“I don’t know,” same answer as the previous question.

“Hn,” his expression doesn’t any hint about his reaction.

The shadow moves from the window and moments later, the bedside lamp is switched on.

“Sit down Jean,” finally she is able to see and hear the tiredness in his voice.

“We gotta talk.”

------

“Ororo,” he stepped towards her, only to stop as she took a step in the other direction, away from him.

“What do you want now Logan?” Her voice still cold was cracking with the slightest hint of emotions….hurt and pain.

“What I wanted earlier,” his answer was simple. “Whom I wanted earlier…whom I still want.”

At her silence, he once again started towards her. “’Ro.”

“After this,” her words stopped his progress, his hand falling to his side. “What if you aren’t wanted….aren’t forgiven?”

“I can wait,” he answered with conviction. “As long as it takes.”

“What if it never happens?” She asked with a steeled yet curious voice.

“As long as it takes.”

-----

She sits down on the study-table chair, her eyes automatically going to the duffle bag lying on the bed.

“You are leaving?” she asks with a mix of concern and relief.

“Yeah,” he nods his head and crushes the cigar stub against his hand, wincing at the momentary singe of pain shooting through his body, it effects only lasting a couple of seconds before his mutation kicks in and removes all traces of the wound.

“When will you be back?” the question is pretty routine, one that is asked whenever he leaves, either to follow up on another lead for his elusive past or just to get his head clear.

“Don’t know,” he sighs and clenches his hands and lets his claws out, almost reveling in the pain they cause when they slice through the muscles, nerves and skin.

-SNIKT-SNIKT-SNIKT-

He does it thrice, out, in and then out again.

“When I will be called back,” he finally answers and slowly lets the claws slide back in. “I can wait. I’ll wait.

“What if that doesn’t happen?” she asks the obvious question. “What is she finds someone else?”

“You really enjoying this; aren’t you?” the unflappable Wolverine lashes out for a second, only to be subdued the man.

“I don’ wanna think about it.”

-----

From her hiding place, she saw his shoulders sag in defeat as hers' squared in defiance.

As she watched, her friend turned to face the man who to public knowledge was a teammate and a friend. That is what she told herself too. That is why they hadn’t progressed in their *relationship*. She had told him that she needed time to make a decision. She had told him that she wanted them to know each other as people and then only would….could she make a choice. She had told that in the mean time they would live their lives as they had been living it before.

Then why did she hurt? Did she have the right to be hurt….feel betrayed?

Why?

She needed time to answer those questions. Time and space.

“Goodbye Logan,” those were her parting words.

Leaving him standing, alone, she walked out of the glass enclosure and took to the sky, her winds lifting her up….away to her clouds…..to her second mother. Nature.

-----

“Congrats Jean,” the use of her *real* name, and the solemnity behind it, conveys to her that he actually mean it.

With that, he grabs his bag, stands up and starts towards the door.

“Logan,” she keeps her distance. “I-I’m sorry.”

His hand stays on the doorknob as he tries to gather an appropriate answer.

“’k,” is all he says.

-----

Sitting in room, she hears him walk down the corridor, not towards the stairs that would take him down to garage, but towards the ones that lead up, to the attic….to *her* room.

She sits and listens, hearing him come back minutes later.

He doesn’t stop at the room now. He doesn’t need to….or want to.

She continues to listen, as his steps grow further, their sound fainter, until finally all that is left is silence…..silence and the patter of rain against the glass.

----

Then she hears it again, the burst of sound from the powering up of his motorcycle, the one that he created with his own hands. The one on which he had taken ‘her’ out for their ‘outings’.

Almost in time with the first thump of the engine, a renewed and louder boom of thunder shakes the very ground, threatening to shatter the windows….if not bring down the whole mansion.

She sits in silence, waiting for the sound of him to leave the mansion grounds and move out of hearing range.

She sits….and she prays.

She sits and she prays….for herself, for him, for her and for the man sleeping in her bed.

She sits and she prays.

---

Note: As you can see, this one is drawing towards it end. Hopefully next chapter should be from *HER* P.O.V. Its time that we heard her side of the story too. Dontcha think?

BTW...don't forget to review!!

‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

Time line: Zero Days (The Day After),

She came down silently from her loft apartment, a ghost of her usual lively self.

Nearing the kitchen, she hears loud voices, rather a single one. A voice she knew well. A voice she knew she would hear, only not so soon and not against the person who it was being spoken against.

“What do yah mean he didn’t say when he will be coming back?” the young skunk-striped-hair girl yelled in anger, the subject of her ire long gone, the recipient calmly sitting in front of her.

“Rogue this is no way….” Her team leader and teacher started to placate her.

“You keep the fuck out of this, one-eye,” she growled in a familiar fashion that wasn’t really her own. “What do yah mean?” she asked again. “Ah got this letter sayin’ that yah will explain everything. So start explaining Professor.”

“Please have a seat Rogue,” the telepath suggested calmly.

“Uh-huhn,” she shook her head vigorously, her next words surprising everyone one around her. “Yah start yappin’ or ah start touchin’.”

“Goddess,” the voyeur gasped as she stayed in the shadows, not for any particular reason, as almost everyone was already in the room, the school’s teachers and quite a few of the students, including the raging girl’s classmates.

“Last warnin’ Professah,” the southern accent grew thicker, both with anger and a growing sense of pain and hurt.

“Rogue Cherie,” the charmer’s words fell on deaf ears, that alone surprising quite a few people. That had never happened before. He was one of the few people who could contain and calm the spitfire southerner. The others had already tried and the only person now left was not in the country, let alone in the room.

“Very well child,” the experienced Professor knew when to pull and when to let. “Perhaps we should convene in my….”

“Here. Now.” That answered his incomplete question. “Get goin’ Chuck. Don’t try yer minds games with me.”

The flip between the girl’s personalities was swift and seamless. When she was calm or in pain, she was herself, but when she was angry, she channeled her inner mentor as if it was her own.

--

“Logan has taken an indefinite break from the school,” Xavier informed her and everyone else calmly.
“And,” the girl arched her brow in yet another adopted mannerism from the feral Wolverine.

“He has also…,” now this explanation was harder to give. The snow haired observer’s breath hitched in her throat. “He has also left something for you,” the Professor spoke once again. “And, if they want, also for Jubilation and Katherine.”

“Us?” both girls squeaked from their table. At the Professor's signal, they got up and came towards where he sat.

“Logan…” he started once again. “Has he had set aside a certain amount of monetary funds that he wanted Rogue’s to use for her future studies. Even though the institute takes cares of all such expenses, he wanted her to have her own money,” he explained to the girls.
“Ok, but what’s that got to do with us?” the yellow firecracker asked the question that was on everyone’s lips.

“Yesterday evening he came to my office,” Xavier started with his answer. “He has made similar arrangements for both of you.”

That revelation hushed everyone, the silence only broken by the next question, which came from the usual, expected source.

“How much money are we talking about here, Professor?” Scott Summers asked warily.
“Enough to finance all four years of undergraduate studies for all three girls,” Xavier’s answered an instant fuck from a very unusual source, Kitty.

“In your case Katherine,” he smiled at her. “He wasn’t sure that you would need the funds. He knows that unlike you, where your family has been understanding and supportive of your mutation, Rogue and Jubilee have no such support to fall back on. Even then, he made the adequate arrangements. He also stated that if you are not in need of it, it would be Rogue’s, Jubilee’s and my decision as to how best use the remaining funds. Although, he did specifically state that there would not be any shopping binges.”

That got a soft smile from mallrat Jubilee, who wiped away the sudden moistness in her eyes.

“Thaht’s all fine and dandy,” Rogue spoke again. “Why did he leave?”

“We don’t know Rogue,” Xavier shook his head. He had sensed distressing emotions emanating from the Canadian, but had respectfully stayed away from *taking a peek* into his mind.

“What do ya mean ya don’t know?” she bellowed again, ignoring the tears flowing down her cheeks.

--

At getting no further answers from anyone, she gritted out a screw ya’ll and stormed out of the room, only stopping when she came face to face with the regal but tired looking weather witch.

One look at her and she turned around, her eyes instantly zoning in on a nervous looking Jean. That gave her all the clarifications she needed.

Turning away from the door, she closed in on the taller woman, disregarding her two friends standing just inside the door.

“Ya sent him away, didntcha?” the girl accused hotly. “He musta told ya and ya sent him away.”

At her silence, she got another earful, one that struck right to her heart.

“Ya played yer game with him and when it came ta bite ya, ya pissed out,” the girl said the thing that the woman knew, the thing that the man didn’t say out loudly the previous afternoon. ‘She knows about it,’ her mind called out.

“Ah hope yer happy now.” The accusation caused the passive emotional armor to flinch internally.

Walking away from her, the girl gave a parting remark.

“Heartless Bitch.”

------

Time line: Two Weeks,

The mansion seemed to be getting to normal slowly.

Scott and Jean had finally broken the news of their engagement, causing a celebrity uproar in the school. The star couple was finally taking the next step in their legendary relation, just one step away from tying the knot.

Everyone congratulated them and gave their best wishes….and meant it. Everyone except three.

The first one was the white clad, platinum blonde. She gave a brief peck on the cheeks of the to-be-groom, and hugged the flame haired to-be-bride, sending a mental projection telepathically.

**Nice play darling. Got your kicks and now your man**

With that, she smiled her enigmatic smile and sauntered off smugly.

--

The second one was the snow haired, blue eyed Ororo. Her wishes were given together to both. “Hope you achieve true happiness.” Her words were short and succinct, with the thought ‘that I couldn’t,’ remaining unspoken.

In the joyful and enthusiastic ruckus, no one noticed that although she hugged the ruby eyed Scott, the only thing Jean got was a cool, detached smile.

--

Last one from the *non-wishing* trio was the pissed off Rogue.

She smiled a tight smile to her male teacher and gave a deliberate hug to his fiancée.

“Ah know everything,” she whispered just loud enough for the woman to hear. “Everything,” she stressed again.

Just before she drew back and re-plastered her sickening sweet smile, she spoke six small words. “What will happen if Ah tell….” She let it trail off, not completing the threat.

“Ah so happy foh both of yah,” she effortlessly donned the enthusiastic teenager mask.

-------

Time line: Three and a half Weeks,

She headed towards the silent greenhouse. It had become her retreat, her sanctuary. The one place she could go to get away from everyone, where she could immerse herself in the protective cradle of Mother Nature.

However, that day someone had already beaten in getting there, someone whose characteristic perfume and stale tobacco smell she knew well.

“Come out dear brother,” she called out softly. “I know you are there. And please put off that accursed cigarette.”

“As you say padnat,” the devil eyed charmer stepped out of the shadows, crushing the cigarette butt into a lump of damp work soil. “How are you doin’ Stormy?”

“I’m good,” her lackluster answer and the fact that she didn’t correct him for use of his pet-name, told him everything he needed to know.

“Good?” he stepped close to her, a sort of sad smirk on his face. “You ‘ave always been good ‘Roro.” At getting no answer from her, except a half-hearted smile, he spoke again. “You miss ‘im, don’t you?”

Again there was no answer.

“Ororo,” his gloved hand stopped her tilling.

“I am alright brother,” her words sounded more as a consolation than the truth. “How are you and….” She started to say.

**Ororo, please come to my office**

----

Time line: Six Weeks,

Once again, she is in her outdoor sanctuary, her thoughts turning to the events of the recent past.

His words still rang clear in her ears. “Me and Jeannie, we’ve been sleeping with each other.” That was what he had said. He had spoken a lot more, or had wanted to, she didn’t remember, because she didn’t care then, she didn’t listen then, she couldn’t. Her mind had gone numb after his those starting words.

The only thing she remembered hearing was, “As long as it takes.” After that she had left, calling on her winds to carry her away from the mansion, from him….from everything.

The next day he was gone.

---

Then came to the events of two and half weeks ago,

Xavier had called her, Scott, Jean, Hank and Emma to his office.

“I have asked you here today, to discuss our faculty status,” he stated evenly. “With Logan’s departure and Ms. Frost’s ending contract, the need for another teacher has arisen.”

“Anyone special you have in mind Professor?” Beast had asked. He was the most *uninvolved* party in the current group. Him and Charles.

“I did have a few people in mind and have even contacted them,” the headmaster answered the query. “Two of them have shown an interest in joining us. I expect an answer from them within the next few days. Hopefully, we should have a new teacher soon.”

“Professor, what about Logan?” the second question also came from the blue furred doctor. He had an inkling of the reason Logan had left the institute in a hurry. His enhanced senses had allowed him to do so. However, what he had inferred had not been correct. He had thought that Logan had left because of Jean and Scott’s engagement. Hence, he thought that he would be returning soon. “When do you expect him to return?”

“I cannot answer that question Henry,” Xavier sighed. “Before leaving he had said that his return will only happen under two situations. As for what those situations are, he said we’ll know then when and if the time comes.”

“Very cryptic for Logan,” Scott smirked. “Didn’t know he had that many working brain cells in that Admantium encased cranium of his.”

Nobody said anything in response to that remark. Xavier didn’t want to, Beast always tried to keep away from the Logan-Scott *deal*, that left only Jean and Ororo, who had their own reasons to keep quiet about the feral Canadian.

---

Her musings were intruded upon by Xavier’s telepathic call.

**Ororo, please join us in the foyer**

Leaving her solitary retreat, she took to the skies, landing at the front door a few seconds later. Once inside, she saw the other faculty members and someone whom she did not recognize, but automatically knew as the new teacher.

“And this is our last teammate,” Xavier made the usual introductions. “Ms. Ororo Monroe. Ororo, this is…”

“Please, Professor,” the blonde haired man stood up, his height allowing him to tower over the five foot eleven Ororo. “Allow me to introduce myself.”

Stepping towards the white clad Nubian beauty, he raised a fair hand.

“Davis Cameron. Davis to my friends.”

---

Note: In case you were wondering who the mysterious Davis Cameron is, just check out X-Treme X-Men #06. A dickhead in my opinion. For that you will have to read quite a few issues, at least till end of the alien invasion arc.

BTW….don’t forget to Review!!

‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

Seven months since that fateful afternoon,

She enters her room and even in the dark of the night, she instinctively senses a presence there, the glowing end of the puff-stick pinpointing the person. ‘As if I didn’t know it already,’ she smiles to herself.

“Fancy seeing you here,” she is in a good mood, having just returned from yet another dinner date with the now well-settled Davis Cameron. It was their fourth and tonight, she finally gave into his unspoken request to kiss her goodnight. Even though it was just a peck on the cheek, it was definitely a step forward. Previously, contact had been limited it to just a shake of the hands.

Having gotten over the initial awkward phase, their relationship is fast developing from colleagues and friends to something more. The heart aching, painful incident that finally brought the blonde surfer-god into her life is a distant memory and isnt’t even on her mind right now. Hasn’t been for many days. Neither has the gruff Canadian who *responsible* for it.

All that is about to change.

“You been partyin’ Ororo,” his words lack the usual life, something she doesn’t notice instantly.

“What, Remy? Not calling me Stormy,” she chuckles as she drops her purse onto the dresser and starts towards the light switch. “You must be really off your game today my friend.”

“Don’,” his hushed voice stops her mid action. “Don’ turn on da light.”

“Remy,” she does not miss out a second time. “What’s the matter?” She asks softly as she leaves the room as it is and starts towards the window, on who’s sill he is sitting on, a smoldering cigarette dangling from his fingers. He doesn’t even seem to notice that its ashes are falling on his overcoat.

“Nothin’ padnat,” he tries to sound his usual debonair self, but the hollowness is still clear to her practiced ear.

“Don’t lie to me Remy Lebeau,” her voice carries a concern admonishment. Sitting down in front of him, she notices the dimmed light in his usually glinting eyes. He had a tired look on his face. “What happened?” her tone is soft and urging.

“Rogue an’ Remy,” just the start is enough to sound the alarm bells in the weather goddess’s mind and heart.

‘Rogue,’ just one word, and its enough to clear away all her euphoria, strong waves of regret, pain, anger, betrayal, sorrow and various other dark emotions, washing over it and carrying it away like a paper boat in high tide.

‘Ever since that morning,’ she thinks, not wanting to let even the barest memory of the previous afternoon trickle through her carefully constructed shields. ‘Ever since that morning,’ everything has changed between her and the usually calm Rogue.

It all started with that morning.

----

After leaving her standing there in the corridor, the girl stomped off to her room, the loud slam of the door, echoing in the empty hallways. She hadn’t come out the whole day, missing all her classes and snarling at anyone who tried to come near her. Even the Professor had been on the receiving end of some sever verbal thrashing, courtesy of the girl’s inner Carol, Logan and Magneto. Carol had given her the confidence and Logan the choice words and the bolstering fiery anger, while Eric had given the cold calculated and time gathered ammunition, which the young woman had used, to the fullest.

All this coupled with her own youth and the rebellious nature it brought along with it.

The other person who had come both as an authority figure and as a friend had received a similar response. The minute Scott Summers opened the door and stepped through it, he was very clearly and succinctly told to ‘fuck off’. Being the team leader and the second in the school, he did not let off so easily. He had tried reasoning with her that Logan would come back soon and that he wouldn’t want her to be worried about him.

That blew the top off her anger, and she almost let the secret out.

“Yeah, ya like thaht he ain’t here. Dontcha’ Cycke?” her voice dropped to a threatening growl. “That will give ya the peace of mind that he ain’t no longer gonna fuck yer precious Jeannie.”

That shut him right up, his hands clenching at his sides. He knew that those words weren’t entirely made up from the girl’s mind. They were from the Logan inside her. She was fuelling her anger from his mental essence. There was only one solution for that particular problem.

She was left alone to cool down, with only Jubilee and Kitty going near her. One, because she allowed them to come within a feet of her. Two, because they shared the room with her, and three, they needed to get food and nourishment to her.

---

Lost in her thoughts she misses out on his words….almost all of them, except for the last few.

“….and den she left.”

“Calm down Remy,” she lays a supportive hand on his knee. “Tell me everything that happened. Slowly.”

“You don’ wanna hear it padnat,” he shakes his head in denial.

“Yes I do,” her voice is soft, yet full of determination.

He is silent for what seems like hours. Finally, he lets out a deep sigh and starts talking.

-----

That evening,

Both lovers were sitting in the gazebo, overlooking the cliff side drop into the ocean, silently watching the sun set over the horizon, its fiery yellow having turned a dull orange and then to a dull grey of the approaching night.

“Come on Remy,” Rogue spoke with her characteristic southern drawl, her gloved hand grasping and pulling the similarly gloved limb of her Cajun charmer. “Lets go in.”

“Why Cherie? Don’ you like spendin’ time wit’ Remy now?” He teased with a twinkle in his eyes.

“Sure do mah swamp rat,” she shook her head, a little pink blush coloring her cheeks. “But ah from the south, and me and cold don’t go so well togethah. So, what do ya say, we go inside and spend some time togethah theah.”

“Remy like the way you tink’.”

Hand in hand, they walked towards the imposing mansion, its Victorian architecture, presenting an impressive sight, especially when it was the only one around for miles. Xavier had bought quite a lot of land, both to have adequate space for any future expansion plans, and to ensure the safety and privacy of the school and its students.

They were about a couple of hundred feet away from the structure, when the sound of a sports car engine powering to life reached their ears, its sound soon followed by the vehicle itself.

Seeing it and its occupants elicited different reactions from the couple. Where on one hand Remy smiled a happy smile, Rogue’s frown clearly mirrored her feelings, something that her partner had noticed, but avoided talking about…..till today.

His next remark, a simple, innocent one blew the lid of the simmering pot.

“Stormy looks happy, no.”

“Yeah, sure does,” the words were spat out. “Of course she will be happy. She’s sucked it outta othahs Succubus.”

“Rogue?” His reaction was instant, more of a concerned annoyance than an outright one.

Everyone in the mansion knew about the sudden aversion Rogue had developed towards her teachers, one that hadn’t abated even after seven months of Logan’s leaving. Initially, she had gone against everyone, including the Professor. The only one who wasn’t on the receiving end of her teenage wrath, was Beast. During the first few weeks, the mild mannered doctor had been the only one she allowed through the barriers she had put up. However, with the passage of time, her anger towards some of them seemed to have cooled down. After withdrawing from all classes that Beast couldn’t instruct her in, she had taken courses taught by her other teachers.

The only teacher she didn’t seem to let go was Ororo. Since that morning, she had never set even a foot in any of Ororo’s classes, a situation that garnered dozens of rumors about the cause of this animosity and also Ororo's part in Logan’s leaving.

When Davis had joined the school, he had taken over some of Scott’s and some of Henry’s classes, freeing them to take over Logan’s self-defense classes. He had soon become quite familiar with the students and all of them liked him, including Rogue. That all changed about two and a half months back, when Davis took Ororo out for dinner. From the next day onwards, Davis started getting an Ororo style treatment from the southern firecracker. This sudden change in behavior only added oil to the already blazing rumor mill.

---

Back in the mansion grounds, Remy was dumbstruck by the sudden change in his girlfriend’s moods. Where she had been all lively and bubbly, she had gone to a polar opposite, angry and scowling.

“Rogue,” he caught hold of her hand as she tried to walk away from him. “What is your problem wit’ Ororo?” It had been the second time he had asked this question. The first had been when she had blown off for the second time in public against the snow haired beauty. She had said that she did not want to talk about it and given her tumultuous emotional state, Remy had let it slide, something he did not intend to do this evening.

“Ah don’t wanna talhk about it?” Came the usual answer as the slim girl tried to free herself from the firm grip. If she wanted, she could easily do so and toss the card-thrower just like one of his playing cards.

“Tough luck,” Remy stepped forward and enclosed his arms around her front. Now she would have no choice, if she wanted to be free, she would have to but to hurt him, something he knew she would not do.

The next few moments were filled with an uncomfortable silence as one of them tried to reign in her anger, while the other tried to extend his patience.

“She has no right to be happy,” came the soft but cold answer.

“Don’ say that Cherie,” loosening his grip, the charmer came around to face her. “Everyone deserve a chance to be happy. Specially Ororo.”

“NO,” the sudden flare up caused him to automatically tighten his grip. “Not her. Not now. Not with….” Her voice grew softer with each other, finally trailing off without completing her sentence.

“Not without Logan, huhn,” Remy completed her sentence, taking in the slight flinch that passed over the girl’s face at the spoken aloud name.

---

“Why can’t you let go of ‘im Rogue,” Remy urged softly. “He left. He hurt you, Stormy. As far as Remy is concerned that wolf-man could stay away all his life.”

That was the wrong thing to say. The next instant, the Cajun found himself flying through the air, landing harmlessly on the hedge that grew around the whole mansion.

“Well, foh your information Gambit, she was the one that hurt him. She was the one that made him leave. She was the one that played her games with him,” the use of his codename and the way it was spat out stunned the swamp rat. “And as far as I am concerned,” she used his words against him. “Yer Stormy can fall of the face of tha earth and go to hell, and ya know what, so can ya. We are ovah.”

No sooner had the last word left her lips that Rogue took to the skies, leaving a dumbstruck Cajun sprawled out on the grass.”

----

“An’ dat is the whole story,” the demon eyed charmer sighs dejectedly.

The snow haired beauty doesn’t know what to say, her own thoughts dragging her back to that afternoon, the one she has learned so well to avoid.

---

“Ororo….” he had whispered, loud enough so that only she could hear it.
“Leave,” she had ground out.

“Leave?”
“Get away from me. Leave me alone,” she supplied an unfeeling elaboration.

“You want me to leave here now,” the Wolverine could take only so much before rearing its wild head. “Or do you want me to leave altogether.”

She hadn’t given a verbal answer to his question. Instead, she turned away from him and let her winds carry her away from him.

---

‘And leave he did,’ she thinks now. ‘Just as you said,’ a small part in her accuses her; a part that she thought had left with him. A part that had remained silent, only to be let out now. ‘He gave you your wish.’

“Ororo,” the concerned voice of her best friend pulls her from her mulling. “What happen’ between you and Rogue?” He cryptically asks what happened between her and Logan.

“I don’t know,” she hates herself for having to lie. She knows, she just doesn’t want to talk about it. She knows that the girl knows everything about her and Logan and also about Jean and Logan. She knows everything.

That means, she also knows about the first talk that had finally led to the last one. She knows everything.

“What happen’ between you and Wolverine?” He spells out the question he wanted to ask in the first place.

She doesn’t answer this time, forcing him to try it a second time.

“’Roro…” he starts; only to be stopped as she lets go of him and stands up abruptly.

“I am tired Remy,” the excuse comes out automatically. “I think it would be better if you would leave.”

“Stormy?” He is not at all surprised at her reaction. He would have been seven, even six or months ago. Not anymore.

“Goodnight Remy,” She wishes him and walks away towards the bathroom. “Please leave,” the words scratch at her conscience.

-----

She comes out ten minutes later, the silken fabric of her nightgown billowing in the wind that had suddenly come out of nowhere.

Silently as a ghost, she walks to her bed and lays down on it.

She is alone now. Alone with freshly clawed out wounds of the past. She is alone.

She tries to sleep, but her mind doesn’t let her do so. It wanders.

It wanders and takes her to the one place she doesn’t want to go to.

It takes her to the cold, harsh wilderness of the north…

….it takes her to him.

---

Note: So, how did you like this chapter. Post your reviews and let me know. Hope to get Logan back into the picture sometime soon....not that he is actually out of it.

** ** indicates telepathic communication.
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

The day was finally here.

“Do you Scott take thee Jean Grey to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others? As long as you both shall live”

“I do,” answered the smartly dressed groom, his ruby quartz glasses reflecting the mid morning sun.

“And do you Jean,” the priest addressed the veiled white clad bride, “Do you take Scott Summers to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others? As long as you both shall live.”

“I do,” the bride’s answer was equally confident and true.

The best-man, the groom’s younger brother promptly handed over the rings.

“By power vested in me by the state of New York, I now pronounce you, man and wife. You may kiss your bride,” those fateful and much awaited words were finally spoken, garnering hoots and claps from the gathering, as the veil was lifted and the newly married lovers joined their lips for the first time as husband and wife.

----

“What are you thinking?” he tilts his head sideways to look at the love of his life. Finally they are together….one.
“Nothing,” is the first and automatic reply. “Just about us.”

“What?” she leans over and rests her head on his shoulder, her sleep mussed, flame colored hair spreading over his back and arms.
“About how I almost lose you….” even as he speaks, he can feel her tense. The thought ‘She didn’t read my thoughts,’ sounding somewhere in the deepest recesses of his mind. “….Not once but so many times.”

When she doesn’t answer, he can instinctively sense what her thoughts are, about her mistakes and also his.

“I love you Jean,” he breaks the silence. “And I am sorry for everything that happened with….in the past.”
“I love you too Scott,” she responds both verbally and through their psi-link. “I never wanted it….” she doesn’t want to say the words, trying to forget it….her indiscretion, just as he is trying to forget his.

They have overcome a lot…many almost insurmountable difficulties to reach at this juncture. She even fought and defeated the largest of them all….death.

And although they are thankful for their current state of happiness, and they want to forget some of the events of the past year, they don’t….won’t forget the lessons they learnt.

They will not forget how close they came to losing one another.

----

“How long did this go on?” he had asked her.
“Four months,” she answered truthfully, her own emotional turmoil, mirroring his.

“Four months,” he repeated the words as if trying them on for their weight. “Four months.”

The silence that lay between them wasn’t comforting in the least, its invisible claws threatening to tear both of them apart.

“Scott….” She started from her bedside perch. She had finally steeled herself to confess to him, aware of the danger that it might pose to their relation….severe enough to end their union even before it was formed. At his non-response she grew silent again.

“Why?” Was the first word out of his mouth.
“I wanted….” She started only to stop and rephrase her answer. “I needed love…..”

“So you went to HIM,” he spat the last word out, not as much as of anger from the revelation that she had stepped out of him, but with whom she had been. Not that her being with any other man would make it easier to bear or hurt any less, but the principle of the matter that she went to the one man who had rankled her enough to make her think about it.

“And what do you mean, you needed love?” He caught onto the verbal part of her answer. “Wasn’t my love enough for you?”

“It was-it is,” she corrected herself. “But….”
“But WHAT Jean,” his voice rose in crescendo. “You wanted-needed love. So instead of coming to me, you went to Logan.”

“You weren’t there,” she lashed back, her emerald green eyes flaring momentarily before losing their light. “You weren’t there…with me….for me.”
“What do you mean I wasn’t there?” his anger carried the barest of confusion….and something more. Guilt.

“We both know what I am taking about?” She didn’t want to speak it out herself. She wanted that just as she had confessed, so should he.
“I don’t….” he started to deny it, but stopped at the pleading look in her eyes. “Its not the same.”

“Not the same, NOT THE SAME,” it was her turn to go on the offensive. “Why? Because you didn’t physically involved. Maybe if you would have then it would have placed us on even footing. You wouldn’t be taking this morally condescending tone with me.”

“Jean….” He didn’t have any words to explain his behavior. Everything she had said so far had been true.
“Scott, I came back for you,” tears stained her smooth cheeks. “All that time, under that water, the only thing I wanted was to be with you. But what do I get when I come back? Oh, you were glad to see me alive, your love was still there, but your fear and distrust was mudding that. You were scared of me….some part of you still is.”

“I am not…” he started, but was silenced by a hard look from her.

**Don’t even try lying to me** she sounded in his head.

--

Turning her face away from him, she continued.

“When I came back I was in an emotional fragile state. I needed you, but instead of being there for me, you went to her. Instead of confiding in me, like you used to, you turned to her.”
“It wasn’t like that,” his brow furrowed in tension.
“It was for me. You don’t know how violated I felt having the love of your life be with someone else. To have those visuals in your mind.”

“I didn’t…..I do now,” he spoke through clenched teeth. “Is that why you went to him…slept with him. To one up me?”
“No,” her voice sounded tired and broken. “I wanted to feel wanted. Everywhere I looked, everyone was afraid of me, of what I have become. I could sense their fear, their suspicion. I could sense it all. He was the only person who wasn’t like that…..not even the Professor.”

“Why didn’t you tell me all of this?” He tried again.

“Tell you,” she chuckled sarcastically. “Why didn’t you tell me about your *therapy *sessions with her,” she noticed him flinch at the word they had set for their telepathic meetings. “Why didn’t you tell me about Ororo?”

That threw him for a loop. “How did you…?” He started in confusion.

“One of the students,” she answered his incomplete question. “She captured your projections. I got them one day in class. I was thinking about you and that drew out those memories.”

“Jean, nothing happened between me and Ororo,” he felt stupid giving an answer similar to the one he had given earlier. “It was only a kiss….a single kiss.”

“A single kiss,” she spoke as if in wonder, before going cold. “It was only a kiss because she was able to stop herself and leave the room. You wanted more than that. You wanted to feel and she was the one you turned to….and just a month after my leaving.”

He had no answer for that. He knew the reason he had turned to their snow teammate. She was there. She had lent him a considerate ear….until one night things almost got out of hand. She had been consoling him after he almost fell apart during dinner. One thing led to another, and before either of them realized it, they were kissing. Being inebriated didn’t help his thinking either. It had only been because they heard Jubilee, Kitty and Rogue talking loudly and giggling outside as they walked down the hall that they….Ororo stepped back and let herself out of the room.

“I don’t blame either of you for what did or didn’t happen,” the redhead answered calmly. “I would have liked to learned about it from you, instead of catching it from the stray thoughts of a young girl not old enough to discern them…but that is a thing of the past and I don’t want to live my life in the past.”

--

“What do we do now?” she had been the one to ask that question, urging him to voice his thoughts.

“I-I don’t know.”

“Scott,” she spoke after a heavy sigh. “You were and are the only man that I want as a life partner…..the only man I want to marry. When you game me this ring, that was the day I decided to come clear with you. I had hoped that you would do the same…..that I wouldn’t have to corner you and draw it out forcibly. However, as we both know, that I has not been the case. I want us to be together as much as you….but not like this.”

“Jean…” he tried to response but was silenced by a raised hand from her.

“I am going to my parents,” her words shook him. “I am not breaking off with you, nor am I ending our engagement. That choice will be yours. If you feel that you can forgive me, just I as I have forgiven you, then let me know. Otherwise….” the words trailed off as she got up and left the room, heading towards the Professor’s office to let him know about her decision to visit her parents during the upcoming summer vacations.

-----

It had taken him two weeks to reach a decision…..and three months after that they were married.

“I am sorry Jean,” he whispers softly.
“Me too,” she draws back and turns to face him. “But that is all in the past. Only one thing matters now.”

“What?” He asks with a smile, gently drawing her towards him.
“This,” she says as their lips meet in a light kiss. “We have each other.”

“We are finally together.”

---

Note: Hope you liked it. Sorry to all those Jean and/or Scooter bashers.

What do you think about this development? Let me know through your reviews!!

** ** indicates telepathic communication.
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

The marriage ceremony is over….and so is the celebration party.

He is sitting, alone, there but not there, watching from afar the joy on the faces of everyone present.

The bride and groom, both are the happiest they have ever been in their lives. They have finally found the togetherness that had eluded them time and again.

He can sense their emotions, the depth of their love and dedication for each other.

They have given their test of fire and its not destroyed them. It has only made them stronger.

Yet, he sits there, remembering the events of the past, looking over the people starring in those memories.

------

It had only been a short time since the Alkali Lake incident and things were slowly coming back to normal.

Logan had stayed back to help with the school, something that surprised everyone, except for the young girl who had become a woman in her own right during that terrifying event.

‘Something good always comes out of the bad,’ had been his thought, watching the unapproachable loner and the untouchable teenager, strengthen and guide each other.

It had all been going along smoothly until that day…the day two of his oldest students suddenly became strangers.

He never tried to find out what happened between them, not because he couldn’t, but because he didn’t want to intrude upon their privacy.

And even though time healed that wound too, things were never the same between them.

And that led to more problems in the future.

-----

Looking at each of them now, he feels the almost familiar level of camaraderie. She is the Storm, she takes everything in her step. She is that way.

He is the team-leader. He has to take everything in his step. He has learnt to do it.

The redhead standing next to him has played a big part in that journey, one that started the first day each of them came to him, young, inexperienced, fearful of the world around them.

They have learned to control their gifts and during their time here, have found love with each other. Found and almost lost it as well.

That leads him to his next subject, the platinum blonde woman dressed in her familiar and almost standard white.

-----

“Scott, Ororo, I would like you to meet Ms. Emma Frost,” he had been the one to introduce the newcomer to his two oldest teachers. “She will be teaching in our school for this term, possibly the next,” he had added with a smile that didn’t reflect on the faces of any of the three people present. “I would like you to help her get settled and get up to speed with our curriculum.”

“Yes Professor,” the white haired weather witch had answered serenely.

“Anything else Professor?” the withdrawn Scott has asked impatiently. He didn’t like the fact that new teacher was a telepath. He felt a sense of betrayal to his departed lover. It was as if they were trying to replace her.

How things would change within the next six months, even he couldn’t have fathomed then.

----

Jean came back, and is standing not twenty feet from him, looking stunning in her designer wedding gown, laughing and leaning on the shoulder of her husband.

Next to her is the maid-of-honor, the always-regal Ororo.

Their friendship has had its shaky times too, and just like the love of her two friends, Ororo’s friendship with either of them has bested all odds and risen above it.

She is happy, for each of them and hopeful for the life that lies before them.

She is happy for herself too, but not completely. Her happiness comes from being with the people who love her and whom she loves in return. But even then, there is something in her eyes that troubles the telepath. Something that he hadn’t seen for a long time and something he has been seeing frequently in the past ten months…..although with the passage of time, that look is fading in its frequency.

And that gives him hope

-----

“Ororo,” he had found her as usual in her greenhouse garden. It had been his gift to her on her eighteenth birthday, which had come during her second year at the institute.
“Yes Professor,” she looked up from the young sapling she was tending too.

“Nice day,” he had started with small talk, knowing that she would instantly get to the point…if she wanted to.
“Yes,” she answered with nary a glance at the clear blue sky.

“Yours,” he hinted towards her weather control powers.
“No,” the corners of her lips twitched just the barest bit. “I cannot tale credit for this. It is all thanks to the Mother Goddess.”

“Ororo,” his concerned tone had made her turn to him again. “You know you can come to me any time you want. My doors and ears are always open for you.”

“Thank you Charles,” the fact that she had used his name, told him that she didn’t want to discuss the topic he was hinting to….not now nor in the foreseeable future. “I will.”

He returned her plastic smile with a tender one of his own.

“Very well child. As you wish.”

-----

He is still waiting for that meeting, though with each passing day, the chances and the need for it seem to be fading.

She too has found a friend to share her time with, although if he is a replacement or a stand in for the one that left, he still doesn’t know.

He knows the reason for his leaving, even without entering the younger man’s mind he knows. After all its not the first time he has seen such a thing happen, and it wasn’t the last.

He has seen it again, both with the bride and groom and with the untouchable young woman standing away from the crowd.

She stands there, not only because of her mutation, but also because she doesn’t want to think about the things that she might never have…..marriage, a husband, children. It hurts too much to think.

He can empathize somewhat. He had felt the same way a few years ago, when he lost the use of his legs.

------

“Rogue, how are you feeling?” It was their weekly session to try to help the girl learn control over her skin. Even though, they were basically shooting in the dark, the young woman took to it with a gusto.

Except for that day.

“Ah’m fahne Professah,” even her usually lively drawl seemed tired and lifeless.

“Would you like to talk about it?” he offered kindly. He didn’t need his telepathy to know about her state of mind, it was all displayed on her pleasant visage.

“Its-its….” She started not once but a couple of times, finally shaking her head in denial. “Ah don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Is it about Logan?” he knew about the effect that his leaving had had on the teenager. He had taken the position of one of the two most important men in her life. Apart from a romantic interest, which she had in the Louisianan Gambit, the status of the gruff Canadian spanned from an older brother to an uncle, encompassing everything in between, including her best friend and closed confidant.

“Ah said AH DON’T WANNA TALK ABOUT IT,” her voice grew louder and cracked with emotion.

------

He regretted that mishap too. He did not know at that time that only the previous day she had had breakup and was still reeling from its aftereffects.

She is also alone in the crowd. The only two men she was completely comfortable with are not with her. One is thousands of miles away, somewhere in the Canadian wilderness, wile the other…the other is here, but not with her, not anymore.

They are going through a troubled time, something he blames himself for in a way.

Had he not asked the telepath to come to the school, his team-leader would have turned to him with his emotional problems and fears. Instead, he turned to her, leaving the woman he loved and who was in a fragile state herself, all alone.

She too could have come to him, but she didn’t. She wanted the love of a man….physical love, something tangible. Something that would make her feel alive.

That man in turn was falling in love for the very first time in his life. Not with the one who everyone expected him to be with, but with the other one. The one who always stayed in the background, working away from the limelight.

As for herself, the woman he was in love with, was still carrying the wounds of her previous love’s betrayal. Fearing the same this time around, she kept him at an arm’s length.

---

What happened between the both of them, he doesn’t know. Whatever it is; is buried deep in their psyches.

He wishes that he knew…

….That way he could try to solve it.

He could try and help them.

---

Note: Hope you liked my first take with Charlie Xavier. I hope you realised that it was him, otherwise it will be a failure on both my and your part.

Tried to get his views on everyone involved. Please review and let me know about your thoughts.

** ** indicates telepathic communication.
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

“Where is da Professah?” the look on the card slinger’s face is pure murder, his whole being running on pure adrenaline.

He doesn’t want to slow down. He dare not slow down. Slowing down will mean letting in other emotions.

Letting in love….

…letting in pain.

And, that is something he cannot afford right now.

----

They were in a battle…against, who else, the Brotherhood.

Almost the whole team, with the exception of the newly pregnant Jean and the wheel chair bound Professor.

Emma, Gambit and Iceman were wrangling with Sabertooth and the shape shifter Mystique. They were acting in tandem, with Mystique changing to Victor’s form and confusing the X-Men, giving Creed the time and opportunity to get his claws in.

Rogue was taking on the fast hitting Quicksilver, his backup Toad getting in his licks in too. But even she wasn’t alone. She had fearless leader on her side.

He had been able to get one shot in place and that had taken the speedster out of commission….for about ten seconds.

Storm and Magneto were wielding their respective elements. Staying back but providing valuable cover support.

That left Shadowcat. The younger ‘Cat had been placed on triage and sentry duty, and was manning the X-wing. She already had one casualty lying on the gurney behind her. It was her boyfriend, Piotr Rasputin, Colossus.

He had been taken down by a Magneto-Blob, one-two thump. Magneto had pushed him to the ground and in order to get up he changed form back to organic, only to have Blob land on him, knocking him out instantly.

Phasing the gentle giant, Kitty had been able to get him away from under Blob and safely to the jet.

And then, IT happened.

----

“He is still inside,” the diminutive Kitty answers softly.

The group is waiting on this side of an X-embossed door, the entrance to the mind-link, Cerebro.

“How much more do we need to wait,” Remy growls, digging out a cigarette from deep inside his coat pocket.

“This is a no-smoking area,” a tired Bobby reminds him.

“Yeah, whose gonna stop me? You?” the younger man’s warning is spat back at him.

“Remy, please,” an unemotional voice pleads from near the door.

“Hn,” he grunts noncommittally. “For you babe,” the cigarette goes back into the case. “And for the little one inside you.”

There is silence among the group, but only for the duration of the next ten seconds.

“How long is this gonna take?” Remy is losing his patience.

-----

“Rogue,” Cyclops spoke into his comm. link. “Get ready. I am going to try to dig him into the ground. That will give you the time to get a clean shot. Make it count.”

“Ya got it ‘clops,” the southerner answered with a thumbs up sign, readying herself for a punch that the silver haired Mags-junior wouldn’t forget soon.

The others were having mixed success. Iceman had managed to freeze-in Mystique a couple of times, only to have her shift to a small form and wriggle out.

“Emma change back to normal,” Cyclops order came in. “And knock out Mystique.”

“Sure thing darling,” Emma answered with her saccharine-sweet drawl. “Just tell the boys to keep that overgrown house cat away from me. I don’t want to crack a nail, nor do I have any wish to take a stroll through this troll’s mind, or whatever is there in that cranium of his.”

“Emma,” Cyclops cried out, his attention focused on the sliverish-white blur whizzing past him.

“NOW.”

----

“What are you doing ‘ere?” two cards are out and glowing with fluorescent energy, ready to be lobbed at the unwelcome newcomer.

There is no answer for him. Instead, the ruby-colored visor donning Scott walks up to his wife. “How long has the Professor been there?”

“Nearing forty minutes now,” Jubilee answers from her floor seating position.

“How are you feeling?” Scott steps towards Jean, only to have her shirk away from him. “Jean?”

Again there is no answer, instead dulled green eyes turn to the others.

“The Professor will be coming out soon,” she’s just been instructed telepathically. “He has asked that everyone gather in the war room.” With that she walks away, without even sparing a second glance at her husband.

Stopping at the elevator, she does turn to him, seeing him waiting at Cerebro’s door.

“Cyclops, he meant Everyone.”

-----

“Rogue,” Scott’s hail was accompanied by a burst of red, which was followed by a dust cloud and a gasped cry from a collapsed Pietro.

“Come n’ get it sugah,” using quite a bit of her super strength, Rogue’s punch landed right on the kisser, knocking the competition out for good, but not before a cry for help activated the Brotherhood’s ace-in-the-hole, Wanda Maximoff, Pietro’s twin sister.

Hearing her brother’s cry, she stepped into the fray and unleashed her reality bending powers.

The next instant, Rogue found herself under attack. This attack wasn’t a physical one, that she could have fought against. This attack was a mental one, one that came not from one mind, but from two.

Two very opposing personalities forced themselves into her. One was the ruthless and cold-calculating teammate of hers, the telepathic Emma Frost. The other was the even more ruthless and sadistic Sabertooth, whose surprise at being used as sucking bag by one of his own soon changed to anger and rage, all of which found its way into the girl’s mind.

“Rogue,” Gambit rushed towards his beloved. They had just done making up. He didn’t want to lose her again.

“AAAAaaaahhhh….” Her ear-splitting scream trailed off as she lost the fight against the double onslaught, finally giving into unconsciousness.

Is only she had stayed that way.

-----

“Did you find ‘im?” is the greeting that Xavier gets as soon as the door slides open.

“Yes,” Xavier nods his head.

“Den lets go get ‘im,” Gambit steps towards the door, his body still pumped up.

“Remy, wait,” Xavier’s words don’t seem to be having any effect on the bewildered Cajun.

“Non,” red on black eyes flash at the older telepath. “You said only he can save her now. So we go and get him.”

“Professor, where is he?” Scott doesn’t get a response for his question.

“Jean,” Xavier turns to a haggard looking Jean. “As of now, you are in charge of the X-Men.” That shocks everyone in the room. “Scott Summers, Emma Frost and Ororo Monroe are under suspension until further notice.”

“Professor!” Both Ororo and Scott start at the same time.

“Not a word,” Xavier’s tone has a hardness that no one in the room has ever heard from him. Not at least towards his star pupil, the man who until ten seconds ago was the leader of the X-Men.

“NOT. A. WORD.”

----

“How much longer homme?” Gambit called from the rear of the jet.

Rogue had been unconscious for almost half an hour now, the absence of a doctor only adding to the panic that was slowing setting in. Usually Jean or Henry accompanied them on the missions, but with Jean being out of active duty and the mission requiring human looking members, both Beast and Nightcrawler had been retained at the mansion.

“Fifteen more minutes,” Scott barked back.

“Uhnnnn….” The moan drew the attention of everyone including Scott.

“Who is that?” He called back. “Emma or Rogue?”

“Rogue,” Remy’s voice carried the barest hint of hope.

“Uhn-Emma…” was the first groaned word out of the girl’s lips. “Emma?”

“She be here Cherie,” Remy gently tilted her head to the side where a barely conscious Emma lay on an identical gurney.

“Scott?” was the next person queried, followed by a slightly stronger, “Ororo?”

“They are all here Rogue,” Kitty answered with tears in her eyes. She was relieved that everyone was recovering. Piotr had woken up and had shifted to his metallic state to hold back any possible internal injuries. Emma was weak but awake and now so was Rogue.

“Good?” Rogue’s smile turned into a menacing grin, her brown eyes flashing a feral gold, her pale skin showing luminescence of a diamond.

The next words she spoke held no hint of her southern drawl, but were spoken in a mixture of sophisticated and gruffly scathing English.

“Makes it easy for me ta kill ‘em.”

----

“Jean,” Xavier gestures to Jean to take over matters.

“Gambit, Iceman, Nightcrawler, you are with me,” Bobby and Kurt join Remy, who is already at the door. “So are you Colossus, but if only you feel up to it.”

“Da,” Piotr stands up. He is still in his metallic form. That allows him to function without breathing and makes him almost invulnerable.

“Jubilee, Shadowcat, I want you to go to Rogue. She is sedated, but given Sabertooth’s healing factor, we don’t know how long the effects of the sedatives will last. In case she wakes up, try and talk to her.”

“Yes mam,” both girls reply with a nod.

“But remember, under no circumstances are you to engage either the locks or the force field. If it appears that she is getting out of hand, follow the instructions that will be given to you by Beast.”

“Yes mam.” With that, the two girls leave the room.

“Storm,” it’s the weather witch’s turn next, she still cannot fathom why she has been placed under suspension. “You know what to do. I don’t need to tell you to take care of the children. That is something you do better than any of us.”

Ororo smiles an uneasy smile. Sitting next to her, is Davis, who had been holding her hand the entire time, but the shock of being ordered of the team and the prospect of seeing Logan again caused her to break the contact and close into herself.

“But before that,” now Jean glances at her husband, who has become a silent observer since his authority was stripped away and handed over to of all he people, his wife. “Both you and Cyclops report to the med bay. The Professor and Beast will take it from there.”

The orders given, Jean sent one last glance around the room. “Any questions?”

At getting no reply, she took a deep breath and started towards the door.

“Lets go get Wolverine.”

** ** indicates telepathic communication.
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

“How is she?” the telepath wheels himself next to the vigil keepers, one a young Chinese-American, the second a Jewish one, both looking lost at their inability to get near enough to hold their friend’s hands, let alone do something to help her.

They are doing all they can, they are keeping an eye on her.

Then there is their third, silent companion…..the regal Ororo.

They don’t talk to her, her meditative pose and closed eyes tell them no to. She hasn’t spoken a word during her entire time here. Until now.

“Still unconscious,” she turns to the Professor.

“How are you child?” He deliberately voices his voices, avoiding any telepathic intrusions.

“Still confused,” she answers with a rueful smile.

----

“How is she?” was the first question out of his mouth too, his thoracic muscles flexing after months of silence.

“Who?” the Cajun charmer was momentarily confused. Hadn’t he just finished explaining Rogue’s condition to their feral hope?

“Ororo,” the words felt like sandpaper on his pallet. “How’s she?”

Remy was silent for a few moments, unable to decide as what to say as an answer. He knew about Logan’s feelings towards Ororo. Had finally come to know about it from his showdown with Rogue, a couple of weeks ago. He also knew that on some level, she had held the same feelings.

But now, with the other man in the picture, he wasn’t so sure.

Although, their relationship hadn’t progressed to an intimate level….that he knew off, they were closer than just friends.

But as close or closer than she had been with Wolverine….and still might be.

“Fine,” was his final answer, the unconvinced snort from his co-passenger told him that his dawdling and the fact that he had just lied through his teeth, both had been caught.

-----

“Professor,” she follows him into the corridor, leaving the two girls on their cell-side vigil.

“Lets go to my office,” he silences any further public talk.

Minutes later, they enter through the solid wood doors, closing them behind them.

“Charles, what happened?” Her tone is even, yet demanding, as well as pleading.

She doesn’t know what happened. She had thought that she had reached a break through with the younger Rogue. The constant sniping had stopped, giving way to a silent truce of sorts. Things were looking up…..Until now.

The scene from the plane was still clear in her mind. How they had stopped the diamond bodied, invulnerable, untouchable, super strong, flight capable, super healing, berserker Rogue, was something she didn’t want to experience again any time soon, if ever.

She was just thankful that the girl turned to diamond, thus negating the possibility of her using telepathy to incapacitate them. If that had not been the case, all of them would surely be dead by now. All, but her.

And yet, now there she was, the only one under continuous medical supervision.

What had happened to cause this sudden turn of events.

------

They had found him deep in the Canadian wilderness.

Putting the Blackbird in hover mode, all five X-Men teleported or iced to the ground below.

“Jean, can you sense ‘im,” Gambit asked, digging his gloved hands deeper into his pockets.

The night air was a bitter cold, just like the inside of the mind and heart of the flame haired leader.

Focusing her thoughts, the Phoenix let her telepathic net spread out, frowning slightly as she encountered and then discharged quite a few feral minds, none of them human. The animals had thoughts; the only problem was that she couldn’t read them. It was not part of her mutation.

“Got him,” her exclamation was echoed in the form of a howl, just a few hundred feet from where they stood.

“That wasn’t him,” Bobby’s iced form turned around for confirmation. “Was it?”

“Nein,” Kurt answered with a shake of his head. He had heard Wolverine’s howl, and it wasn’t like the one they had just heard. It was scarier…..bone chilling would be the right word.

“Approach him with caution,” Jean commanded, keeping her voice to a whisper.

“Grrr….” The darkness seemed to growl at them, asking just one question.

“What happened?”

-----

“Ororo,” his voice is deep but gentle, like a father talking to his daughter, which given their age differences and time of acquaintanceship, they might as well be. “How are you feeling, truly?”

“I am fine Charles,” she stresses on the fine to show him that she is. “And cannot for my life understand why I have been asked to stand down. Moreover, not just me, but Scott and Emma too. Emma, I understand. Her weakness from her encounter with Rogue. But Scott?”

“And on all that, now Logan is being brought back,” Charles offers with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes,” inspite of herself, her jaw clenches down. “On all that Logan is being brought back.” ‘After more a year, he is had to be yanked back into my…our lives.”

“Ororo, do you know why I was so easily persuaded to get him….why I was ready to do it myself?” he corrects himself mid-sentence.

“Yes,” she offers her opinion. “Its Rogue. Logan is the best person to help her in her current state…well one of the best. And he would surely come with her being in danger, and being a danger, both to herself and to others around her.”

“Yes,” Xavier’s lips twitch just the barest bit. “But on my part, I did because calling him at this juncture was in accordance with his wishes.”

“His wishes?” Ororo’s face scrunches in confusion. “Has he been in contact with you?” she asks with hopeful trepidation.

“He hasn’t been with anything remotely human or mutant in the past thirteen months. He is somewhere deep in the Canadian Rockies.” Xavier answers gravely.

‘Thirteen months.’ Ororo calculates mentally. ‘Since the time he left the mansion.’

“I have been keeping track of him,” the telepath reveals further. “Something I am sure, he is aware of. As for my urgency in sending the others for him, it was in accordance with one of the two conditions that Logan himself had set. Rogue being in danger was one of them.”

“Two conditions,” Ororo remembers the time the Professor had informed them about Logan’s parting words to him. ‘You will know about them when and if the time comes.’
“Rogue’s injuries,” she finally speaks out, not knowing what term to use for the girl’s mental state.

“Yes,” Xavier’s answer has a worried tone to it. “Rogue’s mind is in great turmoil. The simultaneous absorption of both Emma and Sabertooth has caused her to loose control. All of her mental blocks have either ruptured or broken down completely, allowing some of her previously absorbed personalities to also get free from their mental….cages, as it were.”

“And you want to use Logan to help her regain control,” the conclusion is right there for the picking. “By giving her his own thoughts and personality.”

“Yes,” the answer is simple and succinct.

“Isn’t there a risk in that?” Her caution with the plan is obvious, expected and right. “What if it doesn’t work out? What if Rogue ends up with yet another personality to add to those already in possession of her mind.”

“I don’t think that will be the case,” his faith in the plan is just as concrete. “Rogue has always found a sense of security and strength with Logan, both the real one and the one within her. That was something I realized during the time she battled to bring Carol under control.”

That silences her. Not because she is completely convinced, but because she remembers the time the Professor is talking about and because she has learned over time and with first hand experience, to trust her mentor.

-----

“How are you Logan?” The expected discomfort wasn’t there. What was there, on Jean’s part at least, was a complete shut down of emotions, not because of the man she has settled down next to, but the man, she had loved, married and settled down with.

“’k,” He still wasn’t back to normal and was feeling cooped up in the closed space of the jet. “You?”

“Fine,” Logan’s face scrunched at her answer. It was the second time he had heard the same answer for two completely different questions. ‘What the fuck happened?’

“Scooter?” Jean flinched at the mention of her husband, her expression setting off a completely new set of alarms in Logan’s head. Something was seriously wrong.

“He’s Fine too.” ‘Same fuckin’ fine,’ Logan let out an involuntary growl.

“How much longer?” he grunted, crossing his arms at his chest.

“ETA, twenty three minutes,” Bobby informed over the intercom.

-----

“I should go check on Rogue,” Xavier nods at the suggestion, watching as the still perturbed Ororo starts towards the door.

“Ororo,” his hail stops her, causing her to turn and face him. “Don’t you want to know about your temporary removal from the team?”

“I do,” her answer is even and confident. “But seeing as I am not only one under suspension, I’ve deferred that question until all three of us are in one place at the same time.”

Xavier nods at her perceptiveness and maturity. Jean was right in saying that Ororo was the best among them to take care of the children.

--

Seeing her turn away, he starts again, giving one last bit of information.

“Don’t you want to know the second condition Logan set for warranting his voluntary return?”

At her reluctance in answering, he makes the choice his own.

“It was you,” he sees her back tense up instantly. “He said he would come back if and when you forgave him….

…and wanted him to come back.”

---

Note: So, where do I stand now? Do I get a respite from the ass whipping you guys have been giving me...not that I mind (not in the sick sense, ok....in the welcomes reviews sense).

Review and let me know how I fared!!

---

** ** indicates telepathic communication.
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

*BEEP BEEP BEEP…..*

The uniform tone of the machine is the only thing piercing the silence of the room.

He is lying there, as silent, as still as a corpse, which he might have become had he held on for much longer.

He is there, while she is here….a clear sheet of bulletproof glass separating them.

She has been sitting here for hours now. She doesn’t notice the time…doesn’t need to, doesn’t have to, doesn’t want to….because seeing him like this, each second lasts for an eon.

Yet, she is here, on this side of the screen and not on the other.

-----

“How are you feeling Rogue?” she tentatively reached out to lay a hand on the girl’s forearm, a pair of opera length gloves separating her dusky skin from the girl’s pale….untouchable one.

“Much bettah ‘Ro,” the accent and words are still a jumble of various regions, sexes and backgrounds, but the underlying personality is once again her, the young woman who had just started becoming comfortable with calling her older teammate and more importantly former teacher by her name instead of Ms. Monroe.

“Good,” Ororo smiled at the recovering girl, already knowing what the next question was going to be.

“How is he doin’?” And there was it.

“He is still unconscious, but recovering,” the smile faltered a bit, both from the intense gaze of the girl and from the memory of seeing the bursting open of the skin of the girl’s savior.

“You went to see him?” The question held a foreboding tone.

“Yes,” the answering nod causing a lock of platinum-white hair to fall free from the sky-blue clad shoulder.

“You shouldn’t have.”

----

“You shouldn’t have.”

‘Three words….just three,’ she rolls them over in her head. Three words that might as well as have been three slaps….if not for the great sadness with which they were spoken.

People give her an odd look when they see her like this. By people, she means those who have come to either see him or see her.

Rogue came primarily for him. Kitty and Jubilee accompanying her, both for their unconscious friend, mentor and former teacher as for her.

Seeing them like this, she remembers the time when they were the three charter member of the Logan fan club. That is what the other students and sometimes even the teachers used to call them.

Charles’s visit was just like it always is. He seems to possess an unlimited treasure of caring which he uses for everyone…every time. Checking and failing yet again to contact Logan telepathically, he had come to her. He didn’t have any words or sermons. He merely smiled his enigmatic smile that said, ‘I understand.’

Jean and Henry have been in and out, sometimes alone, sometimes both of them together. They come, check his stats, update the chart and leave. Henry sometimes sits and spends some times with the fellow feral, reading one of his novels or scientific journals to pass the time.

Jean on her part has been a great help, even though she carries some major scars from her last dalliance with her patient. She usually comes during the day, her own condition, warranting that she avoid stressing herself…not that there any dearth of it nowadays.

Davis, for his part, just came once. It seems that someone has informed about the her past with the newcomer. He is giving her the time and space that she do desperately needs right now. The all are. All except one…..the one who never does, never needs to. Remy.

----

Remy came and sat beside his sister, draping an arm over her shoulders, as he was wont to do.

‘’e saved her,’ his voice had carried a respect for the unconscious Wolverine that she had never heard before. Maybe it was because he finally realized that a man who was ready to lay down his life to say another, couldn’t be all bad….or maybe he had just gotten over his own twisted sense of jealousy he had towards the Logan-Rogue relationship.

“Yes,” Ororo nodded her head. “He promised to take care of her, no matter what.”

“Uhmm-hmm,” the charmer’s free hand played with the unlit cigarette. Even he respected the no-smoking rule, except for his near blowout in front of Cerebro.

“’e’s gonna be okay,” he patted her shoulder, pulling her to rest her head against him.

“Yes,” her answer seemed somewhat hollow, except for the hope that the unbeatable healing factor would once again trounce over absorbing skin.

Both sat in silence for the new few minutes, before Remy dropped his own bombshell.

“You love ‘im?”

-----

“You love ‘im?”

‘Three words….just three,’ this time she does chuckle, humorlessly.

Remy’s questioning statement carried three words, the same as Rogue’s semi-accusatory advice.

She wanted the answer for why the girl made hers, but doesn’t want the same for herself….she didn’t answer to Remy’s question and she still doesn’t. ‘Hypocrite,’ the sound comes from somewhere within her.

If she was a paranoid person, she would suspect that the two lovers are playing a game of good cop-bad cop with her, one trying to yank her away from the man lying on the other side of the mirror, while the other trying to push her towards him.

-------

“I shouldn’t have?” Ororo felt as if she had just been punched in the gut. “Rogue, about what….”

“He smelled you,” the girl cut off her explanation. “He smelled another man on yah,” she repeated softly.

It was then that Ororo realized the pained look on the girl’s face wasn’t completely hers, there was Logan in there too.

‘Another man,’ Ororo’s eyes clenched as she recalled the potency of Logan’s senses.

“Ah, don’t know what it is supposed to smell like,” Rogue continued innocently. “But the him inside me, I got quite a few of his memories, an’ this one wuz one of the newah ones. He knows that you haven’t done IT, but also knows that you have someone and he wants to do it with ya.” The accent was still a jumble. “He says he can smell his arousal on ya.”

----

‘He smelled Davis on me,’ Ororo is rubbing her forehead in an unsuccessful effort to relieve the tension.

She had been with the blonde Davis before the x-wing returned with its precious passenger, and even though they have yet to cross the sexual line between intimate friends and lovers, she and the new man in her life have become quite close.

‘Closer than what YOU let Logan be,’ there is that accusatory voice again. ‘You were so adamant in getting to know him as a friend that you forgot…neglected what you had initially started with.’

‘I was getting there,’ she tries convince that inner Ororo. ‘Until he….until HE betrayed me…us,’ she doesn’t want to say until he went behind my back and slept with Jean.

‘Hey, it was you who said no commitments until we commit. So how come there was an US to betray at all,’ she now realizes that the voice is a part of her conscience, one that she hadn’t been able to convince that what she made…tried to make Logan do wasn’t her own fear of being betrayed and left alone….like Forge did all those years ago.

----

Logan had come out and told her right on her face that he liked her and want to be with her and wanted to know if she wanted the same.

“I know ya want me,’ he was completely like himself, without even the barest shred of tact. “What I wanna know, is it just for fuckin’ or do ya really wanna be with me?”

“Logan!” the dumbstruck Ororo had tried to feign shock at such an *absurd* insinuation.
“’Ro, I can smell it on ya,” that took care of that. “An’ the nose knows. It never lies.”

“If you are so sure Mr. Logan,” the well practiced and time perfected Ice Goddess persona was up in an instant. “Then why even bother to ask.”
“I asked darlin’,” her cool, detached demeanor did not have the desired effect….in fact it had no affect at all. “’cuz that is not all what I want from you. Not anymore. Earlier, yeah, that would done the deal. Not now….now I want more.”

“More?” snowy eyebrows knit together in confusion.

“Yup,” he nodded, stepping closer to her, allowing her to clearer inhale his outdoorsy scent, mixed with his usual cigar and leather odor.

“I want all of ya.”

------

‘Well, he didn’t want me when he was with Jean,’ the solitude allows her…forces her to face the issues she had thought long gone.

‘You forget Ororo,’ the internal war doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon. ‘You were the one who said that you would be friends until YOU were comfortable enough and that you didn’t want him to push you anything, just as you wouldn’t push him. You didn’t want anything to change, just because you were trying to prepare yourself for a relation.’

‘He sure didn’t change,’ her bitterness surprises even her. The fact that her conscience seems to be chuckling at her doesn’t help matters.

‘He never said he was going to be monk waiting for you to come down from your high seat. He agreed to your wishes and promised to never bring it up...until you came forward or until he managed to hold back,’ the previous point is brought up again. ‘Well, that day, when he came to you….it was him not being to hold back any longer. And what did you, you plucked him out of your life and discarded him like a weed.’

‘I didn’t ask him to leave,’ her eyes catch the return of the person who has been there longer and more times than anyone else has, maybe except her…but that too because she was still recovering herself for half the time he has been there.

Moving with Logan’s borrowed finesse, Rogue prowls to and settles herself in the chair kept next to the bed for any visitors. Looking up, she waves bye to someone. Craning her neck to see who that person is, Ororo’s lips twitch at Remy’s familiar form. He too has matured to Rogue’s attachment with Logan and realized that especially now, when the Canadian is so strong in her, Rogue has an intrinsic need to be near him. It is as if the Logan inside her wants to be near the actual one.

‘You didn’t have to,’ the mental admonisher doesn’t let up. ‘He knew that wouldn’t want him in your life, not for quite some time. So he made things easy for you and gave you what you wanted.’

‘I didn’t want him to leave the mansion,’ she reiterates her point.

‘You wanted him to stay?’ the reverse is thrust at her.

‘I didn’t want him to leave,’ she repeats, not able to clearly say whether she wanted him to stay.

------

Lost in her thoughts she missed the twitching of an index finger from the bed, while the glass prevented her from catching the soft groan.

What she did not miss….what she could not miss, was the affect it had on the ever vigilant and since her re-absorption, an extremely attentive Rogue.

“Jean, Hank,” she leapt for the door, her cry echoing in the empty corridor. “Come quick….

….Logan is waking up.”

---

Note: What are your expert ass kicking or lips smooching views on this chapter. Please don't hold back on my accord!!

That means...review!!

** ** indicates telepathic communication.
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

“Ready for a night on the town?” He wiggles his eyebrows at her, trying his level best to lift her spirits. He knows she is worried, not only because of the suspension, or of her stalled relations with the young student who has had a thing for both of them, but also because of the newcomer, the man they call Wolverine.

A smile does curve her lips, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Sure, why not.”

“Come on Ororo,” he places a more than friendly hand at the small of her back. “I know you are worried about the meeting tomorrow, but that’s when it is – tomorrow. Tonight, you are going to forget all of that and enjoy yourself.”

“I guess….” She sighs and smiles in defeat, allowing him to lead her to the front door, her words lost as soon as they step out.

That is when the unmistakable whiff of cigar smoke hits her. There is only one person who carries that odor.

“Ororo?” Her date’s voice is soft with concern, which is reflected clearly in his blue eyes. “Is something wrong? Did you forget something?”

“N-No,” the headshake causes a tendril of snow-white hair to fall free from her hair-do. “Nothing,” she answers rigidly.

“Nothing important.”

------

“You son of a bitch,” Ororo stopped at the shrill cry.
“Kid,” that growl was unmistakable, as was the southern drawl that had preceded it.

“Youah gonna leave again,” Rogue sounded livid. Had Ororo been able to see her, she wound have seen that she looked the same.
“I’ve gotta,” Logan’s voice had a defeatist tone that Ororo had only heard once before, with her.

‘If he wants to leave, let him,’ she steeled herself. She had spent enough time battling herself and had reached the conclusion, that the fault was not entirely her own. In fact, her part in it wasn’t comparable to what Logan did. Even if they weren’t together, and she was stringing him along, which she still wasn’t sure she was, it gave him no right to do what he did. Did it?

‘Shut up,’ she scolded her conscience. ‘Don’t go there again.’

“You’ve gotta?” Once again her attention was drawn to the conversation on the other side of the door. “You’ve gotta do dick.”
“Marie,” Logan’s growl carried a warning.

“Whaht? Language,” Rogue sneered at him. “Well fuck you sugah. This is all yers. I’ve got yer speech, yer mannerisms and also yer memories. So don’t give me this shit about I’ve gotta. I know everything that you did and Ah also know about that ring that you’ve got tied to the inside of your jacket pocket.”

‘Ring?’ Ororo’s breath hitched at the revelation.

-----

“Ororo, Ororo,” Davis’s voice spears through her musings. “Hello, earth to Ororo.”
“Yes Davis,” she grants him one of her made up smiles. “Did you say something?”

“Yes, I asked what did you want to order.” It is then that she notices the white and black clad waiter standing next to her, his pen and notepad in either hand.

“Oh, sorry,” another smile of apology. “Just give me a minute.”

Lifting the menu, her eyes rove to land on the first vegetarian dish she can find. She orders that the first mock-tail from the impressive list.

“Thank you mam,’ the young man gives one of his tested and perfected grins and leaves.

“So, what were you thinking now?” He truly seems interested in her, and had it been any other time, she would have told him what she had on her mind…..any other time.

“Oh, nothing,” she knows how to handle the situation. “Just going over the class schedule for tomorrow.”
“Okay,” he doesn’t sound convinced.

“Yes,” she brings out her trump card. “With Emma being out of commission, I’ve taken over quite a few of her classes, and have to plan carefully so that they don’t clash with mine or someone else’s.’

“Hmmm,” that does the trick. “I know what you mean. Jean has taken up from Scott and yesterday her and my class timings got mixed up.”

“Maybe you should do some thinking of your own,” she retorts with a false twinkle in her lazuline eyes.

“Surrrree!”

------

“At least tell her,” Rogue’s voice dropped to an urge. “Talk to her.”
“This is got nothing to do with her,” Logan snapped at her, regretting it the next instant. “No one’s got to do anything with it.”

“Ah know you still….” The girl’s words trailed off at the darkness in her mentor’s eyes.
“Don’t,” there was a sense of foreboding in the growl, as well as pain. “Don’t say it Marie.”

“Or what? You’ll gut me,” Ororo wanted to hear what it was, yet there was something in her that egged her to run away as far as her feet would carry her…either that, or throw open the doors and confront him head on.

‘But he has been avoiding you,’ this was a new one. ‘Good for you,’ it added.
‘Yeah, real good,’ her opponent piped up. ‘Makes it easier for you to avoid him.’

‘What’s so bad in that,’ the first voice returned. ‘He ran away, made his choice. You dealt with it and moved on. Now let him do what he wants. Its none of your concern.’

‘That’s the problem sweetie. You didn’t deal with it, you just put it away, placing it in the review at a later date file cabinet,’ she was really getting frustrated with that infernal conscience.

“She’s happy kid,” the heavy thump told her that someone had flopped down on the comforter, and given the sound, she knew it was him.

“An’ you?”

-------

“Sorry for forcing you tonight,” she almost misses the apologies, so much is she lost in her thoughts.
“Sorry?” ‘What is he sorry about?’ she thinks, wondering if she missed something he said earlier.

“Yes,” his arms go around her, gently nudging her towards himself. “I thought that getting away from the school and everything that has happened in the last few days will do you good, but I was mistaken. You didn’t really get away. You just took it along with you.”
“I-I am sorry Davis,” her apology is a stuttered one. She’s just caught the strike of a match in the distance, on the outskirts of the mansion woods.

“Its alright,” he leans in to kiss her, improvising easily when the slight tilt of her head tells him not to. He settles for a peck at her chocolate colored cheeks. “Want me to escort you to your room?”

She sees the mischief in his eyes, but also hears the seriousness in the tone. He wants to take their relationship to the next step.

‘Why not?’ The doppelganger of her pro-Logan conscience points out. ‘After all, you two have been official for quite some time now. You have moved up from the colleague-cum-friend status. Maybe its time to take it further to lovers?’

“Not tonight,” she lets her hand caress his smooth-shaved jaw, flinching internally when the thought that its not whiskered, crosses her mind.

“’k,” this time he does rub his lips against hers. “Just think about what I said tonight.”

“I will,” she nods her head and rises to her room.

-----

“I’m fine kid,” his voice stamped a lie all over his words.
“Sure ya are,” the return tone was sarcastic. “Thaht’s why ya haven’t seen her since the tahme ya got up.”

“I’ve been busy,” another lie.
“Bull.”
“Marie!” This time the admonishment had no real feel or force behind it.

“Yer gonna lose her,” it was spoken as a warning.
“Never had her,” even without wanting those words struck at Ororo.

“Isn’t that the truth? He never had you,’ her internal battle continued. ‘You didn’t give him a chance.’
‘Good for you,’ the opposition had grown strong since the time she had begun to explore the past. ‘And don’t falter now. You did nothing wrong. In fact you saved yourself from a second heartache.’

‘Did you?’ Was the last thing her conscience said as it faded from view. It had said all it wanted to say.

‘Did I?’ This time it was just her, no more voices. “Did I save myself from a heartache. Did I really? Or did I just procrastinate it?’

“You’ve gotta tell her,” Rogue’s voice carried a warning. “Or Ah will.”
“Cherie don’t,” the familiar third voice shocked Ororo.

‘Remy?’ All this was happening in front of Remy.

“Do whatever you wanna do,” Logan scoffed at the duo. “I don’t give a shit about anyone but myself.”
“Yah, then ya shoulda let me die,” Rogue shot back.

“What I should’ve done *Rogue*, is left you the first time I met you,” the growl had gone all Wolverine. “Then I wouldn’t have come to this shithole.”
“Then you would have stayed alone like you are right now,” the girl spoke through tears, her shoulders grasped by her supportive lover. He had called her Rogue. He never called her Rogue. He was pushing her away.

“Yeah, well, it would have been better than this hell. Fuck, those labs would have been better than this.”
Rogue, Remy, Ororo, all three gasped at his words.

“Come on homme, you don’ mean that,” the Cajun tried to mediate.
“I do,” Logan pushed past him. “Having no memory is better than remembering what I did. What I am.”

-----

*What I am*

‘What did he mean by that?’ her brow creases in confusion.

‘Why do you care?’ Its back, its tone reproachful.
‘Yes, why do you?’ Speaks up the opposition. ‘You have your own life. A man who loves you….likes you, and whom like back. And, he hasn’t been with any of your friends; especially not while claiming to be wooing you.’

That silences the conscience, its morals telling it that the other voice does have a point. Inspite of all his claims and his behavior with her, he did bed Jean, and not just once.

‘And he said it was worth it. Don’t forget that,’ the anti-*pro-Logan* voice is on a roll now. ‘So, was he just passing his time with you, while getting what…who he really wanted?’

‘Talk to him,’ the weakened pro-Logan part is all but beaten now. ‘You didn’t then. Do it now. Ask for an explanation.’
‘What purpose will that serve?’ her question is for both sides, and like a perfectly orchestrated act, both voices reply simultaneously.

‘It will provide you closure.’

---

Note: What was I thinking? Don’t even know myself. Just rattled off whatever came up. Don’t know if even half of this makes any sense.

Please review and let me know!!

Also, hope all you Logan bashing *w*itches are happy now!! Reading your reviews, one would think that it was me who slept with Jean and not him. You really have the whips, bats and whatnots out for this one!! ::Grinning and running away::

** ** indicates telepathic communication.
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

Slash!! Skkuchhh!! Swish!!

CRASHHHHHhhhhhh!!!

He has been here for hours now, and it still doesn’t look like he is ready to give up yet….if ever.

His body is starting to feel the fatigue, compensating for the repeated injuries from the Danger Room contructs pushing his healing factor to the limit.

Yet, he persists, his extended claws, his blood shot eyes, his throbbing muscles, all primed to fight against the enemies that the room creates for him.

Usually, he doesn’t pay much attention to what gets thrown at him, selecting randomly from the various programs available in the memory banks….but not today.

Today he makes a conscious choice….a deliberate one.

Today he chooses a particular man and a particular woman….thousand times over.

------

He should have guessed something was wrong….something major. Something other than the usual shit that is always going on with his life.

“How are ya feelin’?” Was a question asked more than once by the concerned Rogue.

“I need to run some tests,” the redhead doctor was all business…at first.

It was only after he got to the infirmary did it start to get weird.

“Do you have headaches?” His face scrunched at her question. Had she forgotten about his healing factor and that it kicked any illness, headache or anything else’s ass even before it had a chance to set in. Hell, he couldn’t even get a decent buzz without guzzling down enough booze to knockout at least a dozen professional drinkers….a dozen times over.

“Nah,” he shook his head. “The healing doesn’t allow it.” That got one tick off on her list.

“Do you have any nightmares?” She instantly amended it. “Any new ones?”

“No,” now he was getting suspicious. What was this all about? “What do you want to know Jean? Ask me directly.”

“Nothing,” he caught the lie, but didn’t bring it up. Even though ever since his return, things had been cool with her, the earlier flirting was gone. Maybe it was because of the change in their relationship, ‘Nah, that never stopped me earlier,’ he ended that line of thought….or maybe it was something else together….something he didn’t want to think about now.

That chapter of his life was closed….the whole him-Jean-Scooter thing and its fallout was done with.

Or so he thought.

-----

She is in her greenhouse, has been there ever since this morning. She didn’t even leave for lunch…..it was brought over by Remy, Rogue, Kitty and Jubilee. The three girls waiting outside, while the Cajun ventured into the sanctuary of the goddess.

They are gone now….and no one else came, not even Davis. It seemed the Professor had made her retreat off-limits for anyone and everyone, specifically stating that she wants to be left alone and that everyone is going to do it for as long as it takes.

‘Its not as if it isn’t visible to everyone,’ her eyes momentarily drift towards the glass roof. Rain has been pelting against it, nonstop, for over five hours now….and it doesn’t look like it is going to stop anytime soon.

She is still not able to think about it….her mind has gone numb.

So, she does the only thing that will hold her attention right now…she gardens.

----

Logan was the last one to arrive, his eyes taking all in with a single piercing sweep

The look on Xavier’s face was one of anger, regret, frustration…..and defeat. That would in itself be enough to raise the feral mutant’s hackles. It was the rest that worked along with Xavier’s look…to freak him out.

“What’s goin’ on here?” His tone was one demanding instant and truthful answers.

“Logan have a seat,” the *older* man gestured towards an empty chair. The only other people in the room were Jean, Ororo and Hank…..only the senior X-Men. Conspicuous by their absence were the other two suspensions – Scott Summers and Emma Frost.

“Where’s one-eye?” Logan growled his query. “An’ what’s this meeting about?”

“Jean.” On the Professor’s signal the current and temporary team-leader pressed a button to bring up two different visuals, getting an instant response from the hair-trigger Logan.

“What the fuck?”

-SNIKT-

----

She is in her office, grading assignments….no, trying to grade them. Her thoughts are somewhere else as she twirls a lock of her flame-colored hair around her index finger.

Red

The color of her hair…. the color of blood ….the color of the *eyes* of the man she loves….the color of rage….the color of the haze clouding her mind.

She knows the truth behind what happened, at least as much as there is to know. She knows about what is happening…it is clear for everyone to see, even the students.

What she does not know, and what she fears, is what is going to happen.

She has closed of her mind, cutting off everyone, maybe with the exception of the Professor, who, if he really wanted to could overcome her shield and blocks. She has done so to isolate herself from the emotional storm currently trashing against her telepathic mind.

In one way or another, almost everyone is affected.

-----

“Charles, what’s this about?” The fact that Logan had used the Professor real name did not go unnoticed by the silent but more than surprised Ororo. She too was dumbstruck by what was visible on the screen.

“Logan, please sit down,” Xavier stressed on the last two words. Logan had flared up and adopted a defensive pose. “And please, retract your claws.”

-SNIKT-

The claws went back in, but that was about it. On his guard now, Logan wasn’t about to just settle down with a couple of words.

“Why are they like that?” He jerked a finger at the video feed. Scott was seated on a metal bench, while Emma was still bed-bound, recovering from her accident with Rogue.

There as nothing out of the ordinary about them…what was odd and what had Logan all riled up was a single thing.

Both Scott and Emma were inside holding cells.

-----

The Danger Room Control Hub’s door slides open and the yellow clad teenager enters solemnly. She knows something is wrong…its in the air.

The fact that Wolverine has had sole occupancy of the X-Men’s practice room for the better part of the morning and most of the afternoon, only confirms her suspicions.

That, and the insistent rain outdoors, the equally drab atmosphere indoors….the fact that Rogue is right now sitting a few feet from her, her no-longer Wolverine-jealous boyfriend perched on the table next to her.

Remy doesn’t know the details of what went down in the Professor’s office, but whatever it was had shaken the team to the core, that much he is sure off.

He is also pretty sure that Rogue had a major part in it. It was her accident that set it all into motion, with things progressively going from bad to worse ever since.

Yet here he is, giving his time and support to her in his vigil over her Logan, just as she had given hers’ in his watch over his Ororo.

It still amazes him as to how an initially timid, small town born and bred southerner like Rogue could share a bond with the one man who cannot or will not form and maintain a single tangible relation. During their makeup, he had bluntly asked her about it. Her answer had been a simple one.

“Someone has to.”

Someone has to. It sounded so simple. On his insistence, she elaborated in those three words.

“Logan gave his support without any questions or qualms and still does. Ah guess, I do the same for him. Ah support him….

….No. Matter. What.”

-----

“It is for safety,” Xavier answered Logan’s question. “For protection.”

“Protection from whom Professor?” Beast had been equally surprised to see his patient in the holding cell. He looked towards Jean for an answer. She had been there when he left the infirmary. “Are we in some danger from Scott and Emma?”

“Henry, its not for our protection,” Jean’s answer held a reluctance. “It is for theirs.”

“Theirs? From what? Who? Are they in some sort of danger?”

Even without wanting to, Jean’s eyes flit to the agitated Wolverine.

“Its from me, isn’t it,” it was more of a statement than a question. “I didn’t do anything to them.” A realization dawned on Logan’s face. Rogue’s repeated questions about his health, Jean’s tests, the whole seclusion of Scooter and Frosty.

“They did somethin’ to me.” Once again, it was a statement, one that was answered by a sigh from the Professor.

“Yes,” he nodded. “Not only to you…” Xavier continued, his regretful eyes turning to third suspended x-men.

“But, also to Ororo.”

---

Note: Well, almost everyone had their time in this chapter. I guess, I should get to the confrontation...Huh!! Maybe next chapter.

Don't forget to review!!

** ** indicates telepathic communication.
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

A cloud of gloom has descended over the mansion and its residents. Its been three days since the meeting and still no sighting of Wolverine.

He just disappeared.

‘Maybe he left again,’ had been the first thought on many of the students as well as the teachers’ minds….including the secluded Weather Goddess.

Why was she even bothering? The question has popped up several times in her private musings.

“Ororo,” a knock and the familiar voice of her teammate and current team-leader calls from across the closed door.

Pulling herself together, she moves to the door, opening it to allow Jean entry into her room.

“How are you doing Jean?” The detached-concern is an art she has perfected over time, and even in her current turmoil, she can put it up effortlessly.

“I should be the one asking that question,” the redhead tries in an effort to lift the mood. Failing to do so, she repeats her question, but with a serious tone, her hand grasping the corresponding dusky limb of her friend. “How are you doing Ororo?”

“I am well,” the Ice Queen makes an appearance…for a second, only to give way to the real Ororo. “Trying to come to terms with…” she trails off.

-----

“But, also to Ororo.”

The Professor’s words had jolted Storm into action. “To me? What do you mean Professor?”
“I am sorry child,” Xavier apologized as if the mistake had been his own.

“Cut the sorry shit Chuck,” Logan stepped in before Ororo had a chance to respond. “What the fuck did one-eye and the white bitch do to us?”

“Logan, Ororo,” the Professor’s grief-stricken eyes moved from the agitated Canadian to the worried African. “Emma Frost, she used her telepathic powers on you…on both of you.”

“What did she do?” Logan’s voice dropped down to Wolverine’s growl, the one he had just before his claws found home in someone’s soft innards or if that person was lucky enough….dealt a swift death.

“She,” it was Jean who spoke up this time. As a fellow telepath, she was feeling the shame from the abuse of power, which was what Emma had done. “She-she modified your memories.”

-SNIKT-

CRASSSSHHHHH!!!

There went the chair that Logan had been sitting on.

------

“Any sign of Logan?” Ororo flinches at her own inability to stop herself from asking the question.
“No,” Jean shakes her head in denial. “However, he is still in New York State.”

“How…?” deep blue eyes question dulled green ones.
“The Professor,” the answer implies that Xavier has been keeping an eye on the feral Logan, mostly for the sake of the people stupid enough to come in his way. So far there haven’t been any police reports of any *clawed* mutant attacks, meaning everyone, even strangers, has been keeping their distance from the boiling Wolverine.

“You knew,” Ororo’s words carry more of a statement than a question.
“Yes,” the telepathic-doctor nods her head. “The Professor and I….it was during the accident with Rogue.”

“Oh,” Ororo recalls the exact moment Emma and Sabertooth collided with the only exposed surface of Rogue’s body….her face. It was then that things started souring.
“Yes,” Jean nods again. “Her absorption got her the memory from Emma. Charles and I, we were connected telepathically to the team….”

“…and that is how the both of you came to know about it,” that gets a confirmatory nod. “That’s why on recovering Rogue attacked Scott and Emma,” another nod.

“But why me? Why did she attack me?”

-----

“What do you mean modified?” Ororo asked with a sense of foreboding. She knew what *memory-modification* meant, she just wanted to confirm it.

“She fucked with our head, that’s what it means,” Logan answered tightly. “What did she do Jean? What did she take away from me….from ‘Ro?” The look on Logan’s face was pure murder. “And what the fuck does Cyclops have to do with all this?” In his anger, he fell back on using Scott’s codename.

“We don’t know,” Xavier shook his head. “We just know that she…they did something. What it is, even they don’t seem to remember.”

“Then how can you be so sure that they did anything?” Ororo wasn’t as quick to judge her teammates, especially when, one of them was one of her oldest friends. “If they don’t even remember themselves, how can you know?”

“We know,” the Professor gave no further explanations. “And we are sure.”

Silence reigned in the room until Beast’s simple question ended it.

“How is Scott involved in this?”

-----

“Rogue attacked you because of the turmoil in her mind,” the redhead Phoenix answers with a sigh. “The anger and rage she had absorbed from Sabertooth, along the memories from Emma, allowed the sense of betrayal she felt on Logan’s behalf to resurface…with a vengeance.”

“Oh,” Ororo sighs. Things had been improving the girl. After months of being looked at like a murderer, things were finally improving, and even though ever since Logan’s return, Rogue had been anything but unsupportive, the attack and the time before that were too fresh to ignore.

“Ororo, it wasn’t Rogue that attacked you,” Jean catches her projected thoughts. “At least not the Rogue we know. The combined and simultaneous absorption released almost every personality ever imprinted on her psyche. Even she didn’t know who she was. That’s why we needed Logan. He seems to have a calming….a sort of symbiotic effect on her. Instead of attacking her core, his personality forms a sort of offensive shield around it, which allows him to both guard her and bolster her fighting power against the others.”

“Oh,” put like that, the weather mistress doesn’t know what to say. “How are you and….Scott?” She finally asks.

“I’d rather not talk about it.”

-----

“Scott….” Jean was the one to answer Beast’s question. “He was the one who asked Emma to make the changes. Although he….”
“I gonna kill him,” Logan slammed his fist into the wall, causing a sizeable chunk to fall off, along with three one foot deep holes to pierced into the concrete.

“Although he just asked her to make it in him…” Jean continued with her explanation. “….and maybe in Ororo.”
“Me?” Ororo asked in surprise, although after hearing that she had been abused mentally, it didn’t seem so shocking…..her mind had gone to numb for that. “Why me?”

Jean couldn’t even lift her eyes to face her friend, instead she sent a mental plea to the Professor to step in and save her from voicing the shame she felt for her husband’s actions.

“Ororo, something happened….” Xavier’s voice was filled with caution. He had seen the storm raging both inside the room and outside. Inside it was Wolverine, while outside…outside the elements were going crazy, a mixture of rain, hail and snow was pelting against the windows with the speed of a mid seized tropical hurricane…and was growing with each passing second. “Something happened between Scott and you….something that once he regained his senses, he wanted to forget.

“What happened?” A loud peal of thunderous lightening shook the very walls of the mansion.

“Ororo…”
“What happened Charles?” Gone was the Professor endearment and also gone was Ororo. It was Storm who was in the room now, her eyes glowing with electrical energy.

“We don’t know.”

----

“Did you find anything?” The question is a redundant one. Jean knows that, yet she asks it.
“No,” a shake of sliver locked hair and a sigh answers her. “Nothing.”

“I’m sorry Ororo,” Jean reaches forward and grasps her friend’s hand to give her support. “I wish I could do something to help you.”

“I know Jean. I know both you and the Professor have tried everything possible….everything humanely possible.”

She uses the word humane; because the only way to get the truth out of the conniving White Queen would be to tear through her mental shields and locks, she had placed around hundreds of thousands of her memories….including the one involving Ororo.

“She remembers doing it,” Ororo turns towards the open window, hoping the cool air flowing through it will help assuage the blaze in her heart, mind and soul. “But she doesn’t remember what it was….at least that’s what she says.”

----

The door to the infirmary slid open with a soft mechanical whine. Stepping through it, Ororo Monroe headed towards her destination….the room currently occupied by the recuperating White Queen.

“Ah Ororo darling,” Emma called out from her bed. “I was wondering when you would be coming over for a visit.”

“What did you do to me?” Were the first words out of Ororo’s mouth.
“Sorry dear,” the bedridden Emma answered with a sickeningly sweet smile. “Don’t remember. It seems I have forgotten it….or put it somewhere where no one can find it, not even me.”

Ororo had to clench her fists from lobbing a handful of ball lightening at the haired-dyed platinum blonde….or worse, throw a punch, or two…or more.

“Why did you do it?” She finally settled on as a question.
“As a favor,” the flippant tone of the reply indicated that there was no repentance on part of the telepath. “Both to Scott and to you.”

“What do you mean a favor to me?” Ororo’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, her anger still brimming under the surface.
“Of course my dear,” Emma pushed herself into a seated position, her back against the wall. “I wanted to save you from the pain of that memory.”

“What memory?” Storm’s eyes flashed threateningly.
“I don’t remember,” the other woman shrugged in an answer. “However whatever it was for your own good….I’m sure of that. Although in doing that, I did increase my own workload.”

“What do you mean?” Now there was confusion in the regal, slightly accented voice of the American born African bred Ororo.
“I took Scott off your hands,” the answer was easy enough….and just as surprising. “Or didn’t you ever think as to why he came to me for support, instead of going to you….as he did in the past.”

That silenced Storm into thinking, her quiet giving Emma a chance to twist the proverbial knife even further into her prey.

“And as for your little boyfriend, he was just acceptable collateral damage…..a poor bystander.” At the inquisitive look that greeted her revelation, she pushed on. “After all we couldn’t have his *enhanced* senses screwing things up, could we?”

‘Enhanced senses,’ the two words jarred Ororo’s very being. What had occurred between Scott and her? What had he done to her that warranted Emma’s use of her telepathic powers on Logan? What had happened?

“Do you know he was trying to *improve* himself for you?” The taunting continued as Emma seemed to be feeding off the other woman’s confusion and self-issues. “He really did. He even turned down sex for you…from Mystique of all people.”

“Mystique?” That was something that was new about Logan’s *non-betrayal* betrayal.
“Yes,” Emma’s eyes glinted in glee. “He and the ‘shifter, they had a thing going on quite sometime after dear old Jean’s departure from the mortal place. Nothing regular, just off and on, spur-of-the-moment thing….until you came into the picture. Hell, the last time they met, the poor thing tried to talk to her…as if. Good thing you dumped him, even though your current choice….not a big trade up. Too much boy in him, not enough man….not for a woman like you.”

Not knowing what to say in return….and not wanting to give into her increasing desire to electrocute…as Logan had called her, the bitch, Ororo turned around to leave, waiting long enough for one last warning.

“If you ever enter my mind,” she lifted her hand, lightening sizzling in it. “If I ever feel the slightest tinge of your presence in it…

….I will forget that I have vowed never to take a human life.”


-----

“Jean, if you don’t mind, I’d like to have some time alone to myself.”

Nodding her head in understanding, the redhead leans forward to hug her friend before leaving the room…..leaving her alone.

As soon as the door closes, so leaves Ororo, the woman, and so leave all her troubles, thoughts…regrets.

Only the Storm Goddess remains….and rising through the open sky window….

….she heads towards the heavens to join her mother.

---

Note: Now what happened...no one knows. Its up to your perusal to make up whatever you want. What do you think? An' don't go all freaky wierd with your overtly wild imaginations!!

As for Scooter fans, who will say that he would never do this....remember, it is a fanfic, MY fanfic, and I think he does, he will even do the macarena.....in the middle of a battle!!

BTW, the pic is from X-Treme X-Men #22.

And you know what to do with your thoughts and comments...write them down as Reviews!!

He is sitting…alone, at his usual spot, the one overlooking the sheer cliff drop into the ocean.

He has been sitting here for quite sometime now….and no one has come to get him, talk to him….or even near him.

They won’t if…because they value their lives.

The only two people who can get near him…one, despite her chronological youth knows when to leave him alone, and the other, well, she isn’t going to come either.

-----

He had woken up in the infirmary not knowing how got there. The last thing he remembered was sinking his claws into the Cyclops’s chest and opening him up from throat to crotch, his berserker rage reveling in the gore and carnage.

That had just been after he decapitated the White Witch, but not before gouging her eyes out by skewering her with his two side claws.

Ok, it hadn’t been the real Scott and Emma, but hard light constructs in the danger room, and even after doing it a thousand plus times, he still feel any better. In fact, he wanted to repeat it another thousand times and to perfect his technique for when he would do the real ones.

‘How did I get…?’ The familiar vanilla and sandalwood scent assaulting his waking up senses stalled that particular thought.

Sitting right by his beside, an errant sliver of her shimmering white hair falling over her naturally bronzed face, was….Ororo.

-----

‘She got me to there,’ he is thankful for her timely entry into the danger room. It seemed that at sometime after his fifteen hour in the x-men’s practice room; his healing factor finally gave up, causing him to fall flat on his face…unconscious.

He had lain there for quite sometime, more than two hours and although the sensors stopped the opponents from attacking, placing them under ready position, the Cyclops and White Queen combo still had quite sometime to pummel his seemingly lifeless body.

Only Ororo’s chance arrival had led to his discovery. She had instantly stopped the program and contacted the first and maybe only one of two people in the mansion who could lift, let alone bear his Admantium weighed, three hundred pound plus heavy body.

“Henry,” she pressed the comm. button. “Come to the Danger Room. NOW. Its an emergency.”

-----

“How did I get here?” Had been his first question to the tired looking Ororo. She had kept a constant vigil over him…just like the first time.
“You…” she wanted to say fainted, but didn’t. “You were lying unconscious in the danger room.”

His brow furrowed in concentration, Logan wracked his mind to play catch up with the rest of his body, and as soon as that happened….

-SNIKT-

“Logan,” her tone had been one that clearly said, *put those claws away*.
“Sorry ‘Ro,” a mumbled apology and an opposing -snakt- marked the sheathing of the Admantium blades.

Nodding silently, she stood up and started towards the door.

“Logan,” she stopped but didn’t turn around. “Can we…we have to talk.”
The words might have given him some hope, but her cool, detached tone wiped it out. “Sure. Now?”

“Not now,” still she did not turn to face him, only tilting her head to look over her shoulder. “Tonight, eight PM, the library.”

-----

His mind is a complete blank. Its as if the telepathic two-timing witch has done it again, only this time…this time she has taken everything from him. She might as well have.

The others, those who don’t know what went down in the Professor’s office are confused. Chief among them are the students, who for the life in them, cannot understand why two of their teachers have suddenly disappeared from their school lives and two others, Jean and Ororo, have closed off…becoming almost strangers.

The older ones, many of whom are junior or intermediate team-members, namely, Jubilee, Kitty, Piotr and Bobby, have an inkling, knowing that it all started after…during their last face off with the loser-hood. Jubilee and Kitty, both know that Rogue was instrumental in bringing whatever it is that has had such a massive fallout, to light. However, for a change, even Jubilee has retained her silence over the subject. Piotr and Kurt are happy to have their old friend, Wolverine, back, although his more than usual loner deal, tells them that this latest development has its roots in the past.

However, inspite of all their suspicions and speculations, they have avoided gossiping between themselves or with others, not partly due to the Professor’s explicit orders.

------

Pushing the polished-wood doors open, Ororo stepped into the pin-drop silence of the Xavier Institute’s private library’s reading room.

She was five minutes early, but still was later than Logan who was sitting at an open window, a smoldering cigar dangling from between his first two fingers. He seemed so lost in his thoughts that he gave no intimation of whether he detected that he was no longer alone in the room.

Clearing her throat, she drew his attention to her.

“Sorry for being late,” the apology was hers’…even though there wasn’t need of any.

There was no answer from his side, and no reaction, except for a silent nod, followed by a hiss as he stubbed out the cigar on his palm, the burnt skin healing within seconds.

They stood facing each other, the silence between them uncomfortable. It had never been like this for them….not with each other. Even during his earliest days, when the only people he ever deemed *talking* to were Rogue, Jean and the Professor, the communication between the gruff bar brawler and the regal weather witch, had been one of mutual respect and given their close relations with nature, on some primitive, primal level….one of understanding.

“How are you feeling now?” Ororo took the first step in the conversation.
“Hn,” he grunted and nodded his head. “I’ll live.”

Clearly, the small talk wasn’t getting anywhere….so she dropped it.

“Do you remember anything about what….” She let her words trail off, knowing he would catch on.
“Nah,” his eyes momentarily blazed with the fire that had attracted her to him….that still attracted her to him. But, now wasn’t the time for it.

“You are leaving?” Ororo meant it as a question, but even to her own ears, it sounded like a statement, an order.
“You want me to?” He had asked the same question once before, and the hope in his voice….it was there that time too.

“What I want is not of any consequence?” She forced herself to continue. “Just as what I do is not any concern of yours.”

The silence that answered her, gave her the opportunity to continue. When she had told him that she wanted them to talk….she had really meant that she wanted them to speak…in turns and not converse with each other.

“I know you followed me that night…” that surprised him. The fact that he had gone after Ororo and the blonde haired fucker was something that even Rogue did not know about. “….Just as I know that you knew I was standing outside the door the other day, when you were talking to Rogue. The time Remy was in the room.”

It was true. He had caught her scent outside the door….that was one of the reasons he ended that particular talk and high tailed out of there.

“So it was a payback for what I did?” Ororo didn’t fail to catch the hidden meaning of the question. Even though he had worded it for their eavesdropping on each other, what Logan indirectly hinted towards was her *relation* with Davis Cameron.
“Take it anyway you want,” emotion seeped through the crack in her ice queen armor. “As for my personal life, you lost any right that you might have had to comment about it, the day you went to my best friend and later when you turned tail and ran away.”

The turned tail comment got a reaction from him. “You told me to leave.”
“No, I did not,” Ororo shot back. “You did that all on you own.”

“You said *goodbye*,” Logan shot from the windowsill. “What was I supposed to do? Stay? You wanted to see my face after what I did?”
‘No,’ that was the first thing out of her mouth…but she stopped herself. Her silence was enough for him.

“Guessed so.”

Standing before her like this, the fight seemed to leave Logan’s body. He was ready to give up. All of his past, his mixed up real and implanted memories, all of the tortures and the experiments….throughout all that, he had had one thing he could rely on…and the white witch and the one-eyed asshole took that away from him….left him completely bare.

“It worked out for the best,” his self-sarcasm got her eyes to shot up.
“What worked out for the best?” Ororo asked with rising trepidation. She could almost sense the loathing and angst rolling off the man standing before her….that and the resurgence of his rage.

“Me leavin’.” The fluctuation in Logan’s emotional mindset was getting erratic. One second he was full of anger, the next completely lost…defeated. “Remember when I said, that what I did with Jean was worth it.”
“Y-Yes,” Ororo answered through clenched teeth. The words *Jean* and *worth it*, returned her to that afternoon in the greenhouse. It was as if they weren’t in the library, more than a year later, but were where they broke…left off, and instead of her turning around and flying off and him leaving the mansion, they were facing the demons.

“I did to keep my hands off you,” the mixture of surprise, disbelief and disgust on the Ororo’s face told Logan that what he had already realized….he had made a major blunder in expressing his thoughts. “No, its not like that. What-What I…what I want to say is….I don’t know why I did it. I really don’t.”

Knowing there was something else, Ororo relaxed the defensive pose she had instinctively adopted.

--

“I am not sure of anything Ororo,” Logan flopped down to the chair. “I thought I liked you…wanted you. I believed it as the truth….until a week back. I knew it because along with my heart and mind, my senses…the one thing that never lied to me, told me that I wanted you. Just as they did, when they first told me that you wanted me….” What he left out was that ‘on some level, you still you….maybe.’
“And now?” Ororo inquired patiently, knowing that the way he had trailed off, there would be *a now*.

“Now, I don’t know what to believe. Everything in me, still tells me I want you…but I won’t, no…can’t believe that. You were the best thing that happened to me…at least in the time I remember. My senses told…tell me that. But I can’t even believe them now. No after…”
“Not after what Emma did to us,” Ororo completed his sentence. She deliberately left out Scott’s name, because thinking about what one of her closest friends might have done to her to warrant a mind wipe….she didn’t even want to go there, not yet, if ever.

“I remember what we were like before Jean came back,” Logan looked up at her through bloodshot eyes. “I had started liking you then….and yet, when Jean came to me, whenever she came to me….I didn’t stop her. I used to think that it was a fantasy, which I was working out of my system. You said that we should stay as friends and if your feelings ever changed, you’d let me know. Until then, whatever we did….” He didn’t complete that half-thought either. “What I did, what I betrayed, I don’t know if that is even real. I don’t know what we have…had is real.”

“Logan, do you expect me to forget…forgive what happened between you and Jean…” Ororo forced herself to form the question. “….just as a result of what Emma did. Because if you expect that, I am sorry, but I cannot.”
“I know,” Logan hung his head. “I want yer forgiveness, but not with that reason. I want you…if you can, forgive me on yer own. I did say, I can wait, as long as it takes.”

Once again, silence reigned in the room.

--

“Anything else you would like to tell me?” Ororo hoped that he would tell her about the ring Rogue had mentioned. At the same time, a part of her did not want to know about it. She was having the same thoughts he had expressed. What if what they had and what they might have had, all of it was based on a lie….a hidden suggestion planted by Emma Frost when she mind-raped them. What it Logan had never got over Jean in the first place? After all, even if Jean was the one to make the first move, Logan could have stopped her. What if he still had those feelings towards the redhead doctor? What if….? Many such *what ifs* had risen in the last few days.

“Yes,” Logan replied. Opening his mouth to continue, he tried to form the words…words that his instincts were urging him to speak out aloud, words that he had been reading himself to speak out for over thirteen months...words that were lost under the loss in his confidence…his trust for his instincts. They were just three words, and he unable to vocalize them. “No….nothin’.”

“Very well,” Ororo sighed and turned away from him. “Goodnight Logan.”

Leaving him in the library, the former goddess retreated to her room. She had thinking to do….and decisions to make.

-----

It’s almost evening, and he is still sitting by the cliff.

He does not want to go back to the mansion, not now….not when the most important reason for his being no longer resides within those walls.

Not after Ororo Monroe leaving the mansion…

….with the new man in her life.

---

Note: Sorry if the middle part kinda loses you…it had that effect on me too. That’s why I didn’t change it. But what else do you expect from one who has had his memory-circuits crossed….and even shorted.

Reviews!! Reviews!! Send me yer reviews…..Please!!

Time Line: Three months later,

He sees his friend, the mutant known as Wolverine, who over the past few months, has become the man known as Logan….not only to his teammates, but also to a majority of the students.

He sees the strict and somewhat blunt manner in which he teaches the older students and the uncanny patience he exercises towards the younger ones.

He, the watcher is Henry McCoy, although he is better known as Beast.

He is currently the planner for the X-Men, and along with his co-feral, the co-leader of the team…..he has been for the past six months.

-----

“Thank you everyone for coming,” Xavier addressed the small gathering in his office. Seated or standing, as per their perusal, were Phoenix, Beast, Wolverine, Colossus, Rogue, Gambit, Shadowcat, Jubilee, Iceman and Nightcrawler.

Conspicuous by their absence were Storm, Emma Frost and Cyclops. Storm had left for parts unknown, Emma Frost had returned to Massachusetts, while Cyclops….he was still in the mansion, although even he was in the process of getting his packing done.

“What’s dis about Professor?” Gambit was the first to put out the question on everyone’s mind….with the exception of the three senior teammates, Jean, Henry and Logan.

“This…” once again Xavier cast a glance around the room. “…is about the future of the x-men. As you know, we…we are currently short three members….soon to be four.”
“Four?” Instantly everyone present turned his or her eyes to present non-present Wolverine.

“Yes,” in any other situation, Xavier might have expressed some amusement at the scene….but not now. Not after what had happened. “Jean has requested a break…for personal reasons.”
“Then who will lead the team?” Was the obvious question, this time from Iceman.

“Henry and Logan,” the Professor was straightforward in his answer. “Although both will act as co-leaders, Henry will be focusing on information and planning, while Logan will be taking the lead in field missions and team assignments.”

-----

Time Line: Eight months later,

She is sitting at the window, watching the snowstorm rage outside. Its nothing new or out of the ordinary here….not in the cold of Alaska.

She has been here for the better part of a year now, away from her teammates, her family….and for her family.

Looking down at the presently silent bundle of pink and white, her heart and mind fills with a calming yet exuberant joy. The sparse growth of red hair, proclaim the child as hers…..her Rachel.

Rachel Summers is the first born of Jean Grey-Summers aka. Phoenix and Scott Summers aka. Cyclops, both x-men and both currently off-duty….albeit for slightly different reasons.

Jean had taken time off for her impending childbirth; and to overcome the effect of Emma Frost and Scott’s actions on their marriage and their trust. Scott on the other hand, was given a much-needed vacation by Xavier, for his confidence in himself and also for his wellbeing and life….from Wolverine.

It is finally time to go back and it has brought back memories of their last at the mansion….more importantly for Jean.

-----

“You want me to WHAT?” Logan’s growl was threatening enough by itself, without his walking the razor edge of control, with the events of the past few days, his usual thin control and Ororo’s departure threatening to push him over to the berserker side.
“We want you to lead the team,” Xavier replied calmly. “….for the next few months.”

“Why can’t Jean do it?” Logan shot back, glaring at the silent redhead sitting beside the Professor. “Or Hank, or anyone else for that matter? Why me? I don’t want it.”
“Jean, as you can see is on the family way and won’t be able to join the team for missions,” the telepath had everything thought out beforehand. “Besides, she and….” He stopped at mentioning Scott. “She is taking a temporary break from the x-men, at least until the delivery. It is best for her and for the child that she has a peaceful, tension free environment.”

“Yeah,” Logan’s tone was sarcastic. “That I am going to gut Cyclops has got nothing to do with her an’ yer decision….does it?”

Both Xavier and Jean had nothing to say in reply to that. Getting Scott away from the mansion and more importantly from Logan had been a major factor in Jean’s decision. She could just have easily have stayed in New York, and have one of the best doctor’s in the world, Henry *Beast* McCoy.

“As for Henry,” Xavier explained further. “Although an invaluable team-member and a genius, he does not have the practical experience…”
“Ya mean he ain’t a killer,” Logan completed the Professor’s sentence. He could already see that he was fighting a losing argument. With the three senior x-men out of the picture, it only left Henry and him as the obvious choices. None of the others were either experienced enough or had enough clout to command respect from the others. Leaving them, the next ones in line were Gambit and Colossus, and although both were old enough, they weren’t *prepared* enough. There was another choice, Nightcrawler. He had both skill and age on his side. The only thing going against him was practical experience.

--

After much deliberation, arguing and uncomfortable silence, Logan finally relented.

“I’ll do it,” both telepaths seemed relieved at the acceptance, but sensed that there was a *but* coming. “But, I got three conditions.”
“Conditions?” Jean voiced the question.

“Yeah,” Logan’s face was an impassive mask. “One, I ain’t doing this alone. Hank will do it with me. I’ll do the fighting and training, but the talking, teamwork and all that, that he’ll do.”
“Agreed,” Xavier’s acceptance was instantaneous.

“Two, neither of you or Hank will have any say on the way I do my work….or the way I train them or assign them.”
“Agreed,” this time the Professor had more to say. “However, you do know….”

“The X-Men don’t kill,” Logan supplied somewhat reluctantly. “Don’t worry, the only killing I want to do right now….” He trailed off, his eyes lingering on Jean. “And that’s my third condition. When Cyclops comes back, and I know he will, and when you give the team back to him, as I know you will, I won’t take orders from him and I won’t work with him….not even on missions. Anything you want done, you tell me. And, if you have any doubt with what I am saying, I don’t suggest you try confirming it….not if you want your kid growing up without its biological father.”

A cold shiver ran through Jean. She had mistakenly dared a peek into the feral’s mind….and what confronted her….she didn’t have the words for it.

“Agreed,” was all Xavier could say with a defeatist nod.

------

Time Line: One year later,

He has been back for three months now, rejoined the team for two, heading it for just as many….atleast the one under him.

On his arrival, the X-Men were officially split into two teams, one with him, Cyclops as the team leader. The other team, surprisingly, has Kurt Wagner, Nightcrawler as its leader. With Jean and Beast in his team and Wolverine’s terms playing out, Kurt was the next in line. The other members of his team, the blue team, are Iceman and two newcomers, his own younger brother, Alex Summers aka. Havok and his current girlfriend, Lorna Dane aka. Polaris.

The second ‘gold’ team consists of Colossus, Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee, Shadowcat and Wolverine. Rogue had, just like her mentor, refused to work with him and Remy had supported and seconded her, although his decision had more to do with what he and Emma did to Ororo. And, although, both Jubilee and Kitty didn’t say anything aloud, their decision was also clear enough.

‘What he did?’ He still cannot remember anything…..even after a year, nothing.

------

“Say something Jean?” He had turned to his wife. It had been a month after their Alaska *vacation* started.
“What do want me to say Scott?” She knew this day was coming. Scott had gone through the denial and was now in the anger-cum-bargaining stage. It had started two days ago, with a very small thing….something that she had said, something that had slipped out her tongue and mind. She had mentioned their first days at the institute…and Ororo.

“Don’t give me that,” Scott gritted his teeth. He could sense the tension seeping through their psi-link, which, ever since even that battle, had closed down from Jean’s side, still allowed some intense emotions to pass through. “I know you believe that I did….I did…whatever is being. I know you believe it to be true.”

“Scott….” Jean began with a sigh. Even though she had had the time to prepare herself for the intensity of the emotions this confrontations would bring, it still was hell on her mind, not to mention the stress of pregnancy.
“Don’t Scott me,” Cyclops stopped pacing and stomped up to her. “You believe it or not? Yes or no.”

“No, I don’t believe it. I don’t need to believe it. You know why?” The Phoenix inside her was itching to be let out. “I don’t need to believe it, because I know it to be true. I know that because the thoughts I got from Rogue and which she got from Emma, they weren’t fabricated ones, they were true ones, genuine memories of what conspired on that day….between her…and you.” By the time she ended, the anger and fight seemed to ebb away, but not completely. “So don’t try to turn this against me. I am also a telepath and what Emma did…what you asked her to do, whatever the reasons behind it might have been, it was-was…”

“What was it Jean?” Scott shot back, egging her to continue. “Was it bad enough what you and Logan….”

THUMP!!

The next instant, Scott found himself flying through the air and into the dining table.

“What I did with Logan was a betrayal of your trust, and although larger than your *mental* trysts with Emma, it was a betrayal between two consenting adults. What you did to Ororo and to Logan…there was no consent in that. It was abuse….it was rape, and there in Scott lies the difference.”

The word ‘rape’ jarred Scott back to his senses and under them. Ever since he came to know that he had done something with…to Ororo, something so horrific that it made him turn to Emma to mindwipe not only him and Ororo, but also Logan. It was the mindwipe of Logan that had troubled him the most, because according to Emma, that she had done to throw off Logan’s enhanced senses, particularly his sense of smell.

“Jean,” Scott’s voice and spirit both gave way as he slipped into the next stage….depression.

-----

Time Line: One year and seven months,

She has been gone for nineteen months, six more than what Logan had been away for. It wasn’t something that he meant to keep a track of, it just became that way.

He knows where she is. Why wouldn’t he? After all, he IS her brother.

He is one of the few people that he knows that know about her whereabouts and her wellbeing. There are two others, the Professor and Jean, and only one of them has been in any contact with her….the Professor.

Xavier knows about the brother-sister phone calls and about his trip to visit his sister.

No one else knows. No one…..almost no one.

*HE* knows…always knows. The *HE* is Logan.

------

“Hello,” the familiar, honey toned voice answered from the other end.
“Stormy,” Gambit greeted with his usual flair. He knew she would be expecting his call. He had said he would call today….he had said that while ending their last call.

“Remy, you know how I hate that infernal name,” Ororo’s voice held an amusement. It was a part of their usual banter. Her *scolding* didn’t stop him and his *name calling* had grown on her.
“Remy know you don’ like it,” the charmer replied with a chuckle. “’cept when it come from Remy.”

With that, they began catching up on what was happening on either side of the line. Remy telling her how he and Rogue had gotten *serious* (not in the sexual way. Get yer minds outta there) and about any new developments either in the school or the team. Ororo on the other hand talking about her new job as a school teacher and about the new house she had managed to finally buy, and about her new friends and family.

What neither of them talked about, what both of them either wanted to ask or tell the other about, was….well you know what.

Remy also didn’t mention how Logan would treat him once he returned to the mansion.

Even though he always made it a point to call from the city and on a day and time when he was sure that Wolverine wouldn’t be within twenty miles of him, somehow he always knew. Maybe it caught on the way that the Cajun tried to avoid him for a day or two, or the way the red-black eyes didn’t meet hazel ones, or maybe her scent traveled over the telephone lines and stuck onto him….he always knew….and he never asked.

Logan also knew about Remy’s trip. The fact that after being gone for nearly a month, Remy had returned with a glorious tan, not possible from being in New Orleans, not at that time of the year, was evidence enough….even if Logan’s senses couldn’t catch Ororo’s lingering scent on him.

“’Roro,” Ororo knew what was coming next. It came at the end of every call. “When are you comin’ back?”

Even over the time delayed staticky transmission, her sigh was clear. Remy knew her answer by heart.

“Soon.”

-----

Time Line: Two year, ten months and seventeen days,

She is sitting in pin drop silence, a single sheet of paper clenched in her slender coffee colored hand.

She has read it and reread it almost half a dozen times now.

She knows what she has to do….she has to go back.

She knew that this day would come, but like this…so soon….this she didn’t expect…or did she?

She never thought that the news, the letter calling her back would come from this person.

It is almost déjà vu that both Logan and her return would come from…for the same person….the person whose cursive handwriting is on the paper in her hands.

After almost three years of silence on either side, Rogue has written her a letter.

“Ladies and Gentlemen....” The captain's voice booms over the intercom. They are approaching New York.

She is coming back....home. For how long, she doesn't know....she hasn't planned.

------

Ms. Monroe, (the letter began in a coordial enough manner)

This is Rogue. I have given this information so that if you want to stop reading you can do so right now.

However, if you do decide to carry on, there is another thing that you should know. I am not writing this letter from any need or volition of my own, but because of our common acquaintance, Mr. Remy Lebeau. He was the one who has asked me to do it, although what this will achieve, I am still not very sure off, even though I know what he is aiming for. He wants his sister to come back.

As for me, I do not care any which way. Whatever, good or bad blood we might might have had in the past is all gone for me.

As far as I am concerned, you are a stranger to me.

That being said, I would like to extend an invitation to you (enclosed with letter) for the upcoming marriage of Remy Lebeau and Rogue.

-----

*Marriage* The word struck her, not merely because of the sentiment behind it, or because it was Rogue who was breaking the news to her, or because she didn't expect to be so soon....but also because the last time she and Remy had talked over the phone, he had been down because he and Rogue had parted ways.

Remy had proposed, only to have it turned down, not because the southern belle didn't love with him all her heart...but because she did, and she didn't want him to have to marry a woman he couldn't touch.

Even after Remy's repeated assurances that it made not affect to him and that they would keep on trying to find a way to overcome Rogue's unique mutation, not matter how long it took. Moreover, even if it did not happen, they had already found way around it, made clear by both Rogue and Remy's collection of Gloves, Scarves and other nonmentionables.

Nothing had worked, at least not then.....so Ororo's surprise at the sudden change was completely understandable.

-----

Remy has asked me that I should be the one to invite you....(the letter continued).....as he feels that he has tried everything within his powers to facilitate your return, including his trip to wherever you are. I do not have the address, nor did I ask for it. As you must have noticed, the writing on the envelope is his and not mine.

The marriage has been set for the twenty-third of April, giving you enough time to reach a decision and inform HIM.

Also, in case you are wondering, I do not have any ulterior motives for doing this. Whether you come or not, won't affect me in the least.

I have nothing more to say, except that you are welcome to bring any guest or member of your family with you.

Rogue

-----

In the cab now, she mulls over everything that has changed in her absence.

The Professor is still the school headmaster and mentor for the newcomers, both students and x-men. Jean and Scott are still together, and although their relationship might have lost some of the innocence it held before.....well before, they are still happily married and even have a brother on the way for young Rachel, who from she has heard from her charmer brother, already has all the characteristics and mannerisms of a drive 'em mad beauty.

Kitty and Piotr are still together, and although she is still a member of the team, the now college going Shadowcat is on emergency duty only. Instead, she is focusing on her undergraduate degree, and planning for her graduate one.

Jubilee and Bobby are still playing the field, so as to say and have had a multitude of both mutant and human dates/flings/relationships. Both of them are full members now, with Iceman acting as Cyclops's second. He has held that position for over a year now, with Jean taking over some of the Professor's responsibilities in the school, while continuing her involvement in the political aspects.

The younger members finally coming into their own has allowed Henry to return the majority of his attention to his research and teaching. He has been lucky enough to get Kitty as an assistant, both of them spend hours discussing about some latest scientific discovery or invention.

Kurt is still leader of the gold team with Rogue as his second. He too has had some development on the personal part of his life. He has resumed contact with an old friend, his sort of foster sister, Amanda Sefton, who moved to the America a couple of years back and recognizing him from the video footage from one of the media sources, was able to track him down.

The only person Ororo doesn't know anything about, is the one person she and Remy didn't talk about, neither did the Professor.

Logan.

-----

“'e's still there,” Remy had told her when he had come to visit her. “'e didn't leave dis time.”
“Remy,” Ororo's voice had a drop it tone.

“Whatever you say padnat,” the Cajun shrugged his shoulder and tapped the unlit cigarette against its case. “Jus' though you would like to know.”
“You thought wrong,” the reply from the weather witch was a tight one. “Lo....he is not of any concern on mine now. I have moved on.”

Glancing around the living room of her house, Remy momentarily gazed at the pictures adorning the walls. She was right. She had moved on. Except for a single picture of him and her and one of the Professor, there wasn't a single thing that told anything about the mutant Storm and the X-Men. Now she was just Ms. Monroe, school teacher.

“Remy see dat,” the corner of his lips curved up. “However....”

An arched eyebrow egged him....dared him to continue.

“You can't move on by jus' leaving da past,” he resumed sagely. “You will 'ave to face it...one way or another. Trust Remy, 'e know dat from experience.”

-----

*Face your past* Is that what she come to do. The mansion is rising in the distance, even after more than years away, its grandeur not dimmed.

A gentle pressure on her hand draws her attention to her companion, his serene, supportive smile bolstering her faltering confidence.

'You can do it,' he seems to say, not verbally but through his silence. He has been giving her her space....and she is thankful for that.

“Thank you,” her whisper is loud enough for just the two of them, and so is her kiss on his smooth cheek.

----

Sometime later,

“Logan, Logan,” the screeching, sounds of approaching feet and bublicious flavor announce Jubiliation *Paff* Lee, as she burst through the front door of Logan's boathouse residence.
“What's up kid?” The gravelly voice answered before the man in question's scraggly head popped from the kitchen door. “What dya want now? It ain't a mission, or Chuckie woulda paged.”

“No, its not a mission,” Jubilee did her mock-panting thing. She was, in fact, one of the most physically fit X-Men around, and not just among the X-Women, the creedit...or blame for which went to the man currently frying six strips of bacon, while preparing his three egg omlette on the side.
“Then what?” Logan took a swig from his late morning, or in his case early morning, beer. “Want somethin' to eat?”

“She's back,” was all the young woman said, her eyes instantly catching the tensing up of her mentor-cum-friend's shoulders.

At getting no answer, she did the obligatory clearing up. “Logan, its Oro....”

“Where?” Was the single grinded out word.
“She just arrived,” Jubilee had seen the white hair and dark skin and had bolted to find Logan. She hadn't even waited to meet her.....and therefore didn't have the Nubian beauty's vanilla and sandalwood scent on her.

“Good,” was all Logan said as she took another pull from the half filled bottle before emptying the remaining liquid into his breakfast, detroying it completely.

“Logan,” Jubilee stepped forward, and took the bottle and spatula from him. “There is something else.”
“What?” The Wolverine answered this time, his tone hard and unfeeling.

“She didn't come alone.”

---

Note: As you can see, I am about to round up. Still haven't decided about the ending. Happy, Sad or otherwise!!

She is sitting alone…in front of the mirror…looking at herself.

How did things come to this?

How had a three-week long trip changed her whole life….again?

-----

“Rrrzzb Fsszzb #$@*&!% Fsszzb shit,” the grunting and mumbling teenager stormed through the kitchen door.
“What happened?” Kitty looked up from the ice she was crushing.

“Nothing,” Jubilee pouted and yanked the chair back. The force caused it to bump against her toe, which only produced yet another stream of expletives and choice words.

Kitty guessed what the cause behind the usually chipper Jubilee’s sudden sullen mood was. Logan.

“What did he do now?” She reached for the fridge door to get the soda and ice cream.
“Fuck him?” Came forth instantly.

“I guessed as much,” Kitty had seen Jubilee rush towards Logan’s boathouse and was expecting him to come tearing through the front door…and yet she was expecting this too. With Logan, things could go either side. It was like a toss of a coin. “What did he do now?”

“I don’t want to talk about him,” Jubilee reached for her favorite….and only her favorite, ‘Sugar Bombs’.
“Ok,” Kitty nodded her head and turned away. She knew Jubilee inside out and knew that she would come out soon enough.

And just like clockwork, “He said he knew about it,” Jubilee grunted between chomps.
“What!” Now Kitty was even surprised. How did Logan know that…..?

“I said he knows,” Jubilee repeated irritably.

“Logan knows that Ororo has a kid…a son.”

-----

‘I should have known he would know,’ She stares at herself and then at the sleeping form of her son. She had only told Remy about him and if she wasn’t sure that Remy wouldn’t have told Logan or Logan wouldn’t have cornered Remy and threatened him….she would have been suspicious.

Coming by chance, he had become an indispensable part of her life. He had brought a sense of calmness that had been missing for quite sometime…..quite a few years.

She had almost not brought him here, changing her mind at the last moment and buying an extra ticket for him.

------

“Miss Monroe,” Rogue had knocked on her door, loud enough so that she would hear it, but low enough so as not to disturb the baby.
“Come in Rogue,” Ororo closed the closet where she was hanging her clothes in and turned to face the door and the bride to be, standing inside it. “And please, call me Ororo. I am no longer your teacher and you are no longer a student. In fact, you are a teacher yourself now.”

Rogue smiled uneasily, stepped in and closed the door behind her, but not before checking for any other presence in the room.

“Ah….Ah wanted t’ talk to yah,” she said finally, her initial hesitation fading away quickly and by the time she ended the sentence, her eyes ad face were steeled with determination.
“Yes,” Ororo did not know what to expect. Her relation with the younger woman had been on rocky grounds ever since Logan’s leaving the mansion. It had improved with time, only to fall back into the abyss after Rogue’s absorption of Emma Frost’s memories and Sabertooth’s blind rage. After that….after that, Ororo had left and with her any chance of any revival of the friendly student-teacher sisterhood they had had.

“Ah’m happy that ya came, thank you.” Now that was completely unexpected. In her letter Rogue had said, it didn’t matter to her either way. Now this.
“Uh-you are welcome,” Ororo said the only thing she could.

“And ah’m sorry for having hurt ya,” the repentant truth was clear in her southern drawl. “Ah didn’t try t’ see yer side of the picture. Didn’t try t’ see how you felt….how it affected you.”

The words and tone that Rogue was using unnerved Ororo. It was almost as if….

“Rogue,” she had to voice her suspicions. “Did something happen with Remy?”
“Nah, we’re cool,” Rogue flipped her hand, before adding a single word at the end. “….now.”

“Now?” This was news to Ororo. Was Rogue talking about the fight she and Remy had over her mutation, or was there something deeper?
“Remy…” Rogue didn’t know how to word it. She remembered the time she had fiercely defended Logan and now….now the shoe was on the other foot. “Remy…cheated on me.”

‘What?’ ‘Oh’ ‘No’ various answers struggled in Ororo’s mind, losing out to each other and leaving only silence. Silence that urged Rogue to go on.

“It was with Belladonna.” Both women knew about Remy’ ex-wife. They had met, fallen in love and married….at too young an age. They had parted a year and a half later and even though they had maintained contact off and on, they had since then moved on with their lives. Belladonna had married a member of her own guild while Remy had come to New York and joined the X-Men.

“Did he tell you?” Ororo had to ask. From Rogue’s expression and the way she had revealed the news, the weather witch didn’t think so.
“No,” Rogue shook her head. “Her husband did. Not only me, he told the whole school.”

“What!” The surprises and shocks kept on coming.
“It seems that he and Bella were havin’ troubles and had separated the time Remy was there,” Rogue started with the explanation, fingering her engagement ring for support. “Someone saw them, told him and he tracked Remy. Followed him here and confronted him in front of everyone…..everyone.”

Now Ororo understood completely the reason for Remy’s impromptu visit to her. He and Rogue must have been separated at the time. However, how had things gone from there to now….where the reunited couple was tying the knot?

“We were separate for almost a year,” Rogue continued. “I wanted to hurt him as bad as he had hurt me.” Ororo remained silent. Those sentiments were echoes of what hers had been with Logan.
“Then what happened?” She finally voiced.

“Ah decided t’ give him one more chance,” the happiness was clear in the younger woman’s voice. “Even though the fear was there that he might do it again, with someone else, ah decided t’ risk it….once more. Things were fine…until he asked me t’ marry him. Then those fears came back. What if he gets tired of not being able to touch me? What if he goes to other women? What if….” She trailed off.

Ororo wanted to say that Remy wouldn’t never do such a thing, but knowing her brother’s flirtatious behavior and hearing what Rogue had told her….she wasn’t so sure at the moment.

“Ah just wanted t’ say thaht Ah’m sorry for what I said and did to ya,” Rogue came back to her initial point. “And thaht Ah hope that yah are also happy.”
“Thank you,” was all the snow haired Ororo could say as Rogue took a deep breath, her thoughtful expression clearing up.

“I gotta go get some shopping done. Ya wanta come?”
“Not right now,” Ororo replied with a smile. “I need to get settled in. Maybe next time.”

Nodding her head understandingly, Rogue glanced at the sleeping baby before leaving the room.

-----

‘Give him one more chance,’ the words still rang though her mind.

She had though for a long time about them and whether and how they applied to her own life. Giving him one more chance….but for what?

She had moved on with her life. She had a family….a child. What sort of chance would she be giving him?

Friendship? Co-workers? What?

Lost in her thoughts, she doesn’t detect the new entrants in the room.

“Ororo…” Jean speaks for the group. Standing beside and behind her are Rogue, Kitty, Jubilee and Kirika, Logan’s….daughter. “Its time.”

---

Minutes later,

“Dearly beloved,” the priest begins his usual sermon….uh, speech. “We are gathered here to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony…..”

---

Note: Got one more chapter and then we are done for this fic. I hope I have cleared almost everything up....except for the main two. That will be done in the next one.

Any questions, comments, etc.....review and let me know!!

“We need to talk.” She had tracked him down to his boathouse residence where she found him sitting on the porch, a cigar smoldering in the ash tray, a beer on the other side and a newspaper in his hands. It was their first meeting since she had come/returned to the mansion. It was not that they were trying to avoid each other….at least not deliberately. It was just that she hadn’t left the mansion and he hadn’t step foot in it….and there was a reason for that.

--

“Logan doesn’t live in the mansion anymore,” Jean had informed her. “And any time he is here, it is either for his classes or for a mission.”
“Why?” She has asked innocently, guessing some hidden reason for this monumental change.

“He...uh…he,” the redhead hesitated, trying to get the correct words. “He and Scott, they had a fight.”
“And….” Ororo knew there was more. Scott and Logan, they had been going at it, ever since Logan had set foot in the mansion for the first time.

“Logan…he…” Jean started again. This was very difficult for her. It had been she, who had commanded, threatened, pleaded, whatever, to Logan to leave the mansion. “Scott blasted him point blank, and Logan….he stabbed Scott in both his shoulders.”
“Oh,” was all Ororo could say. She wanted to ask about the reason behind the bloodletting. Something told her that the reason behind it couldn’t have been Jean, at least not the primary reason.

“In a way it was Scott’s fault,” Jean carried on. “Both the Professor and me, we had warned him to keep his distance from Logan, at least until he had had some time too cool down.” Jean went on to reveal Logan’s third condition for his taking over the team. “We had told Scott about it, yet he tried to confront Logan to make things better between them, only it backfired….just the way Logan had said it would.”

“Who stopped them?” Ororo knew about Logan’s berserker rage and was surprised that the Scott had survived it.
“In a way it was Logan himself,” Jean smiled ruefully, her shaking hands conveying her nervousness. “He had…he had made a deal sort of, with the Professor, in the way that he would send a telepathic message if such a situation arose. It was that message of his that allowed us to get to them in time.”

“Oh,” this really sent Ororo for a twist. Logan knew about his rage and what he could and would do to Scott. Yet he made arrangements for a loophole of sorts, not because of anything he felt towards Scott or Jean or even the Professor, but because of Rachel and now her soon to be born brother.

“Yes,” Jean nodded and walked to the window. In the distance was visible the boathouse. “He lives there now. Him and his daughter. She just appeared one day. It seems that Logan had met her during one of his trips and had given her this address, with the instructions that she could come whenever she wanted. So now she spends half her time here and half of her time in Japan.”

‘Japan!’ Ororo exclaimed internally. ‘How? When did he get to Japan?’

Whether Jean caught her thoughts or whether it was the next in her explanation, the weather witch didn’t know. “You should ask Logan about it.”

--

Logan looked up at her, his voice caught in his throat. Finally nodding his head, he stood up and gestured towards the house, opening the door for his *guest*.

Stepping inside, Ororo was momentarily stunned by the Japanese décor. “Its Kirika’s doin’,” Logan informed her.
“Oh,” she nodded, slipped out of her sandals and settled onto one of six the bamboo-cane stools.

An uncomfortable sort of silence prevailed between them, broken by Logan’s, “How’s the kid?” Question.

“Good,” Ororo answered with a smile. “He is resting. Jubilee and Kitty are overseeing him.”
“Hmmm,” another nod and once again silence. “You wanted to talk.”

“Yes,” Ororo cleared her throat, her fingers grasping at the round bamboo. “You found about your family?”
“Yeah,” a single word answer. “She’s all that’s left,” Logan jerked his head to a side. On the mantelpiece was a photograph of him and his daughter.

“Your wife,” Logan’s jaw tightened at being reminded of his lost past, specially by the woman who he wanted to have his future with. It was too late for both.

--

“What did you come to talk about?” He snapped at her, reeling in too late. “You said….I’m sorry. You wanted to talk about something.”
“Us,” was the only thing Ororo could say, almost regretting it at the sudden tensing of Logan’s body. He seemed to be shutting down in front of her.

“There ain’t no us Ororo,” his pain was clear in his voice. “Not now. You have a life, a house, a kid, a family. I can’t destroy that….can’t let you do it either. It ain’t right.”
“What do you…?” Snow white brows twisted in confusion. His words making her forget to ask how he knew all this about her.

“I saw yer kid,” Logan hung his head. “I saw how happy you were with him. You have a family now. You are lucky you can see them, your son….your husband…”
“Husband?” The startled exclamation cut him off. “I am not married.”

“Yer not,” Logan’s head shot up, his eyes widening at Ororo’s denial. “But you left with….and the kid….that…”

Ororo knew who Logan was talking about, Davis Cameron. “Davis and I, we were just friends,” she started with her explanation. “We never got intimate. I left him with him because I needed to get away and clear my mind, to decide where to start rebuilding the shambles my life had become. I stayed with him and his sister for about three weeks, after which I moved to Africa, to my first home. I have been there ever since.”

“And the kid…your son,” Logan lifted a finger towards the mansion.

“Mjari is not my biological son,” Ororo’s lips curved at the mention of her son and the way Logan seemed to loosen up. It was clear that he still carried the feeling he had towards her…..the same feelings that grasped her heart. “I helped deliver him. His mother had him out of wedlock and died at childbirth. No one in the village was willing to adopt him, so I did.”

Logan was silent for a few moments, trying to absorb the news. He had not lost her, at least not forever. Maybe there was still a chance for him…for them.

----

“My…my wife, Kirika’s mother, she dies a few years back,” He started to talk. “We were married in nineteen seventy three. Kirika was born a year later. I died two years after that.”
“Died?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. His pain at losing his family, his life…his memories; clearly shimmered in his eyes. “That’s what they told Mariko. That was her mother’s name….my wife’s name.”

Standing up, he walked to the mantle piece and opened an ornately sculpted box. From within it, he drew out something, which he handed over to Ororo.

It was a plain gold band, with an inscription on the inside. It was in Japanese.

“What….?”
“It says, to James, with all my love,” Logan answered her incomplete question. “I’m….was James. James Howlett. That’s what the marriage certificate said.”

‘This is the ring Rogue was talking about,’ Ororo remembered the time she had eavesdropped on them. ‘He has known for so long.’

“And Logan….” She began. “That name….where did it come from?’
“Who knows,” Logan shook his head. “Maybe from one of the guards in Weapon X, maybe my gardener, who knows? Whoever it was, its me now. James Howlett died the day he lost his family and was captured to be turned into a weapon.”

“Logan,” Ororo didn’t know how to go forth from here.

-SNIKT-

“My claws are real,” Logan carried on as if he hadn’t heard her, and given the way his flood gates were open maybe he hadn’t. “Under all this metal,” he lifted his fist to his face. “Under all this, there is bone. Kirika told me that…showed it to me.”
“Showed it?” Storm echoed in surprise.

“She’s got them too,” that answered her query. “Three on each hand. Got them when she hit puberty. Lucky fer her, her mother was there to care for her and to explain it to her. She had seem them before….”
“On you,” Ororo completed his sentence.

“Yeah,” Logan nodded. “From what she told Kirika about me, I was in a special Canadian-US task force….in World War II.”
‘World War II,’ Ororo internally calculated the years. If he fought in the second world war, that would make Logan well over seventy years, almost eighty.”

“And from what I told her, I remembered my life for thirty years before that, and had always looked the same,” the revelation effectively made Logan over a hundred years old. “It seems that my healing factor healed me…healed my memory.”
‘Healed his memory,’ Ororo knew what that meant. Logan had lost his memories once before….at least once before. That would explain his intense reactions at Emma and Scott’s actions.

-SNIKT-

The claws back in as Logan flopped back on to the sofa.

----

“Ororo,” it was Logan who broke the silence, his voice hesitant and almost pleading. “I-you….I want…gimmie another chance.”
“Logan…” Ororo wanted to say yes. In fact that was the thing she had come to talk about. Her conversation with Rogue had strengthened her own resolve. During the time from when she got the invitation to when she reached the mansion, she had thought about the past five years of her life and had reached a decision. If she was still willing, which she knew she was, and if Logan was still willing, which he appeared to be, she would take a chance….try it once more, a fresh start.

“Please ‘Ro,” Logan fell back to his petname for her. “I told you I can wait forever, and I can, but I don’t want to lose the time we can have….I don’t want to lose us. Please, just once, just say yes. You can have yer time to think, at least say that you’ll think it over.”

The pleading look on his face and the blaze in her own heart did not leave much room for thought for Ororo.

“Yes,” she said softly.
“Yes?” Logan repeated her answer, almost not believing what he had heard. Falling to his knees, he grasped her slender hands within his.

“Yes,” Ororo freed one hand and gently caressed his mutton-chopped whiskers. “Yes, I’ll give you…give us a chance.”

----

A few months later,

“Dearly beloved,” the priest, Kurt Wagner began, his eyes roving over the couple standing in front of him, the bride, Ororo Monroe and the groom, Logan. “We are gathered here to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony…..”++

Ororo had looked glorious in her off-shoulder wedding gown, its lacy whiteness matching her hair. Logan too, had been formally dressed, for him. Although he had foregone the whole tuxedo and bow ensemble, he had worn a matching coat and pant, with a plain white shirt underneath.

In a perfect matching, Remy and Rogue had swapped family, with Remy acting as the best man and Rogue as his female counterpart in the bridesmaids. The other bridesmaids were Kitty, Jubilee and Kirika.

The ceremony had been a relatively small affair, as neither the bride, nor the groom had much of family, except of his daughter and her son.

------

Present,

“What are ya thinkin’?” His gruff voice draws her out of her thoughts as he settles at her feet, his hands automatically reaching for her midsection, her thirty week old rounded pregnant midsection.

“Nothing,” she smiled down at him, her slender hand tunneling through his unruly mane. She hopes her son will have one just like him, while he claims his daughter will have long flowing, perfectly white, glowing hair like her mother. They both expect to be surprised. There is even a bet going around in the mansion, with everyone hounding Jean and Henry, the two people who know about the sex of the child. “Just the past, memories…”

“Hn,” he nods and rests his head against her belly, listening to their child’s heartbeat. “I don’t…not any more. Not when I have my present and future right her, you and her.”
“Him, you mean,” she corrects him with a chuckle.

“Say whatever you want,” he sits up. “Its gonna be a girl. See first is Kirika, a girl, then Mjari, a boy, next in line….see. The one after her will be a boy, the one after that a girl, after that….”
“How many children do you want?” She shakes her head in mock exasperation. In truth, she too wants a large family. Its something both of them lacked for many years. She had lost her parents at an early age, while he, his had been snatched from him.

“Kids, hmmm, let me think,” he tilts his head as if in thought. “See, there are six players on each side,” cloud colored eyebrows rose in surprise. ‘He is calculating from ice-hockey.’ “An’ we need two teams to play a game. So I guess….”
“Don’t even think about it,” Ororo emphasized her answer with a thunder boom in the distance.

“Just jokin’ ‘Ro. Yer with me, I don’ need nothin’ more.”
“Me too,” she whispers soft as she leans down, meeting him halfway for a kiss. “Me too.”

---

Note: Well, the ending came out as quite sappy, not too inline with the rest of the story. But, some happiness was needed after all that drama and angst. What dya say?

++ The ending of the previous chapter had been for Ororo and Logan and not for Rogue and Remy. Their marriage was done earlier and as was not of any importance, not included here.

And also, the ring thing is from Ultimate X-Men, but I modified it to use here.

Hope you liked this chapter and this fic. Review and let me know!!