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** ** indicates telepathic communication
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words
“Life is good,”

“Who is it?” Ororo asked again.
“Its me,” an unfamiliar female voice answered her question. “Heather.”
“Heather?” Ororo’s brow furrowed as she tried to place the name and voice. Wiping the tears off her cheeks, she walked to the door and opened it.

“Yes,” she peeked through the door, her eyes widening at the beautiful woman standing in front of her. “How may I help you? Are you lost?”
“No,” Heather shook her head. Looking up at Ororo, she smiled. “Just as I pictured you would be…and more. I agree with what he had said. You do look like a goddess.”
“Logan,” Ororo gasped at the woman. He was the first one to call her that and the only one who used it as an endearment…like the woman was using it right now. “Who are you?” her eyes narrowed, her heart beating at the prospect of the stranger being his wife.

‘But her had left. Wouldn’t he have taken his wife with him?’

Heather smiled at the younger woman’s confused expression. “Can I come in and talk?”

Ororo stared at her for a few seconds before stepping aside and opening the door wider.

“Please come in”

--------

“Please sit down,” Ororo offered as she donned on her calm and aloof goddess garb. She had spent years perfecting it, starting from the spunky teenager, who didn’t let anything or anyone affect her. As her powers developed and she gained control on them, she realized that she had to maintain a strict control over her emotions to avoid letting her control falter.
There were very few people who had seen past the goddess and still fewer who had been let inside it. The only two people who had seen the true Ororo were her brother Remy and….Logan.

“Thank you,” Heather pulled her out of her thoughts. “Its nice to meet you. I have heard a great deal about you and I must say that it doesn’t do you justice.”
“Thank you,” Ororo gave a perfunctory smile. “You are…” she feigned ignorance. She knew who this woman was. She was….
“I’m with Logan,” Heather answered frankly, her short answer ripping through Ororo’s heart. ‘WITH Logan.’
“Oh,” another smile. “Its nice to finally meet you too.”

Heather just gave a smile in return. She could sense the other woman closing in and wanted to explain everything to her. She hoped that once she would know the truth, she would go after Logan and the two of them could work out their differences and be together.

“I hope you don’t mind my asking,” she started. “But what happened between you and Logan? He just….left. One of the main reasons he came back was for you….and before you say anything else, let me assure you that Logan and me, we are not how you think.”

Ororo scrunched her face, a sense of foreboding rising in her heart. “What do you mean?”

“Let me tell you a story first,” Heather smiled mysteriously. “The story of how ‘Logan’ came to be.”
“What do you mean?” Ororo furrowed her brows.
“I mean,” Heather smiled. “Who Logan was before he was Ororo’s.”
“He’s not mine,” Ororo answered bluntly, before whispering. “Not anymore.”

“Just me a hear,” Heather urged as she began her tale.

--------

“I first met Logan fifteen years ago,” she started. “Well not as much meet than chance upon him. I was a college student then and was on an excursion with my then boyfriend and graduate assistant. We were returning to our cabin when we saw what looked like a bloody animal fallen in the snow. On closing in, we realized that it wasn’t an animal but a man…..a man with three bony projections, his claws sticking out from each hand. Right from between his knuckles.”

“His original claws,” Ororo reminisced, remembering how she had come to know about them.

“Yes,” Heather nodded. “Well, we immediately knew that he was a mutant. We couldn’t just leave him out there, so we bundled in our sleeping bag and carried, more like dragged him to the cabin. Once there we lay him near the fireplace and covered him up with blankets, to get his body heat up. Then we waited, taking shifts to keep an eye on him.”

“He finally woke up, almost forty hours after we brought him to cabin. As soon as he started coming out of his ‘sleep’, his claws slid in, much to our surprise and their slit wounds healed almost instantly. As he came further into the living light, he started growling and we retreated to give him space. He was acting like a wild animal, a wounded and cornered wild animal. And just like a wild animal he would have lashed out and attacked and harmed or killed us. He retreated into a corner and kept both of us within his sights.

It took us another day to finally get him to relax enough to allow us to come within five feet of him, and that too just one of us at a time. He had no command over spoken language, just grunting and growling at us. So we had to resort to mostly sign language to get our thoughts across.”

“I didn’t know that,” Ororo answered sadly. “He never told me.”
“He wouldn’t have,” Heather laid a hand on her knee. “He doesn’t remember most of it, himself, and what little he does remember, he is ashamed of it. He hates what those people did to him. They took away everything, his life, his family, which I am sure he must have had. His humanity…..his *self*. They wanted to make him into an animal…..and they succeeded, too well. It seems that he broke out from their facility and destroyed everything and everyone there. He wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t come after him or anyone else. Every again.”

“But they did,” Ororo whispered. “They came and caught him again.”
“Yes, I know,” Heather agreed. “He showed me the ‘upgrade’ they made for him. This time however, instead of raping his memories, they went for his emotions. They wanted to complete their weapon. A weapon without any emotions or moral qualms. That’s why….”

“That’s why he has become so withdrawn,” Ororo completed, finally realizing the reason for Wolverine’s strange behavior. When he had left so easily, she had thought that he was ending it finally and going back to his family. But now….”
‘Yes,” Heather nodded her head, her eyes tearing up. “He is almost like a new born in some ways. He has the memories of the years between the first and second capture, but he can’t place the emotions related with them, at least not properly.”

“Oh,” Ororo looked up. “But why….”
“Why I am telling you this?” Heather smirked. “Because the only single thing, both memory and emotion that he is sure of, is you.”
“Me!!”
“Yes,” Heather’s smile faltered. “That’s why he came back here. He said that he had told you that he had promised you that he would return and would ask you an answer for the question he had put up.”

“Told me? Question? Answer?” Ororo sounded confused. “What do you mean?”
“I mean the letter he had left for you, the one he had pinned to your room door.”
“I didn’t get any letter,” Ororo answered instantly. “There was no letter.”
“Oh god,” Heather clutched her forehead.

“What was in the letter?” Ororo leaned forward, her heart thumping against her chest.
“I…I don’t know all of it,” Heather shrugged her shoulders. “Just bits and parts he told me about.”
“What was in it?” Ororo urged again.
“He told me that he asked you to wait for him a bit longer, just as you said you would. He also wrote that he would understand if you didn’t, and that you deserved the best, just like you did all those years ago. He also wrote that he was unworthy of you, your love and that he was going to try to make himself better and would come back soon, once he felt he was ready enough. The day he came back, he would ask you to be with him and then it would be your decision completely. If you said yes, he would take you to his cabin, just as he had promised,” Heather ended. “When did he promise that?”

“He promised,” Ororo seemed to draw on a memory. “The morning after, we first….”
“Oh,” the redhead smiled. “That’s why he has been working on it.”

“Working on it?” Ororo looked at her.
“Yes. He has completely redone it. Added a new room, a new sky-window, small greenhouse, even white picket fences. He said you wanted it that way.”
“Yes,” Ororo nodded sadly. “The first time I came to America, I was fascinated by houses with slanted roofs, gardens, bricked walkways and white picket fences. I always wished I could have one like that.”

--------

“You could….you still can,” Heather grasped her hand. “Go to him. I know him. He’ll go straight to the cabin.”
“But what about you?” Ororo tilted her head. “You…”
“Like I said, Logan and me, we are not as you think. I was his first and only love, in this new life of his. But its just that…*was*. You ‘are’ his true love, the one who completed him, finally made him jump over the line between the man and the beast. You are his soul mate and from what I have seen so far, he is the same for you.”

“How can you say that?” Ororo shrank back. “You are his wife.”
“I am not his wife,” Heather noted Ororo’s face start to crumble at her words. “I am just his friend….a very good friend, but just that, a friend.”
“But you said…..” she started.
“I know, I said that he loved me,” Heather smiled. “But I didn’t say that I loved him back, at least not the way you think. Or the way he might have wanted at one time. You have to understand, I was the first woman he bonded with, in his new life that is. He took my care and concern for love, and maybe I….no not maybe. I did mislead him in some way….I even developed some feelings for him. But none of those feelings were as deep as the ones he has for you, or the ones I have for my husband.”

“Husband?” Ororo’s eyes shot up.
“Yes, husband. I told you about my boyfriend. The one with whom I had been when I found Logan. Well he is my husband now…..has been for the last twelve years.”

“Goddess…..” Ororo lamented. “What have I done?”
“Why, what happened?”
“I….I told him I was with someone else, I showed him as much,” Ororo lowered her head. “….and I told him to leave me alone.”
“Oh,” Heather straightened up. “That’s regrettable, but I am sure we can find him and work things out.”

“We should go right now then,” Ororo shot up. “I have to go to him. I have to find him.”
“Its nice to hear that,” Heather also stood up. “Come lets go.”

-------

About a hundred kilometers away,

“Target acquired,” a hooded person, spoke into the communicator. “On two wheels, going north at eighty miles an hour.”
“Good,” the answer came back. “Get him….and remember I want him alive, but not necessarily kicking.”
“Understood.”
“Approach with caution and don’t let him get to the city or the woods.”

“Understood.”
“Over and out,” with that the call ended.

“So, do we make our move?” another male voice spoke up.
“Not yet,” the first one held up his hand. “We wait till he crosses the next town, and then we ….”

“…..take him down.”

Note: Used Heather and James 'Mac' Hudson.....from Alpha Flight. Hope it worked out. Not using the token Jean-Logan angle in this one. Although did hint to it in the last chapter...Heather's words to Jean.

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