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** ** 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.

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