There it was again, that need to show at least one of them was unbreakable, that one X-man was invincible, it was so important, everyone in the mansion looked up to Logan, he was their hero in waiting.

Yes, sometimes healing others is much more about ourselves than the person who needs saving. I think it's interesting that, in your fics, different characters see the same action and ascribe different motives and values to it. It makes each character unique, even if I don't yet feel I really know Scott here yet.

The same thing happens with Marie sucking in Logan's power. She had thought she was helping him. She had thought she was giving him a break from Wolverine, and that the Wolverine from her nightmares was really substituting Logan for her. But what if his target, all this time, has been her. He never wanted her to touch him in the first place. Maybe saying 'James' to him was the only way she could reach them both in a happier time before they had these secrets and darkness between them.

And whether Logan is telling the truth about it 'going both ways' or not, it's not just the taking that they both have to accept - but the accepting.

Love the symbolism.

Author's Response: Yep, you got it exactly right, its 'bout the both of them putting asid etheir pride and fear long enough to realise a walk in each others mind is just what they need. Thing is they both have so little of a past left, so little of good memories left that you can almost understand why they'd guard that part of them so jealously. If it's not having them stripped from forcefully, its being asked to give it away willingly. LOL, thanks for a legnthy and insightful review as ever! :)