A frown marred the usually smooth brow of Dr. Jean Gray-Summers. She stared intently at the tangle of yarn and deadly-sharp needles.

~Now, bring the yarn in front of the needle, wrap it around the needle and pull through.~

Jean pushed her red hair behind one ear and tried to follow the steps. "Damn." The stitch had fallen off the needle, taking several of its friends with it. She'd been working for more than two hours and was worse off than when she started tonight, she realized as she pulled out the ruined rows. With a sigh, she ran her thumb along the underside of her gleaming, gold wedding band. Only for Scott, her husband, would she submit herself to tutorials from a matronly woman with gray hair and a snotty tone. But she was determined to finish knitting this sweater for her husband before Christmas. This Christmas. Looking at the calendar on the wall in the rec room, she amended her time frame. OK. Next Christmas. After all, it was already June.

She grabbed the remote and rewound the instructional tape to match where she was on the project.

~First, make sure you have enough yarn and the correct size needles. Always do a test swatch before beginning the project. To do a test swatch, cast on 40 stitches. To cast on ...~

Jean frowned again in concentration as she started her test swatch for the fifth time. She was almost grateful to the kids for the time she had to work on this while taking her shift on curfew detail. It gave her plenty of time to work on the sweater. And to watch Logan torture himself. The torture was a levity break she sorely needed.

When a noise caught her attention, she hit pause and carefully rested her swatch on the couch. No way was she starting over again. At least not tonight.

"Logan, there's no point skulking about. She's already come in."

A growl preceded the hunched over form that lumbered into the rec room. Jean fought to hide her smile at the expression on his face.

"When?"

"A couple of hours ago, I guess around 10, muttering something dire about you ruining her date with Kyle. Want to sit down and tell me all about it?"

She was the last person Logan would have expected to confide in, but this situation with Marie was driving him batty.

Logan roughly picked up what looked to him like a tangle of yarn and deftly tossed it in the trash can. Jean struggled against the urge to beat him and rescue the sweater. The rescue efforts would have to wait until after he left. And she'd find a way to get even. Now she wanted to know about Rogue. Like most newlyweds, she wanted everyone to be as happy as she was. Scott had told her to mind her own business when she first mentioned the change in the relationship between Logan and Rogue, but Scott was her husband, not her master.

Disgusted with himself, Logan said, "she's going out with this pansy-ass kid."

Jean just nodded. "And why is that?"

Looking down at his hands, Logan muttered, "she's been waiting for me to ask her out."

It was all Jean could to not to cackle. "And why haven't you?"

"Jeannie, how the hell could you ask that? I don't think of her like that. I'm too old for her. She deserves a nice guy. Someone with a past, who knows what kind of man he is. We're too good of friends to risk messing it up."

"For someone who doesn't think of her like that, you sure have a lot of reasons not to ask her out."

"Jeannie ..."

"What?" Jean was starting to worry about the look of regret on his face.

"I ... I dream about her."

The laughter popped out despite her efforts to control it, earning her a death glare from Logan.

"That tends to happen when you're in love with someone. Let me tell you about the hot ones I had starring Scott." Jean fanned her reddening face with one hand.

Logan grimaced and held up a hand. "Please don't. The mental images will disturb me for life. You think I'm in love with her?"

With a steady gaze, Jean nodded. "Think about it, Logan. We almost have to sedate you when she goes on a mission without you. When she and Kitty and Jubilee went on that trip last year, you moped around like you'd lost your best friend. And we won't talk about the amount of liquor and cigars you went through that week."

"Hey, I was worried. They were headed into danger."

"Logan, they were going to a ski resort."

"Yeah, a ski resort filled with good looking guys that wouldn't hesitate a minute to snap up a delicious morsel like Marie."

Jean's look told Logan that in her opinion, he'd just confessed his love.

"So, what are you afraid of?" Jean prompted.

"Now wait a minute. I'm not afraid. I'm the Wolverine," Logan said proudly.

"You are the Wolverine. So why haven't you asked Rogue out? You know one of these days she's going to find a guy and get serious."

Logan grabbed her shoulders tightly and demanded, "what do you know? Has she come to you?"

Jean shrugged out of his grasp. "No, Logan. She hasn't come to me. But other girls her age have come to me - wanting information about birth control. You can't believe she'll just sit on the sidelines and wait for you, can you?"

Had no problem believing that until the last few days, he thought. "Guess not."

Jean smiled to herself.

"You don't think the Professor will throw me out if Marie and I hook up?"

So that was the sticking point, Jean thought. "I doubt it, but you could always go talk to him. But if I were you, I'd worry more about patching things up with Rogue. I think she muttered something about pouring all your beer over your stash of cigars. She sounded quite upset. What did you do to her?"

Jean could have sworn Logan blushed. "Out with it."

"I ... uh ... went down to the lake where she and Kyle were and uhm ... did some target practice with that new rifle. I swear I didn't hit the kid. Just aimed at his feet. I guess she didn't think it was funny when he peed in his pants. What a loser." Kid has no control, Logan thought. And doing his laundry, gross.

Jean just stared at him. "So you just shot at him?"

"No. I mean for a while I just watched them, making sure he kept his hands to himself. And when he didn't, then I shot at him." Logan had a self-satisfied grin on his face.

Jean just shook her head. "Logan, if I were you, I'd sleep lightly tonight. There's no telling how Rogue might decide to extract her revenge, but I'd bet money she will."

For a few minutes they sat there in silence. Jean thinking about her sweater in the trash and Logan thinking about Marie. Feeling more unsettled than before, Logan finally got up. "See ya later, Jeannie."

"Night, Logan."

She waited until he was out of sight and fished her swatch out of the trash and after another hour managed to finish it. She hit play on the tape. ~Now, we're ready to start our project.~