Emote opened the door to her house. Stepping back, she allowed the Wolverine to enter first. She could tell from her talks with his mate and her own observations that he would want to check out any place he entered.

She let him explore to his heart's content, but after ten minutes, she went looking for him. She found him in Marie's room, stroking the bedspread of the bed she'd slept in, the stuffed wolverine he'd given her for her birthday held in the other hand.

~Loss, fear, love, hope, rage, sadness, guilt~

OOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!!!!

//Logan, tone the feelings DOWN!//

//Huh?//

//Turn…it…down! Take your emotions and dim them…like this…// Emote showed Rogue's other half the technique to dampen emotions. (Since Emote's shields were at full power, she was not yet able to tune out strong projectors like Rogue and Logan.)

"Sorry."

"It's okay. You didn't do it on purpose."

She moved over and sat down next to him. "Logan, she loves you. She has ever since she met you. But she's also been hurt and had to work through that. She couldn't do that with you cause you'd hurt her.'

Logan winced. "You don't pull your punches, do ya?"

"Nope, can't. If I did, you'd be in for a world of trouble."

Logan thought for a minute. He got the gist of what she was saying. If she let him get away with what he'd done to his Marie, even unintentionally, he'd be more likely to do it again. He knew Marie. She may be able to forgive him once—and he was praying to every deity he could think of that the second biggest miracle of his life would occur—but if he screwed up again, hurt her again, she'd walk out of his life again. He was barely handling their separation now. He'd never survive a second time.

"Can I fix it?"

Emote smiled. "Not on your own. Rogue has issues of her own to work with. She's made some progress, but the rest will take time."

Logan was afraid of the answer to his next question. "Time alone?" He could handle it--barely-- if the answer was yes, but he had to see her first, to know she was okay. Then, he'd crawl under a rock and hide… IF the answer was yes.

Emote thought for a minute. She knew the answer he was expecting, and the one she was going to give him.

"No, not time alone. Actually, she needs to learn how to deal with her problems WITHOUT running away."

Logan perked up. That sounded good. "So I can help her? I can be a part of the solution?"

Emote smiled. "Maybe. But first, we have a little work to do on you."

Logan groaned. That didn't sound good.

~*~*~*~*

Logan and Emote sat in the Zone, getting ready for their first session. Emote was explaining what would happen.

"My ability is empathy. Professor says I'm the strongest he's met. Anyway, I can `see' and `hear' feelings and the thoughts attached to them can filter through as well. What I'm going to do is use my telepathy to try to pinpoint the problem."

"Problem?" Logan growled.

Emote nodded. "Yep. You don't think either a dream or Rogue's problems caused this rift between you two all by themselves huh? Don't you want to know WHY?"

Logan looked reluctant. "I guess."

Emote snorted in her mind. MEN!!

"Okay. Your problem starts with an inability to trust. Understandable with what you've through, but it's affecting every relationship in your life."

"Please." Logan looked skeptical.

"Do you want to fix your relationship with Rogue or not?"

"Yes."

"Then try it my way. You don't like it, you can act otherwise."

Logan lowered his head. "Okay."

"It started back before you can remember." Emote couldn't concentrate. She put her hands to her temples. It helped her focus. "You woke up in the snow almost twenty years ago with no memory of your past and metal claws. You knew people had done that to you, so you stopped trusting them. Worked well for ya for fifteen years. No connections, no responsibilities…how am I doing?"

"On target so far." Emote smirked. "Then came…Laughlin City. You're doing what you always do…fighting all challengers, making some money, drowning your liver, when all of a sudden you sense someone's eyes on you. You look over… and spot your future."

"Spot on. How?"

"Let me finish. That's your first thought. Your second is, Not possible. After all, she's a kid. She's too young. But it doesn't override your first instinct."

~Anger, realization, shame, love, possessiveness~

"There's no shame in finding your heart's other half, Logan. You didn't take advantage did ya? So, you do what you always do…run, though this time you run mentally. Then she warns you of the fight and claws come out, and you sense she's fascinated with you. You can't believe that she wasn't scared, so now you run physically. You think you're safe, then you smell her in your camper. You try to leave her behind a second time, but you can't. That's when you start making connection--emotional connections."

~Belligerance~ "Oh, yeah? If Marie was my future, why didn't I know it? And what about Jean?"

Emote shook her head. "Denial. You didn't believe what you were feeling. So you buried. Plus, although you LIKE women, you weren't about to take a minor to bed, despite the fact that your heart insisted you claim her.

"So when you and she were attacked by Sabretooth, then you met Jean, you `transferred' your feelings to an acceptable substitute. But you forgot one thing."

"What?"

"Love doesn't always follow acceptable patterns. So when Marie was kidnapped, you went after her, because your heart couldn't bear the thought of her gone. She's…" Emote paused. The word was eluding her. "your peace."

"My peace?"

"Yes. Everything in your world could be chaos, but you would still feel okay if she was near. She's your calm."

Logan thought for a moment. That was true. He felt easier when she was close, like the world was his when she was safe and happy. `Calm" explained how she made him feel. "So why would I leave her?" He already knew her answer, but he was enjoying the story.

//Do I really need to answer you?// ~amusement~

//Please.//

"Okay. You had two reasons. One and probably most important, you needed to put some sort of closure to your past. Two, to let Marie grow up. Same reason you came back. You didn't stay because you wanted help or even because of the cause. You stayed because of her."

"You know this how…"

"Because it's the reason Marie didn't leave after graduation. You were there… She wanted to be nowhere else."

~HOPE~ "Really? Then why--" //Did I dream of Jeannie?//

"Because fear set in. You were afraid of pushing her, of moving too fast, of giving up your freedom. You didn't know that she MADE you free. Did that help?"

"So how do I fix it?"

"You remember how you felt on the top of the Statue when you thought she was dead. What scares you more, being `tied' to Marie, or being without her?"

Wolverine had long had a reputation as a fighter you didn't want to cross. Too many men who had hit on his Marie had found that out the hard way. Now, at the simple and complicated question she had asked, fear filled his every aspect. Fighting was the last thing on his mind… unless it was for Rogue. His love.

Emote smiled. "I thought so."

Logan looked at Emote ~Curiosity~ "How did you know?"

"Been there. I was so afraid of human feelings, of seeing the emotions, I locked myself down. I dated guys, those who knew about my mutation and those who didn't. None worked out. Then I dated mutants, and that was almost as bad. But I found a guy I really liked, a human who has a mutant mother. And he started getting tired of being the only one in the relationship trying to break down the walls. He was in an accident that almost killed him, and my best friend asked me the same question. My answer was the same as yours. We're still going strong." Love was everywhere around Emote, Angelica. Logan could smell the joy as she talked of her love. He knew what he had to do.

Now he just had to convince Marie to let him do it.