Title: The Bonny Dawn
Author: sharonmjl47
Rating: PG-13
Category: Movieverse, setting: Set around 80 years after X3
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and no one. Sad, isn’t it!
Feedback: Please, bad or good. If no one tells me it’s bad, I won’t know!
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Marie sat on the front steps of the spacious log cabin looking out at the sky. A thick blanket covered her shoulders, but her tiny bare feet stuck out the bottom. Every now and then she took a sip from the steaming mug of coffee in her hands. She loved to sit alone and think about their life together. She loved to think about his never changing shape, muscular as ever, broad magnificent chest, his wild hair, strong jaw and mutton chops that he would never cut and she was happy for it. Even after all this time, he didn’t look a day over 35 years old. And she loved him, just as she always had, from the first moment she saw him naked from the waste up and covered in sweat.

Logan leant on the doorframe starring at her back, an equally hot cup of jet-black coffee in one hand and the other resting in his pocket. He loved the way the early light played in her hair, bringing out the deep brown colour and reflecting off the white streaks. She tried dying it over the years but it had always grown back through. He called it her ‘stubborn streak’. He thought she looked exactly the same as the day he met her. Slender, but well toned from years of training and fighting, and still as beautiful as ever. Of course there were the little things that had changed, her breasts had become slightly fuller through children and her hips had more of a sway to them for the same reason. Her skin was still perfect to him, but she complained that she could see tiny wrinkles in the corners of her eyes. He loved her, tiny wrinkles an all.

“Don’t you think that after all this time, I know when you’re starring at me?”

“Just waiting for an invitation to sit down darlin’.”

“Take yourself as invited and park it mister.”

He moved forward and lowered himself down onto the front step next to her. She immediately leant her head on his shoulder and he put his arm around her.

“What ya thinking about out here all on your own?”

“Just watching the sun come up.”

“I know you better than that. Spill it kid?”

“Damn, you haven’t called me that in a while!”

“What can I say, old habits.”

“Very old habit Logan, about 80 years I’d say. But I kinda like it. It’s a novelty, being 97 years old and having my husband call me kid.” They both laughed softly.

“Come on darlin’, what ya thinking, ya know it’ll only bother you till ya tell me?”

She sighed and sat up straight. “I was thinking that I owe you an apology…”

“Darlin’ you already apologised for the dent in the truck, I know roads get icy up here and ya can’t…”

“Not the truck, you big idiot!”

“What then?”

“Do you remember what you said to me on the train?”

“Marie, we’ve been on a lot of trains!”

“God your such a ‘man’ aren’t you. ‘THE’ train Logan!”

“If ya talking about the train to Denver last summer, the only thing I remember you saying was my name. Repeatedly!”

“No Logan not the train to Denver last year. Westchester station, when Magneto crashed our conversation?”

“Oh Yeah, I remember that, hurt like a bitch.”

“Remember what you said to me?”

He smiled. “Something about geeks?”

“Do you want me to superhuman your ass into the nice clump of tress over there, ‘cause I will you know!”

He chuckled at her sassy attitude. “Darlin’ I remember exactly what I said to you. I said I’d take care of you.”

“And I asked you to promise.”

“And I did, willingly. What’s this all about Marie?”

“That’s what I owe you an apology for.”

“Why in hell would you need to apologise for that?”

She shifted her feet a little. “I didn’t believe you. When you said you’d take care of me, I wanted to believe it ‘cause I had the most enormous crush on you and there you where being the hero. But then I thought why would he want to help me? So I figured Xavier sent you to get me back and I didn’t believe what you said.”

“Xavier didn’t send me, he didn’t want me to even leave the Mansion let alone go looking for you. He sent Scott and ‘Ro. I stole Scott’s bike and took off all by myself. I didn’t have anyone Marie. So I promised to take care of you because that’s what I wanted, to have someone and make sure you had someone too.”

“That’s why I’m sorry Logan. I been sitting here thinking about our life. The train, the torch, what you suffered for me. Then the attack on the Mansion and Alkali Lake. It wasn’t just at times when I needed a hero, but after you always looked out for me made sure I was ok, made sure I was coping with it all. You made sure I got to my classes, ate right and trained right, looked after my ‘head’, kept me sane. Then after Alcatraz and Jean and …people finding out the ‘cure’ was no match for human evolution… you were still there for me.”

“And you me. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have lived much pass Alcataz and Jeannie. Let’s face it, it’s because of you darlin’, all I am and everything we have is because you stuck with me. You wouldn’t let me sulk off, you made me talk about it, made me accept what I did and helped me live through it. You had faith in me darlin’ and that’s when I fell in love with you.”

“But that’s the thing, I didn’t have faith in you Logan, not before that. It wasn’t until after Alcatraz that I realised what it was that you did for me, because suddenly you weren’t there, you were, like you said, sulking in the woods or hiding behind your bedroom door. That’s when I knew you really had meant what you’d said and that you’d kept your promise. You had taken care of me and I didn’t even notice you doing it.”

“The first time I put on that uniform was for you. I didn’t give a damn about Magneto and his agenda or those fucking politicians, it was all you. And every single time since, it’s been because I wanted what’s best for you or to keep you safe. At the time I was glad you took the cure, it meant you were safe, meant there was no way you could get involved, get hurt. Then when it wore off after six months, I was glad of that too. I was glad Drake turned chicken on ya, ‘cause it meant I had a shot. I was glad you could be part of life as a free mutant, be you again. Rogue or Marie, whichever you chose.”

“How come its taken god knows how many years, six kids, eight grandchildren an so far four great-grandchildren to have this conversation?”

He laughed. “I have no idea. Maybe cause now the worlds a better place.”

“The world still has its problems sugar.”

“But at least humans and mutants trying to kill each other isn’t one of them. I mean I know there’s still the FoH and they try it on every now and then, but that’s why there is still The Xavier Brotherhood.”

She laughed. “After 65 years you would think that I could get used to hearing Xavier and Brotherhood in the same sentence.”

“I know, I know. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad Chuck came back from the dead and he and Mags sorted it out and joined forces and we have a good team, but damn, I can still feel my metal assed bones ringing from that bastard.”

“How does Xavier stay alive anyhow, I mean us, you have your healing and I have my superhuman-ness which somehow keeps me young, but him?”

“I don’t get it either. He’ll outlive everyone I swear to God!”

Marie sighed. “The Xavier Brotherhood School for the Gifted.”

“You miss them all don’t you?”

“Yeah I do. Jubilee’s funeral last month, kinda brought it all home. Apart from Charles, we’re the only original X-Men left. Scott, ‘Ro, Gambit, Hank, Bobby, John, Angel, Kitty, Kurt, Havoc, Leech, Halo and now Jubes. Whether it was in a fight or old age, there all gone. I mean Jubes had a good long life you know, most people would be happy to live too 98, but I miss her already. I’m gonna miss our morning coffee chat, listening to her moaning about the students and cursing her back.”

“I meant to tell you Chuck called while you were in the bath last night. He wanted to know when were back. I told him our flight leaves at midday tomorrow, he said he’d have James pick us up from Westchester County.”

“Guess the holiday’s over huh?”

Logan leant forward and kissed her on the mouth letting his tongue into her mouth easily. “Still got a day and a night left.”

She pulled away and giggled, then sighed. “Oh, we missed it!”

“Missed what?”

“The sunrise, you misfit.”

“There’ll be another one tomorrow. That’s how the world works darlin’, sun comes up, we live a day and then it sets again. Then tomorrow, we do it all over again.”

“Life according to Professor Logan huh?”

“Too fucking right darlin’.”

“Of course, until we go home and back to our jobs as teachers and superheroes, parents, grandparents and great-grandparents!”

“Can’t stay on holiday forever darlin’. Now come here!” He stood up, pulled her to her feet and slung her over his shoulder. She screeched as he carried her into the bedroom and threw her on the bed, by which time she started making a different noise altogether.

END