He stands before me.

The Beast. The Man...The Wolverine.

He is about to leave, but I know he will be back. We are two of a kind, he and I. Kindred spirits. And it scares him. He is not used to care about anyone, let alone love them. But it is happening and it frightens him.

Not that he would ever admit it.

I want him to stay, I want to be with him, but a small part of my mind knows that despite the memories in my mind, I am still too young. Still I can't help but wonder if there is anything I can say - or do - to make him stay. Anything. Anything at all.

I don't want you to leave.

I know my voice betray my need. I need him. To feel him, to smell him, to know he is near. I have his memories, his nightmares, his deepest desires - and those desires are not about Jean. Oh, he is in lust with her. But not love. And I know that part of that lust has sprung from the fact that Jean is Scott's. Logan wants Jean - not out of love, but out of lust and spite.

So unlike the feelings I know he has for me.

I saw the scene on Lady Liberty through his eyes. And I know that he almost cried when I didn't respond to his healing touch. I know that had I not awaken, tears would have touched his face for the first time in at least fifteen years.

Wolverine crying. Now there's something new.

The point is, I love him and I need him.

His eyes tell me he feels the same way about me.

He takes of his dogtags and put them in my hands. They are his only reminder, his only link, to the past he's forgotten.

And now he gives them to me.

I'll be back for this, he says.

Back for what?

His voice says the dogtags.

His eyes say me.

Somehow I know that Jean is listening. Maybe she's curious. Maybe she just wants to make sure I'm not getting my heart broken.

I know she will hear the words and believe he means the dogtags. She will believe he sees me as a little sister, something to be protected. A kid. Oh, how wrong you are, doctor. My mind is no longer that of a child.

Maybe she thinks he is leaving because he cannot have her. Wrong again, Dr. Grey.

He will leave...

And he will be back in a few years, when I've grown up.

Meanwhile, they will look - the students, the X-Men, everyone - and they will believe that I am a kid with a crush on the man that saved me. After a while, they will believe I am over him. They will see Rogue, happy and smiling, bravely overcoming her deadly mutation. They will live happily in their world of make-believe, seeing only what they want to see.

I'm afraid that when Logan comes back to claim what is rightfully his, they are in for quite a surprise.

We share a look, both understanding each other perfectly.

Then he turns and walks out the door.

I smile knowingly and close my hand around the tags.

Let them pity me. Let them whisper behind my back. Let them fear me.

I don't care.

He will come back.

And when he does...nothing will keep us apart.