It was a year and a half after the nightmare at Alaklia Lake that Jean returned to us in what Charles called a miracle and I was inclined to agree as everyone expressed their joy and she and Scott immediately reconnected and quickly discovered that their love was stronger than ever. I was delighted for them, I had seen first hand how Scott had grieved for her, how he had struggled but never really managed to rebuild his entire life without Jean in it, so it came as no surprise when they announced that they were getting married less than two months after she came back to us with powers that had become almost magical during her time away.

She tried to explain it to me, not long after her return, but I didn’t really understand it, and all that mattered to me was how happy she and Scott seemed as they prepared to build their new life together. Jean even asked me to be in the wedding, as a brides maid and I was happy to do so and she was thrilled when I explained to her how I had learned to control my powers during her time away…I even shared with her what had happened with Carol, and how six months after that incident, I was left with no real choice but to drain Sabertooth completely when he attacked me and Jubes and Kitty while we were at the mall.

Lucky for me, Sabs wasn’t as difficult to accumulate as I had thought he would be, in fact Carol had proven more of a challenge, but by the time Jean returned I was firmly in control of all the voices in my head, I had mastered my new powers, and Jean said she was proud of me.

She also told me she was so very sorry.

Scott had told her about Logan.

Even after a year I felt my chest tighten in pain and Jean sensed it, I think, as she reached across the table to touch my hand and I knew she was telling me it was okay to cry and to talk if I needed to.

But I couldn’t.

I couldn’t bring myself to even say the words.

Logan was dead.

The Logan in my head always screamed that was not possible, but logically, I knew it was not only possible, it was reality…Hank had confirmed it…when the skeleton lined with metal was delivered to the mansion accompanied by a note that said Weapon X was no more, I loudly and somewhat hysterically declared it was a lie.

A hoax.

But Hank found enough DNA to run a test.

He broke the news to me himself and he held me when I sobbed…he told me he was sorry for my loss, he had never known Logan, but he knew how much he had meant to me and he hated to see me in pain.

Hank was wonderful to me, in the days that followed, he stood at my side when he laid Logan to rest and he set with me when Charles explained that he had learned from various sources that men Styker had once worked with had learned about his demise.

They had blamed Logan.

They had tracked him down and killed him, as vengeances for Stryker…they had felt it was their mission to put an end to the project they had began; they had destroyed the supposedly indestructible Weapon X.

It took me months to accept the truth, months before I would go outside my room, Charles was wonderful with me, he allowed me to cry as freely as Hank did and Jean did the same once she returned and she gently explained to me how Logan had kissed her in the woods.

She said the kiss had revealed something interesting to her.

During the kiss, Logan had been thinking about me…his guards had lowered, he had projected loudly as Logan often tended to do, and Jean said that for Logan she had never been the one.

Never.

It had always been me.

The Logan in my head said Jeannie was right.

I cried on her shoulder and she told me it was okay…she told me she knew how it felt and if she could do anything she would, but we both knew that she could never give me what I wanted and that was Logan back in my life.

I wanted Logan to come back to me the way Jean came back to Scott.

The way John had recently come back from Mag’s to declare his love for Bobby and have Bobby declare his love in return.

Scott and Bobby got miracles with the ones they love.

Something told me I was fresh out of miracles in my life.

After all, I had already had my fair share.

There was meeting Logan…discovering in Logan someone strong and brave and wonderful…someone willing to touch me and fight for me…someone that made me feel as if I were more than a freak among freaks.

Logan touched me in more ways than one.

He touched my skin.

He touched my heart.

He touched my soul.

Like I said, I have had my fair share of miracles.

Odds are, I am not likely to have another one.

Unlike Scott and Bobby, my love won’t be coming back from the dead.

I can only thank God I still have him in my heart and in my head.

---

Scott and Jean were married on a cool day in October and it was beyond beautiful and no one had dry eyes as Charles served as her escort and Kurt conducted the service as the happy couple started at one another with eyes filled with devotion. It was such a remarkable thing to see, I was thrilled for them, but at the same time, my thoughts kept drifting to Logan…to Logan and the wedding and the life together they we would never share.

More than once I wondered if I would make it through the day.

Of course, my friends were there to see me through it, John and Bobby kept me on the dance floor so much I was sure my feet would fall off and Remy flirted and made his usually outrageous comments, though everyone knew Jubes had him wrapped very tightly around her little finger.

They had been together for over a year and everyone had a bet on who would be the next to get married, Jubes and Remy, Kurt and Ro, or Kitty and Peter.

Everyone had someone but me.

And the only one I wanted was gone forever.

When the guest finally began to leave, after Scott and Jean went to the airport to be on time for their midnight flight to France, I wondered away from everyone to the little place where he had laid Logan to rest.

Everyone knew I went there often, I liked to talk to him there, and I knelt beside his grave in the cool night air and I told him all about how beautiful the wedding had been and how he would have enjoyed seeing Scott so nervous when it came time for him to repeat his vowels, but mainly I just told him how much I missed him and how I was sorry I never told him I loved him. I never said the words, and even thought Jean says he knew, on some level, it was still a regret that I lived with…I cried about it as I set there, describing for him how I imagined our wedding would have been…I told him I would have loved to have had kids with him, to have built a live…I poured my heart out, as I always did and finally, I returned to the mansion to find Ro waiting for me, looking very serious.

“What’s wrong?” I had dried my tears as best I could, but I know it was obvious that I had been crying.

“We have a…guest.” She frowned when she said the word guest and I smiled.

“I take it this guest is not someone you are fond of, Ro.”

“It’s…well, Magneto is here.”

“What? Are we under attack? Is he after Charles…”

But Ro held up a hand and shook her head. “No. Nothing like that. He is here because he says that he has information we might be interested in knowing and Charles asked me to locate you.”

“Why?” He had to know Mags was not a friend of mine. Man tried to kill me.

“I am not sure, but he seems to want us both there.”

Nodding, putting Logan from my mind as best as I ever could, I followed Ro into the professors office and sure enough, there set Mags with Mystique at his side, but I did not say a word to them as Ro and I went to stand near Charles’s desk.

I did not like this one bit.

And everyone in the room knew it.

But no one chose to comment on my obvious displeasure as Charles began to speak, explaining that Mags and his Blue Buddy had come to him with some information regarding a lab conducting experiments on mutants.

That always got my blood a boiling.

Also managed to get the Logan in my head pretty worked up.

Anyways, this lab was doing something a little different than anything we had ever encountered before.

They were cloning mutants.

Mutants that had particularly potent powers.

Mystique had infiltrated the lab, to gather information, she had actually come back with a lot and Eric had decided to share it with Charles for several reasons…he knew he did not have the power to take the lab out on his own, the X-Men were far more equipped for that.

But he had the information.

He knew the government was funding the labs.

He knew they had not had much success with their cloning program.

Most of their clones didn’t live for more than a few days, a week tops, a rare few had survived long enough to complete small missions, but beyond that, they were hitting never ending roadblocks.

But they were not about to give up soon.

“There is one more fact you might want to know.”

Eric made the comment, but I looked to the professor, I had made up my mind to believe only what he would confirm.

“And that is?”

“Your dear Wolverine is one of the mutants the government seems so determined to duplicate.”

---

“Your dear Wolverine is one of the mutants the government seems so determined to duplicate.”

The words that Eric spoke echoed in my mind again and again…I wanted to believe it, to believe Logan was alive, but I…how could I open myself up to hope when the hope was being offered to me by the very man that had nearly killed me.

For a long moment, after he had his announcement, I could only stare at him, as Ro placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and I could hear the professors voice in my mind, telling me to calm down and listen.

Eric was telling the truth.

Mystique had brought back video evidence…and no, Charles interjected before I could ask, he would not allow me to see it, as he had already and he deemed to upsetting and something I should be spared.

All I needed to know was Logan was alive.

Alive.

The body we had buried had been that of one of the failed clones that had died very shortly after the doctors grafted metal to his bones…the body had been sent to us to convinces us that Logan was dead.

The fact that it was a clone explained the DNA match.

Logan was alive.

“What do we do now?” Ro asked the question I was thinking, but was too shocked to try and voice.

“We go after Logan.”

I nearly went weak with relief when Charles said what I wanted to hear.

He had already called Scott and Jean, they were on their way back home from the airport, more than willing to postpone their trip in favor of saving Logan…Jubes was briefing the rest of the X-Men, explaining that once again we would be working with Eric and Mystique.

I didn’t care.

If I had to work with Satan himself, I would, if it meant getting Logan back alive and safe in my arms.

But first, Charles suggested that I take a moment to calm down…he could see I was on an emotional edge, and with good reason, but I decided to take his advice, quietly leaving the room to find Jean and Scott coming in the front door.

Jean came to me, hugged me, and assured me it would all work out.

It looked like I might be getting one more miracle.

---

Nothing in life is simple.

Ever.

I have been on a lot of missions since I joined the team, but invading the lab to get to Logan and the other mutants the government was holding proved to be one hell of a blood bath.

In all, we killed seventeen doctors and at least ten guards.

As Jean told us later, we didn’t have a choice and the loss was not on sided by any means.

Eric died.

Oddly enough, he took a bullet meant for Scott.

I was at his side when he took his last breath, and to my surprise, he said he was sorry…he didn’t have the strength to say what he was sorry for, but I knew and I told him it was okay.

I forgave the man that once tried to kill me.

Can you believe that?

Mystique was injured as well, she lost one arm and will likely spend a month or more in our med lab recovering for three gunshot wounds.

Jubes suffered a broken ankle, but Remy seems content to ‘play doctor’, both John and Bobby ended up with some cuts and bruises and Ro received a nasty bump on her head that troubled Kurt more than it did her.

He was so frantic, on the trip back to the mansion, he asked to marry him.

Guess that settles the bet on whose gonna get hitched next.

It was quite a scene, but I had my attention focused on one thing and one thing only.

Logan.

Scott and I found the cell where they had been holding him, the entire compounded had been protected by a strong physic shield, which explained why he had never been able to get a message out to the professor.

But when he found him, he was alive…I cried out his name the moment I saw him and he looked at me with eyes that were hesitant to believe I was real, until Scott found a way to lower the force field and I ran right into his arms.

I can’t begin to describe what it felt like, to feel his arms around me, real and warm and strong…I cried against his shoulder and he buried his face in my hair as I told him I loved him and he said the words back to me again and again.

Scott almost had to pull us apart, to get us out of the building before it fell down all around us and once we were on the jet, we set down in the back, with me on Logan’s lap and we held on to one another was if we never would get go again.

And I knew we wouldn’t.

Ever.

I touched his face, brushed my fingers through his hair…I told him again and again how much I loved him and how I had nearly died myself when I thought he was dead; I told him all I had ever wanted in life was to be with him and he told me that it was the thought of me that kept him alive all the time he was in the lab.

All in all, he was in good health, the doctors had wanted him that way, to make their cloning process more successful.

That sick little project was over.

Thank God.

I told Logan what had happened, why we had all thought he was dead and for a brief second, I thought his eyes would pop from his head, when he finally realized that Jean was there and she explained for me how she had come back.

I knew it was a lot for him to wrap his mind around, I knew he would need time to try and understand it all, but I knew we had all the time in the world as he finally kissed me and I melted into him.

I told him that night that he was once again a miracle in my life.

He had come back to me, just like Jean had come back to Scott and John had come back to Bobby.

My dream had come true.

For a week, Logan and I rarely left my room, we didn’t want to be out of the others sight…we held to one another and made love again and again as the horror of the last year and a half faded.

And we realized that despite all the suffering and pain, we were still Logan and Marie.

We were still in love.

That was all that mattered.

All that would ever matter.

I said those words to Logan six months later, on our wedding day.

I told him again that he was my miracle.

But we got another miracle a year later.

A little boy we named Charles Henry.

Guess Logan and I are living proof that there is no set number on the miracles you get in this life.

You just take them as they come.

And thank God for them.

The End