~I'm sending in Logan too. He came back this evening and he's going to go undercover with you.~

Rogue looked up to Jean, a surprised look on her make-up accentuated face. Jean shrugged and answered the professor's mental call. Then she and Rogue got out of the Jaguar. Marie adjusted her long red dress carefully and looked to Jean. Jean smoothed her hair out and nodded at Rogue before positioning her earpiece. Marie set her earpiece tactfully, then her toothpiece at the back of her mouth as well.

"Scott, can you hear me?" Jean asked through the com link with the second group going in with them. Scott heard her from her toothpiece and answered back through his in the affirmative. "Alright, let's go see what these rich punks have up their sleeves."

Rogue smirked and turned swiftly towards the large, expensive restaurant's door. The party they were attending was for a large group of wealthy mutant haters. They were sent there to spy on the group and find out their next move. It seemed easy enough, but they all knew that it would be a challenge.

The doormen opened the door quickly as the two of them walked up gracefully, their dresses hugging their curves. Jean looked carefully around the room before starting off in the direction of a fat man talking to a large group of people at one side of the room. She weaved her way through the crowds in her black dress and heels.

Marie walked over to the bar, avoiding the large crowds. Her low-cut dress connected with her gloves at the tops of her arms and not much of her skin was exposed, but she was careful nonetheless.

She listened to the conversations around her and swiftly found a woman near her that was talking about something that could prove useful. She heard Scott announce his, Ororo's, and Remy's entrance over their com link. Marie left the group she was standing with and headed away from the bar quietly. She walked over to a man who was discussing something in depth with several others.

Rogue smiled at the man and he immediately turned his attention to her. She laughed flirtatiously and began listening intently to what he was saying. She couldn't get much out of him, but the time passed quickly and before she knew it, she heard Scott's voice in her ear again, this time telling them that Wolverine had just gotten there.

She left the rich man behind her as she weved her way through the crowds and over to Ororo, who was sitting at the bar, drinking and flirting with the bartender. Rogue ordered a drink and leaned back against the bar beside Storm.

"Anything?"

"Naht yeht. They ahre mohre closed mouthed thahn ya'd think ahround heaeh."

Rogue, the man you were speaking to earlier, he's going into a back room. Follow him. Scott's voice came over her com link.

Ahlright, Ah'm on it

Rogue pushed herself away from the counterside smoothly. She found the man in the crowd. He was moving slowly to the side of the large room, to a door at the far back. Marie winded her way across the room, her eyes following the man carefully as he walked a ways ahead of her.

---

Logan stepped into the large room and narrowed his eyes. If it hadn't been enough, he'd had to come to this place, but he'd had to wear a suit. He pulled at the collar and growled. Damn thing was too tight.

This was not what he'd wanted to do his first night back tot he mansion. He wanted to be talking to Marie. He needed to see her again. He didn't know why, and he didn't particularly care, he just did. Why did he have to go a party? To spy on some pro-mutant-experimentation group.

Jean's voice came over the com link to him. Wolverine, you should back up Rogue when she goes after the guy in the blue pin stripe suit. He's walking towards a back door right now, Rogue's following him.

I see him Cyke. I'm on 'im.

Logan began walking forward down the stairs towards the man when he saw a woman in a deep red dress. It was ankle-length and stunning on her, accentuating her curves perfectly. But that wasn't what he noticed most. He saw the streak of white surrounding her face. It had been three years, she was twenty one now, but he hadn't been expecting this. She was...

Logan! Are you going or not? Someone's gotta, we can't send one in alone, no matter how well they can take care of themselves.

I'm goin', I'm goin'!!

He quickly made his way into the crowd and followed the path that Marie's heels had just taken moments before. She was about ten feet ahead of him and he saw her glance across the room once before turning into the room at the back after the man had a few seconds earlier.

Rogue watched from her distant position as the man carefully checked around him, then entered the room. She waited a moment, then followed his steps to the door. She turned back, looking for Scott, wondering about her back up, then, not finding him, she spun around and opened the door as she entered.

The hallway that she came across next was darkly lit and long. There were doors on either side and she could see the man's retreatinf figure turning a corner at the far end. She carefully followed and rounded the same corner.

It was a dead end aside from a single black door. She walked up to it and pressed her ear against it. There were people talking behind it and Rogue continued to listen as the voices grew more quiet, as if they were retreating.

Taking it as a sign to move forward, she slowly turned the door's knob and pushed gently on the door. She moved her head to the space between the door and the frame to look around. The room was an office. There was one desk and two file cabinets opposite several chairs. At the far end of the office space was a door that was still partially opened.

She moved silently to the filing cabinet on the side wall and pulled the top drawer out. It slid with ease and she began to flip through the files it held. It was all dates and plans for the government, none of which that dealt with mutants or mutant laws. They ranged from foreign policies and conventions to the dates the congress was meeting in the next three months.

She stepped to the next cabinet after quickly looking over her shoulder to the half-opened door and made sure that the people behind it were still busy. She pulled at the next drawer, but couldn't open it. 'Bingo,' she thought, ' Ef it's lahcked, they muhst beh hahdin' sumthin'.'

She reached into her boot and pulled out a key the professor had given her to open any locked doors and such. She turned it carefully and heard it click. She paused for a moment to make sure that the men on the other side of the door hadn't heard her, then she opened the drawer.

She flipped through the first several files and smiled. 'Got ya.' Inside, there werefiles with lables including, M. weapons, M. breeding, and M. laws. Rogue picked up a few of the files, then began to carefully put them into her bag.

"What are you doing in here?" The voice crashed through Rogue's ears and she stood frozen for a moment. Then she turned smoothly around to face the owner of the voice, the man in the pin-stripe suit.

"Cain't ah girl jus' tahke some interest en whaht's goin' ohn aroun' her now?"

The man smirked at her calmness. "You, are not supposed to be in here. And these are not yours." He pointed to the files she had stowed away. "Now, are you going to tell me what you are doing here, or do I get to figure it out myself?"

Rogue only smiled up at him and leaned back casually against the cabinet behind her. "Whay don' ya try an' guess sugah?"

"Alright miss. I believe I know you from somewhere. Would I be correct in assuming that you are a certain young mutant who is on the X-men team. The one and only Rogue. That would be you, if I'm not mistaken?"

"Oh, you ahre good. It's ah pleasure to meht you sir. Ah'm sorry Ah cain't be stayin' ta tahlk to ya mohre, buht Ah gotta be goin' nahw. Ya know the drill, Ah'll be leavin' now." She stood and turned towards the door, but was stopped by a hand on her arm holding her back.

The man in the pin stripe suit walked smoothly over to her and looked her in the eye. "I'm terribly sorry Miss Rogue, but I cannot allow you to leave. You see, you are holding some very important information right there and I cannot allow you to get away with any of it. So, I suggest that you hand it over to my man there, or I will be forced to take action against you."

"Oh really, ya think ya kin hurt me now then? Ya know whaht ahll Ah kin do, so, you either got somethin' up yor sleeve or ya got a death wish sugah, which is it?"

He waved his hand behind him and signaled to someone. A man came forward holding a syringe in one hand. The man came to stand beside the leader and looked to him for his timing.

"Now, Rogue, would you like to find out what is in this little syringe, or would you like to give me those files?"

"Either way, ya're gonna stick theht damn needle in meh, so what's thah point heah?"

"Ahh, very good Rogue. You have us all figured out. Well then, I guess we can go ahead. I would say it's nothing personal, but you know it is, with your mutation and such. So, you will forgive me if I do not apologize for my actions, for I do not see them as needing any apologies."

Rogue smirked and tried to free herself from the man's grasp, but he was stronger than anyone she'd fought with her new mutation before. She was unable to get free.

"You see, not only do we make these wonderful shots you are about to get a taste of, but we also do work and testing on mutants much like yourself. This man holding you arm right now, we brainwashed quite easily actually. Then we changed his mutation and look here we are now."

Marie squirmed as the man with the needle stepped closer. She cried out in her mind to Jean and Charles, not knowing if they'd heard. Then she screamed as he began to put the sringe into her arm and the liquid went into her system.

Suddenly there was a loud crashing and the door to the large office was flat on the floor in front of a very angry Wolverine. Rogue watched carefully as the pin stripe man motioned the mutant to attack Logan. He quickly went over to him and they began fighting. Without the mutant holding her, she was able to stand up and escape the other man's grip easily.

She realized, as she punched the man, that her strength was gone. She had her training at least, so she wasn't completely helpless. Using strategy to overpower her opponent, she was soon face to face with the pin stripe man, just to the side of Logan beating up the other mutant.

"You do not have your powers Rogue, whatever shall you do?"

"Beaeht the damn crahp outta ya es what Ah'm gonna do."

The man laughed, but was quickly tackled by Marie. She punched him hard in the mouth and he hit the floor. Logan had to tear her off of him to get her to leave. No one messed with her, her mutation, or nothin' else.

Rogue checked her bag and found the files still tucked away in it. Logan had to help her to the jet because it was difficult for her to walk now with the after effects of the liquid the man had injected her with.

When they reached the jet, Jean quickly got her medical gear together and began tests on Rogue. Ororo got the files from her and looked through them for a moment before putting them in a drawer in the wall of the plane.

"How much was in the syringe?' Jean asked somewhat frantically.

"Ah...Ah...Ah don't know, looked lahke it was about half full. Whaht is it Jean, how'd theaeh stop mah powers?" Jean looked up to her panicked eyes and sighed.

"I don't know, are you still feeling weak?"

"Naht as much now. It's lahke it's goin' away, does it look lahke thet ta you?"

"Thankfully, yes, it does. Apparently the strength of the liquid was not what it could've been. It's only lasting a short while. Your powers should be returning soon." Jean stood up and sighed. "For now that's all I can do. When we get back to the mansion, I'm going to want to see you in the med lab to run some more tests to find out what that is, but for now, this is it. Just try to calm down, it's over now, your powers'll be back in a very short while."

Rogue nodded and felt at her arm where the sringe had broken her skin. She looked up at Logan as he laid his hand on her still covered arm. She half smiled at his familiar and very missed features.

"Wehll, Ah guess this es hello, huh?"

"I guess. How're ya holdin' up Marie?"

She smiled softly at the name. "Ah been bettah, obviously. Ah'm glad yor bahck though. Ah missed ya."

Logan pulled back a little, then wrapped an arm around her. "I missed you too kid."

When the jet landed at the mansion, Rogue was fast asleep. Jean smiled at the woman she thought of as her own sister. She seemed truly at peace in that man's arms. What surprised her however was how soft Logan's features seemed at that moment.

He picked up Marie and carried her to her room by way of Ororo's instructions. He laid her down gently and covered her in her blankets. By then her powers had returned, all of them, including her poisonous touch, so he was careful, but still caring.

He stood and watched her for a long while. He was content to just stand there and watch the now woman sleep. She was beautiful and wonderful. The woman he'd thought about while he was gone.

He leaned against the door frame and closed his eyes, just listening to her even breathing. He didn't know how long he'd just stood there, but he knew it had been quite a while. He walked to his own room, all set up for him, in quiet thinking. He laid on his own bed thinking for a long time before sleep overtook him. And then, he didn't dream of men leaning over him in white coats, he dreamt of the woman from the party in the red dress and with the white streaks that framed her face.

---

The next morning, Rogue woke up to find herself in her red party dress, tucked into her own bed back at the mansion. She sat up and looked around her for a moment. Then the night's events came back to her and she fell back to her bad. She cringed at how the memory of the sringe felt, but then she smiled lightly.

Logan had come back. He was back. He had held her to him last night in the jet. He'd missed her. She smiled and sat up again. Well, there was hope at least, for a friendship if nothing else.

She showered quickly, remembering that she had to get down to breakfast and then to the mad lab. She came out and trew on a pair of dark blue jeans and a maroon shirt with her black gloves. As she finished putting on her short heeled boots, her door opened and revealed Logan walking in.

Rogue looked up at him and smiled. She stood up beside him. The scent of Logan filled her room and she loved it.

"Hey Logahn."

"Hey Marie. you feelin' better this mornin'?" He sat down on her bed and looked up at her standing form.

"Yeah, yeah, Ah ahm," Rogue watched Logan's eyes and found him staring into her own intensely. It felt warming, but difficult. He was watching her as if he was just noticing her in a way.

She quickly turned towards the door. "Ah should get down to tha med lahb now. Ahre yah wantin' ta come or no?" She opened her door and leaned against the frame as Logan stood up again.

"You go ahead, I'm gonna go see Chuck. I'll catch up with ya later kid." Logan strode out of her room and down the hallway, leaving Rogue to watch before turning towards the elevator that led to the lower level.

She stepped out of the levator and into the long silver hallway. It seemed a little less cold than usual to her, but then things were always out of it when she thought about Logan. And now he was there and everything was completely different it seemed to her.

She entered the lab and looked around for Jean. She was sitting at her computer that hooked up with her other lab equipment. Her glasses were sat down on the desk beside her and she was staring intently at the screen before her.

"Jean? Ahre ya alrahght?" Jean looked up at her friend and smiled. Rogue walked up and sat on the edge of Jean's desk. "What is it Jean? Ah kin tahke it, em Ah gonna mahke it doc?"

Jean laughed, then answered the woman's question honestly. "Yes Rogue, you will make it. It's just an interesting thing that has happened you know." Rogue lifted an eyebrow in an expression close to 'yeah right, like what?' "Just hear me out Rogue. It really is remarkable what the scientists were able to do. It was a great task to be able to create such an advanced formula. They must've spent a very long time on it. Well, to be simple and frank with you Rogue, as I know you wish I would get to the point here," Jean smiled up at Rogue as she arranged a set of vials into place and read a few results on a chart to herself before speaking again. "Rogue, I have analyzed this formula to death here, and I have found out how it works. I have also been able to configure it to supress only one mutant power rather than all of any mutant's powers. It is possible to stop a certain power of a mutant with the formula I have now changed. I can pinpoint the cell's with the genetic code with the certain mutation and adjust the compounds in the formula to only attack those certain cells." Jean turned from her work and handed Rogue an electronic clipboard.

Rogue stared at the information on the board that confirmed what Jean was saying. She knew what her friend meant even though she wasn't saying it directly. She looked up at Jean, her eyes wide with wonder as they had never been since her encounter with Magneto on the Statue of Liberty. "Will it work with all mutations Jean? Even very powerful ones?"

Jean smiled widely and nodded without a single word. "How long does it last?" Rogue asked the question with great excitement. "I can create a formula to last up to a full day, but you cannot use it any more than every other day if you have the formula for a full day. That is the only drawback. I have already configured a sringe of the formula to your original mutation. It can be injected at any time, then you have a full day."

Jean looked to Rogue with a question in her countenance and in her eyes. Marie closed her eyes, then opened them and glanced around the room for a moment before turning back to the doctor. "Now Jean, Please. Now is the right time, I know it."

Jean smiled and walked out of her office and into the main lab room. Rogue followed her and had to stop herself from flying in after Jean in her own excitement. Everything was going to change once the sringe entered her poisonous skin. A day was enough for her. A day, every other day, she would be able to wear whatever she wanted, she'd be able to walk around freely, withour regard to whom she accidently bumped into, a day free of wearing gloves, a day just being Marie, Marie and Rogue without the defenses up.

Jean pulled on latex gloves and waved Rogue to the med lab table at the center of the bright room. Marie lifted herself up easily with her ability to fly, and sat on the edge of the table. Jean walked closer to her and pulled off one of Rogue's upper-arm-length gloves so she could reach her arm to insert the sringe.

Rogue closed her eyes as her skin was punctured by the needle and the liquid went into her body, not out of pain, but out of disbelief and a happiness that she couldn't quite grasp.

Jean covered the tiny puncture and pulled her own gloves off of her hands. Then she turned back to Rogue.

Marie lifted herself off of the table and stood in front of Jean for a moment. Then Jean took her bare hand in her own and gripped it firmly. Rogue jerked back at her friend's contact at first, but then realized that nothing was happening. Then Jean stepped a bit closer and hugged her friend. She kissed her forehead and then stood back.

"Go and find him now Rogue. You need him and he needs you more than you know." Rogue knew who she meant and understood the woman's words completely. So she smiled and hurriedly ran out of the lab.

She took the elevator up into the mansion and searched for the returnee she needed to see. She came across several of her friends who just stared at her bare hands and stood back slightly. Rogue knew she should explain, but she couldn't take the time right then. She had twenty four hours ahead of ehr of no worrying about anything and she was going to spend them free with Logan.

The front door was still open and she stepped out onto the porch. There were several students sitting around watching while others played games inthe fields before them. Rogue looked around for a moment until she spotted her target standing off to the side, smoking and talking with Xavier.

She walked up to the two of them with a confidence that surprised even ehrself. As she got closer she could tell that the professor knew that she was coming and what she ahd to say, but that he was not disclosing any information to the man beside him.

Rogue stepped up to both of them and smiled. Logan looked over and she watched his brow wrinkle in confusion at the sight of her bare hands. Xavier wheeled himself up closer to Rogue and smiled softly up at ehr. He then took her bare hands in his own and pressed his lips to them gently. She grinned as he spoke to her out loud.

"I am very proud of you Rogue. You deserve this. I am sorry it has taken us so long, but I am glad that Jean was able to help you with this. You are a great person to have held faith in us this long."

Rogue nodded and stated, "You always did say that great minds could make great achievements if only they tried Charles. Thank you. You have all been wonderful to me. I will always stay with you here. This is home and this only solidifies that for me. Thank you for always making me welcome here and helping me Charles. Eric is missing out terribly."

Xavier smiled softly, then turned around and wheeled away, leaving Rogue to watch, and then turn back to the man beside her.

Logan watched the whole scene with a feeling of disbelief, but an uncertain joy underneath it all. Then the woman he'd dreamt of turned her glowing face to him and her bright eyes met his.

Logan stepped a bit closer, then stopped, unsure of himself. He could touch her...he could...he could hold her and kiss her now. It was now physically possible, but he was scared, a thing he had only ever been while asleep and caught in another nightmare of his past in the labs.

Rogue's smile faltered as he hesitated. Did he not want to touch her? Her eyes left his face and searched the ground before her. Then Logan felt the uncertain waves of fear roll off of ehr and stepped closer, determined. He reached out to her and held her close in his arms.

Marie melted into his arms and held him around his waist. He pressed his face against her hair and gently lay his lips on it's soft warmth. Rogue lifted her head to look up at him and saw every answer she'd ever wanted there.

Logan couldn't believe the love he saw and felt and smelled from her. She was telling him the truth in every look and every movement. She was his and she wanted him to be hers.

Logan spoke to her softly. "Marie...you can touch...I can touch you...Can I touch you?" He lifted a hand to her face, leaving it hovering inches from her face.

Rogue gently took his hand in her own bare one and felt the tremble that ran through her body at the same moment it ran through Logans. She then moved his hand in hers to her cheek and held it there softly. She looked down, amazed, at her hand covering Logans as it lay on her cheek.

Marie looked back up at Logan and a light smile appeared on her face. She leaned in towards him and lifted her other hand to his cheek and pressed it against his skin, her eyes following her hand's movement. Then her eyes went back to Logan's eyes and her own danced with same light that his did.

"Yeah, yeah, Logan yah cahn, hold meh Logahn, jus' hold meh nahw..." Logan pulled her closer to him and leaned his face down to hers. She traced his lips with her fingers ever so lightly, then spoke again after Logan had started to do the same to her own lips. "Lohgahn...Ah need yah with meh...Ah...Ah love yah Lohgahn..."

Logan took both her hands in his own and gently kissed her finger tips, all the while keeping eye contact with her. He ran his hands lightly through her hair and smiled slightly. "Shhh...shhh Marie...I...I love you too baby. Marie, my Marie..."

Marie stepped even closer to him and he wrapped his arms around her waist tightly and lifted her chin up to him. He leaned down to her slowly. In another moment his lips were upon hers and her mouth was responding to his. She kissed him deeply and they both knew at that moment that this was right. That this was where they were supposed to be, this was home, together...and they knew it would be forever.