Rogue. Her name was Rogue. That was enough of a warning sign
for him right there that the girl was not someone he wanted to be buddy-
buddy with. As far as Wolverine was concerned she already had all the
damn strikes against her. One, she came to join the X-Men after
practically being raised by the Brotherhood. Two, she had killed a
good friend of his, Carol. Three, she was so damn annoying. He wasn't
which of the three got him the angriest. And that damned mutation of
hers. She was the personification of a Venus fly trap. Beautiful and
alluring and once she had you reeled in- ZAP! - You were dead. He knew
how her attack felt firsthand. Twice she had done it to him while she
was still with the Brotherhood. And it hardly felt good to have your
life ripped out through your skin.
Now he was expected to trust her to have his back on missions?
Sure, she'd been with them a year now, countless missions, and she
helped the team. But he figured she was just bidding her time.
Waiting until the opportune moment to suck everyone of the X-Men dry,
just like she did Carol. Hell, she was probably still working for the
brotherhood.
*******************
"Rogue, chica, you are burning me up," Jubilee whined. They
were all outside. Scott, Bobby, Remy, and Wolverine were playing
basketball, rather roughly Jubilee had noted. Jean and Ororo were
lying out in the sun. Kitty was reading a book off to the side were it
was a little bit quieter. And Jubilee sat in the shade with Rogue.
"I'm not even near you," Rogue pointed out.
"I mean all those clothes you are wearing, girl. Its a hundred
degrees out here and you have on jeans, a long shelve t-shirt, gloves,
and a scarf. You're making me sweat by just looking at you," Jubilee
explained.
"Well excuse me for having lethal skin," She tried to say as
playfully as she could.
"Chica, nobody is going to touch you. We all know it's a no-
no."
Rogue turned away from her friend. Her friend. That still
amazing her how they had welcomed her into their lives. She felt like
she was so close to normal. And all it took was friends.
"I'd rather sweat my buns off then have everybody avoid me like
the plague and make sure they were at least six feet away from me at
all times," she admitted.
Jubilee only nodded, deciding it was better to just let the
conversation drop. Rogue didn't like to talk about it and there was no
way of convincing the stubborn southern of doing anything she had
already decided she didn't want to do.
***************
Later that night Rogue stood for what seemed forever in front
of the refrigerator, starring at the continents inside. Her body had
screamed she was hungry. But nothing inside felt like food. Just,
objects in her way of retrieving food. She was only wearing her
pajamas. Baggy stripped pants and a white tank top. No gloves. No
scarves. That's why she loved night. When she could walk around
freely.
She kept starring. Pickles? No. Apples? No. Tuna? Hell
no. Who stocked this damn thing? A why didn't they put real 2 am food
in it.
"Move."
She heard the harsh command behind her and she jerked
around, "Excuse me?!"
"I said move," Logan repeated again.
She glared at him and put her hands on her hips, "Ain't there
something you'd like throw at the end of that, sugah?"
"Yeah, Move now."
She held her ground, "Not quite what I was thinking."
"Move damnit," he offered her another variation.
"You have the manners of a bulldog."
He was tired of this crap. He didn't want to argue with the
brat. He wanted a beer. He noticed that her shoulder only came up to
his mid-chest and decided to go around her.
Logan went to reach over her to the beer sitting on the top
shelf of the frig when she screamed and ducked into a crouch on the
floor. He cocked his eyebrow, starring down at her. Did she think he
was gonna kill her? He. Just . Wanted. Fucking. Beer.
"What the hell are you doing, kid?"
She didn't make a move. She just continued to sit there,
shaking slightly. Logan rolled his eyes. He didn't need this shit at
2 am.
"Get up." He didn't know why he was bothering with another
command. All she did was give him shit with the first one. But she
surprised him when she slowly rose to her feet, moving as close to the
frig as possible, away from him. She was practically sitting on the
condiments shelf.
"You got too close to me." She squeaked out in a totally un-
Rogue voice.
"I just wanted a beer, kid. I wasn't trying to grope you."
"You can't touch my skin," she said a little more defiant this
time. She was annoyed that the moron wasn't being more careful.
"What's wrong, don't want to get in trouble? `Fraid Chuck will
throw you out if he finds out you drained someone?" he was trying to
bait her. The small-shaking girl in front of him was a side of Rogue
he didn't want to see. He'd rather deal with fuming, hostile Rogue.
But to his surprise for the second time that night she didn't
puff up and start yelling at him as per usual. She kept starring at
the floor in front of her instead like it was the first time she'd ever
seen one.
"No. I…I don't want anymore nightmares." The voice had been
so small and muted he was surprised he heard it, let alone this usual
loud mouth girl could make it.
"You got my nightmares?" he asked with more concern in his
voices then he wanted.
Rogue rubbed her hand over her face and forehead. "Yeah."
"Not nice are they?" he regained the indifference he was
striving for.
"No."
*****************
Not sleeping in days had finally caught up with her. She was
so tired. She didn't know what was triggering it, but all the personas
in her head where flooding her at once with memories, feelings, dreams
and nightmares every damn time she tried to get some sleep. She
wondered if she even had room for any of her own.
The exhaustion was punishing her hard. Bobby had actually
taken her down in combat training today. Bobby. The Iceman. Defeated
the Invincible Rogue. Everyone was riding her the whole day. She
couldn't even fly straight anymore. All she wanted to do was sleep.
But they wouldn't let her. They would not SHUTUP. It was like have
all your younger siblings trying to talk to you at once and wanting
your attention.
‘Say goodbye girl.’
What?!
‘Now that your mind is weak you won't be able to stop me.’
Shut it, Magneto. I'm not doing anything you tell me and you
know it.
‘You don't have a choice; soon I'll have control of this.
pathetic excuse of a mind, now that Carol is gone.’
No. It's my mind.
‘With your powers I'll be the most powerful mutant ever.’
No! Shut up. Just shut the hell up.
‘You'll absorb the X-Men, then any other mutant that dare stop
me from taking over the world.’
"No!!" she fell to the floor of the library, clenching her head
tightly between her hands. She felt so weak, like she was fading. Am
I letting him win?! No! I can fight him! I can! She tried to
concentration hard on pushing him back. Back into the recesses were
him belonged. But she was already so exhausted. And he kept flooding
her with images. His memories. The Concentration camps. Body after
body after body.....
"NO!!!STOP!!"


Logan made his way back to his room. He wanted a shower bad.
He had been covered in grease and sweat for over an hour working on his
bike. He almost reached the stairs when he heard a blood curdling
scream, "NO!!STOP!!"
He claws instinctively came out and he broke out into a run in
the direction he heard it. Seconds later he could smell her. Rogue.
Scared as hell.
Once he reached it he busted open the library door. But nobody
was attacking the girl like he had originally thought. At least nobody
he could see. She was on the floor bent over in a tight ball on her
knees, bawling and screaming like there was no tomorrow.
Logan retracted the claws and knelt beside her.
"Kid, what the hell is wrong?" he practically had to yell it to
make sure she could hear him over her own screams.
"He won't stop! He won't stop!"
He looked around again and just to doubled check that there
wasn't someone else in the room.
"Who won't stop, Rogue? There's no one here." He pointed out
when he was sure. If someone else was in the room he would have
smelled him.
"Magneto!" she yelled into the carpet.
Logan was lost as to what the hell he was supposed to do. He
put a hand on her backing, hoping to get her attention, "You're going
to have to stop all this damn screaming, kid. Magneto ain't here. He
ain't hurting you," he tried to explain.
"My head! He's trying to take over!" she screamed even louder,
as if the increased volume would help him grasp the situation sooner.
But he was still lost as hell.
"Damnit, Rogue. Magneto is in jail!" But once he'd said it he
felt like a complete asshole. He remembers she had his nightmares.
She had some of him stored up in that mind of hers. She must have some
Magneto then, too. Holy shit, he said to himself, she fighting for
control of her own damn mind. And I'm yelling at her like she's a
damned lunatic. He pulled her up from her bent position and into his
lap, holding her shaking frame tightly in his arms.
"You gotta fight him, darlin'. You can't let that son of a
bitch win," he tried to motivate her. Her face was all contorted and he
couldn't tell if it was from pain or from concentration. All he knew
is he couldn't do crap about it either way.
"I can't. I can't," she cried, tears beginning to roll down
her cheeks, "I'm not strong enough."
Any other man might have wiped the still pouring tears off her
face but all he could think to do is shake her hard once, "Yes you are,
damnit, stop being a coward. It's your god damn mind, Rogue! You
can't just fucking let him take it!"
In the moment he had not paid much attention to her skin. His
hand gripped the one part of her upper hand not covered by either her
sleeves or long gloves. Instantaneously he felt the pull. He felt her
skin attacking him and he threw her out of his arms, his reflects
telling him to get the pain away from him. He felt weak and looked
down at his hand. Breathing slowly, he felt his head righted itself.
Then he noticed it was quiet.
He looked at the girl. She was lying completely limp on the
floor, unconscious. Two words slammed into his head as utter dismay
filled him. Oh shit....
*****************
Two days. Two whole goddamn days she just laid there in the
med lab. Jean didn't do crap. Hank didn't do crap. Chuck didn't do
crap. And these people called themselves doctors? All they did was
remind him that there was nothing physically wrong with her. And Chuck
said he couldn't get into her head. Wasn't he supposed to be the most
powerful telepathy in the world? As far as Logan was concerned he was
just as fucking useless as the rest of them.
He starred down at her oh-so-innocent face. It seemed
ridiculous to him. A former terrorist with superhuman strength and
near invulnerability shouldn't have a face like that. Even if she was
only twenty-three. And then her face didn't seem as ludicrous as the
term invulnerable. Hell, a figment of her imagination has rendered her
unconscious for the past two days. He wanted to laugh. The girl was
a walking dichotomy. Had a body that would make every man want to
touch her, but she's untouchable. She was practically a child, who
still wore her heart on her sleeve, but had over a hundred years of
memorizes in her head. She was supposed to be a rogue, but all she
wanted was to find a home. And for somebody who was suppose to be so
strong; he'd never seen anything that looked as fragile as her lying
there.
He turned to leave to get another beer.
"Logan," that faint noise stopped him as if it was a 6 ton
boulder. He bounded over to her bed.
Rogue's eyes were opened, slightly glazed over.
"Yeah, kid. It's me." he eyed her face as she licked her lips
and slowly moved her head to the side, "Is it you?" He asked, the only
reply was a nod. He moved over to the table to grab some latex gloves
and quickly put them on. He laid his hand over hers. Her fingers
twitched slightly, but she made no move to return the gesture.
"You alright?" he asked. Another nod.
"I'm going to go get Jeanie and tell her you woke up."
But his hand didn't move away from hers. Because she had
softly grabbed it, enough that he understood her meaning that she
didn't want him to leave.
"Did you finally put that Magneto bastard in his place?" he
hadn't meant to growl it at her.
"No," her big green eyes starred directly at his, "You did."
He was took back a little bit, "Darlin', I didn't do crap."
Just like the rest of them, he noted.
She shook her head from side to side, "No. You…you touched me
again."
He remembered. It hurt like hell, always did.
"Then you were there, the you in my head. Stronger. And...and…
you stood in front of me and you fought him off. You wouldn't stop.
You wouldn't stop until I couldn't feel him anymore." She tightly
closed her eyes. She was so tired. "Thank you," she whispered.
He had no clue what to say. Within second his snapped out of
his shocked state and he was thrilled. He had helped. He had done
something that Jean or Chuck couldn't.
"Anytime, Rogue," he smiled at her. Two weeks ago he didn't
want her anywhere near him. Two weeks ago he was sure she was working
with the enemy. Now he wanted nothing more than to make sure was
alright. He was the only person in the whole world that knew that
there was a helpless, weak side to The Rogue. That she needed
protection. Not the normal kind, but protection never the less. And
The Wolverine loved the idea of protecting her.
"Marie."
"What?" she jerked him out of his revelations.
"Marie. I want you to call me Marie."
"Why?"
"It's my real name. It's what the you in my head calls me."
she explained.
"Oh. You got it, Marie." When it came off his tongue he
instantly liked it. Now he knew two things about her nobody else did.
It made him want to know a lot more.


THE END.