Waking up to the feel of cool fingers running across his freshly healed chest was nice. The scent that accompanied the delicate tracing was nice too. And yet simultaneously disappointing. Because, as crazy as it might sound for a man primordial and promiscuous enough to be dubbed the Wolverine, Logan would have given anything to feel the soft touch of satin gloves and smell the perfect mixture of lavender and dogwood in their stead.

“That tickles,” he mumbled, grabbing Jean’s hand with his own in an effort to stop her movement.

He opened his hazel eyes in time to see a relieved look fill her face as she smiled down at him. “Hey.”

Logan responded in kind, wanting to keep this conversation as simple and brief as possible. His body still wasn’t up to snuff and he didn’t want to waste what energy he did have exchanging pleasantries with the doc. Not when there were more important tasks ahead.

“How’re you feeling?”

He barely repressed the desire to snort. What kind of idiotic question was that? “Fantastic,” he replied, managing to keep the sarcasm to a bare minimum.

Jean smiled at him once more and Logan could smell her attraction for him tainting the air around them both. A few days ago, he would have teased her flirtatiously for it. Maybe even convince her to act on it. But not now. Everything was much clearer now. Dying has a tendency to do that for you, put stuff into perspective. Even if it was only a temporary death.

“That was brave thing you did,” she whispered.

Not really. Selfish, maybe. Instinctual, definitely. But being brave implied you had something to lose. And watching Marie’s life ebb away in that fucking death trap, Logan had come to a decision. If she wasn’t alive, then he didn’t want to be either.

He frowned, realizing he hadn’t even asked after her yet. He’d just kind of assumed it had worked. Otherwise why the hell would he be lying in a hospital bed covered in bandages and wires? But if it hadn’t… his breath caught in his throat and Logan forced himself to ask the only question that mattered.

“Did it work?”

Because if not, he’d be testing just how indestructible he really was.

“Yeah, she’s fine.”

Logan exhaled loudly and felt all the tension drain from his body. Marie was okay. They hadn’t been able to take her from him. And he’d never been so grateful for her vampiric powers.

“She took on a few of your more charming personality traits for a while, but we lived through it.”

He tried to laugh, but it came out raspy and haggard and entirely too painful. He could just imagine her, swearing up a storm, yelling at the hockey refs, and sucking down Molsons like they were air. Unbidden, an image of her dressed only in a wife-beater and pair of panties, one of his cigars hanging tantalizingly from her mouth, rose in his mind. Quickly clamping down on those thoughts, Logan was suddenly glad for the thick drape covering his lower body. No use giving Jean the wrong idea, especially when something about her smell and the way she was looking at him made Logan wonder if she’d be the aggressor this time around.

“I think she’s a little taken with you.”

He looked up at her, seeing the innuendo in her bright green eyes that let him know she wasn’t talking about Marie. Squeezing the hand still trapped under his, Logan set it to the side before sitting up despite her protests.

“My heart belongs to someone else,” he murmured gently and yet unapologetically.

Jean lowered her gaze and he could feel the remorse and regret pouring off of her in waves. “She’s waiting for you upstairs.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Clutching the strap of the beat-up backpack tightly against his shoulder, Logan remained unmoving in the doorway, happy to simply watch Marie for a moment. She was sitting on his windowsill, gazing outside at the other kids splashing in the pool. He could smell a twinge of longing coming off of her, but it wasn’t near as powerful as it once had been. Oddly enough, she somehow seemed content.

Shifting silently, he reluctantly broke the silence, knowing he’d have to get going soon if he wanted to cross the border before dark. “Marie.”

She turned around and offered him a sweet smile, but didn’t move from her spot at the window. “Hey.” Her warm doe eyes dulled a bit when she noticed the bag on his back and it made him wince. “You runnin’ again?”

He couldn’t keep himself from walking over to her, wanting more than anything to reassure her that everything would be all right. That he had to do this. For both of them. “Not really. I have some things to take care of up north.” And he wasn’t just referring to Alkali Lake.

She stood, but didn’t say anything, choosing instead to lean against the wall and study him beneath those thick lashes of hers, as if she hadn’t quite got him figured out yet. He could definitely relate to that. Even after the last couple days, where he’d spent every waking hour he could with her without being creepy or overbearing, they were still caught in a strange sort of limbo. Not quite friends, but not quite more either.

Unsure of what to say, he toyed with one of her white streaks. Everyone else seemed confused as to why she’d want to keep them, a reminder of Magneto’s almost successful attempt on her life. But that’s not how he saw them. To him, they represented his commitment to her, his willingness to do anything to keep her alive. And he had a feeling she felt the same way.

“I kind of like it,” she mused, as if reading his thoughts.

He smiled tenderly. “Me too.”

She blushed, ducking her head and pushing the white streaks behind an ear. “You should hear the things the other kids are saying,” she said. “Like you’re cooler than Superman and Batman combined.”

“I’m no superhero, kid.”

Marie’s eyes snapped up to lock with his own, the disbelief clear in their depths. “What else do you call someone who’s willing to sacrifice their life for a random girl?”

“Not a random girl,” he nearly growled, troubled that she could dismiss herself so easily. “You, Marie. I did it for you.”

She shook her head sadly, like she was denying the implication in his words, and he could feel the doubt and insecurity radiating off of her. It made his chest feel tight and heart heavy. “You’d have done the same for--”

“No one else.” When she still didn’t look convinced, he cradled her cheek (carefully protected by a thin layer of hair) in his palm. “It don’t take much for me to wanna brawl, kid. But you’re the only one I’d ever die for. Just you.”

A sob wrenched from her throat and she threw herself into his arms. Logan wrapped her tightly in his embrace, stroking her head, her back, her arms. Anything he could get his hands on.

“I don’t want you to go,” she mumbled.

He pulled back from her slowly, kissed the top of her head, and removed his dog tags to hang them around her own alabaster neck. She looked up at him in surprise and delight and it sent a delicious warmth spreading through his body to know he’d put that brilliant smile on her face.

“I’ll be back for this,” he promised. I’ll be back for you.

Marie nodded, running a gloved hand over the adamantium tags, and smiled at him knowingly. He turned then, ready to leave now that he’d said goodbye to the only person that mattered.

“Logan,” she whispered when he’d reached the door. He looked back at her and the smile on her face morphed to a coy grin. “Don’t take too long, sugah. In seven weeks, I won’t be a kid anymore.”

A shiver of desire ran through him, settling in a pool at his nether regions, but he didn’t say anything. Nothing that was going to come from his mouth right then would have been appropriate for underage ears. With one last heated look, he exited the mansion. As he sped towards Canada and all the potential answers he might find, Logan realized that, no matter what Alkali Lake revealed about his past, nothing could take away from the fact that he finally had a future to look forward to.