"Forty-eight, Forty-nine, Fifty," gasped Marie, words coinciding with the pushups that were the second to last exercise in her daily workout. She rolled onto her back to round out the routine with crunches just as the radio changed songs from some unknown up and coming band to Queen's 'Fat Bottomed Girls'. "Hey now," she said, locking eyes with her blue, fuzzy, stuffed rabbit, left over from childhood, where it was perched on her bed, laughing at her "that's was not at all called for." Ditching the rest of the crunches, she let out a groan as she rolled to her feet and shoved the rabbit under the pillow as punishment for backstabbing her and aligning with the DJ. "See if I talk to you for the rest of the day."

She stripped out of her dirty workout clothes and spread a towel on the floor of her attic room in the rectangle of Mississippi sunlight shining through a skylight, flopping onto her stomach with a moan of bliss. She grabbed the remote for her stereo, left intentionally within reach, and flipped to her Beach Boys CD, setting the scene a little better. "Isn't this awesome Norbert?" she asked the rabbit, haven't evidently forgotten he was currently banished to reaches unknown under her pillow. "I have the beach all to myself today. No one around to bother me. Naked skin, out and proud, with not one soul to brush up against it and get eaten." Her false cheeriness sounded flat even to her own ears, so she wasn't convinced that she had made a believer out of Norbert. Oh well.

Marie pulled her brown hair into a more secure ponytail, getting the sweaty loose wisps out of her face, and thought through the rest of her day. Glancing at the homemade calendar on the wall by the stairs, she noted that it was Friday. "Well, guess that means it's laundry day. Can't have it getting away from me. Next thing you know, I'll be out of clean clothes." She turned onto her back, soaking up the Vitamin D that a medical text, read to pass the time one day, said was so important to the body. She snorted. Either way, the sun felt amazing on her skin. "It's getting awfully close to inventory day too. Maybe I'll try to get that done today before I settle in for a date with Shakespeare. Gonna help me this time Norbert?" She dragged her eyes to the bed and felt a slight moment of panic to find her friend missing before she remembered the reason. Maybe she would let him come back early, just this once. Then she could have assistance counting all her supplies.

---

"I don't get paid enough for this," Logan muttered to himself as he turned to the back seat, attempting to glare quietness out of the wonder twins. Jubilee was back there, words flying out of her mouth at a rate faster than hummingbird wings, relaying to Kitty, and the world, the latest goings on in her relationship with Remy. Noticing his glare, she managed to take it down a couple of decibels, but continued her rambling. He turned back to the road. Scott had thought it was a great idea to have Logan and the terrible twosome take this road trip to New Orleans to drop off Remy for a short visit home. Evidently the thief had some things to take care of and Xavier wanted someone native to the area to hang out and gauge the general feeling of the populace toward mutants.

Lately, Scott had been trying to foster good feelings between the newest members of the X-Men team and those more senior. Logan could have told him that a 40 some hour road trip was not the best choice for bonding time with the Wolverine. Sure the wonder twins did hold a special place in his heart, the two of them having pretty much glued themselves to him when he first arrived at the mansion messed up from the lab, but he didn't do well with forced together time. Also, you would think that Scott could have picked a different team member for them to bond with, seeing as they were already attached to Logan like leaches (albeit, ones that he kinda liked). Oh well. They were just leaving New Orleans now. If he was lucky, he might be able to convince the jellybean to drive for a little while, then they wouldn't even have to stop for the night and could cut the trip down into a four day excursion instead of the originally planned five.

One way or another though, he was gonna find a place to stop for dinner that served beer. The Cajun had taken them to some fancy ass place in New Orleans that had "de finest wine a petite could ask for" causing Logan to almost pummel him for the bedroom eyes thrown at Jubes, but it didn't serve beer. Steak and wine were never meant to go together, something people just didn't get. He grunted. First order of business, get out of Louisiana. Secondly, find real food.

---

Marie was just humming along with her 'Hair' soundtrack and hanging her last pair of socks over the rod of the shower curtain when she heard a shuffling at the bottom of the stairs that warned of her dinner delivery. She quickly picked up the washing board and hung it from its nail beside the tub, before drying her hands on a towel. Running out of the bathroom, she hooked her hand around the railing at the top of the stairs and flung herself down the steps in a well-practiced rush.

"Evening mother," she sneered through the locked door at the bottom of the stairs, to be met with the expected response of silence. Marie heard a sigh and the creek of the meal slot at the bottom of the door as her mother pushed things through it. She blinked at the full jar of peanut butter, bag of oranges and loaf of bread, used to more meager rations. "Why so much, mother?"

A fist pounded the door. "You know you are no daughter of mine. Do not call me mother. My daughter died the day you came and possessed her body with your unholy spirit. It's the devil in you girl and I did not birth a devil. If we weren't good Christian folk, we would have put you down when you first took over our beautiful daughter. But murder is a sin against God." An angry exhale proceeded the next bit. "John-David and I are going away for the weekend, for the first time in four years thanks to you. This is what you have to eat. Don't be greedy and gobble it all at once because there is no one here that you can ask for more."

"Wouldn't dream of asking, MOTHER. I don't ask you for anything, not anymore. Haven't even asked you to let me out of this prison you call an attic at all this past year. Quite a difference from the first 3 years, huh? You could just fucking let... Oww!" The last forced out of her mouth from pain as her mother walloped her in the ankle through the slot with the broom handle. "Don't you take that tone with me you rotten thing! I will go get John-David and he will come teach you another lesson, if that's what you want!"

Marie shut up. It had been really difficult to splint he arm with an old bed sheet and a piece of her bookshelf the last time her father had come in to "teach her to mind". She shuddered as her mother's voice started back in. "Now, we're leaving. Maybe God will bless us all and the house will burn down while we are away." Marie heard her turn to walk away and sucked in a breath.

"Mother! I am a freak. Hath not a freak eyes? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that."

She heard a bang of something hitting the door and her mother muttering about her never having the chance to enact revenge, both bringing a slight smile to her face. Marie was continuing her Shakespeare quote in her head while bending over to pick up the food when she noticed a shiny glint peeking out from under the bread, causing hope mixed with panic to swell in her chest. She grabbed the butter knife, trying to bend it this way and that, checking the rigidity. Almost no give. Excellent. They had finally made their last mistake.

Title: Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast

Marie stood in her bathroom, gazing at herself in the mirror and wondering at what she saw. Today, instead of an inmate, she saw a woman beginning to earn her freedom. She noted the slight smile begin to creep across her mouth, one of the first not brought around by the Bard's comedic wit or through tormenting her parents. Sometime soon, she was going to stand outside in a thunderstorm, let the rain saturate her skin while the lightening shooting into the air raised the hairs on her arms towards the heavens. She was going to lie out at night and see all the constellations at once instead of whichever one happened to be over her skylight at that time of the year. She was going to smell a rose in a world-renowned garden and then see of Shakespeare's works done by real actors instead of her handmade puppets.

The front door slamming and the sound of her parents' SUV backing out of the driveway caused her to flinch as she was jerked out of fantasyland and back to her bathroom. The sound acting like the flag dropping at a NASCAR race, she pulled her scarf over her face, raised the wooden leg removed from the corner of her bed frame and smashed it into the mirror, causing exploding silver shards to be flung everywhere like confetti. Grinning again, stomach butterflies fluttering and scarf floating off her face to the floor, her old combat boots crunched the glass as she ran to switch the music to AC/DC. She wrenched the dial farther than her parents would have ever allowed before and used the heavy rock to ground herself. 'Jailbreak' had never been more appropriate.

---

"Jesus Wolvie!" shredded his eardrums when Jubilee decided it was a good idea to lean up from the back and shriek when he slammed on the brakes a few hours out of New Orleans. Evidently there was an accident ten miles up the road that had turned the highway into a parking lot and no one had been paying attention to the stopped cars, causing even more fender benders. He pounded the steering wheel, almost denting it in his anger. This was just his fucking luck. Could anything go right today? "You girls should be thanking the nail polish gods or whoever you pray to that my reflexes are as good as they are cuz the blood from that accident would have stained your clothes." Kitty leaned forward and swatted him in the head, a move he chose not to avoid, seeing how he only said it to get a rise anyway.

"Thanks oh great Logan, for your amazing abilities. No one could punch the brakes as well as you. We'll be sure to bow down to your greatness when we get out of this god-forsaken car." He smirked. It was nice having proof that your lessons had been well learned and Kitty had taken to his sarcasm teachings like Magneto in a steel factory.

"Stop wasting your breath with that bullshit that no one believes and get on that fancy ass phone of yours and find directions to the nearest decent sized town with food. Cuz we're getting off this highway at the next exit two miles up. Start typing princess. I'm starving"

---

Marie clamored down the stairs for the fourth time, this trip lugging her copy of the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe and one of the towel racks ripped off the wall from the bathroom. She kneeled on the landing, double-checked the duct tape (parental mistake number one) holding open the dog door type meal slot and attached a loop of duct tape to the end of the pole. Slipping the book out the slot, she added it to the pile already in the hallway and readjusted the piece of mirror on the top of the books until she could see the dead bolt above the doorknob. She had learned on her last escape attempt that the doorknob, only on the outside of the door, took a key to open, which is what ended that try because she couldn't pick the lock. In theory, that shouldn't be an issue with her new plan.

She slipped the pole out the slot and wrenched her arm around, using the mirror to guide the end of the bar to the deadbolt. The duct tape stuck to the bottom and she slid her arm over until she could get the proper torque to get the lock to open. Three attempts later, she felt it slide. She pulled the bar back through and grabbed her flashlight, shining it through the crack in the door to see that the obstruction of the lock was no longer there. Happy dance! She did a little half jig before kneeling back down to start step two.

She turned the mirror around so she could see the bottom hinge of the door and took a deep breath. This was the part she had never had a chance to try before, lacking the knife or anything thin yet strong enough to wedge into the space between the pin and the frame wing. She used the can of WD-40 her dad, after months of coaxing, had given her last year (mistake number 3) to spray the hinge, hoping to dislodge any rust because the door hadn't been opened for five years. Then, silence flowed into the room, halting everything in its wake. Marie franticly dropped the can and booked it up the stairs as quickly as she could. She was shaking from the breath robbing, oppressive silence by the time she got to the stereo and restarted the CD, needing the sound to keep her going. She went to her bed and grabbed Norbert, cuddling the rabbit until her heart stopped racing and she felt calm enough to return to her task though, this time, she made sure he was there as company.

Marie settled onto her knees to lean into the door enough to force both her arms out the hole. It was a tight squeeze and she was pretty sure her shoulder may soon be out of socket, but it would be a pain well worth the reward. She squinted into the mirror, picked up the butter knife in her left hand and her pet rock in her right (#2, parents were so gullible sometimes) and positioned the tip of the knife under the top of the pin in the hinge. Then, using the rock as a hammer, she pounded on the end of the knife until the pin began reluctantly giving up its happy home, eventually plunking to the floor. Yes!

Excitement bubbling, this was the closest she had been to floorboards she hadn't walked in five years, she sat back against the pillow leaning on the bottom stair and braced her feet on the pinless bottom corner of the door, with knees bent. The rock was in position next to her heel and she picked up the pole to complete her preparations. She worked to straighten her legs, using muscles strengthened by years of squat work and treadmill running, and pushed that part of the door far enough from the frame to get the pole wedged into the crack caused by the pressure. Moving the pole further up the door took a little more effort but it slowly scooted along, forcing more of an opening between the two pieces of wood until the crack was finally big enough for her to force the rock into place, giving her about a four-inch gap. She relaxed her legs with a sigh, seeing the rock hold the space open as she had hoped and got to her feet with a sight groan, stretching her back out as she rose.

After loosening up a little she found the corner post of her bed on the second stair, where she had left it, and forced it into the gap at the bottom of the door, slowly sliding up until the pressure forced her to resume her previous position to gain added inches. The sound of wood creaking and splintering egged her on, but about a third of the way up the door, the post stuck. On her feet again, she pushed and pulled on the post using the leverage to help her crack more wood on the door, each creek and splinter giving her a little more space to move the post up until it was at the halfway point. Short of breath and sweating now, she patted herself on the back for taking the time to unlock the deadbolt because she was pretty sure it would have caused another point of stability in the door, which she probably wouldn't have been able to counteract no matter how much leverage she created. She glared at the doorway, daring it to continue keeping her prisoner when she was so determined to get out, and took a deep breath. Time to put in the work.

She grabbed the post and started rocking it back and forth again, using not only her body weight, but also added avalanching energy from years of unexpressed anger. Her fucking parents had stolen her life. Pull, slide up. She should have graduated high school. Push, creak, slide up. She should have gotten counseling for putting her best friend in a coma, not solitary confinement. Pull, slide up. She should have a license. Push, slide up. She shouldn't be the only Goddamn 20-year-old virgin in Mississippi! Pull, crack boom. Marie staggered from the sudden lack of resistance. With a sound almost like a gunshot, the wood around the top hinge had given way and finally popped out of its home in the frame allowing her to push the door over until it clattered to the floor, granting her freedom.

Smile stretching from ear to ear, she turned around and ran up the stairs to her stereo to turn up the music as loud as it could go, hoping that the sound would carry through the whole house. She grabbed Norbert on her way back down the steps and slowly stepped through the threshold, nervousness and excitement racing through her blood stream. She practically skipped down the hallway, peeking into every room to see get a general idea of the layout of the house because they had moved here after "the incident" meaning she had only ever been in the attic. She saw the master bedroom, a bathroom and a guest room on this floor before she made it down the next flight of stairs to the main floor, getting dumped out into the all white living room. She made a face as she continued on to the kitchen, spotless as ever, and found the formal dining room as well as another bathroom. None of which she wanted. Finally, off a short hallway from the dining room, she found the family office and the laundry closet. Score!

Marie started humming along with The Rolling Stones as she grabbed a laundry basket and made her way up to her room to get her wet clothes. No use booking it with wet things now was there? Filling the basket took a mere minute then she was heading back to the laundry room to throw her stuff in the dryer. It would be so nice to have fabric softener!

After setting the clothes on high (didn't want to push her time too much) she made her way to the office, looking for the family bible. It sat right in its place of honor on the bookshelf, waiting for her to come pick it up and look for slightly hidden pocket on the back cover where, predictably, she found a copy of her birth certificate and her social security card amongst her parents papers. Occasionally, having parents with type A personalities could be a blessing.

Next, she turned around and set Norbert on the roll top desk so he could oversee her digging through all of the books strewn across it and through the drawers. Her parents were very distrustful of banks and had always made it a point to hide little stashes of money all over the house for "just in case" situations. With luck, she could locate most of them and not be totally penniless when she left. Her "ah ha" moment led to her pulling the bottom drawer of the desk out completely and upending it, causing the false bottom and 200 dollars in cash to fall to the floor. They had had a desk just like this at the old house and she had occasionally helped herself to a little money. Her father, the only one that used the office, had never said anything even though he had to have noticed because the money was always replenished. A somewhat fond feeling began inching across chest before she squashed it. That had been Before. She wondered how he would take the missing money this time around. Probably not nearly as well.

Norbert and her continued the treasure hunt, combing the kitchen (300 in the freezer), living room (150 in the cushion of the sofa) and upstairs bedrooms (150 in a box in the closet) before she was satisfied that the house was picked clean. In the bedroom she also found a portable CD player and a CD case that she took to the attic to fill with all her favorite music. She put both, along with the money, birth certificate and social, into a backpack and went back downstairs in search of extra batteries and some food that would travel well. A 10 pack of AA's, granola bars, bagels, a jar of peanut butter, the bag of oranges and a three bottles of water joined the group. She went through the house picking up this and that, making sure to get everything on the prepared list she had memorized over three years ago. When the backpack was filled to the brim, weighing in at around 30 lbs., she decided to call it quits and get on to the rest of her packing.

She dug through her parents' closet, finding an old green army duffel that would be perfect for her purposes. As she was turning away she noticed two pairs of her mother's long satin gloves, which she tossed into the bag as an after thought. No such thing as too many gloves, right? She headed back upstairs and found the stash of unworn clothes she had hidden behind a bookcase after realizing one day that new clothing would be an added expense that she couldn't afford when she was on the road. Her 'Complete Works of Shakespeare', 'Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe', 'Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy trilogy' and notebook thumped in after the clothing. One did not leave ones best friends behind, she reassured herself with a nod. In the bathroom, she snagged unopened bottles of shampoo and conditioner and a fresh bar of soap (already in a baggie) from under the sink and used her mother's stolen lipstick to write a message on the wall. Leaving the lipstick on the counter in the bathroom, she took quick stock of the rest of the attic, making sure nothing of importance was being left behind. She glanced longingly at her bookcase, overflowing with friends and enemies that had gotten her through the years, yearning for the ability to take them with her. Running her fingers down the poor, overused spines she vowed to herself that she would own all of those books again plus others, once she found a place to belong.

Shaking herself out of the melancholy took only a minute when she remembered that she was leaving for good so she walked down the stairs the final time with a light heart. She stopped quickly in the laundry room and stuffed her now dry clothes into the duffel bag with Norbert in his prideful place on the top. He smiled goofily at her when she zipped the bag over his head, as excited as she was to be heading out. Marie grabbed the CD player from its place in the backpack and threw the bag over her shoulder before picking up the duffel and heading towards the front door. Last things she did before stepping into the sunshine was put the earphones in and whisper the same thing she had left as a note to her family.

"Now go we in content to liberty, and not to banishment."

Logan was driving the nondescript black Ford Focus, not his choice, on some back road in the middle of BFE, as the Jellybean kept saying every time they happened to pass a cow, when he felt the vehicle under him start to slow slightly before resuming its speed. He shrugged it off until, about another mile up, it did it again.

"Fuck no! This is not happening!" he growled as the engine chugged its last few inches before rocking to a stop and cutting out. He stabbed his finger into the glass over the gas gage, which still read half a tank, before rounding on the backseat. "Kitty find us a gas station since your phone dumped us out here. Figures One-eye would throw me in the only car in the bunch with a fucked gage." Snagging a cigar out of his jacket pocket, he stepped out of the car and lit it after biting off the tip. Sometimes he was pretty sure there was a bad luck stain preceding his every step because he always seemed to step into it. He huffed out some smoke and leaned over the top of the car, bracing his elbows before grabbing handfuls of his hair and using it to hold his head up. Keeping that position for a while in an attempt to calm his temper, he was feeling almost rational when the back door on the opposite side of the car opened. He glanced up at Jubes as she got out pointing, at another cow most likely, and shouted to the world in general, "I just want a Goddamn beer!"

"Well, I'm not exactly the beer fairy, but I think I might be able to help ya'll out with your other problem there, sugar," a husky, Blue Label voice drawled from about five feet behind him, the place Jubilee had been indicating. He spun on the spot, barely keeping the claws in check. He must have been really checked out mentally to not notice the sound or smell of a girl coming up behind him.

Eyes raked her over and he upgraded the estimation to young woman from girl, which felt just a titch too young. Regardless, she was a sexy little thing. She only came up to his chin but her dark jeans hugged curvy hips like they were painted on and the green gauzy long sleeve shirt she wore over a tank top fluttered in the breeze around her breasts, making him have to jerk his gaze back to her face when it wanted to linger too long. Who the hell wore long sleeves in this heat anyway? His white T-shirt was almost transparent with sweat from the sun. He saw straps over her shoulders, a duffel bag in her left hand and noticed one of those ear bud things in left ear. He caught a quick impression of large green eyes, pale as hell skin and slightly pouty lips as he turned his back on her again, assigning her the title of fucking hassle instead of threat, and snarled "Get outta here kid, we don't need no stinkin' help. We'll help ourselves just fine"

"Ya sure about that?" She stepped closer to him and bumped his side with her duffel, causing Jubilee's eyes widen at him across the roof. This chick had balls. "Where ya gonna go out here? Ain't nothing round for miles." He could swear her accent got more saturated and her voice deeper with every sentence. This lady was trying to use that southern belle crap to play him. He found himself slightly intrigued by her guts, but not enough so to take on all the drama that was sure to come from the obvious runaway.

"Get lost," he ground out through his teeth just as Kitty got out of the car next to Jubilee, eyes still on that monstrosity she called a phone.

"It's twenty miles from here to a gas station. Couldn't we have waited just one more mile on that highway? It would have put us basically on top of one. We need to work on your..." She halted herself when she noticed the fierce look in his eye and the tilt of his head towards the woman behind him. Kitty glanced at Jubes and both of them turned in unison, giving their backs to the stranger and Logan. He nodded slightly in approval that they girls had listened to his silent urging, maybe he could make it so they weren't as identifiable, before facing the woman.

He advanced on her one slow step at a time, hoping that she would turn tail, but the only reaction he got was a slight tightening in her core muscles. It figures a suicidal nutcase would find him in the middle of BFE (whatever the hell that phrase actually meant). His metal bones must put out a magnetic field to draw them in like hyenas to a carcass. "What makes you think you can help? You've got nothing but those bags and I know there ain't a gas can in either of 'em. Unless you want me to believe that that's what's tenting your shirt instead of breasts." He heard Jubes squeak as he shot a pointed look downward, "Stop wasting my fucking time."

Her accent was almost completely absent, earning her a raised eyebrow, when she seemed to make a split second decision to switch tactics. "You're right, I don't. What I have is knowledge of southerners. We'll help each other out. I find you gas, you get me the Hell out of Mississippi. You don't even have to take me all the way to New York." His eyes must have upped the danger threat to level orange because she quickly added, "I noticed the plates on the car. Nothing funny going on." She raised her hands, delicate fingers slightly spread as if they could convince him of her sincerity. "Now, I'll be right back. Watch my bag." She dropped her duffel and showing the utter lack of regard this girl seemed to have for her safety, began walking away from him through a field of waist high corn, weaponless and with the nape of her neck bared by a sweaty pulled up mass of hair.

If asked later by others none of them would admit it, but he and the girls definitely heard "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest..." which faded more and more as her distance from them grew. Logan turned to the wonder twins and raised both eyebrows this time. What the hell had they found?

---

Marie was shaking so much as she walked across the cornfield towards a distant barn that her footsteps probably looked like a drunks following a three-day bender. After gaining some ground she finally allowed herself to feel the fear that should have been paralyzing her when she was in front of that man. Sometimes, her mutation could be considered a blessing. It had forced her to learn to compartmentalize the different personalities in her head (only four thank god), which had in turn allowed her to be able lock up emotions so she didn't even feel them. Like her collection, the emotions didn't stay in check for long but the ability did occasionally come in handy. Shoring up her courage with some good old English, she talked herself out of some of the fear and into brainstorming. That line about southerners had been complete bull. She mentally patted herself on the back for quick thinking but concentrated on her next problem. Where the hell would someone put a gas can? It made sense that the owners would have full ones somewhere because all types of equipment on a farm would use the fuel.

She crept up on the door of the barn, eyes constantly moving in search of someone who would object to her trespassing, but the cows didn't seem too interested in her presence. Seeing no one, she tried opening the door of the barn only to find it wouldn't budge. After studying the doors, she noticed that there was a padlock on the bottom of the each by the sliders, stopping the wheels from rotating. So, upside, everyone appeared to be gone. Downside, they locked up before leaving.

Frowning, Marie began walking the whole way around the weatherworn structure, looking for other entranceways or a loose board that she might be able to squeeze through, hearing the seconds tick away her dreamed-up time limit. At some point, that man was either going to come after her (she was pretty sure he hadn't been happy to have her around and would want to know what she was up to) or he was going to get fed up and walk off looking for his own fuel, leaving her stranded like before. She needed this ride, therefore, she needed this gas because the traffic was barely a mere trickle in this area.

Returning to the start of her trek, she looked towards the house, wondering if a window or something may have been left open, granting her entrance to search for the key to the padlocks. She was about to head that way when she noticed that someone had left the door to the hayloft open and part of the rope connected to the pulley system hung over the door was only twelve feet in the air. This was totally doable. She quickly changed her CD from Bach to the 'Mission Impossible' soundtrack, singing out loud to herself during the few seconds of silence, before dropping her backpack to the ground. Searching the surrounding area and finding a suitable rock about the size of her fist, she grabbed her 6ft. tube scarf out of her bag and tied a knot in one end. The rock went in the other and she slid it down to the knot, tying another to keep it in place. Now for the fun part.

Swinging the scarf around in circles, she attempted to fling the weighted end over the bend in the rope and pull it down towards her, having to dodge out of the way when she misjudged the angle. "Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season. When in the why and the wherefore is neither rhyme nor reason?" she quoted, starting the rotation of the scarf once again. This time, her release was perfect, hooking the lowest part of the rope so she could haul the rest of it down out of the hayloft. She unknotted her scarf, dumped the rock and climbed the rope to swing herself in, leaving the backpack sitting at the bottom as silent testimony of her passage.

She squinted in the dim light and used her hands to feel her way over the few small bales that were left over from the winter months. Finding the ladder and scrambling down it only took a minute. Then she was amongst tractors and other pieces of machinery that she had no name for but were clearly the reason behind the secured door. There was easily tens of thousands of dollars of equipment just waiting for someone to take if they felt the need. Fortunately, for the sake of her conscience and the owner's pocketbook, she was in the market for something a little less expensive.

Marie wandered around the barn, climbing onto tractors and over what might have been a hay baler, before literally stumbling over a saddle that someone had carelessly left on the floor. In the process of picking herself off the ground, she spotted her quarry. She dusted off her jeans and strode over to the corner of the barn opposite from the ladder, grabbing one of the four five-galleon gas cans then switching it for the next in line when the first felt half empty. Digging in her pocket, she produced a twenty-dollar bill and left it in the spot for the owner. It made her feel better and maybe it would stop him from being so pissed that someone had magically gotten into his secured barn. She smirked at the thought of his headache and headed back towards the ladder before a loud bang on the door almost made her drop the can and run for a hiding spot.

"You in there kid?" directly followed the noise and she was glad to realize it was the voice of the man from the car instead of a stranger. Some people had a disturbing tendency to shoot trespassers before asking questions. She took a deep breath, "Yeah. And I was successful." Would that appease him and excuse the amount of time she had taken? Though she was kinda proud of herself for pinning this guy's character, something about him had screamed he would come after her, she had also inferred that he was not a patient man.

"Get your ass out here!" he yelled through the door, sounding more annoyed with each word. Great. Now she had a deal with Mr. Grouchy. She tripped her way up the ladder. Maybe walking wouldn't be so bad idea after all.

---

Who the hell was this kid? He thought, pacing next to her bag outside of the barn. He had no clue how she'd gotten in but she'd better come out soon or he was getting in his way. Something about this chick just rubbed him wrong. It didn't make sense that a pretty girl her age would be out in the middle of nowhere trying to hitch. Also, why was she so desperate to leave that she'd willingly broken in to someone else's property? She didn't strike him as a thief or as the type to get herself in trouble. He shook his head. They'd give her a ride and that would be that. Trade favors. Then they could get the hell out of the fucking south and he could get some peace and quiet because he didn't need any more crazy in his life.

"Stop thinkin' so hard sugar. Gonna melt in this heat." He heard dripping from above his head. Son of a bitch. Maybe this girl wasn't as dumb as he thought. She had the gas can hanging from the baling hook and she was standing on it, walking the rope through her hands to lower herself to the ground. When the can was about a foot up, she jumped to the ground and grabbed it off the hook before bending over to sling her bag over her shoulder. "I go, and it is done," she proclaimed, like it made any sense and started walking back towards the road. He picked his jaw up from somewhere around his knees and started trudging after her, grabbing the can out of her hands which, finally showing some proper fear, she practically threw at him when he go too close. He took the lead, oddly somewhat mad that she was afraid of him, and didn't even check if she was following. Fuck if he knew what was going on with her, but he just didn't care.

Marie stopped in the ditch beside the road, letting the man continue on to the car alone. She noted him checking her location over his shoulder and tried to force a reassuring grin before turning her eyes onto her bag. Her left ear was still hearing 'Mission Impossible', not an appropriate soundtrack to this current scene in her life, while her right ear picked up the sound of the gas cap being unscrewed and liquid pouring into the empty tank. First, she dug out her CD's and took care of the music issue, switching to a big band jazz CD. Letting the trumpets boost her energy reserves, dangerously low after all this human interaction, she let her brain sing along while she searched her bag for some short green gloves, hoping that no one would notice the new addition to her slightly odd outfit. She finally reached them, buried under the water bottles, and pulled them onto her shaking hands. The man had no clue how close he had come to death, but she had definitely noticed and not appreciated the proximity in the least. She walked out of the ditch enough to be able to lean over and snag the corner of the duffel, allowing her to drag it towards her so she could dig Norbert out of his prison and clutch him to her chest.

She was just dropping a kiss on his upturned nose when all sound except her music stopped causing her to jerk her attention to the three strangers, all of which were staring at her, the two girls with thinly veiled looks of 'is this bitch crazy?' while the man didn't even attempt to hide his feelings. She refused to subject poor Norbert to more airless travel time when he could now ride in style on her lap. Dragging her chin up and meeting each of their gazes in turn, she picked up her things and trudged towards the car. "And by that destiny to perform an act. Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come, in yous and my discharge." They all looked at her in outraged disbelief, which caused her to roll her eyes. "So are we heading out or not?"

---

Trouble, Logan reaffirmed as he opened the driver's side door and swung himself into the car, hearing the shocks protest his weight with a groan. Not only was she a runaway but she seemed unable to tell when she was quoting crap from a different time and when she was talkin' sense. And he sure as shit wasn't gonna let himself be curious about had happened to cause that problem for her. He shook his head, dislodging irrational anger at the person responsible for her issues. He must be having problems separating her from the wonder twins cause they were the same age. He'd be pissed if anyone fucked with one of them or one of the other kids at school cause they were his responsibility and they had accepted him as you would a weird ass uncle. And he just wasn't in the market to add to his list of 'people who make him feel'.

Jubes opening the passenger door dragged him from his thoughts. She started to get in when she met his eyes and cocked her head sideways, reading his expression in that crazy accurate way of hers. She nodded her assent and opened the back door instead. "Chica," she addressed the stranger before getting in the car, "You get to ride shotgun. Me and Kitty got some stuff to talk about."

Logan felt slightly lighter, relieved with the riding arrangements. This way, if the girl did turn out to be a threat of any kind, he was the one closest to her so he could handle it. The girl slid into the front seat and buckled herself in, looking pointedly at his lack of seatbelt and opening her mouth as if to comment. His expression was daring her to say anything but she must have used up her courage for the day because she snapped her mouth shut and hunched into her stuffed animal, sitting so close to the door that she was practically making love to it. He snorted slightly and pulled out onto the road, hearing Jellybean in the back start another tirade, this time about useless nonsense, so as not to give away any facts about them.

While driving, he kept his eyes peeled for the gas station and the rest of his senses tuned in to the girl, tracking minute shifts in her scent in hopes of following her thoughts. Right now, he could just get relieved mixed with worried out of her, an odd combination, and her own unique scent that was a mellowing undertone, smooth and slightly sweet but simultaneously airy and almost delicate. It was like smelling sunshine after the clouds had cleared. Come to think of it, he'd never smelt anything quite that close to perfection. Maybe it wouldn't...

His hand shot out and wrapped around her wrist instinctively before his brain even registered that she had moved, completely shattering his crazy thoughts.

"No need to be so jumpy," she said, scolding like a mother to her two-year-old child. "I just wanted to turn up the music and take off these headphones. You can barely hear it now and the ear things on this chafe if I wear them too much." He talked himself into peeling his fingers off her arm one at a time, watching her out of the corner of his eye for any other movement. When she saw his expression she pulled her hand back to her little corner of the car, trying to play meek and shrink into the seat.

"I like this song!" Kitty piped up from the backseat. "You should totally turn it up." Logan met her eyes in the rearview mirror and saw her laughing at him. Whatever. It wouldn't hurt anything.

He twisted the knob to a level acceptable for all those in the car and watched the girl unfold herself to take out the ear buds and turn off the CD player, stroking it like a pet before putting it into her backpack at her feet. Kitty was swaying back and forth to the music in the backseat, though whether that was to try to convince him that she had been telling the truth or because she actually liked this garbage was anybody's guess. Poppy crap was not his music of choice. The girl next to him seemed okay with it though, but she wasn't humming along, as he'd heard her doing with her CD's. She appeared to be riveted to the station like she was trying to hear every slight instrument change and each chord as it was plucked and she was smiling, which just struck him as odd. Before the thought could sink in, he heard his voice in the air as if someone else was operating his mouth even though he was supposed to be driving. "What gives kid? Why so happy with this song?"

She turned to him slightly, but he could see most of her attention was still on the radio. "I've never heard it before," she answered, as if that explained it all. Evidently it did to her because she leaned forward and turned it up another notch, so focused that she didn't even notice his growl at her touching something that wasn't hers. The song ended and she sat back in her seat as an older one came on, still slightly smiling though she seemed dazed for the moment. He pulled his attention back to the road.

---

They rode for a while with only the music interrupting the silence but the car lacked the feeling of awkwardness that sometimes comes when a stranger is thrown into a group. No one felt the need to babble to cover up the quiet because it wasn't all consuming like some black hole silences are. It almost felt as if the four of them had been together for days instead of barely an hour. Jubilee took that feeling as her cue to be ambassador. No sense being rude to someone you were sharing a ride with when it was obvious that they were a kindred spirit and weren't going to start any funny business.

She leaned towards the front and stuck out her hand to the girl. "I'm Jubilee." She could feel Logan's eyes drilling into her skull. She grabbed the girl's hand anyway, so busy ignoring Wolvie's paranoia that she didn't notice the girl's flinch. "What's your name?"

"No names!" shot into her from two throats, one male one female, flinging her back into her seat. Wolvie had roared and the girl, though not as loud or quite as frightening, had made her point entirely clear. The two sets of eyes in the front crashed together and Jubes thought maybe she had lost control of her powers again because there were defiantly sparks flying from the angry searching gazes battling over the shifter. Evidently deciding not to speak about that further, the girl turned to glare over her shoulder at Jubes and tried to knife her with words. "And don't touch me." Jubilee was in complete shock. Well, so much for non-awkward times.

---

A few minutes later, Logan was pumping gas at the station when he decided that enough was enough and he needed to know more about their passenger. The longer they spent in her company, the less sense anything made. He wanted to be sure she wasn't a threat to the other two and that little voice in the back of his head saying he was just fascinated by her and wanted to know her for his own sake could go fuck itself. The Wolverine did not just pick up people on the side of the road and keep them, as Scooter tended to do with teenage mutant runaways. Well he wasn't Scooter and she wasn't a teenage or a mutant so the possibility of her being kept was no all around. The saying went curiosity killed the cat not the Wolverine and he would be damned to be the one to change it.

Time for answers, he thought as the gas nozzle bucked in his hand, announcing that the tank was full. The three girls were in the car together, with the music blasting loud enough that he wondered if any of them would have eardrums left. They had turned it up as soon as he got out of the car, evidently to disguise the fact that they weren't speaking. He grabbed the receipt from the machine and got back into the driver seat, snapping the radio off after turning the key. The receipt went into the visor with all the other expense slips from the trip, since it was X-Men business he would be paid back for everything, and the shifter went into drive. He turned to the girl as he picked up speed and merged back onto the highway.

"Why don't you want us to know your name?" he tried to growl, but it sounded slightly weak even to his own ears. Either way, the girl looked intimidated because she was curled up slightly in her seat and clutching that stupid blue rabbit like her life depended on it. He frowned. "Look kid, I ain't gonna hurt you unless you don't tell me what I want to know. Who are you?" She started shaking and all the color washed out of her face, causing him to become slightly alarmed. He knew he could be intimidating sometimes, mostly on purpose, but this girl hadn't been afraid of him earlier in the field when he was trying to really scare her and he wasn't anywhere near that point now leaving him unable to explain the festering fear (and why the fuck was he getting triumph too?) that was oozing from her skin. He looked closer to see her sweating and she jerked her knees into her chest, squishing that rabbit in tight.

"Please," she croaked, going into violent shakes now, making him afraid she might be having a seizure. He slowed the car slightly so he could keep turning his head to track her condition. "So loud, so loud, too loud, Loud, LOUD, LOUD!" each word gained in volume until she shouted the last, making him and the girls in the back start combing through the car, digging for anything that could be making noise.

"What's loud? What do you hear?" he snarled, pissed that someone he was with was under attack, even though she was only a passenger to him. There was no way this girl was hearing a noise he wasn't. He tried to think up something, anything to stop this, but was at a total loss because he lacked even the most basic medical training. He was turning to ask Kitty for ideas when he heard a bang from the girl's direction. His gaze flew to her right before she slammed her head into the window, making the same sound as before, causing him to wince. Then, like a wind rising over the hill, he heard her muttering.

"O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this player here, but in a fiction, in a dream of passion, could force his soul to his own conceit. That from her working all his visage wann'd, tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, a broken voice, and his whole function suiting with forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!"

When she finished she flung her head into the window again, leaving a slight smear of red on the glass and repeated the phrase, this time a little louder and the bang drew even more red, acting as an exclamation mark written on glass. Like a skipping record, she just kept repeating the same thing over and over, so quickly you could barely distinguish one word from another, only knowing when it was going to restart by the punctuating smash into the glass. He took his right hand off the wheel and reached for her, grabbing her around the nape of the neck to drag her away from the danger of the window, thinking she could at least be safe from more physical harm. As he pulled her closer, he felt like he was spinning in circles while falling. This must be what being drunk feels like, he thought before getting struck by lightening and splattering into black.

---

The sudden silence in the front seat startled Jubilee and made her look up from all the takeout wrappers on the floor that she had been searching through (Scott was gonna be pissed). She saw the girl half dragged into the middle of the front with Logan slumped over the top of her, both of them out cold. She also saw the huge semi-truck that they were about to rear-end if they didn't get control quickly. Logan's leg now driving the gas pedal into the floorboards without his muscles to hold up his metal incased skeleton. It felt like years for her to process everything but in reality it was only a second, before she yelled at Kitty.

"Grab the wheel!"

Kitty didn't even seem to think before phasing herself through the seat and part of Logan's chest to grab the steering wheel with solid hands, jerking it to the left so they could change lanes and safely pass the truck.

"I got the direction part of this runaway train. Now you handle the momentum." She sounded cool as a cucumber, like she was teaching the little ones at school to type or say their ABC's, not worried at all. That was one of the things Jubes loved about her. Great person to have around in a crisis. She patted Kitty's cheek as she climbed it the front seat to sit on Logan's left leg, shuddering when her body passed through phased arms (which felt like someone was walking on your grave). She tried shifting him off the pedal but the weight of most of his body was holding his leg in place and there was no way she could move him alone. She grabbed the wheel from Kitty, taking over that part since she was in a better spot for it, and thought for a minute.

"Kit. Can you phase him through the seats and into the back with you? Then he won't be on the pedal and I can just drive like normal, so no one sees anything suspicious."

"Sure," Kitty said, doing as asked then maneuvering Logan's hands into the most optimal position should he wake up unexpected and release his claws. "Now what?"

"Now, we're gonna pull off at the next rest stop and put her," she pointed at the girl slumped over next to her, "in the trunk so no one sees a passed out 20-year-old in our car. Also, I for one have no idea what she did to Logan but I really don't want the same thing to happen to one of us, though I got a feeling that she didn't do it on purpose. Then you can sit up here with me, making it look like Logan is just napping while we drive home."

Kitty nodded, used to Jubilee's rambling but agreeing with everything nonetheless and settled into the seat with Logan's legs in her lap. "Then I say we find a hotel that doesn't ask questions and wait until he wakes up. We don't want to take a potential danger back to the mansion. Also, he's gonna be not so happy when he wakes up from this. I've never seen him this unconscious before." They locked eyes in the rear-view mirror, neither one voicing their concerns that he may not wake up at all.

---

Logan felt like he was swimming in quicksand and couldn't remember ever feeling like that before. Must have been some night, he thought, reaching up to rub at his gritty eyes. "Wolvie!" he heard, in what sounded like Jubilee's voice, which wasn't possible if he was in a hotel after a bender because he would never take her with him. Finally, his brain seemed to catch up with the fact that he was somewhat awake and started feeding him images and memories that lead up to him reaching for the girl. The girl. Where was the girl? He opened his mouth to ask but all that came out was a coughing fit, soothed somewhat when Kitty thrust a bottle of water into his hand. He chugged half of it before trying again.

"Where's the girl?" he rasped groggily, still not completely with it.

"Locked in the bathroom. We lined the tub with towels to cushion it a little bit before putting her in there. She's out cold. Kitster here duct tapped the window shut, we stole the tape from the poor thing's backpack, from the outside just in case our girl wakes up and decides she doesn't like our company any more. Not that the window would do her much good cause we're on the third story."

He opened his mouth to ask what had happened when Jubes started talking before he even got the question out.

"Rogue did something to you to knock you out. We don't know what that was yet because she hasn't woke up either. You've been down for five hours. Yes five. I wouldn't lie to you about that. Kit got you in the backseat and we put her in the trunk then we drove here. I checked us in, they just think it's the two of us staying. Kitty had to phase you through the car door and onto my skateboard. See, you're glad I brought it now, aren't you? We didn't want to have to pick your heavy ass up twice and we knew we were gonna have to at least once to get you on the bed. Then we wheeled you in here and we've been twiddling our thumbs and playing pick-up-sticks while you napped. I tried to bandage Rogue's head before we locked her in but I couldn't find the cut from where she hit the window. You're gonna have to smell out the fresh blood in all that hair cause we gotta take care of it. Regardless, Roguey is not looking too hot right now."

"Rogue?" he frowned at the name, knowing that the girl had never given hers while he was conscience and, by the sound of it, she's passed out at the same time he did.

"Well, she kept repeating that same thing over and over and the only thing we could get out of it was the beginning. I think it's Hamlet or something, not sure though, call Dr. Grey if you really care. We decided it was as good as a name as any since she went so crazy when we asked her before. So, are we gonna keep her? Let's take her to the Prof. He will totally be down. And she can share a room with me and the Kitster here cause we like her and she's had a really bad time and we think she could be a big help when we're trying to annoy you cause she isn't afraid of anything and-"

"Jubes," Kitty shrieked, making Logan groan and pull the pillow over his head. "Breath girl. Shit." She saw Logan hiding his sensitive ears and chuckled a little "Sorry for screeching, Wolvie. But I do agree with Jellybean. Rogue needs our help. She's obviously a mutant, I don't know of anything else that could tax your mutation enough that you were in a coma for five hours, and she's in need of some help. I think we should help her."

"Let me call the boss man," he said, grunting and groaning himself to his feet. He looked at the other bed, pleased to see all of the girl's things out and organized on the comforter. First thing you do in an emergency situation is figure out exactly what you have. He nodded acknowledgement at the girls for taking his lesson to heart and glanced over everything while dialing Xavier's office number. He studied the contents more amazed that the girl had been intelligent enough to grab some of it. At first glance, he found food, cash, ID papers, a leatherman, duct tape and WD-40, all of which could be very helpful for someone on the run. Maybe this Rogue wasn't as lost case.

"Where's her CD player?" He asked Jubes, hoping that it hadn't lost in all the craziness. That and the rabbit seemed to be the only things that the girl loved. He was startled by Xavier picking up the phone, but he still noticed Jubilee pointing towards the bathroom. Good. The girl had it with her. Maybe it would help her feel less scared..

In his ear he could hear Wheels sounding slightly concerned. "Yes, Logan? Is something the matter?"

"Well, actually Professor, I was just calling to say we're on the planned schedule. We're stayin' here and we'll be back tomorrow."

"That is excellent to hear, but you did not need to call to tell me everything is alright. You seem troubled, Logan. What is it?"

Logan was conflicted. He really didn't think that Xavier would turn away anyone asking for sanctuary, but he also didn't want to take the chance that she would be deemed too dangerous before Xavier got to meet her. And there was no way he was going to put a blacked out powerful-as-hell mutant girl that was strong but fragile back out on the streets.

"I just wanted to let you know we're bringing someone with us. I'll introduce you tomorrow." And then Logan officially became the first person ever to hang up on Charles Xavier.

Marie felt consciences return in slow drips. First she noticed that her head was on something soft, which was nice and helpful because it allowed her to continue believing that she was floating. The next thing to register was the slight chill of air conditioning feathering over the skin of her hands. Finally, a load unmerciful beat stomped its way into her brain, jolting her out of her fantasyland where horses were purple with pink spots and she was capable flying through the cotton candy clouds, and back to some semblance of reality. She jerked her hands to her ears and, still unable to open her eyes, followed the cord to the CD player, notching it down three spots to level five, odd because normally eight was the perfect volume for her. She shrugged away that thought as unimportant and started a well practiced decent of self into the jazz sounds, letting the overlaying melody help her push back the voices in her head until she could think on her own without other opinions getting in the way. Finally satisfied that all assorted personal was put away in their own chamber, she cracked her eyes to blurry whiteness.

She shook her head slightly, eventually convincing her eyes to focus on the surroundings, though she was having issues believing what they were telling her. Closing her eyes again, she mentally strolled around her brain, checking the individual chamber doors again because some of her passengers liked to play tricks and make her see the wrong things. Her brain almost vibrated with a slight growl when she walked past the last door towards a shadowy spot in the back that had never been there before. She studied it shortly about to start probing when she stopped herself. Whatever it was, it was quiet and not bothering anything and she had other things to worry about at the moment. She walked back out of the hallway and into the real world bathroom again, scanning around to see the only splash of color, Norbert, sitting on the back of the toilet glaring accusingly because she had been unaware when she should have been protecting herself.

The last concrete memory she could drag up was that Jubilee chick asking for her name. Little wisps of musical memory overlaid with images of the man outside the window pumping gas teased her brain as well, but she couldn't place them in the timeline of her day. Not that it mattered anyway. It was quite obvious she had walked into a trap set by one of those government-sanctioned mutant bounty hunter groups her mother was always talking about. Mother said they traveled around in packs and used their specialized cell phones to pick out mutants from the crowd. Mutants that they later snatched and turned in to the local mutant containment facility for loads of money, leaving only a lucky few to wander the streets, always fearfully looking over their shoulder's for fates hand to rip away their freedom. "So count yourself as lucky, you ungrateful wretch", dad would shout. "You could be part of an experiment or dead instead of in this cozy house with food and care". She snorted silently, not wanting to alert anyone to her state of consciousness, at her father's idea of care. Well, these bounty hunters were about to learn that she wasn't a wilting flower to be jerked around by whoever held her stem. Time to move.

Quietly, she pulled herself up in the tub and waited for the slight dizziness to pass before pushing to her feet, finding herself searching the area for gloves to pull over bare hands. She couldn't find any, which would make things interesting when she escaped, but she couldn't let that worry her now. She tried the door first, not surprised in the slightest that it didn't budge, before turning to the window. It was one of those windows that flipped up on the outside, but no matter how hard she pushed, she couldn't get it to move either. Probably had something to do with the dark shadow she could barely make out through the dirty glass. Okay, so they had blocked any sort of exit. She could work with this still. She scoured the room top to bottom but found nothing but a few towels rolled up in the bathtub. Not even shampoo on the counter or a liner in the trashcan. Evidently these people were amazingly thorough or had picked a really low-end place to park her.

She tilted her head towards the mirror as she contemplated smashing it into pieces that could be used as weapons. The downside of that plan was that it would be impossible to do without alerting everyone in the vicinity that she was awake and capable of movement, which was an especially horrible thought when she really had no idea what was on the other side of that door. This bathroom turned holding cell was so unremarkable it could exist anywhere in the world. Breaking the mirror could be enough to draw hundreds of guards to her and have her headed straight to the firing squad or it could end in nothing if no one was around to hear. That plan was placed on the 'use only if desperate' shelf as she tried to come up with something else that could be done silently. Several other plans were discarded as useless before she looked in askance at Norbert, but if he had an idea, he wasn't sharing. He was probably sitting on one and waiting to taunt it with her later. He was an evil little thing like that sometimes.

Wait, sitting on it... She pulled Norbert off the toilet and, after setting him on the counter, picked up the heavy ceramic lid on the back, thinking that she may be able to break the window with it and scramble out before anyone could get to her. That one ranked slightly lower on the 'stupid plan' shelf than her other kept idea and she thought it might just be her only option. Maybe she could somehow use the towels or shower curtain to tie the door closed and slow down any pursuit? Before her mutation reared its ugly head, she used to do that all the time if she wanted to be alone. Though then, she had tied one end of her jump rope around the doorknob and the other to the knob on the closet which stopped the door from opening. About to go ahead with that plan, though the chance of success seemed minimal she couldn't think of something else, she heard someone stomping towards the door and a small scraping sound on the opposite side. She replaced the lid and dove back into the tub, arranging herself in the same position she had woken in only this time she tangled her hand in the end of one of the towels under her body. Sometimes instinctual plans were best.

She left her eyes open the barest slit, indictable to an observer, but still helpful in seeing the person entering the room, though she found she could pinpoint the girl by the god-awful smell of her deodorant. Damn, someone had to convince this mousy chick to switch brands because that was just overpoweringly rank. She suppressed both a shudder and a smirk as the girl closed the door and started walking towards the tub, eyes so fixated on her that she failed to notice Norbert's new location, a lack of observation Marie would have never made and that could get her killed in some situations. She tracked the girl's sure steps to the side of the tub, where she kneeled down and reached towards Marie's wrist with gloved fingers, almost startling Marie into jerking away because she couldn't figure out how they had discovered how dangerous her skin was. Marie mentally shrugged off the worry as insignificant to the current situation. Now that this woman was concentrating on her pulse, which she carefully regulated using some long practiced breathing techniques, it was countdown time.

She let go of her wrist, stood and turned to walk back to the door, evidently satisfied that Marie was still passed out. She leapt out of the tub and plastered herself to the woman's back, pulling the towel taut across her neck with enough pressure to stop the vocal cords from vibrating and halting almost all air. She leaned forward and whispered into the short brown hair. "Now, I don't want to hurt you. I'm going to release some of this pressure so you can breath, but if I hear you inhale loudly or do anything else that suggests you'll call for help, I will do everything in my considerable power to make sure you don't survive this night. Clear?" She punctuated the question with a jerk on the towel, drawing the slightest squeak out of the girl glued to her front. Waiting to feel the movement of the woman's nod against the side of her own head before she eased up on her throat seemed to take forever and she had to suppress a wince of pity at the red mark she could already see forming on pale skin.

"I know you don't think of me as a person. To you, I'm a dollar sign in front of a hell of a lot of zeros. But I am someone and I just escaped from one prison. I'm not letting you assholes take me back to another. I will be free. And you're going to get me out of here. Then, I'll let you go and you can return to your disgusting job as slave trader if you still have the stomach for it." She started walking towards the door, using her hips to push the girl in front of her. "When I tell you, open the door and tell your 'friends' out there to flatten themselves up against the wall farthest from us so I can see 'em."

She stopped them in front of the door, but the woman didn't reach for the knob. Instead, the lady opened her mouth to speak. The only words Marie heard were "It's not..." before she pulled the towel down unmercifully hard, fearing that she would have to take yet another life. The woman in front of her jerked and she could swear she saw her eyes roll in the mirror before she just suddenly wasn't a solid presence. Marie could see her, but felt nothing in front of her, almost like she was touching a projection. The woman calmly walked through the towel and then through the door in front of her, evidently turning substantial enough to be able to throw the lock on the other side. Marie stood there stunned for a moment then inspected the towel, looking for any cuts or breaks that could explain the other woman's escape. She wasn't even able to contemplate the door business; maybe she was still passed out and dreaming?

She pinched herself, no she was awake, cause that really hurt. Starting to pace around the bathroom, she heard that the woman's voice through the wood.

"As I was saying, before you so rudely interrupted, it's not what you think. We aren't here to turn you in for anything, let alone a simple accident with your mutation. You approached us, remember, not the other way around. Now, if you can calm yourself down a little bit, we can unlock this door and sort some stuff out."

Marie shook her head. Why would these people want to talk anything out with her? She ran to the door and began kicking it as she had when her parents had first locked her away. "All the infections that the sun sucks up from bogs, fens, flats, on prosper fall, and make you by inch-meal a disease!" she yelled through the door, mad as hell at the world for her current situation. She was confused, imprisoned (again), they had taken almost all of her things and her CD player was starting to beep its low battery signal. All in all, this was not in her original plans for her first day out of the attic.

She started using her fists to pound the door, no longer listening to the placating voice still trying to reach her, and attacking what she hoped was head level for the girl. After one especially hard hit, she felt a blinding pain eat its way through her fist and up her arm. She caught a glimpse of what seemed to be bones protruding from her closed hand, making her scramble back and fall onto her butt, keeping the rest of her body as far from her hand as possible and treating it as if it was no longer part of her. The fingers of her other hand fearfully ghosted over the bones, cutting the tips on the underside and causing blood to well and flow. She jerked that hand away and looked at her fingers in awe as the slices closed up and the pain disappeared into a strange tingling, like when your foot fell asleep, before that sensation faded as well.

Singing the jazz music, though the twilight zone theme would have been way more appropriate, she pulled herself slightly together and felt around her wrist, finding something that felt like a catch that had never been there before. Pushing the slight bump snapped the bones back into her arms and she watched, slightly amazed, as the holes in her hands fixed themselves. Norbert was easily in reach so she pulled him off the cold counter and into her lap, talking herself back from the freak out edge and using his familiar presence to surround her like a comforting cloak. Okay. Maybe this was another part of her mutation that had just never had a chance to make itself known. She sucked in a breath and concentrated on her arm, willing those bone extensions to shoot back out, half of her afraid that they would while the other half thought that maybe she had finally tipped the rest of the way over into crazy land. They shot back out, causing as much pain as the first time, though no one would have been able to tell by looking at her face. She glanced for reassurance at Norbert and stood, tucking her CD player in the back of her jeans before walking to the door. She shifted her gaze between the sharpened bones and the knob, finally shrugging and plunging them into it, shredding the locking mechanism. She jerked her hand back out, retracted the bones, and pushed the door open to see the man there, looking newly awoken and not thrilled about it, looming over her head, hand raised as if to knock. She pushed the catch to snap the bones back in, raised her eyes to his and calmly stated, "I'll pay for that".

---

Logan ran his hands through his hair; looking down at the girl who should still be locked in the bathroom and wondering for the fiftieth time just what fuck he had gotten himself into. Kitty's yelling had roused him from another almost coma-like sleep, something that kinda freaked him out cuz it had never happened before today, and he had dragged himself to the door right as metallic sound had split his eardrums. Seems this girl had other tricks up her sleeve. He advanced, forcing her to copy his steps in reverse unless she wanted him to run into her. He kept one of his eyes on her, not sure if she had listened to Kitty's explanations or not, while the other checked out the door. He eyebrow started an uphill trek towards his hairline when he saw marks on the doorknob that looked remarkably like ones he could have made with his own claws. Refocusing on her face, he saw though her mask of bravery to the true fearfulness she was trying to squash to death.

"Look, you're obviously the one in charge. Please just let me go," she said, voice almost, but not quite pleading. "Ya'll can keep whatever's in my bag, I just can't go back to being a prisoner again."

Evidently his eyebrow had decided the hairline wasn't far enough and was out to conquer Everest because it just kept climbing. "I don't know who locked you up before, but that ain't what we do. We want nothing you got anyway. We're gonna talk. The four of us" he shot a look over his shoulder at the two girls sitting on one of the double beds. "And we're gonna explain that we're not whatever you seem to think. Then, Rogue, you're comin' to New York."

He saw her head jerk up at the name and in denial before she cracked her mouth in protest. Enough of this shit. He popped the claws, hoping to cow her into silence and cooperation, but fear wasn't what he was scenting from her now. It was amazement, wariness and the barest hint of excitement, none of which was conveyed in her voice.

"Those are like mine," she deadpanned, brow crinkled with frown. "How can you imitate my mutation? Do you have my skin, too?" She took a step back with that, finally showing a little healthy respect towards him, though it most certainly wasn't needed now. Actually, he was slightly insulted by her fear. He hadn't hurt her yet, why would she think he would start now? He had to keep this girl. He shook his head, rattling his brain into behaving. No. They. They just had to keep this girl. She was way too messed up to be let loose at this stage.

"Rogue," he said, trying for reassuring and getting gruff instead, "just talk with the girls. I didn't take your mutation. From the looks of that" he pointed at the door, "you stole mine when you knocked me out back there. Do whatever you did to get through." Her green eyes widened when he mentioned his mutation then locked with his and she seemed to decide to trust him because a look of concentration crossed her face before he heard the familiar sound of skin tearing. He studied her hands, saw her doing the same, and yeah, the claws were just like his only shorter and made of bone. Must be what his were like before the lab... He stepped to her and ran his finger down the dull side, fascinated by the joint that split each one in the middle because it was something he no longer had. She snapped her head up again and he heard a faint whisper, "They're not as long than they were before. They're going away." She sounded glad, though he couldn't blame her. She had enough of her own issues as it was to add any more. He saw her eyes drop to the floor again and before scrambling back up "ya'll are mutants?"

He nodded, which seemed to satisfy her, because she pulled the claws back in and started for the door, looking at him over her shoulder and quipping "So, what kind of name is Rogue anyway?" He felt a smirk stretch the bottom of his face. "It seemed appropriate," he replied, following her into the main room.

---

An hour later, Marie was just starting to get used to being called Rogue, the new additions to her mutation had faded completely (thank God) and the two girls, Jubilee and Kitty, had helped the man, Logan, straighten her out. Well, it was more like Jubilee talked with Kitty throwing out tidbits of information during the occasional pause when Jubilee was gulping air into starved lungs and Logan looked on chewing the end of a cigar. She was also pretty exhausted from spending the whole day pingponging all over the emotion scale. She rubbed her eyes, trying to get rid of the grit before smirking at the girls, thinking that she might just grow to like the jabber mouth. She had evidently never bought into the 'silence is golden' thing, which Marie had a hard time agreeing to as well.

The trio had made it completely clear that there weren't any government paid bounty hunters out there and that, at the moment anyway, no one was rounding up mutants for extermination camps. It was a hard pill to swallow, her mother had been shoving those lies down her throat for years, always trying to frighten her into not trying an escape, but eventually she chose to believe it until something proved her different. Kitty did stress however, looking pointedly at Logan, that there were some labs operating in secret that would be more than happy with more people to experiment on. Marie found she didn't doubt it, her mother had never been one with an imagination so she had to have gotten the idea somewhere, and was slightly in awe of Logan for having survived one mostly intact.

It seemed Jubilee, the only one whose mutation she hadn't seen in action, could create small exploding bomb like things that went off wherever she directed them. Norbet, who had been listening to everything in that silent way of his, seemed to be as impressed as she was. Now why was she stuck with a mutation like hers with all these other cool ones around? She switched her CD player's batteries quickly, something the other's politely ignored, before turning to Logan, the one person in the group that she had spent the last hour convincing herself wouldn't feed her a line of bull.

"And ya'll are saying this Xavier person will help me with my mutation? Help me finish school? Feed and clothe me out of the goodness of his heart? I'm sorry, but I just can't bring myself to believe that. My parents didn't even do that for me."

"He will Rogue, he does it all the time for many of the students at the school," Jubilee threw in, even though the statement hadn't be directed her way. "And I don't want you wandering around on your own until you know exactly what your mutation can do, Rogue," Logan grumbled, obviously not comfortable being her momentary focus but taking the lead anyway. "I was in a lab and it ain't a place I'd throw my worst enemy, let alone a twenty year old girl." She studied his features, checking the smoothness of his forehead and the edges of his eyes for telltale lines that would indicate a lie and finding none.

"Okay," she finally agreed, shedding her last bit of worry and caution to the wind, "I'll come with you. But only on a trial basis. I get to leave whenever I want." She looked at Logan, ignoring Jubilee's piped in "You mean if you want" in favor of watching his facial expression. "Right?!"

He looked slightly pained before his expression cleared "Yeah, kid. You can leave whenever you want. And I'll personally make sure you get wherever you want to go."

"Why then the world's mine oyster," she murmured to herself before snapping to refocus on Logan. "You promise?" she said, trying to drill her eyes into his head. He seemed momentarily startled before replying. "Yeah, I promise." She nodded her head to affirm and turned to the two girls.

"Now help me get all my stuff back in the bag so we can get the hell out of here. I don't know about ya'll but I for one don't wanna be anywhere near this place when the cleaning lady sees that bathroom door." She stood up and started putting things back in her backpack; fitting them in certain locations because she knew there was no way it would all fit otherwise.

Jubilee started handing her bottles of water and threw out teasingly, "Chica, I thought you could just sing a song, ya know, all Merlin or Mary Poppins style, and get all that crap to dance its way back into your bag. I'm convinced it's the only way you got it all in there to begin with."

Marie rolled her eyes, "I'm the master packer. Stand back, watch me work." And she got down to business singing along with her CD player like the song was actually moving the items into the bag, listening to someone else laugh for the first time in years. She savored the human interaction of the past few hours and loaded the last few things into her bag. Mary Poppins had nothing on the newly christened Rogue.

Logan glanced up from the road for the first time in two hours his attention jerked to Rogue, sitting in the passenger seat, by her sharply indrawn breath. He whipped his head around the car, checking the wonder twins leaning against each other sleeping in the back and looked out all the windows before deciding that it wasn't a threat that had broken the girl's long silence. He checked the road again, on one else was driving this early anyway, and squinted at her, eyes somewhat blinded by the sunlight now pouring in through her window. She was turned almost fully in her seat, forehead leaned against the glass while the shifting sun played across her face. "You okay, kid?" he asked, worried that maybe this was the beginning of another episode.

She turned to face him, eyes lit up and a smile as big as the world on her face that dragged the corners of his mouth up slightly as well. "I never thought that I would see this again," she stated, turning back to the window and sighing happily at the sunrise. He felt his lips return to their more usual frowning position. "What do you mean? Someone out to kill you or something?" She glanced at him over her shoulder, smile having been chased away by melancholy. "Never mind," she whispered, resuming her study of the outside world. "It's nothing."

Logan sat in his seat, slightly stunned by her response. The radio was twanging out some old country ballad that he wished he could turn off so it would be easier to think, but that wasn't an option. He did his best to ignore it and focused his thoughts.

What teenage girl didn't want to talk about herself? True, out of the teenagers at the mansion he really only talked to Kitty and Jubes, but he had been around enough that he could do a study on teenage life. And girls liked to talk about everything to anyone who would listen. He knew more about some of them from just overhearing conversations then he knew about himself.

Rogue's reactions and her tendency to spout Shakespearean quotes had him pretty convinced that she had been in some shitty situations that had pushed her over an edge. Maybe he should just leave her alone? For some reason he didn't like that idea. No one her age should be shut up tight especially when they had as much fire as this girl. He was afraid being shut off would eventually douse her, turning her into an unnoticed wall ornament. Plus, he was just plain curious about her.

He remembered some of his meetings with Xavier after he had gotten out of the lab. The old man had been all about "talking it out to bleed poison from the soul". If Logan had a dollar for every time he had heard that phrase in the professor's sophisticated drone, he'd be rich enough to buy Canada, though the man did have a point. He'd eventually talked to the wonder twins about everything, though he had no idea why really, and felt freer and more like himself in the long run. If he, as badass as they come, felt better by talking, it seemed obvious that Rogue, teenage girl that she was, would benefit from it as well. But how to get her to start? He wasn't a sweet talker like Xavier and didn't think he could convince her to listen to him. He opened his mouth before his conscious mind had completely settled on an idea and let his instincts take over.

"What do you know about how people feel about mutants?" He saw her shrug out of the corner of his eye. "Evidently nothing," she admitted. "Everything I thought I knew came from my mother and we've found that she wasn't exactly honest." She flopped back in her seat. "I know nothing." She sounded defeated to his ears.

Great Logan, he thought. Way to make her feel good about herself. You're just awesome at this shit.

"Well, it's not as bad as she made it seem, but nothing's hunky dory either. Lot a people are afraid of us, but most aren't willing to go outta their way to do anything about it. Then there are some who are all about mutant equality," he found himself snorting at that. "Most of 'em are just looking for a cause to fight for. Unfortunately, there are also some people who've decided to do something about their hate. They take mutants, but aren't obvious about it, and either kill 'em or perform experiments." He felt his throat tighten but forced it to keep working. "People like the ones that got a hold of me."

Her head snapped around and her eyes locked with his. He allowed her to keep his gaze, as she seemed to be searching his face for something. Whatever it was, she must have found it because she turned back to the front, saying nothing but inclining her head, telling him to continue. He was impressed that she understood that sharing was completely outside of his comfort zone and her talking would've instantly killed it. He convinced his vocal cords to vibrate again.

"Well, they had me twice. The first time, somehow, they wiped my brain so I lost everything from my past. I got about twenty years of memories stored now. We're guessing they constantly drilled me in every form of martial art and pumped me full a steroids and other shit to 'enhance' me cuz it happened at some point in my life" It was easier to say this if he pretended he was reciting a movie plot and, since this wasn't his therapy, that's what he did. "I escaped, no idea how so don't ask, and my brain eventually kicked in again because I figured out that I wasn't living like I should. Worked my way back into society, well if you call Canada society, and started living offa my knuckles. Did that for about 15 years until I got captured again." He checked her expression, not knowing how to take it when he saw a slight glisten in her eyes. Hell, he didn't want her to cry. This was all in the past and he was supposed to be helping her. Convincing her that maybe it was better to talk shit out.

"The second time, I remember everything. They decided, since they had located me again, that they should try a new experiment to see just how well I could heal. They implanted a chip in the back of my brain so they could control my body and fused an indestructible metal to my skeleton, making my bones harder to brake so I can take more damage. They used the same metal that they had used on my claws the first time, musta found more of it somewhere, and left me in a cell alone to heal up before my test run." He felt himself smirking. "Guess they underestimated me. No one was controlling me at that time, so I used my claws and dug out the chip." Her scent picked up even more strands of horror with that so he hurried on. "Then I fought my way out of there and right into the X-Men's arms. They were there, trying to 'liberate' the mutants inside and were surprised when I walked out under my own power. Somehow the Jelly Bean," he gestured over his shoulder to the sleeping beauties in the back, "sweet talked me into coming with them. Been five years now and I wouldn't want to go back to just shifting around the continent fighting everywhere." He forced a grin. "Though I do sometimes escape to some of the old shitholes to keep the King of the Cage title."

He blew out a breath, glancing up to try to gauge Rogue's reaction to everything he had just spilled onto her. Her eyes were moving rapidly under closed lids and he was shocked and freaked out to see tears pouring down her face. "Rogue. Rogue, it's okay. I'm pissed about it sure but it's nothing to-"

"Oh, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do?" He ignored that, just more of her crazy coming through, and waited for he to make sense. She played with her fingers, seemingly unable to look at him "It's not you telling me about everything that's upsetting. I'm just remembering it for the first time and living something like that causes tears." She wiped her cheeks with the backs of her gloves.

What the fuck was she talking about now? "What do you mean remembering?" he ground out, patience flying out the window when he had to wait a minute for an answer. "Rogue!"

"Marie," she responded. "If you told me all that and we lived it together, I can tell you my name. It's Marie. But that's just you for you." He glanced over and raised an eyebrow. She bobbed her head once, "Gotta earn it."

He was floored at her admission and humbled by her trust, but he still wanted answers. He tried to infuse warmth in his voice. "Marie, what do you mean remembering?"

She looked up from the dashboard, eyes dry now but puffy from the tears, and blew him out of the water with her words. "When someone touches me, I get their brain." She held up her hands in a 'wait' pose. "No, that's not right. I get a copy of their brain, memories, skills and feelings. It jumps into my head and I have to get it locked into a room or sometimes the person I copied tries to take me over, especially if they're pissed or afraid."

"You mean you have my memories just floating around your head, waitin' for you to look at 'em?" He was less than thrilled with that idea for multiple reasons.

"No, I told you, I lock that copy away. If it helps with the feeling of claustrophobia, your room is bigger then everyone else's. Most of them were mean to me and tried to lock me in instead so I punish them with a closet. You just chilled in the corner until I figured out you were there and led you to your room. I let you do the decorating and now it looks like a pub with a limitless supply" she shook her head and flashed a small grin that was quickly swallowed by a look of concentration. "Normally, I only have my memories and I can't see those that are locked away unless I dig them out on purpose or someone says something that triggers one of them, like when you were talking earlier. Even though you gave me the cliffnotes version, it still woke them up. Then, there are the times when my locks aren't good enough to stop a jailbreak. That's when bad things happen"

He sat in his seat for a minute, trying to process everything she had said and translate it into something he could understand. She seemed content to ride along and wait him out. He was starting to feel like he got the gist when it sunk in that he had just forced a teenage girl to live through torture. He couldn't do anything right. "Fuck. I'm sorry kid for what you got from me. No one needs to deal with that shit."

"Why?" she was awfully calm. "Did you wake up this morning and say 'You know what I'd like to do today? I think I'll find another mutant that can leach out my memories and almost kill me just so I can make her life suck."

Evidently she wasn't going to need to attend his school of sarcasm; she seemed to have a pretty good grasp without assistance. "It's not your fault, Logan. You didn't know I was a mutant. You told me you were trying to make sure I didn't get hurt anymore during my little" she held up finger quotes for the next word "episode." That didn't really help him fell less guilty, but there was nothing he could do about what had happened. He could control the present though and try to drag more out of her because the need to know was eating away at him.

"You said earlier 'they were all mean'? Just how many people you carting around up there?" He tapped her on the top of the head over her hair, happily noticing that her flinch was less severe than some of the others had been. Progress.

"You make five," she admitted, fidgeting slightly in her seat. Logan cringed. That had to be horrible. It was bad enough that he had to deal with the Wolverine on random occurrences. Four, now five, other people in her head? That was downright claustrophobia causing.

He couldn't stop himself from asking. "Who are they?"

She turned back to face him, fingers locked together in what had to be a painful twist. His knuckles ached just looking at them. "You sure you're up for this story? If you want to know who, then you need to know how and to know how, you're stuck with getting pretty much my whole life PM. " She clarified before he could ask. "Post manifestation."

He was silent, trying to figure out how to tell her that knowing this was somehow important to him, when she jumped in again, sounding panicked. "You can say no. I would completely understand. The abridged version hasn't been written yet because I haven't figured out how to leave things out." She was rambling. He could tell that part of her didn't want to talk about it but another part wanted it all off of her chest. Well, he had a big enough chest to take it so he gave her a look that told her to get going. She looked over her shoulder, probably making sure the girls were still asleep, before settling back into her seat and staring forward for a few minutes. He gave her the time, confident that she would start when she ready.

---

Marie started shifting though the pieces of her life, dragging out some that had been buried for years under floorboards and forcing them all into a comprehensive timeline. She had to get this right the first time because she was convinced that she wouldn't be able to go over it again and it wasn't like she had experience talking to people. Like a long joke, a story that was told out of order often lost all meaning and she couldn't let that happen with her history because it was all she had. When she felt put together, she took a deep breath and began.

"I was born and raised for most of my life in a small farm town in Arkansas. All the neighbors had cows; we owned horses and I had so many friends to play with. Everyone knew each other's business because the town was so little. Most of the families in town had been there for generations, so my parents knew all my friends' parents. Outsiders tended to stay away because everyone was suspicious of new people. My friends and I could play outside for hours and none of our parents would be worried because the only crimes ever committed were just pranks by high schoolers so it was never anything big. We went to church every Sunday and until I was twelve I got to play in bible study instead of sitting upstairs with the adults, which was really boring.

My parents loved me. They would always talk about how I was their little princess and jokingly say I was so spoiled, which was pretty true actually. I got almost everything I asked for. Little girls always ask for a pony and never get one. Not me. I actually got a pony. My dad built me a tree house out back and mom would haul all kinds of things up there so we could have tea parties with my stuffed animals. Norbert was always my favorite." She made sure to wink at the bunny sitting on the top of her backpack at her feet as she basked in the warmth of her remembered perfect childhood. He wished her luck in the next part because it was about to get harder.

"So yeah, pretty much had the perfect childhood. When I turned twelve, like I said, I had to go upstairs and sit with the adults during mass, which was actually okay because my friend Cody moved upstairs at the same time. Up until then, we had never been really close, but we got to be better friends after the move because his parents shared a pew with mine. We started hanging out together all the time and he became my best friend over the years.

Let's fast forward because over the next three years, nothing really out of the norm happened. On my fifteenth birthday, my parents threw a huge party. I swear half the town was there. Everyone was dancing in the backyard and there was a giant pig roasting that smelled so good I thought I was going to die if I couldn't get a piece. I told Cody that he needed to distract some of the parents so I could sneak up to the spit and steal some but he told me I had to do something with him first. He wanted to give me his present. I was so excited, Cody's presents were always the best, I almost forgot about the pork. He told me that my present was upstairs in my room.


When we went up there, I looked around and saw this huge map of the United States on my wall. Cody had drawn a red line on it that followed the route we were planning on taking on a roadtrip after high school graduation in three years. He even had put green dots on all the major cities we were planning to see."

She could feel herself starting to tense up, wished that she could turn back the clock and tell that poor fifteen year old girl to just walk out. Not that leaving would have stopped her mutation from making its dŽbut but maybe it could have spared her friend.

"Cody walked me over to the wall where it was and pointed to one of the green dots. 'Do you know what these are?' he asked me. At that point, I noticed that he had a dot on our hometown too. I asked him what and he said 'these are all of the places in this country that I'm going to kiss you'. I was pretty shocked. He had never said anything about liking me like that. I was still kinda at the stage where I was indifferent to boys. Some of my friends had boyfriends, but I just didn't see the point. I had way too much fun with my friends and by myself and I didn't want to mess that up. Maybe my sexuality just hadn't woken up yet. Anyway, before I even noticed, he had me backed into the wall and was leaning into me pretty close. I tried to get my hands between us and stop him from moving forward, but he was stronger than me. I barely got out 'Cody, no!' before his lips were on mine.

It wasn't that he forced me and it wasn't like I felt violated or anything, it just felt weird. Like I was kissing my brother or something. He pulled away and I tried to explain how I felt to him, but he got a determined look on his face and said 'if you didn't like it then I'm gonna try again'." She looked up at Logan when she heard a slight rumble from his direction. "Don't be grouchy. He was a teenage boy. He didn't hurt me; he was just confused that I didn't feel the same way." She saw him smooth his face back into the blank expression that she could only assume meant he was listening intently so she stepped back into storyteller mode.

"Well, the second kiss felt different. At first it felt like an electric shock, like if you touch metal after scuffing your feet for a long time, before it got deeper, almost like if you put a fork in a socket. Then I started getting a lot of his feelings and memories. I saw all of my memories of the times we were together, only from his point of view. He had been reading into our friendship for years and every time I hung out with him was even more proof that I wanted him like he wanted me. But I didn't understand how I was seeing these things or what was happening.

Of course it was late summer and I was wearing this tiny sundress, plenty of skin showing, so when Cody collapsed onto me we were touching everywhere from his face to his toes. He was shaking against me, almost seizing and his nose started bleeding." She had to stop for a minute and take a few deep breaths, reminding herself that it wasn't happening, that hyperventilating wouldn't be helpful and that she was safe with her seat belt wrapped around her. "I was shorter and not as strong then, I couldn't move him off of me and no one could hear me screaming because of the loud music outside. I lay under him until he suddenly shuddered and stopped jerking around. I was no longer getting any of his energy or his thoughts invading my head. Somehow, maybe with emergency crazy strength or something, I got him shifted onto the floor and I sat there for a minute seeing nothing and drowning in the sea in my head. I had an instant headache and couldn't think. My mother broke me out of it when she opened the door to my room, trying to find the two of us. I was finally able to focus on Cody, lying on the floor getting paler by the minute, and realized I had killed my best friend's body."

She stopped at Logan's sharp look in her direction, almost stuttering at the halt in her rhythm because she kept turning off her brain to be able to keep talking. His voice was gravely when he asked, "You killed his body?"

"Oh. Everyone else says he's dead, but he's not really. He's no longer in his own body, but he's in mine. I have his whole persona in my head now. He ages with me and grows as I grow; changes with the different things I experience. Though I guess because I am the only one that can see and talk to him, he is dead to the rest of the world. It's not like that with the people that I just absorb without killing. Those copies don't age or change that much but they are aware of what I happens to me and believe me, they all have their own opinions about my life." She looked at him, asking with her expression if they are okay to continue. She took his nod as her cue.

"So, mother looked horrified and started yelling for my father to get up here and he must of heard her somehow because he came storming in. I had always been a daddy's girl and I ran to him immediately, throwing my arms around his neck. I started getting his thoughts right away, no hesitation this time, and the predominate note in them all was 'not my daughter, this isn't my daughter'. I let go of him as soon as I could and he passed out for a few minutes. By then, half of the neighborhood had heard the commotion and come to investigate like good southerners. They took over my room and saw Cody lying on the floor with my father next to him. Mother was muttering something about changelings and my father was just waking up when Cody's mom came in and started wailing about her dead child. I was trying to console her, or Cody was with my mouth anyway, talking about how he was right there in front of her, she just had to look at him. She passed out. Father then got to his feet, made all the guests leave and called the cops.

When they showed up, it was devastating. Like I said, small town. My friend's dad was the sheriff and I knew all the cops by name. I tried to explain what happened, but Cody kept coming out too and I think we just confused everyone. Father was still weak but he was aware enough to be able to insist on having me committed to a mental hospital until I could 'calm down and no longer be a danger to society'. Mother just let him do what he wanted. I think she was in shock over the whole thing." She sighed. "I went to the mental hospital that night. They kept me drugged pretty much all of the time and my parents came to visit me only once during the six months that I was there. No one in the south wants to be different. Everyone that doesn't fit in the cookie cutter mold- white, church going citizen with a family of 2.5 kids and a dog- must be evil, stupid or unworthy of decency from others. Christ," she laughed bitterly, "they would still have lynch mobs if they could get away with it.

I guess the neighbors wouldn't leave my parents alone. The one time they came to visit, all they talked about was how much trouble I was for them and they seemed convinced that I was some sort of changeling creature who took over their daughter. My personality shifted slightly when I picked up Cody, which I understood but no one else did, and they took that as more proof. The town kept harassing them about 'bringing such evil' into their peaceful community. Amazing, isn't it, how quickly everyone forgot that my family had lived in that town for six generations?

The town, my parents included, was convinced that I had somehow brought this on myself; only everyone else, cut off from me, had started turning anger and hatred onto my parents. They pulled me out of that hospital and we moved to Meridian, Mississippi where I didn't exist. They painted themselves as a couple cursed with infertility and who had never had children. They made sure to buy a house with a large attic, which became my prison. I don't know what had happened, but something had pushed up the timeline for the move. The parents had wanted to have my prison completed before we moved in but, as it was, they had to have a contractor come in to finish the bathroom.

This was in the beginning of the PM timeline for me so I still listened to what my parents. They had spun the whole imprisonment thing as what was best for me, telling me stories about the bounty hunters and about how people wanted me dead for killing Cody. They coached me to tell the contractor that I was agoraphobic, meaning that I was afraid to leave the house. I stayed upstairs with him the whole time he was working on the bathroom.

The contractor, Tim, was number three to join the party in my head. He thought that I would be fair game. He'd picked up on the fact that my parents weren't at all warm towards me and he thought I wasn't right in the head because of my phobia. Also, he tended to appreciate underage girls. He figured no one would notice or care if he played around with me a little and trust me, he was completely correct on that count.

I was on my bed, reading, when I was jerked upright and forced onto my knees leaning over the edge. He shifted behind me and used his weight to hold my chest down while he fumbled with is belt. He just kept oozing these nasty words, going on about how much I was going to enjoy him and how much of a slut I was as such a young age. I was panicked and had no idea what to do. I was yelling out for my parents until he used his shirt to gag me. It smelled like greasy sweat and tasted like licking the bottom of a shoe. And my parents never came to help me, cementing my lack of trust for the rest of my life.

Not that I really needed help in the long run. In a way, Tim got what he wanted. I did suck him of. He made the mistake of reaching up under my shirt to grab my breast. Getting his every thought and feeling first hand from the connection I get through my skin was not what I needed. He fell backwards off of me, thank god, and I scrambled away and into the bathroom.

On the upside, I picked up the knowledge to finish the bathroom on my own meaning that no one else needed to invade my territory. That's what I was doing when the guy came to, ran down the stairs and locked the door behind him, yelling for my parents the whole time. They must have bribed him into silence or something because no one ever came over to the house looking for a mutant in the attic. I finished the bathroom, my father took away all the tools and that was the last time I had saw another person's face for 3 years."

She let herself slump back into the seat, exhausted from the sharing session and shaking slightly from the reemerging fear. Who knew that simple talking could drag this much energy and anguish out of you? She closed her eyes, trying to shut up everyone in her brain that had started talking. Turning the radio to a classic rock station helped and she just focused on the beat for a while, letting Logan absorb what she had said. She had no earthly idea what he could be thinking but with her luck, he was looking for the next convenient place to drop her. She rolled her head to the left on the headrest, studying his face as it shifted from blank to thinking to frowning.

"That's gotta be on the list of worst stories ever lived kid and I'm sure Xavier would have lots of really important questions to ask about it, but I'm no good at this shit. What I did pick up on was that what you told me only accounts for three 'people at the party' as you put it. I'm five. Who was four?"

She was going to die. As soon as she heard the number mentioned, she always got slightly short of breath but this was worse. Her lungs wouldn't expand and she felt like she was flopping around, a fish out of water. She threw on her headphones, cranking Kiss up to the max and padlocked door number four, trying to get some air into her starving cells. Her hands reached over almost of their own accord and grabbed the wheel, drawing on strength she shouldn't have had to wrench it away from Logan. He looked shocked but let her guide them into a rest stop, where she released the wheel and flung her door open before they were completely stopped.

"I can't talk about that now. It's too close. I have to move. I just have to move," she heard herself yell back as she took off into a hard run, feet pounding the packed dirt of the dog walk looping the rest area. She passed Logan on the first lap and noticed he was leaning against the hood of the car, puffing a cigar and scowling into space. She just hoped he didn't try to stop her anytime soon or leave her behind in the middle of nowhere. She dragged her eyes back to the ground in front of her feet, ignoring everything except for the physical exertion and the chaos in her head.

Logan settled himself onto the front of the Focus, so intent on tracking Marie's frantic sprint that he didn't notice the creaking complaint from the hood as it dented under his weight. He yanked out a cigar and started chomping the end in agitation, finally lighting it as she rounded a tree and started heading back his way. It was no struggle to understand her need to run from the shit they had just dragged up. He had enough memories of his own that made him want to just move. Sometimes things happened that just couldn't be dealt with rationally. And her story was utterly shitacular (in Jubese). Christ, she had been through way too much to only be twenty. And it was obvious he hadn't even heard the worst of it yet.

He was trying to understand where she was coming from, but had no starting point. She'd had a perfect life with loved ones that turned on her. He'd had no one until the wonder twins adopted him. Thinking what it would feel like if both of them suddenly dropped him from their lives almost threw him into a panic. They had become his family and he didn't know what he would do if they had suddenly turned their backs. Marie's parents had done that to her and, worse then just ignoring her, went out of the way to lock her up. He shook his head in disbelief. It was a wonder that she was anywhere close to sane. Sure, she was weird as fuck and had some issues but, based on her situation, she wasn't really that bad off. She'd survived. She had to be one tough cookie. And he was damn sure that Xavier could help her with her issues once they got her back to the freakshow.

Speaking of freakshow, he thought after watching her complete her fifteenth lap at breakneck speed, singing at the top of her lungs while her face poured sweat and her legs threatened to collapse under her; It was time to use one to stop the other. He turned to the back door and pried it open, poking Jubilee in the arm. She swatted her hand in his direction, nowhere close to conscious. Well, she was just gonna have to give up some of that beauty sleep. Marie needed help and he was pretty sure she wouldn't want to talk to him because he knew what pumped the fuel to her feet. He suppressed a growl and reached both hands into the back seat, grabbed Jubilee by her shoulders and pulled her off of Kitty's lap, setting her on her feet. She folded when he released her and he smirked at her when she glared at him from the dirt. He nodded towards Marie, who had evidently given in to her exhaustion and was leaning against a weeping willow, and raised an eyebrow at the jellybean.

Jubilee used the door handle to drag herself to her feet and leaned into the backseat. "Wake up Kit. Logan pulled the usual and socially tanked. We're damage control." He tracked her as she got back out of the car and stretched while waiting for her partner in crime. As Kitty was rounding the trunk he snagged Jubilee's arm. He'd be damned if the kid didn't get Xavier's help because they didn't know how to handle her delicately.

"Her history's fucked. That's why she's a little... off." He grumbled, shocking himself by trying to justify Marie's behavior.

"You mean batshit crazy?" Leave it to her to make things colorful. "I figured that out already, Wolvie. You don't live through the shit I did without being able to pick up signs. We'll be back in a jif. Comon Kit."

He watched, with no little worry, as the two of them made their way toward the weeping willow to bring Marie back from the edge.

---

Jubilee linked arms with Kitty and starting ping ponging ideas around in her head, hoping to land on something that could eat through the wall of anguish that had Rogue trapped. Something that would rebury that emotion and smother it with others. She glanced at Kit out of the corner of her eye as her brain struck gold. "Hey Kit. How much do you remember from 11th grade English?"

She watched as the look of confusion on her friend's face melted into understanding then morphed into enthusiasm. "Better than you I'm sure since I never skipped class." Jubes grinned in remembrance and saw Kitty's eyes roll. "I'll find the sticks. Try not to trip over your brilliance."

About a minute later Kitty was back, clutching three sticks about three and a half feet long. Jubilee took one and they smiled at each other before letting their faces go slack and screwing up their eyes until they looked grotesque. Jubes gave Kitty some mental extra credit for the drool she developed as they limped the rest of the way to Rogue. Ms. Grey would be so proud she snorted mentally as they stopped just behind the tree trunk that Rogue was leaning on, headphones securely attached.

She leaned forward and used the cord to pull one of the plugs out of Rogue's ear then snapped back into a hunched position as the girl spun towards her. Kitty's voice stopped Rogue dead in her tracks.

"Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd." She crooned, holding the stick perpendicular to the ground like she was stirring something.

"Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined." Jubilee picked up the chant, copying Kitty's stance. They both turned and looked expectantly at the flabbergasted Rogue who was holding onto the tree trunk like it was a lifeline keeping her afloat. Her mouth flapped a couple of times before Jubilee heard a quietly mumbled. "Harpier cried 'Tis time, 'tis time." She did a mental victory dance as Kitty picked up the next verse, starting a clockwise circle around the "cauldron" which Jubilee followed, leaving one spot for the third witch should she choose to take it.

"Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot."

Jubilee was getting into the act now, remembering when the two of them had performed this for the school's talent show with Alison (aka Dazzler). They had been totally awesome because Kitty'd phased them up through the floor of the stage, making the witches appear from nothingness, and Dazzler had lit up the area around them with flashes of light to add to the creepiness. Combined with her own ability to make their caldron spit sparks and eventually blow up, flinging green goop everywhere, they had had the first place prize in the bag. She concentrated and screwed up her face more, hoping that it would draw Rogue farther into their little game.

"Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."

She could swear that Rogue had joined in, quietly yes, but her voice had still been there. She picked up her next lines, channeling as much nasty witch crazy as she could grasp.

"Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing.
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."

YES! About halfway through that verse, Rogue had bent down and grabbed the final stick, taking her place as the third witch and throwing a bunch of leaves into the cauldron on 'wool of bat'. The three of them crackled together, "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble," scaring a couple of squirrels out of the willow and to an adjacent tree, scolding the whole time. Jubilee was also pretty sure she had just seen Logan join their little party, eyebrow cocked and lazy half-smile firmly in place. Suddenly, her thoughts were stopped by Rogue's haunting voice.

"Scale of dragon, tooth of wold,
Witches' mumm, maw and fulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gal of goat, and slips of yew
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab
Make the gruel think and slab;
Add thereto a tiger's caudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron."

Jubilee didn't know how they had done it, but they had to have found one of the best actresses in the world. Rogue had somehow completely dropped her accent and had morphed her voice into that of an old hag. Her face seemed to have aged a good thirty years from expression alone and her half limp seemed so real that it took considerable effort on not to ask if something was wrong. You could tell that the girl was totally absorbed by her actions and had traded in her crazy look.

"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble." The three of them chanted together on last time, throwing their sticks over their shoulders to hear them clank to the ground as she finished the scene. "Cool it with a baboon's blood. Then the charm is firm and good." They all looked to the center of the circle, staring into the ground and Jubes found she was strangely reluctant to let the moment go. Something had snapped into being while they were participating in this random act of crazy and she was afraid it would vanish with the ending words.

She felt someone staring at her and picked up her head to meet Rogue's eyes across the circle just in time to see the birth of a radiating smile. She couldn't help smiling back and watched it grow as the girl turned to include Kitty in her joy. Jubes caught Logan's eye and he shook his head in seeming disbelief mouthing "trouble indeed" before walking to Rogue and leaning down to speak to her quietly. Hey now!

"Secrets secrets are no fun! Secrets secrets cause me to potentially maim someone."

She grinned at Logan's 'shut up' look and linked arms with Kitty. "We'll just be in the car. At the rate we're going, it's gonna be time to pick Remy back up before we even get home."

---

Rogue leaned into the tree and watched the two girls (dare she say her friends?) meander back to the Focus. Once they were safely inside, she had nothing to look at besides Logan, making her a coward if she didn't. She talked herself into turning to him and saw him studying her, but he didn't seem to be judging. It looked to her like he was working out a puzzle and just trying to fit the next piece into place. She snorted mentally. Maybe he could show her the picture when it was done. Someone needed to put her together.

"You okay now, kid?" he asked, looking uncomfortable. She kind of felt sorry for him. It was obvious that he wasn't used to dealing with other people's feelings, but he was making an effort because she had dumped all that emotional crap on him and he felt obligated. Well she was doing better now that Kitty and Jubilee had found her so he didn't need to worry.

"Just peachy sugar." She started walking to the car and could feel Logan's eyes on the back of her head before he took a few long strides to catch up. She breathed out an internal sigh of relief. No way could she go through any more emotional strain right now without stepping out in front of a semi.

"They don't know anything, do they?" she asked before they opened the doors. His response was in look form and, if translated, would have been "Do I look like that fucking stupid?" She shook her head and flopped into the front seat, turning to look at the two in the back as she flipped CD's to Styx.

"Why Shakespeare?"

The- what had Logan called them? Oh yeah- wonder twins met eyes and, surprisingly, it was Kitty who spoke first. "Honey, you quote Shakespeare all the time," she frowned. "We just took your cue."

Marie was shocked speechless for a minute and felt the car rock into gear. "You sure you aren't both physic? I sometimes use Shakespeare to calm myself down or to just make myself laugh if I need it, but the only time I've ever quoted Shakespeare around you three was before we went to the hotel. And then it wasn't even on purpose cause part of my brain hijacked my body."

She felt the car rock into gear as Logan spoke up. "Rogue, you've quoted at least six times when I could hear you." He sounded slightly worried and she felt the car jolt as the gas stopped flowing. She forced cheeriness into her voice. "Keep going, it's fine. I just didn't know that about myself. Aren't we always learning?"

She turned back to the front and tried to hide avalanch that was going on in her head. Was she a schizophrenic? She almost hit herself in the head for that stupid thought. Of course. She was pretty much a walking textbook definition. Okay, get a grip. Sing 'Lady' for a minute and regroup. Maybe she did occasionally open her mouth when her brain hadn't sanctioned it. Big deal, right? There were a lot of people who talked without intelligence behind it. And there were worse people out there that she could be quoting. Maybe this professor guy would have a cure. Though, while he was at it, maybe he could just program her brain to normal. Right after the magenta giraffes started flying out of Logan's butt singing "Luck be a Lady Tonight".

She sat quietly for a bit, letting her mind drift with the classic rock lyrics while she basked in the feeling of togetherness she got from being with other people. It was novel after years of solitude and she was pretty sure it was going to take time to readjust. She had to keep checking herself to make sure she wasn't talking to Norbert out loud. He could hear her thoughts anyway, making speaking unnecessary but it was another habit on her 'to break' list. When you had no one to speak to, you could forget speech all together if you didn't practice, so she had conversed vocally with Norbert instead of just thinking to him. Right now though, he didn't care if she was speaking or not. He was harassing her to explain the music thing before someone else got hurt. She sucked in a breath and relented.

"So, I guess you guys are wondering about my music." She looked around, seeing polite interest on everyone's faces, but not full-fledged curiosity. Ah, they were trying to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal. That made her feel melty. "Thanks for not pouncing on that. I'll tell you anyway though. So, there are people who aren't me in my head and no Jubilee, I don't want to explain. They live there. Each of them has a room with a lock on the door. Most of them are constantly testing that lock, trying to pick it or break it in some way so they can escape and take over, leading to badness. Anyway, long story short, the constant flow of music keeps the locks turned in the direction I want them to be. As the lyrics and melodies flow in my head, my brain attaches some energy to them. Then they constantly swarm the doors and keep me safe. I trained my brain to do it after some mishaps in the beginning with escapees. Now, I don't have to pay any attention, my brain just does it on autopilot."

She dragged her pride back around her using the unraveling edges. "What happened here, when I was christened in blood, was an attempted takeover by two people at the same time. I think you noticed that it can get ugly. Basically, I just wanted to let you guys know that I don't want to be rude with my CD player, but I can't take chances. Also, I think that I've come to rely on it more and more as the years pass. I don't really feel grounded without it now and every time silence falls (she couldn't suppress a shudder at that) it feels as if my personality is going to disintegrate into ashes, then float around my head until it's scattered into everyone's rooms and then no one will be home at all."

In the review mirror, she saw Jubilee get the reassuring look on her face that she had seen one time too many to ignore. Marie beat her to the punch. "Yes, Jubilee, I know that maybe your professor can help me. That's part of the reason I'm going with you guys. But I try not to put too much stock in maybes because typically, for me anyways, they don't work out. But I'm gonna try."

She relaxed again, holding her breath and waiting for a reaction or a question from one of them. When it came, it wasn't at all what she expected and it surprisingly came from next to her.

"What's the other part?" Logan demanded, sounding almost angry to her ears. She let her smile take root.

"I think I'm starting to like you guys. And since my only friend is Norbert, I better hold on to anyone who doesn't run screaming as soon as they see what I can do." She glanced around quickly and got answering smiles from the backseat. The driver's side was a different story. Evidently, it was back to blank face Logan. Well, two for three wasn't that bad. And she was determined to win him over because everyone, especially people with pasts like theirs, needed others around who understood. They needed each other's friendship; she just had to wake him up to the fact.

Hours later Logan was appreciating the relative silence, a product of everyone else being asleep, broken by only the occasional sign or mumble from Jubes in the back who couldn't do anything quietly. Not a peep outta Marie since the last bomb she dropped on the car. He knew she'd been awake and staring ahead for some of the time they were driving, but figured she might need a while to sort shit out. The girl'd been through the wringer since escaping her parents' house.

He glanced over to the passenger seat and found his hand halfway to her face before he noticed it had even left the wheel. He jerked it back into his own hair, scratching his scalp and scrubbing his face in exasperation because evidently he had been about to brush her hair out of her face so he could see her hopefully looking peaceful. Her face was always so animated and distorted by all of her feelings trying to be expressed at once that he really hoped she could get some true rest while sleeping.

"What you staring at?" Logan did a double take to the passenger seat, surprised to hear the earthy growl in his ears instead of just in his head. That had definitely been a Wolverine growl coming from the lips of the sleeping Marie. His senses weren't lying, she was still breathing slowly and her heart rate hadn't sped up, but something eerily familiar was speaking with her vocal cords.

"I can stare if I like. And go back to the room she made you. Girl has enough problems with other people taking over. Doesn't need that from either of us."

A small sigh was his response. He forced his hands to remain on the steering wheel when he really wanted to grab her and shake the Wolverine into submission, especially since this was the first physical manifestation of his counterpart he had ever been presented with.

"Helping her." What? What was he talking about now? How did the Wolverine think he was helping Marie at all? She needed to be in charge. He looked back to the road, wracking his brain to figure out what to do. If he woke her up, she might freak out. Or someone else might take over. Or he might still be left with the Wolverine in the forefront. Though, compared to what had happened the last time someone held the reigns in Marie's head, the current situation was better.

"How are you helping her?" he demanded.

"Watching. Guarding", came the almost smug reply.

Logan thought about it for a minute. Maybe the Wolverine was helping. If he was watching the doors and helping keep Marie safe, maybe she wouldn't have to use as much energy doing it. Maybe she could allow herself to sleep deeper with that extra security. "Okay," he relented. "But you have to disappear when she wakes up."

Wolverine's only response was a snort that Logan translated into "Do I look like an idiot?" he decided that maybe it wouldn't be wise to answer that question. "How did you get out anyway?" More smugness that practically made his ears boil. "Was never in. Hid."

"Don't you hide from her! It's her head. She needs to be the only one not in a room. You're gonna fuck with her if she isn't alone."

"Not alone. Another here."

Now he was confused and pissed off. Had another one of them gotten out? Was it the Wolverine's fault? Was there anything he could do to help? Though it seemed like whichever other personality was out wasn't really evil. She seemed to be blissfully unaware. "What other one is there?"

"Blue. Fuzzy. Guards too." What?

"What?" he snapped, forgetting in his anger that there were others sleeping in the car. Marie snorted and jerked slightly, uncurling herself from her slouched position to sit up straight. He saw Jubilee and Kitty snap upright as well and picked up a garbled "the fuck?" from one of the two as they rubbed the sleep off of their faces.

He looked around at all three inquiring faces in the car and decided that now might not be the time to talk about what had just happened. He studied Marie's face and she stared back with an attitude all her own, convincing him that his counterpart had in fact hid again when she woke. Breathing a mental sigh of relief he tried to turn back to the front and continue the drive in silence.

"Wolvie?" But of course Jubes could never leave anything alone. "What're you yelling at?" He met her eyes in the review mirror, seeing her imitate (badly if you asked him) his eyebrow quirk when he remained silent.

He blew out a breath "Nothing. Thought I saw something." The two in the back exchanged disbelieving glances while Marie's mouth dropped slightly open in shock. "Logan, why would be believe that?" And there was Kitty, trying, as always, to be the calm rational one.

"Because it's the truth". He stated, making it a point to avoid all eye contact.

"Sure Logan. We totally believe that. Just like we totally believe that everyone in this car is perfectly normal. Just like we totally believe that aliens are real and are trying to take over the planet. Just like we totally believe that the professor and Scott were ballet partners when they were in high school and that Scott wore the tutu while the professor spun him around in his chair." With that last rush barely squeezing out past her laughter, Jubes fell onto the floor of the backseat, squeaking out little things here and there that made her crack up more. "pink tulle", "slippers", "princess crown".

Kitty lost it at that as well and the two were laughing and crying all over each other, completely useless until they got this hysteria out of their respective systems. Logan felt the edges of his mouth pull up and turned to Marie. She was still looking at him but she was also smiling slightly as well. Their eyes met and they both smiled a little more, sharing amusement at the two crazies in the back.

He turned back to the road to see a green sign up ahead. "Look. Pennsylvania." Rogue's face lit up and she turned back to the side, watching the landscape pass by. They crossed the boarder with a soundtrack of laughter and Elvis jamming on the radio.

And to Logan's amazement and relief, nothing more was said regarding his outburst.

---

Marie was getting more anxious as the minutes ticked by. They had passed a sign reading Westchester not too long ago and she knew the end of their journey was in sight. She met eyes with Norbert who was now in her lap instead of in his previous riding spot at her feet. His little button eyes pulled the truth from her. Okay fine, she thought to him I'm terrified. What if they think I'm nuts and send me off to some institute with the rest of the crazies? He just looked back at her, deciding not to dignify her question with a response.

She shored up her resolve and switched back to her CD player, pulling out some Styx to hopefully mellow her thoughts. Sometime after their stop at the park Logan and the girls had convinced her that the radio would be safe enough. Now that they knew not to turn off the music, all would be fine. Sure. Everything's just peachy.

Marie was still reeling from telling them about her crutch. Music was her weakness. She'd put herself at great risk by trusting that much and a part of her brain that sounded like an odd mix of her father and the carpenter was still ridiculing her over it. Even while she heard the words pouring out of her mouth, part of her was screaming to shut up and hide her weaknesses in a corner so no one could exploit them. Continuing on was like gouging her leg and climbing into a shark tank because, without her music, she was essentially dead. No more Marie. Her body might still be moving around, at least until... no. Not going down that road. Her body might still be moving around but she wouldn't have control. Her passengers would lock her in a truck and bury her in silence at sea. She shivered and her brain shrank away from the thought. That's why she had pushed through the voices and the concerns and the sheer panic that stemmed from telling these secrets to anyone, let alone people she had just met. Now that it wasn't just her and Norbert, she needed at least a few people around who she could trust to make sure that silence never happened. Other people, out of maliciousness or ignorance, might let it take over.

Nodding again to herself, Marie reaffirmed for the fifth time that she had made the right move. She had decided to trust these three and she never let herself do things halfway. Not that her budding trust helped her growing nervousness over going to a new place. It wasn't like these three were the only ones that she was going to have to deal with.

Deep breaths, Norbert reminded. She inhaled and tried to think of all the friends she could make. So many new people to read and to see, to watch interact. It would be like a great play, only one she participated in and got to write her own lines instead of reciting. The air shot out of her suddenly compressed lungs. What if she didn't know how to talk to people? Sure, Jubes, Kitty and Logan acted like they didn't think there was anything overtly wrong with her, but maybe they were just being polite. Or maybe they were afraid of her and let that fear sway the way the treated her? NO! She would trust them, would not fault on that trust until she found proof.

But other people were a different story. She would have to be aware all the time and watch everywhere around her. These three would be safe but that didn't mean everyone in this place would be. What if one of them touched her skin? What if she killed someone and had to carry him or her around forever? She wished for the simplicity and solitude of her attic and her old routine briefly before squashing those feelings. Freedom was better. Even freedom that was totally unknown was better than prison.

Her mind kept running in circles with worries, doubts and fears over her situation. She was hyperaware of the differences between her current location and where she had been for the past four years. All the colors whipped by making her light headed, dizzying in their speed. She breathed deeply as she saw huge iron gates looming in front of the car, blue-black shadows reaching into the front seat to envelop her in their cold. The car stopped within their grasp.

Logan leaned out the window to depress a button and her eyesight sharpened to the nth degree. She could count the hairs on the back of his neck if she wanted, she mentally laughed, able to detect the hysteria in her own voice. That couldn't be good. He spoke his name and waited for the camera to scan his face between turning back to her. She felt like she was sinking under weights that had just dropped on her head, everything dragging her down, but she still forced a brittle smile. She didn't want Logan to think anything was off. She would balance out when she settled in.

They started forward again and Jubes leaned up from the back seat, propping her head on the back of Marie's chair and pointing out the front window. Marie threw herself to the side, putting a good foot between the two of them before she was able to follow Jubes' finger with her eyes. The girl was so wrapped up in what she was saying that she didn't even notice.

"There's St. John and that's Alison and that's Mr. Summers and that's Dr. Grey. Oh, they're running an exercise!" Rogue looked closer at what was happening and felt her stomach drop. People were shooting at each other and it looked like everyone was fighting for their lives. Jubes voice faded out as she looked around to see carnage. There were pieces of bodies and shrapnel thrown around, bombs resting out on the grass waiting to detonate with one wrong move. Where did these people bring her? One of those labs? She forced her ears open again, grasping for meaning out of Jubilee's words and listening to the little bits thrown in by Kitty.

"All young dangerous kids with the really awful mutations are captured. They're knocked out and tied up so they can't escape while everyone fights outside of their cage to see who will win. We have to know just how powerful everyone is and what everyone can do so that the teams that are put together have the best chance of survival."

She was falling, faster and faster, grasping desperately at the only rope, trust of the others, that she had forced into existence mere hours ago. Every word shooting from the two girls was like a brick being thrown at her, testing her grip and making her sway the over the abyss. Logan's worried inquiry and sharp gesture silencing the back seat registered as if from a great distance. She just kept repeating in her head that she was strong and could handle anything thrown at her now that she was no longer in that attic. They rounded a curve and stopped in front of some marble steps. At the top was a cage, twenty by twenty that looked electrified. Sparks flew in all directions. Inside were children. The oldest couldn't be more than six and they were all beaten up and bruised. Two had arms that looked broken and all of their feet were tied tightly together, cutting off circulation. All were slumped over onto their sides, obviously not long for this world.

Marie, terrified, looked around at the three others in the car, checking each expression. Kitty looked calculating and Jubilee excited. She gasped and looked at Logan, saw his slight smile of approval and nod, and felt the rope snap, dropping her down into dark silence.

Logan was glad to see Pyro finally learning to rely on his teammates, even if it was just a simple exercise in the yard. He'd harassed the kid a good fifty times about not watching his back if someone else already had the job because he wasn't good enough to have his attention divided. Looks like his last "lesson", resulting in a broken rib and sore pride, had finally broken the kid's habit, a product of living on the streets no doubt. He clocked Storm flying low overhead and was about to point out the team's good offensive positioning to the wonder twins, gesturing for them to be quiet, when a sharp exhale from next to him broke his concentration. "Rogue?" Damn. This had to look really fucking bad. He tried for his best honest face and poured as much sincerity and gentleness into his voice as he could dredge up. "Look kid, it's not what you think."

No response. Actually, no sound at all. He rewound his immediate memory and couldn't remember hearing Marie inhale after losing her breath. She was sitting, hands folded neatly in her lap, back ramrod straight and staring out the side window at the cage with the "kids" in it. She seemed pulled into herself, felt as if she was hiding even though there were no physical signs to prove it.

"Rogue." What the hell was he supposed to do? Was this another fit? "Rogue." A little gruffer this time in his agitation. He turned, leaned over to check the CD player lying next to her in the seat, upping the volume slightly to maybe force a reaction. He threw the car into park and killed the engine, turning to the backseat.

"Ideas, ladies?" Jubes shrugged, her silence more telling of her worry than anything she could have said. Kitty's distant look wasn't helpful either. Now he was getting really worried. It was like she had checked out and her heart was starting to slow slightly from lack of oxygen.

"We'll go to the lab. Kitty, bring Jean. She ain't breathing." He reached over to unbuckle her seatbelt while he unlocked the doors, intending to haul her physically into the house. She didn't flinch when he stabbed the seatbelt button and didn't acknowledge his door opening. He ran around the front of the car as the two in the back got out and started jogging up the stairs, passing through the cage hologram to the front door. He wrenched the car door open and heard a sweet gasp from the girl he was reaching for. She still didn't seem to be aware but at least she was breathing.

"Plan B," he called before the door could shut behind Kitty and Jubilee. "We're going to Xavier's office." They turned and started back down the stairs, stopping beside him and peering at Rogue through the open door.

"Think she's good?" Jubes asked, hopeful voice directed to Logan.

"Not sure Bean," her face fell. "She's been through a lotta shit recently. Maybe her mind's playing catch-up now cause she was knocked for a loop seeing the exercise. Chuck'll straighten her out." He didn't know who he was reassuring, himself or the girls.

He leaned into the car, tucked her CD player in the front of her jeans and slid one of his arms under Rogue's knees, trying to get the other behind her back. She unexpectedly snapped to life, rocking him in the nose with her elbow and kicking out at his unprotected legs.

"Unhand me, gentlemen, by heaven! I'll make a ghost of him that lets me." Great! Quotes. But she sounded different. Sure, she was pissed off but something else was going on. He cocked his head to the side and raised his hands up by his ears in the universal "it's fine" sign as he took a few steps away. She unfolded herself from the seat and stood, motionless, by the car, still stiffer than he had ever seen her.

"We're going inside, Rogue. Gonna meet that guy we told you about." He used his "I'm right" voice, hoping that it would be as effective on her as it was on most of his martial arts students. She turned to him, sniffed indignantly, and started walking up the steps.

The wonder twins fell in place in front of her and he picked up the rear, the three of them forming a triangle of flesh between Rogue and the world. He was pretty sure she wouldn't want anyone seeing her so out of it, let alone people that she hadn't even met. And he was still drawing a blank on what was off, using his position to study her more. Her normal smooth grace was replaced with sharp, short, soldier steps, jerky looking and unnatural. And her scent was somehow, he groped for the thought, less than it should be. As if something was smothering it with cotton.

He saw her face contort, rage edged with fear, as she skirted around the "cage". She was focused intently on the hologram children, still thinking they were real regardless of the assurances Jubilee was tossing out in the front.

Rogue's accusing voice rang out "And since the quarrel will bear no color for the thing he is, fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented, would run to there and these extremities; and therefore think him as a serpent's egg, which, hatch'd, would as his kind grow mischievous, and kill him in the shell."

Did she really think that they had killed the kids? And that it was because they were afraid of what the kids could become? He shook his head. I guess this place did look like a lab if you saw it from that angle.

Jubilee opened the front door and they all filed into the cool foyer, shoes scuffing slightly on the polished floor in the silence. Wondering what was coming next, Logan let the door swing shut behind him with a bang and followed the three girls into one of the side hallways.

---

God, he was so fucking mad. The asshats wanted out. He growled, heard a yelp from door one and smirked in response. They weren't getting out. Not when it was his job to keep them in.

Wolverine paced back down the hallway, dragging his fingers over the locks, keeping them turned. Every time he looped around to the shadowy corner in the back, he checked to make sure she was still there before starting again. Music was flowing around him but he couldn't use it the way she could and it wasn't working on its own. He snorted. When she was in charge, she was stronger than she thought, constantly forcing the music to do her bidding.

He hoped this situation wasn't gonna become normal. It shouldn't be like this. He'd been sleeping in the shadow corner, coexisting with the blue, fuzzy one in the hallway when something had slammed into him. He'd jerked awake and almost came up swinging before noticing it was the girl curling in on herself and trying to shove past him into his corner. He'd shifted so she could have the wall at her back and hide behind him. It was her space, after all; she had the right to go where she wanted.

He would've been perfectly content to stay where he was, leaning back slightly into the girl, shielding her, but he'd noticed the walls of the hallway start to waver. The rhythmic thump-thump, always underlying other sounds, had started to slow and his instincts had kicked his gut, screaming that something was horribly wrong. Then, the blue one had approached and Wolverine was shocked to hear a growl working its way out of his lower stomach, stopping the other from nearing the girl. He'd risen to his feet and walked part way down the hallway, staying between the blue one and the girl pressing her face into the wall.

"Gotta do something," his voice had been rusty, not often used. "Shit's falling apart. You've been here longer. I'll keep them," he'd flicked his head to the hallway, not taking his eyes off of the other one, "under control if you can keep everything functioning." The blue one had nodded and turned on his heal, exiting the hallway and grasping control of the entire mind, instructing the body to breath and wake up.

He didn't know if things seemed normal from the outside but the blue one was moving, talking and reacting to everything. He had been slightly weary of letting someone else have control, but he hadn't wanted to leave the girl. She had used him as a shield, choosing him to keep her safe. So he would. This space was his until she reclaimed it. As he paced the hallway again he felt smug. He would protect the girl until the other him, on the outside, could get her to take her rightful place as controller. Then he could settle back in for another nap.

---

Logan approved of the pace Jubilee was setting to get through the mansion. Not fast enough to draw unwanted attention, so they weren't running, but quick enough to discourage other people from getting in the way. They'd passed a handful of people so far, but none had tried to stop or inquire about the girl in their midst.

They had just rounded a corner, bringing the grand staircase onto view, when he smelled Bobby and heard the typical teenage boy clomping on the stairs. He stiffened slightly, trying to eye the kid into stopping while he rotated their triangle around so he was in front. Bobby, excited eyes on the new girl, ignored his glare and continued advancing. Rogue didn't react to him but evidently felt the need to comment on her surroundings.

"Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent; for beauty is a witch against whose charms faith melteth in blood."

Bobby, having over heard the quote, stopped in his tracks and looked confused. Logan rolled his eyes. This was not what they needed. Bobby, mansion's biggest gossip next to Jubes, was going to tell everyone that there was a new girl around and that she was off her cracker. He wanted to go scare some silence into the boy, but didn't want to leave Rogue with just the other two as blockers, knowing it was his presence that had allowed them to walk without being stopped. "Kitty, go talk to Bobby," he spoke quietly, not wanting the kid to run back up the stairs. "Make sure he doesn't say anything about her."

Kitty peeled off and made for the stairs, grabbing ice boy's arm and leaning up to his ear. Logan didn't know what she was saying, but the look on his face was priceless. He went from curious to slack faced before going pale and shocked looking. Evidently she had some serious dirt on the kid. If he shook his head up and down any harder, agreeing with his full body to whatever Kitty was saying, he was bound to get whiplash. Kitty smiled prettily, rose on tiptoe and mock lovingly double tapped his check with her palm before turning on her heel and coming back to their blockade. She nodded at Logan, indicating that they should continue on their way, leaving Bobby standing stock still on the stairs.

The rest of the trip was made uneventfully, ending with Logan knocking on Xavier's office door and the four of them entering. He met Xavier's eyes and hoped that this was going to go well.

"Chuck, this is Rogue. We ran across her, hitching, when we were in Mississippi. She's a mutant; skin sucks the life out of everyone who touches her. And," he paused, part of him rebelling the thought of telling anyone else of her weaknesses. He was trying to decide exactly what to say when Xavier interrupted his mental struggle, proving that he needed to work on his mental blocks.

"Logan, you know I mean this girl no harm. I would never hurt someone coming to me seeking aid." Xavier laced his hands together on the top of his desk, trying for the benevolent look. Wolverine, normally pretty silent when the prof was around, thought he looked kinda constipated. Logan coughed to cover his laugh and decided what to say as Rogue piped up again.

"In my false brother awakened an evil nature, and my trust, like a good parent, did beget of him. A falsehood in its contrary as great as my trust was, which had, indeed, no limit, a confidence sans bound-"

Jubes cut her off, evidently not wanting to hear anything else about betrayal. "She does that. It some nutso defense mechanism though all she's been doing since we got here is quoting. We like her professor! She's super cool and she knows all kind of stuff and she's wicked smart. I mean, she escaped from the house of crazies that she was a prisoner in for forever. Can we keep her? She does have a lot of really bizarre shit in her head. And people. There're people in her head that sometimes try to-"

Logan jumped in over top of her, knowing that if he didn't get in the way, Jubes would blabber everything that Marie had wearily told her and Kitty. They didn't know as much as he did but she'd told them enough about her passengers and her story that the Jellybean needed to have the emergency brakes thrown for her.

"She isn't a puppy Jubes. She'll decide what she's gonna do." He glared at Jubilee, who had the decency to look ashamed. He turned to Xavier who was calmly sitting behind his huge mahogany desk, obviously used to Jubilee's run-away-train of a mouth. The easiest way to go about this was treating it like a mission report. "And we're not telling you everything. That's up to her. Cliff notes version: She was locked up in her parents' attic for years after she manifested. She absorbs people's memories and personalities when she touches them and they stay with her, living in spaces in her head. She mostly controls them. And I think she got pushed over the edge when we drove in, she saw an outdoor sim and thought we were taking her to a lab."

Xavier eyed Rogue and motioned her towards a chair. Logan found it funny that she glared at him, cocked an eyebrow (in a much better imitation than Jubes could ever pull off) and stayed standing in the center of the room. Deliberate obstinance was not something the old man was used to. Well, at least it wasn't just him that she was acting that way towards; at the moment, she seemed to be an equal opportunity insulter.

He took the chair and was sure Chuck's eyes twinkled momentarily before he refocused on the girl standing before him. Logan heard the wonder twins settle into other chairs, still forming a rough ring around Rogue.

"Rogue, I assure you, we mean you no harm. I would like to help you get back to your normal self. Do you want that?" Xavier said, making Logan think that maybe he needed to hit the professor up for lessons in speaking calmly.

"I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so to punish me with this, and this with me, that I must be their scourge and minister. I will bestow him, and will answer well the death I gave him. So again good night. I must be cruel only to be kind. Thus bad begins and worse remains behind."

Logan was still trying to decipher exactly what she had meant with that when Xavier started speaking again. "You aren't being punished for anything, my dear. You are merely confused. What you saw outside wasn't real. It was an illusion used as an exercise for my staff. I don't know if you actually have ever killed someone but I assure you, no one died today from your actions or otherwise. It was fake." The girl continued standing there, staring at nothing and didn't seem swayed.

Xavier tried again "Rogue, I don't-"

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts. His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, mewling and puking in the nurse's arms." Evidently this was the day for people to get interrupted, Logan thought, as Rogue continued the poem to the room.

Xavier leaned around and spoke over her. "I'm going to try to get into the uppermost layer of her mind and see if I can pull some semblance of sanity out of her." Logan was somewhat shocked to hear a note of question in Chuck's voice, like it was his decision what was tried with Rogue. He nodded his assent and tossed that around in his mind, wondering why Xavier would think that. Maybe he was a little possessive of the people he brought to the mansion, but Chuck had never asked him for permission for anything. Maybe it was a vote of confidence from the other man regarding his decision-making skills. Or maybe he thought that Logan had more of an insight on what Rogue would want because he knew her better than everyone else here. Maybe-

He was jerked out of his musings by a startled exclamation from behind the desk.

"What?" One word in three voices, the girls had asked at the same time as him. Rogue was still droning on, at a fairly accurate place actually. "And then the justice, in fair round belly with good capon lined, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part."

Xavier looked at the three of them and then back at the girl. "This isn't Rogue."

Logan felt rage creeping up on him. "What're you talking about?"

"We have the distinction of speaking to someone who refers to himself as Norbert."

"Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything." Rogue's, well Norbert's, voice trailed off in the silence of the room as everyone processed the bomb dropped by the professor.

Logan wasn't the least bit surprised that Jubilee was the first to break the silence. "You mean her blue rabbit stuffed animal has somehow grown a personality and taken over her body?" Well, you couldn't discount the kid's ability to state things eloquently.

Xavier's eyebrows crinkled. "She has a stuffed animal by this name? I wasn't aware of that. I thought that maybe someone she had absorbed was currently holding the reigns." He formed a steeple with his fingers under his chin, looking more perplexed than Logan had ever seen him. "Does she ever talk to this stuffed animal? Show it affection or treat it like it has feelings?"

Logan nodded in response, wondering where this was going. Was the professor just trying to figure out the boundaries to Rogue's craziness or was there a point to all his questions? He sat a little straighter in the chair and focused on the professor's face, trying to read intent from the old man. He didn't want anyone making fun of Rogue for something that she couldn't control especially right now when she didn't have the ability to defend herself. After a minute of study, his shoulders relaxed back. The professor was still thinking hard and Logan could only find signs of goodwill.

"And you said she quotes as defense mechanism? Like, when she doesn't know what else to say? Is she always aware of this?"

Logan leaned forward again. "She doesn't always know, thought she had only quoted a few times to us when it was really a lot more than that. It just pops in sometimes when she's trying to express herself. Don't know if I'd call it a defense mechanism, more like a replacement sentence for when she doesn't know how to say what she wants." He let Xavier sit in silence for another minute. "You have a theory? Spit it out."

The professor sighed. "Okay, I am in no way positive that this is correct because I cannot get past the surface of her mind to either locate Rogue's psyche or be able to glean a better understanding of the Norbert persona but I may have a handle on what is happening. I think that maybe the quoting, when she isn't aware of it, really isn't Rogue trying to talk. I believe that, over the time stuck alone in the attic, sheer loneliness caused her to actually create a personality for this stuffed animal, using portions of her own self. But I think that Norbert is also a combination of other people that she has absorbed over time. He seems to assert his presence when Rogue cannot come up with an appropriate reaction to an experience before resuming his place in the background of her mind as a passenger who occasionally has input on a situation. So, anytime she is quoting without being aware, it is actually Norbert voicing feelings and ideas that Rogue cannot."

Logan held up his hand. "Why would she use parts of the people she's absorbed to create this 'Norbert' character? She isn't really buddy-buddy with any of them that I've seen."

Kitty also threw a question into the room. "And why can he only speak in quotes?"

Xavier cracked a bittersweet smile. "Why would you create a carbon copy of yourself when the whole reason for the other personality was to stem loneliness? She already had herself to talk to. She needed some input that seemed to be coming from another source. And Kitty, she probably fed all of the Shakespeare that she has read over the years into Norbert's personality to give him a different voice than her own, separating the two of them even further in her head."

"But, once again, this is all theory that is mostly based on my dealings with other people over my lifetime. Until we can get Rogue back to herself, I don't believe that we will know anything for sure."

Logan ran his fingers through his hair, trying to settle all the information into his brain, and looked up at Rogue. She had silent tears running down her cheeks, red tracks trailing down until the drops fell from her chin to darken the front of her shirt. He shook his head to clear the image, knowing that it would be imprinted on his brain for a few days at least.

She shouldn't have to be dealing with this. She should be a normal 20 year old girl, going to college or hanging out at the beach, worrying about her next midterm or if her POS car was going to get her and her friends to the movies later. She should've spent the last 4 years in a safe place with people to take care of her and friends, real friends, to talk to. Logan found himself making a silent vow to her, himself and anyone who ever had the chance to read his thoughts; that was how the next part of her life was going to go. He and his girls were going to be there for her and were going to get her to a place where she had control of her own life. Nothing would stop them.

Jubilee stood up and walked a few steps forward, stopping slightly behind and to the right of Rogue. Kitty followed a few seconds later, mirroring her best friend. Logan knew that, as scary as it was, they had been thinking the same thing and that the three of them were going to take this thing head-on. He eased himself to his feet in front of Rogue and took a step towards the big desk, dwarfing the professor. "What do we do to bring her back?"

---

"Are we sure this is gonna help at all?" Jubilee asked him as she marched Rogue out the door onto the front steps. She was holding onto the scarf they had used to tie the girl's hands together behind her back. It hadn't been in the original plan but Rogue had started to struggle horribly the second she saw the door leading outside, trying to get her hands around to grasp onto someone's skin. He figured it was because she, well Norbert, associated the outside with the awful images of tortured children.

Once the four of them were set outside, and he was sure the area was clear of any of the other mansion residents, he looked to Kitty and nodded, indicating that she should use the remote to start the simulation. Immediately, the cage was reformed now with Jubilee and Rogue standing in the middle amongst the children. His felt a strange tightening in his chest when he heard Rogue whimper slightly, blanch and start to sway backwards into Jellybean.

Kitty looked at him and raised the remote slightly, asking if it was time to turn it back off. He nodded his assent and watched the gory scene vanish once again. They turned it on and off a few more times before he approached the cage area and stepped into the bars, standing stationary in the middle of a few of them. Kitty brought it up and down twice more before he started to recite a passage that he had wearily let Xavier plant in his mind, not having a gift for remembering language but also not liking Xavier rooting around in his brain.

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air: and like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,_ and, like this insubstantial pageant faded. Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

Rogue's eyes dug into him the second he started talking and her head cocked to the side slightly, as if trying to figure out the trick this funny man was playing. Kitty kept bringing the sim to life and killing it again and again, hoping that it would sink in that it was all an illusion. It was obvious the Norbert wasn't buying it.

"They have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and to conclude, they are lying knaves."

Jubilee snorted, a sound that he had never heard with a tone of sadness in it until now. "I think he told you what he thinks." He glared her into silence and started over. Maybe if he said it a few times, it would drive the point home.

This time he was met with silence.

He heard Kitty sigh behind him and set the remote down, before she entered his sightline starting to trudge up the steps. He guessed she was going to find the professor but some stray thought was floating around his brain, a glimpse of an idea that just wouldn't let him be.

"Kit, wait," he called out, half of him seeing her stop and turn around while the other half was concentrating on his thought process. If only they could get Marie herself to see what was going on. He didn't think Norbert could be swayed, but he knew she could reassert herself if she knew that everything was okay. They needed a different angle. Different angle...

"Grab the remote again Kitty. I'll tell you when to turn the sim back off." He stalked the short distance between him and Rogue to stand toe to toe with her, seeing Jubes' eyes widen behind her head. Both girls held their ground. He grabbed a section of Rogue's hair, drew it under her chin and used it to tip her head back, forcing her to meet his eyes,

"Wolverine. I know you're in there. I need you to help us all out, including yourself. Find the room that I'm in. Open the door. Then you need to drag Rogue outta hiding and up to the section of the brain that lets you guys see the world. Make her see what's real and what's not."

He didn't know if Wolverine could even hear him or would listen, hoped that the aggressive behavior would bring him to the forefront. Either way, it was a shot.

---

The outside Logan had an idea. Wolverine didn't know if he could trust it or not, but his gut was saying that something had to change soon or this set-up could become permanent. He stopped in front of door five. He could smell himself, something he'd never get used to, on the other side of the door. Figuring another person being around, one that wasn't going to fight him, wouldn't be bad, he flicked the lock and turned the handle, meeting his own eyes as the wood swung away.

Logan stepped out and looked back to the shadowy corner, evidently he had also heard the instructions, starting to head that way. Wolverine dashed around in front of him, back to the girl and drew his lips over his teeth, stopping Logan in his tracks. He didn't want the girl scared and she was gonna be if she saw just anyone walking around the brain like that.

"Go. Tell Fuzzy to come take over. I'll get her ready. Then, you come help me bring her." Logan looked like he was about to object. Wolverine let lose a little snarl and Logan backed away, hands held up, slight smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth. Wolverine watched him shake his head and turn to walk down the hallway, disappearing into the distance. He circled the hallway again, hitting all the locks, before going to crouch in front of the curled up girl. He shook her shoulder, waking her, and watched her blink sleepily up at him. He tried to smile knowing that for some reason people found the showing of teeth reassuring instead of intimidating.

"We're gonna help you. Get you back where you belong." He reached out and laid a hand on her arm, trying to make her feel better.

"I don't want to go back. I'm in a lab. Or a concentration camp. They can have my body. They can't have me. I want to stay here. Here, I'm safe." Her bottom lip stuck out a little on the last sentence and he watched her cross her arms over her chest. Girl did have backbone.

"Outside's not that. It's good. Logan is there. He will keep you safe." He almost gagged on the words, not knowing the last time he had said something good about his counterpart.

"That's right, darlin'," Logan's voice rang out behind him, making him jump and spin around. Really not liking this same scent thing. "I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you. Me, Kitty and the Jellybean. We'll be in your corner. So lets go." She shook her head again. Wolverine met Logan's eyes and together they walked to either side of Marie, grabbing her by the upper arms and hauling her to her feet. They started walking her down the hallway, even though her feet were scraping at the floor trying to stop their forward process. They passed Norbert, nodding to him as he did the rounds down the hallway.

"Guys, let me go! Look, you don't have to stay in your room anymore. You can come and go as you please. I just can't go back. I planned an escape once and it took so much out of me. I can't go to a place that's even worse than that one was. I won't survive it!"

"Relax," Logan soothed. "You'll see."

Wolverine just watched the struggle on her face, saw despair cause her features to sag before she closed her eyes and started putting one foot in front of the other, giving up in a way that, strangely, made him angry. He should be happy that she was now cooperating with them, not gripping her arm tighter because this was a weakness that she shouldn't have. Was she really this broken?

They pulled her onto the observation deck. Logan let go of her arm and stepped to the side, pulling the cord to open the curtain to the outside world. Wolverine stepped behind her and loosely used his arms, braced on the glass, to stop her from trying to escape. He looked out, met outside Logan's eyes through the glass, and clearly said "Now." Then he leaned his head into Marie's hair, took in her scent and whispered "Watch." He settled his head on her shoulder and followed his own command, knowing she would soon be back in her rightful place.

---

Logan knew something was happening. He had talked, clearly, to the Wolverine in Rogue's head and was waiting for a sign that he had done what he was told. Of course, knowing him, he might take his sweet fucking time about it.

He didn't know exactly how long he'd been standing here, staring into Rogue's eyes and trying to will Wolverine's signal into existence. It had to have been a good five minutes with him and the three girls standing statue still, like an absurd exhibit at the museum. He saw Rogue's eyes close and her body fell limp into Jubes' arms, just escaping getting dumped to the ground by the startled Asian. He grabbed Rogue from Jubilee and swung her up into his arms, looking down into her face and seeing it completely expressionless. Jubes and Kitty came up on either side of him, each putting a hand on Rogue's arm, trying to connect her to them.

Then, unspoken relief rushed through his body when he heard a gruff "Now" from Rogue's lips and saw her eyelids slowly rise, seeming to be dragged open by some unseen force. Kitty, not needing the nod of command, started to bring the sim up and turn it off again as Logan tried, one last time to convince Rogue that it was all an illusion. Here's hoping that Xavier knows his Bard he thought, starting the phrase.

Every word he spoke seemed to hit home with her. With each line, he felt her take more control of her body, becoming less dead weight in his arms, and saw her eyes clear. Finally, by the end, she was looking around them, eyes wide while she took it all in.

She started squirming his arms, craning her head away from his and obviously trying to avoid skin contact. He set her on her feet and watched her take a step back from them. His arms, now hanging loosely at his sides, felt useless and cumbersome. He scrubbed a hand over his face and looked at Rogue.

"Rogue? That you, chica?" Jubes asked, hope taking her voice up an octave too high in Logan's opinion.

Rogue studied the three of them for a minute, eyes shooting from person to person, and started smiling. "Yeah. It's me. Thanks for being so stubborn." She looked down and scuffed her right foot across the cement. "I'm sorry I went away like that. I thought... Well, I guess you know what I thought. It takes some time for me to build up trust in people, always has really. I'm guessing it's going to be even worse for me now that my parents did what they did. I'll try though."

Jubes and Kitty both looked at each other before booking it at Rogue, flinging their arms around her and crushing her to them. He watched her face tighten in shock before a small smile crept into being. She met his eyes over the top of Kitty's head and he grinned at her, glad that she was back to some semblance of normal. He also shrugged, indicating that he had no control over the two girls and, no, he couldn't explain their behavior either.

Rogue's head tipped back and she laughed, a fully belly, joyous sound that made the two girls release her and take a step back. She cocked a hip out to the side and pouted at Jubilee.

"Think ya'll can take this thing off my hands how? I'm kinda losing circulation."

The four of them were back in Xavier's office now, having explained the simulation to Rogue while outside, and were standing in a lose semi-circle in front of his huge desk. Rogue kept tugging at the wrists of her shirt and playing with her hair, hands doing a nerve-revealing dance between the two that she couldn't seem to stop. She had one headphone in, the other hanging down her back, and was nodding slightly along to her Beatles soundtrack, trying to figure out how to start talking to the somewhat intimidating man behind the desk. Sure, according to most, he should be the anti-thesis to intimidating, being wheelchair bound and a somewhat small, older man, but she wasn't fooled. The way this guy carried himself screamed that he was comfortable in his own skin and with his, seemingly significant, powers. Maybe he could teach that, if she could only figure out how to ask, she mused. Not that she thought he was evil, he wasn't putting out any of those vibes, ones she had way too much experience with, he just was so sure of himself and his ideals that it cowed her to be in his presence. Not to mention the silence currently stretching to the breaking point between them. And still he just sat there.

She leaned slightly to the left, pushed up on her tiptoes and whispered so quietly that no one but Logan could hear.

"Why's he just staring at me?" Logan snorted and she heard it echoed by the Wolverine in her mind, who, after the hubbub earlier, had yet to go back to his previous silent vigil. However, the Logan in her head (god did she ever sound nuts) had wandered his way back into his room, evidently willing to stay there unless needed. At least someone was cooperating. She jumped when she felt the pressure of a big hand land on her lower back and push her forward a few steps.

"Rogue, this is Professor Charles Xavier. Chuck, this is Rogue, the real Rogue, or real as far as we can tell." She chuckled a little at that and swatted at him, hearing a grunt when her hand connected.

"Great, make fun of the crazy person while she can hear you." She snipped, not turning away from the professor. She summoned up a little wave and threw out a meek, "Hi. Nice to meet you, uh, again I guess."

He startled her when he threw his head back to laugh before reining it in. "My dear, I do believe this is a situation I have never been in. Though it was nice to meet Norbert, I am grateful to now know you as well. I must apologize for the situation that caused your..." he floundered for a moment, "slight mental vacation. I trust you are no worse off for you ordeal?"

"I'm as fine as I can be. And, professor, you can say crazy episode, I don't insult easily. Thanks for helping pull me out of it though. I don't know if it was something I could have done on my own." And that was truly depressing. She shouldn't need anyone.

"I do not believe you are crazy, Rogue, though we will get into that later. Regardless, your regards should go mostly to your three friends there. I did not contribute enough to make thanks necessary."

Her new friends had pulled her out? Again? The balancing of the scales was tipping even further away from her and she didn't know how she would ever be able to pay them back. Maybe that was what friendship was about? She couldn't really remember much about having friends, but she had for sure never felt this warmed by any of her pre mutation friends. "Thanks guys," she choked out, meeting each of their eyes, seeing them nod in turn, before squaring up to the front of the desk again.

"So, Rogue, I am most curious to hear your whole story and what the exact situation is with your mutation. Logan told me briefly but there were more pressing things going on at that time. I would love to know more."

Her lungs constricted and the air refused to leave her lungs. Logan had told him about her? What had he said? She didn't want everyone to know everything. It was super private and he had no right- Hold on Marie. She stopped the runaway train before it zoomed off a cliff. Logan wouldn't tell him more than what was necessary. He knew about secrets. He would know what to say and what leave out.

She breathed deep and looked into the professor's eyes. "Look, I know I'm here on your charity, well, mostly on charity. I have a little money and if you let me stay for a bit, I can at least kind of pay my way." Logan's vibrating growl stopped that track of conversation. "I'm just not really comfortable telling everyone everything that's gone on in my life. To be frank, I don't feel the connection with you that I picked up as soon as I met these three. That's nothing against you because I like you and all, but I don't trust you enough at the moment to just spill my guts. Logan already told you some, which should be enough for the moment. Let's play the get to know you game first." There. That wasn't too harsh, was it?

"Rogue, I respect how you feel and I don't want to pressure you into anything, but you really do need to talk about all the stressful times in your life. Bottling things up leads to a lot of horrible psychosomatic issues in the long run. I would hate for you to be affected as such." He sounded sincerely concerned, softening her heart towards him a little more.

"Well, last I checked, Logan counts as a person and I told him pretty much everything when we were on our way here. I'm all de-stressed and everything already. I know you're supposed to be running this show with the purpose of helping mutants, but I need some time to come about to believing that. At one time, I also thought parents were supposed to love and protect their children. We can all see where that's gotten me." She twisted her finger in a circle around her ear, the universal sign for crazy. "Also, I'm already having psychosomatic episodes. What's a few more?" She smiled with that, hoping to bring him into the joke and soften any potentially hurt feelings.

At least he looked as if he was thinking about what she had said. "If you feel comfortable leaving it at that, I will not now, or ever, push you to reveal more. Just please know that I am here if you wish to seek another person to talk to. Also, I think I may be able to help you with your mutation and the effects of it, if you would give me the chance."

"I think I would like that professor, eventually. Honestly, right now, I'm really tired and feeling super over stimulated. It's been years since I've seen anything new and all I've seen for the past day is new. I need some processing time. Is there somewhere I can lay down?" She just needed some breathing room where she wasn't expected to act any certain way, didn't have to be normal.

"Are you feeling on stable ground mentally?" he asked. She patted her headphones in response knowing that between the music and Wolverine, she was safe. He nodded in acceptance. "Very well. Jubilee, you and Kitty take Rogue to one of the empty rooms in the dorm. I believe the one at the end of the hallway you two are in is free." He turned back to her. "It was good meeting you Rogue and I hope you settle in here nicely.

She dipped her head in acknowledgement and turned to go, seeing Logan talking quietly to Kitty and Jubes. Conversation evidently finished, the two girls nodded and swept to the door, holding it open for her to leave. She looked at Logan briefly, who seemed to be staying behind, feeling slightly lost because he was going to leave her alone. He smiled and tipped his head towards the door, silently conveying that she follow the professor's instructions.

She squished the bad feeling. Of course Logan needed to talk to Xavier. They had left the mansion for a reason besides bringing her back after all. Information needed to be relayed. She waved and pushed out the door, following the other girls down the hall, letting her mind wander as she blindly trailed Jubes' neon yellow Keds up a flight of stairs. She didn't even notice when they passed the floor marked "dorms".

---

Logan heard the door click shut and deflated, flopping into a chair in front of Chuck's desk. He rubbed his face and tipped his head back over the edge of his chair, stretching the muscles of his neck, trying to decide how to say what was on his mind. He looked at Xavier. Fuck it. Who cared about phrasing anyway?

"You can't give her that room at the end of the hall. You seclude her like that and she's gonna treat the room just like the attic she was locked in. She'll stay there alone all the time because she don't know any different. She'll make herself a captive. None of us want that."

Xavier looked shocked and then thoughtful. "I honestly did not think about that, but it is an interesting observation. You know her well enough to say this?"

Logan thought it through for a minute, deciding that yeah, he did know her well enough for this decision, even after this short of a time. "Yeah. And I got a suggestion. In the teacher's wing there's a two-bedroom suite, one with an attached living room/kitchen and bathroom. Move her and the wonder twins there. They need'ta get outta the dorm anyway cause it's all younger kids now. They share one room and Rogue gets the other. That way, she don't have to share a bathroom with a bunch of kids who'll be freaked out by her skin and she'll have her own space, but will still have people around all the time. Jubes and Kitty like her and it'll be good for all of 'em." He let out a big breath and watched Chuck mull it over.

"I assume that you are referring to the room next to yours? She does seem to be more comfortable with you around and she has obviously formed an attachment to the three of you. I think you are correct in your assessment of the situation. I'll let you tell the girls of the new arrangement."

He felt lighter somehow and a smile crept across his lips. This was right.

"Hey Chuck. Don't tell anyone anything about her either. She's super private and didn't even want the wonder twins to know everything about her at first. I think we need to let her decide what she's telling who. And we need to see about getting her up to date on her education." Someone needed to keep an eye on her, just til she could do for herself and he was stepping into that spot, just like the wonder twins had done for him. He could do it, could make sure she got what she needed in order to adjust to her new life.

"I'm not sure if that is completely wise, Logan. We should at least tell the adults of the mansion what they are dealing with when it comes to her. You don't know what the consequ-"

Time to put a stop to that. "You can't tell anyone! She's twenty years old and this is her life. Her parents stole control from her for years. We can't do that too and expect her to trust us. She'll run again, just like she did from her parents. You don't want that and I can't have it."

Xavier reluctantly agreed. "Ok, Logan. We will leave it up to her. You should talk to her though about opening up to others." His raised eyebrow must have conveyed his thoughts. "I realize you are not exactly the poster boy for sharing, but it is important to her ability to become acclimated to the outside world."

"K, I'll say something. Not guaranteeing anything though."

"Understood. Now, did you find out anything when you were in New Orleans?"

"Yeah, that that stinking Cajun needs to learn how to find better restaurants."

Xavier chuckled. "Anything of importance?"

"Not really, Chuck. None of us are obvious though so it isn't like we were broadcasting 'Mutants here! Tell us what you think!'. Gambit will have to be the one to send along any information about how the fear and hatred is affecting the south. If the situation with Rogue's parents is any indication though, I'm guessing it's worse there than it is up here."

"Then it is a waiting game I suppose. We will see what Remy can stir up." He paused briefly, lost in his own thoughts before remembering that someone else was in the room. "I am sure you are tired from all the travel. Please, do not let me keep you any longer. Go get the girls settled and I am sure I will see you tomorrow."

Logan pushed to his feet, feeling both tired and accomplished. Today'd hadn't been a total wash, he thought, throwing a mock salute to Xavier and making his way upstairs to his room. They'd found out more about Rogue's situation, not in a way he was thrilled about, but it was still ok, and the wonder twins were going to be moved out of the dorm and into their own space, something he had been pushing for. Overall, not too awful.

He pushed the door to his room open and looked around. Rogue and Jubes were asleep in his bed, a pile of pillows stacked up between them to stop accidental touching, and Kitty was curled up in his recliner by the window, reading a book. Rogue's CD player was on the desk and the clock radio was on, tuned to what sounded like some twangy country. He grinned at the three of them, glad they were comfortable in his space.

Walking over to Jubes, on the far side of the bed, he poked her in the shoulder to wake her, watching her sit up and push her hair out of her face. He got both her and Kitty to follow him out into the hallway, closing the door behind him and opening the door to the right of his room.

"You all are moving. I talked it out with the professor and he agreed that it was time anyway, so this just helped make the decision. The three of you are gonna live in here." A wave of the hand indicated the space inside, taking in the leather couches, television and small kitchen area. He suddenly had a few doubts "You did still want to live with her, right?"

Jubilee's face almost split from the width of her smile. "Hell yeah we do, Wolvie! This is so insanely amazing! Kit Kat, we have our own bathroom! Holy shit, the messes we can make without people getting pissed!" She danced into the room, checking out different areas and still blabbing about what could go where. Crazy Asian.

He turned to Kitty. "Well?"

She, always more composed than her counterpart, smiled and nodded slightly to him. "It's wonderful, Logan. It will be nice to get out of the dorm. Also, I want to get to know Rogue more and I really want to help her. I think this is the best way to do that. Jubes and I can share the bigger bedroom and we'll get her set up in the smaller one. You helping us move?"

"Yeah, kid. I'll help. Only cause jellybean wouldn't ever let me hear the end of it if I didn't." He grinned. "Let's get Rogue set up in her room and then we can get all of your crap in here too." He wanted her to be able to rest without interruption cause interruptions seemed to be the story of his life at the moment.

"Ok. Let me go get something from our old room. Then we can move her into here." Kitty took off down the hallway and went back next-door, grabbing the CD player off the desk as he walked over to Rogue's side. He really didn't want to wake her; she looked so exhausted laying there, half curled up on her side. He reached out and brushed a piece of hair back, off of her face, and stayed there, watching her sleep until Kitty came in to find him.

"We're all set," she whispered, touching him lightly on the back before turning to leave again. He tucked the CD player into the back of his jeans, bent down and picked Rogue up, surprised that she didn't wake when her body left the bed. Poor thing had been through a lot. He checked the hallway before leaving the room, no one around, and started humming when they left the music of the room behind. If anyone besides his girls saw this, he'd have to bury them deep in the woods to escape the teasing.

Kitty was holding the main door open and didn't make a noise as he followed her to the room on the left. He shot her a look of thanks when he heard the music, coming from a small silver boom box, chasing away the silence. Laying Rogue on the bed took little effort, but leaving the room after doing so was another story. Some part of him wanted to watch her, make sure nothing was allowed to disturb her rest.

He shook his head, set the CD player done on the bedside table and left, pulling the door securely shut behind him. He looked around the living room and rubbed his hands together.

"Let's get moving girls." He said, driving them both out into the hallway. "Goal time is: one hour."

---

Not too bad, he thought, an hour and a half later as he finally got back to his room. They'd enlisted some of the younger kids to schlep stuff, with Logan running the herd, while the two girls chucked their belongings into boxes and bags for transport. It'd all gone smoothly and quickly, leaving the girls with everything in one place. They were gonna work at putting shit away in the morning, after everyone had slept themselves out. Which was exactly as he planned to do.

He started stripping as he crossed the room, dropping clothes wherever they landed in an uncharacteristic show of sloppiness. Naked, he flopped into his bed, getting momentarily over whelmed by the smell of Rogue and Jubes that whooshed up with the air. He grinned and pulled the covers over him, leaving the radio on as he fell into sleep, happy to know that, for now at least, his three girls were just fine.

Title: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

Donavan Crane, following the dark-blue Explorer, turned his van left onto an extremely secluded road, which seemed to have only 3 houses spaced out over two miles. He sneered. These people were so afraid of their mutant that they had cut themselves off from everything. Didn’t they know that the mutant could never be allowed to run the lives of man? That was like moving across the country to appease the cat’s desire to hang out in pine trees.

Well, if it was everything they said, he would gladly make it no longer their problem. Some might think that $15,000 was a lot for a mutant and, in most cases, they would be right. But not this one. Being in control of an instant, inescapable killer was a dream come true. He was almost salivating thinking of all the damage someone like him could do with that. No more having to deal with imprisoning a bunch of different mutations, making sure that this one couldn’t cut through these straps or beat down the wall. Just, take hand, apply to skin, watch it die. Such a neat and simple disposal for the ones he didn’t need to keep.

He parked behind the SUV and opened the back of his van, unlocking the cage back there for easy access later. He grabbed the catchpole and went around to the front, meeting the couple on the porch.

“Where’s the money?” John-David asked, crossing his arms over his chest and blocking the door. Mary stood next to him, holding the small cat carrier with a crying orange tabby inside. Neither one looked concerned that they were about sell their only child to a man they didn’t know. Parents these days, he thought, smirking.

“You’ll get it when I get my demonstration.” He nodded at the carrier. “Are you thinking of backing out?” Identical head shakes. “Then stop wasting my time. I only have one life to live. It’s ticking by.”

Donavan watched them meet eyes and turn to the door. John-David seemed to be walking on air as he unlocked it and walked into the hallway, a spring in his step that wasn’t there when they had first been introduced. Must be the lifted weight from getting rid of a dirty little secret.

He looked around the home as he was led through the living room and up the stairs. No pictures of the mutant anywhere. The house appeared to belong to a childless couple. Good, he thought, hearing music as he ascended. If they had already cut themselves off that much from it, this would be much easier.

“What is that racket?” He griped.

“Marie has a tendency to act out when she knows we aren’t here.” Mary answered, looking at him over her shoulder. “She turns her music up really loud and stomps…” Mary stopped talking when she slammed into John-David’s back. “What are you doing?” she snapped, trying to look around him.

Donavan watched John-David raise a shaky hand and point down the hallway. “Look,” he whispered. Mary gasped and Donavan had had enough of being in the dark. He shoved past the two and saw a broken door collapsed on the floor of the hallway with a staircase leading up. He walked over the door and clomped up the stairs, looking around the attic when he reached the landing. One look in the bathroom and he sneered out a “Fuck” as he turned around and went back to the parents.

“She’s escaped. And she left you a note.” He spat, hightailing back to the van with John-David on his heels.

The man made the mistake of grabbing his arm as he threw the catchpole into the backseat. “What about our money?”

Donavon looked down at the hand on his arm and back into the other man’s face. John-David must have gotten good at reading expressions over the years because he flung his hand away, like he had touched a hot stove. “Mr. D’Ancanto, possession is nine tenths of the law. You lost it, so you lost the chance at the money for handing it over. Now, I have to spend that money locating the prize. If you’ll excuse me.”

He slammed the back door of the van closed and jumped into the front seat, leaving John-David and Mary eating dust as he peeled out of their driveway. He pulled out his phone and got his assistant on the line “Clint, we have a runner. Send the picture of the leech to every bounty hunter we have out there. $15,000 reward. I want that mutant.”

---

Marie bolted upright in a bed not her own, trying to get her brain to play catch-up with the situation. Radio on, check. Huge bed she had never seen before, check. Floating head of a girl coming through the door, check. Wait, what the hell?

“Now it is the time of night, that the graves, all gaping wide, every one lets forth his sprite, in the church-way paths to glide.” She muttered, trying to make everything fit into place.

The ‘spirit’s’ smiling face drooped in concern and the door opened, admitting her, head and all. “Rogue,” she started, not knowing what to say next.

Rogue shook her head and rubbed her eyes, holding up her hand when the other girl took a deep breath to continue. “Wait, it’s fine, Kitty. Just took a minute to get everything in order. What time is it?”

Kitty grinned and walked farther into the room, leaning against the desk in the corner. “It’s noon. And don’t worry about not knowing what’s going on when you wake up. Jubes is like the walking dead until she gets her coffee in the morning. All she does is moan and blink stupidly. It’s pretty funny to watch, actually.” She chuckled, inviting Rogue in on the joke.

Rogue smiled and stretched her arms over her head, twisting her back this way and that. She couldn’t remember having slept this well in years. At home, she had always kept an ear open for the sounds of visitors or the key scraping in the lock of her door, hoping that either case could lead to escape. Here, she had just let everything go, though the utter exhaustion had probably helped.

“Hungry?” Kitty asked, standing up and offering a hand to help her up. She looked down at her hands and almost jumped out of her skin. Where were her gloves? She frantically started throwing pillows and blankets everywhere, finally digging them out from under the top sheet on the other side of the bed. She smiled an apology to Kitty as she pulled them on and got to her feet under her own steam.

“Starving. Here, let me just make the bed and-“ Kitty cut her off.

“Don’t even think about that now. With it unmade, it now matches our room.” She led Rogue into the living area. “Take a look through there,” she indicated another doorway.

Rogue looked in and saw another room, about one and a half times the size of hers. There was a yellow bedspread flung half off of one of the beds and a blue one was bundled by the headboard of another. There were a few magazines around the yellow bed and a candy bar on the nightstand.

She turned in the doorway to look at Kitty. “Wait, this is your bedroom? Why am I here? I thought I was getting moved into a single in the dorm? And how did I even get into this room when we were in Logans?”

“We thought that arrangement might work out better. With me and Jubes living here, we can get to know you better. And, this way, we have our own bathroom so we don’t have to share with those other water-hogging students. And Logan brought you in here. We didn’t want to wake you because it had been a long day.” Kitty leaned towards her, earnest expression trying to convey her sincerity.

“He carried me!?” She half shrieked, having a momentary panic attack. All that potential for skin contact and he knew what it was like to touch her! How could he just pick her up like it was no problem?

Breath, Marie. In and out. She would just have to talk to him about his reckless, destructive tendencies when she saw him next. Now, about the other two.

“I don’t want to make your lives difficult, Kitty. You brought me here. I didn’t want the two of you to move because of me. I’ll be just fine in the single and you can go back to your old room.”

Jubilee charged in the door at this point. “And give up that awesome single bathroom! No, no, no. You’re stuck with us, Roguey. We need you to get that.” She pointed at the bathroom door. “And I don’t want to hear anything else about it. Now change outta those dirty clothes and let’s get to lunch before the boys eat it all.”

With that royal decree, she swept into her bedroom, leaving Rogue and Kitty smiling at each other in the living space.

“I guess that’s that.” Kitty said, plopping on the couch to wait.

“I guess so.” Rogue agreed and went to her room to dig out something clean.

Marie thought she was doing pretty well, considering. Getting dressed had been a slight chore, seeing how Jubilee wouldn’t let her out the door in her original choice. Something nonsensical about melting like the polar ice caps on the sun. Yeah, it might be hot in tights, jeans, a tank top, long sleeved shirt, opera length gloves, a scarf and hoodie with the hood up, but it was better than adding to her mental collection. She sighed, tugging at the cuffs of the long sleeve T-shirt she had been stripped down to before turning the volume up a notch on Bach. The girls wouldn’t feed her or let her find her own stash until she lost the hoodie, tights, tank top and switched her gloves to shorter, more breathable ones.

She felt naked and lonely but strangely claustrophobic at the same time because of how close the other girls were. Norbert had been left to fend for himself in her room, This was the first time in 5 years he wasn’t by her side. She could still hear him, yeah, but it was different because she couldn’t feel him as well. It was getting hard to breathe. She leaned on the railing. People she didn’t know were about to see her and she was naked and alone. But not alone. Shit, even she was confused by her own feelings.

She shuffled down the stairs behind the twosome and started talking without even realizing it. “Are you sure it’s a good idea for me to be going to eat with the others? I don’t want to disrupt anything. You guys could just get me something and I can eat in my room. Or I have oranges in there. That would be the perfect lunch.” Ending rapidly, she started to turn around to head back up when sparks appeared in front of her eyes, stopping her flat.

“I’ll make sure those hurt next time if I have to,” Jubilee stated calmly, grabbing Rogue’s arm and continuing to the cafeteria. “Now, you need to do this sometime and the longer you put it off, the worse it’s going to be when you suck it up and try. And today’s the perfect day because it’s Sunday, meaning people tend to trickle in and out to eat instead of all arriving in one bunch. So, there won’t be as many to worry about.”

“Where’s the adventurous Rogue who came up to our strange car on the road?” Kitty piped in, slinging an arm around Rogue’s shoulder and ignoring the flinch that accompanied the touch. “You were all spine then.”

They didn’t understand how hard this was. “This is different. I didn’t have a choice on the road so I pretended like I was brave. Yours was the only car I had seen in hours and I didn’t think I would have another chance. And you guys looked, um, true, I guess. Wholly yourselves.” What the hell was she even saying? They were going to think she was even crazier than they already knew she was. “I mean, I watched you for a minute and Logan looked mad, sure, but it wasn’t deceptive. I mean-“

Jubilee laughed, cutting her off. “Stop the runaway train mouth, Roguey. I’m the conductor on that line.” She stopped in front of a door with the word cafeteria painted in red letters accompanied by a little fork and knife symbol and turned suddenly serious. “We’ve both been there, Rogue.” A nod to Kitty. “Everyone here has. At some point, each of us has had to walk through that door into the unknown. We had to trust that we could handle the normalcy of eating in a room with other people. To trust that nothing bad would happen in that short amount of time.” They locked eyes and Rogue felt her heart lift. Ok. She tried a smile, suspecting it looked slightly forced. She could do this.

“Besides,” Jubilee grinned, “Don’t try to explain why we’re better than the unknown. You’ll never do the three of us justice. We know we’re better.”

Kitty flipped her hair and batted her eyelashes extravagantly at Rogue. “My name is Jubilee. I’m super modest. I never say anything that people might take badly or to heart. My- Oww!” Rogue laughed as Kitty rubbed the spot on her arm Jubilee had pinched.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” she jumped in, hoping to stop a slap fight from starting. Here we go, she thought, pushing open the door to reveal a madhouse.

---

Jubilee felt Rouge go stiff beside her. She looked around to see what would have given the girl pause, seeing only about 30 of the students milling around and sitting at the tables laid out across the space. The only “adult” present was Logan, sitting at their customary table on the opposite side of the room, devouring a roast beef sandwich with a look of absolute bliss on his face. He glanced up when the door closed and gestured to Rogue, who was stiff and pale, but otherwise seemed to be ok. Jubilee shook her head, no they didn’t need his help, and pushed the girl towards the buffet line.

Rogue kept pulling at her shirt and gloves, trying to cover skin that wasn’t visible while whipping her head around to keep track of everyone moving in her vicinity. “Doing ok, lady?” she asked, worried that Rogue hadn’t said anything.

“Our doubts are traitors and cause us to miss the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt,” Rogue spouted, moving closer to the line and keeping the wonder twins between her and the crowd.

“Good, Rogue. Try to keep the pep talk going if it helps.” Jubilee looked at Kitty and shrugged before handing Rogue a tray and starting to make her own lunch selections.

“Are there always this many people in here?” Rogue whispered to her, eyes darting over the crowd. Jubilee noticed she seemed to be absently picking up the same food as her, evidently not willing to make decisions when presented with the reality of school meals.

“Sometimes,” Kitty replied, putting a milk carton on Rogue’s tray, making Jubilee smile because she was always trying to mother people. “Normally there are more people than this. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. And everyone here is a mutant so they’ll understand if you dress differently because of your skin. Everyone is at least a little weird.”

Rogue, still staring at everything and looking freaked out but fascinated, was oblivious to Bobby coming up behind them and raking his eyes from her feet up. He opened his mouth to say something when more Shakespeare cut him off.

“O wonderful, wonderful and most wonderful wonderful! And yet again wonderful, and after that, out of all hooping”. Rogue blinked and seemed to finally notice they had a joiner, smiling a little. “Hello,” she said, waving a glove encased hand. Bobby stayed rooted on the spot, mouth still slightly open in surprise. Jubilee kicked him lightly and laughed as he snapped his mouth shut and walked away without saying anything.

“Was it something I said?” Rogue asked, concern and a little lines of hurt appearing around her mouth. Jubilee snorted.

“Nah, darling.” Logan spoke up. Evidently he had grown tired of waiting for them and decided to come figure out what the hold up was. He grabbed another sandwich on a plate and turned started back to the table, raised eyebrow suggesting that they should follow if they knew what was good for them. “Icicle isn’t the brightest bulb in the box. He probably didn’t know what to do when presented with you three at the same time. I know it’s enough to scare me at occasionally.” He sat, pulling Rogue’s tray over beside him, indicating she should sit with her back to the wall.

“She’ll feel better if she can watch everyone.” Was the supplied explanation Jubilee got when she smirked at him.

“He’s right.” Rogue assured, sinking down in the chair. “Now I know where everyone is so I can’t be snuck up on.” She started to pick up her sandwich, smearing mayonnaise on her gloves.

“Hey!” They said together as Jubilee grabbed her hands, sandwich plopping back onto the plate, and started tugging on the fingers of the gloves. “You’re getting them all gross,” she whined at Rogue, who had tugged her hands back over into her lap. “You’re not going to have anything wearable if you eat with them on. I am the fashionable one. You must listen to me.”

“Or I could kill you if I took them off!” Rogue whisper screeched, keeping her hands hidden. Ok, think Jubes. This could lead to disaster if they didn’t nip it in the bud at the beginning. She could just see Rogue now, slowing burying herself under layer after layer of clothing, cutting herself off from normalcy, another prison really.

“Look, chica. We’re the only ones here. We won’t touch your hands. You can see anyone approaching because of where you’re sitting. Nothing’s going to happen. We’re not afraid.” She nodded, hoping that Rogue would believe her, and watched as the other girl looked at Logan and Kitty in turn before sighing.

“If ya’ll are sure,” she said, pulling the gloves off and putting them in her lap. “It is easier to eat without them. Just, Logan?” She waited for him to look at her. “You can see everyone in the room too. Don’t let anyone touch me, ok?”

Jubilee smiled at his “Sure, kid,” and watched Rogue pick her sandwich up again. First excursion, a success, if anyone asked. She applied herself to her lunch, just letting the dull roar of the cafeteria surge around their little group.

---

Later that day, Rogue sat in the grass next to a bench on the edge of the flower garden, soaking up sunshine and just relaxing with her Disney mix. Norbert was under the bench, rolling around, probably getting dirty as hell, and Jubilee and Kitty were in their room working on homework for their online college classes. They’d protested her escaping but Logan had come to her rescue, backing her up on the fact that overstimulation so quickly could be just as detrimental as under.

The situation she found herself in was completely overwhelming, more so than anything else she had dealt with since getting out. Up until landing at the mansion, she had been in survival mode, striving to get somewhere safe, somewhere she would be able to adjust. Not caring to think too far into anything.

Now, she had time to think and that was a blessing and a curse. She’d been locked up in a space that was roughly four hundred square feet for five years. Long enough that she knew every dark spot on each plank of wood. Every squeaky floorboard. How the toilet flushing made the shower cold instead of hot and how the moon shining in from the skylight cast a blue-ish tint to her bookshelf. There, she was queen. Here, outside the attic, everything was new and loud and bright. And smelled so much. She had been in a space with nothing but her own sent and the smell of laundry soap for so long that she thought her nose had died.

She sighed and plucked a blade of grass, smiling in delight when the wind caught it and fluttered it away from her. This, she thought, spirits rising from the simple beauty. If she could see things like this everyday, sit in the sun or the rain, swim in a lake and just be wherever she wanted to be, it would be worth anything. Worth the pain of working through her issues and getting used to all the visual and emotional noise. Worth whatever effort she would have to put in to earn her keep.

Over lunch, Logan had said that now was the time to adjust and heal. To find her place in mansion life, see if she could get a degree or what subjects she needed to study to be proficient. Then, he said, they could tackle the harder crap. How to control her mutation, a scary thought, and the ‘what am I going to do with my life’ stuff that she would have probably known already had her parents not gone the incarnation route. And Kitty had made it very clear that Logan always had the last word if people knew what was good for them.

“Well, Norbert. I think we ended up somewhere perfect for all of that.” She said, picking up her complete works of Shakespeare and to see if the Bard had anything impactful to say about her life. That was silly. Of course he did. But, two pages into The Tempest and right after she had restarted her CD, a whispered conversation back to her right caught her attention. Damn that super hearing that wouldn’t go away, anyway.

“I know what I heard, John. She must like him if she’s quoted him twice where I could hear. She needs to talk to someone besides Logan and his harem anyway.”

“Shit, Bobby. You keep talking about them like that and you know he’s gonna hand you your ass in training. And I’ll be standing there, laughing my dick off, yelling I told you so.”

“You know it’s just a stupid nickname. Yeah, they seem to hang on him and do whatever he says, but obviously he doesn’t sleep with them. Kitty’s way sensible for that. And Jubes wouldn’t do that to Remy.”

This ‘John’ character spoke again, though Rogue had no face to attach to the voice. And, since she was pretending not to hear them in hopes that this Bobby person would decide she wasn’t worth the trouble to talk to right now, she wasn’t going to turn around to look. “Way to give Logan the vote of confidence not to sleep with anything that walks by.”

That was hurtful. Not once in their association had she ever felt sexually threatened by Logan. Threatened physically, maybe. But not sexually. And, at this stage of her life with the crap she’d dealt with, she was pretty sure any obvious interest at all would make her feel threatened.

“Well, if the shoe fits. Anyway, she’s pretty and she doesn’t know anyone here. I’m going for it,” Bobby retorted.

Things like that were exactly what she meant. Pretty? She didn’t feel anything like that right now because she was so messed up. She shouldn’t look it either. And now she felt threatened. In a place that Jubilee and Kitty assured her was now home. This was not a good leg to start on with another mansion resident.

Bobby, who was evidently the person who had run from her in the cafeteria and, Norbert added, on the stairs when she was out of it, came out from behind the hedge and headed straight for her. She turned her head to watch him approach, and squaring her shoulders, half sat on Norbert to feel him with her.

She had to admit, Bobby was attractive in the boy next-door kind of way. Blonde spikey hair, which could use less gel if anyone was asking her, and blue eyes. Stacked shoulders and narrow hips with good musculature on his legs, visible under his cargo shorts. The type of boy that every momma would love her little girl to be with. He terrified her. He looked like Cody and her momma had loved Cody. Which means he couldn’t be good for Marie.

He looked down at her, stopping a couple of feet away and throwing out a smile. “But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”
Didn’t he look pleased with himself? For what? Learning something about the new girl, by eavesdropping on things he shouldn’t have heard, and trying to exploit it to his advantage. And now he was poking fun at her. Why else would he think that quoting Shakespeare was a smart move?

She watched his smile fade as she pushed to her feet, not answering because sudden, irrational anger had her biting her lips. Who did he think he was? So she wasn’t the same as everyone else. So she had been through a lot and had developed coping mechanisms. Who the fuck was this, this, maggot in front of her?

“You, sir, are never allowed to make fun of me. What is it; let’s taunt the new girl day? I know I’m fucked up. Thanks for driving that point home.” She was fuming, heaving great puffs of air laced with cigar smoke, not that she noticed.

She steam rolled over his response, not wanting to hear stupid excuses. “And really? Out of all the Shakespeare works documented, 37 plays and 154 sonnets, you pick Romeo and Juliet. Let me guess, you picked it up on an afternoon special that you were watching because they canceled your cartoons. Over quoted, overdone tripe, nowhere near his best romantic work. And you pick the second most over used line. Way to drive it home that you’re a moron.” Where was all this rage coming from? Yeah, she was mad, but not this mad. She didn’t care about him enough to let him make her this mad. Had the volcano finally erupted?

She snatched up her book and stormed off, passing/ignoring an irritated looking Logan who was glaring at Bobby. Spinning on her heel 10 feet away, she added, “If you must quote that play, at least use something less known. Example: O! She doth teach the torches to burn bright. It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night, like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear. Never abuse Shakespeare.” And she was gone, out of the garden and slamming into the mansion. Screw that boy and everyone like him. She was just fine with the few friends she had if everyone else was going to be like that.

---

Logan looked at Bobby, who was beet red and looking down at his shoes. He heard John laughing somewhere beyond the hedge and shook his head. “Boy, I don’t know what you said to her and, frankly, I couldn’t give too shits less. What I do care about is you not saying anything to her again until she approaches you.”

He puffed out a breath. “You know what it’s like for some of the people who come here. She’s been through more than you can dream. Give her time to settle in. Talk to her when she looks ready and only after she talks to you first. If that never happens, sucks to be you. Go about your life. If she comes to say sorry, which I’m sure will happen at some point, accept it. And don’t, and I fucking mean this so pay attention, suggest anything beyond friendship.” He cocked his head. “You got me?”

He reined in a smirk as Bobby’s head flopped up and down like a bobble head riding down a dirt road. “Go.” And watched him run, picking up John on the way by.

Good. The girl didn’t need to be dealing with anything beyond settling. The Bobby incident would be gossiped about, most likely started by John as soon as he could get alone, and everyone would know that Marie wasn’t willing or able to be approached like that right now. Which would give her the time she needed to figure herself out.

Feeling more settled, he reached down and grabbed Norbert, turning the animal over and over in his hands, looking for dirt or grass stains. Finding none, he tucked the fluff ball under his arm and hightailed it to the mansion, heading for Marie’s room to reunite the lost friends.

Remy rolled over and panicked, finding open air instead of mattress and slamming to the floor. Where did the rest of his bed go? His fuzzy brain took a minute to process his surroundings before it caught up with the present situation. Oh yeah. Back in New Orleans, “on vacation” as a cover, staying at friend’s house until he could find a short-term rental and doing some digging for intel on scary rumors that had made it back to New York.

Yuck. He scraped his tongue on his teeth. What had crawled into his mouth and died? No more letting people talk him into drinking whiskey before bed, even if he hadn’t seen those people in over two years. He scrubbed a hand over his face and looked at the clock, squinting to bring the red lights into focus.

2PM?! Holy shit. How late were they out last night? The professor was not going to be happy that he hadn’t checked in yet today. His girlfriend probably wouldn’t be much happier. He winced and grabbed his phone, texting Jubes a quick “Just woke up. Call later. Talking to the bossman. xx”

He used the bed to drag himself to his feet and shuffled to the bathroom, wincing at his reflection. Yeah, those dark circles were super attractive next to the sallow cheeks. He dealt with the mold growing on his tongue and took a shower, finally returning to plop in his bed, feeling slightly more human.

He grabbed his phone, found the number to the professor’s office and listened to the ringing reverberate with the ringing in his head. Wow, next step, aspirin.

“Hello, Gambit.” Xavier’s smooth tones met his ears, stopping the horrid ringing. “How is New Orleans?”

“Pretty good. Remy’s been settling in and seeing all the people he’s missed over the years. The mutants down here don’t have much to say about how they’ve been treated lately, but Remy thinks he’s going to have to be around for a while before they want to actually open up, even the people that know him from before. For now, just trying to get to know the area again and get a feel for things. Haven’t noticed anything obvious that we should be worried about right now.”

Remy could almost hear the professor thinking in the silence. “So, either the rumors have no basis in reality and originated from people’s paranoia or the disappearances have been covered up with plausible stories and the people who are orchestrating the anti-mutant movement are capable of being secretive and flying under public radar.”

Sometimes, talking to the professor made him feel like a two-year-old. How could someone put so many big words together with so little effort? “That’s what Remy thinks too. So, continue with the plan?”

“Yes. That’s the soundest plan. Reinsert yourself in society down there and just keep your ears and eyes open. Either we will uncover information about the rumored disappearances or you will get a nice vacation. Keep in contact and stay safe.”

“Yes sir. Keep Jubilee out of trouble for Remy, please.”

Xavier laughed. “I shall try my best, Remy, though she is sure to fight me on that. Have a good day.”

“Bye, Professor.” Remy dropped the phone on his bed and grabbed his laptop, initiating a Skype session with Jubilee. After a minute, her picture popped up on his screen.

“Please hold for the Jubster.” He snorted, watching her hold up a finger without pulling her nose out of a textbook.

“Ok, who is…Baby!” she ended on a shriek, face lighting up with a huge smile once she figured out who was trying to talk to her. “How it shaking in the south?”

He grinned back. “Not too shabby. Went out with some old friends last night.”

“I’ll say. Good thing I’m not dating you for your looks cause you’re looking really rough today. Did they put you through the wringer?”

He rubbed a hand over his face, mussing his hair, attractively he hoped. “No, just too much drinking and not enough sleep. My friend Jim took us to this old…” He stopped and squinted at the screen, catching sight of a stranger dashing behind Jubilee and into an adjacent door. “Who’s that?”

Jubilee looked over her shoulder. “Oh, crap. That’s Rogue. Logan, Kits and I picked her up on our way back. She’s had a bit of a hard time. Hold on a second, I better go see what happened.” She’d just pushed to her feet when Logan stepped into the room, following the girl to knock on the door. “Never mind. It’s being dealt with.” She plopped back down and looked at him again.

“Um… Jubey, what’s the blue fuzzy thing Logan’s carrying? Is that…” He leaned closer to the screen, as if that would zoom in the picture, and caught a glimpse as Logan was let through the door. “Is that a stuffed rabbit?!” He started laughing. “Does Remy even want to know what’s going on there while he’s stuck so far away?”

Jubilee rolled her eyes and pointed at the screen. “Of course you want to know. Here’s the breakdown...”

And she proceeded to tell him about their new living arrangements, Rogue’s interesting mutation and the eight million things that somehow had happened in the time they had been apart. Holy crap. If this much could happen in three days, the whole world would be changed over his six-week mission.

---

Logan stood in the doorway and watched as Marie paced back and forth across the bedroom, muttering to herself and fidgeting with one of he ear buds. She didn’t even look up when he walked across the room and sat on her bed.

He sat there silently for a few minutes and decided she wasn’t going to acknowledge him “What happened, darlin’?” She jumped and whirled, white-faced, to look at him, bringing a hand up to her chest.

“Jeeze. Calm down. It’s just me. You let me in, remember?” Obviously, no, she didn’t. She must have been so absorbed in her thinking that the outside world had disappeared.

“Yeah, I remember. You just started talking outta nowhere. It clashed with Bach for a minute.” He cocked an eyebrow at her, letting her know she wasn’t fooling anyone.

“You’re listening to The Rolling Stones. Not Bach.” He flicked his ear, reminding her about his mutation.

She flushed a little, caught. “Whatever.” With a flip of her hand at him, she settled her butt on the edge of the desk. “I’m just thinking about things…” She trailed off into silence.

He decided to stop the awkardness, hoping she would talk when she was ready to and held out his fluffy bundle.

“Norbert.” She ran toward him, arms outstretched like a two-year-old reaching for a blankie and pulled the rabbit out of his hands. “I can’t believe you left me!”

She squished him to her chest. “A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigg’d nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats instinctively had quit it.” Logan grabbed her gloved hand and pulled her onto the bed, holding her shoulders so she would look at him.

“He didn’t abandon you and you’re not broken.” He shook her a little. “He can’t move on his own so you have to help him stay with you. And nobody who was broken could have made it though the things you did. Cut yourself some slack and give it time before you make damning decisions about yourself.”

She pulled out of his hold and started petting the rabbit, face downturned in disgust. “Thanks for bringing him back to me.” He just stared at her. “I’ll try to follow your advice.” Staring seemed to make her want to talk so he kept doing it. “Really. But I can’t just flip a switch in my brain that says ‘time to think happy thoughts’. I’m not Peter Pan. I spent years with my mom saying all this bad shit about me on a daily basis so it’s gonna be awhile.”

He nodded at Norbert when she seemed to have rambled herself out. “Welcome.”

They sat in silence for a minute until he nudged her arm with his own, pulling her eyes up. “Wanna tell me what Bobby said to piss you off? Do I need to have another talk” add a cracking of knuckles to attach meaning to the statement “to him?”

“No! No. It’s not a big deal.” She shook her head and started studying Norbert, picking at invisible lint in his fur.

Logan squinted at her, wondering if she would blow up at him like she did Bobby and decided, what the hell? He liked to live on the wild side. “I can see he’s not in your good books.”

Her head snapped up and a smile tugged at her lips. “No, and if he were I would burn my library.” She finished the quote and laughed softly. “Honestly, it’s fine. I don’t know why I reacted that strongly. I don’t know him well enough for his opinion or actions to have that big of an affect on me. Strangers have never mattered like that. I think I just had this big pile of mad built up and he said the perfect thing to get it all dumped on him.”

She looked around and dropped her voice to a whisper “Plus, his grasp of Shakespeare is awful. Why would he think to try to use the Bard to form a connection to me if he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about? Yeah, that’s impressive. Let me just trash your favorite thing ever.”

He felt the edges of his mouth pull up in a smile. “Well that is a horrible offense. I’m glad you verbally bitch-slapped him. Someone needed to.” He grunted when she punched him in the arm and took that as a cue to get up. “You good now?”

She grinned at him and it was good to see the light in her face. “Yeah. Peachy. I think I’ll go find Kitty and see if I can understand any of her homework. Maybe she’ll teach it to me!”

Her enthusiasm was catching. He almost wanted to tag along and see if Kitty could teach it to him too. He shook his head at his foolishness and handed her some more batteries off of the dresser. “I think your battery signal just beeped at you.”

She smiled her thanks and ran out the door, dashing back in a second later to grab Norbert and look sheepish, before leaving again. He chuckled to himself and walked out the door, glancing at Jubilee sitting at her computer, animatedly talking to the swamp rat. What did she see in him?

He shook his head again and started towards the gym. He would never understand these women. Maybe he should give up on trying?

---

A few hours later, after forcing Kitty to give her a brief rundown on her art history course (why would any normal person need that in real life?) and an uneventful dinner eaten at the same table as before, Marie was going stir crazy being stuck inside. Evidently, being exposed to fresh air and the outdoors after so many years being deprived addicted someone fairly quickly. She looked out her window at the grounds, seeing people everywhere enjoying the beautiful early evening and shuddered. Nope, not going there, the grounds were too crowded.

Really, it was awesome to see new people after so long alone, but it was also overwhelming. Everyone wanted to say hi and get to meet the new girl. Well, the new girl couldn’t deal with that many people all at once. It felt like faces were coming out of the woodwork as she walked by, constantly stalking her every move and making her hyperaware of how deadly she was. Maybe she should make a sign and wear it around her neck: Touch at your own risk. She snorted. Yeah, then she could be a bigger outcast than she was probably already making herself.

So, where to go to be outside, but away from everything? She looked at Norbert, who was staring pointedly out the window.

“Yes, outside. Where to be outside without people?” He ignored her and kept looking outside. “Ugh, you’re no help.”

She threw the window open and leaned halfway out of it, drawing in great gulps of air and swiveling her head around, looking for ideas. Yes, Norbert was a genius. He hadn’t been looking outside; he’d wanted her to look at the roof. The area directly outside her room wasn’t the best bet because it was a little steep here but two windows down it looked doable. Score! That was Logan’s room. He wouldn’t care if she used his window to gain access.

Marie grabbed a blanket, tucked her CD player into her belt and snatched up Norbert, before running out of her room and into the hallway. She knocked on Logan’s door and stood outside shifting from foot-to-foot, waiting for him to answer. A minute later, she turned the knob and stuck her head in, calling out into the semi-darkness. “Logan? You there?”

Nothing. Well, she had to get outside. If he was pissed about her walking through his room, he would for sure let her know. She crept through, seeing how neat the room was. Well except for the bed, which looked like he had just climbed out of it and left it. She smiled at the little bit of sloppiness and opened the window, setting the blanket and Norbert on the other side, before climbing out after them. She grabbed everything and tracked up the side of the roof heading to a little peaked area that should give a good view of the sunset and some back support at the same time.

She started to smell cigar smoke and heard a gruff “Hey, kid.” before she rounded the corner to see Logan sitting in the exact spot she had scoped out.

“Oh, I didn’t know this was your spot. I’ll just go over…” She turned to go but he was on his feet and grabbing the blanket out of her hands before she could escape.

“It’s fine. I like to sit up here at night and watch the sun set. It’s away from everyone but still part of them, you know?” He spread the blanket out and plopped down on one corner, then patted the other one. She sank down next to him and leaned back against the roof.

“That’s why I headed out here.” She nodded to the sun. “I didn’t want to miss this but there are so many people milling about that I’m pretty sure I would’ve exploded from tension if I had been out with them.”

He looked out over the grounds. “Well, you’re not interrupting. The girls sometimes join me because, unless it’s snowing, they know I’m always out here at this time. I suppose that invite is extended to you now, since you’re now stuck grouped in with them.”

“You suppose?” She teased him, feeling completely at ease now that the walls weren’t closing in on her.

“Yeah, I suppose. Unless you’re gonna talk my ear off. Then, you need to go. This is quiet time.” She caught his eye and saw the twinkle, taking the sting out of his statement and making it a joke. She grabbed the ‘zipper’ on the right side of her mouth and pulled it across, before smiling at him and turning her attention to the sunset.

Yeah, she could get used to this life.

Five days after coming home to find that the changeling, and the money she would’ve brought them, had slipped through their fingers, John-David was finally hanging a new door in the gaping hole at the end of the upstairs hallway. They’d had to drive over two hours to get to a big enough town so no one would recognize them and ask probing questions about buying a new door. Mary thought he was paranoid. Yeah, evidently not paranoid enough if that little shit had been able to get out when they’d been so careful in the plans.

Now, out the cost of the door, gas to get a new one and no nice bonus for feeding her over the years. Though not having to pay to feed her for now on was going to help.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve and swung the door a few times on its hinges, making sure it was smooth. Good. He slammed it, turned the lock out of habit and went downstairs to grab a beer. Instead of liquid relaxation he found his wife, seething, leaning on the kitchen table with their bank statement and a large stack of bills next to it. She pulled her hair back with sharp, jerky movements, telling him with without a doubt that he should’ve checked the mail before she could find any evidence.

“Did you seriously spend five thousand dollars on a timeshare condo? An UNREFUNDABLE five thousand dollars? When were you going to consult me? Obviously not before spending money we didn’t even have in our hands yet!?” Each sentence scraped his ears a little more with shrillness, making him want to slam her into a wall to stop the sound.

Instead of acting on the impulse, he went and got the beer from the fridge, popped the top and took a swig before finally meeting her eyes. “You have no right to question me. I’m the head of this household and I do what I want with my money. You’d do well to remember that.” He stalked toward her, watching with amassment as she backed out of his way. That’s right, bitch. Remember your place.

He pointed at her. “It’s your fault that we don’t have that money anyway. I know I never gave her a thing that would’ve helped her escape. If I’d had my way, she would’ve been up there with a bucket to piss in, eating bread and water rations. It’s good enough for people in prison, so it’s more than she deserved. But no! You said she had to have all that shit. Now, I’m stuck spending my Friday night fixing a door. And tomorrow, who’s excited, I get to burn everything you insisted was necessary.”

Mary shrunk back farther into the corner. “It’s because I thought she was still my daughter, at first. She looked so much like my little Marie, I didn’t want to believe she was dead and that that thing was in her place. It took me about a year to break out of denial and, by then, she’d get out of hand if we didn’t give her things now an again. And you don’t have to burn everything.” She hesitantly put her hands on his chest rubbing up in down, trying to appease him. Did she think he couldn’t feel her hands shaking? “I’ll take care of all of it tomorrow and you can go to your poker game over at Joe’s house.”

As it should be, he mentally congratulated himself on getting what he wanted without raising a hand. “Good. While you’re at it, you need to figure out how we can get that money. I don’t care if you come up with a way of getting to that little shit before Crane does or if you just decide to stand on a corner because it’s easier. Either way, get it done.”

He turned away from her slack-jawed face and grabbed the rest of the six-pack out of the fridge, heading toward the living room. He stopped in the hallway and turned back to her. “I know adultery is a sin but, in this house anyway, disobeying your husband is a greater one. If you go the hooker route, make sure they use condoms. Don’t want you bringing anything home.” She sank into a chair at the table and he settled onto the couch, remote in hand.

Oh, good. Baseball was on.

---

Baseball. Fucking Hell. He’d just managed to clean all the kids outta the common room so he could commandeer the big TV instead of watching on his own little set and there was nothing on but baseball. Who watched this shit? Great American past time, sure. Just further proof that he couldn’t be from America.

“Mr. Logan?” A 10 year old with brown curls poked her head around the doorjamb. “We heard you growling.” She nodded behind her where he could see several other heads. “Does that mean there’s no hockey? Can we watch The Little Mermaid?”

He frowned at the TV, rolled his eyes at the “argument” taking place over home plate and hit the input button, changing it over to DVD. “Yeah, squirt. Go. You’re all set. Have fun.” He watched the kids, all eight of them, pile onto the couch and jockey for position before ending up all over each other, facing the TV. He looked at the girl, who was now buried under a couple of five year olds, and saw the remote was out of her reach. Grabbing it, he pushed play before setting it in her hand, catching her smile. He grunted his welcome and dimmed the lights, walked out the door.

Crazy kids, he shook his head and started up the stairs, hearing a commotion up ahead. Logan managed to flatten himself against the railing just before an avalanche of Jubilee, Kitty and Rogue came tumbling through the spot he’d been standing in. “Good thing I have good reflexes,” he grumbled, getting a “Hi, Wolvie” from Jubes and a “Bye, Wolvie” from Kitty as they passed him.

Rogue just waved with the hand not holding a book, continuing her current tirade. “Girls, I was trying to find something new to read. I don’t understand why a Disney movie, which I’m sure all ya’ll’ve see millions of times, is big enough to pull me away from that.”

He could hear Jubes’ eyes roll. “You do that every day and you’ll go back to the library when it’s over, I’m sure. Roguey, you haven’t seen The Little Mermaid in over five years. That’s sacrilege. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a Disney princess movie as an adult.”

Kitty piped in, “It helps that Jubes has a crush on Prince Eric.”

“That’s gross Jubes. He’s a cartoon! How can you think a cartoon is cute? What does Remy think about that?”

“What Remy doesn’t know doesn’t hurt me!” Jubilee pushed the door open and he heard an overwhelming “SSSSHHHHHH” from the kids inside. “Yeah, like they said.” She pulled the other two into the room and shut the door behind them.

Logan shook his head again. Who was the Eric character? And ‘The Little Mermaid’? Sounded kinda interesting. Maybe he needed to find a copy of his own to watch. He heard warbling children’s voices singing through the door “Ah, we are the daughters of Triton. Great father who loves us and named us well…”. Well, if he watched it privately, he would be ok. As long as no one found out. Ever.

---

Later that night, having finally found a new book, Rogue grabbed her blanket and took the now familiar path through Logan’s room and out the window to the roof.

She’d settled into a good rhythm in her week at the mansion. She got up when Kitty and Jubes did, both were teacher assistants, and had breakfast with them. Then, she’d spend about an hour in the gym and another half hour running on the trails in the woods. The exercise was nice because it was one of the only things that had been basically the same in the attic as it was outside. Yeah, she had fancy equipment and more room now but still, the same. You put in the work, mentally and physically, and your body reaped the benefits. A simple give and take in a world that was no longer as simple.

Then, she’d shower and would spend some time outside reading, eat lunch at some point, normally with Logan, and hang out with the young kids who didn’t care who you were or what your story was, as long as you were willing to push them on the swings. Jubes and Kitty would find something for the three of them to do at night and they would end the evening on the roof, just chilling.

She’d met most of the mansion residents and all of them knew about her skin but nothing else. Not until she could decide who to tell what part of her story. On the upside, no one had asked probing questions except for Jean and Hank, evidently the resident doctors. And they had ended the questioning when she’d finally convinced them that none of her issues were physical. Jean hadn’t looked too happy when she’d found out that she hadn’t started therapy sessions with Xavier, citing some study about postponing therapy being detrimental to full recovery, but Jean was just going to have to deal. Rogue would get there when it was time.

She tucked the book, The Iliad, more securely under her arm and made her way carefully across the roof, hearing unexpected voices. Was she late tonight? She looked at the sky and saw that the sun still had about an hour before it sunk behind the hills overlooking the grounds. Nope, early actually.

She came around the corner just as Jubilee threw two cards into the middle of the blanket and glared at the upturned cards in front of Logan. “How do you always fucking win? I swear to god you were bluffing. You have a tell and everything!”

Marie chuckled and walked closer, settling into the spot Kitty and Logan created between them.

“Liar, Liar. Better watch your pants. You know I don’t have a tell. No one, not even that stinking Cajun you call a boyfriend, who briefly made a living off of Texas Hold ‘Em, can tell when I’m bluffing. You owe me,” he looked up at the sky, adding in his head, “one million dollars”.

Rogue chocked on her laugh and sat back, startled for a minute but Jubes just pulled an ugly face and Kitty fell over, laughing. “That’s what you get, Jubes. You called him on what?” she flipped the hand over and started laughing harder “a pair of 5’s? I think the only part of Remy that’s rubbed off on you is his cologne”.

Logan frowned and pointed at Kitty. “I don’t want to hear that. Ever. Jubes, pay up. Either one million dollars or you do my laundry for three weeks.”

“So what am I up to now?”

Kitty pulled a notebook out of her pocket. “Four months.”

Jubes grabbed the notebook out of her hands. “You wrote it down?! What kind of best friend are you? Don’t help him!”

Kitty grabbed it back and stuck her tongue out, turning to Rogue and smiling. “Want to play? You can’t be any worse than Jubilee”

“No you don’t Rogue! He’ll just make you do all his chores because you won’t win.”

Marie looked at the three others. Jubilee’s face was screaming “don’t try it” while her head shook back and forth. Kitty was smiling faintly and wiggling her eyebrows, trying to entire another playing into the game. Logan was just looking on, amused, while shuffling the cards. She thought about it for a minute, did some mental checking and shrugged. “Sure, deal me in.”

She flushed and made herself not flinch when he leaned close to her, speaking softly. “I’ll take it easy on you for awhile. Just until you figure out what you’re doing.” He sat up, looking a bit too smug for her.

She pulled her eyebrow up, an exact copy of his favorite expression. “Will you, now? Well, I warn you, I had an excellent teacher. Maybe you shouldn’t assume I’m going to lose.” She smiled and saw a smear on his face. “What’s that?”

He wrinkled his nose. “Vicks-Vapor rub. It’s so I can’t smell when people are bluffing. Remy thought it would help him win, said the only way I could know he was bluffing was by smelling out the lie. Even since, I’ve done this. He still loses but it’s a legit worry. Can’t smell anything else with this shit on my face.”

While they’d been talking, Kitty had divided the chips up equally between everyone and Jubilee was busy making multi-colored towers. Marie looked at the chips in front of her and watched Logan deal the cards.

She turned a part of her brain to the inside and walked down the hallway, opening the appropriate door and watching the occupant step out. He just smirked at her and laughed softly before going with her to the front of their now shared space. He looked out through her eyes at the cards in front of them and rubbed his hands together. “Raise before the flop, darlin’. Gotta come out strong.”

---

Logan sat in disbelief, looking at the chips in the pot and at the stack Rogue had in front of her. Jubes and Kitty had been out for over 45 minutes, leaving the battle to the masters. He had to admit, whoever’d taught Rogue to play poker was pretty damn good. He looked at his cards, not that he didn’t know what they were, it was just a habit, before looking at her again. The sun was long gone by this point but Jubes had gone after a camping lantern so he could see her perfectly across the blanket. He studied her face one last time and saw the corner of her lip twitch as she rubbed one of her cards with her first finger. There was the tell.

“All in”, he grunted, barely getting the words out before her “call” was thrown into the night. She started smiling and he watched it form before shaking his head. Kinda cocky, ain’t you darlin’?

He laid his cards down, face up. Two kings in his hand to match the King on the board and the pair of threes. Full house.

“Whadda you think?” He watched her purse her lips and he started reaching for the chips, figuring he would have the rest of her chips in the next hand or two.

“Wait.” Her soft voice stopped him. “Though those kings are awfully pretty, I think my aces, which match that pretty little river card, beat you.” She let that sink in for a minute. “I win.” She looked up and beamed, stopping his hands and a breath for a minute. She was radiant when she smiled that big.

His rampant thoughts were halted by Jubilee poking him in the side and laughing like a hyena. “You should see your face, Wolvie. All shock and awe that a little Mississippi girl beat you.”

He cleared his throat and looked around, in a completely new situation. “Ok. So, I lose. I owe you two million dollars. What’s it gonna be, kid?”

He watched Rogue lean over and converse with Kitty, probably trying to figure out how their ‘money’ translated to real life tasks. Please not laundry. Please not laundry, his brain chanted. He couldn’t stand laundry. He wiped the vapor-rub off his face onto his sleeve, glad to finally have his fifth sense restored.

She sat upright again and looked solemn as she delivered his sentence. “Take us for ice cream, tonight. That covers the first million. As for the second…” She stalled out, eyebrows drawn together “Kitty, we need something else.”

“Hell no! Logan, for the second million, you’re taking us out next week on Wednesday night because it’s Rogue’s twenty-first birthday and she wants a drink in a real bar but she’s afraid that something will happen. But we’ll make sure nothing happens, right?”

Jubilee, always ready to help out with conspiracies, picked up the cue. “Totally. And Logan has to pay because he lost. You beat him, Rogue! That’s so totally awesome I can’t even find something awesome enough to compare it to.”

Rogue looked down, blushing and he felt a strange twist in his chest. Why hadn’t she asked earlier if that was what she wanted? Didn’t she know that he would have made it happen, even without her ‘winning’ the privilege? Ok. Next thing on the list of ‘Marie Related Items’ make sure she knows to ask for what she needs. He wasn’t a damn mind reader. Why did women always think men were?

He started gathering up the chips and cards, putting them back in their box as the girls got to their feet, groaning and stretching. “So, Rogue. Since I’m about to take you all out for ice cream, want to tell me who taught you to play poker? Cause I kinda want a chance to play against them someday.”

He watched the rebirth of her smile and decided that losing didn’t hurt that much. As long as it wasn’t Remy he was losing to, he could cope. “You already played against him, Logan. You were my teacher!” The three of them started laughing and ran over the rooftop, out of sight in a minute.

“Well, damn,” he said to the empty space, grabbing everything and tearing off after them. “You’re a little cheater, Rogue. I told you Jubilee! No one can beat me. It doesn’t count if I beat myself!”

Kitty stood outside of Rogue’s door, hearing the muffled music escaping under the door, confirming that the girl was in. She looked down and fiddled with the green iPod nano in her hands. She had no idea how this was going to play out, if Rogue would be receptive to this type of gift or not. The girl didn’t have complete control over her emotions yet, sometimes pingponging from tears to giddiness in seconds, so occasionally you would be blindsided by a complete opposite reaction than the one expected.

Kitty had made a pact with Logan and Jubes to not mention Rogue’s music issues but it wasn’t like not talking was the same as not noticing. Rogue did look uncomfortable with that huge CD player, shoved into whatever pocket it would fit, tugging her clothing this way and that. And the amount of AA’s the girl was burning through couldn’t be good for the budget, let alone the environment.

Screw it. She took a breath and knocked on the door, deciding that this was something that had to be brought up at some point anyway. Might as well come from a friend and start now.

Rogue opened the door, letting The Beatles flow freely out into the common room. Kitty took in the sweaty, red face and noticed a yoga mat over by the open window.

“Hey Roguey. What’s going on?”

The other girl stepped back a few paces, putting a good four feet between them, and used the bottom of her shirt to wipe her face off. “Doing some crunches and pushups. I just got back in from running.” She waved her hand in invite and went back over to drop on the mat, starting a stretching routine.

Kitty followed her into the room and crossed to the boombox, turning the volume down a little under Rogue’s watchful eye. She flashed a reassuring smile and sat on the bed, facing the mat.

“Why aren’t you in the gym for your workout today? Isn’t that what you’re normally up to right now?”

Rogue’s face scrunched up for a second. “Logan’s got his senior class in there right now. He said it was fine if I stayed, but I think I was too much of a distraction. No one was paying attention to him and it was my fault. I shoulda wore something more covering. Half my arms were bare. I think it was too scary for them.”

Scanning her attire, Kitty smirked. Yeah, she could bet that Rogue had been the distraction. The boys were probably all drooling and tripping over themselves instead of listening to Logan and the girls were probably too busy trying to regain the attention. Sure all of her skin, except for her face and four inches of lower arm, was covered, but the skintight, spandex bodysuit didn’t hide anything. She had runner’s shorts on over it but even those molded to her ass a little too lovingly.
“Where did you get that outfit? I think it might be a little… small.” She tried to be delicate but Rogue’s face picked up a rosier hue anyway.

She plucked at the area over her chest, pulling it away from her boobs. “Yeah, it is. I didn’t really expect to see anyone today. I found it in ‘the closet’ and thought it wouldn’t be too hot to work out in. It’s a little tighter than I hoped.”

Kitty frowned. That was the problem when you dug through the huge wardrobe that they kept around, just in case. It was really upsetting, how many people found their way to the mansion with nothing but the clothes on their back. Jubilee had been one of them. Kitty hadn’t been much better off.

“You’ve been here for a week and a half. You mean to tell me that Jubes hasn’t dragged you to the store for a shopping trip yet? There’s a credit card reserved for just these reasons.”

“I don’t really need anything though. I have clothes. That money should be for someone who really needs it. I have some clothes, so what if I have to do laundry a little more often. “ Her face went blank and a little hard. “Besides. I have my own money. It’s bad enough that I’m staying here for free. I’ll use my own if I really need something that I don’t have.”

Kitty rolled her eyes. “Whatever, miss independent. Remind me to introduce you to the song ‘Independent Woman’ by Destiny’s Child. They could learn something from you.” She softened her tone. “Everyone needs help from other people at some point in their lives. You aren’t an island. Life’s all about paying it forward. If you need help, you take it from someone who can give it. Then, later, you give when you can.”

Rogue smiled a little bitterly. “Yeah, it’s just hard to remember that people will actually help you without expecting anything in return. My parents weren’t exactly the greatest examples.”

She fell silent for a minute. “I’m trying to though. Anyway, enough with the sad shit. What did you want? I’m pretty sure you didn’t come in here to smell my awesome workout stench or talk about Karma.”

“Well, I know you have your music with you all the time and I thought I would… Rogue?” She stopped talking because the other girl was looking over her shoulder, towards the open door. A few seconds later, Logan appeared and leaned against the doorjamb.

“I told you, you didn’t have to leave. There’s plenty of equipment in that gym. They coulda shared.” He grumbled, nodding to Kitty and chewing on the end of an unlit cigar.

Rogue sighed. “It’s fine, Logan. They’re still scared of me and I had all this bare skin on display. I can finish working out in here and not bother anyone. Though, my room seems to have turned into a meeting room. Did someone send out the ‘rogue’ single? Is it shaped like a glove?”

“They’re not scared of you. You should have heard what they…” Logan turned to look over his shoulder. “What the hell are you doing here?” he griped as Jubes pushed past him into the room.

“I live here. Maybe not in this room, but in this suite. I have a right to be here. What’s your excuse? You’re here all the fucking time.” She dropped on her stomach onto the bed and grabbed a pillow to rest her folded arms on.

Rogue threw up her arms. “Join the party. Make yourself at home. Lord knows, I’m dressed for company.”

Kitty smirked and elbowed Jubes, drawing her attention to Logan, whose eyes had zoomed over to Rogue’s chest when she mentioned her state of dress. Jubes snickered and he cleared his throat, dragging his gaze over to her. “Someone has to keep an eye on you three. You’re liable to triple handedly tear down this school around our ears.”

Kitty clamped a hand over Jubilee’s mouth, stopping an argument that could last hours if she let it. You could tell they were practically family, with the way they all bickered all day.

She ignored the slimy tongue that was licking her hand, trying to gross her out enough that she would let go. “Anyway, since I was here first, I get to go first. Rogue, I wanted to give you this.” She held out the iPod and dropped it into the outstretched, gloved hand, finally letting go of the jellybean when she stopped fighting. She wiped her hand on the girl’s shirt and turned back to a stunned Rouge.

“I hacked everyone’s iTunes and stole everything that I didn’t already have. I stocked that” she nodded at the iPod, “with all of the music you have on your cd’s and the music I stole. Now, you don’t have to carry around the huge CD player everywhere. And the battery life is really good so you don’t have to worry about carting around extra AA’s all the time.”

Rogue was slowly stroking the iPod with careful hands, watery eyes focused on it. “How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. It’s so hard to believe that there is all that wonderful music in this tiny thing. Can one desire too much of a good thing?” She looked up, meeting Kitty’s eyes with a direct gaze.

“Thank you, so much. I…I don’t know how I can ever repay you for this. It’s wonderful. I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks. And oft good turns, are shuffled off with such uncurrent pay. But were my worth as is my conscience, firm. You should find better dealing.”

Kitty was having problems deciphering the quotes interspersed with other text, but she thought she had it all worked out when the tears started rolling down Rogue’s cheeks. She stood up. “I didn’t want you to cry. And you can repay me. I want a hug.” She held out her arms and watched Rogue hesitate, looking down at her bare forearms. Kitty snorted and grabbed the other girl, pulling her in close. What the hell was she worried about? She had a shirt on… Slowly she felt Rogue’s arms come around her and hold her tight.

They stood there for a few minutes until Jubilee grabbed the iPod out of Rogue’s hand and started going through the albums. “Oh good. You did steal all of Hank’s orchestra pieces. I’ve been after them for a long time but he wouldn’t let me burn them. Something about copyright laws. Psh, who actually gives a shit about that when it comes to music?”

Rogue snatched it back from Jubes, shaking it in her face to emphasize. “Mine.”

Jubilee blew her hair out of her face and studied a yellow nail. “What, are you a seagull now?”

“I have no idea what that means, but I’m sure it makes sense in your brain.” Rogue tucked the iPod into her shirt, drawing everyone’s attention back to that region.

“Oh, yeah! That’s why I came in here!” Jubilee sat up, suddenly looking very intense. “I was wandering passed the boys dorms a few minutes ago, completely on accident let me tell you, when I heard them talking about you. Dude, all of them think you’re super hot. They couldn’t stop talking about how tight your outfit was and about how nice your rack is.” She squinted at Rogue’s chest, somehow ignoring the slight growl coming from the doorway, and reached out to poke a boob. “They’re right. It’s really nice.”

Kitty watched the blush creep up Rogue’s face and smirked, knowing that Jubilee was unstoppable when she got on certain tangents.

“You should totally go out with one of them.” There was a spike in the growling that seemed to finally derail Jubilee’s train of thought. “Once you’re completely settled in and able to navigate the mansion waters, of course.”

She turned and stuck her tongue out at Logan, expression screaming, ‘happy now’?

Logan straightened up from the door and glared at Jubilee for a minute before turning back to look at Rogue. “Anyway, that leads to why I came here. Wanted to suggest you wear a t-shirt or something over that if you plan on working out in it again. It’s fucking skintight.”

“Thanks, Logan. I hadn’t noticed and I needed you to point that out. And it wasn’t in the plans to be gawked at. I just wanted to work out, in peace. Now, all the little boys are talking about me, sexually.” She squished up her nose. “Like they don’t talk about me enough, because I’m the new girl. I don’t need this!” She threw her arms up in disgust and started rolling up the yoga mat.

“Aren’t you just a little bit interested, Rogue?” Jubilee tried to gourd a reaction out of her.

“They’re like, what? 18? That’s light-years away from me.”

“Dudette, you’re not an old maid. You’re only 20. Don’t start collecting the cats yet.”

Rogue tucked the mat into the closet and turned back to the room, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “I look 20 and I’ve, physically, been on this Earth for 20 years… but I’m actually over 168 years old, all told. I can’t be more exact cause Logan doesn’t know how old he is, so I don’t know how old my brain is. I have all these memories, all these experiences and they’re a part of me now. No way around it.”

Jubilee fidgeted on the bed next to Kitty, giving her the chance to think about this. “You don’t act that old, Rogue. You’re still full of sunshine and you’re not jaded like that. You still get joy out of life. Someone who was old and bitter wouldn’t be able to do those things.”

Rogue hung her head a little, letting her hair hide her face. “That’s just with you guys though. I like hanging out with you because you let me be young. I know we’re adults and we act like it, when we want to. Sometimes though, when it’s just the three or four of us, we don’t have to be the responsible people out to promote mutantkind. Logan doesn’t have to be the big, bad Wolverine that everyone else sees. He can goof off and have fun, without losing face or respect. I don’t have to be the girl with the killer skin. I can be the teenager that I wasn’t allowed to be. Normally, I feel older than anyone I’ve ever met, because I basically am…”

She ran a hand through her hair and Kitty had to struggle not to pull her into another hug. “Ya’ll just let me be me, without having to dwell on my situation. I can never thank you enough for that gift. And for brining me home with you. It’s more acceptance than I’ve ever gotten, even when I wasn’t a nutcase.”

Logan gave into the struggle they all seemed to be having and crossed to Rogue, pulling her into his chest and tucking her under his chin. For once, she didn’t flinch away, just grabbed on tightly. “Hey. You ain’t a nutcase. Get that shit outta your head. You’re just a little bit confused right now. We’ll start working on that when you’re ready. And we wouldn’ta done anything else but bring you along. You fit. You’re one of us, part of the team. Anyway, I never woulda heard the end of it if I’d left you. We all took to you right away.”

Kitty caught his head jerk and pounced into the hug, pulling Jubilee with her until Rogue was squished in the middle between all of them. “You can never leave us, Rogue. We’re complete now.”

Jubes piped in, “Yeah, like the Fantastic 4. Except no one is invisible girl. Cause that power just sucks balls. She never did anything important besides be kidnapped to drive the storyline...” Logan coughed a little to stop her. “Maybe that’s a bad example. Oh, I know, we’re the Ninja Turtles! They’re all awesome in their own way and they have a mentor. The Prof is totally Splinter with his constant advice and guidance. We should dress…mhp.”

Kitty slapped a hand over Jubilee’s mouth again, rolling her eyes. But the runaway train had helped bring a smile to Rogue’s face, which had been the point. They all slowly drifted away from each other, ignoring Rogue wiping at her face and the wet patch on Logan’s shirt.

Logan cleared his throat and looked around the room, finally looking at Rogue again. “Anyway, this turtle is willing to shell out some dough for new workout clothes if you want to head to Dick’s Sporting Goods.”

“Yeah, I think that would be ok. Though I’ll help pay for them. Let me just get changed.” She turned towards the closet as Kitty and Jubilee got up to follow Logan out the door.

Jubilee stopped short before exiting. “Wait… ‘shell’ out some ‘dough’? Logan, was that a pun?! Have you been watching the Ninja Turtles?!!”

Logan just chuckled and grabbed her arm, dragging her out the door. Kitty smiled and crossed to their room, wanting to change shoes before they went to the store. Life sure was interesting. You couldn’t even give someone a present without some sort of drama unfolding.

---

Donavon slammed his hand down on the desktop, the slap reverberating around the room. To his credit, Clint didn’t jump, though everyone else in the vicinity did.

“What the fuck do you mean you lost them in West Virginia? You have their license plate. We have friends at the DMV. Get the address that the car’s registered to!”

Clint scrubbed his hands through his hair and sighed, turning bloodshot eyes to stare in the vicinity of Donavon’s chin. “You think I didn’t think of that and try it already? The car isn’t registered to a real address. It’s tied to an empty piece of land in the lower part of New York. It’s never been involved in an accident or been pulled over. I’m betting they have serious money and have pushed some people to look the other way.”

Donavon tried to rein in his temper. Yelling at the techies got one nowhere. Unless you wanted a mysterious virus to take over your computer. Ok. The last glimpse of it had been in West Virginia at a small park, just over the boarder. Was it allowed back into the car after that or did they part ways there?

“Can you see into the car as it was leaving?”

“Negative. We aren’t even positive she…” He glared at Clint, getting him to backtrack. It wasn’t proper to refer to a mutant by a pronoun that was used on a human. Doing things like that lead to developing feelings for the mutant. “it was in the car with them still. Before then, it was caught on film at a gas station and, unless they stopped and threw it out quickly, they don’t appear to have stopped before entering the park.”

“Ok. Get Jackson to that park to look around and see if he can find out if it got back in the car or not. Have him take that tracking mutant, the one with the bloodhound nose, with him. He can head up to New York if he doesn’t find anything concrete. It’s a huge fucking place but it’s the only lead we have. I want to keep Mark in this area, in case any of the mutants we’ve got stashed at the warehouse cause problems. He’s got just enough mean in him to do what’s necessary. The rest of the guards are all soft.”

He watched his assistant’s fingers fly over the keyboard for a minute and listened to the other drones around the room doing the same, hunting down leads to different powers that had to be eradicated from the world.

“What do its parents say?”

“Jim talked to them yesterday. They’re adamant that it always wanted to go to Alaska. It wouldn’t shut up about it, and had a huge map of Alaska on the wall until the mutation occurred.”

He mulled it over for a minute; finally deciding the cost would be worth the chance that it might have gone a different place. “Send Phillip and Sally to Alaska. Have them hit all the towns that would attract a runaway. At least it’s a smaller place than New York… I’m sure I don’t have to remind anyone that failure will not be tolerated. I need it in my possession as soon as possible. Get the word out.”

He checked that each man and woman was busy doing as bid, before stopping back at Clint’s side.

“And Clint. Get some sleep. You look like shit. But get the fucking work done first. I don’t pay you to not get shit done.” Donavon swept out of the room and grabbed his umbrella from his office on the way out of the building. You never knew when it was going to start raining in New Orleans. Fucking city might as well be underwater permanently, it flooded so often.