Author's Chapter Notes:
This sickly plot bunny crawled in my lap and looked at me with such pitiful eyes, I just had to do something. "I'm not a writer!" I said, but he refused to budge. So be gentle.
The light was slowly fading as Logan slipped quietly into the room. Careful not to awaken the still form on the bed, he pulled up a chair and sat down. Logan watched her, as he had done so many nights before, but this time was different. He knew it wouldn't be long now. The thought made him whimper.

"Logan? Are you there?"

"I'm here Marie. "Didn't mean to wake you."

"That's all right. "I was just resting...so tired." Marie shifted in her bed.

"I'll still be here when you wake up." "I'm not goin' anywhere." "Get some rest darlin'."

Marie smiled at him and reached for his hand. "You can't protect me from this you know." " It's my time to go." "My body is wearing out Logan." "Frankly, I think it's past time, don't you?"

Logan caressed her face and growled softly at her. "Go to sleep Marie, and stop talkin' crazy."

Marie sighed and closed her eyes again. "Love you Logan."

"Love you too Marie." "Go to sleep"

Still watching over her, Logan let his mind drift. She was still beautiful to him. Marie was now eighty-three, but she still took his breath away. Her green eyes still sparkled when she laughed, and her hair, now white, still felt like silk. All she had to do was turn her smile on him, and he would be at her beck and call. She loved him, he knew, but the thought of it still awed him.

Logan thought back over their long life together, and what they had been through. There had been pain, and happiness, and there wasn't much he would change he realized.

His thoughts skipped lightly from memory to memory. The day so long ago that he had returned to Xavier's school: Logan had found her in the library. It was the first time he had really noticed she was a woman, and not just his little girl he had sworn to protect. The smile she had given him had taken his breath away, and his heart as well. He knew he had to have her.

He thought of the day, a year later, when he proposed to her. Marie had cried tears of happiness that day, and the day they married, so had he.

Three years after they had married, she found a way to control her powers. That night had been one of the most erotic of his life.

Marie had given him three healthy children, two boys and a little girl with Marie's eyes. There had been a fourth child, who they had lost prematurely. They buried her on the grounds of the school. Next to the professor. He held Marie all night in his arms as she cried.

Together they had survived so much. He thought about the pain they had been through. The Mutant wars, the child, Ms. Marvel, and the the deaths of their friends, one by one. Professor Xavier had been the first. Every mutant and human in the school felt him die. As he wished, he had been buried on the school grounds. Scott stepped in as leader, and the school had survived and flourished. Ororo was the second. She had died in battle, white eyes, fading into soft brown. Logan had made the Sentinels pay. Then they lost Jean. Logan was with Scott when he was told Jean had died giving birth to their second child. Scott had looked so old then. Scott had been strong enough though, to pull himself together and continued to run the school, and raise his children. He had died quietly in his sleep, surrounded by friends and family; an old and respected man. Now it was just the two of them. Him and Marie. Soon he knew he would be all alone.

Logan had aged too, only not as fast. He looked now to be a man of about fifty. He cursed his body. Cursed it for healing him, for allowing him to see her die before him. What would he do without her?

The answer came back to him, echoing in his head. Stay. He would stay here, continue to lead, and teach, and when his time comes, be buried beside her and his friends.

He was startled out of his revilre by a soft sigh from the bed.

"Logan?"

"I'm here Marie."

"I think it's time."

His voice broke as he called her name.

She shifted and sighed again. "Logan, hold me."

Logan slid into the bed next to her, gently picked the frail form up and cradled her to his chest. He could hear her heartbeat slowing.

"It doesn't hurt Logan." "I feel so warm."

"I love you Marie.", he said as his tears fell on her cheeks.

"I'll wait for you if I can." "I'll always be here." "Jean, Professor, Scott....the others.....they're all here.......look so happy......Love you Logan."

"I Love you too Marie, I'll be there soon."

Logan softly kissed her lips and rocked her body slowly. Pulling her closer as she breathed her last, he whispered, "Love.....you."
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