Logan swiped his only match on the brick wall he was resting against. He cupped his hand around it to keep it from blowing out and lit the last candle he had in his survival kit. “Humph” he grunted as he thought about the way he’d reacted to Scott’s idea of carrying survival kits on missions. He reminded himself to thank the fearless leader if he ever got out of this situation.
The glow of the candle illuminated the room and Logan watched as it settled on the face of his teammate who was holding it in her gloved hands. He stared into her face to see how she was holding up. “You okay kid?”
Rogue shook her head and tried to make a brave face. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she lied.
Logan knew she was lying. Not only was there fear rolling off her scent, but he could smell blood. He took the candle from her and began to move the light over her body to found out where she was hurt.
“It’s my left leg,” she informed him. She turned slightly to let him look at it. Rogue knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t be satisfied until he saw how bad she was hurt.
Logan grimaced when he saw the rip in her leather uniform, and the damage it revealed. From the looks of it she was not going to make it out of here on foot. He didn’t understand how she was still standing.
No sooner had he thought it did Rogue start to slump to floor. Using his free arm he grabbed her by the waist and propped her up against the wall. He sat the candle on the floor and slowly lowered her to the ground and put her head in his lap. He could see the white of her eyes as they were rolled back into her head.
“Kid, wake up!” He shouted as he changed positions and laid her on the floor. He took off his leather jacket and used it as pillow for her head.
“Come on, snap out if it,” he whispered. He slapped her slightly on the cheek and called her name again. “Rogue!”
Rogue closed her eyes tightly and slowly blinked them back open. “What?” She began to sit up.
“Stay down and don’t move. We’ve got time to rest,” Logan told her.
“What happened? Why am I on the floor?” she asked.
“You fainted,” he told her as he moved down to closely examine her leg. “How the hell did you do this to your leg?”
“I fainted? How?” Rogue questioned.
Logan quirked his eyebrow at her and said, “Because of my good looks.”
“Smart ass.”
“You’re losing too much blood. I think you nicked a main vein but I can’t tell,” Logan told her. “How the hell did you do this to your leg?”
“I was caught in the barbed wire fence and couldn’t get out. I practically had to rip my leg free,” Rogue said as she tried to sit up again.
“Is that when I heard you screaming?”
“Yeah.”
“Well,” Logan said as he stood up, “I guess there is no other option then to let me heal you.”
“No…”
“Darlin’, you can’t stand up much less walk the fuck outta here,” Logan began to yell.
“I also can’t carry you out of here by myself,” Rogue snapped back.
“I think we have enough time,” Logan told her as he walked towards the doorway to take a look around. “We’re a good six hours ahead of them and they can’t bring vehicles up this side of the mountain. The woods are too thick.”
“Have you tried to contact anyone?” she asked.
“I couldn’t get through to anyone,” he replied, turning back to face her as she propped her back against the wall. “You?”
“No, I lost my kit in the river along with my communication device.”
“How about I only touch you long enough to stop the severe bleeding?” Logan suggested. “It won’t be enough to knock me out.”
“Logan, your healing factor hasn’t been all that great lately,” she reminded him.
“You tryin’ to say that I’m getting old, kid?” he asked.
“No, it’s just that in the ten years we’ve known each other I’ve noticed it has gotten a little slower,” Rogue said laying back down to rest. She was starting to feel light headed again.
“All right, enough bullshit,” Logan said kneeling down beside her leg once more. He could sense her heart rate slowly going down.
“Promise me you won’t heal it all the way,” Rogue grimaced, preparing herself to be touched. It was just as painful for her as it was for Logan, if not more.
“I promise,” he said, not looking at her.
Rogue knew he was lying. Logan never could lie straight to her face. He would always turn his head and look in the other direction. She usually never forced him to tell the truth, except once when he’d disappeared for two years and she had demanded to know where he had been when he returned.
“Logan, I need you to stay awake,” she said, letting the fear show on her face. “I don’t want to be by myself when they get here.”
Logan turned and looked at her face. The candle was sitting next her and its light was making an orange wave float across her face. Most of her hair had fallen behind her shoulders, but the distinct white streaks that she had gotten ten years ago were layered around her face.
“Alright, kid,” Logan said. “I’ll be careful.”
He unsheathed a single claw and tore her pant leg completely off. He then removed his gloves and placed his hand on her bare skin. He looked back at Rogue and smiled. “Give me a couple of hours and I’ll be back to normal.”
Rogue shook her head in understanding and laid back as the pull from her mutation began to take affect. She couldn’t stand to watch him squirm as he healed her.
After what seemed like hours, Logan finally let go and fell with a thud to the floor. Rejuvenated, Rogue stood up on both legs without stumbling. She turned to look at her leg to see how much he had healed. “Bastard, he totally healed me,” she muttered under her breath.
She walked over to his limp body and picked up his wrist to check the time. It was 8 o’clock, which meant they had a long way until daylight. Rogue walked to the door to take a look around. For the first time she began to take notice of her surroundings.
They were holed up in a small brick building at the top of a mountain somewhere in Canada. All the windows were busted out and there was no door. Rogue noticed that snow had begun to fall. It was turning colder by the minute.
She walked back over to Logan and sat beside him. She began to rummage through his survival kit. Finding a silver thermal blanket, she spread it over Logan and then settled herself beside him to keep herself warm.
Rogue sat up at the sound of static in her ear. She froze thinking that they had been caught, but then she heard Scott’s muffled voice coming from Logan’s jacket pocket.
“Wol…in…you…ere...”
She began to dig in his jacket pocket. She found the communication device and responded to Scott’s calls.
“Scott, it’s me, Rogue. Can you hear me?”
“Wolve…do. ..co…”
Rogue jumped up and ran out into the bitter cold trying to get a better signal. “Scott?” she called in the device.
“Ro…”
“I’m here,” she shouted back as tried to climb the massive hilltop. Realizing that she had left Logan behind passed out, she turned and glanced toward the shelter. She could still see the glow of the candle flickering from the doorway.
“…gue…you…the…”
”Scott?”
Rogue stared at the communication device. It was silent. She turned and started walking back toward the building. She wrapped her arms and shivered. If they didn’t get help soon they would freeze to death.
Upon entering the building she noticed the candle was slowly burning its way down. Shaking from the cold, she laid herself next Logan and rested her head on his shoulders. Closing her eyes she drifted off to sleep.
“Rogue!”
Rogue sat up instantly alarmed by Logan calling her name. Dazed from sleep she looked around trying to place her surroundings. “What?”
“Are you stupid?” he growled at her. “You could have frozen to death falling asleep like that.”
“I’m not stupid,” she snapped back him. “What else was I supposed to do? Besides, you were warm enough.”
Logan looked her skeptically, before nodding his head. “I’m going to look for some dry wood. See if we can start a fire.”
“I’ll go with you,” she told him standing up.
“No, you stay here. Keep out of the wind.”
She huffed but didn’t argue. She watched him sniff the air before he walked out into the open and out of sight. She picked up the communication device and tried talking into it.
A few minutes later, Logan returned empty handed and covered in snow. “I couldn’t get far, it’s a blizzard out there.”
“It’s okay,” she told him. “Just sit by me and we’ll use each others body heat to keep warm for now.”
He sat down next to her and wrapped the blanket around both them. He watched her as she stared at the candle that was still burning in front of them. He couldn’t believe he had got her into this mess, and he sure as hell couldn’t figure out how they’d ended up stranded.
“Logan?”
“Yeah?”
“Are they going to find us?”
“Yeah, they will, kid,” he sighed. He wasn’t so sure. “Scott won’t give up. It would make his day to save my ass from this.”
Rogue gave a halfhearted laugh and scooted closer to him. She shivered as he lifted his arm to wrap around her. His warmth calmed her. She couldn’t help but ask the next question, “What if we die up here?”
“Marie, we are not going to die up here.”
She sat up and looked him in the eyes. “But what if we do?”
“We’re not,” he stated. “Besides you can’t die yet, you still owe me for that bet you lost three years ago.”
He was trying to get her mind off the subject. She liked that about him, but Rogue was not going to be distracted. “Logan, we’re going to die…”
“Marie, we’re not…”
“Let’s have sex.”
Logan’s eyes went wide with confusion and he scooted slightly away from her. “Huh?”
“I’m being serious,” she said trying not laugh at the expression on his face. “We’re both adults and it’s either that or freeze to death.”
“You have got to be the craziest woman I have ever met,” Logan said burying his face in his hands.
“Tell me you’ve never thought about having sex with me before?” Rogue asked putting her hands on her hips.
“Of course, I’ve thought about it before,” Logan admitted taking his hands away from his face, “but I…Have you thought about it before?”
For the first time, Rogue actually felt nervous around Logan. “Yeah,” she replied shyly.
“When?”
“A few times.”
“Name one,” he demanded.
“Well,” she began slowly, “there was that time when you taught me how to play pool. Remember? You got into that bar fight with those guys.”
Logan shook his head and stared again at the burning flame. He remembered that night vividly. She had looked so good that night, and the way she felt as he pressed against her to show her how to hold the pool stick.
“And then there was that time we took that long trip on your bike,” Rogue continued. “A lot of naughty thoughts can run through a girl’s head when riding behind you on a motorcycle.”
She cut her eyes away from him, not wanting to continue telling him all her secrets. Things she’s never admitted to him before. “There was also that time, when Xavier had the charity ball and the FOH attacked.”
She stopped and stared at his face hoping he knew the moment she was talking about. “And you took that bullet for Scott. I knew you were going to heal from it; you always do, but there was a second that the ‘what if’s’ ran through my head and I wondered…”
Logan stared back at her, startled by her sudden quietness. “Wondered what?”
“I wondered what would happen if one day you don’t heal and something does kill you, would I ever get the chance to tell you how I really feel about you. Would I ever get the chance to really *feel* you?”
Rogue bowed her head in embarrassment as she felt tears fall to her face. She regretted ever opening her mouth. She felt Logan slide back next to her and wrap his arm around her again.
He gently lifted her chin, making her look him in the eyes. He didn’t speak, but she could read his eyes in the dancing flames that lit their faces. He felt the same way, she did. He just didn’t know how to say it.
She closed her eyes, as he lowered his head to kiss her, but she never felt his lips press against hers. Instead, she heard the sound a jet fly over them. Opening her eyes, she felt Logan release her as he stood up.
“That’s the Blackbird,” he stated with his back to her. He turned and watched as she packed their stuff back into the survival kit. He wanted to say that everything was okay and that he understood. But he remained quiet instead. He felt a burning warmth grow inside him as he stared at her.
He stopped her before she put out the flame of the candle. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her close to him. “Let it burn.”
Rogue searched his face for a hidden meaning behind his words. “What if it never goes out?”
After a second he replied, “I’m okay with that.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. This was Logan. The king of love’em and leave’em.
“Let’s see where it goes.”
“Okay,” she agreed smiling. “We’ll let it burn.”
Together they left the shelter, leaving the candle burning behind them.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thank you Karen for being my beta. You're wonderful. I hope you guys enjoy this. I've had it on the back burner for awhile now and I feel like its time to release it.