Looking back, I can see what a mistake it was to come here but I can't change it now. It's always easier to see the validity of your actions once they've already been taken. I never meant to hurt anyone, certainly not you. You've already been hurt enough, far more than someone as sweet and kind as you've always been to me, deserves.
The worst of it is that I don't really have an excuse for what I did except that I needed to know. I needed to know what you were all like before I came along, before I ruined your lives. I just needed to know. I think I would have pulled it off if I hadn't made one small flaw in my planning. That's all it ever takes, you know? Just one small flaw and the world as you know it changes forever...
Scott Summers stood at one end of the long expanse of grass, while two groups of students lined a narrow path. Opposite Scott, about a hundred yards away, was a target like you might see at a shooting range, only this one was made of steel, two foot thick steel. Some of the older students at Professor Charles Xavier's School of Gifted Youngster's were there for a demonstration in pinpoint control.
"This exercise is very important for those of you who wish to someday petition for a place with the X-Men," Cyclopes explained to the students. "In a position such as that, control is the most important thing. Only when you can control your gifts can you hope to control a situation."
Turning his visor encased gaze back toward the target at the far end of the field Scott reached up and carefully adjusted the control at his temple. Without warning he brushed the trigger, opening the apparatus covering his eyes allowing a small beam to escape. In the red haze through which he saw everything, Scott noticed the sudden appearance of something flash into focus directly in front of him. He knew what it was even before it fully registered but it was too late. Only two questions remained now, who was it and would they survive.
The teens watched in horror as a figure suddenly appeared between their instructor and the target, which he had just fired at. A series of gasps shattered the silence as many recognized the woman as the red beam tore through her torso.
"No!" Scott shouted, his eyes widening in horror as he rushed forward. "Oh my God! Jean," he cried catching her as she pitched forward, scooping her up in his arms and pulling her tight against his chest.
Around him students were wailing like infants at the horrific scene that was playing out in front of their eyes. Scott screamed her name again, the sight of his deadly mutation ripping into her body playing again in his mind.
"Scott?"
The call made him jerk his head up but it wasn't simply because it was his name, it was because of the voice. Scott turned his head just in time to see his wife force her way through the crowd of frantic students. He stared at her for a beat wide-eyed behind his visor then dropped his gaze to the dead woman in his arms just as she took a shuddering breath. Scott knew that Jean was safe and having someone he thought was dead, breathing, for one small second he panicked. Without thinking about what he was doing, he dropped the woman in his arms and stepped back away from her.
Jean Grey-Summers forced her way to her husband's side then continued forward, dropping to her knees beside an eerie likeness of herself. The woman was groaning loudly, one bloody hand clutching the hole just beneath her ribcage while the other held a book protectively to her chest. Jean shifted her gaze again, "Scott, I need to get her inside."
Regaining his nerve after the momentary lapse, Scott stepped forward and picked the woman up again. Jean helped to adjust her weight in his arms before they started for the mansion. Ororo and Logan had been instructing their own classes nearby and were working on calming the students as they left. Rogue, the only current X-Men in training, had been working with Storm and stepped in to help the stunned students back to the house.
Inside, Jean and Scott were rushing the unknown woman to the infirmary for treatment. "I thought she was you," Scott muttered incessantly. "I don't know where she came from. She wasn't there and then I fired and I thought she was you."
{{SCOTT!}}
His head jerked at the loud mental shout in his head.
{{It's okay, honey. I'm fine. You need to calm down now.}}
Scott nodded as they entered the medical bay and quickly lowered the woman onto a diagnostic table then stepped back. Behind the barrier of his visor, his eyebrows knitted together before his gaze shot up to meet Jean's. The wound that had been a gaping hole only a few minutes ago was now half the size it had been.
Jean's eyes conveyed her surprise much more clearly. Quickly she took up a medical scanner and started taking readings. Her lab was equipped with the newest, most sophisticated equipment known to man, equipment that gave her near instant readings on a variety of different levels. She had a pretty good idea what was happening before she even consulted the readouts.
"She has amazing rehabilitative powers," Jean stated in awe. "I haven't seen anyone heal this fast since..."
"Logan," Scott supplied before she could finish. "But she looks so much like you."
Ignoring the last statement, Jean deftly withdrew a sample of blood from the woman's arm and started an analysis. "What happened?" she asked Scott as she continued with her exam.
Scott shook his head. "I had just fired when she suddenly appeared right in front of me out of nowhere. There was nothing I could do."
"Well, she's going to be all right, honey," Jean assured him, sensing his guilt over the incident. "Why don't you go check on the children then bring the team down. I have a feeling we're in for an interesting story."
"Jean, I don't think..."
A raised eyebrow halted the rest of his statement. "I'll be fine. You'll probably all be back before she's fully conscious anyway."
Reluctantly Scott nodded. "I won't be long," he assured her before exiting.
The door had barely closed behind him when Jean turned her attention to the tests she'd been running. The information she'd been looking for was right there, staring up at her in black and white, confirming her suspicions.
Scott didn't even make it to the elevator before he met up with Charles Xavier, Ororo, Logan and Rogue. "How are the kids?" he wanted to know.
"They are a little shaken up but they will be all right," Storm assured him.
"How's our visitor?" Logan asked.
"Healing fast," Scott informed the group as a whole before setting his gaze on Logan. "She might even heal faster than you."
"Who is she?" Rogue wondered aloud.
Professor Xavier nodded at Rogue's question, wanting that answer himself. "Is she conscious yet?"
Scott shook his head as they started the short walk back toward the infirmary. "Not yet but Jean doesn't think it'll be long."
On the table in the med-lab, the dark-haired woman shifted slightly then groaned in pain.
Jean moved from the console where she was studying test results back to the bed, looking down in time to see eyelids flutter open. She'd seen those eyes before; in fact they were quite familiar in that they were exactly the same as the ones she looked into every morning in the mirror. Jean could see recognition in the blue-gray orbs as well though it was dulled slightly with pain. It was such a shock that she was completely unaware of the door opening across the room as her husband and teammates entered.
"Mom?" the injured woman uttered softly, the word just loud enough to carry to the group standing across the room.
"Yes," Jean returned with a nod, still unaware of the others.
"Mom?" Scott's voice boomed in the silence of the lab, startling both women.
Jean's head whipped around quickly only to find an audience she wasn't ready for.
The woman on the examination table sat up slowly, sweeping her gaze across the group. "I know all of you but I guess I should introduce myself," she said sliding off the bed to her feet. An expanse of well-tanned skin was visible through the torn and bloody shirt she was wearing and through everything that had happened, she still held tightly to a book.
"As I'm sure this will be a rather long tale," Xavier interrupted, "perhaps you'd like to change and we could discuss this somewhere more comfortable."
"Thanks, Prof," the woman returned with a smile before turning to face Jean.
The doctor already had a medical top in her hand and the younger woman took it, dropping it on the table where she'd been laying. Without regard for the other's in the room, except to turn her back, she pulled the ripped garment over her head and donned the new shirt before turning back to Professor Xavier. "You guys ready?"
Charles led the group a short ways down the corridor to a small briefing room. He waited until everyone was settled before looking to the woman with the answers.
"Right," she nodded. "My name is Summer and I'm going to be in so much trouble. My dad is going to kick my ass so bad for this."
"Your dad?" Scott had to ask despite not wanting to know the answer. It was pretty obvious, with her ability to heal, to determine whom her father was.
The sympathetic look that Summer gave him confirmed his suspicions before she even opened her mouth. "It isn't what you think," she said sadly. "God, I wish I hadn't done this."
"You mind filling the rest of us in on this little secret of yours, darlin'?" Logan asked impatiently.
Summer shifted her gaze to meet his. "You know I really don't think that's a good idea. I should just leave now and you can pretend that I was never here." With that she rose from his seat and started for the door.
Logan was out of his chair in a heartbeat, blocking her path of escape. Reacting with instinct to the sudden motion in front of her, Summer dropped into a fighting stance, her hands immediately balling into fist, the grinding of bone on bone filling the room as six, eight inch claws snapped from between her knuckles. Logan's own claws extended as well, responding to her posture, as he stared in shock at the woman before him. Things were suddenly starting to make sense.
"Get out of my way," Summer demanded in a low growl reminiscent of the man in front of her.
"Not until you explain, kid," Logan retorted in a threatening tone.
By now realization was donning on the faces of everyone in the room. There was no point in trying to avoid it now it was too late. Setting herself to the task ahead, Summer straightened to her full height and retracted her claws.
Turning back toward the others in the room, the young woman's gaze swept over the group and she focused momentarily on each person, her attention lingering a little longer on Rogue. Summer completed her survey then dropped her gaze to the floor at her feet. "I don't even know where to begin."
"In a situation like this, maybe the beginning is the place to start," Scott suggested sharply. It didn't take Summer's telepathic abilities to read the hurt and anger in his tone as well as his posture.
Sitting there at her husband's side, Jean didn't even know the circumstances of the story but that didn't stop her guilt. Pushing those feelings aside she concentrated on the woman before her hoping to find out why and how she would come to have a child with Logan.
"I guess by now, you've all figured out who my parents are," Summer started softly. Fighting the threat of tears, she shook her head quickly in tiny little movements. "This is not what I wanted to happen when I decided to come here," she whispered weakly.
"What did you wish to accomplish by coming here?" Professor Charles Xavier questioned, hoping that getting her to talk a little would help her open up.
Still shaking her head, Summer met the older man's gaze. "I had to know. Over the years I've heard stories about how close you all were back in the day. After seeing what I've seen over the years, I had to see it for myself. I wanted to know what all of you were like before everything fell apart. I just had to know.
"I always knew that the man my mother was married to, the man whose name I carry minus the 's', was not my biological father even if I did call him dad," Summer stated looking at Scott before shifting her gaze around the room again. "My parents had always been straight up with me on that since I was very young. My real dad was around too so I actually had two which was great, plus I had another mom of sorts as well. I mean I called her aunt but in my heart I felt like she was my mother too.
"My whole life I was told of the events surrounding my conception and birth and I never questioned it, I never had a reason to. For seventeen years that was the case until I finally discovered the truth," she concluded a bitterness seeping into her tone and cold look entering her eyes when she looked from Logan to Jean.
"And what is the truth?" Jean asked, her voice trembling terribly.
Summer met her gaze with eyes that were hard and cold. "That it was all a lie. That everything that I'd been told was nothing but some made up *fucking* story to justify my existence."
"What were you told?" Storm asked softly hoping to calm the young woman down.
Focusing her attention on the weather goddess, Summer explained the situation as she'd been told. "My parents told me that I was part of a genetic experiment conducted by an evil group of mutants. They said that their DNA was taken against their wills but that they loved me no matter what because I was a part of them."
The small group of mutant, superheroes were silent for a moment, taking in all that she had said. It was Professor X who recovered first. "And that was a lie?" the wheelchair bound man asked, surprise obvious in his tone and expression.
Slowly Summer nodded her head. "It was a lie."
"Then what's the truth?" Logan demanded gruffly.
"It's a really long story and frankly I don't think it's a good idea to go into it," Summer stated with a tired sigh.
"Well you ain't leaving here 'til you explain so I guess you better get started," Logan ordered. He had to know what the truth was, why he would end up with a child with Jean after she married Scott. Hell, me wanted to know why he'd end up with a child with Jean at all. When he first met the woman he'd wished she would bear his child, or at the very least let him do his damnedest to get her pregnant but that had changed some time ago. Jean Grey was no longer what he wanted or who he wanted to bear his children.
"Perhaps if you started with how you found out," Storm suggested calmly.
Realizing she didn't have a choice but to explain, Summer nodded then once again swept her gaze over the group. She paused when she looked at the youngest member of the congregation; the one that had remained silent from the beginning, the one that she knew would be hurt the most by what she had to say.
Rogue was staring blankly at nothing but the open air in front of her. It took her a few seconds to register the feeling that someone was staring at her and as she shifted her focus, she met the somewhat familiar blue-gray eyes of the woman across the room. Frankly Rogue didn't really like what she saw when she met Summer's gaze, eyes filled with sorrow and pity.
After a brief time, Summer focused again on the group in general and started to speak. "It started just before my eighteenth birthday," she began. "I had been out with a group of my classmates to do some shopping but I'd forgotten my wallet so I drove back to the house to pick it up while my friends waited for me in town. Anyway, as I started to enter, I heard arguing. I knew the voices immediately, it was dad ... oh I guess I should call him Scott for purposes of clarity, so it was Scott and Aunt Marie."
Now that got Rogue's attention along with everyone else's. "Aunt Marie?" she repeated, her southern drawl thicker then Summer remembered.
"That's what I've always called you," she informed Rogue with a big smile. "Mom and Scott started me with calling you Aunt Rogue but dad wouldn't hear of it and demanded that I call you Aunt Marie. To tell the truth, I liked that better because it was special. Dad and I were the only ones that ever called you Marie. I think it's really the only reason that, unlike most people, I love my middle name, because I was named after you."
"Summer Marie?" Rogue questioned rolling the name off her tongue and listening to sounds.
The young woman laughed lightly as though her and Rogue were the only ones in the room. It had always been like that with her. Aunt Marie was her best friend and a mother figure all rolled into one. "That's right."
"So you heard Scott and Marie fighting," Logan interrupted, impatiently prompting her to continue.
"Right, I heard them arguing and..." as Summer got into the story, she played it out in her head as she remembered it, describing it to them as she went along. Of course she was careful to gloss over certain information that she wasn't quite ready to divulge. The purpose was, simply to put a question in their minds, as it had put questions into hers.
~ ...Summer parked the car out front and headed for the garage entrance which was closest to the kitchen and that's where she'd left her wallet, sitting on the table amid all the dirty dishes and leftovers. She was almost to the garage door when she heard voices, familiar voices, raised in dispute. Summer paused outside the door and listened, she couldn't believe that dad and Aunt Marie were arguing. What would they have to argue about?
"Damn it, Scott, this argument is so damn old and I'm sick of it," Rogue shouted, her nearly twenty years in New York having tamed her honey accent until it was almost unnoticeable. "Maybe you can forgive them but I can't! We were out there fightin' for our lives and they were..."
"Rogue, I've told you what happened, I told you what Jean showed me," Scott retorted sharply.
From her position near the door, Summer heard a loud crash but she couldn't see what was happening without risking being seen and from the course of the conversation, she wanted to know more.
"Well you'll forgive me, Scott, if I don't swallow the load of shit Jean's feedin' you. Why is it so important to you that I except what happened now, after all these years? I'm still here; I still work with 'em, don't I? I don't let my personal feelings get in the way of our missions, so why is it so important now? Have I ever expressed my feelings in front of Summer?"
Now that got her attention. Summer shifted against the garage wall to get a better position. What where they talking about, who were they talking about and what did it have to do with her?
"No," Scott agreed. "You've always been good to her and I thank you for that."
"You don't have to thank me, Scott," Rogue insisted. "I love that girl, I do. I love her more than I can say. She's been like the daughter I can never have and she's a part of Logan and no matter what he's done, I still love him."
"Then forgive him, Rogue," Scott ordered in a commanding voice. "You can still be with him, you know that's what HE wants."
"No ... I can't. I can't let him hurt me like that again, Scott," Rogue said more softly, her voice calmer.
"Just think about it," Cyke suggested, his tone leveling off as well.
"I've thought about it for over eighteen years," she returned sadly, "I'm not about to change my mind now." ~
"So I started to wonder what it was the Scott and Marie were arguing about and what it had to do with me and my parents," Summer explained. "Needing to know what was going on, I started being a little more observant when I was around them, especially when they were all together and I began to see some things that didn't quite make sense to me. Then one night, about a week later, something else happened. I could hear, from my room next door, that my father was having another of his monumental nightmares. I was laying in my bed listening to him because I knew how dangerous it was to try and wake him and even if I did manage to do it without being impaled, he'd only yell at me for risking it, I'd learned that the hard way. Anyway..." this time, when she explained what happened, Summer spared no detail but told the story as she remembered it.
~ The frantic mumbling and moaning coming from the next room was really hard to listen to but Summer knew she couldn't do anything about it. Her father was insistent that she not try to wake him. After hearing what happened to the last person who'd tried, she was inclined to agree. She'd stood just inside his door on several occasions and had yelled at him to wake him up and when he came bolt upright in his bed, sweat covering his bare upper body, he'd yelled right back and told her to get out.
Summer closed her eyes tightly, squeezing unshed tears from the corners of the lids. It was hard for her to listen to the horrors that her father lived over and over in his sleep. Like always she was contemplating going in to wake him anyway, she was at her door when she heard the one next door swing open, the one to her father's room.
Waiting another moment, Summer carefully turned her doorknob and quietly opened her own door. She was relieved that whoever had been there was gone. Sliding through the partially opened doorway and moving toward her father's room, Summer was surprised to find the door slightly ajar. Before she could fully consider that, she heard a familiar voice inside the room.
"Logan?"
Rogue's soft call, barely heard over the grunts and groans of the sleeping man inside, made Summer freeze instantly. After a second or two, she adjusted her position so she could see into the room well enough to see them both.
"Logan," Rogue repeated more loudly as she skirted around the bed, careful to stay out of range of the deadly claws that she'd experienced once under similar circumstances. "Logan, wake up," she called even louder.
From the doorway Summer waited to see what would happen when her father woke. She knew what would happen if it had been her but she was curious to know what would happen when he saw Marie standing beside his bed. What happened next, happened so fast that Summer jumped and was barely able to contain the gasp that threatened to escape.
In the space of less than a second, Logan's eyes snapped open, he sat up abruptly, reaching out as he did so, and grabbed Rogue by the arm, pulling her down on top of him in the bed and wrapping his arms around her tightly.
Summer's eyes widened in fear at first but then she noticed the soft look in Logan's eyes, a look that she had never seen there before and the fear turned to shock as she listened.
Logan's voice was low and thick from sleep. "Marie..."
"Logan, don't," Rogue's voice was sharp and threatening as she responded and her expression was set and hard. "Lemme go."
"Baby, please, listen to me," he cried in a desperate tone that shocked his daughter to the core. "I'm so sorry, Marie, I'd give anything to change what happened but I can't."
Rogue nodded, "That's right, ya can't. I understand why it happened, Logan, but I can't let it happen again."
"It wouldn't, Marie," Logan nearly shouted before lowering his voice to a near whisper, "it will never happen again. Please, baby, I love you so much and I need you."
In the doorway, Summer was trying to absorb everything she was hearing. Her father and Aunt Marie ... together? She'd never seen anything to make her even consider that, they were friends sure but ... Then, recalling Marie's conversation a few days before with Scott, Summer started to wonder.
Shaking her head, Rogue started to pull away from him but Logan held on tightly, pulling her closer to his exposed chest.
"Stop it now, Logan, you're gonna hurt yourself," Rogue ordered crisply.
Paying no heed to the warning, Logan shifted beneath her, sitting up until his chest brushed her cheek. Instantly the familiar tingle they both recognized as her mutation started. Using her gift of superior strength, Rogue tore herself from Logan's embrace and stumbled off the bed, falling to the floor.
Summer shifted slightly to avoid being seen as she continued to watch, transfixed by the happenings in the room.
Logan was out of the bed in an instant, stalking after Marie like she was a small animal and he was a dangerous predator.
"This won't change my mind, Logan," Rogue assured him softly, a hint of pain creeping into her tone.
"I jus' want ya to know what I'm feeling, Marie," he whispered emotionally. "I want you to finally know what happened, why it happened and what I felt."
Rogue continued to back away from him slowly, her attention focused on him as he pursued her. "It doesn't matter now, Logan. It won't change anything, too much has happened."
"Marie, baby, please, I just want you to see... I can't stand it anymore that you hate me."
Summer stared in amazement as she realized that her father, the man most people called Wolverine, was crying. She watched as tears spilled from his eyes and drifted unbidden down his whiskery cheeks. It was a life-altering experience to witness such a thing.
A silk encased hand, trembling fiercely, cupped the side of Logan's face, the thumb gently wiping away the tears. "I don't hate ya, Logan, I could never hate you, I just can't be with ya."
"God, Marie, please. You know that I haven't been with anyone since. You're the only one I want."
"I can't," Rogue retorted softly. "I gave you my heart once, Logan, and what happened? You *fucked* Jean!"
You fucked Jean! The statement echoed in Summer's head. You fucked Jean! The young woman in the doorway stumbled back, gasping for air as she felt the shock rip through her body with the force of a physical blow. She wasn't part of any genetic experiment, she was the result of an affair and maybe Aunt Marie didn't want to know the details but she sure as hell did!
"Marie..."
"No, Logan," Rogue shouted pushing him away forcefully, the strength of the shove sending him across the room.
The loud outburst brought Summer back to her senses and she quickly backed into the shadows of the hallway, as the door in front of where she'd been standing was ripped open and Rogue stormed out. From her place of hiding, Summer could see that her father wasn't the only one who was crying. ~
"So ... that's when I decided to find out the truth, the whole truth, about what had happened and why my parents lied to me about it."
Summer's audience was deadly silent as they all reflected on what she'd told them so far. Logan, Jean, Storm and the professor all looked shocked, their eyes wide and disbelieving. Scott was shocked too but he was mostly pissed ... and hurt. Rogue ... Rogue was another story all together. The young woman was trembling uncontrollably and tears were streaming unnoticed down her youthful face. Summer could feel the confusion and pain rolling off of her in waves, mixing with a doubt that was almost overpowering.
From his seat beside Marie, Logan noticed her reaction and couldn't say as though he blamed her. Feeling responsible for her condition despite the fact that what he felt guilty for hadn't even happened yet, he shifted in his chair and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. Immediately Rogue pulled away from him, pinning him with a pained look.
Her heart sinking at the sight, Summer watched as her father pulled his hand back, curling it into a fist as he rested it in his lap.
"What did you find out?" Jean asked in a voice, which was little more than a whisper and filled with as much guilt as Logan felt.
Summer dropped her head, suddenly finding something interesting on the floor. "I discovered it all," she admitted in a subdued tone, "but they still don't know I know."
"How could they not know that you know?" Storm questioned curiously.
Shifting her gaze from the floor across the room to the weather goddess, Summer briefly met Jean's gaze.
"Oh my God," the telepath muttered.
"They wouldn't tell me so I took it from them," Summer explained, her shame at having broken the first rule all telepaths live by was obvious. Without further prompting, she launched right into the story. "I hadn't really planned to do it but the opportunity presented itself the next day and I couldn't stop myself.
"Mom and I were enjoying our monthly picnic together on the grounds, something we'd been doing for years. We'd finished eating and were just laying out enjoying the warm sun when I realized that mom had fallen asleep. She'd been working very hard on a project in the lab and I knew that she hadn't been sleeping well." Summer shook her head as she continued, guilty over what she'd done. "I waited until I was sure that she was asleep and then I ... I closed my eyes and started to look around a little, looking for what I wanted to know. It didn't take me long to find it."
~ Summer shifted her position until she was sitting near her mother's head. Slowly she tested her mind to assure that she was asleep. Satisfied that she was, Summer raised her hands, placing them close to her mother's face without actually touching her. Letting her eyes drift shut, she searched for the truth. The first thing she realized was that her father and Marie had been very close, in fact, if Jean's perception was correct, they'd been in love with each other. That just confirmed what she'd already discovered so she moved on. She didn't know she found it at first, she actually had to go back and start at the beginning once she knew where to look. ~
{ The mission had proceeded as planned right up until the end, of course the ending was always the most important thing, the ending was what decided the outcome. The X-Men thwarted the Brotherhood yet again, or so everyone thought. The team was on their way out of the nearly demolished warehouse, Cyke and Rogue bringing up the rear as Logan and Jean helped an injured Storm back to the jet. The trio had just made it out the door, the duo several meters behind them when the building exploded without warning.
Logan and the women were thrown clear from the force of the explosion, knocked to the ground with incredible force but no worse for the wear.
"Oh my God!" Jean whispered in horror as the building started to collapse in on itself.
With a savage, pained howl, Logan was on his feet stumbling on a leg shattered under the weight of his body when he landed. Slowed by the dysfunction of his broken leg, Jean was beside him before he could get very far.
"Logan!" she shouted, gripping his arm painfully as she realized there was nothing that could be done. She couldn't feel Scott anymore, Rogue either for that matter, they were gone.
By the time Logan thought to protest, the building was all but gone, the intense heat from the fire having consumed nearly everything. Of course there was also the fact that he could smell the charred flesh that helped convince him that there wasn't anything he could do. Dropping to his knees, the heat of the fire burning his exposed skin, Logan released a keening cry, mourning the loss of the only woman he ever truly loved.
The weight of Logan's grief, coupled with her own brought Jean to the ground as well. Now could things have changed so quickly? She kept asking herself the same thing over and over again as she waited ... waited for the corpse of the building to cool enough to retrieve the bodies of her friend and her husband. }
Summer was staring at her mother as she finished telling what she'd discovered in her mind, or rather what she would discover. Shifting her gaze around the room, she recognized an understanding in the eyes of almost everyone there.
"I was going to go back in when mom woke up," Summer explained. "I still didn't know the whole story but with the little I had discovered, I figured I knew what had happened. Anyway I had a hard time that night getting to sleep, what with all the questions still rumbling around in my head. I decided to take a walk and happened past the rec. room when I saw Storm. She'd fallen asleep on the couch watching TV and it didn't take me long to make the decision. I moved into the room and did the same to her as I'd done to my mother earlier that day, of what I wanted to do to all of you. I picked up right where I'd left off with mom."
{ Soon Storm recovered enough from her injury to cool the area with wind, rain and snow until they were able to stand the heat enough to search for the remains of their comrades. It was slow going and in the end it was Storm who uncovered what was left ... and it wasn't much.
The intensity of the heat had ravaged their bodies until nothing remained but two small piles of ashes. Storm wouldn't have known it was them except for two things, a charred visor and an ash covered piece of metal on a chain. Closing her eyes in an attempt to force away the tears, Storm cleared her throat and called out to her friends.
Jean reached her first, only because she was closer, and stared in shock at the scene. In an instant Logan was standing beside her, staring down at Storm with a mixture of hope and rage in his hazel eyes.
Storm gave them each a sympathetic look before she offered them her findings. Jean stared blankly at the melted metal and shattered quartz of the protective visor her husband wore. It was almost a minute before she managed to reach out and take the thing from her.
Shifting her gaze, Storm noticed Logan staring at the clenched fist of her other hand and she knew that he knew what it held. Ever so slowly she lifted her hand toward him and he offered her his palm. Tears slipping once again from her eyes, Storm opened her hand, dropping the familiar tag into Logan's.
A deafening silence filled the carcass of the warehouse for several minutes as they all mourned together yet separately. It was Logan who finally shattered the peace, his voice low and trembling with emotion. "Which one?" he asked.
Storm knew exactly what he was asking, which of the piles was Rogue. The weather goddess looked up at him sympathetically then gestured to the pile in front of her.
His mouth a tight line, his nostrils flaring, and blinking tears from his eyes, Logan moved forward forcing Storm to move as he dropped to his knees at Rogue's side. His left hand still wrapped tightly around the dog tag that Marie had worn ever since he'd given it to her, Logan swiped his right fingers tenderly across the expanse of ashes. His hand curled up capturing a handful of her remains as his eyes fell tightly shut. "Oh God, Marie, I'm sorry, baby," Logan whispered frantically, bringing his hand to his face. Ash flew in all directions in response to the light puff of air created by his sob. "I was supposed to protect you, baby, and I let this happen. How could this have happened? You're not supposed to die, darlin'."
Jean stared at Logan in shock of his words and the feelings rolling off of him in waves. She clutched Scott's visor tightly to her chest as she cried silently for her husband.
Storm cried with them both, surprised by the responses of each of them, Jean's relative calm and Logan's extreme despair. She would have assumed their reactions would have been reversed, that it was Logan who maintained his composure while Jean fell apart but it was Logan, not Jean, covered in ash as he gathered up Rogue's remains. }
"I heard someone coming so I hide in the shadows until they'd passed and then I headed for my room," Summer continued her narrative on the events. "I was almost to my door when I decided I'd gone that far and I was going to know it all." The young woman paused and looked to the man who would be her father. He was staring at her intently, a fear in his eyes that she'd never seen before. "I went to my father's room and somehow managed to reach him without waking him up. It took me several minutes before I found what I was looking for."
{ Logan entered his room and tossed the jacket and tie, he'd long ago removed, onto the back of the chair beside his door. The funeral had been harder than he'd thought it would be and he'd left as soon as the service was over. He'd planned ahead and stashed a good supply of booze and cigars in the forest surrounding the mansion and he'd managed to stay hidden until he'd consumed it all.
Making his way to the window across the room, Logan found his tears renewed. Every moment he and Marie ever spent together played out in his mind as he stood there, staring out into the small cemetery on the grounds and the two fresh piles of sod. Logan was so engrossed in his memories that he didn't even hear the door open behind him.
"Logan?"
Without even bothering to wipe the moisture from his face, Logan turned to face the woman standing just inside the closed door to his bedroom. Jean was still wearing the simple black dress she'd worn at the funeral and she still carried Scott's visor in her pale hands.
"We missed you after the service," she offered softly needing to say something and not knowing what.
A snort of disbelief was his only response, turning his back to her again as he refocused his attention out the window.
"I thought you might want to talk," Jean tried again, knowing that he was hurting.
Logan considered that for a moment then turned back to face her, his voice cold and hard. "Do you wanna talk, Jeannie?"
Jean closed her eyes tightly for a moment, contemplating the question. Finally she opened her eyes, shaking her head in the negative.
Nodding, Logan turned back to the window. "Then why the FUCK do you think I'd wanna talk?"
With a heavy sigh, Jean turned back toward the door behind her and started forward. She was just reaching for the doorknob when Logan's whispered confession reached her ears.
"I loved her, Jeannie."
Renewed tears sprang to Jean's eyes and she turned again to find Logan watching her.
"I didn't even realize it until she was gone," Logan continued softly before stopping and shaking his head. "That's not true, I knew that I loved her from the first moment she touched me. I thought she deserved better, Jean, I thought I wasn't good enough for her, that she was too young and innocent for me." Logan paused, closing his eyes to force out the tears. "She didn't even know that I love her, I never told her how much she meant to me."
Jean moved further into the room, stopping only a couple of feet in front of him. "I know, Logan. There were things that I didn't get to tell Scott too. Things I would have done differently if I'd only known."
Logan nodded his understanding, his gaze drifting slowly down to the visor held tightly in Jean's hand.
At the same time, Jean's eyes caught the glint of the setting sun reflected off the metal tag peeking through his unbuttoned shirt.
Simultaneously a single thought ran through their minds and Jean acted on it before she even considered what the ramification might be. Moving forward, she placed Scott's visor on the nightstand beside the bed and with trembling hands pulled the dog tag over Logan's head before pulling it on herself.
"Tell me what you would have said to her, Logan," Jean offered as sat on the edge of the bed. "Pretend I'm Rogue and tell me what you would have said if she'd survived this."
"Marie," Logan corrected sharply, turning his back on Jean once more. After a brief pause he continued softly. "She was always Marie to me."
Jean closed her eyes, fighting to remain calm in the torrential emotions surrounding her. She almost had her mental barriers in place when something brushed her knees. Opening her eyes, Jean was surprised to find Logan kneeling before her, his body resting between her knees, his hands on the outside of the same. It wasn't his presence that was so shocking it was the fact that he was wearing Scott's visor.
"Marie," Logan started, his hand moving up to caress the side of Jean's face, "I love you, darlin'. I have for a long time, I'm sorry I never told you."
"Oh my God," Jean sobbed, her own hand moving to his face to trace the outline of the goggles with her fingers. "I miss you so much, Scott."
They remained that way for some time, each pretending that the other was someone else. It really was a relief for them both to get to say what they never got the chance to say to Scott and Marie.
Logan wasn't sure who kissed who but it didn't really matter since he was finally with Marie, only that it wasn't Marie and Jean was with her husband again only it wasn't Scott. Things were passed the point of return before either regained their senses enough to stop. Jean closed her eyes and pretended that the man filling her was the man she loved, the man who was her husband and best friend. When she climaxed it was his name she screamed. Likewise Logan was thinking of and responding to a younger woman with darker hair except for the stock of white, which framed her face. He came with Marie's name on his lips.
When they returned from the peak of ecstasy, they were both disgusted, with themselves and each other. Logan quickly rolled off of her onto his stomach, tearing the visor from his face and burying his head in his bent elbow as he placed the eyepiece on Jean's stomach.
Jean took the visor in one hand as she sat up and pulled the hem of her dress back down. She sat there for a moment trying to figure out how that had happened before pulling Logan's dog tag from around her neck and dropping it onto the bed beside him.
Neither of them said a word as Jean rose from the bed and walked away. }
"They didn't talk for nearly a week after that," Summer informed the stunned congregation.
There wasn't a dry eye in the room as everyone considered the course of events to come and what it would, or had, done to all of them.
Summer swept her gaze over the group once again and once again her eyes lingered on Rogue. The young woman was obviously in shock. Summer was about to do something to comfort her when her father beat her to it.
"Marie," Logan began softly, once more trying to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Rogue bolted from her chair to avoid the touch. She stared down at Logan in wide-eyed innocence, shaking her head slowly from side to side.
"Marie, I..."
"NO!" Rogue shouted before turning on her heel and running from the room.
Logan started after her but Summer was quicker, planting herself in front of him. "Let me go."
"You've done enough," Logan snarled, punctuated by a menacing growl.
Summer knew he was right but she wanted to make sure the woman who'd always been there for her was all right. "She's the last person I wanted to hurt. Please, let me talk to her?"
"Logan," Jean's voice was calm but it contained a hint of a threat.
Without waiting for verbal consent, taking his silence as approval, Summer started after Rogue. She didn't have to go far as Marie was only standing a short distance from the door she'd just exited.
"Marie," Summer called quietly, "I'm so sorry. You're the last person I meant to hurt."
"Ya didn't hurt me, sugah," Rogue assured her. "Ah mean it does hurt but its jus' more of a surprise."
Summer nodded. "He really does love you, you know? More than anyone, more than anything, he loves you. It's kind of funny really, I never noticed before I started snooping around in their heads, then all I had to do was open my eyes and it was right in front of me."
"Ah never forgave him?" Rogue asked sadly.
"She didn't forgive him," Summer corrected. "You have your own decision to make and since I doubt that, knowing what you all know now, you'll ever have to make that decision."
Rogue's brow wrinkled in thought. "Wha' d'ya mean?"
"Just that by the time I finish telling you all what happened, you'll know how things will turn out and the same mistakes won't be made."
"But ... that means that ya won't even exist," Rogue objected.
Summer nodded a thoughtful expression on her face. "Probably not."
"That ain't rahght," Rogue objected hoarsely.
"I'm okay with it, really," Summer assured her with a smile. "If it means that you'll finally be happy, and if I have to kick the shit out of dad before I leave, you will be happy, then I don't mind. My whole life I always wondered why it was that the woman who made me so happy was never happy herself. That's the whole reason I came here, I wanted to see if it was more than just this that made you sad, now I know that it wasn't."
"Ah don't like the idea that I'll never get t' know ya," Marie told her sadly, tears flowing silently down her cheeks.
"And I already miss you," Summer assured her, her own eyes full of tears.
Both women took a step forward and suddenly found themselves in an embrace. They held each other for a long time before they pulled back and even then they were so focused on each other that they failed to notice the person in the doorway behind them.
"Everything all right out here?"
Rogue and Summer turned to find Logan leaning against the doorframe, regarding them carefully.
"Yeah," Summer nodded, "everything's all right, right, Marie?"
"Rahght," Marie responded with a nod of her own.
Logan copied the movement nervously. "Everyone's waitin'."
Summer shifted her gaze back and forth between Logan and Rogue then started toward the entrance. Logan let her pass then moved to block the door as Rogue approached.
"I'm sorry, Marie," he told her softly, his gaze averted to the floor.
"Sorry fer what, Logan?" Rogue wondered, taking in his expression.
Logan shifted his eyes then pinned them on her. "Sorry that I haven't been honest with you about how I feel."
Not knowing what to say Rogue nodded then started to squeeze passed him.
"Can we talk more about this later, Marie?" Logan asked, his hands falling onto her arms tenderly.
"Okay, Logan," she returned softly.
The relief was obvious on his face as he nodded his head quickly. "Okay. Come on then," he continued letting a hand drift down her arm and around to the small of her back before he pulled her into motion, "let's get this over with."
The rest of the group was waiting impatiently for them to return so they could hear the rest of the story. Summer picked up quickly, finishing the tale as she'd come to know it.
{ Scott breathed a sigh of relief as he watched Logan and Jean wrestle Storm outside. He and Rogue were almost to the door themselves when something grabbed him and pulled the visor from his face. Instinctively his eyes squeezed shut leaving him blind to the world as he heard sounds of a struggle. An instant later he felt himself being lifted into the air, his feet kicking useless, looking for purchase. He had no idea what was happening or who had a hold of him until a familiar voice filled his ears.
"Brace yourself, Cyke," Rogue said softly, her voice thick with fear.
Almost before the words completely registered, the sound of a massive explosion sounded beneath him and a horrifying wave of heat and energy slammed into them. Knowing what was coming, Rogue positioned herself to protect Scott, taking the brunt of the impact. The blast wave sent her careening to the ground, the force of the landing knocking them both unconscious.
Neither of them knew how long they were out, only that when they came to they were bound like animals. }
"That was what I learned from Scott," Summer informed them. "I knew there wasn't much point in looking further since he was unable to open his eyes the whole time they were being held."
Scott shuddered involuntarily at the prospect. He'd already spent enough time with his eyes closed or bound shut, he was certainly not looking forward to that happening again.
Slowly Jean covered his hand with her own, her fingers wrapping lightly around his.
Summer watched as the couple twined their hands together, their expressions full of love and understanding.
"So what happened?" Logan demanded gruffly. He wanted to know the whole story and he wanted to get it over with so he could talk things over with Marie.
Meeting her father's inpatient gaze, Summer went on. "I learned the rest from Aunt Marie. For my eighteenth birthday she took me into the city to see a play I'd wanted to see. We stayed over because it finished so late and I once again took advantage of the opportunity."
{ Rogue wasn't sure how long her and Scott had been held captive before they managed to escape. She would later find out that it had been nearly three months. As they were within walking distance of Xavier's mansion from where they were being held, they didn't call for help. Their captors had explained that the X-Men thought them dead thanks to the overwhelming evidence of Scott's visor and Logan's dog tag. They were never found because no one knew to look but neither of them were bitter about it, there was no point in that.
Making her way to her long time home, Rogue led Scott as someone would lead a blind man, his large hand wrapped around her bicep. Together they walked through the open gate of the mansion and made their way to the front entrance. With a heavy sigh, Rogue pushed open the thick, wooden front door and they entered. Rogue pulled up sharply in the foyer as she caught sight of Logan and Jean. It seemed they were arguing and she watched them for a moment before she noticed Logan's brow furrow and his nostrils flare. Suddenly his head snapped to the side, his eyes wide as they found hers.
"What's wrong, Rogue?" Scott asked, his voice low but commanding.
"SCOTT!" Jean's voice sounded, loud and frantic from only a few feet away.
Tears were streaming from his tightly closed eyes as Jean moved forward and threw her arms around him, pulling him tightly against her body.
Rogue watched them for a moment with a growing smile before turning her attention to the man standing across the room.
Logan was staring at her like someone who'd seen a ghost. He was visibly trembling, the muscles in his face flexing and contracting into a myriad of expression, many of which Rogue couldn't even identify.
She remained stock still in the open doorway even as Jean led Scott away. It was only a moment however before Logan started in motion, moving ever so slowly toward her, his eyes blinking repeatedly as though he was afraid he was dreaming.
"Marie..." Logan whispered as he stopped directly in front of her, less than a foot away.
"Logan," Rogue returned in a weak, trembling voice.
Logan opened his mouth to speak but no sound emerged. He repeated the attempt several times with like results before he gave up and simply grabbed Marie by the shoulders and pulled her firmly against his chest.
Rogue felt for a moment as though she was about to be crushed and she had never felt anything more wonderful. It seemed like hours that they stood there holding each other, silent tears wetting the others' shoulders.
It was amazing that other than saying each other's name that one time, neither of them spoke another word the entire evening. Logan finally stepped back from the hug only to wrap his arm around Marie's waist and pull her into motion.
As Logan escorted her to his room, Rogue's head fell tiredly onto his shoulder. Pushing the door opened, he led her to the bed and sat her down, kneeling in front of her to remove her shoes. Knowing how exhausted she was, Logan ignored her obvious need for a shower and gently guided her back onto the bed before pulling the blankets around her.
Managing a tired smile, Rogue closed her eyes and released a heavy sigh. Her eyes opened again as she felt the bed shift beside her and tears threatened as she felt Logan's arms go around her, pulling her tightly against him. Lying there, feeling safe and secure in his arms, something she hadn't felt in a long time, Rogue quickly drifted off to sleep.
The next evening, having slept through most of the day, Rogue and Scott were honored for their return at a huge party thrown by Professor Xavier. After several hours of greeting old friends and meeting new arrivals, Rogue managed to escape for a few quiet minutes outside. All she really wanted to do was find Logan so they could talk, which was something they had yet to do. She was making her way back in when she heard voices raised in dispute, familiar voices.
"God damn it, Jean, I am not gonna let this ruin things now," Logan's tight, angry voice carried through the closed door behind which Rogue was standing.
Jean's voice was much quieter and Rogue had to strain to hear her but she did. "It doesn't have to ruin anything, Logan. I'll explain things to her if you want me to."
"I say we fix the problem and forget about telling 'em," he retorted sharply.
"I won't do that, Logan, I already explained why. If you don't want any part of this that's fine but I won't do that," Jean repeated her tone thick with emotion. "Now, I'm telling Scott tonight and I suggest you do the same."
Rogue heard the sound of Jean's retreating footsteps and then nothing. She released the breath that she'd been holding as she considered what had Jean and Logan so upset. As she reached toward the doorknob to go back inside, Rogue jumped back as the door was suddenly ripped open from the inside. She stared with wide eyes into Logan's equally surprised gaze.
"Marie," he gasped, his eyes darting wildly.
"What's wrong, Logan?"
Closing his eyes briefly, Logan considered his options. Jean was going to tell Scott that while he and Marie were fighting for their lives, they had conceived a child. It didn't matter that the act had taken place at an extremely vulnerable time for both of them, or that there was nothing remotely loving or satisfying in their actions, or that they weren't even thinking of each other at the time. For the first time that he could remember, Logan tried to put himself in someone else's position and he wasn't at all happy to be there.
"Logan?" Rogue repeated more urgently as her hand moved up to rest on his shoulder.
"We need to talk, Marie," he told her quietly, taking her gloved hand and leading her to a nearby bench.
Rogue remained silent as they walked, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. For some reason she wasn't thrilled about having this particular talk. Rogue sat at Logan's prompt and swallowed around a terribly dry throat.
Logan took a seat beside her, turning slightly to see her without craning his neck. Taking a deep breath, he released it slowly then met her gaze. "Marie," his voice cracked and Logan quickly cleared his throat and started again. "Marie, I have something I have to tell you."
Nodding, Rogue stayed quiet waiting for him to continue.
Trembling with fear, Logan reached out and took Rogue's hand in his. "Darlin'," he said tenderly, "something happened while you were away, something that never should have happened and I wish never had."
Forcing back the tears that threatened for no apparent reason, Rogue waited with increasing trepidation for Logan to continue.
"Marie, I'm not sure how to say this so I'm just gonna say it but promise me that you'll hear me out, okay?"
The desperation in Logan's voice made Rogue's blood turn cold. Whatever this was, it was worse than she'd originally thought. "Jus' tell me, Logan," she managed to whisper.
"Promise me, Marie, please?"
Meeting his gaze squarely, Rogue made a promise that she wasn't at all certain that she would be able to keep. "Ah promise, Logan."
Logan nodded nervously, his eyes dropping momentarily to their clasped hands before locking with hers. He closed them then briefly before steeling himself to his task. "The night of your funeral me and Jean were talking about all the things that we didn't get to say or do." Pausing, Logan shook his head. "I don't know how it happened, Marie, but we were talking to each other like we were you and Scott and ... well ... things got out of hand."
Rogue's face hardened instantly as she realized what he was saying but she remained seated, fulfilling her promise at least for the moment.
"I'm sorry, Marie," Logan apologized softly. "I just wanted to be the one to tell you... Jean's pregnant."
Momentarily, Rogue's heart stopped beating and her breath froze in her lungs. Immediately following that, she ripped her hand free of Logan's and bolted to her feet.
"Marie, wait," he insisted frantically, reaching again for her hand.
Rogue pulled back sharply. "Don' touch me!" she screamed sharply.
"Marie, please..."
"Fuck you!" Rogue responded harshly, cutting him off. "Ya really think Ah'm stupid enough t' believe that? Ya've wanted t' fuck Jean since ya first saw her but Scott was in yer way."
"Marie, it wasn't like that," Logan protested, his desperation palpable.
"Like hell, Logan," she spat venomously. "Well congratulations, DADDY, ya finally got what ya wanted now live with the consequences."
Logan knew that she'd be hurt but he never expected her to react like this. "Marie, wait," he practically begged, rising to his feet and grabbing her arm, "you promised to hear me out."
Rogue swung around quickly, a look of complete and utter rage filling her beautiful, young features. "Ah lied! See how it feels?"
Emotions he didn't even know he had swirled up in Logan and he panicked, tightening his grip on her arm as he pleaded with her to stay. "Marie..."
He barely managed to get out her name before something unbelievably powerful slammed into his chest, sending him flying backwards into a stunned pile a good fifteen feet away. Rogue stood stock-still, her hands clenched into fist, her expression hard and unforgiving. She stared at him for a long moment before shaking her head, turning on her heel and walking away. }
Summer swept her gaze over the group, settling finally on Logan and Rogue. "My father actively tried to convince her of the truth for over two years," she paused with a soft snort, tightly clutching the book she carried with her. "Hell, as I found out through all this, he never stopped trying to convince her."
Logan turned his head to look at the woman beside him, the one he was no longer afraid to admit that he loved.
Rogue could feel his eyes on her but she was still too shocked to meet his gaze.
"I really should be going," Summer said lightly, her voice filled with emotions the likes of which she'd never felt before. "I'm sorry."
Jean rose slowly to her feet and moved to stand in front of the young woman with similar features and sad eyes. "You have nothing to be sorry for," she insisted before wrapping her arms around her.
Summer returned the embrace, her eyes meeting Rogue's over Jean's shoulder. The two young women shared a brief half-smile before Summer pulled back from Jean and moved slowly from the room.
Making her way from the situation room, Summer moved quickly to the elevator and up to the living quarters. She got a lot of curious looks but no one stopped to question her as she walked briskly to a door near the end of the corridor and entered without knocking. Summer closed the door behind her then paused to make a survey of the room. It didn't look much different then the room she knew so well and she smiled at that.
Making her way to the desk, she sat down, opened her book and wrote down what she was feeling at that moment on the first page, which she'd left intentionally blank. When she was finished, she pulled out a piece of paper and without much thought about what she was saying, she jotted a note down then folded the paper and rose from the chair. Moving over to the bed, she placed her book on the pillow then topped it with the note before leaving the way she'd come.
Eight-year-old Summer Marie Logan sat silently, nervously looking back and forth between her parents. They'd sat her down telling her they had something important to tell her and she knew by their expressions that it was serious. Finally her eyes settled on her mother and she was surprised to find her face wet with tears. This more than anything expressed the seriousness of the situation, her mother was always very strong.
"What's wrong, Mom?" Summer asked, horribly frightened that something was terribly wrong. Her gaze was drawn to her father as he slid his arm around her mother's shoulder and pulled her close as she wiped at her tears before curling a strand of white hair behind her ear. "Dad?" she questioned not liking the look on his gruff features much either.
Summer followed Logan's gaze across the room to where her aunt and uncle were sitting; they didn't look much better than her parents did.
"Summer," Logan began in a low, somewhat tormented voice, "darlin', what we have to tell you ain't gonna be easy for you to hear. Hell it ain't easy for any of us to say but you deserve the truth and we all agree that you're old enough to understand..."
Summer looked around the room, her gaze sweeping over the huge banner boasting congratulations on her eighteenth birthday. She continued her observation from her position at the far end of the table, watching her parents, the four people who raised her. She couldn't help but grin when Marie caught her gaze and smiled.
Rogue rose from her place at the table, giving Logan's arm a squeeze as she started to move away. She was halfway to her before Summer realized that she had yet another gift in her hand.
"What's this?" Summer asked gesturing to the package her mother was holding out to her.
"It's just a little somethin' I'd like ya to have," Rogue said with a smile as she handed Summer the gift.
Shaking her head, Summer looked up at the woman who'd raised her, the child her husband had with another woman, as she tore away the colorful paper to reveal a leather-bound book.
"Summer, do you remember once when you asked me why Ah forgave your father?" Rogue asked softly not waiting for a response before she continued. "That's why," she stated, gesturing toward the book. Without further comment, Rogue smiled and winked before walking back to where Logan was sitting, waiting for her.
Summer watched her mother leave then, after a moment, her gaze fell back to the book in her hands. Slowly she opened the book and noticed a piece of old paper folded up just inside the cover. Balancing the book on her knees, she grabbed the paper and opened it figuring it was a note from her mother, she couldn't have been more wrong.
The writing on the paper was hers, a note she had written to her mother. Summer stared at it for a moment before she concentrated on the words.
"Marie, I wanna call you mom but knowing what you know now and knowing how upset you are about that I won't. I want you to have this book, it's something I've been working on since this all began and I think it might help you. I don't think it could make it worse. Anyway, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that they hurt you and I'm sorry that I hurt you for bringing it to your attention but... I know my father loves you, so do I and if you two can be happy together then the fact that I will never exist now will be worth it. I love you, Marie. I hope this helps, Summer."
Wiping tears from her face, Summer glanced up to see her mother crying as well, her father comforting her the way he always did. Carefully she folded the paper back up and tucked it into the book before turning to the first page. It was strange to read words in your own handwriting that you had never written...
"Looking back, I can see what a mistake it was to come here but I can't change it now. It's always easier to see the validity of your actions once they've already been taken. I never meant to hurt anyone, certainly not you. You've already been hurt enough, far more than someone as sweet and kind as you've always been to me, deserves.
The worst of it is that I don't really have an excuse for what I did except that I needed to know. I needed to know what you were all like before I came along, before I ruined your lives. I just needed to know. I think I would have pulled it off if I hadn't made one small flaw in my planning. That's all it ever takes, you know? Just one small flaw and the world as I knew it changed forever."
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Italics – indicate thoughts, {{telepathic communication}}, ~ memories ~, { scenes viewed telepathically }. A very special thanks to my best bud, Chris, for her continued support and encouragement and for never faltering in her attempts to make me believe my writing doesn’t totally suck. THANKS.