He was falling. Spinning and twirling around rapidly, Rogue’s face a small fading dot at the distance above him. Her lips were moving, she was trying to say something, shouting after him? He kept descending, wondering would he ever stop. And if he did, how? With a sudden crash that would crush even his indestructible frame, splattering him all over the place like an ugly mural? Would he have the time to realize it happened, or would it be so blessedly sudden that he wouldn’t know a thing? Had he already stopped and only imagined this merry trek downwards, his brain incapable to comprehend that it was over?
He squinted his eyes and tried to focus on something. There was only darkness around him, and somewhere high up there Rogue. He sought her eyes, those brown orbs. It almost felt like he could hear her this way. Could hear her pleas and sobs, her worried and broken voice whispering over and over again a litany that was disturbingly familiar, yet completely alien at the same. What the hell was her problem? The baby was fine, at least had been fine the last he checked. So was Rogue. At least she should have been. He was quite sure that he had heard her strangled gasp as his body failed him and darkness took him in its embrace.
He opened his eyes and took a shuddering breath. Rolled on his side coughing and gagging, trying to scramble on his hands and knees, a task nearly impossible even harder with crying Rogue wrapped around him. “Kid… Let go… Let me go…” He tried to shoo her off, but that seemed only to strengthen her determination. She got him, and she wasn’t going to let him go no matter what. Finally he settled to lie on a heap on the floor, letting his gaze wander over the debris and rubble littering their surroundings.
“Eventually you have to let go… We need to get going…” He murmured. Rogue’s death grip from around him loosened a bit, then she let go of him and sat back, wiping her reddened eyes. “Sorry… I thought… I was so scared that you wouldn’t wake up…” She sniffled. “You could have woken the dead with the ruckus and wailing you kept going… Had no other option but to come back…” He grunted sitting up. Then scrunched his forehead. “Where’s Scott? And the brat?” He wobbled up, steadying himself against the counter when his knees threatened to give up. The parking lot outside was empty.
“They left hours ago. He’s been checking back every half an hour to see if you’re awake already.” “Left? To where? And why?” Logan asked, more than slightly miffed. Scott had left Rogue alone with a dying man, an experience that every growing kid should go through at some point in their life. “It’s the baby. She’s getting stronger. She was able to reach us from the parking lot. Scott had to leave so that you could heal.”
He wasn’t going to ask the question that kept nagging at the back of his mind. Rogue wouldn’t have an answer. But Scott should have. What if he hadn’t healed? What if the strain had been too much for him to bear? Would Rogue have been strong enough to cope with it on her own?
“Are you alright now? Really alright?” He heard the question, but right now he was more interested in getting out of here and getting in touch with Scott than playing twenty questions. “Logan, are you alright?” He looked at her, standing at his side, tugging his arm, fear and worry still evident on her face. He threw his arm over her shoulders and started shuffling through the mess. “I’m fine, kid. Just fine…”
Not really fine, but given few minutes he’d be back to his old self. All thanks to the girl at his side. He probably would have kept falling until he hit the rock-bottom if she hadn’t been pleading for him to come back. He wasn’t about to reveal that little fact to her. She had already deemed him as her hero and savior, crowned king of her heart. He wasn’t going to fuel those fantasies any more than it was absolutely necessary. At best it was awkward, the way she kept ogling him like he could lasso the moon from the sky and hand it over to her if she as much as hinted needing it.
What made it even more awkward was the fact that he would try. He would try to catch the goddamned orb of rock or die trying.
Screw the awkward, it was downright creepy.
They made their way through the wreckage. “When Scott is due back?” Logan asked, sitting on the concrete steps in front of the diner’s front door. “Shouldn’t take long. Couple of minutes?” Rogue estimated. For some reason she had fallen back to the constant state of squirming and blushing. He reached for her arm and yanked her down to his side. “Stop squirming. Makes me nervous.” “Oh. Okay…” Rogue whispered. For a while they just sat there. He was grateful for the silence. Gave him the time to think. Not that I did any good for him. He couldn’t have come up with the right words even if his life depended on it.
He kept stealing glances of her from the corner of his eye. Soon he would have to say something. Before Scott came back. He would have to come clean, sort it out before they had an audience.
He gave up. Better just spit it out. The kid was going to take it the wrong way no matter how he phrased it.
“Uh… I shouldn’t have kissed you. Not before, not now…” He started, nearly chickening out when her shoulders sagged. “I like you, kid. Like you a lot. But that’s what you are. You’re still a kid.” Disappointment rolled from her hunched form in suffocating waves. “I’ll always be thinking you as my girl. You’re the first, you’re the last. Just not… Probably not the way you’d want it to be. Want us to be…” His voice trailed off when the headlights swept the parking lot. Scott.
“I’m not trying to lead you on. I’m not trying to chase you away either. I just want you to know, that you’re important to me. Probably more important than you even realize right now, and I hope the dear God that you someday understand what the hell it is that I’m trying to say right now,” he finished his stuttering and wandering explanation. “I can understand it perfectly clear already…” Rogue hissed, standing up and walking to the waiting car, leaving him to cope the best of his abilities.
He rose and brushed off dirt from the back of his jeans, his gaze locked to her retreating back. “You think you understand, kid. You think…” He whispered.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks to RouDeVil for new pics. And here's today's pic: http://roudevil.deviantart.com/art/Free-Fallin-76154958